Hi i’m Rachel; I shall be doing an introduction video soon so watch out for that! I’m one of the new members here on Team Times and am looking forward to writing blogs and making video’s for you all.

This month’s topic is future movie releases, last week I went to see ‘The Artist’ with my College class (I do a course in Backstage Arts: Costume Hair and Make-up so this film was seen as relevant) and I loved it. Now I know this isn’t a future film release, I shall be getting onto those in a bit, however I would just like to recommend this movie to every one of you reading this. ‘The Artist’ is a silent film featuring Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo and John Goodman. Dujardin plays George Valentin; a big star in Silent Movies in Hollywood who after the introduction of talking movies starts to lose his fame and fortune while an aspiring dancer Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) who was inspired by George after bumping into him in front of the press and getting her picture on the front page of the newspaper is becoming a big named actress in the industry. The movie shows the struggle George and Peppy have in both losing their fame and seeing someone who inspired you lose it, it is very touching, is also very clever in its storyline and also has comedic parts too. I reccomend this film for anyone that isn’t overly bothered by needing people to speak in films, obsessed by brilliant graphics or special effects and likes a good storyline. As ‘The Artist’ has that spark which a majority of films drowned in ‘pretty graphics’ have been missing for years.

Now for future film releases, I have two films which I’m looking forward to in the coming months; The Woman in Black and The Hunger Games. The Woman in Black is a movie based off the book by Susan Hill, it is directed by James Watkins and written by Jane Goldman and it also stars Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Janet McTeer, Sophie Stuckey, and Liz White. I went to see a stage play of this at London’s West End last week and even though it was absolutely terrifying (I don’t do well with horror.) it was brilliant. However I shall not be going to see the movie unless accompanied by someone, though I would love to see how different the film is to the stage play I don’t have the nerves to see it on my own. I am also interested to see how Daniel Radcliffe fares in this movie, even though I am a huge fan of The Harry Potter series I didn’t really enjoy his acting in that well so It shall be nice to see if the brand new role of Arthur Kipps suits him much better.

The next film I am looking forward to is The Hunger Games which is to be released in the UK on March the 23rd (The day after my 18th birthday, I think of it as an extra treat), yet again it is based from a book but this time it is by Suzanne Collins, it is directed by Gary Ross and stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, and Woody Harrelson. I found out about The Hunger Games trilogy late last year and ended up getting them for Christmas, after spending a few days reading them all they became one of my favorite series’.  Though I do not like the second and third books the first book which is what this film is going to be created from is my favorite. So I am very excited to see what the film looks like when released, so far I have seen a few character pictures and I love the actors that have been picked out for this film. The costumes, hair and make-up are also extremely accurate and so far I have not been disappointed. My only regret is not being able to get to work on the Make-up for this movie as I’m wanting to go onto that profession in a few years and the make-up for  this film is brilliant (If you want an example just search Effie Trinket : The Hunger games film on Google images). The movie focuses on Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12 who volunteers to be a tribute of The Hunger Games; A show where 12 girls and 12 boys aged 12-18 fight to the death on live television until there is one left standing. The Hunger Games is a punishment for the rebellion of the now extinct District 13 seventy four years ago and happens every single year. The film is set in the distant future where America has collapsed and because of this there is now A Capitol city that rules each of the twelve districts and each district provide something for the Capitol and the lives of the Citizens are not that pleasant. For example when a citizen of District 12 comes of age they are sent to work in the dangerous coal mines to provide coal for the capitol. People are not allowed to leave the city and if they do they are killed or made servants for them. The original book has an amazing storyline and I hope that the film will not disappoint.