The Mini Series is now all set to premiere in India for the first time on Indian Television and the Meryl Streep – Al Pacino – Emma Thompson starrer will kick-start the ‘Star World Premiere Mini Series of the Month’ property, this Saturday and Sunday
A brilliant adaptation of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize winning play, Angels in America was modified for television and directed by Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Mike Nichols, renowned for directing movies such as The Graduate, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and more.
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The Mini Series is now all set to premiere in India for the first time on Indian Television and the Meryl Streep – Al Pacino – Emma Thompson starrer will kick-start the 'Star World Premiere Mini Series of the Month' property, this Saturday and Sunday, August 6 th and 7 th , 7 PM onwards on Star World Premiere HD!
So what is a Mini Series?
Unlike just another television show, the miniseries is a unique category of television production that displays a narrative in a pre-determined fashion lasting only a season long. With limited number of episodes, a miniseries stands between a movie and a long-lasting TV show with just enough number of episodes to depict a storyline that ends with the season. It weaves in interesting complex plots with intricate story-telling and a profound character transformation from the first episode to the last. A complete package for audiences, the miniseries is short and crisp and gives viewers the complete TV viewing experience within a short period of time thus, precious time is not lost and they get to have a wholesome viewing experience.
What is Angels in America about?
Angels in America revolves around social, sexual, religious and other issues being faced by America in 1980s, predominantly the LGBT tension at a time when AIDS crisis was clasping the nation. It follows story plots for numerous characters, who, at first sight, have nothing to do with each other but are all connected by their ideology and experiences, unified by an overarching theme on gay rights at a time when gay rights were given little to no importance in the society. The miniseries, like the play, culminates in a cry for the community to not give up or disappear.
Not only did the play win the Pulitzer Prize but the miniseries itself won 61 notable awards and 42 other nominations including prestigious awards like the Emmys and Golden Globes. The show broke the record previously held by Roots for the most Emmys awarded to a program in a single year by winning a whopping 11 awards including Outstanding Miniseries, Direction, Lead Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Casting and many more.
Did You Know?
1. What are Emma Thompson’s thoughts on snogging Angels in America co-star Meryl Streep
Emma Thompson had a sultry love making scene with Meryl Streep on Mike Nichol’s Angels in America and was more than excited to flaunt it. An excited Thompson said that when she snogged Meryl Streep, there was lots of tongue involved and she thoroughly enjoyed it.
2. Meryl Streep was star struck when she met Al Pacino for their first ever project together, Angels in America
Angels in America served as a platform for Hollywood stalwarts to come together and that is exactly what veteran actors Meryl Streep and Al Pacino. With Mike Nichol’s Angels in America, both Pacino and Streep starred in a movie together, for the first time. But that wasn’t the first time they met and when they did, was years ago when Meryl Streep was dating Pacino’s very good friend and actor John Cazale, Meryl Streep admitted recently that she was completely star struck. Yes, even Meryl Streep can get star-struck
In fact, Streep confessed that the first famous person she ever met was Al and when they met was when he came over to her house for dinner and to this day, Meryl laments the time she made spaghetti for Al who is son to Sicilian-American parents admitting that it was awful.
3. Renowned director Mike Nichols considers Angels in America as his crowning glory
Adapted from Pulitzer Prize winning play by Tony Kushner of the same name that revolves around social, sexual, religious and other issues facing 1980s America as the AIDS crisis gains momentum, Angels in America – the miniseries went on to win 61 notable awards, Emmys and Golden Globes among others. Out of this Meryl Streep alone won seven awards and Pacino, four. However, even after directing some of the most blockbuster Hollywood movies, director Mike Nichols considers Angels in America as his crowning glory.
4. Al Pacino thinks of Mike Nichols as the greatest director he has ever worked with
Al Pacino, who is known for some of the greatest movies in Hollywood – Scarface, Scent of a Woman, Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon, The Devil’s Advocate and many more has worked with almost all the biggest directors of Tinsel Town. However, the actor considers Mike Nichols, director of Angels in America as the greatest director he has ever worked with. He went on to admit that he was almost in two of his movies back in the 70s and how he would say yes to anything Nichols would ask him to do.
Some more trivia about the show
1. Jeffrey Wright was the only member of the original Broadway cast to appear in the film version
2. Shortly before his death in 2014, director Mike Nichols revealed that out of all the films he had directed in his lifetime, he considered this to be his magnum opus
3. The first episode drew 4.2 million viewers, making it the most-watched cable show of the year
4. Some of the actors play multiple parts, just as was done in the play
5. Both Robert Altman and Neil LaBute were considered to direct. It was Altman who first attracted Al Pacino to the role of Roy Cohn
6. In the scene in the bar with Joe Pitt and Roy Cohn, the piano in the background is playing a slow-tempo jazz version of the Angels in America main theme
7. Jodie Foster was considered for the role of Nurse Emily/The Angel America played by Emma Thompson
8. Dustin Hoffman was considered for the role of Roy M. Cohn
9. Ben Shenkman played the role of Roy Cohn during a workshop production of "Perestroika" when the play was still undergoing rewrites. Debra Messing played the role of Harper
10. In February 2016, London's National Theatre announced that they were planning to stage a revival of Tony Kushner's play Angels in America. The announcement was made over a year before the planned opening of the show (slated to begin in April 2017 at the Lyttelton Theatre). The only cast member announced at that time was Andrew Garfield, who was scheduled to play Prior Walter. Nathan Lane will also be joining the cast
11. Co-executive producer Cary Brokaw brought Tony Kushner's script to Mike Nichols' attention when they were working on the TV movie Wit starring Emma Thomspon
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