Hollywood Q&A
Q: Did Joely Richardson take the role in “Return to Me” because of her sister?
A: In a dark and eerie coincidence, no, the film actually came first.
In the 2000 romance “Return to Me,” Joely Richardson plays a young woman who dies of head trauma after a car accident. Her heart is donated to another young woman in need of a transplant, which kicks off the film’s story — Richardson’s character’s husband unknowingly falls in love with the recipient.
Nine years later, Joely’s sister, Natasha Richardson, died of head trauma after a skiing accident. She also donated her heart and other organs (no grand, contrived romances resulted from her act, just the ordinary miracle of life).
Perhaps it’s the burden of actors to always be able to find parallels between their work and (sometimes tragic) real life.
Q: Did “Shaun of the Dead” have to get any special permission to use the title, since it is very clearly a play on “Dawn of the Dead”?
A: It looks like the producers of the modern-classic, groundbreaking zombie comedy did not run it past anyone first.
It’s likely they figured the movie fell under the fair-use exemption in U.K. copyright law. Fair use is a concept that exists in many countries — it’s basically a list of reasons that copyrighted material can be used without permission. One of those uses is parody, which is what “Shaun of the Dead” certainly is.
The similarities go way beyond the title. “Shaun of the Dead” (2004) is a loving send-up of “Dawn of the Dead” (1978) and the rest of director-writer George A. Romero’s zombie series (starting with 1968’s “Night of the Living Dead”).
Q: Is “Doc Martin” coming back for another season?
A: You’ll have to wait a little longer still, but your patience will eventually be repaid — Season 10 of “Doc Martin” is in the works.
Fans have been pretty tense since the end of the most recent season, and that’s not a familiar feeling for them. Most fans and critics argue that the appeal of “Doc Martin” is that it’s basically televised comfort food.
So when the ninth season of the British medical dramedy, airing on PBS and streaming on Acorn TV over here, ended on a double cliffhanger, fans were left with an unfamiliar sense of worry for the appealingly acidic doctor (played by Martin Clunes).
The wait for news has been a little long — the previous season ended in November, and it wasn’t until April that the word came down that a new season was even being planned.
“We’re working on it. It’s official, we are doing it,” said Nigel Cole, who has directed several episodes of the show, including the previous season finale.
He was speaking at the Cornwall Film Festival, in the region of England where the show is filmed (and where it’s set, in the fictional town of Portwenn).