News Archive: July 2011 - December 2011 Hi Ken-Fans! Okay, a bunch of stuff (when the Weinstein Company does a press blitz they DO a press blitz)! Kind of in chronological order, the video and audio stuff: On-set footage from 'My Week With Marilyn';  Kenneth Branagh LIVE Q&A;  on the Leonard Lopate radio show;  ArcLight video interview;  on The Today Show;  video interview on iamRogue.com;  interview with Movie City News;  on Canada AM; on American Morning.  And with a slightly broader scope, a treat from Thompson On Hollywood: Kenneth Branagh, Part One and Kenneth Branagh, Part Two. Believe or not, there are also a couple of carpel-tunnel-stained wretches who wrote articles (substantial interviews): Kenneth Branagh Talks Michelle Williams, Olivier, and “My Week With Marilyn” and Kenneth Branagh "My Week With Marilyn" Interview. There is also an amusing what if snip: 'My Week With Marilyn' Musical: Guess Who Wants to Costar With Katy Perry. Kenneth was on the Piers Morgan show and there is a transcript here. (You may want to check the original link since the first draft, captured here, is a bit funky and there may have been corrections.) And speaking of Piers Morgan, here's an excerpt from The 100 British celebrities who really matter by Piers Morgan (100 to 79), from 10 March 2010: 88 KENNETH BRANAGH The last time I saw Branagh, he was emerging from a workout with the same 6ft 7in Austrian torturer I use in LA. Once he'd got his breath back, we exchanged banter about the importance of a good physical state if you work in American TV or films. 'It's such bloody hard work out here,' he moaned, accurately. 'And the only way to cope with the long hours is to put yourself through this hell three times a week!' Yet he does it, because he wants to stay right where he is - as one of Britain's most successful entertainment exports. He's not as big a celebrity as when he was married to Emma Thompson and acting's golden couple dominated the tabloids. But he won't be shedding tears about that. What he remains is an outstanding talent who on his day can blow the socks off any other living British actor. You can find the whole lot from above listed neatly in the Reading Room.  :-) I have updated the Photo Gallery a teensy bit (if I ever catch up with that I will open a bottle of champagne!). Links to photos from the more recent events are here. You can find a quicklist here. There is lots more, and I hope to be back soon! (28 December, thanks Renie, Paula, Annette, Jonathan, Emma, Susan, Jude, Kristyna) Greetings Kenians! First of all, abject apologies that the updates are so slow in coming in this moment of so much news! The spirit is willing but the vertigo is stronger, so I can't always call the shots. But we have a small catch-up today... Nominations! One: nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Critics Choice Awards 2011. Two: nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, Screen Actors Guild Awards 2011. Three: nominated for Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, Golden Globe Awards 2011. Let's hope someone is three times lucky! (There is no question about being deserving!) The Hollywood Reporter reported nominee reactions to the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations: Kenneth Branagh, 'My Week With Marilyn' -- Qutstanding Supporting Actor In a Film: "I am so grateful to the Screen Actors Guild for recognising my work, and that of the extraordinary cast and especially the remarkable performance of Michelle Williams. Laurence Olivier set a standard for artists. To play him was a great honour, and for the performance to be acknowledged by my fellow actors is especially meaningful to me. I feel very lucky and very proud to be an actor." You can listen to Kenneth talk to Chelsea Handler about his reaction to the nominations here. And you can read about his reaction here. Casting back to early December, Kenneth talked to HeyUGuys at the British Independent Film Awards. You can watch a Good Day LA interview with Kenneth to promote My Week With Marilyn here. And you can read a review of the film here. In other promo news, Kenneth was on the Late, Late show With Craig Ferguson and will be on The View on Thursday 22 December (if you read this in time). That's it for now but there will be more anon (the hols from the salt mine start soon!). (20 December, thanks Jude, Annette, Auriette, Paula, Miriam) Hi all - very quick update (where does the time go? she asks, like a million people before her). Anyway... you can read an article about the Bafta evening event, "Kenneth Branagh: A Life in Pictures" here, and see a bunch of photos here. And you can read about Ken receiving the Variety Award at the British Independent Film Awards here, and see a few photos here. Three new videos have been added to the My Week With Marilyn page: My Week with Marilyn - Official "Kenneth Branagh" Interview, My Week With Marilyn Premiere, and Kenneth Branagh on My Week With Marilyn. More to come... (6 December, thanks Ina, Kristyna, Eva, Patricia) Back with some more stuff - not everything, alas (though that gives you a reason to come back...) So, there are lots of articles in the wake of the opening of My Week With Marilyn, not all strictly related to the film. You can read this next lot here; here; here; here; and here. Phew.. and I haven't even started with the reviews yet.  :-). The photos from the London premiere of My Week With Marilyn are here. I promised pictures from the Bafta event and they will be here next time. Gong time: read about Ken's upcoming British Independent Film award here. That's it for today. A reminder that you can get nice clean lists of articles in the Reading Room, and all the pertinent articles and photos are gathered on the My Week With Marilyn page. More soon! (27 November, thanks Alexandra, Jude, Ralphe, Yvonne, Jules, Myriam, Patricia) Greetings Kenians! I can't really keep up, but we soldier on (at war with the tons of information/articles and my enemy Meniere['s])! So here are a few new articles: comment from KB on the new "Thor" director, an excerpt from KB's interview on Front Row (with a link to listen on iPlayer), a cute tribute to a favorite holiday film, an in-depth interview discussing various films, and a couple of articles relating to My Week With Marilyn: one and two. There are photos from yesterday's Bafta event and they will be up soon. Apparently the Bafta Q & A will be availble online at some point - great news. That's all for today. Back soon, I hope! (20 November, thanks Pierpaolo, Emma, Jane, Myriam) Some more bits and bobs...  Again, hopefully some people will see this in time and be able to attend: Kenneth will be at an event at the Bafta Theatre this coming weekend. On Saturday 19 November "A Life in Pictures: Kenneth Branagh" will be presented, featuring a Q & A with Kenneth. You can get info and book tickets here. Something new: Kenneth is in the cast of The Prodigal, a short film by Benjamin Grayson. You can explore the website here. Check out Behind the scenes for you-know-who. We'll keep you posted on future showings. There are photos from the New York premiere of My Week With Marilyn - see them here. As mentioned in the last news, Ken was on the Today show on Monday. You can see two clips on the Today website: here and here. That's it for today. More soon... (15 November, thanks Emma, Jude, Myriam, Paula) So, this will undoubtedly be too late for anyone to profit by, but Kenneth will be at the premiere of My Week With Marilyn at the Paris theatre tomorrow, Sunday 13 November. Warm up the television, as he will also be on the Today show on Monday. Apparently he will also be recording an interview with Charlie Rose (which I assume will air at some point in the future) before heading back to Sweden and more Wallander (oh goody, goody!). I will be back soon - just getting this up in case anyone in NYC sees it and can get tix to My Week With Marilyn. (12 November, thanks Jude) Ken-fans... catch-up looks like it will be coming in dribs and drabs... here's a start: from a short while ago, the transcription of a great interview with Kenneth on Nightwaves, BBC Radio 3. And from just the other day, a video interview with Kenneth about My Week With Marilyn. More soon! (8 November, thanks Hester, Jude) Greetings Kenians! Just a sign of life - The Compendium is not dead, but I'm flailing about in tons of articles and things that need to get put up here! It will take time but it will happen. The Painkiller and Belfast were wonderful! The Ken-Friends who managed to be there for the last weekend of the play had a fabulous time (waving to you all) and KB was charming, very stylishly dressed (even out of the Zegna suit he wore the play :-)) and generous with the photo ops (and chatty admirers). I only have one thing today (still getting my bearings): a nice article from early October, part Painkiller review, part career review, but with a few nice nuggets. Enjoy. If you came in through the front door you'll have noticed a new image from My Week With Marilyn. There are a few more on the film's website. More in the coming week, I hope. (30 October, thanks Jules) Super-quick! The trailer for My Week With Marilyn is up. Watch it here at IMDB. Woo hoo! Back in a week or so! (7 October, thanks Annette) Ken fans, The Painkiller has had its previews and press night and the first reviews are in: here, here, and here. They have lots of spoilers, so you may want to hold off if you are going to the play. You can see lovely photos here. Mr. B is looking like a million dollars! ON Wednesday 5 October you can listen to Mark Lawson meets Kenneth Branagh, as he returns to the stage in his native Belfast at 7:15 pm on BBC Radio 4. And don't forget that you can download the episodes of Life and Fate from the BBC website (even if you are not in the UK). Well worth it! This is just a brief update but I will be back after my own trip to Belfast to fill in the holes. (1 October, thanks Jude, Ina, Annette, Paula) Kenians, another quick update... Coming up on this weekend, 18 September, the first of 13 episodes of Life and Fate. Let the promos begin! You can see a great one on the BBC page for Life and Fate (or, ever so slightly larger, on Youtube). The BBC page says the episodes will be available for download - which would be amazing! You can also read an article about the project here. Aaaannnnddddd... we are approaching the first performance of The Painkiller (previews begin next Friday, 23 September), so we have a lovely new photo (from the Lyric Theatre Facebook page). Aaaannnnddddd... you can watch a lovely video interview with Kenneth and Rob Brydon. And since the cup runneth over, drink deep - but in a hurry, there are only 5 days left to catch this - and enjoy an in-depth interview with Kenneth on Philip Dodd's Night Waves. I am sure there will be more soon! (14 September, thanks Emma, Ina, Jude) Hi Ken Fans, this is a mini-update because the hour is late and the salt mine awaits tomorrow - but I had to put up the first photo of Kenneth as Sir Laurence Olivier. You can read the accompanying article here and see the photo here. More soon! (5 September, thanks Emma) Greetings Ken keeners, you'll see that this page is suddenly very short. That is because the January to June news has moved to the New & Notes Archive. So the new news starts here! Kenneth Branagh has become the Patron of the Progress Theatre in Reading. You can read the press release here, and an article here. And you can refresh your memory with a photo of KB as Cassio in a Progress Theatre production of Othello. The second article comes with a lovely young pup photo. There are a couple of Thor articles: one and two My Week With Marilyn is set to open the New York Film Festival. You can read an article here. There is also a short article which touches on Thor and My Week With Marilyn. A poster for the film has been released, you can see it here. A few photos have also been released, the latest of Michelle Williams as Marilyn, but they are building up the suspense for Branagh as Olivier visuals. Stay tuned! Someone has captured a bit of the filming of "The Dogs of Riga", part of Wallander, series three - you can see it here. Finally, speculation on a future project: Branagh Joining The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society?. We'll see... plus there was that rowing film somewhere in the mix. Wish these were not all director gigs... Finally, ...on the actor gig front, a few more cast members have been added to The Painkiller. You can see the list on the Lyric Theatre site here. More to come! (24 August, thanks Aidan, Jude, Auriette) Greetings Kenians. I have done a bit of "housekeeping" on the Compendium (you'll notice that many of the earlier films, etc. have moved to the Projects and Events Archive). So, there is only one - not so new - article, announcing that Kenneth will not direct Thor 2, but may have some involvement on the production side. So we move on to The Painkiller (yay!!), My Week With Marilyn, and Wallander 3. Stay tuned... I have some Thor articles still to put up, they will appear at some point, and there should be a couple of new things soon. (24 July, thanks Pierpaolo, Annette)