Movies

Dame Helen Mirren wanted to be a French actress.
The 68-year-old star has played the head of the British monarchy in 'The Queen' but she's admitted that her new film role as a restaurant boss in the South of France in 'The Hundred-Foot Journey' is the character she most relates to.
She explained to HELLO! magazine: "What I loved about ['The Hundred-Foot Journey']- I could pretend I was a French actress for the first time in my life."
Helen revealed that whilst she was a teenager living in the South East of England, she dreamt of becoming a French actress and even bought a property in Paris.
She shared: "When I was growing up in my teens , the French just seemed to be the coolest, most chic people on the planet and I desperately wanted to be French. I got myself a French boyfriend and that was the closest I could get to it.
"I did a film in France and I loved being there. I rented a little garret and it was literally one room on the top of a house on the Left Bank and it was very bohemian. I thought I would literally just go to Paris and just sit there until I became a French actress."
However, it was never to be as Helen was getting more recognition in her native England.
She reflected: "I kept getting work in England, which I had to take because I had to pay for the garret in France and then it just never worked out."

Steven Seagal insists he is a "real" action hero.
The burly actor - who forged his reputation in popular movies like 'Above the Law' and 'Under Siege' - explained that he does many of the action scenes that his peers only pretend to do.
Speaking to ShortList magazine, he said: "I'm somebody who has been doing action a long time and who is a real action person in the sense that I've really done - and do - many of the things that other people pretend to do in their movies."
Seagal has, in fact, acted as a reserve deputy sheriff for 20 years on the border of Arizona in the Southwestern United States, a role that has seen him "put on a bulletproof vest and a machine gun and chase the bad guys".
He added: "I'm chasing high-risk people, dealing with murder, rape, armed robbery. That's what I do. So I look at myself as a real guy."
Seagal went on to claim that the action heroes of today are not expected to perform their own stunts and can instead rely on special effects.

Mel Gibson isn't an anti-Semite, his long-time pal Terry Hayes insists.
The screenwriter, who worked on 'Mad Max' and wrote 'Payback' for the Hollywood star, has defended his friend who famously fell from grace in 2006 when he went on a foul-mouthed diatribe after being stopped for drink-driving by a police officer.
Terry told The Times newspaper: "We all have to take responsibility for what we say and do. All I can say is, in over 30 years of knowing Mel, I've never heard him say anything anti-Semitic. But the human organism is not adapted to celebrity..."
Terry's first ever novel 'I Am Pilgrim' has just been purchased for a movie adaptation my MGM and he hopes to follow in the footsteps of 'Harry Potter' author J.K. Rowling, whose novels have turned into a worldwide conglomerate including a theme park and a successful website, Pottermore.
He explained: "I have nothing but praise for J.K. Rowling. Her contribution - apart from the books themselves, obviously - is showing writers how to interact with the 21st Century. When her website launched and she got flak, as if writers shouldn't have a commercial bone in their bodies, I took my hat off to her. things like Pottermore and the theme park feed back into the novels so that a whole new generation will read them."

Zoe Saldana says she'll be working on the 'Avatar' sequels for "at least eight or nine months".
The 'Colombiana' actress - who is pregnant with twins with her husband Marco Perego - has revealed that the upcoming follow-ups to the 2009 blockbuster will be filmed one after the other in California.
She said: "We're going to be shooting mainly in Los Angeles and that will make things easier for me since I live there.
"Because we're doing the sequels back-to-back, it's going to take at least eight or nine months to finish them."
Saldana starred as Neytiri in the first instalment of the adventure fantasy and is to reprise her role in the upcoming sequels, which are to be released in 2016 and 2017 respectively, and she claims the director is nearing the completion of her and her co-stars' - Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver's - scripts.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror newspaper, she added: "James Cameron is still working on the final drafts of the script and then everyone in the cast will get the call."
The 'Guardians of the Galaxy' star also spoke about the types of characters she likes to portray and confessed she wouldn't feel comfortable appearing in a film as simply someone's love interest.
The 36-year-old beauty explained: "I could never play just the girlfriend kind of role where, as a woman, you're there just as an afterthought to the male character.
"I've always held out to play dynamic and forceful women, and it's worked out very well for me."

Mark Hamill says his return to 'Star Wars' was like an "unexpected gift".
The 62-year-old actor starred as Luke Skywalker in the original 'Star Wars' trilogy and reprises his role in the upcoming next instalment 'Star Wars: Episode VII', and he's confessed he never imagined he'd be given the opportunity.
He said: "It's certainly unexpected. We had a beginning, a middle and an end - I never thought we'd come back. I still can't believe it's happening, and to go on to those sets that evoke so many memories, it's just astonishing. It just feels like an unexpected gift."
Although Hamill is also joined by his co-stars from the original trilogy - Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher - in the sci-fi follow-up, a host of new talent has also been signed up to star and he's revealed he wouldn't dream of giving them advice.
Speaking to BBC News, he said: "I thought even if they [Disney] did the trilogy, that we [himself, Ford and Fisher] wouldn't be involved because it's really about the new generation of characters, you know, we're just there to lend support.
"These kids, they're not kids but they're so talented I was just overwhelmed. They're all so diverse, there are people I recognise like Andy Serkis and new people I'd never seen before like Daisy Ridley but they're so good that I'm thinking of asking them for advice - I don't want to give any myself."

Chris Pratt says he would like to see his 'Guardians of the Galaxy' character kill Iron Man.
The 35-year-old actor plays the role of pilot Peter Quill aka Star Lord in the new Marvel Comics film and he's revealed that one of his dreams is for his character to slay Iron Man, played by Hollywood superstar Robert Downey Jr.
Speaking at a press conference for 'Guardians of the Galaxy' at London's Corinthia Hotel, he told BANG Showbiz: "I really, really think that Star Lord should kill Iron Man! It would be so awesome if he came down and he shot Tony Stark through the face - people would be so surprised. I think that would be awesome.
"You know, maybe not me [who kills him], maybe Rocket Racoon?"
Pratt also revealed that he often spends his spare time thinking of how the Marvel stories could evolve.
Regarding the killing of 'Iron Man', he said: "People would be super mad, but it'd be kind of great! They'd ask what prompted you to do that and we'd have to be like, 'Robert Downey Jr. makes $100 million a movie, we can't afford to have him any longer than that'."
'Guardians of the Galaxy' opens in UK cinemas on July 31.

Sir Elton John has revealed the secrets of his rehab diaries for his upcoming biopic starring Tom Hardy.
The 'Dark Knight Rises' star is to portray the 67-year-old musician in a new film, which will focus on his struggle with addiction, following his decision to reveal the secrets of the diaries he wrote while in rehab.
'Billy Elliot' writer Lee Hall - who has written the script for the project - claims Elton personally handed him his private journals.
Hall told The Sun newspaper: "One day he took me to his house and opened a safe and he had all his private diaries that nobody had seen from when he was in rehab and left me there to read all his stuff.
"But he's never commented once on the script, he hasn't interfered at all."
Elton entered rehab in the 1990s, at which point he was heavily dependent on drink and drugs, and he's confessed in the past that it was only when he was at his lowest ebb that he decided to seek help.
Reflecting on his troubles, Elton explained previously: "I would have an epileptic seizure and turn blue and people would find me on the floor and put me to bed and then 40 minutes later I'd be snorting another line."
Hardy, 36 is currently shooting in London for the Kray twins biopic 'Legend' and has a number of films lined up for release including 'The Drop', 'Child 44' and 'Mad Max: Fury Road'.

Chris Pratt says being a child of the 1980s helped him to prepare for 'Guardians of the Galaxy'.
The new Marvel movie makes many references to '80s pop culture and the soundtrack is largely comprised of hit songs from the era, so the 35-year-old actor was able to bring his own experiences to the film.
Pratt's alter-ego Peter Quill travels with an '80s mix-tape which holds sentimental value after he is abducted from Earth as a youngster by an alien ship in 1988.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz at the European premiere of 'Guardians' in London's Leicester Square last night (24.07.14), the actor said: "What I wanted to bring to the character was this feeling of what it was like to be a nine-year-old in the '80s and what were the pop icons?
"Peter and I are the same exact age, both born in '79, I was nine in 1988 - just like him - and I know what those movies meant to me, everything from 'Star Wars' to 'Back to the Future' and things in between, 'Footloose', the soundtrack ... I understood what it was like to be that child of the '80s and imagine what it would be like if I was swept into space and allowed to pursue my alter-ego."
Meanwhile, Pratt's co-star Dave Bautista - who plays Drax the Destroyer - revealed there was a relaxed, humorous environment on set.
He said: "It was a fun cast, we were always joking around. There were more than a few takes where we didn't keep straight faces and burst out laughing."
Pratt and Bautista were joined on the blue carpet by co-stars Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan and Vin Diesel, as well as director James Gunn.
Other guests included 'Avengers' director Joss Whedon, 'Thor' actor Chris Hemsworth, 'Star Wars' icon Mark Hamill, Ben Hardy, Collabro, Kingsland Road and more.

Benedict Cumberbatch wants to play Batman.
The 'Sherlock' star admitted he'd love to take on the part of the classic comicbook character despite the role in the upcoming superhero movies 'Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice' and 'The Justice League' already being given to Ben Affleck, reports Variety.
When asked which character he'd most like to play during a Q&A at DreamWorks Animation's San Diego Comic-Con yesterday (24.07.14), he said: "Batman, I guess. Yeah."
However, Cumberbatch, 38, may have to wait some time to take on the role after it was reported the 'Argo' star is set to play the winged-hero until 2019.
Affleck, 41, is believed to have landed his own solo outing - which is speculatively titled 'The Batman' - to be released by Warner Bros. in five years time due to Affleck's busy schedule.
Meanwhile, Cumberbatch is also set to reprise his role as Sherlock in the eponymous BBC series next year.
Earlier this month, the BBC confirmed that the hit detective drama, which also stars Martin Freeman as Sherlock's sidekick, Watson, will return to BBC One next year for a one-off episode that promises to be "one of the biggest mysteries yet".
The episode is due to be filmed in January 2015 and will be followed by a three-part fourth series of 'Sherlock', which will film later in the year.