STACK NZ Jun #74

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THE MAN WITH A PLAN FOR LADY IN VAN Nicholas Hytner on his latest Alan Bennett collaboration The Lady In The Van . L oosely based on a true story, The Lady In The Van charts the unlikely relationship that develops between writer Alan Bennett (played in the movie by Alex Jennings) and a homeless woman (Maggie Smith), who ends up taking residence in a van outside his home in one of London’s poshest streets, Gloucester Avenue in Camden. It's the third screen collaboration between director Nicholas Hytner and Bennett, and as with The Madness Of King George and The History Boys , it’s based on one of the latter’s plays he had previously directed on stage. For Hytner (pictured below right with Jennings), one of the attractions of the project was the opportunity to shoot where the story actually took place. “They were very accommodating,” Hytner says of the locals. “Although I think they had mixed feelings when they saw the van reappear. The two vans we used – actually, there were four vans, in total – were exactly the models that she had. So when the van reappeared... I think that was pretty horrifying for the many neighbors who remembered her!” In fact, Hytner has his own memories of the van parked in Bennett’s driveway. “Well, I knew Alan Bennett lived in the house and I knew him very vaguely, but not well enough to ask him what was going on. I occasionally wondered, ‘Does he keep his mother in a van?’ And then, when I first went to visit him [in 1989], it didn’t occur to me to ask, ‘Who was that?’ I later discovered that people – even when they visited him during her life – never asked him, either. The English are so polite...” Adam Colby The Lady In The Van is out now

ONE FROM THE HART Ride Along 2 star Kevin Hart talks cops and why his mum was his biggest fan.

R euniting with Ice Cube for buddy movie sequel Ride Along 2 , we see Kevin Hart graduate from security guard to rookie cop. However, he shudders when STACK asks if he researched with any real cops. “No. I know some, but I don’t go out of my way to spend time with cops,“ he laughs, having recently completed three years probation after being arrested on DUI charges in 2013. “I don’t want to be in the back seat of a cop car ever again in my life. I’ve had moments where I had to be because of mistakes I made, and that’s not a place of fun for me.” In Ride Along 2 , Detective James Payton (Ice Cube) takes his soon-to-be brother-in-law, the bumbling Ben Barber (Hart), to Miami to track down a drug dealer who’s supplying the dealers of Atlanta with product. James wants to show that Ben is not capable to being a

cop, but of course things don’t go exactly according to plan. Although Hart doesn't quite enjoy the same high profile in this part of the world, in the US his stand-up specials and comedies like Think Like a Man , The Wedding Ringer and Get Hard have made him a household name. He found his first audience in his mum, Nancy, raising him alone while his cocaine- addicted father spent most of his childhood in and out of jail. “My mom was able to see a glimpse of greatness before she passed away," Hart says. "She was very religious, so she didn’t like to go places where there was alcohol, smoking or swearing, but she totally supported me on every level. She was my rock and the reason why I am who I am today. She raised me with a strong will to succeed.” Gill Pringle

EXTRAS

Ride Along 2 is out on June 22

Counting down to the world's biggest video game convention in Los Angeles. E3: LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

I s it really June already? Yes it is, and for gamers that can only mean one thing: it’s time for E3. What can we expect this year? Well, Nintendo have already dashed any hopes that its enigmatic NX will appear, announcing that it will reveal the console later this year. Will the rumoured PS4.5 or modular Microsoft console make an appearance? E3 will indeed be different in 2016 with EA pulling out from its traditional presence, instead opting to reveal its upcoming slate at a press conference on the Sunday before the show. And Activision, too, will ditch the booth, instead opting solely for behind-closed-doors sessions. Elsewhere it’s business as usual, with Bethesda, Microsoft, Ubisoft and Sony all conducting press briefings. VR will again feature

heavily with more on Sony’s PSVR and its purported slew of titles. Just what Microsoft intends to do with its augmented reality headset remains to be seen, but we’ll undoubtedly view some jaw-dropping game demos featuring the tech. And what about the games? As expected there’s a quality line-up, and we could fill the page here with our most wanted lists but we’ll save that for post-show analysis. Despite EA and Activision removing their booth presences, E3 still is the highlight of the gaming show calendar, exhibiting the very best we can expect to be playing in the lead-up to Christmas and beyond. Paul Jones Keep an eye on www.stack.net.nz and our social media channels for all the up to date coverage from E3

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