LIFESTYLE36 MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2015 Music & Movies Byblos, Baalbek and Batrun International Festivals

Lebanese actor Rafic Ali Ahmad performs during the Baalbek international festival in central Lebanon. —AFP photos

French singer Charles Aznavour, 91, performs at the Batrun International Festival in Mount French singer Mireille Mathieu performs during Byblos International Festival, in the historical Lebanon. Lebanese city of Byblos, north of Beirut. ‘Downton’ producer open to possibility of big-screen film

ere’s a roundup of news Saturday budget, unless a sponsor can be found, a ducer Sue Vertue. his next groundbreaking series. Lear, 93, is from the Television Critics PBS spokeswoman said. The Rose Parade is “It’s probably Christmas-ish,” added working on a Hispanic version of his single- HAssociation summer meeting, at held every year on New Year’s Day in Moffat. “We don’t actually know. We’re not parent comedy “One Day at a Time.” “I love which TV networks and streaming services Pasadena, California. making this up.” They decided to jump back the idea because I don’t see enough of that are presenting details on upcoming pro- in time for an episode because “We representation on the air,” said Lear, who is grams: ‘Sherlock’ forever checked the books and discovered we got the subject of a PBS’ “American Masters” “Sherlock” fans have grown familiar it wrong,” joked Moffat. “We should have documentary planned for 2016. The origi- ‘Downton Abbey,’ the movie? with the waiting game between TV sea- read them first. No, just because we can, nal series aired from 1975 to 1984 and With “Downton Abbey” coming to an sons, but they may be encouraged that really.” Viewers should not expect an expla- starred as the mother of end, its executive producer is offering hope show-runner Steven Moffat says he could nation for the time jump. “We never both- two girls, played by and that a follow-up movie is at least a possibili- see it “going on for a long while.” Moffat said ered explaining what they were doing in Mackenzie Phillips. The reboot would focus ty. By ending the TV drama several years he and co-executive producer Mark Gatiss modern London, so why bother explaining on a Latino woman with perhaps a boy and shy of the 1929 stock market crash, produc- a girl, Lear said, and a grandmother. gets rowdy er Gareth Neame said rich territory is left to He wants to show three generations of ‘Turbo Kid’ be mined if a film is made. There’s no script Latinas, he said. Does he have actors in or a firm plan, he said, but a “Downton mind? “Yes, but I’m not going to share,” Lear Abbey” movie could be a “wonderful thing.” replied, his tone as jaunty as his trademark hometown welcome at Fantasia Afterward, he told The that white hat. Lear, known for his social he audiences at the Fantasia Film tribute). “Turbo Kid” originated as a submis- such a project could be made as a big- activism, was asked if he found much to Festival are famously vocal when it sion to the “ABCs of Death” horror anthology, screen theatrical release but reaffirmed it laugh at in today’s politics. “It’s so hard,” he Tcomes to showing their approval for whose curators had left the “T” spot open in was speculative at this point. said. While he’s labeled a progressive, a lib- genre-movie gore, action and all-around their depraved alphabet to a contest However, it’s time for the series itself to eral or a lefty, “I think of myself as a bleed- creativity: When the lights go down, they between amateur filmmakers. end while it’s still popular and acclaimed, ing heart conservative” who is intent on meow like a roomful of anxious kittens, and Neame said. Its sixth and final season will seeing the U.S. Constitution and Bill of when cars (or heads) explode onscreen, so Already onboard begin airing in September in the UK and in Rights protected. Americans are patriotic, do the laughter and ovations in the room. “T is for Turbo” won the popular vote, but January on PBS in the United States. Neame he said, but “I don’t need their flag pins to The directors of ‘80s-tastic sci-fi homage wasn’t selected, and yet New Zealand based said the last season will bring back some From left, Penelope Wilton, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh prove it. I would like them to go back to “Turbo Kid” knew to expect such energy “ABCs of Death” producer Ant Timpson was faces from the past, but the focus of the Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael and Joanne civics lessons.” going into their Quebec premiere, but they so impressed, he approached the trio about final season is to wrap up story lines for the Froggatt attend the ‘Downton Abbey’ cast photo call during weren’t prepared for just how excited the expanding their idea into a feature. When main cast. ‘Roots’ controversy Montreal audiences would be to see their the team heard about Fantasia’s plans to The high-toned soap opera about the the 2015 Summer TCA Tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on “Finding Your Roots” will return for sea- Saturday in Beverly Hills, Calif. —AP photos BMX-riding “Mad Max” homage. At one host an industry pitch session in 2012, they upstairs and downstairs occupants of a son three, but whether the celebrity point, a character tosses an old VHS cassette hunkered down, cooked up a draft and sub- stately English mansion dealing with early genealogy series that buried an uncomfort- onto the campfire for warmth, and the room mitted, earning one of a dozen spots in the 20th-century social change will end pro- able fact about Ben Affleck’s ancestor con- may as well have lost its collective mind. inaugural Frontieres market. With Timpson duction Aug 15. Studio scenes remain to be tinues after that remains in doubt, PBS’ chief After all, this was a movie custom-tai- already onboard as their New Zealand pro- shot, but production at Highclere, the executive said. PBS conducted a “very thor- lored to play that room. “Turbo Kid” may ducer, the group went in hoping to find a estate that stood in for Downton Abbey, ough investigation” and is working with the have debuted six months earlier as a mid- Canadian partner who would allow them to wrapped recently. show’s producers to ensure that its content night movie at Sundance, but co-helmers qualify for incentives and seek support from “That was a sort of interesting day,” is accurate, PBS President and CEO Paula Anouk Whissell, her husband Francois Telefilm Canada and the regional Sodec Hugh Bonneville, who plays Lord Kerger said. The third season has yet to be Simard and brother Yoann-Karl Whissell fund. “We had a great pitch,” Simard says. Grantham, said of the final taping at scheduled. The public TV service launched (clearly a family-and-friends team) all hail “We showed up in costumes, we brought Highclere. The cast and crew marked the a review after it was reported that Affleck from Montreal and made the film to satisfy BMX bikes and everything. (Our executive occasion by taking a “team photo” in the requested the program not reveal his their fellow Fantasia fans. “They’re the best producer) Jason Eisner even did a cartwheel dining room, where the longest scenes ancestor’s slave-holding history in a 2014 crowd in the world,” Yoann-Karl tells Variety. as part of the presentation.” were filmed. Actors Joanne Froggatt, from left, Michelle Dockery, and Hugh episode. The AP examined historical docu- “It sounded like a rock concert! We felt total- After pitching to a room full of potential Bonneville speak onstage during the “Downton Abbey” panel. ments and found that Affleck’s great-great- ly overwhelmed.” creative partners at Frontieres, the three ‘Downton Abbey,’ the parade float great-grandfather owned 24 slaves. As it turns out, this screening wasn’t just helmers met interested parties one-on-one, Maggie Smith’s character on “Downton are game to keep going. “I don’t think it will what they’re doing in Victorian London, Affleck’s request came to light last the film’s Quebec premiere, but a massive hitting it off especially well with Anne-Marie Abbey” might find the pomp and circum- be us that switch it off. I imagine it’ll be when that’s where they’re supposed to be?” spring in hacked Sony emails published homecoming, screening four years to the Gelinas and Benoit Beaulier of EMAfilms. “I stance uncomfortable, but the PBS show is down to Benedict (Cumberbatch) and Moffat also commented on the British gov- online by whistleblower site WikiLeaks. PBS’ day after the trio pitched the project at the was actually looking for a psychological getting its own float in the Rose Parade, two Martin (Freeman). Obviously we can’t do ernment potentially yanking public fund- review found that co-producers violated fest’s first-ever international co-production thriller,” Gelinas recalls. “I am not at all into days before the premiere of its sixth and the show without them, and they’ve always ing from the BBC. “It staggers me that we standards by allowing improper influence market, Frontieres@Fantasia. According to gore, blood or any of that, but their pitch final season Jan 3. “It’s just a beautiful send- said they’re happy to carry on so long as it’s got a government that got elected and on the show’s editorial process and failed to the grateful threesome, the film wouldn’t was just over-the-top crazy, and I was like, off to the series and I think it’s fun,” said PBS good.” Production on new episodes is decided the main problem with Britain is inform PBS or then-producing station exist were it not for the festival and its still- ‘I’ve got to meet these guys.’ We just fell in President and CEO Paula Kerger. In an inter- expected to begin in the spring of 2016, but our national broadcaster... There must be WNET New York of Affleck’s efforts to affect new industry component. Over the course love.”Gelinas has been back to pitch projects view with the AP, series star Michelle Cumberbatch and Freeman filmed a one- something more important to do,” he said. the program’s content. Series host and of an almost-15-year collaboration, the at Frontieres twice in the intervening years, Dockery said she had never heard of the off episode set in the Victorian-era that has executive producer Henry Louis Gates Jr Whissell, Whissell and Simard have made and EMAfilms is working with the “Turbo Rose Parade but joked there would be a been rumored to air this Christmas in the TV’s lear jet has issued an apology, saying he regretted more than 20 short films together, including Kid” team once again on their next feature, lookalike of her riding the float. Funding for UK. “We’ve never said it’s a Christmas spe- Veteran TV producer Norman Lear of forcing PBS to defend the integrity of its the tongue-in-cheek “Ninja Eliminator” “Elora’s Death Wish”-the project they’ve the float will come from PBS’ marketing cial,” said Moffat’s wife and “Sherlock” pro- “All in the Family” fame is looking ahead to programming. —AP series (a pre-”Kung Fury” retro martial arts always dreamed of making.—