Helen’s second installment in the Fast & Furious franchise – the Rock/Statham spin-off “Hobbs & Shaw” – will release theaters August 2. Her character’s name has received an add-on, the Shaw family matriarch is now known as Magdalene “Queeny” Shaw. There you go. Univeral Pictures is starting the film’s promotion this weekend with its Los Angeles premiere (which Helen didn’t attend) and a first batch of video clips, including an on-set interview with Helen and the b-roll, in which she is seen thanking director David Leitch after wrapping her scenes and demanding “more stunts” for the next time. As much as we know there will be a next time next year, when Helen will reprise her role in the ninth “Fast & Furious”. You can find both the b-roll and on-set interview below and in the video archive, as well as screencaptures in the photo gallery.

Warner Bros. UK has launched the first theatrical trailer for Bill Condon’s “The Good Liar”. The New Line Cinema drama pairs Oscar winner Helen Mirren and two-time Oscar nominee Ian McKellen on the big screen for the first time. Bill Condon, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “Gods and Monsters,” directed and produced the film from a screenplay by Jeffrey Hatcher (“Mr. Holmes”), based on the widely acclaimed novel by Nicholas Searle. Career con artist Roy Courtnay (McKellen) can hardly believe his luck when he meets well-to-do widow Betty McLeish (Mirren) online. As Betty opens her home and life to him, Roy is surprised to find himself caring about her, turning what should be a cut-and-dry swindle into the most treacherous tightrope walk of his life. “The Good Liar” also stars Russell Tovey and Jim Carter. Greg Yolen also served as producer, alongside Condon. The executive producers were Richard Brener, Andrea Johnston, Aaron L. Gilbert, Jason Cloth, Anjay Nagpal, Jack Morrissey, and Nick O’Hagan. The creative filmmaking team included director of photography Tobias Schliessler, production designer John Stevenson, editor Virginia Katz, and costume designer Keith Madden. The music is composed by two-time Oscar nominee Carter Burwell. “The Good Liar” was filmed on location in London and Berlin. It opens in theatres on Friday, November 15, 2019. The film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Courtesy Yahoo!: “The Talented Mr Ripley with OAPs” – That’s quite some pitch for a movie, but it’s basically the premise at the heart of The Good Liar, Warner Bros.’ upcoming adaptation of the best-selling thriller by Nicholas Searle. As you can see in the newly-launched first trailer (watch it below), it stars Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Helen Mirren, the former an octogenarian conman called Roy who meets wealthy widow Betty (Mirren) on a dating website and sets about stealing her nest egg. And as director Bill Condon (Beauty and the Beast) explains, it includes a cinema first. “They’d never worked together in the movies before,” he says of the two legends. “I’d seen them on stage together about 15 years or longer ago [it was actually 2002 in Strindberg’s Dance of Death]. And [this movie] felt like an opportunity to bring an ideal pairing to the screen.” “[The film] definitely plays off the lifetime iconography we have for these two great actors.” Of course Condon, who worked with McKellen on his breakthrough as director Gods and Monsters (1998) and again in 2015’s Mr. Holmes, knows the actor’s process well, but notes Mirren’s is completely different. “Ian is all rehearsal and talk and talk and talk,” he explains. “Helen likes a little bit of that and then for her it’s about the magic of what happens in the moment. She really likes to keep it spontaneous.”. The complete article can be read over at Yahoo! The film’s poster, as well as new stills and an on-set picture, have been added to the photo gallery.

“Anna”, Luc Besson’s action thriller starring Sasha Luss, Helen Mirren, Cillian Murphy and Luke Evans, releases select theaters today to almost no promotion, premiere or any kind of buzz, except some disappointing reviews. Most articles on the film touch the matter of the recent accusations against Besson and how it hurts the markability and mainstream effect of the film. A collection of reviews can be found below. The photo updates above are accompanied by more clips from the film – international trailers, television spots, a clip and an on-set interview with Helen.

The New York Times, Bilge Ebiri (June 21, 2019)
“Anna” is entertainingly put together, but it might be hard to be entertained by it. Last year, the director was accused by a number of women of sexual assault, which he has denied. It’s hard not to be reminded of such matters when watching a film that often turns on seduction and shifting power dynamics in male-female relations. “Anna” can’t live in a vacuum.

Variety, Peter Debruge (June 21, 2019)
Will anything in “Anna” take audiences by surprise? Nothing so much as the fact that such a broadly appealing mainstream thrill ride should be released so unceremoniously as this, almost as if it were being done to fulfill contractual obligations. It’s nowhere near the embarrassment of Brian De Palma’s “Domino,” or any number of recent studio tentpoles. Nor is it fresh enough to pretend that audiences had missed out on something special if it had been buried altogether — except perhaps for Luss, who’s bound to get another shot.

RogerEbert.com, Peter Sobczynski (June 21, 2019)
Helen Mirren, evidently using this film as an audition reel for the role of Edna in the inevitable live-action remake of “The Incredibles.” “Anna” is so aimless and listless that you can hardly believe that he was even on the set for the majority of its production. All he has to offer here is the aforementioned two decent action scenes, some interesting underwear and a Helen Mirren performance that is mildly amusing, though it will not take up too much time in any future Lifetime Achievement highlight reels.

The Hollywood Reporter, John DeFore (June 20, 2019)
Helen Mirren, the film’s first spark of life. Cillian Murphy is as jarring in his role as Mirren — they’re too lively and intelligent to play the film’s color-by-numbers game, and look like they might be working an angle: What if they just keep being the only people worth watching until Besson decides to pivot, making this a Tinker, Tailor-style game of string-pulling spymasters? No such luck.

The Los Angeles Times, Noel Murray (June 20, 2019)
“Anna”’s underlying themes just don’t resonate as they’re meant to. The film falters when it tries to be an aspirational tale, about a woman tired of being shuffled from one “grey box” to another (from a pauper’s apartment to a military academy to a cramped models’ condo), and who’s exhausted by the piggish fashion photographers and demanding spy-masters who dominate her days.

The Toronto Star, Peter Howell (June 20, 2019)
Olga, played by Helen Mirren, is one sharp shot of vodka. She lights her cigarettes with a grenade-shaped lighter and tells a story of having once walked for three days in the woods with a wolf trap attached to her leg. “Trouble never sends a warning,” she advises Anna. Olga functions as both a serious figure of menace and comic relief. Mirren sheathes her character’s intentions behind a granite visage that suggests what Fran Lebowitz would look like as a Bond villain. Dark humour ripples through Besson’s jigsaw screenplay. Spy fans will be amused at one discussion about how best to cut off a hapless victim’s finger, to avoid casting suspicion of CIA involvement.

Karl Lagerfeld famously hated funerals, but the Karl for Ever celebration of his life, which took place last night in Paris on the last day of Paris Men’s Fashion Week, would hopefully have passed muster. The 2,500 guests (many of them immaculately dressed in Chanel and Fendi) packed out the city’s Grand Palais venue, the imposing edifice that was (and still is) the choice location for Chanel’s ready-to-wear fashion shows. Interpreting some of Lagerfeld’s favorite literature and music were esteemed thespians such as Helen Mirren, Tilda Swinton and Fanny Ardent, who read excerpts from works by Virginia Woolf, Edith Sitwell and Stephane Mallarme. Cara Delevingne read a poem about cats by French writer Colette. It was an homage to Lagerfeld’s beloved Choupette, opening with the immortal line, “I’m a cat.” Pictures from the event have been added to the photo gallery.

Last week, Helen Mirren attended the Apoxiomeno International Award in Sorrentino, Italy, to honor actress and director Betty Thomas with the award for Television Acting. Thomas was one of the very first, and to this date most-beloved, female police officers on the hit-show “Hill Street Blues”. There’s a full video of Helen’s introduction as well as pictures from the press conference and awards ceremony and dinner. Enjoy the new additions.

On June 11, Helen Mirren and Taylor Hackford were invited as special guests to the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park London Reinvented & Reimagined event, alongside Barry Humphries and Liam Neeson. Pictures have been added to the photo gallery.

Helen Mirren has left Cannes for L.A. and has been spotted at the premiere for Disney’s “Aladdin”, greeting former co-star Will Smith on the red carpet. Pictures have been added to the photo gallery, alongside even more pictures from the Cannes Film Festival.

The photo gallery has been updated with lots of additional pictures of Helen attending the Cannes Film Festival, including pictures from a new event – the HFPA & Participant Media’s Honour of Hep Refugees. Also added is a new cover story from the British Woman’s Weekly, May 21 issue. Enjoy the additions.

Helen Mirren was a vision in pink at yesterday’s premiere for “Les Plus Belles Annees D’Une Vie” at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival. According to Startsat60, the 73-year-old star sported a much shorter cropped do than usual at the prestigious event on Saturday and swapped her usual blonde tones for a new soft pink hair colour. Mirren looked spectacular as she posed on the red carpet at the premiere of French movie Les Plus Belles Annees D’Une Vie (The Best Years of a Life), wearing a couture Elie Saab gown which complimented her new hair perfectly with its blush and gold tones. The stunning evening gown was covered in intricate sequins and featured a long train and asymmetrical neckline, and The Queen actress accessorised the beautiful outfit with a simple pair of diamond drop earrings and matched her make-up to her bubblegum pink hair, with blush-coloured eyeshadow and a soft pink lip. This isn’t the first time that Helen has experimented with colourful hair though, as she previously tried out the blush colour back in 2013, admitting at the time that she was inspired to do so after watching US TV show America’s Next Top Model. Pictures from the premiere have been added to the photo gallery.