THE SCRIPT

STANDING IN THE HALL OF FAME

For the first time in nine years, The Script is returning to Dubai

It turns out the man can be moved. The Script’s lead singer Danny O’Donoghue, plus guitarist Mark Sheehan and drummer Glen Power are bringing their 2022 world tour to Dubai this month. Between legs in Asia and Europe, the three-piece band will bring their greatest hits to The Tent at Bla Bla on Wednesday October 5.

It’s set to be a more intimate gig than the super-sized arenas the Irish rockers are used to selling out, but this limited capacity event will allow fans to enjoy an up-close and personal sing-along to some of The Script’s biggest songs from the last 14 years.

While we’ve been belting out hits such as The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, We Cry and Before the Worst since their debut album release in 2008, The Script’s story begins years before that. Danny O’Donoghue and Mark Sheehan have been friends since high school, where they met growing up in Dublin. Back in 1996, the gents formed half of the four-piece band, Mytown, travelling to the US and Canada where they landed a record deal. But after moderately successful first and second singles, the band’s label dropped them before they could release their debut album. O’Donoghue and Sheehan returned to Dublin and in the early noughties they recruited Glen Power as their drummer, and The Script was born.

Second time around they were much more successful, with their debut single We Cry released in April 2008 and landing the trio their first top 20 hit in the UK Singles Chart. Their eclectic sound won them an instant legion of fans, and further success followed with the release of their self-titled number one album in August 2008 swiftly followed by

The Tent at Bla Bla

Danny O’Donoghue their second single, The Man Who Can’t Be Moved that September, which gave the band their first top 10 hit. In the years that have followed, the band have released a further five studio albums with all bar one topping the UK album charts. Their first number one came four years after the release of the band’s first single, with Hall of Fame in August 2012, followed up by karaoke favourites, including If You Could See Me Now and Superheroes.

While it might be easy for the band to rest on their laurels, comfortably touring with their catalogue of greatest hits, the trio continue to write the script on their musical journey. They released their latest track, Dare You to Doubt Me last month after performing it on their world tour. The Script, The Tent at Bla Bla JBR, Dubai Marina, 8pm, Wednesday October 5, from Dhs250. Strictly 21+. ticketmasteruae.ae

All the massive movies still to come in 2022

Just because the summer has been and gone, it doesn’t mean our cinema-going expectations should go into hibernation. We’ve been rummaging around in the box office ‘coming soon’ file cabinet and can assure you, there’s still a slew of solid gold, silver screen action headed to your nearest multiplex over the coming months.

Black Adam

Expected: October 20 It was only ever going to be a matter of time before Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, pulled on the spandex and entered into one comic franchise or another. He’s gone with DC, which is an interesting choice (although it seems no longer an eternally binding one) given their inconsistent record, but he’s always been the sort to side with a scrappy underdog. Johnson, plays the titular anti-hero, a superbeing released into the modern world after five thousand years of imprisonment. That kind of stretch in solitary does things to a man, and rather than going the ‘full tub of Ben and Jerry’s’ route to grief resolution, he takes it out on those in close proximity. Despite this classic bully behaviour, a Justice collective spot potential in Adam, ‘maybe we can change him’ they scribble into their diary. And change him they must, because an enemy even more powerful than Black Adam can smell exactly what they are cooking.

The Banshees of Inisherin

Expected: October 21 Films from the playwright, screenwriter, producer, and director, Martin McDonagh don’t come around that often, but when they do — they usually end up being regarded as cult classics. Even from the little we know about The Banshees of Inisherin, it feels like we’re going to be getting another theatrical McDonagh classic. It stars long-time collaborators Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson and covers the fallout of a rift between two best friends.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Expected: November 11 The world is a far poorer place for the loss of Chadwick Boseman. A fact honoured by the decision of the Marvel boardroom that Boseman’s character in the original Black Panther movie, T’Challa would not be recast. But ending the dynasty that Chadwick helped create right there also seemed unfair. And so we face a Black Panther sequel without T’Challa, another hero must don the feline scratch mitts and guard the many secrets of Wakanda. Let’s just say Disney’s Multiverse cheat code hack has essentially made anything possible. Little is known about the plot, other than King T’Challa’s passing has left a contested power vacuum, with enemies queueing up to take advantage of the distraction. We can only hope they do our Chadwick proud, *slaps chest* Wakanda Forever.

The Menu

Expected: November 21 Angry chef movies have been enjoying a bit of a comeback recently, and that suits us just fine. Professional kitchens are a hotbed of dueling egos, sociopathic screaming fits and, with the increasingly farcical fashions in food, an air ripe for parody *snorts in disgust at the suggestion of pesto flavoured popcorn*. The Menu stars Anya TaylorJoy, Nicholas Hoult and Ralph Fiennes. It’s being described as black horror comedy, and the story follows Taylor-Joy and Hoult as a couple that head to a super exclusive restaurant, helmed by Fiennes — for a very special sort of molecular gastronomy tasting menu. Treading the line between degustation and just plain disgusting, not all of the chef’s courses are going to make the Instagram feed.

The Whale

Expected: December 9 The Brenaissance has begun. Once a blockbuster regular, Brendan Fraser has been all but absent from our screens for a considerable chunk of time. He plays the lead in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, a film that received a six minute standing ovation after its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Fraser was moved to tears. The early reactions on his performance as Charlie, a morbidly obese English teacher desperately trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter, seem to suggest the Brenaissance might well be boosted further by an upcoming Oscar nomination.

Avatar: The Way of the Water

Expected: December 15 This long-awaited sequel sees a lot of the surviving cast members returning, along with the addition of new talent such as Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Michelle Yeoh and Vin Diesel. Events are set a decade on from the first movie, and follow the trials and tribulations of the Sully family, and water presumably. Should we expect a critique of private corperations commercialising a basic human necessity? Maybe. Or maybe James Cameron just really loves water.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Expected: December 23 The original Knives Out, a Christie-esque ‘whodunnit?’ starring Daniel Craig as the sole investigator of a fiendish murder, was one of the surprise hits of 2019. Ok, with the pandemic it was a quiet year for the film industry – but it really was a banger. The sequel sees Craig reprise his role as Detective Benoit Blanc, as he’s brought in to solve, yep, another grizzly murder, this time on the private island of a tech billionaire. The rest of the ensemble cast includes Edward Norton (as the billionaire), Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista and Ethan Hawke. And we don’t know but if we had to guess – it was the butler, in the library, with the glass onion.