SHOWBIZ JUNKIES – The first photo has been released of The Kaiser’s Last Kiss stars Lily James (Cinderella and the upcoming Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) as Mieke de Jong and Jai Courtney (Terminator Genisys) as Captain Stefan Brandt. Production has wrapped on the dramatic movie based on Alan Judd’s bestselling book. The WWII drama was adapted for the screen by Simon Burke, directed by David Leveaux, and features Christopher Plummer, Eddie Marsan, and Janet McTeer.
The Kaiser’s Last Kiss takes place around the 1940 invasion of Holland which brings the Nazis face to face with their former monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm (Plummer) – exiled to the Netherlands since 1917. In an effort to thwart the Nazis, the Dutch resistance work covertly with Winston Churchill in inserting an agent into the Kaiser’s household. A lethally dangerous love affair ignites between a German officer (Courtney) and a young Jewish Dutch woman (James) with consequences that neither they nor the Kaiser himself could have foreseen. As the Nazis race to identify and eliminate the agent, the threads of history conspire with the recklessness of the heart to dumbfound them.

DEADLINE – Young Woman and the Sea, based on the book by Glenn Stout, which chronicles the the daring journey of the first woman to ever swim across the English Channel, has been set up at Paramount Pictures by producer Jerry Bruckheimer and he has tapped his Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales writer to adapt. Jeff Nathanson, who also scripted the cat-and-mouse Catch Me If You Can, is adapting the book and Lily James (Cinderella) will star as Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle who in 1926 captured world attention when she swam across the 21 mile Channel — an incredible feat for anyone, let alone a teen.

The daughter of a German butcher from Manhattan, Ederle was a competitive swimmer, an Olympic athlete who won Gold in the 1924 Games when she decided to attempt crossing the Channel. She undertook the feat after first swimming 22 miles from Battery Park in New York to Sandy Hook, NJ in a record that stood for 81 years.

When she set her mind to crossing the English Channel, she contracted with two newspapers and sold her story, thereby financing her quest. There was actually a race among women who would be first to cross as only five men had done so before.

She and her sister, Meg, constructed a two-piece swimsuit — unheard of in the 1920s where skirt lengths were below the knee and ordinary swimsuits looked like summer dresses — and used candle wax to seal her goggles to make them leak-proof.

After struggling against waves, winds and some of the most treacherous waters anywhere, the relentless Ederle overcame all odds and finally completed her journey. The moment she reached shore, she rocketed to worldwide celebrity status and was known as “Trudy of America.” But her triumph was much more crossing of the Channel because she shattered centuries of female stereotypes and opened doors for generations of women to come.

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The first full trailer for Pride & Prejudice & Zombies is finally HERE!

‘Cinderella’ director Kenneth Branagh explains why he directed the movie and also mentions his “Romeo and Juliet” play with Lily and Richard Madden. ‘Cinderella’ will be released on Blu-ray/DVD, Digital HD/SD and on Disney Movies Anywhere on September 15.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY – With the making of Cinderella, director Kenneth Branagh combined his background in resuscitating period classics (Hamlet, Henry V) with his experience shooting big-scale productions (Thor), creating a sleek, live-action reboot that smacks of modern fare while holding true to the fairy tale’s traditional roots.

“All of my interests and skill sets came together for Cinderella,” says Branagh. Furthermore, directing Disney’s live action remake allowed the Irish filmmaker to make strides towards his ultimate goal. “I often feel that the evolution of an artist is to try to get simpler and simpler, as least that is what I aspire to,” he says.

So, is Branagh calling Cinderella — which was made for an estimated $95 million — a simple film? Kind of, but that’s exactly why he signed up for the job. “Some people are dismissive of the fairy tale as a genre, but I’ve never felt that because the stories that end up having an influence over your entire creative life often happen when you’re very small,” explains Branagh. “Those first tales, whether told to you by a parent, or a storybook or at a theater, really make an enormous impression, yet at the surface, they’re very simple. I feel my trajectory was leading me towards stories, although deceptively simple, [that] carry with them an emotional charge vastly greater than its surface appearance.”

Read on for more from Branagh and for an exclusive deleted scene from the new Disney Movies Anywhere app cut – featuring a dark take on the obstacles facing Ella and her Prince Charming.

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In this Faze exclusive clip from ‘Cinderella’, Lily learns how to ride a horse in preparation for her role.