Armando Iannucci
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Back to One, Episode 101: Zach Woods
I remember when I first saw Zach Woods. It was in the Armando Iannucci film In The Loop. His comedic sensibilities matched so perfectly with what I demanded as a consumer of comedy—bold choices, molded in subtlety, grounded in reality. He has continued to morph and advance his style with unforgettable roles on The Office, Silicon Valley, and now again for Iannucci on Avenue 5, where he plays cheerful nihilist Matt Spencer, Head of Customer Relations. In this inspirational episode, we have a far-reaching conversation on his approach to the craft and the industry in general. Summary: the greatest comedic […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Mar 11, 2020 -
TIFF 2019, Day 3: The Personal History of David Copperfield, Cunningham
Does Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield have an obvious/meaningful relationship to his other work, and what attracted him to this adaptation in the first place? The former is easier to answer: Iannucci, age 55, studied English literature at Oxford and almost wrote a PhD on Paradise Lost, so it’s not surprising he has an affinity for Charles Dickens, any more so than it’s unexpected that the overeducated Oxbridge students at Monty Python’s core would perform a sketch about Proust. Nor is Iannucci’s love for Dickens recent news: check out his hour-long 2012 BBC special Armando’s Tale of Charles Dickens, where […]
by Vadim Rizov on Sep 7, 2019 -
TIFF Critic’s Notebook 2: The Death of Stalin, Molly’s Game
In its own way, it’s an enlightening experience to attend, at least once, a Big TIFF Premiere, which I didn’t do during my first time attending last year. The Death of Stalin premiered in the Winter Garden, a venue on the seventh floor of a building whose ground level houses the Elgin theater; per Wikipedia — in a phrase which Googling only traces to there, so perhaps there’s a different way to refer to this — they are the world’s only surviving “stacked Edwardian theaters.” The Elgin seats 1,561, the Winter 992, so you can gauge the perceived star value and […]
by Vadim Rizov on Sep 9, 2017 -
Armando Iannucci Talks Veep
Armando Iannucci is a veteran of British comedy who came through the ranks with such luminaries as Steve Coogan and Chris Morris, collaborating with them both on the seminal mock news show The Day Today and with Coogan alone on a number of shows featuring Alan Partridge. Recently, though, writer/director/producer Iannucci has become one of the foremost political satirists, starting with the BBC’s astute, dry Parliamentary mockumentary The Thick of It. That show then spawned a big-screen spin-off, In the Loop, a riotously funny dissection of U.S/U.K. political relations in the buildup to the Iraq War that not only became a major commercial hit but also […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 26, 2013 -
ARMANDO IANNUCCI, IN THE LOOP |
By Nick Dawson
Leading up to the Oscars on March 7, we will be highlighting the nominated films that have appeared in the magazine or on the Website in the last year. Nick Dawson interviewed In the Loop co-writer-director Armando Iannucci for our Director Interviews section of the Website. In the Loop is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay (Iannucci, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell and Tony Roche). Scottish writer-director Armando Iannucci has made a slow and steady progression toward becoming a film director. The Glasgow-born Italian Scot originally was planning to become a priest (like Martin Scorsese) but the lure of the entertainment world […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 15, 2010 -
Armando Iannucci, In The Loop
PETER CAPALDI AND JAMES GANDOLFINI IN DIRECTOR ARMANDO IANNUCCI’S IN THE LOOP. COURTESY IFC FILMS. Scottish writer-director Armando Iannucci has made a slow and steady progression toward becoming a film director. The Glasgow-born Italian Scot originally was planning to become a priest (like Martin Scorsese) but the lure of the entertainment world won out over the less glamorous prospect of a life of piety and celibacy. Iannucci attended the University of Glasgow then studied English at Oxford University, where he discovered his passion for comedy. He next got a job as a radio producer on comedy shows for the BBC, […]
by Nick Dawson on Jul 24, 2009 -
“IN THE LOOP” co-writer-director, Armando Iannucci
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Thursday, Jan. 22, 6:15 pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] I wanted to tell a comic story with a fast, screwball structure but set in the real world and that feels genuine and convincing at every moment. It was inspired by the real-life story that’s kept the world gobsmacked for the past five years: a U.S. President (using and abusing a UK Prime Minister) who mounts an ill-thought-through military invasion in the Middle East that looks like it’s been planned on the back of a cigarette packet. I wasn’t interested in portraying those high up in power, but […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 22, 2009
