A transgender Bond would be cool, says Dominic West

Agencies
December 26, 2018

London, Dec 26: With Daniel Craig set to say goodbye to James Bond after the 25th film, many names are floating as a possible replacement but British actor Dominic West believes it would be "cool" to have a transgender actor play the fictional spy.

Craig will return as Bond for the fifth time in Bond 25, which was earlier set to be directed by Danny Boyle but is now being helmed by Cary Fukunaga.

"Maybe a transgender Bond would be cool," West said in interview with The Sunday Times as quoted by IndieWire.

The actor is currently promoting his role in the BBC's new "Les Miserables" adaptation.

The "Affair" star said he got the idea from his indie film "Colette" where he starred opposite Keira Knightley and Jake Graf, a transgender actor who played a cis male (a person whose gender identity matches the sex that they were assigned at birth) in the movie.

"There’s a very cool woman who's the wife of an actor in ‘Colette’ who is a captain in the electrical engineers, the highest-ranking transgender soldier in the army,” West said.

“She’s a beautiful blonde girl who could be Bond, yes. That’s actually a brilliant idea. They should have a transgender Bond because there are a lot of transgender people in the army. They’d be ideal because they can do everything,” he added.

West was referring to Graf’s wife, Hannah Winterbourne, a high-ranking officer in the British Army, who transitioned from male to female.

Fans, meanwhile, want Tom Hardy to replace Craig in the next film and West is okay with that choice too.

"I think Tom Hardy could be a good Bond. I’d be happy to see him do it. You need an actor who can put a bit of wiggle into it – that’s what makes Bond,” he said.

Production on Bond 25 kicks off in 2019 with a February 14, 2020 release date in mind.

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Agencies
June 14,2020

Chennai, Jun 14: Tamil Nadu Police has recovered about 100 bottles of liquor from the car of actor Ramya Krishnan, who had starred in movies like Bahubali, Padaiappa and others.

According to the police, the actor was traveling in the car at the time on the East Coast Road (ECR) where they were carrying out vehicle checks on Thursday.

The police found about 100 liquor bottles in the car boot and when queried Ramya Krishnan said she was unaware of the bottles.

Later the police confiscated the bottles and arrested the driver Selvakumar who said the liquor was bought at the Tamil Nadu government-run liquor shop.

The government has not allowed the opening of the Tasmac shops in Chennai.

Another driver came and drove the actor back to Chennai.

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News Network
February 9,2020

New Delhi, Feb 9: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani got emotional while watching the movie "Shikara: The Untold Story Of Kashmiri Pandits". It is a Hindi-language period film produced and directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir.

In a video clip, the political veteran is seen trying to hold back his tears at the end of the film while Mr Chopra rushes to console him. Other people around them were also seen getting emotional and congratulating the filmmaker for the movie.

"Shikara" is about how Kashmiri Pandits were forced to flee from their houses in the Kashmir Valley in early 1990, in the wake of insurgency. The filmmaker said the film showcases how Kashmiri Pandits rebuilt their lives in the aftermath of the tragic event.

Featuring Aadil Khan and Sadia, Shikara released on February 7. Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who is from Kashmir, dedicates his movie to his mother, who died in 2007.

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Abdul Gaffar Bolar
 - 
Monday, 10 Feb 2020

Does this man know the trouble and pain of humans???

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News Network
February 12,2020

London, Feb 12: Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen is returning to his art roots with a series of short films at London's Tate Modern art gallery, offering a sensory exploration of black identity.

McQueen, who became the first black director to win the best picture Academy Award in 2014 for "12 Years a Slave", is now based between London and Amsterdam and is focused on championing diversity in the film industry.

Visitors to his new exhibition will be greeted by "Static", a film of New York's Statue of Liberty, scrutinising the iconic symbol from every possible angle at very close range against a deafening backdrop of the helicopter from where the footage was filmed.

"What interests Steve is our view of the world, how humans are trying to represent Liberty," said Fiontan Moran, assistant curator of the exhibition.

"7th Nov, 2001" features a still shot of a body while McQueen's cousin Marcus tells of how he accidentally killed his brother, a particularly traumatic experience for the artist.

"Western Deep" is another visceral work, giving a sense through sights and sounds in an interactive installation of the experiences of miners in South Africa, following them to the bottom of the mine.

"Ashes", meanwhile, is a tribute to a young fisherman from Grenada, the island where McQueen's family originated.

The images of beauty and sweetness filmed from his boat are tragically reversed on the other side of the projection screen, which shows a grave commissioned by McQueen for the eponymous young fisherman, who was killed by drug traffickers.

African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976) is honoured in "End Credits".

The film shows censored FBI documents detailing the agency's surveillance of Robeson, read by a voice-over artist, for five hours.

"He is... testing the limits of how people can be documented in an era of mass surveillance," said Moran.

In a similarly militant vein, the exhibition features the sculpture "Weight", which was first shown in the prison cell where the writer and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned.

It depicts a golden mosquito net draped over a metal prison bed frame, addressing the theme of confinement and the power of the imagination to break free.

The show runs alongside an exhibition of McQueen's giant portraits of London school classes, many of which appeared on the streets of London last year.

"I remember my first school trip to Tate when I was an impressionable eight-year-old, which was really the moment I gained an understanding that anything is possible," said McQueen, adding it was "where in some ways my journey as an artist first began".

He recently told the Financial Times newspaper the difference between his art films and his feature films was that the former were poetry, the latter like a novel.

"Poetry is condensed, precise, fragmented," he said. "The novel is the yarn".

The exhibition opens on February 13 and runs until May 11.

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