CATE BLANCHETT'S DIRECTORIAL DEBUT IN 'THE DINNER' MOVIE ADAPTATION! RICHARD COYLE JOINS JOHN MALKOVICH IN PIRATE EPIC SERIES 'CROSSBONES'! ABC TO MAKE 'ESMERALDA' MINI SERIES ON HUNBACK OF NOTRE DAME

CATE BLANCHETT DIRECTS
 HERMAN KOCH'S 'THE DINNER' MOVIE ADAPTATION
Our favourite actress of all times, gorgeous Cate Blanchett is preparing her directorial debut. She will helm the movie adaptation of Herman Koch's THE DINNER: It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse - the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened. Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

RICHARD COYLE IN CROSSBONES
 EPIC PIRATE SHOW WITH JOHN MALKOVICH
In television news today, over at NBC they've found a new cast addition for their upcoming pirate series CROSSBONES! The show lead by John Malkovich will now also have delightful British comedian Richard Coyle!  The show is set in 1715 on the Bahamian island of New Providence where the diabolical pirate Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard (John Malkovich), reigns over a rogue nation of thieves, outlaws and miscreant sailors. To gain control of this fearsome society, Tom Lowe (Richard Coyle), a highly skilled undercover assassin, is sent to the pirates’ haven to take down the brilliant and charismatic Blackbeard. But the closer Lowe gets, the more he finds that his quest is not so simple. Lowe can’t help but admire the political ideals of Blackbeard, whose thirst for knowledge knows no bounds. Claire Foy plays Kate, the beautiful Governor’s daughter, now a pirate who works for Blackbeard and is a love interest for Lowe.

'ESMERALDA' MINI  SERIES
 BASED ON HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME
Meanwhile, over at ABC they are sticking to their fairy tale genre by developing another similar project: according to 'Deadline' they will turn Victor Hugo's classic tale THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME into a television mini series! Titled ESMERALDA, the event series will be written by SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN scribe Evan Daugherty. It will be a period drama that re-imagines 'The Hunchback Of Notre Dame' through the eyes of beautiful Gypsy Esmeralda. We've seen the story done in a form of animated film by Disney almost twenty years ago, and there were also rumours about a feature film on it earlier this year.