Martin Freeman News

[Arcadia]

That's my understanding as well. It's extremely funny, even if it is zombies.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Sorry, I should have said "trilogy" -- Sean of the Dead is supposed to be one third of it, with Hot Fuzz and The World's End as the other two.  The unifying factor is that there's an ice-cream cone in each movie (though each one features a different flavor).  And no, I don't actually get it.

 

Freeman apparently has somewhat larger (though not exactly starring) roles in the other two.  In The World's End (the only one I've actually seen), his character [MAJOR SPOILER]

 

 

gets turned into a robot.

 

 

Which is what I was referring to.

[Arcadia]

Oh! I never heard that. In fact, I've never heard of Hot Fuzz, period. I'll have to track them down, I love Shaun.

[Arcadia]

Ha, in fact I see that I already have World's End on my Netflix queue!

[Carol the Dabbler]

That one just came out last year.  It's cute and funny, but also thought-provoking.

 

[Arcadia]

Yah, it got good reviews.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Since we don't have a "Martin Freeman Rumors" thread, here's an intriguing tweet:
 

We think The BFG shoots soon under the name Big Valley. We hear Bill Hader or Martin Freeman are likely to join in.

... and here's an article with more info.  It's apparently a live-action movie (since one of the comments below the tweet says they'll be shooting "in studios in Vancouver and on location in Scotland."  For those not of the Roald Dahl generation, the book's title "The BFG" stands for "The Big Friendly Giant."

 

[J.P.]

Found this hilarious series of pictures of MF - thought I could share.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I recognized seven of the eight -- all except the first one, which turns out to be from

 

something I don't recall ever hearing of, called Lock, Stock...., in which Freeman plays "Jaap, Dutch drug taker and general idiot" (apparently not a major character).

 

 

That Tumblr account has some really good shots of Freeman in various roles.  But this one, a screencap from "Last Vow," where Mrs. Hudson is telling John about one of Sherlock's bolt holes, has me curious.  Has it been flipped?  Or is it a reflection in a mirror?  Because John appears to be holding the pen in his right hand.    If it's that way in the episode, I never noticed.

 

[sfmpco]

I recognized seven of the eight -- all except the first one, which turns out to be from

 

something I don't recall ever hearing of, called Lock, Stock...., in which Freeman plays "Jaap, Dutch drug taker and general idiot" (apparently not a major character).

 

 

That Tumblr account has some really good shots of Freeman in various roles.  But this one, a screencap from "Last Vow," where Mrs. Hudson is telling John about one of Sherlock's bolt holes, has me curious.  Has it been flipped?  Or is it a reflection in a mirror?  Because John appears to be holding the pen in his right hand.    If it's that way in the episode, I never noticed.

 

It's a reflection in the mirror.

[J.P.]

Being kind of mixed handed myself I constantly wonder about Freeman. But the pic is definitely a reflection.

 

Still, it makes me see John being hidden behind a round mirror like Sherlock could be hidden behind Big Ben's clock face.

[sfmpco]

What I find interesting is that Mrs. Hudson knows more about our Sherlock AND keeps his secrets than we know.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Being kind of mixed handed myself I constantly wonder about Freeman.

 

Likewise (though I'm not truly ambidextrous), and my father was left-handed, but had been forced to write with his right, so I may notice such things more than the average righty would.

 

Virtually all of Freeman's characters write with their left hand, so I would consider them left-handed, as Freeman has stated himself to be.  (The only exception I've noticed was clearly a hand-double in Boy Meets Girl.  I say "clearly" because it was a tight shot of only his hands, and he was also touch-typing, which I have never noticed any of Freeman's other characters doing.)

 

Some of his characters do certain things right-handed (e.g., John holds his gun in his right hand), but that may be more a matter of training and/or logistics than handedness (e.g., I've been told that most guns are designed to be held right-handed).

[Arcadia]

I've never been able to figure out that shot anyway, so I'll take the opportunity to ask ... what the heck IS that round shape around Mrs. Hudson?

[Carol the Dabbler]

Apparently nobody else knows either!

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I just ran across a New York Times review of Kim Barker's book, The Taliban Shuffle, which is the basis for Tina Fey's upcoming movie Fun House (which I'm mentioning here because of course it also stars Martin Freeman).  I found the review interesting for several reasons:

 

1]  It makes the book sound far more readable than some other reviews I've read, so I'm rethinking my decision to skip it.

 

2]  Even though the review was written four years ago, it includes this remarkably prescient statement: "Ms. Barker ... depicts herself as a sort of Tina Fey character...."

 

3]  It explains the movie's title: "Ms. Barker readily acknowledges ... how she rented a room in the 'Fun House,' a kind of dorm filled with journalists, United Nations workers, lawyers and other Westerners orbiting the war...."

 

[J.P.]

I've never been able to figure out that shot anyway, so I'll take the opportunity to ask ... what the heck IS that round shape around Mrs. Hudson?

Ugh, I thought I answered it, but apparently my post died. 

 

The thing is a round mirror hanging on the wall just behind Mrs Hudson's head. You can see the reflection of John in it, who is actually sitting in front of her, asking.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Have we ever seen that mirror before -- or should I say, have we observed it?  I'm guessing it's either in the common area downstairs or else in Mrs. Hudson's flat.

 

[J.P.]

I haven't. Yet.

[Arcadia]

 

I've never been able to figure out that shot anyway, so I'll take the opportunity to ask ... what the heck IS that round shape around Mrs. Hudson?

Ugh, I thought I answered it, but apparently my post died. 

 

The thing is a round mirror hanging on the wall just behind Mrs Hudson's head. You can see the reflection of John in it, who is actually sitting in front of her, asking.

 

OMG, so it is. Thank you, that's been bugging me! I kept thinking she was dusting inside a giant lampshade or something, I was looking at it all wrong.

 

(You know you're obsessed when something like that just makes your day....)

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Across from the stairs is a little something where the mirror is hanging. It's seen in ASIP when Sherlock tells Mrs. Hudson the game is on and possibly during TGG when the guys want to see 221C.

[J.P.]

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Yep that's it JP

[Arcadia]

What a team!

[Carol the Dabbler]

For those who don't quite recall what the original screencap looked like, here's the link again.

 

As Arcadia already said, I was looking at that sort of inside-out -- it's a mirror ON patterned wallpaper, not a mirror IN a patterned frame, or us looking through a round hole in a wall.  And whaddaya know, it sure does look like John is sitting on the stairs!