Welcome to The Helen Mirren Archives, your premiere web resource on the British actress. Best known for her performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, "Prime Suspect" and her Oscar-winning role in "The Queen", Helen Mirren is one of the world's most eminent actors today. This unofficial fansite provides you with all latest news, photos and videos on her past and present projects.  Enjoy your stay.
Celebrating
10 years
on the web
Sep
29
2017

Sony Pictures Classics has launched the marvelous trailer for the upcoming “The Leisure Seeker”. Starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland, a runaway couple go on an unforgettable journey in the faithful old RV they call The Leisure Seeker, traveling from Boston to The Ernest Hemingway Home in Key West. They recapture their passion for life and their love for each other on a road trip that provides revelation and surprise right up to the very end. Directed by Paolo Virzì, the dramatic comedy will be released in US theaters on January 19, 2018. Edit: A couple of new production stills from the film have been added as well.

Sep
11
2017

Lots of additional pictures from the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival’s premiere and press conference for “The Leisure Seeker” have been added to the photo gallery, alongside some fantastic additional pictures from the Variety Studio, with many thanks to Maria for sending them in. Enjoy the new additions.


Photo Gallery – Appearances – 2017 – 42nd Toronto Film Festival – Premiere
Photo Gallery – Appearances – 2017 – 42nd Toronto Film Festival – Press Conference
Photo Gallery – Appearances – 2017 – 42nd Toronto Film Festival – Variety Studio

Sep
09
2017

Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren have left Italy for Canada and are currently on the red carpet at the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival for the premiere of “The Leisure Seeker”. A first batch of pictures have been added to the photo gallery. I’ve also added hundreds of additional pictures from this week’s Venice Film Festival to the photo gallery. Check back later for more and enjoy.


Sep
04
2017



Hundreds of additional pictures from the Venice Film Festival’s photocall, premiere and after-party for “The Leisure Seeker” have been added to the photo gallery. Also, there are three clips from the film that were posted for the festival’s release, which give us a good insightful look. A press junket with Donald Sutherland, Helen Mirren and director Paolo Virzì has been added as well. Enjoy.

Video Archive – Career – The Leisure Seeker – Press Junket Interview (Italy)
Video Archive – Career – The Leisure Seeker – Film Scene 01
Video Archive – Career – The Leisure Seeker – Film Scene 02
Video Archive – Career – The Leisure Seeker – Film Scene 03

Sep
03
2017

The Leisure Seeker is Italian director Paolo Virzi’s first English-language feature — and it clearly struck a chord with the local audience here at the Venice Film Festival today. (That’s despite downbeat reviews from mainstream U.S. critics.) Social and local media have also gone mad for the film’s leads, Dame Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland. The pair was essentially mobbed after the SRO Leisure Seeker press conference this afternoon. When the last question was answered, a giant crowd leaped en masse towards the dais at which point Sutherland, who may not have realized he was on a hot mic, exclaimed “Holy sh*t!” He and Mirren reunite in The Leisure Seeker for the first time since 1990’s Bethune: The Making Of A Hero. They play a married couple still deeply in love after 50 years and on a final road trip down the East Coast of the U.S. Sutherland’s John is a former English professor suffering from increasing dementia and Mirren is Ella, a homemaker who is trying to manage her own illness while determined to get them to the Hemingway House in Key West as a last bucket list item. Mirren said Ella “is a reflection of the way I hope to live my life. I loved the character because she is facing the end of her life full of energy that I hope I can maintain to the end of my days. I certainly have it now.” The Leisure Seeker heads to Toronto next week and will be released domestically by Sony Pictures Classics on January 19 Words courtesy Deadline.. Pictures from the photocall and the premiere have been added to the photo gallery.


Photo Gallery – Appearances – 2017 – 74th Venice Film Festival – Premiere
Photo Gallery – Appearances – 2017 – 74th Venice Film Festival – Photocall

Jul
27
2017

Great news! The upcoming comedy drama “The Leisure Seeker” will have its world-premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival. No premiere date has been set, but the festival runs from August 30 to September 09. The film, based on Michael Zadoorian’s book, stars Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland as a runaway couple going on an unforgettable journey in the faithful old RV they call The Leisure Seeker, traveling from Boston to The Ernest Hemingway Home in Key West. They recapture their passion for life and their love for each other on a road trip that provides revelation and surprise right up to the very end. You can find two new production stills in the photo gallery and a very first clip in the video archive.

Sep
12
2016

“The Leisure Seeker,” starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland as a runaway couple on a last cross-country adventure, has struck a chord among film distributors. Since Cannes, Paris-based Bac Films has scored a flurry of pre-sales on the film based solely on the script, package and Italian director Paolo Virzi’s reputation as one of Italy’s top directors. Deals were signed for Australia and Canada (eOne), Germany (Concorde), Spain (Karma), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Greece (Strada) and Israel (Lev). Bac, which co-represents the U.S. with CAA, is expecting to close more deals at Toronto, where the first footage of the film will be shown to buyers, said Bac Films’ topper Gilles Sousa. The deal could include multiple territories. The Leisure Seeker combines the best of Europe and American filmmaking and storytelling. It’s a love story that has a true universal appeal carried out by a pair of actors who are on top of their games,” said Sousa. The movie is currently in its last stretch of shooting in the States on the East Coast. Inspired by Michael Zadoorian’s eponymous novel and billed as a sort of “Easy Rider” meets “The Notebook,” “Seeker” turns on a couple embarking on a twilight-years road trip from Boston to Florida in a vintage Winnebago. The screenplay was penned by Italy’s Francesca Archibugi (“Like Crazy”) and Francesco Piccolo (“Human Capital”) in collaboration with Amidon and Virzì.

May
25
2016

The Daily Mail sat down with Helen at last week’s Cannes Film Festival to talk about the common things – beauty and hair, has she or hasn’t she? But the interview also holds some new information on Helen’s upcoming project “The Leisure Seeker”, which will reuinte her with Donald Sutherland, almost 30 years after they played husband and wife in “Bethune: The Making of a Hero”. Here’s Helen’s scoop on her new role:

In fact, I’m about to have my hair cut this short [she mines an inch]. I’m doing a film with Donald Sutherland – a sort of older person’s road movie. I’ve never done that before so I’m kind of looking forward to it. It’ll be exciting.’ Her character has cancer, hence the brutally close crop. There are very few Hollywood stars who would take such a relaxed attitude in an industry in which looks are all. And it’s pure Mirren.

May
12
2016

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland are understood to be playing married 70-somethings in The Leisure Seeker, which is bowing in Cannes’ Marche du Film. The road movie, based on the novel by Michael Zadoorian that was billed as “Easy Rider meets The Notebook,” follows the Boston couple as they defy the warnings of their doctors and grown-up children to jump aboard a vintage Winnebago Leisure Seeker. The two cross the country to the Key West home of their hero Ernest Hemingway. Italian filmmaker Paulo Virzi is directing the film. His latest feature, Like Crazy, is making its first appearance in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight sidebar. Paris-based Bac Films is introducing the movie to buyers in Cannes.