#I think it's canon that Simon was returned to being in his early 30s because Golb ate his age post him getting the crown?

[sysig]

When you weren’t looking (Patreon)

[verpaso]

You should talk about your oc Simon more! He sounds vry cool :)

About Simon Nightingale:

[the basics: I'm rewriting (kind of) a skydoesmc MCRP called Pirates. It's a story about how a group of British(?) sailors become pirates out of necessity after their ship crashes (along with all the expensive spices on it) and wind up liking the pirate life. Simon is fully my oc and won't be the only total oc in the story.]

He starts off as Captain Simon Atkinson. He is the definitely British one. I want to say he's in his early 30s. He's the captain of this spice trading ship and is in the Royal Navy. His personality is ... not entirely his own, at first. He is not a natural leader, really, but he acts as if he is and can be bossy and a bit mean. It's hinted that he's not as confident as he tries to appear to be, as he is fairly quickly overtaken by the leadership of Barney (a pirate).

Simon makes up for it in stubbornness. He's the most against becoming a pirate, most loyal to Britain, and believes that with enough money he can return to his previous life. He is crushed when he finds out he is wanted by the navy, and yet still attempts to return "home." Nearly gets himself killed, as his family did not seek to pardon him for his crimes of piracy. He also fights with Barney and his leadership quite often. In reality, he feels guilty for letting the ship crash in the first place and for his crew (who he cares for, very deeply) getting hurt, and also feels that he is not worth anything outside of his occupation.

Eventually, Simon's true self starts to emerge. He's a huge nerd. He's great at solving riddles, is fascinated by the tech and magic of the pirate world, and loves journaling his experiences and doing research. Simon learns how to do things for himself and find things that make him happy. He learns that he is his own person! And for a while, he thinks being a pirate is just what he needed, because Barney insisted it was his destiny, and because he felt a sense of freedom from what he was initially "supposed" to be.

We get bits and pieces of Simon's pre-canon situation throughout the story. His father is a very well known navy general, and a cold man. His mother (who he doesn't speak of much at first) was a very loving and sweet woman who also liked to read and learn. She loved to study the stars. Simon takes after her, but was influenced by his father to become a naval officer in order to follow a long line of tradition in their family. He never considered becoming anything else. It was never actually what Simon wanted, but he thought it WAS, for the longest time, until he realized it was making him miserable. His mother tried her best to show him that fact, but was never able to, and she eventually died while Simon was on a voyage.

So, Simon had finally left the life that he hated, right?

He spends a while being a pirate. He has friends, he learns the truth about destiny and how people shape their OWN destinies. People can do what makes them happy, not what others tell them to do. Simon eventually realizes that he doesn't want a life of adventure at all. He wants to live on solid ground, sleep in, and spend the day reading and researching over a cup of tea, like he once did with the company of his mother. Being a pirate was not for him, contrary to Barney's beliefs.

But he is in a position now where he can raise those concerns to his friends! They drop him off at a quiet seaside town, and post-canon, he gets to be a nerd to his heart's content. He is now fully able to relax and be himself and still have people who love him. His friends visit, of course, and bring him money and artifacts and stories from their pirate adventures. Simon lives in a peaceful hiding, writes constantly about pirate magic, and assumes the last name Nightingale, his mother's maiden name.

[supercasey]

Dumb thoughts on the Child Avatars AU

I dunno, just some dumb ideas I’ve had since I started talking about the AU online/brainstorming about it. (Putting it under a readmore for everyone’s sake)

The “Daisy kidnaps Jon” situation in this AU is Daisy riding her bike to Simon Fairchild’s mansion, holding a water-gun up to both Mike and Jon’s heads, and ordering them to ride with her to the grocery store to buy soda and hang out at a nearby playground for the day. Cue Elias flipping tf out when Jon isn’t at Simon’s place when he goes to pick him up later, Simon being half asleep because he was napping while the kids hung out, and Mike getting soaked by Daisy before he agrees to go with her, and since this happens in, like, late fall or early winter, he gets pneumonia afterwards and can’t hang out for awhile, leading to the kids jokingly saying he’s dead. Btw the only reason the trio was found is because Basira was invited after they made it to the park, and she convinced Daisy to let the boys go home. Daisy literally only kidnapped them because she wanted to play with someone.

Also the Buried!Daisy arc is Daisy getting eaten by a Buried controlled sandbox and Jon jumping in after her. The rest of the kids, who thankfully witnessed this, spent the next three hours digging for them, with Breekon & Hope eventually joining in to help since they were in the area. Daisy and Jon form a trauma bond afterwards and are now best friends.

Jon keeps getting marked by shit and it’s stressing Elias out because hE’S NOT READY FOR THE WATCHER’S CROWN YET!!! He needs more time to prepare, but his son is literally getting marked faster than fucking Sonic.

Speaking of Sonic, seeing as the “Console Wars” (Sega vs Nintendo) are happening during this time period, the kids take the rivalry Very Seriously. The biggest arguments are had between Sasha, Daisy, Julia, and Mike, who are all on Team Sega, and Jon, Martin, Tim, and Danny, who are all on Team Nintendo.

Sasha, close to tears she’s so angry: “Sega DO what NintenDON’T, Tim!!!”

When Martin was born, he only had one thick clump of curly hair that was white, but as he’s grown older and entered the Lonely multiple times, more of his hair has begun to turn white. As of the time of the AU “starting” (so when he’s 8 years old), he looks like he has white highlights in his hair.

Trevor isn’t a fully-fledged Hunt avatar yet, but the girls more or less are, so if you’ve ever watched Wolf Children, that’s pretty much the situation Trevor is currently trapped in. His daughters keeping changing into wolf pups and running wild as he frantically tries to hide their powers from anyone who isn’t Gerry.

(All of the kids secretly know already, even Basira.)

Basira is pretty much the only “normal” kid of the avatar children, save MAYBE for Tim, but he’s been deeply marked by the circus and has a few tiny powers (think S3 Jon as he was figuring out some of his powers, but wasn’t a full-on Archivist just yet).

The season 1 gang (including Danny) are the closest group of friends in the AU, save for Daisy and Basira’s friendship, and they hang out a lot at each other’s homes on the weekends.

Adelard usually brings Jane with him for his “trips” away from the institute, so it’s not unusual for her to be gone for long periods of time. But she always sends postcards and gifts to the institute for everyone!

Helen is three years old, so theoretically she should be able to talk, but she rarely does so, preferring to communicate via giggles and laughter. Only Jon, the Stoker brothers, and Michael can understand her, and they take turns translating for everyone else.

Whenever she’s brought to the institute, Helen takes to toddling around after Jon and Martin, giggling up a storm the whole time. Jon finds it a bit annoying while Martin is endlessly amused by her antics.

A list of the guardian’s/adult’s ages before I fucking forget (as of when the AU “starts” in 1994): Gertrude Robinson - 62, Elias Bouchard “Jonah Magnus” - 51 (200+), Peter Lukas - 55, Simon Fairchild - 83 (300+), Gerard “Gerry” Keay - 30, Michael Shelley - 32, Alfred Grifter - Unknown, Adelard Dekker - 48, Nikola Orsinov - 30ish (100+), Annabelle Cane - 34 (Unknown), Trevor Herbert - 47, Agnes Montague - 25ish (60+), Jude Perry - 35, Jared Hopworth - 29, The Admiral - 10.

The “good” parents all keep trying to set up some kind of PTA meeting so they can actually talk about how to raise these supernatural kids properly, but it keeps going horribly wrong; last time they tried, Alfred Grifter and his band showed up and nearly made Simon go deaf, so no one wants to initiate the next attempt at a meeting.

Tbh, at this point the Fear rituals are more successful than Elias’s shitty attempts at forming a PTA.

At some point in the AU Gerry, Michael, and Trevor all pitch in to buy a decently big house together, which leads to some serious Shenanigans now that Melanie is around Michael and Trevor’s kids/wards... let’s just say there’s gonna be a lot of knife related accidents.

Gerry taught Melanie how to fight when he took her in and it is the single worst decision he’s ever made in his short, goth life, even if he’ll never admit it. Melanie can now beat the shit out of everyone but Julia and Daisy, and it’s pure chaos every time. Tim puts up a decent fight, but he’s been spoiled on easy wins over his brother all his life. Jon tries and fails to so much as push her. Martin runs away crying before Melanie even throws the first punch. Needless to say, the other kids are very cautious about playing with Melanie now.

None of the kids have an education of any kind except for Mike. I’m serious; the only kid who’s decently educated is being raised by Foxy Grandpa Off His Shits McGee! Julia and Daisy have had some public education but not much, Elias refuses to do anything but home-school Jon yet he sucks shit at math, Tim and Danny don’t even know what a school fucking looks like, Melanie and Jane were too young to go to school when they became avatars, Martin has only recently been allowed near other kids so fuck public school (Peter can do math but Nothing Else), Annabelle fucking forgot to give Sasha any kind of an education outside of Web stuff, and Helen is still a very small child. None of these kids have gone to school for more than a few years at most and dear g-d is that gonna suck for them later down the line.

As a result of this, Basira has taught the other kids a few things when she’s come over and insisted on playing “school” with everyone, but she’s still just a kid and can’t always get them to pay attention during her lessons.

Because of this Rosie, Gerry, Michael, and Gertrude have all started making an effort to more or less home-school all of the kids, which has gone... well enough, I suppose. However, things have recently taken a weird turn since Jon keeps giving everyone the answers to assignments/tests via telepathy.

Jon: Whoa, you can make tea all by yourself, Martin!? Martin: Yeah, I’ve been doing it by myself since I was a toddler. I can also do laundry, mop floors, vacuum, and cook a few things, too! Tim: Wow, that’s really cool, Martin! I wish I could do stuff like that. Gertrude, off to the side: *Gives Peter a horrified look* I’m sorry, but did Martin just say he’s been making tea on his own since he was a toddler? Peter:  ╮(╯ _╰ )╭  Unfortunately, I’m severely depressed.

Yeeeeeeeah, Martin’s in a similar childhood situation to his canon one, but at least there are people actually willing to help him out of it in this universe. Also, Peter will clean himself up at some point here, he’s just still dealing with more or less disowning himself from his family and learning hoe to not be so lonely.

Speaking Of Which, the Lukas family are pretty big antagonists in this AU, primarily through Peter’s mother (I’ll come up with a name for her later if I can’t find it on the wiki), who is trying to kidnap Martin and more or less feed him to the Lonely so Peter will get over his “childish feelings” and return to being her favorite child.

And yes, she DOES accidentally kidnap Jon instead at some point... this kid can literally not avoid getting kidnapped.

I like to think Mike and Julia are really good friends in this AU, being the closest in age and all. They hang out a lot since their dads are both so chill and won’t get upset about it, the two of them mostly just playing video games, watching movies, and biking around their respective neighborhoods together.

(Also they may or may not be responsible for a statement that involves a woman seeing a “flying wolf” passing over London... they’ve yet to confess to it, but Elias is dead certain they’re behind the incident.)

The worms incident is 100% Jane’s secret worm collection getting fucking loose... she was keeping them in the walls “for safe keeping” and No One Fucking Knew, not even Elias, until Jon saw a spider, punched the wall, and Revealed them.

Jon and Tim got their scars because Jane lost control of the worms and they burrowed into the kids. Cue a very panicked 999 call from someone in the institute and Child Services almost getting involved, but Elias managed to cover it up.

Afterwards, Jon is incredibly self-conscious about his worm scars, but Martin tells him “now we both have freckles!” and it honestly makes him feel a little better about the whole thing.

Also Adelard makes an effort to track down a child psychologist/counselor with institute ties so he can get Jane some therapy/help controlling her powers. He loves her to the moon and back, and he’s terrified of her getting traumatized by what she accidentally did.

During the incident, a Notthem gets loose from Artifact Storage and attacks Sasha, but seeing as Sasha is of the Web and the Notthem is connected to a Web artifact, it only manages to really hurt her, but thankfully not kill her. She ends up hospitalized for a few weeks, but comes out fine later on. The table mysteriously disappears afterwards, and no one knows if it was Gertrude or Annabelle’s doing, but either way, the kids never have to deal with a Notthem again.

At some point I wanna get into Jon’s paranoia in season 2 for this AU, but I’m considering changing it from being because of the Jane Prentiss issue to be because of Mr. Spider almost killing him. I dunno how exactly it’ll play out, but I think it has a lot of potential!

Okay, before I end this post full of weird rambling ideas for the AU, I wanna make a list of the powers that the kids have at the time of the story “starting”/the ones they develop down the line because Jonny Sims himself said that all avatars have different powers, and I really wanna infodump on my thoughts for the kids!

Current powers of Jonathan Sims-Bouchard: Can simply know things whenever he wants to (so long as the Eye lets him, but the Eye sometimes keeps him from knowing anything he isn’t mature enough to handle), can compel people to tell him things (the other kids are better at resisting it, and so are other people touched by the Eye), can survive on very little food if he’s fed mostly statements/other people’s trauma, can non-consensually feel the pain and emotions of the people around him, has some weak telepathy powers, and he can subconsciously summon tape recorders.

Future powers of Jonathan Sims-Bouchard: Increased healing abilities, can know most anything if he tries, ability to resist other Eye avatars’ compulsions, can survive purely off of statements/other people’s trauma, can choose whether or not to feel the pain and emotions of the people around him, has much stronger telepathy powers than before, can force himself into people’s minds and read their thoughts, and he can summon tape recorders at will (though some still show up without his knowledge sometimes).

Current powers of Martin Blackwood-Lukas: Can disappear into the Fog for several hours at a time (he cannot be seen by anyone but other Lonely avatars while in the fog), can summon clouds of fog that he can momentarily hide things in (including people), can “banish” most anyone into the fog, and has “Sea Captain Eyes” (he knows where the Tundra is at all times, and can lead someone to it without a map or compass).

Future powers of Martin Blackwood-Lukas: Can change his hair color at will (only to red, white, and a mix of the two colors), can see much better in the Fog and can find anyone he’s pushed into it, can more or less teleport using the Fog, and he has what’s more or less a pocket dimension of fog for storage/hiding his friends from danger (think the inside of Gems in Steven Universe).

Current powers of Tim Stoker-Orsinov: Can make small bipedal toys “come to life” for a few minutes at a time (they can’t talk or communicate; only move around and perform small tasks/dances), can tell when a Notthem is masquerading as someone else, is supernaturally talented at gymnastics, and can dance alongside the creatures of the Stranger without being fully corrupted by them.

Future powers of Tim Stoker-Orsinov: Better control over the powers he already has as well as a high tolerance for the Spiral.

Current powers of Danny Stoker-Orsinov: Can order around creatures of the Stranger against their will, can tell when a Notthem is masquerading as someone else, can dance alongside the creatures of the Stranger without being fully corrupted by them, is supernaturally talented at gymnastics, and can change his voice to anything he likes (not always intentionally, though).

Future powers of Danny Stoker-Orsinov: Can more or less “teleport” to other circus locations by walking into theaters, can now change his voice to whatever he likes with his knowledge and consent, can take over as the Stranger’s ringmaster if necessary, can trigger a mesmerizing dance whenever he’d like, and has a high tolerance for the Spiral.

Current powers of Sasha James-Cane: Can communicate with spiders and have them send messages to other Web avatars, can read minds if she tries really hard, can “trap“ other entities in large webs that she can summon (takes a lot of energy), and she has Spider-Man-like abilities (can walk on walls and ceilings, can carry much more than her weight should allow, etc).

Future powers of Sasha James-Cane: Can now read minds without too much effort, can navigate almost any area that’s being controlled/influenced by the Web, can create webs without nearly as much effort as before, can transform her body to have more arms, legs, and eyes, and she now has venomous fangs (which can thankfully be controlled and/or hidden).

Current powers of Alice “Daisy” Tonner: Can turn into a wolf at will/when she’s especially emotional, can smell blood from several miles away, and has supernatural senses/physical abilities.

Future powers of Alice “Daisy” Tonner: Can now track most any monster she’s hunting once she gets at least one good look at them, can communicate with other Hunters via howling, and can navigate the Buried if needed (though this is very triggering for her and will cause her to pass out afterwards).

Current powers of Julia Montauk: Can turn into a wolf at will/when she’s especially emotional, can smell blood from several miles away, has supernatural senses/physical abilities, can track most any monster if she knows their name, can communicate with other Hunters via howling, and she can shift into a bipedal werewolf when she feels like she’s in danger.

Future powers of Julia Montauk: All of her previous powers have drastically improved, plus she has better control of them now.

Current powers of Basira Hussain: She has common fucking sense, something almost none of the other children have.

Future powers of Basira Hussain: She common sense AND she has a werewolf GF now. :) ((No dating for the babies, not until they’re at least teenagers))

Current powers of Melanie King-Grifter: Can listen to Grifter’s Bone without being damaged in any way, the music of Grifter’s Bone makes her powers exemplified for a period of time after she listens to it, the smell of blood triggers her to become violent, she can summon sharp weapons (knives, swords, etc) from thin air, and she can see a red aura around other people who have been marked by the Slaughter.

Future powers of Melanie King-Grifter: She has much better control of her abilities now, she can perform Grifter’s Bone songs for people and keep them from dying/going feral, and she can now also summon other weapons from thin air (guns, baseball bats, etc).

Current powers of Oliver Banks: Can see people’s deaths a week in advance via his dreams, he sees dark tentacles around people who are going to die soon, can see but not talk to ghosts, and he can smell death on anyone who’s undead/controlling other people’s bodies.

Future powers of Oliver Banks: Can raise the dead and control them to do his bidding (takes a lot of energy), can speak cat (not End related; Admiral related), and he can cause people to die within the week if he touches them in his dreams.

Current powers of Georgie Barker: Can see a “death countdown” over people who are going to die within the next thirty days, doesn’t feel any fear whatsoever, can see but not talk to ghosts, and she sees a dark sludge staining the clothes of people who have been marked by the End.

Future powers of Georgie Barker: Can bring people back to life for a minute or so by touching them (think Pushing Daisies type powers), can speak cat (not End related; Admiral is best cat dad), and she can communicate with ghosts much better now.

Current powers of Jane Prentiss-Dekker: Can summon bugs of most kinds from her mouth and under her fingernails, can communicate with bugs, and can fight off most diseases without any trouble.

Future powers of Jane Prentiss-Dekker: Can now completely control bugs via a hive mind effect, can summon bugs from anywhere on her body, has much stronger healing abilities than Jon, and she can see invisible bugs crawling on the skin of those who the Corruption wants her to get rid of (it’s hard for her not to give in to it’s desires).

Current powers of Mike Crew-Fairchild: Can levitate/fly at will, can summon clouds of any kind (rain, thunder, snow, etc) in any conditions, has much higher resistance to the weather/temperature, and he can “banish” people into the Vast at will.

Future powers of Mike Crew-Fairchild: Same as before, but with slightly better control than he had as a teenager.

Current powers for Helen Richardson-Shelley: Can change the world around her to be more like the Spiral (adding more doors, changing the colors of things, causing hallucinations, etc), can change any door into a doorway into the Spiral, and she can amplify her voice (very hard to control as a baby).

Future powers for Helen Richardson-Shelley: Can now summon doors that lead to the Spiral from thin air, has much better control over her powers and abilities than before, can morph her body to be longer and sharper at will, and she can “banish” people into the endless hallways of the Spiral.

((Holy shit, that took awhile))

Anyways, here’s a playlist I made for the AU, feel free to scream at me for my very weird taste in music: Pinky Swear That You Won’t Go Changing

[heyho-simonrussellbeale]

"I am not a particular fan of Restoration comedy,” confesses Simon Russell Beale. “I spent a few years doing Restoration comedy 30 years ago and I don’t think it’s of particular interest to people now.” 

We’re talking about the recently publicised objections made by some Rada students to the study of Restoration comedy, as part of an anti-racism plan presented in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests this summer.

The plan, drawn up by the school’s student body, stated 17th and early 18th-century plays like Wycherley’s The Country Wife and Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer were “very white” and featured characters who “were figureheads of the empire”.

One of the foremost actors of his generation, Beale, 59, maintains that questioning the repertoire, and the current rhetoric about white privilege, is fine: “I welcome it. It has been building for a long time. It can only be a good thing. Diversity is a good thing.”

Yes, agreed. But, hang on... What about reports of reverse racism in Hollywood, of white actors losing out on the basis of their skin colour? “I don’t know about Hollywood,” he responds. “Do I still have a place here as an actor? I think I probably do. I don’t think one thing excludes the other.”

It’s hard – truth be told – to get into a sustained debate with a man as distinguished as Beale, knighted last year, via a Zoom call. Moreover, confronting where “woke” culture is headed feels – temporarily at least – by the by. The past few months have been about survival, slog, getting open.

The last time I interviewed him, four years ago, we were face to face in bucolic Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was preparing to tackle The Tempest for the RSC.

Had we known what lay ahead we wouldn’t have believed it: the world shaken by Covid-19, the RSC and National facing the worst crises of their history, his own profession quasi annihilated.

“It was as if the job of actor had disappeared, that there was no such thing,” he says of this year’s shutdown. “Normally, if you lose one job you find another, but there was no such job, in any medium. It was extraordinary.”

He’s looking back from the vantage of rescue: he plays Scrooge (and a co-narrator) in Nicholas Hytner’s new staging of A Christmas Carol. This production is perhaps the most hotly anticipated of the many iterations of the story this year, including – by coincidence – another in which he had a hand, or voice: lending his figgy-pudding rich tones to Scrooge in a dance film version released in cinemas today.

Speaking during a break in rehearsals at the Bridge Theatre, in London, he looks relaxed, his old genial, avuncular self. “I feel I’ve come home,” he says. A restoration, then – albeit there are only three actors, with no touching, and the Damoclean threat of London being put into Tier 3 (bringing the show to a halt) looming over the run. He marvels at how he – and others – initially thought the ordeal would be over in weeks.

“I had no conception of what it meant. I thought it was a holiday,” he says. But, after returning home to Wiltshire from Broadway, where he’d been starring in The Lehman Trilogy, weeks of waiting turned into months. His anxiety grew. He was one of the millions not to receive extra government support – the so-called “excluded”. Savings and frugality have kept him going. He reckoned he could last a year. “I was anxious. I had sleepless nights because I’ve got a mortgage to pay. I had a bit of money in the bank and that has now gone.”

Had things not picked up, Beale, who has two Olivier awards to his name and has triumphed in some of the most demanding roles in the canon, would be applying for universal credit.

Swift to ensure this isn’t all about himself, he adds: “We’ve all had dark, panicked days. Everyone has their own difficulties. I’m luckier than most. There are people who are now desperate.”

Despite this, when I ask whether he’d call Rishi Sunak a Scrooge he demurs. “I can’t. I can’t see much point in being angry about something that we had no control over, which is this virus. It must be difficult to organise [a response] but it is a very strange gap in the support system.”

There’s an intense reasonableness about Beale, a lucidity and scholarly intelligence, that surrounds him like an aura, whether on stage (where it captivates) or off (where it charms). Following his (post-Cambridge) training as an actor at Guildhall School, he played show-stealing fops and wags – hence his Restoration jibes.

But in 1990 the late Terry Hands cast him as Konstantin in The Seagull at the RSC. “It was the first time anyone had said, ‘You don’t have to be grotesque and funny on stage, just use what you’ve got’.”

Often since then – whether in comedy (Benedick in Much Ado, Sir Harcourt Courtly in London Assurance), tragedy (Hamlet, Lear), or combinations of the two (Stalin in Collaborators, Uncle Vanya) – he has exuded an air of being himself. Which isn’t to say that he hasn’t shape-shifted, or “acted”, but that he presents the character like a mirror into which he peers, inspecting its truth, glancing inward, creating a sense of the role – and human nature itself – as a shared work in progress.

He once described acting as “three-dimensional literary criticism”. He holds by that, and his reading of the role of Scrooge resists the stereotype of the miser as “grisly, grating. I can’t help softening him in my head. We’d call him depressed now.”

What’s more, he doesn’t want “Bah! Humbug!” to “sound like a catchphrase”. More important, he believes, is the response of Fred, Scrooge’s nephew, to this rejection of Christmas and Fred’s insistence that there are many things in life which, although not profitable, make you happy; a message, Beale says, that can also be applied to culture in general.

“Theatres aren’t different from pubs or football matches – they’re all what makes life worth living,” he says. “It’s an argument we’ve avoided in the arts because it doesn’t persuade the Government. You have to use an economic rationale. But now people are saying: we need it back, for our mental health, for our souls.”

Assuming the country’s cultural life does return next year, Beale hopes to be playing Bach in a new play by Nina Raine and see the Covid-postponed Bridge project of Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman (again directed by Hytner) come to fruition. He is also starring in two forthcoming films: Benediction, about the war poet Siegfried Sassoon, and Operation Mincemeat, an adaptation of a book of the same name by Ben Macintyre.

But live theatre is where his heart lies. There’s seemingly no plan to stream A Christmas Carol. And he approves.

“It’ll be a live performance in front of living, breathing people. We might have to do it outside, using megaphones. But we can’t wait for the perfect conditions. We must will British theatre back into existence.”

A Christmas Carol runs until Jan 6 at the Bridge, London SE1. Tickets: 0333 320 0051; bridgetheatre.co.uk

[poirott]

any news on Death on the Nile?

Hi! Yep, Kenneth Branagh confirmed Jodie Comer’s casting again yesterday after the article two weeks ago, and it was about time we got some official news because we waited three months for it, not just about Jodie but the production in general. Ken said they’re currently casting other characters, and that a lot of actors are asking him if they can be in the movie! :)

It’s been a long process of news and rumours for Poirot fans since the movie first got announced in 2017. Let’s look at the timeline again because new fans have joined us since the recent casting announcements:

Nov 21 2017 - Death on the Nile, sequel to Murder on the Orient Express, announced to be “in development” by 20th Century Fox, with MOTOE screenwriter Michael Green already on board, Kenneth Branagh expected to return. We’re speculating how the ending of MOTOE - Poirot learning about the murder on the Nile when he exits the train - plays into DOTN since in canon Poirot is already on location in Egypt when the murder happens.

Dec 27 2017 - Ken teases the DOTN ensemble cast could include “old friends”, and loves the idea of a new Poirot/Christie “Cinematic Universe”, starting fan discussion about other Christie characters potentially meeting Poirot, or getting their own movies. I’m curious which actors could fall under the term “old friends”; thinking back on it now, Ken may have meant Tom Bateman returning as Bouc from MOTOE, but perhaps there will be other casting surprises.

Feb 13 2018 - DOTN release date is confirmed to be November 8 2019, but will later change twice. Ken confirmed to return as actor and director.

Feb 24 2018 - A follow-up to the Christie “Cinematic Universe” speculation, Ken again talks about the possibility of Poirot and Miss Marple meeting sometime in the future if the Christie Estate was up for it. He explains he picked DOTN as the sequel to MOTOE because there is “disturbing sexual passion at the centre of it. It’s a dangerous tale of obsessive love and the central characters are very youthful and that produces crimes of passion. And once again, [Christie] does it in extraordinary places with great spectacle.”

June 23 2018 - DOTN changes release date for the first time from November 8 2019 to December 20 2019, now going against STAR WARS: EPISODE IX and Wicked. MOTOE did well in Nov 2017 as “counter programming” next to superhero films like Justice League and Thor: Ragnarok.

Sept 13 2018 - DOTN expected to start filming “early next year”, in spring at the latest, returning to the UK to shoot at Longcross Studios in Surrey, like they did with MOTOE, while there is “automatic assumption they’ll shoot exterior shots overseas.”

Sept 28 2018 - Gal Gadot in talks for the role of Linnet Doyle in DOTN. The movie expected to shoot in “spring 2019″. Scottish Daily Mail writes Armie Hammer and Jodie Comer are rumoured to be in “early talks”, and that Tom Bateman from MOTOE is “likely to join.” The casting of Bateman as Poirot’s assistant again could mean this adaptation of DOTN won’t have to introduce the character of Colonel Race, Poirot’s assistant in the DOTN book, since there is no need for two assistant characters filling the same role.

Oct 3 2018 - Armie Hammer confirmed to play Simon Doyle, the husband of Linnet Doyle, in DOTN. Movie now expected to shoot in “mid-2019″, which starts speculation about the release date being pushed back again.

Oct 15 2018 - DOTN changes release date for the second time, getting pushed back for almost a year from December 20 2019 to October 2 2020. The rumour is not picked up by any major outlets but is later confirmed to be true. We later learn the studio wanted to change the release date quietly, hence no official announcement. Deadline also reports Tom Bateman will indeed be in DOTN. The new release date has DOTN going against Bios starring Tom Hanks, and two untitled superhero films (Fox/Marvel and Sony/Marvel), one of them likely being Venom 2.

Oct 19 2018 - Still no official confirmation about the release date change but ScreenRant posts about it as a done deal. The biggest reason for the move is the “impending Disney-Fox acquisition (which is now expected to be finalized by January 2019).” In anticipation of the deal, Fox has been rearranging its release calendar of late, and DOTN was one of the movies that got hit. The movie is no longer expected to start shooting “in spring”. Tom Bateman’s talent agency confirms he is returning as Bouc in DOTN.

Nov 30 2018 - Deadline posts conflicting info about DOTN starting to shoot in “early in the New Year for Fox”, news that goes against what we’ve heard weeks before. We speculate how much the production of DOTN will overlap with Ken’s other movie in the works, Artemis Fowl, which comes out on August 9 2019. Can Ken work on two movies at the same time or will DOTN only start filming once Artemis Fowl has finished its promo tour in August?

Jan 4 2019 - The Daily Mail reports Jodie Comer will play the character of Jacqueline de Bellefort, Simon Doyle’s ex in DOTN, news they got from Ken during a reception for his film All Is True. They say the movie will start shooting “inthe early autumn“ 2019, which suggests Ken will indeed complete the promo for Artemis Fowl first before DOTN starts filming.

Jan 22 2019 - Ken confirms Jodie Comer is in DOTN, adding he’s very excited about the central trio of Gadot, Comer and Hammer, and that the production is in the “the process of casting the rest.” He compares DOTN with MOTOE in the sense they “want the same sense of event“, and says, “Something I’m pleased about is that I bump into a lot actors I admire and they ask, ‘Can I be in the next one?!’ So I’ll absolutely be taking them up on that.“

And here we are. :) We can expect to get the rest of the casting news over the next few months, and may get reports of scouting teams on location abroad (Egypt? Morocco? We don’t know yet), the crew building sets at the studios, little bits here and there before actual filming begins. The cast going abroad to film will also make local and international news, like it did with MOTOE. We’ll hear about various partnerships DOTN has made with other companies, like MOTOE teaming up with Godiva. And as I’ve said before, Ken may get asked about DOTN during Fowl promo in the summer, sometimes actors drop hints and updates about their projects while promoting some other movie. Same with the rest of the cast who have projects lined up for 2019 and 2020.

Before you know it, we’ll have the first trailer and behind-the-scenes videos. I can’t wait for the next casting announcement! I so wanna know which actors are approaching Ken about the movie! :)

Thank you for your ask and take care!