Eddie sits down in Toronto with Vanity Fair to discuss his newest film, The Good Nurse.

In a wide-ranging sitdown in Toronto, the Oscar winner goes deep on his process, his tensely brilliant turn in The Good Nurse, and changing his priorities going forward.

Eddie Redmayne came into The Good Nurse, his first non-franchise film since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, knowing that he needed to pull off a tricky role: Charlie Cullen, the real-life serial killer whose reputation as a compassionate nurse belied a sociopathic, murderous habit of killing dozens, maybe hundreds of patients. In Tobias Lindholm’s deliberate Netflix thriller, which costars Jessica Chastain as Charlie’s close colleague-turned-adversary and premiered Sunday night at the Toronto International Film Festival, Redmayne is disarmingly sweet and affecting in his loneliness—and then, in a corker of a final scene, completely frightening.

It’s another transformation for an actor who’s made a habit of them—winning Oscars (The Theory of Everything) and Olivier Awards (Cabaret) for comprehensive inside-out work. Redmayne has balanced these rich kinds of roles, of late, with the Fantastic Beasts franchise, the third film of which was released earlier this year. As he comes off what he describes as a career-best experience in The Good Nurse, with another performance likely to court some awards attention, the 40-year-old actor knows he has some options and has come to a new kind of conclusion for himself. As he tells me in a wide-ranging interview from his Toronto hotel: He’s finished compromising.

Vanity Fair: It’s safe to say you’re associated with relatively heroic roles. Certainly not ones that are this dark. Did The Good Nurse appeal in that way, or feel like going to a darker place than you typically do?

Eddie Redmayne: The truth is, you do a load of work before anyone sees any of the work you’ve done. So I did all these films for years: I did a film called Savage Grace with Julianne Moore, in which I played a guy called Anthony Bacon who killed his mother. I did a film called Hick that has 5% on Rotten Tomatoes, in which I played a Texan meth addict pedophile.

That’s dark.

[Laughs] So I’ve done all these films, no one’s seen them—in some cases, fortunately. But then of course you do a film that you become known for and then that’s the world. Without you knowing it, that’s the trajectory you get taken on for a while. The truth is I hadn’t been looking for something specific—every script, I just react to what is presented in front of me. But I do like the idea that a lot of the characters I played have empathy as something inherent to them. What I found intriguing about Good Nurse is this was someone who seemingly had empathy and then weaponized that empathy in a way that was terrifying.

When I spoke to the real Amy [Loughren, a coworker of Cullen’s who acted as an informant to law enforcement, played in the film by Chastain] she said this is two different people—“I only met the murderer Charlie Cullen once.” We’d talk endlessly about his humanity and his kindness and his gentleness and his self-deprecating humor. How he would slag off his own sort of existence. Having someone tell you that—like, the audience should never think, “How did Amy not sense this?”

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Netflix has released the trailer for Eddie’s newest film “The Good Nurse” which will be released on October 26th.

Suspicious that her colleague (Academy Award® Winner Eddie Redmayne) is responsible for a series of mysterious patient deaths, a nurse (Academy Award® Winner Jessica Chastain) risks her own life to uncover the truth in this gripping thriller based on true events. Directed by Tobias Lindholm.

Eddie and his co-star and friend Jessica Chastain are at the Toronto Film Festival and did an interview with People where they discussed playing their characters and about what it was like working together.

Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain tell PEOPLE about “wanting to work together for such a long time” before making Netflix’s The Good Nurse

For pals Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, it was “a joy” to finally work together — even if their characters were deeply at odds.

The Oscar winners put their real-life friendship to the test making the new Netflix thriller The Good Nurse, based on the true story of a woman who risks her livelihood to expose a fellow nurse who is secretly murdering patients.

At PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly’s photo and video studio at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, Redmayne, 40, and Chastain, 45, explained how their off-screen camaraderie played into their performances.

“We’ve talked about wanting to work together for such a long time,” says Chastain. “Honestly I was a little nervous because sometimes you can really like someone and then you meet them on set and, especially if they’re playing a complex character, all of a sudden their energy is different.”

“And what was so lovely about working with Eddie is that he’s always as lovely as you see him now. He doesn’t change, except when action happens,” she continues. “Then it’s a completely different energy. That’s a huge gift because it doesn’t torture the people around you when you’re working. So I was really very, very grateful for that.”

Says Redmayne, “There’s a weird thing when you’re working with friends, where you’re like, ‘Maybe you don’t wanna work with your friends.’ I’ve heard stories about friends, and I’m like, ‘Oh no, maybe I don’t ever wanna work with you! I love you [but] you sound like a nightmare!’ ”

But when it came to costarring with Chastain, he says, “Thank God” that wasn’t the case.

The Good Nurse is on Netflix Oct. 26.

(Source)

“The Good Nurse” director Tobias Lindholm wasn’t interested in making a why-dunnit.

The Netflix drama, which premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival, tells the horrifying true story of Charles Cullen, the serial killer who used his position as a nurse to murder up to 40 patients. But the film isn’t a psychological study.

“I’m not that fascinated with the reasons that Charlie did this,” says Lindholm. “I was more interested in why we didn’t stop him sooner, because we could have.”

Indeed, “The Good Nurse” is as much an indictment of the way that Cullen was able to maneuver through labyrinthine hospital systems, with executives and administrators covering his tracks as a way of skirting liability. That failure to fully acknowledge Cullen’s culpability in mysterious patient deaths, enabled him to go from one job to another, sowing destruction in his wake. Lindholm, who is Danish, says he wasn’t that aware of the particulars of the U.S. healthcare industry, but having overseen the political drama “Borgen,” he was very familiar with the way bureaucracies can lose touch with the people they are supposed to help.

“My work has always been about systems,” says Lindholm. “‘The Good Nurse’ became a portrayal of yet another system that is dehumanizing. All over the world we build institutions because they’re a way to organize our lives, but they ultimately become so remote, so removed from daily life that they forget who they are supposed to serve. And that is fascinating.”

Lindholm also directed several episodes of David Fincher’s “Mindhunter,” a look at FBI profilers. That made him wary of overly pat explanations for abhorrent compulsions when it came to Cullen.

“When Charlie got caught, the cops asked all these questions — did it have to do with your ex-wife or your mother?” says Lindholm. “Every explanation felt too simple.”

“The Good Nurse” offers up two meaty roles for Eddie Redmayne, the one-time Newt Scamander, here playing against type as the very creepy Cullen, and Jessica Chastain as Amy Loughren, a colleague of Cullen’s who risks everything to catch him. The two have a pair of scenes towards the end of the picture that play like a duet between two masters.

“We would meet in my apartment and run scenes over and over again,” says Lindholm. “Jessica and Eddie had been wanting to work with each other for a long time. They pushed each other and they had everything nailed down so that they could show up on set and be totally present. That’s when they found surprises.”

Ultimately, “The Good Nurse” is a story of heroism. Loughren is dealing with a debilitating heart condition, but in order to get the treatment she needs she has to keep working at a punishing job in order to get healthcare coverage. Her decision to help the police catch Cullen imperils all of that.

“It’s almost a mythic story about this struggling woman who has to confront evilness,” says Lindholm. “And she deals with it not with hatred, but with humanity and kindness.”

(Source)

British actor Eddie Redmayne will be feted with the Zurich Film Festival’s Golden Eye Award for his career achievements at its upcoming edition running from September 22 to October 2. The actor will receive the honor ahead of the European premiere of Tobias Lindholm’s serial killer thriller The Good Nurse on September 25.

Citing Oscar-winning Redmayne’s diverse credits including Fantastic Beasts, Trial Of The Chicago 7 and Theory Of Everything, ZFF artistic director Christian Jungen described the actor as one of “contemporary cinema’s most versatile actors” adding, “he furnishes his characters with a rare human depth and captivates us with his extraordinary powers of expression.”

Redmayne was previously at Zurich in 2007 in the that’s opening film Savage Grace, in which he co-starred opposite Julianne Moore. He will also participate in a Zurich Masters session during this trip to the Swiss festival.

(Source)

Yay! Eddie is coming to TIFF next month! Thank you to the Hollywood Reporter for the news!

Davis will do an informal talk with ‘The Woman King’ director Gina Prince-Bythewood and Korean actors Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung will also discuss their careers in Toronto.

The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled the lineup for its In Conversation With… series, to be headlined with appearances by Damien Chazelle, Viola Davis and Eddie Redmayne.

Oscar-winning writer-director Chazelle will discuss his career that stretches from Whiplash and La La Land to his upcoming film Babylon, which stars Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie.

Davis and director Gina Prince-Bythewood will take part in their own informal conversation about their artistic drive and Hollywood careers as their collaboration on The Woman King has a world bow in Toronto next month. Davis is also known for her work on the TV series How to Get Away With Murder and movies like Fences, Widows, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and action-thriller The Old Guard.

Eddie Redmayne, who will be at TIFF this year with The Good Nurse, will also be on hand to talk about his movie career, which includes star turns in Red, The Good Shepherd, Les Miserables, and The Theory of Everything, where he played the scientist Stephen Hawking and earned a best actor Oscar.

And Toronto has booked an In Conversation With… appearance by Korean actors Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung. Jung is bringing A Man of Reason to Toronto, while Lee will be at the festival with his latest film, Hunt.

Since their collaboration on City of the Rising Sun in 1999, both have been key players in Korean cinema and TV, with Lee starring in Netflix’s Squid Game and Jung starring in The Good, the Bad, the Weird; Cold Eyes; and Steel Rain.

On April 7, 2022, Eddie participated in a phone interview a group of fans that run sites and social media accounts dedicated to him. This time the small group were able to discuss his return to the stage in the production of Cabaret and his third installment of the Fantastic Beasts Series, The Secrets of Dumbledore. As always I felt extremely honored to be one of the individuals included in this phone call. Thank you to all who helped make this interview possible.

Fantastic Beasts: the Secrets of Dumbledore is set to be released this Friday here in the United States. We were able to get a sneak peek of the film and you guys, it is awesome! I love the way the direction of this story is going and how they are building on Newt and the relationships he encounters.

Participants:
Eddie Redmayne
Charlotte (Texas, USA) — Moderator
Ivonne (London, England)
Ali (Utah, USA)
Marci (Oklahoma, USA)
Erina (New Zealand)

IVONNE:
The first Fantastic Beasts movie came out in 2016. I imagine one of the perks of being part of this franchise as an actor is being able to really delve into Newt’s world and his emotional journey throughout different movies. I wonder if there’s been anything about Newt that has surprised you in this new chapter? Things you didn’t initially expect from him when you first started with the character or thought you had figured out?

EDDIE:
That’s a brilliant question. What I liked about him in this movie was the two fraternal relationships — one with Dumbledore and one with Callum’s character, Theseus. There’s this kind of fraternal thing, this leveling up, I suppose, of this guy who is used to be talked down to and dismissed and given a moment.

But the thing I love most actually is that little scene with Dumbledore, in which Newt sees in Dumbledore his own vulnerability. He’s the guy who is normally out giving counsel to the world and being kind of father to the world, and that moment when Newt goes, “We all make mistakes and you can try and make things better, and that process of trying is the important thing.”

That breath of Newt having confidence to identify his own character in other people, or his own thoughts in other people rather than just keeping to himself, was the big progression — however small it may seem — for me.

CHARLOTTE:
I’m fascinated by these two recent projects of yours, Cabaret and Secrets of Dumbledore. They are both hugely entertaining, and at the same time they manage to be quite thought-provoking and relevant to our world. How important is each of those elements to today’s audiences, in your view — On one hand escapism, and on the other, delivering a serious message through a cautionary tale?

EDDIE:
I suppose that’s what I like from art. I love to be seduced, I love to be enthralled, I love to be repelled, and I love to be entertained. But what makes things have a lasting effect is, of course, that piquing of something that you interrogate after having seen the thing.

That is so rife in Cabaret and one of the reasons it’s lasted as a sort of seminal piece for so many years. There are elements in the Fantastic Beasts world — and of course it’s the magic and the whimsy and getting to delve back into this other world of pure escapism — but there are messages there and there are parallels being drawn that will hopefully make you interrogate things afterwards.

MARCI:
What for you was the most challenging part of making this film and what part did you enjoy the most?

EDDIE:
COVID was the most challenging thing. I did a day of pre-shooting on a Friday, and it was a moment down in Newt’s case that actually was cut from the film, and while I was meant to start shooting proper on a Monday, I got a call on Sunday night saying, ‘This thing called COVID is causing us to stop.’ And it was four months or so until we started again.

And the world had sort of changed, and coming back to the film set — first, we felt so lucky to be going back to work; it also felt complicated because Hannah was at home having to look after the little ones. I’d been helping to homeschool Iris, and suddenly I was allowed to go back to work and my life — although the process was completely different, as far as protocols and all the specifics of a COVID film set — I was able to go back to work. Whereas most of the world, and for Hannah, it was still having to look after two very young children.

As far as the making of the film itself, they’re such big things. It’s really in David and Jo and Steve’s imagination, and we just come and deliver what we can and bring as much joy and life and vibrancy to it. I really enjoyed the silly dancing bit. It’s not often that, as you guys know, I get into something that’s comedic — so it’s fun. There’s a kind of physical comedy element to it that I really enjoy.

CHARLOTTE:
That’s great. That plays perfectly into Ali’s first question.

ALI: During your time portraying Newt, you have been able to add some comedy to your portrayal. In the first film, most memorably, you did the mating ritual with the erumpent, and now we’re seeing the manticore dance. You’ve described these as a kind of ‘ritual humiliation,’ but they’re giving you quite a reputation for physical comedy. How hard is that for you, as an actor, to do? What kind of pressure does it put on you when you see that kind of bit in the script?

EDDIE:
All I see when I see that bit — I say it’s humiliating, and of course it’s also deeply joyful. I love try to get into things that are outside my comfort zone, and particularly physicality has always been an interest. I’ve always enjoyed making it a part of my process.

After Fantastic Beasts and before Cabaret, I went to this school, [Ecole Jacques] LeCoq, in Paris — this very famous physical theater school — and I went and did a workshop there for a couple of weeks. It’s a school I’d always heard about, always wanted to go to, and not specifically in preparation for anything in Cabaret — it was more about just feeling slightly in a rut, and I felt re-inspired by The Good Nurse, and I wanted to go and just fill my mind and push my myself in different directions and fill my mind with other stimulants.

I enjoyed it SO much, and it really sort of re-affirmed that kind of clowning, physical element of performance is something that I just get off on. I never went to drama school, and so this felt like a moment to go and just throw myself and watch other actors from all over the world, all different generations, trying things and failing at things.

We were all trying and failing — and pushing myself outside my comfort zone so that when I came to the rehearsal room for Cabaret I felt completely free to try whatever.

CHARLOTTE:
What a great insight into your performance in Cabaret, the preparation — that’s fascinating. Erina, I’ve lost track of what time it is there (New Zealand), but you can tell Eddie and ask your first question.

ERINA:
You really don’t want to know what time it is! (Laughter)

EDDIE:
Awww, what time actually is it? Is it something like 4 in the morning?

ERINA:
It’s 2:45 a.m. on Friday.

EDDIE:
Oh, my God. You’re amazing, you’re amazing.

ERINA:
I was worried my alarm wasn’t going to go off, but I’m here, so we’re good, we’re good.

EDDIE:
If it’s any consolation, I’m about to be closer to your time zone. I’m about to go to Japan, so if we’d saved this for a few days, we could have been in a similar time zone.

ERINA:
So my question is about Dumbledore. Which Dumbledore would you rather hang out with, the young version from Fantastic Beasts or the kooky older one? And why?

EDDIE:
Hahaha. I really love Jude Law. When he came onto these films it was such a treat for me because he’d been an old pal. I hadn’t known him that well but socially, and sometimes you click with actors as far as what your process is, not just on set but also kind of in life — but he brings kind of his full-bodied wonderfulness to set. I love him.

We did a lot of questions about what it was about Dumbledore and who Dumbledore is, and Jude just has that kind of gentle, condescending-like wisdom, extraordinary talent, and this kind of slight twinkle in his eye, a funny man.

Certainly in this film, there’s a bond between Newt and Dumbledore growing that’s unspoken, but there’s a trust. I love that. I don’t know how the elder Dumbledore would be towards Newt, but maybe one day when we’ve both gotten even grayer, there will be a sort of Dumbledore moment in Dorset or where Newt’s meant to end up…

IVONNE:
I’m going to ask the question that pretty much everyone is asking: How was working with Mads?

EDDIE:
Mads was pretty extraordinary. He arrived with so little prep, and he’s genuinely one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. He has an inherent relaxed-ness to him, but he’s also sensationally talented and also really comfortable in his skin.

Tobias Lindholm, who directed The Good Nurse, had written Another Round, a film which Mads had done, and adored Mads. So we had some friends in common, and he was just magnificent from the word ‘go.’

It was all in his eyes, and you just felt this genuinely terrifying figure emerge. What I loved also, going back to the physical element, is that Mads was a dancer, and so watching him do some of the duels with Jude, and the subtle physicality of the thing, was extraordinary.

MARCI:
I really love the relationship between Jacob and Newt — the chemistry plays so well together. How does Jacob receiving a wand and experiencing what it’s like to have magical powers impact that relationship in this film and potentially in the future?

EDDIE:
I have no idea, Marci. It’s interesting, because in some ways I’ve loved the new relationships that have developed in these movies, and I adore Jessica Williams, who brings such a new vibrancy to the films.

But I also have a sense of sadness that on the first movie it was Katherine and Dan and Ali and I, and we got to interact a lot. And what’s strange about the movies now is that I sort of barely get to see any of those guys.

When Jacob arrives on the train and Newt sort of — it wasn’t in the script, but I instantly wanted to give him a hug, because that’s uncomfortable for Newt, but at the same point, there is such love there between those two characters, and it’s sort of instinctive. Even though Newt isn’t particularly comfortable with physical interaction, there’s such joy there.

Dan is a true improvisational genius, and across all of these films, some of the funniest moments have been his improvisations on set that end up in the movies. It’s a real delight to watch. Everything is 100 percent real coming out of his mouth, and I think when they saw in the first movie that Dan had that extraordinary facility, they sort of — certainly in this movie, less of course in Grindelwald — but they realized that allowing him to riff is part of the joy. So it’s such fun getting to work with him.

CHARLOTTE:
We’re going to veer off into Cabaret a little bit. Seeing you in Cabaret — more than once — and understanding how instrumental you were in bringing it to life in such a remarkable way really showed the depth of your talent. It seemed from what your colleagues say and by your own descriptions that you almost functioned as a producer on this, and I wonder if the experience is encouraging you to do more behind-the-scenes work on stage and film, including maybe directing?

EDDIE:
I was a producer on Cabaret — like a silent producer, if that makes sense. I had quite a lot of input into the — obviously Jessie and I. The guy who produced, who created the venue when I did it at the Edinburgh Festival was the guy who came to me years ago, and then when I was thinking about doing this, I was thinking about Jessie, that instantly rang true.

So we were allowed to be, Jessie and I, at the forefront of those creative choices. Now once Rebecca (Frecknall, the director) came on, it was entirely her show. But as far as the way it was marketed, the way it was put out into the world, the secrecy of the thing — I kept wanting it to be something that if we had faith in what we were doing and if it became where you couldn’t photograph everything, that we wouldn’t release every image with hundreds of videos going out into the world to begin with —something that you had to come and see it live.

These were all sort of collaborative ideas, and I’ve always worked like that, whether it was on The Theory of Everything or the smaller films. I’ve always loved that ‘company’ way of working and that input.

Now with something like Fantastic Beasts, you just don’t have that. The productions are so grand and expansive that there are so many voices there. But it is something I love.

I love creating things as a team. I love having a voice beyond purely the performance. Because often — I suppose it’s because being an actor, you lack so much control, particularly on film. You know, you create this thing in your head, you give this performance, and then it’s taken totally out of your hands, edited by other people, and it tends never to resemble what was in your head.

Now of course that’s the brilliance of it because the alchemy is other people’s interpretation. But sometimes you want to at least have your voice heard. And so producing in the vaguest sense of the word — having more input than just your performance — has always been quite important to me.

As far as directing is concerned, I think I would love to direct a film one day. But directing is so all-consuming for so many years. It’s got to be a piece of material that for me, OK, I’ll give up four years of my life for something that could well fail, but this story has to be told, and I feel like I have the capability to tell it. I’m not quite there yet.

CHARLOTTE:
What a great answer. That was so full of insight.

ALI:
What caused you to make the decision to return to the stage, and and what was it about playing Emcee that made this particular role the right one?

EDDIE:
I first did Cabaret when I was 15, in a school production [Note: at Eton College], and it’s been a bit confused in the press — I did a student production at the Edinburgh Festival when I was 19. When I did it when I was 15, it was a tiny little thing, but I look back on it as a time before I had any technique or self-scrutiny. And there was something instinctive in that part — it was purely instinctive, and I enjoyed it so much.

I remember it was my parents, who have always been super supportive but weren’t from this world at all, they always say that was the moment that they thought that I could be an actor. I had in my head that has always been something tempered, restricted — there was instinct related to this part — and so when I was asked if I would consider doing it, that had always been a dream, that had been a childhood dream, the idea of getting to do it out on the West End was a dream.

I said you’d be mad not to try and do it, and then I thought of Jessie. This is the version of Sally Bowles — I felt like she would be such an extraordinary actor and such an extraordinary singer, and has such total immersion and freedom. I was like, this is a reason to do it.

There was a moment a few weeks into rehearsal when I was like, how dare I do this? What was I thinking? Just because you were in a position where you’ve done some movies so you could get something financed — what were you thinking, playing this seminal iconic role — that just because you felt like you were OK when you were 15?

And I’ll never forget, there’s a wonderful member of the cast called Emily (Benjamin) and I was having a bit of a bout of insecurity, and she said, ‘You were cast for a reason.’ And I said, ‘No, Emily, that’s not true — I cast myself.” (Laughs)

The fact, honestly, that it went well — I couldn’t imagine the physical elements of doing Cabaret, how absolutely exhausting it was. The idea that if it had gotten horrendously reviewed, if no one had come to see it, the idea of doing that day-in-day-out, I can’t even imagine.

But that is the way I make decisions in the theatre: I go for the most pessimistic. I’m like OK: So the company — everyone hates each other. The rehearsals are a nightmare. No one comes to see it. The reviews are a disaster. Is there enough in this material to sustain me for four months?

Cabaret is one of the very few pieces in which that is a no-brainer. Getting to sing those songs and interact with an audience — even if there are only three people in the audience — that was a big ‘yes’ for me. So it was about fulfilling childhood dreams. That was a really long and ranty answer…

ERINA:
Since you’ve just been on stage again, and since there’s now a precedent for Harry Potter coming to the stage — do you see any potential for any kind of stage version of Newt Scamander’s story?

EDDIE:
Wow. I think fundamentally Newt doesn’t project much, does he? I mean as far as his literal vocal [projection] — other than when he’s doing that scream at the beginning of the erumpent scene. I just worry that no one would be able to hear him. People struggle to hear Newt on film, let alone on stage. There’d have to be some very good miking.

But I feel like there’s perhaps a potential musical version out there. He’s got a lot of moves that he’s accrued over the years.

It does make me laugh — where does the manticore dance come from? My kids, when they have a bath, I stand outside the bathroom door and I just walk back-and-forth across the door doing weird dances because there’s nothing quite like a 3- and a 4-year-old cackle — like a proper belly laugh.

There’d be that ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ thing, and that’s basically where the manticore dance came from. That’s the one they found actually the funniest.

When it came to doing ‘Willkommen’ in Cabaret, in those sort of opening moments, there was even a little bit of manticore dance that made it into there. I’m sort of restricted by my physical inabilities, so I feel I put a bit of Fantastic Beasts into Cabaret. I’m not sure there’s a fully-fledged theater version of it.

CHARLOTTE:
I definitely saw the similarities there in a couple of those moves.

EDDIE:
I’ve got a very limited repertoire.

CHARLOTTE:
But it’s growing, though — it’s growing. Thank you so very much for doing this. We can’t tell you how grateful we are. Good luck at the Oliviers! And we look forward to going to the dark side with The Good Nurse and chatting with you again.

EDDIE:
And thank you guys for everything, for being so supportive. When you came to see Cabaret, I had to be quite monastic while I was doing Cabaret. I’ve never done that — I had to go home every night and try behaving like an athlete, but it meant the world that you guys came, so thank you.

The West End production of Cabaret featuring Eddie Redmayne leads the roster of 2022 Olivier Awards nominations released Tuesday, with the musical revival scoring 11 nominations.

Winners will be announced April 10 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, marking the first in-person ceremony for the Oliviers since Covid hit two years ago.

In addition to Redmayne, who was nominated in the Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as the Emcee, Cabaret was nominated for Best Musical Revival, as well as nods for actors Jessie Buckley, Liza Sadovy and Elliot Levey. Also nominated were the revival’s costume and scenic designs, sound design, choreography and lighting.

Best Actor in a Musical
Olly Dobson, for Back to the Future the Musical
Arinzé Kene, for Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical
Robert Lindsay, for Anything Goes
Eddie Redmayne, for Cabaret

Best Musical Revival
Anything Goes
Cabaret
Spring Awakening

See the entire list at Deadline.com

April 15th is on my calendar …

Professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) knows the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) is moving to seize control of the wizarding world. Unable to stop him alone, he entrusts Magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to lead an intrepid team of wizards, witches and one brave Muggle baker on a dangerous mission, where they encounter old and new beasts and clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers. But with the stakes so high, how long can Dumbledore remain on the sidelines?

Hooray!!! I am so excited! Here is the article from Deadline!

The third installment in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has set a release date of April 15, the studio said Wednesday. That’s Easter weekend next year for the pic, which now has a title: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

Warners is moving up the movie from its previous July 15 slot. Remember, all event titles on the Warner Bros slate are purely theatrical next year, not day-and-date on HBO Max. Warner Bros already had Easter weekend on hold on the schedule for an untitled event movie.

Easter weekend always has been a vibrant period for Warner Bros, with such notable box office debuts as Batman v. Superman ($166M), Clash of the Titans ($61.2M), Ready Player One ($47M) and most recently the movie that brought moviegoers back from the pandemic, Godzilla v. Kong (which made $48M over five days).

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore will go up against DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys via Universal, and Paramount’s Sandra Bullock-Channing Tatum adventure movie The Lost City of D. No word yet if those two studios will do something brazen and put both titles on streaming and in theaters day-and-date.

David Yates returns to direct The Secrets of Dumbledore.

The two Fantastic Beasts movies have grossed a combined $1.46 billion worldwide. Altogether, with the $7.7 billion made by the Harry Potter franchise, the Rowling Wizarding Universe counts close to $9.2B at the global box office.

In the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series, Eddie Redmayne plays Magizoologist Newt Scamander, a collector and tamer of mystical beasts who makes his way through the secret wizard communities of New York, Paris and London during the late 1920s. The movies also have starred Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller and Dan Fogler.

Johnny Depp, who had portrayed villain Grindelwald in the franchise, was cut from the latest movie following allegations of being a “wife beater” per the UK courts in November. The part was recast with Mads Mikkelsen.