Ok, one last update before the Holidays. Screencaptures from the first episode of “1923”, titled aptly “1923” have been added to the photo gallery, with many thanks to KissThemGoodbye for posting them in the first place. Once again, Happy Holidays everybody 🙂

Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) quashes a dispute between cattle ranchers and sheep herders. Cara (Helen Mirren) informs Liz (Michelle Randolph) of the sacrifices of marrying into the Dutton family, while another Dutton finds himself far from home.

A last update for the Helen Mirren Archives before the Holidays hit us with full force. It has felt like such a short year, so it’s time to celebrate, reflect – and look back: Four of Helen Mirren’s previous performances screencaptures have been replaced with high definition versions. The standout is the 1968 adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. If you have only seen the grainy DVD version that was published years ago, it’s a revelation to see the restored version which was made ready for streaming services. Screencaptures from “Where Angels Fear to Tread”, “Gosford Park” and the magnificent “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone” – still one of Miss Mirren’s best performances – have been added as well. Enjoy the screencaptures and your Holidays with your loved ones. See you in 2023.

Lots of additional press material for Sunday’s premiere of “1923: A Yellowstone Origin Story” have been added to the photo gallery, including production stills, many new promos with Helen and Harrison Ford and new posters. Also, this Wednesday saw the release of many press junket interviews with Helen that were conducted during the promotional stay in Las Vegas. You can watch them all in the video archive.

On a Friday full of surprises, Helen Mirren not only made her music video debut in Kendrick Lamar’s “Count Me Out”, she’s also narrating the teaser trailer for Greta Gerwig’s upcoming “Barbie” film. For the latter, it is not known yet if Mirren also narrates the film, which will star Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, and will premiere next Summer. In the former video, a visual for the “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers” album cut, Helen is featured as Lamar’s therapist, with the two in session. She asks him about an interaction he had with a woman in a parking lot, where the woman accused Lamar of stealing her parking spot. Kendrick makes a joke and the two have a laugh about the incident before the therapist digs deeper, asking him why he texted her “I feel like I’m fallen” at 2 a.m. The Dave Free and Lamar-directed “Count Me Out” video then cuts to different scenes as he attempts to answer her question. Kendrick is seen in various settings: the desert, among a herd of goats, in the car, having drinks with friends—one of whom is Jack Dorsey—and more.

While all eyes are on 1923’s December 18 premiere, let’s not forget next Spring’s theatrical release of “Shazam: Fury of the Gods”. In a recent interview with Total Film, director David F. Sandberg teased Mirren’s compelling new DCU villain in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. After Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is imbued with special powers by the last remaining member of the Council of Wizards in the previous film, the 14-year-old boy is transformed into Shazam (Zachary Levi). To defeat Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), an evil scientist who was denied the chance to become Shazam’s champion, Batson shares his power with his foster family to create a superhero team. Shazam! Fury of the Gods picks up two years after the events of its predecessor and sees Batson and his family take on the Daughters of Atlas. The director recalled his surprise that he was able to hire Mirren – an actor with a long esteemed career in film – to portray his chief antagonist, Hespera. Read Sandberg’s full quote below:

You need great villains for a great superhero movie. It was interesting that we landed on these mythological characters. It felt like something new for fans. We said from the start we should aim really high. We said, ‘We should get someone on the level of, like, Helen Mirren.’ And then we tried reaching out to her and she said ‘yes’ straight away. It was like, ‘Holy sh*t! We actually got Helen Mirren.’ Then we went to Lucy Liu and she said ‘yes.’ They bring so much to the parts. (David F. Sandberg, Total Film, December 2022)

Yes, that’s a real thing! 2022 marks the first standalone expansion of the Emmy Award competition and establishes a dedicated ceremony separate from the Daytime Emmy Awards, which had been home to children’s and family programming categories. And in its inaugural year, Helen Mirren has been awarded in the category Best Host for Cartoon Network’s “Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses” (which, again, was a real thing). For her work on television, Mirren has received a whopping 11 nominations since 1992’s “Prime Suspect 2”, winning 4 times, for “Prime Suspect: The Scent of Darkness”, “The Passion of Ayn Rand”, “Elizabeth I.” and “Prime Suspect: The Last Act”. So, thanks to the Harry Potter Tournament, Helen Mirren is now a five-time Emmy Award winner. 🙂

We’re only one week away from next Sunday’s premiere of “1923: A Yellowstone Origin Story” and fortunately the marketing for the series is not slowing down. While we’re crossing our fingers for more additional interviews next week, a nice batch of videos from the Los Angeles and Las Vegas premieres, as well as a first featurette, have been added to the video archive. For a complete list, have a look at the previews below.

It has been a big week for “1923” and its upcoming release on Paramount+ on December 18. Premieres for the first season of the “Yellowstone” spin-off were held in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, with additional appearances made for a SAG/AFTRA conversation panel, yesterday. Pictures from all events have been added to the photo gallery.

“He’s fabulously hands-off. He presents the script, and it’s so extraordinary that you don’t want to change a word. You want to do it exactly as it’s written because it’s written with incredible precision but without being labored. To be able to be a part of a franchise in a world that is so singular on American television is very exciting. There’s nothing else quite like it.” (Helen Mirren on Taylor Sheridan, The Hollywood Reporter, December 02, 2022)

L’Oréal Paris USA continues to celebrate and elevate the stories of extraordinary female non-profit leaders by announcing the 2022 L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth National Honoree and Karen T. Fondu Impact Award Winner on December 1 at a star-studded event at the Ebell of Los Angeles with Helen Mirren, Camila Cabello, H.E.R., Aja Naomi King, Katherine Langford and more. Pictures from the event have been added to the photo gallery. Edit: You can now watch the complete ceremony on Youtube.

The official trailer for 1923, Paramount+’s second Yellowstone prequel, is here. The trailer for the series, which stars Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford as Cara and Jacon Dutton, opens with a shot of Mirren being approached by Timothy Dalton’s Donald Whitfield, who announces that he’s moved into the ranch next to theirs. According to Paramount+, 1923 will introduce a new generation of Duttons led by patriarch Ford and Mirren’s characters. It will explore the “early 20th century when pandemics, historic drought, the end of Prohibition and the Great Depression all plague the mountain west, and the Duttons who call it home.” The Yellowstone prequel from Taylor Sheridan also stars Darren Mann, Michelle Randolph, James Badge Dale, Marley Shelton, Brian Geraghty and Aminah Nieves. 1923 will premiere simultaneously on the Paramount Network and on Paramount+ on Dec. 18.