Succession, Macbeth and the cast of Denis Villeneuve's Dune

The Independent’s entertainment newsletter [View in browser]( [The Independent]( October 16, 2021 [The Independent]( Written by Louis Chilton The IndyArts Newsletter What’s been happening in the world of culture this week? Everyone’s still obsessing over Squid Game, for one thing. Netflix announced earlier this week that the violent and thrilling Korean drama had become its biggest TV series ever, [supposedly reaching 111 million viewers]( (and thrashing the record set by Bridgerton). Meanwhile, No Time to Die has continued to monopolise cinema screens up and down the country. Not everyone’s been enamoured with 007’s three-hour-long swansong, however. In this week’s [State of the Arts]( column, Fiona Sturges bemoans the trend of blockbuster movies with bloated, bladder-straining runtimes. For music fans, this week brought something pretty special: the return of Adele, more than half a decade after her last album was released. The first single from her forthcoming record (30), entitled “Easy On Me”, ought to quell any doubts that the singer-songwriter’s voice has lost any of the peerless power that made Adele a star. In a [four-star review of the single](, Alexandra Pollard described the song as an “exposed wound”, and “among the singer’s most musically complex” to date. Adele released her first single in six years and it did not disappoint For music fans, this week brought something pretty special: the return of Adele, more than half a decade after her last album was released. The first single from her forthcoming record (30), entitled “Easy On Me”, ought to quell any doubts that the singer-songwriter’s voice has lost any of the peerless power that made Adele a star. In a [four-star review of the single](, Alexandra Pollard described the song as an “exposed wound”, and “among the singer’s most musically complex” to date. This week has seen a number of great features in the Indy’s culture section. Ed Cumming analysed the strange success of pulpy, far-fetched British thrillers in his Box Seat column - trying to get to the heart of what made series like Line of Duty and Vigil such fast hits. Kevin EG Perry spoke with three former [Drag Race queens “taking on” small-town America](. James Mottram [sat down with the inimitable Ridley Scott]( for Wednesday’s interview, ahead of the release of The Last Duel on Friday. Interviews with [Star Wars’ Ian McDiarmid](, [Yaël Farber]( and [Tom Morello](, were also among this week’s highlights, as was a [superb interview with Todd Haynes about his new Velvet Underground documentary](, conducted by Chris Harvey. [The Saturday Interview – The cast of Dune]( [Oscars image]( Javier Bardem and Timothée Chalamet in Denis Villeneuve’s epic spectacle ‘Dune’ For this week’s Saturday Interview, James Mottram spoke with the cast of Denis Villeneuve’s hotly anticipated sci-fi spectacular Dune. The director joins Timothée Chalamet, Javier Bardem and Stellan Skarsgård in a conversation about adapting a novel that had already spawned one of cinema’s most notorious disasters. [Oscars image]( Timothée Chalamet: ‘It feels like a spectacle like in some moments; and then sometimes, it feels intimate’ Read an extract from our Saturday Interview below… “The terrifying sight of the Sandworm alone, accompanied by Hans Zimmer’s ground-shaking score, justifies the price of a ticket to see Dune in IMAX. But as Chalamet says, Villeneuve’s film is far more than just heady visuals. “This is my impression,” says Chalamet, when I speak to the cast over Zoom at the Venice Film Festival. “It feels like an arthouse film in some moments; it feels like a spectacle like Lord of the Rings in some moments; and then sometimes, somehow, it feels intimate too. “Certainly, the intimacy comes in scenes depicting Paul’s relations with his father Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac), his concubine mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and, later, Chani (Zendaya), a young warrior of the native Fremen people. Yet much of it came from Villeneuve’s spirit. “I felt like we were doing an independent movie,” says Spanish star Javier Bardem – which is all the more novel in a world of Marvel-fuelled excess – “because Denis will just go to you and ask you, or share with you his idea, what he proposes. And also let you go free and experiment and try your thing, try what you want to try, without the pressure of time, or without the pressure of money.” [Read the full interview here]( What to binge this week [Oscars image]( Brian Cox stars as patriarch Logan Roy [Succession]( After having been delayed for nearly a year due to the pandemic, HBO’s dark, brilliantly funny drama finally returns to screens this Sunday for a third season. There’s a strong argument to be made that Succession is quite simply the best thing on TV. From its absolutely first-rate ensemble cast, all delivering career-best work, to its sharp, unpredictable and sometimes quite poignant script, this operates on another level to pretty much anything else out there. If you’re not up to date with the Roys – the conniving family of media moguls around whom the series orbits – now is the perfect time to immerse yourself in the past two seasons of slimy brilliance. Out and about [The Tragedy of Macbeth, The Almeida]( Got a mind full of scorpions? Well, there’s few better cures than a night at the theatre, and The Almeida has given everyone a reason to go. This year has given us two Macbeths for the ages – the other being Joel Coen’s film adaptation. However, Saoirse Ronan and James McArdle’s young, lustful couple could hardly be further from the stars (Denzel Washington and Frances MacDormand) at the heart of Coen’s film. Buy tickets [here](. [The Dante Project, Royal Opera House]( The Royal Ballet’s new show, inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, was praised by The Independent’s Zoe Anderson. Set over three acts, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, the ballet has “huge scale and ambition, with a rich new score by Thomas Adès”. Buy tickets [here](. [Venom: Let There Be Carnage, in cinemas]( Love it or hate it, 2018’s CGI-laden comic book adaptation Venom was a change of pace compared to most modern superhero films. Big, broad, and puerile, the film felt like a throwback to some bygone age, when the machinery of the modern superhero blockbuster wasn’t so regimented. Its newly released sequel, starring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and Woody Harrelson as the nefarious serial killer Cletus Kasady, offers more of the same. Essential reading [Patrick Vieira tight-lipped about Arsenal on eve of return to former club]( [Patrick Vieira tight-lipped about Arsenal on eve of return to former club]( [You can now ride in a luxury train carriage designed by Wes Anderson]( [You can now ride in a luxury train carriage designed by Wes Anderson]( [This seaside restaurant is wonderful... if you can put up with the smell]( [This seaside restaurant is wonderful... if you can put up with the smell]( If you can spare a minute we’d love your [feedback]( on our newsletters. 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