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29 December 2009

300 prequel news

Before wrapping up this 2009, while waiting for HBO to make a decision on Game of Thrones, there's some news coming from Frank Miller, the creator of the graphic novel, on which the blockbuster of 2007, 300, with Lena as Queen Gorgo was based. The LA Times reports that Miller has completed a new graphic novel, which should be a prequel to 300 and should be titled Xerxes, from the name of the Persian King. Here's an excerpt from the article:
The Zack Snyder film, the highest-grossing March release ever, was based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel about King Leonidas and his doomed army of Spartans; Miller is preparing a follow-up now titled Xerxes, which begins about 10 years before the events of 300, and Snyder has expressed interest in it as a film property as well. “It’s the battle of Marathon through my lens,” Miller said Wednesday. “I’ve finished the plot and I’m getting started on the artwork.”

Zack Snyder is interested in directing this prequel, but  nothing is known about the cast and since the prequel should focus on the Battle of Marathon - fought by the Athenians against the Persians, led by King Darius - is not highly likely that  the story will feature Lena's Queen Gorgo and Butler's Leonidas at all, as the Spartans didn't really take part to this battle, but let's just wait and see, everything is possible...
The IMDB already has a page for this movie, for more info you can also read articles on the MTV news blog and MovieGoods blog. Well for sure a 300 prequel without Lena doesn't look so interesting :P And speaking of 300 check out this very short interview with a cute and funny Lena!


23 December 2009

Happy Holidays!

Nothing better than a sweet video of Lena to spread the Lenaholiday cheer! Check this out Lena Headey's Wishtory from YouTube:




And then there's the most Lenalicious Christmas gift ever, my dear friend SVgal's fabulous Holiday Greetings Lena video. Thank you for this lovely video!!!




Happy LenaHolidays everyone!!! :)
18 December 2009

Tell-Tale news and new vids

It's definitely Christmas time as there's a great gift for all your Lenaholics out there: a dvdrip of Tell-Tale is available online, just do a quick search and you'll find lots of links ;o)
Unfortunately this probably means the movie will have a dvd release only, it won't make it to theatres then... too bad! But at least we can now watch Lena's latest effort :))
And if you haven't already, check out the video page for new Imagine Me & You vids ;))
Happy Holidays!!!
13 December 2009

Brief updates

Small update on Game of Thrones, although it's just a rumour for now, Winter is Coming reports that Bear Mc Creary, a name familiar to all TSCC fans, is interested in working on the score for this series! Here's what he had to say about it:
"Yeah, I’m aware of that series. It would be fun to score, wouldn’t it? Well, some vocal fans would always make any attempt easier.
[...] Well, I certainly did tons of Arabic inspired music on Battlestar Galactica, Medieval and Renaissance would be fun I guess, although harmonically that music is pretty limited. But, no one from Game of Thrones is banging down my door at the moment, so don’t anyone get their hopes up here."
I love the TSCC soundtrack, this would be a bit different, but it would be definitely great if he should get involved in the project. HBO come on, go for it!!
Talking about TSCC fabulous soundtrack, check out my friend SVgal's channel on YouTube to watch some amazing TSCC vids based on Bear's music :)
On a less 'serious' note, if you were wondering what the Lena's Holiday cocktail looks like, here's a picture that a member of the Sarah Connor Clan found on the internet.
11 December 2009

Interview for AfterEllen ('06)

This is an interview dated February 2006 and featured on the AfterEllen site, which has some good material on Lena. It's mainly focused on IMAY again and Lena's lovely and fun as usual!

It's a rare thing when a small British independent film gets picked by not one but two major studios (Fox Searchlight in the U.S. and Universal in the U.K.). Even rare when the movie is about two girls falling in love — but Imagine Me & You  has managed just that.

I caught up with the beautifully frank Lena Headey (Luce) as she shared her thoughts on love, her career, and her partner in crime — and lesbian icon — Piper Perabo.

AfterEllen.com: How did you get involved in making Imagine Me & You?
Lena Headey: Same as always really. I met Ol [Parker, the director/writer] and did the worst audition ever! I don't know why, I think it might have been because I wanted the part so much. I hadn't felt that way about a project in a long time.

AE: Which scenes did you have to read?
LH: I read the scene where they're on the hill and a couple others. I walked out thinking — f--- I did that really well in my bedroom this morning and this was really bad! When he called and said do you want to come and do it I was like yeah!

AE: You'd worked on The Cave with Piper. Did that help you guys create the chemistry that comes across in Imagine Me & You?
LH: [big smile] I genuinely really love Piper, I think she's bright, funny and smart. We definitely got on. I think that by being thrown together sort of made our friendship. She left [the set of The Cave] two weeks before me. That was the longest two weeks ever! I remember crying! I was like “oh no, don't leave me!”

But when we got back from the shoot which was really wet and in Romania, we were on the phone to each other saying: “Look I've got food, it's amazing!”

AE: So did you find out that you both got the part on Imagine Me & You while shooting The Cave?
LH: We were talking about Imagine Me & You and she said she was up for it, I said, “So am I!” And when we got it, we were like, “There you go, we get to do something proper! Instead of running around in these things!”

AE: Imagine Me & You is a first in its genre in that the girl gets the girl, no one dies or turns straight again, and the characters in the film are much more realistic than those you normally see in a romantic comedy.
LH: Yeah, I think what strengthens it is that Piper doesn't sort of go, “Now I'm a big lesbian!” It's just that she's fallen in love. And I like that Luce is steady and makes no excuse for who she is, “that's who I am” kind of thing. I love that about it. When I was doing press in America I was asked if I thought Luce was repressed [pulls a silly face]! I really don't. She's just stuck, she can't do anything. She can't run in and shout “I love you!” I was actually really shocked at that comment, you know!

AE: What has the press thing been like in the US?
LH: New York was a trail of journalists coming into a room with questions like [puts on an American accent], "Do you think that Brokeback Mountain made way for this movie?" [Pulls a face, as do I.] And I was like, "Um, well, probably maybe I'd say there is no relation at all!" There was a lot of that!

AE: Did you get to do any press with Piper? What were they asking you?
LH: Yeah, that was great. I don't think they knew what to make of us. We've had journalists saying, "Oh my God! How do you find playing a gay woman? Don't you think it may ruin your career?"
Piper and I would look at each other [pulls a face again]. There were secret laughs and secret evils.

AE: Especially since Piper was in Lost & Delirious at the beginning of her career! Did she tell you all about being adored by women?
LH: We didn't discuss it really. I mean I was in Band of Gold years ago playing a lesbian and I would get lots of girls coming up to me asking if they could take me out. I was like, "Wow!"

AE: I understand that for Band of Gold you trained with a dominatrix. How was that?
LH: I really liked her. I was really shy and found it incredibly awkward. I was really young at the time and so I started thinking, "I'm in love with her, I want this sort of job!" It was quite sad too. She never made eye contact with any of us. She was very cut off but very warm at the same time.

AE: Out of all the roles you have done, which are you let's say the most proud of?
LH: I think in terms of proud, I'd have to say The Brothers Grimm, 'cause I didn't kill myself! A personal triumph! But I think Aberdeen is the one. It still gets to me that it never got released in the U.K. I read it and thought, "Wow, this kind of material never comes my way. I'm never given this sort of thing."

AE: You play opposite two great actors, Charlotte Rampling and Stellan Skarsgard, did you know right from reading the script that you had to be part of this project?
LH: I met Hans [Petter Moland, the director] and went, "I have to do it!" He asked if I really liked it. And I said, "I love it, I've slept with it under my pillow, I've read it every day! I know I can do it." He went away for three months, all the time staying in touch. Telling me they want me to do it with Drew Barrymore, they're giving me a bigger budget. But then after a while he dismissed all that and said, "It's yours, you start in a month!" It was an awesome experience.

AE: Have you seen Madonna's video for Hung Up? Do you think you guys influenced her with your dancing sequence!?
LH: [chuckle] I think, yes, definitely! She saw it in the U.S. and thought, "Oh, I have to use this, and wear a really scary leotard as well!" We were influential!

AE: The debate at the heart of Imagine Me & You is whether love at first sight is a myth or a reality. What do you think?
LH: I think it's real. The truth is, you can fall in love — for me anyway, men or women like you — it's whether you follow through to the end, to its natural end, or not. It does happen.

Interview by Jennifer Kilchmann
9 December 2009

Interview with Lena on IMAY ('06)

And old but interesting interview with Lena where she talks about Imagine Me & You and lots of other stuff like The Brothers Grimm, London, Hollywood, etc. From the British Telegraph.

Flower girl of Primrose Hill

In her latest film Lena Headey plays a florist who has an affair with a customer - a woman. Is this Britain's answer to 'Brokeback Mountain'? No, she tells Clemency Burton-Hill, it's just a love story


In a pub in Primrose Hill, Lena Headey is reliving the horror of her first-ever men's magazine shoot. 'I lasted all of about two seconds,' she explains, 'pouting and trying to look sexy, before descending into giggles.' The session took place a few hours ago. Back in her preferred uniform of scruffy jeans and Converse trainers, Headey jokes about her refusal to wear the skimpy underwear the stylist was hoping for - 'I was like, no way! Give me the boy shorts!' - and confesses she found the experience 'traumatising'.

Given that this 32-year-old British actress has been in the business since 1992 (the producers of Waterland spotted her in a school play, aged 17), the fact that she has avoided such photo shoots until now reveals much about her attitude towards the business. 'Well, yeah,' she concedes. 'I haven't exactly courted publicity. I guess the dream is to have both a long career and a normal life.' It's with a degree of stealth, then, that Headey has become one of the busiest and most respected young actresses on both sides of the Atlantic (without so much as a red-carpet antic or strategic seduction of a famous co-star). The director of her latest film describes her as 'fiercely intelligent, warm, funny, beautiful, a complete natural', while studio bosses at Miramax wanted her so badly for the lead in last year's The Brothers Grimm that they famously overrode director Terry Gilliam's choice of Samantha Morton for the part. Headey, ever modest, refuses to elaborate on this story, which sent industry gossip-mongers into a frenzy. 'Look, as far as I was concerned, I went to an audition, got a part and turned up on set. I just wanted to work bloody hard in that role; I had no idea what had gone on behind the scenes.'

Working hard is something that Headey believes passionately in. After starring in blockbusters (she recently wrapped on Warner Bros' upcoming Spartan epic, 300) and low-budget indies alike (including the critical success Aberdeen, for which she won Best Actress at the 2001 Brussels European Film Festival), she seems to prefer the indies. 'Oh, God, yes. I've had a good time on those big jobs - on 300, for example, the director Zack Snyder was just such a brilliant man, and there were no egos. People worked long hours without complaining. But, generally, on smaller films there's a better atmosphere: it's more collaborative; people work much harder; the whole thing tends to be more rewarding.'

Her most recent film, and the one we're here to talk about, was apparently one of the most rewarding of her career. 'I loved every second of it', she grins. A charming, bittersweet British comedy from first-time writer-director Ol Parker, Imagine Me and You trespasses on Working Title territory to explore the messiness and magic of love at first sight. Headey plays Luce, a north London florist who unwittingly wreaks havoc on Hector and Rachel, a beautiful, seemingly perfect, couple, when one of them falls in love with her after she provides the flowers for their wedding. Conveniently timed to coincide with the post-Brokeback fascination with portrayals of homosexual romance, our expectations are confounded when we discover that it is Rachel, not Hec, who has fallen helplessly for Luce's charms.

Headey's excitement at getting the part had nothing to do with the prospect of pushing social boundaries. 'I think the Americans have been a bit disappointed there aren't more issues here', she muses. 'But, really, it's just a quirky, honest, painful and brilliantly written little story about two people who fall in love, completely out of the blue. That's why I wanted to do it.' So this is not The Lesbian Flower Girl Movie, then, any more than Brokeback Mountain should have been The Gay Cowboy Movie? 'No! 'It's not a gay movie. It's just a movie. It's about love and human relationships, and responsibility, and guilt … and, most of all, it's about timing.' When I ask her if she believes in its premise - namely, that you can catch someone's eyes across a crowded room and everything can turn upside-down - she looks horrified. 'Of course!' she exclaims. 'Life would be pretty rubbish without that possibility wouldn't it?'

Headey met Parker years ago on Loved Up, a film he had written for BBC2; 'Ol is a genius', she declares. Appealing, too, was the thought of shooting in London after a long stint in Romania. 'I'd just spent three months in the freezing cold, being chased around in a wetsuit, eating disgusting food, so the idea of working at home on a film like this? Yeah, that had a certain appeal.' Yet another draw was the chance to work again with Piper Perabo, the American actress who plays Rachel (delightfully) to Lena's Luce. Perabo had been the only other female actress on the Romanian movie, and the two became firm friends. 'It was wicked to work with Piper again,' says Headey, although when I suggest that the chemistry between the two girls is one of the film's most compelling aspects, she pulls a funny face. 'Hmm, maybe. I have to admit, it was very weird, snogging such a good mate.'

Most of the action takes place a stone's throw from where we're sitting, in glorious Primrose Hill and its environs. Impressively for a first-time director, Parker managed to assemble both a superb cast - including Matthew Goode, Celia Imrie, Anthony Head and Sue Johnston, whom Headey says she 'worships' - and a great crew. The director of photography Ben Davies, for example, has created one of the most breathtaking cinematic portraits of London I've ever seen. 'I know,' she laughs. 'I watched the film and was like, wow, where's that? That looks like a great city. Love to live there.'

Of course, she does live there. Moving to Los Angeles would probably help her career, but I doubt it would suit the straight-talking Headey. On the issue of pressure to conform to a certain body shape, for example, she is refreshingly candid. 'When actresses say they aren't bothered about it, that they don't diet, or whatever, that's bullshit. Everybody in Hollywood is under that kind of pressure: you just can't, and don't, escape it.' Headey has a tight group of friends, almost none of whom are in the film business. 'I'm so lucky,' she admits. 'I've got such, such good people in my life.' Although, she is coy about the vintage diamond sparkling on her ring finger, she will admit that her fiancé, too, has nothing to do with the industry. 'We met at a wedding, actually,' she says with a wicked twinkle in her eye. 'Luckily, he wasn't the groom.'

Interview by Clemency Burton-Hill

7 December 2009

Imagine Me & You on Italian tv :)

I'm very pleased to announce this to the Italian Lenaholics, we've had a fair amount of Lena movies lately, I'm really glad and now it's finally the turn of Imagine Me & You!!! Same channel as The Cave, a bit later (hope you don't have to wake up too soon on the next day)... It's gonna be on Italia 1, thursday 10th at midnight (vampire time), after Grey's Anatomy. So perfect time to share a video with clips from the movie and Sarah Mc Lachlan's song I Love You.




And here are some trailers, US version and international version, they're slightly different:








Imagine Me & You, giovedì 10 dicembre Italia 1, a mezzanotte.

3 December 2009

Lena cocktail?!

Ok, there's not much to talk about these days, but I've found this article; apparently someone working on the set of TSCC spoke to Lena about the perfect cocktail and it turns out he made a cocktail in her honour, check it out:

"Anyway, she [Lena] was once describing her dream cocktail, one that some London Barman had attempted to make her. 'It would have Pear and Cucumber and lot's of vodka of course. And something else ...' Her charming English accent drifted off into contemplative silence. I, of course, was up for the challenge and tonight you can walk into the Allston Yacht Club (1320 Echo Park Ave LA 90026 213.481.0454) and get yourself a Lena's Holiday. It is our best selling drink."
And here's how to make it:

LENA'S HoLIDAY
Makes 1
Peel, seed and chop 1 hothouse cucumber. Put in a blender with a knob of peeled Ginger and 2 cans of Pear Nectar (like Kerns). Blend and strain. Makes enough for about a dozen drinks.
2 oz Vodka
1 oz St Germain (Elderfolower Liquer)
2 oz Pear/Cuke blend
Shake with Ice and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a cucumber slice.

So this Lena-inspired drink became their best selling cocktail, if you happen to be at that place you can try it out... :-P
1 December 2009

Links

Lena Headey Fan Sites

 
Imagine Me and You Fansite

 Lena Headey Source
★ Chemistry-A Piper & Lena Fansite
★ Lena Headey German Fansite
★ The Lena Headey Archives
★ The Sarah Connor Society

Lena Headey Fan Forums


★ 
Lena Headey Fan Forum

★ Lena Headey Italian Fan Forum
★ The Sarah Connor Clan Forum

Update on Game of Thrones

Hope you've recovered from the big news of the last days, which by the way hasn't been confirmed... although it would be pretty weird now if it wasn't true!
Anyway if you're interested in Game of Thrones you might want to check out the wrap up party pics that the very author of the book has just published on his blog...
You won't find Lena though as most likely she wasn't there at all, and all her scenes had already been shot in Scotland and Northern Ireland. 
Moreover in a message in reply to this post, as the Westeros website reports, Martin's partner pointed out that HBO's final decision about the pilot may occur late March... that means a longer waiting than expected, we'll have to work on patience... because it's indeed unlikely that we'll see the start of the series for January 2011.
"Hang in there baby" will be our motto then:-P

 
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