Actress Karen Gillan (Doctor Who) has signed to star in Romeo And Brittney, the follow-up movie from comedian David Baddiel (The Infidel). The current Doctor Who companion will play Brittney, a high school student from New Jersey who finds herself in the 13th-century, stuck in the plot of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet as the female lead.

Gillian Anderson (The X Files) will be playing both Gillan’s mother and a nurse in 13th-century Verona, while Robert Sheehan (Misfits) has been cast as a nerdy student and Romeo.

The $7 million movie, summarized as “Shakespeare In Love meets Clueless”, starts shooting May.

Arvind Ethan, producer:

“[David Baddiel and I] love literate teen comedies and we wanted to do our own version. After all, 10 Things I Hate About You was based on The Taming Of The Shrew just as Clueless was based on Jane Austen’s Emma and Easy A is inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. And what is Twilight if it’s not Romeo & Juliet with vampires and werewolves?”

This is certainly exciting news, particularly if you love Karen Gillan and Robert Sheehan — who’s particularly charismatic as Nathan in Misfits. The premise doesn’t sound like a simple case of time-travel (as a few actors are playing dual roles), more like a reality-bending fantasy similar to Lost In Austen (the ITV miniseries where a modern woman was transported into the novel Pride & Prejudice). Agree?

My only reservation is the involvement of David Baddiel; a decent comedian back in the early-’90s and a talented writer, but his recent movie The Infidel was toothless and a tedious disappointment, with limp direction. Will he fare better with a more imaginative concept and a bigger budget?

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I’ve added screencaptures from We’ll Take Manhattan to the gallery – a mere 1257 MQ captures for your viewing pleasure, as well as a handful more On-Set images too.

I’ve also added a bunch more HQ’s from the National Television Awards, courtesy of My Poncho Boy and my lovely friend Annika, so many thanks to them!

Gallery Links
2012 – We’ll Take Manhattan > Screencaptures – MQ
2012 – We’ll Take Manhattan > On Set Images
2012 > January – National Television Awards (NTA’s)

Karen Gillan cleaned up at the National TV Awards so it’s no surprise she’s going to keep her prize – by her bath.

The Inverness-born actress won the Best Female Drama Performance gong on Wednesday night for her role as Amy Pond in Doctor Who. Karen – who pipped Suranne Jones, Eve Myles and Jaye Jacobs to the award – said: “I’m going to put it in the bathroom.

“I could keep it on the side of my bath next to the shower gel.

“It’s fantastic I won on Burns Night. My parents are going to be so proud of me.

“I wasn’t expecting that and then to stand in front of that many people in the O2 Arena just screaming, I was trembling afterwards.”

Karen, 24, revealed she only just made it on stage.

She said: “I was late because of the crazy traffic in London. So I got there and then they called out my name. So there wasn’t a second to spare.”

Winning the award is a nice goodbye for Karen, who will leave Doctor Who this year.

She said: “I am so sad to be leaving Doctor Who. I have had the best years of my life on this job

“But it’s time to go on to other things and all stories come to their natural end.”

Karen will film in Scotland for the first time since becoming a star when she shoots a Glasgow-set rom com Not Another Happy Ending. She said: “I play an eccentric writer.”

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Karen Gillan won the award for the Best Drama Performance (Female) at tonight’s National Television Awards, for her role as Doctor Who’s assistant.

The Scottish star beat off competition from worthy competitors including Suranne Jones (Scott & Bailey), Eve Myles (Torchwood) and Jaye Jacobs (Waterloo Road).

Looking stunning in a short black dress with her deep red locks left free-flowing over her shoulders, an excited Karen ran up to the stage to receive her gong.

Presenting the gong was Hugh Bonneville from period costume drama Downton Abbey, who said that the fact that each award is selected by the public proves that the winner is truly “striking a chord with the audience”.

Karen – whose dulcet tones can be heard on the current series of Scottish Passport on STV – was clearly overwhelmed with her win.

“Hello” Oh my good God, thank you so much, this means so much to me, this is amazing but I am terrified right now!,” the Inverness-born actress said.

As well as starring in Doctor Who, Karen can also be seen tomorrow night in the BB4 show We’ll Take Manhattan, in which she plays the role of 60s supermodel Jean Shrimpton.

This year’s 17th NTAs were held at the 02 Arena in London, with over a thousand famous faces from the world of TV in attendance.

The annual awards ceremony sees the cream of the TV crop honoured for their performances over the last 12 months, with every winner in each of the 14 categories chosen by the public, who vote in a nationwide poll.

Huge congratulations to Karen on her win! So proud of her!! Pictures coming soon!

Tomorrow see’s the release of the latest issue of the Radio Times, and it excites me that Karen is going to be the cover star! There will also be a new photoshoot enclosed, and featured on the Radio Times website from tomorrow! See the preview below -

Karen Gillan stars as 60s fashion icon Jean Shrimpton, embarking on a New York affair with photographer David Bailey, in We’ll Take Manhattan on BBC4 next week.

RT did a photoshoot of its own with Karen, featuring some suitably sultry 60s styling. For more exclusive pictures, buy the new issue of Radio Times magazine – available from tomorrow – and read what happened when Karen met the real David Bailey for a Vogue shoot.

See Karen Gillan’s photoshoot in the new issue of Radio Times magazine, on sale Tuesday 17 January

Scans will be added to the site as soon as we can!

More photos from Karen’s appearance at yesterday’s Ovation panel for the TCA’s have been added to the gallery, plus the rest of the photoshoot from yesterday’s posted article!

Gallery Links
Events and Appearances > 2012 > January – Ovation at TCA’s Winter Tour
Photoshoots and Sessions > Professional Shoots > 016

PASADENA – Karen Gillan came to press tour to discuss her new TV-movie “We’ll Take Manhattan,” but as often happens at this event, the first question for her was about her more famous role on “Doctor Who,” which she will leave sometime during the British sci-fi series’ next season.

“I feel sad,” she said of saying goodbye to the role of Amy Pond, “because I am gonna leave, but with any story, it has to come to an end. It was a mutual decision with me and (‘Doctor Who’ showrunner) Steven Moffat. We had this lovely dinner and decided when the best time for me to go was, and it’s been decided. So I’m excited and slightly scared.”

Asked later how much of the new season she would be in, she laughed and said she couldn’t tell us, but, “There’s going to be a few episodes. A few really good episodes.”

“We’ll Take Manhattan,” which will debut on Ovation on March 3 at 9 p.m., stars Gillan as Jean Shrimpton, who was discovered by British Vogue photographer David Bailey (played by Aneurin Barnard) in the early ’60s. The duo traveled to Manhattan for what became an iconic photo shoot involving Shrimpton, a teddy bear and various New York buildings.

Gillan is a former model herself, and says she knew of Shrimpton well before she was approached about the film, discovering her while reading up on Bailey as part of her interest in photography.

“My boyfriend at the time showed me this picture,” she recalled, “and goes, ‘This is the most beautiful woman that’s existed!’ And I thought, (sarcastic) ‘Oh, that’s great.’ So when this came along, I went, ‘Yes!’”

And the movie not only allows her to lean back on skills from her former career, but provides her with a clear break from time travel, Daleks and Oods.

“What’s really nice is it’s such a contrast to the character I play in ‘Doctor Who,’ Amy Pond. It’s completely different. This is a coming-of-age story, and it’s about a girl figuring out life, and then something completely extraordinary happens to her. It’s just so different, which is what I want. I want variety.”

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According to Matt Smith the actor is Doctor Who’s ‘sexiest companion ever’ and now she is to play Jean Shrimpton. Here, she talks about her obsession with the 60s – and why she wishes she could make everyone fall in love

One freezing week in 1962, David Bailey took 18-year-old Jean Shrimpton and a sad-eyed teddy bear to Harlem, where he shot a Vogue fashion story that would change fashion photography for ever. The pictures still look modern: a glossy black-and-white spread of the Brooklyn Bridge, raw and stark and angry, with that innocuous yet sinister teddy bear underlining Shrimpton’s innocence. That week, Bailey (an arrogant, married 23-year-old) and Shrimpton (a flighty Buckinghamshire farm girl) fell in love – this month BBC4 airs We’ll Take Manhattan, the dramatisation of that affair. Karen Gillan, best known as Doctor Who’s sidekick Amy Pond (Matt Smith pronounced her “the sexiest companion ever”) plays “the Shrimp”, and she plays her with jutted elbows and a determined stare. In real life, Gillan has the energy of a soluble aspirin – she fizzes. She squeaks.

Born in Inverness 23 years ago, Gillan moved to London to study drama; before Doctor Who she worked as a model after being spotted working behind the bar of a pub. “But I never cared about modelling,” she says. “As a model you’re powerless.” In a rare interview last year, Shrimpton herself (now, at 69, the owner of a hotel in Penzance) said a similar thing: “I never liked being photographed. I just happened to be good at it.” What Gillan likes is acting. “Seeking a live response,” she says, and flutters her hands near her mouth as if to waft away any perceived pretension.

She is aggressively tall and ceramic-pale; her eyes widen to round plates when she’s excited, and she holds eye contact instinctively. “I’m obsessed with the 1960s,” she says, “It was the last revolution!” and her eyes expand, greenly. As well as playing Shrimpton she recently appeared at the Donmar in John Osborne’s Inadmissable Evidence, written in 1964. “Back then women had the crazy notion that they should just work until they had a baby. Like they were just killing time, dedicating their lives to marriage. I’m interested in that bit of time before – the bit when they were expected just to hang around, waiting…”

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Doctor Who star Karen Gillan admitted it was “a massive relief” to be able to tell people she was leaving the hit show.

The actress, who plays the Time Lord’s sidekick Amy Pond, told Graham Norton she did not know if her character would be killed off.

She said: “I have known for ages that I am leaving and it’s such a massive relief that it is out and I can speak freely about it. I’m back next year for a few episodes but it’s not actually confirmed when I go.”

The actress, who is appearing on The Graham Norton Show on Friday night on BBC1 with actors Gerard Butler and Martin Freeman and musician Noel Gallagher, said her latest role as 1960s model Jean Shrimpton got a vote of approval from the woman herself.

Karen said: “She gave her consent to having it made but then didn’t want anything to do with it because she is quite reclusive. But she saw it and she really liked it and left a voicemail saying she thought it was really accurate. That was the best compliment I could have got.”

The red-haired actress said she used fake tan to look more like Shrimpton with unintended consequences.

She said: “I went into film the first day and I was the same colour as my hair. You couldn’t tell where my hair ended and my skin started, so I had to exfoliate several times to get it off.”

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Don’t forget The Graham Norton Show airs at 10.35pm on BBC1/BBC1HD in the UK tonight!

Doctor Who stars Matt Smith and Karen Gillan also in running in best actors categories but no such nominations for Downton cast.

ITV’s Downton Abbey and the BBC’s Doctor Who have been shortlisted for the top drama prize at the National Television Awards this month.

The ratings-topping country house drama created by Julian Fellowes will also vie with Merlin and last year’s winner, Waterloo Road, a BBC1 drama set in a secondary school.

Last year was the first time Doctor Who had failed to win the most popular drama award since 2005.
Doctor Who’s lead actors, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, have also been nominated in the best drama actors categories, but there were no such nominations for the Downton cast, which includes Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens and Michelle Dockery.

Gillan, who is stepping down from her Doctor Who role during the next series, shares the shortlist with Eve Myles of Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood; Jaye Jacobs from Waterloo Road; and Suranne Jones, who starred in the detective drama Scott & Bailey.

Smith faces competition from Martin Clunes for his performance in Doc Martin; John Barrowman for Torchwood; and David Threlfall, for his portrayal of the feckless head of the dysfunctional Mancunian Gallagher family in the Channel 4 comedy drama, Shameless.

In the battle for the top talent show award, BBC1′s Strictly Come Dancing will be up against ITV1′s X Factor, which won the category in 2011 but has seen its peak viewing figures fall this year.
In the comedy category, Miranda Hart faces competition from Benidorm and Outnumbered. And in the best entertainment programme category, the multi-award winning Harry Hill’s TV Burp will compete against Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow.

There is no documentary category and shows shortlisted in the reality category include the semi-scripted The Only Way is Essex plus The Apprentice, Come Dine With Me and I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!
Jonathan Ross, who moved his talkshow to ITV from the BBC following the scandal over his on-air phone prank with Russell Brand at the expense of the actor Andrew Sachs, is nominated for the best chat show award.

His competition includes Alan Carr, Graham Norton and Loose Women, a lunchtime show fronted by a rotating panel of four female presenters.

The awards are decided by a public vote and the winners will be announced during a televised ceremony hosted by Dermot O’Leary from the O2 Arena in south-east London on 25 January.

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Vote for Karen by clicking here to be taking to the NTA’s voting form!

Some rather spoilery news about Series 7 was revealed at tonight’s Press Screening for The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe….

Click below to read, but beware, the news is very Spoilerish!