David Tennant: Pirates, Sport Relief, TV

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists 

As well as attending the première, David Tennant made several radio and TV appearances this week to promote The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, including:

• BBC Radio One Breakfast Show (Wed 21 March)

Read more (including clips of all of David's segments of the show) at David Tennant On Twitter

•  Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show (Wed 21 March)

Read more (including clips) at Absolute Radio 

•  MovieJuice on STV (Friday 23 March)

Watch the interview at STV

'The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists' exclusive video
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists has revealed a new video exclusively through Digital Spy.
The teaser clip sees the cast of Aardman's latest animated movie debate the benefits of being a pirate. Looting and cutlasses are at the heart of the argument, which spills over into violence before Hugh Grant's captain breaks up the scuffle.


Grant recently revealed that he was "a bit nervous" about voicing the Pirate Captain, saying that it took him some time to get the vocal intonations right.
"I thought I was timing the jokes right, but I kept thinking whether the voice was basso enough to go with this great big Pirate Captain," he explained.
"So we worked on that a bit. Then watching the stuff, in a way it's soothing because they're so clever with their animation, so much of the humour is in visual stuff, that the pressure felt slightly off me - it doesn't all completely depend on whether I land the line or not. That was helpful."
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, featuring Salma Hayek, Martin Freeman and David Tennant, opens on March 28 in the UK and on April 27 in the US under the title The Pirates! Band of Misfits.
Source: Digital Spy 

Following the première of The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists last week (Wed 21 March), there have been a number of reviews:
Screen Daily
Den of Geek
Skwigly

Sport Relief
After appearing on an advert on television for Sport Relief for the past few weeks, today David Tennant joined thousands of people running a mile for Sport Relief to raise money for charity.

David ran his mile in The Mall in London (near Buckingham Palace) and was interviewed both before and after the race.





Read more at David Tennant on Twitter

 

We Won’t Drop The Baby
This evening (Sunday 25 March) David Tennant provides the voiceover for the documentary which was originally called Disabled Parents: Are You Having A Laugh? before the name was changed to Jokes, Nappies and Wheelchairs but is now called We Won’t Drop The Baby.


The programme focuses on comedian Laurence Clark and his wife (who are both disabled) as they prepare for the birth of their second child.

It will be broadcast on BBC One as part of BBC's Disability Season.
It will be shown at 10.25pm in England, 10.45pm in Northern Ireland and Scotland and at 11.05pm in Wales.
Source: David Tennant on Twitter




Links to this week's other David Tennant news reports can be found here

Actor Brian McCardie hails officer blamed for Titanic disaster as a hero

When Brian McCardie took on the role of William McMaster Murdoch in the TV epic Titanic, he travelled to the first officer’s hometown of Dalbeattie to see the memorial erected in his memory.

Walking in the seaman’s footsteps, 100 years after his death in the world’s most notorious maritime disaster, he was determined to do him justice – even if it meant risking the wrath of award-winning writer Julian Fellowes.

In the script for the new four-part drama, Murdoch was supposed to speak with a cut-glass English accent but Brian felt compelled to play it in his native Scots.

He said: “I felt a huge responsibility to him and I made the director aware in rehearsal of the amount of research I had done.

“There was there was a bit pressure, at one point, for me to do a posh English accent.

“Being an officer on the Titanic would have been the equivalent of being a concierge at a five-star hotel but Murdoch had been at sea since he was 15.

“You listen to survivor accounts and the officers’ accents are all over the place, as they would be when they spent so long at sea.

“I couldn’t see how he would end up talking like Jeremy Irons so I did my own accent and thought if I get into trouble with the director or Julian Fellowes then so be it, my first duty was to William McMaster Murdoch.

“While it’s still acting, he was a real person who died tragically young and you want to pay him the respect you would want someone to pay you after you die.”

This attention to detail is crucial for Brian to set the record straight about Master Mariner Murdoch.

Millions will remember him from James Cameron’s 1987 movie blockbuster in which Murdoch – played by Ewan Stewart – was portrayed as a disgraced officer who took a bribe, shot a passenger and himself.

Cameron has subsequently apologised for the Hollywood version of events and 20th Century Fox gave a £5000 cheque to the Murdoch Memorial Prize Fund.

Brian immersed himself in the lore of the RMS Titanic for the show and the evidence points to Murdoch helping save many lives when the “unsinkable” ship sank.

He said: “Murdoch has been so maligned and so badly portrayed.

“What he tried to do was swerve around the iceberg, but he swerved too late.

“Apparently, if he had not deviated course and they hit the iceberg straight on there’s no way it would have sank. So, by trying to save them, it could be argued he sunk it. But he was trying to do the right thing.

“Two witnesses say he shot himself in the head and the James Cameron movie showed that but there are dozens of others who say who say that was a different officer.

“Some saw Murdoch getting tangled up trying to loosen the last lifeboat and he went head first into the water.

“Although some would say Murdoch was responsible for the sinking of the ship, directly or indirectly, he was putting people into lifeboats on the starboard side.

“The captain said women and children first. Some people took that to mean women and children only and sent out lifeboats built for 66 people with only eight or 12 people on board.

“Murdoch said women and children first – and if there are no more, get men on there too, so he is responsible probably for two-thirds of the people who survived.

“He probably saved about 300-400 lives.”

Titanic, which will be broadcast in 86 countries worldwide, is Britain’s most expensive TV drama with a budget of £11million.

Filmed at Stern Studios in Budapest, Hungary, it features 2500 extras and the biggest purpose-built indoor water tank in Europe.

Brian, 47, whose previous credits include Rob Roy, Speed 2: Cruise Control, Low Winter Sun, The Damned United and Case Histories, said: “There are four episodes, each told from a different passenger’s point of view. So we would film a scene and then have to film it from three different perspectives. We filmed one scene featuring about 30 of us 81 times.

“It took something like nine days to heat the water in the tank to a very tepid temperature to allow actors to get in it.

“They built about an eighth of the ship, including the boat deck, bridge, dining room and cabins.”

Brian, who has just finished filming new Irvine Welsh movie Filth alongside James McAvoy, now claims he’s had enough of the Titanic.

He said: “I researched it for two and half months but that’s enough. I don’t care if they find something major related to it, well except a set of binoculars.

“Three days before they sailed, the company parachuted in another officer and everyone else was bumped down.

“The guy who had the binoculars was shunted off the ship and one of the reasons it hit the iceberg was because they couldn’t find the binoculars. They were in his locker on the ship but he had the keys.”

As for the much-maligned Murdoch, Brian hopes he will be able to rest easy at last.

He said: “There are so many different opinions that there can’t be one definitive one which will please all the aficionados.

“But I could walk down the streets of Dalbeattie again. I didn’t do Murdoch a disservice and I was very clear about that all the way through it.”

When the Titanic slipped below the waves of the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, it was just the beginning the great ship’s story.

It was supposed to usher in a new era of ocean travel in a vessel claimed to be ­unsinkable.

The Titanic’s ­passenger list included the fabulously rich and the desperately poor seeking a new life in America.

There is so much information about the tragedy and its aftermath, Brian had to stop researching it midway through filming.

He said: “There are thousands of websites, documentaries, films and books about it.

“But I had to have a cut-off point. I was halfway through filming when I found out a tiny detail and I was annoyed because we had already filmed that scene.

“Then I realised it was actually insignificant and I had to get a grip.”

The interest is such that a close eye was kept on costumes and props branded with shipping company White Star Line livery.

Brian said: “There is a massive industry in Titanic memorabilia. I have never had to hand over a hat with such care in my life.”

■Titanic is on STV tonight at 9pm.

Source: Daily Record

Alan Cumming: Lincoln Center Festival and Dublin documentary

Lincoln Center has announced the lineup for this year's Lincoln Center Festival, to run in various venues July 5-August 5. There will be a total of 72 performances by artists and ensembles from seven countries.

Theatrical offerings include dance legend Mikhail Baryshnikov in Dmitry Krymov's staging of a new play, In Paris; the Sydney Theatre Company's acclaimed production of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, starring Cate Blanchett, Hayley McElhinney, Richard Roxburgh, and Hugo Weaving; the National Theatre of Scotland's one-person Macbeth, starring Alan Cumming and directed by John Tiffany and Andrew Goldberg, and DruidMurphy, a cycle of plays by Tom Murphy to be staged by Tony winner Garry Hynes.

Also on tap is Émilie, a one-woman opera by Kaija Saariaho and Amin Malouf, about French Enlightenment thinker Émilie du Châtelet, to star Elizabeth Futral and be directed by Marianne Weems, and Feng Yi Ting, a chamber opera by Chinese composer Guo Wenjing, which will be directed by Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan.

For more information, visit www.lincolncenter.org.

Source: Theater Mania 

Also reported by Playbill

Hidden city gems to be revealed in offbeat TV series

The hidden sights of Dublin are set to be revealed in a new documentary by Sky Atlantic.

City Secretsplans to delve into the underground aspects of various cities across Ireland and the UK. Filming in Dublin, which takes place next month, will see presenter Alan Cumming unveil some of Dublin's less famous landmarks.

"We don't want to cover the classic tourist spots, we want to look at more underground, niche aspects," Aimee Johnston of TwoFour told the Herald.

"What we really want to do is scratch beneath the surface and find unique parts of the city and interesting people that are harder to find, or interesting facts that are lesser known," said Ms Johnston.

"The aim of the programme is to make Dublin look as appealing as possible and to paint the city in a really positive light. We're looking for interesting people, quirky stories, beautiful obscure buildings and hidden parts of the city," Ms Johnston added.

"Ideally we want our presenter Alan to embark on a kind of a tour of the city, looping back around by the end."

Filming begins on April 28. Anyone with information on a quirky piece of Dublin is recommended to email TwoFour at enquiries@twofour.co.uk The series will be screened on Sky Atlantic in early July.

Source: Herald.ie

New trailer and images for 'Ecstasy'

Here’s a new trailer for Ecstasy which stars Adam Sinclair, Kristin Kreuk, Billy Boyd, Carlo Rota, Stephen McHattie, Alex Lifeson and is directed by Rob Heydon.

Based on Irvine Welsh’s controversial book, Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance, ECSTASY is a twisted tale that explores the euphoric highs and the devastating lows of a chemical romance.  Lloyd (Adam Sinclair) is on top of the world – beautiful girls, great club sounds, and a never ending supply of the love drug, sustained by a smuggling sideline for the local drug boss Solo (Carlo Rota).  But when he meets Heather (Kristin Kreuk) he is forced to question if the love he feels is real or just another chemical high.  As cracks start to appear in his world he realises he wants out.  If he can just pull off one last trip for Solo, he’ll be free.

Ecstasy also stars Billy Boyd as DJ and e-prophet Woodsy, cameos from John Digweed and Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, and a pulsing soundtrack from some of the industry’s biggest names, including Tiesto, Coldplay, Orbital, Primal Scream, Bonjay, The Mahones and Hawksley Workman. Directed by Rob Heydon, Ecstasy was shot in 2011 on location in Scotland, Amsterdam and Canada and will be with us April 20th.

You can find out more on the official Facebook page or by following the Twitter account.

Read and see more at Hey U Guys

Beecake and Billy Boyd to release a new EP

Beecake, the Scottish alternative rock band of which actor Billy Boyd is a part, are set to release a four song EP in June.  You can hear their newest song exclusively on grammy.com.  

You can also show the band your love at their facebook page, or check out their website.    

Read more at TheOne Ring 

Also reported by ONTD 

Brian Cox to star in ABC fantasy pilot 'Gotham'

Brian Cox has landed a role in ABC pilot Gotham.

The veteran actor will play the wise and secretive Alderman Morrill, according to Deadline.

Gotham will follow Annie Travers (Megan Ketch), an NYPD detective who discovers a magical world that exists within New York. Cox's character appears to be the owner of a simple clock shop, but is entrusted with maintaining order in the secret world.

The 65-year-old actor, acclaimed for his theatre work, has appeared in such films as 1986's Manhunter, 1998's Rushmore and last year's Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

He also recently signed up to star in BBC Four comedy Bob Servant Independent.

Other stars attached to Gotham include The Walking Dead actor Lennie James and former Hollyoaks star Barry Sloane.

The River's Michael Green has written the pilot, which will be helmed by I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence.

Source: Digital Spy 

Also reported by This is Fake DIY  and Science Fiction

Dougray Scott to play Enron scandal-plagued businessman

Little White Rose Films has tapped Dougray Scott to topline Gang of One based on Gary Mulgrew's memoir about his life in prison in the wake of the Enron scandal.

The banner, headed by the husband-wife team of Tommy Gormley and Sarah Purser, has hired screenwriter Robert Murphy (Rebus) to adapt.

Mulgrew is one of a trio of British businessmen -- the NatWest three -- indicted in 2002 on seven counts of wire fraud and then extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States in 2006. Each pleaded guilty to one count in exchange for the other charges being dropped.

Mulgrew's memoir, published by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK earlier this year, tells the story of Mulgrew's rise from a Glasgow orphanage to his opulent life as a multi-millionaire banker in London to his eventual fall as a convict in a gang-infested prison in the middle of Texas.

Gormley will make his directorial debut. His credits as a first assistant director include "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol," "Super 8," and "Star Trek." Scott, repped by WME, was seen most recently in "My Week with Marilyn."

Source: Variety