Emun Elliott: Glasgow Film Festival Club debate

Glasgow Film Festival Club: Close Up on Casting with Kahleen Crawford and Emun Elliott
From Glasgow Features (24 Feb):

This week’s GFF event for Glasgow’s aspiring actors clearly was the Festival Club’s debate on the topic Close Up on Casting – Industry secrets for surviving auditions. Invited were the casting director Kahleen Crawford who is responsible for the incredible The Angels’ Share cast, and Edinburgh born actor Emun Elliott whose face you most likely know from his roles in the BBC’s The Paradise, Game of Thrones or the Hollywood blockbuster Prometheus.

 

The Film Club gives all film enthusiasts the possibility to get together between screenings and meet with business insiders at debates and special events on topics like casting, special effects and film criticism.  Kahleen and Emun were there to discuss their paths into casting and acting and answer audience questions.

Read much more at Glasgow Features

James Cosmo: interview at the Glasgow Film Festival

James Cosmo talks Citadel, Game of Thrones, his career and Scottish film
From STV:

James Cosmo has appeared in some of the country’s best known films including Braveheart, Trainspotting and Highlander, and received considerable acclaim throughout his career including a recent Scottish Bafta for Donkeys.

Speaking at the Glasgow Film Festival, where he had appeared to talk about his career, the 64-year-old Scottish actor revealed to STV about what he thinks set those films apart.
He said that Highlander director Russell Mulcahy had “brought something new to the business”, while having worked with Trainspotting director Danny Boyle on TV before he knew “the quality that Danny would bring to the game”.

Meanwhile Cosmo explained how Braveheart had come at exactly the right time for him, while he was going through a rough patch getting enough work to look after his wife and baby.

Of new film Citadel, an Irish/Scottish co-production by Bl!nder Films and Scotland’s Sigma Films, he spoke effusively about writer-director Ciaran Foy.
After revealing that he chose to work on Citadel because of its “terrific script”, of its claustrophobic nature he added: “It was great fun to do, really good – and by goodness it makes you jump.”

He has also appeared in two of the most acclaimed US TV shows of recent years – Sons of Anarchy and most recently in Game of Thrones, and explained to us how it was to work on those much loved series.

Read much more, and watch the video, at STV

David Hayman: 'Sawney: Flesh of Man' screening at GFF

David Hayman sinks his teeth into notorious Scots cannibal film role
Actor plays the title role in Sawney: Flesh of Man, a modern-day take on the depraved Scots cannibal Sawney Bean, and he admits the ancient tale has terrified and fascinated him since he was young.

The new film, Sawney, starring David Hayman

He's spent a lifetime ­preparing for his most bloodthirsty role – and David Hayman could not wait to get tore in.
The award-winning actor plays the title role in Sawney: Flesh of Man, a modern-day take on the depraved Scots cannibal Sawney Bean.
In the film, Bean is a religious ­psychopath who captures, kills and devours his victims with the help of his insane, inbred family.
It is based on the story of 16th century monster Sawney Bean and his clan, who were said to have lived in a cave at ­Bennane Head in Ayrshire.
David told the Sunday Mail that the ancient tale is a gruesome story that has terrified and fascinated him since he was young.
He said: “When I was a wee boy, we used to spend our summer holidays down the Ayrshire coast in ­Girvan. My dad had told us the stories of Sawney Bean and about all the ­terrible things they had done.

“During the holidays, he would take me to the cave near Ballantrae where it was said the Bean clan lived.
“I remember it vividly. There was a skinny wee entrance and I was ­surprised how small it was. But when you were inside the cave, it was really scary. The memories from my ­childhood are really clear.”
So when the star of Trial and ­Retribution was asked if he would like to be in a ­modern-day film ­version of the story, there was no ­hesitation.
“I jumped at the chance,” said David. “It’s a low-budget film. There was no money and a very small film crew but I think they might have pulled off a major coup. It is gory, bloodthirsty and, I hope, funny as well.”
Others share David’s view because Sawney: Flesh of Man has landed an US distribution deal and there is already talk of making a film ­prequel, which would focus on the 16th century legend.

Sawney Bean was Scotland's ultimate bogeyman

Tales of the Sawney Bean saga might have scared David witless when he was a boy but the actor reckons there is a very obvious reason why the tale of the Scots cannibal has fascinated folk over the centuries.
He said: “It is because it deals with one of the ultimate taboos of ­humanity … cannibalism.
“Just look at the scandal that has been created this week because it has been discovered that people have eaten horse meat when they thought it was beef.
“Now, that has created a national fuss, and I appreciate the health concerns, but really it is nothing compared with eating human flesh.
“For proof of that, you just need to look at 1972 when a plane crashed in the Andes and, in order to survive, ­people ate the flesh of those who had died.
“That is something many folk would do under those circumstances. I would have done it to stay alive.
“But because of what they did, the survivors still live with the stigma.”
David has known the Sawney Bean story for years and is fascinated by many aspects of it.
Among them is the claim that the Bean clan did most of their vile deeds in winter because food was more scarce then.
But he is well aware that nobody knows for sure if Sawney Bean and his clan even existed at all.
“Whether the legend of Sawney Bean is true or not, it is a great story,” David added. “It just shows that there is ­nothing like a legend.”

• Sawney Bean: Flesh of Man will be screened at the Glasgow Film Festival on Friday, February 22.

 Source (including images): Daily Record

James McAvoy: 'Welcome to the Punch' premiere, and win a VIP trip to see Macbeth

Win a VIP trip to see James McAvoy in Macbeth at Trafalgar Studios

BAFTA winner and Golden Globe and Olivier nominee James McAvoy will star in Shakespeare's Macbeth at Trafalgar Studios. The play opens next month. Guardian Extra members can win two top price tickets to see the play plus an overnight stay at The Cavendish London in the West End. The competition closes on 10 February

James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland, Atonement), will star in Macbeth, director Jamie Lloyd's inaugural production in a season of work for Trafalgar Transformed at Trafalgar Studios in London's Whitehall. Lloyd directed the Old Vic's production of The Duchess of Malfi and The Pride at the Royal Court.

The production will see Shakespeare's darkest tale play out in a dystopian Scotland brutalised by war. Under a toxic fog, Macbeth begins his tormented struggle for power fuelled, by ambition and paranoia.
 
One Guardian Extra member can win a pair of top price tickets to see Macbeth. The prize also includes an overnight stay, including breakfast, at The Cavendish London, a luxury hotel located in the heart of the capital's West End. The tickets are valid for performances Tuesday to Friday from 18 February to 28 March 2013.

Click here to enter this competition.

Macbeth will be staged at Trafalgar Studios from 9 February until 27 April. To book tickets, call 0844 871 7632 or visit the website booking page here.

Source (including image): The Guardian 

Welcome to the Punch 
The Daily Record reports that Welcome to the Punch (James McAvoy, Peter Mullan) will première at the Glasgow Film Festival next month.
Read more here

Sean Connery: films at the Glasgow Film Festival, and 'Bond' update

From Finding Connery:

The Glasgow Film Festival 2013 programme was launched this week and I was delighted to see not only a great host of fab looking film fodder but also two Sean films! A late night Highlander screening on Fri 15 February 23.15 at GFT (Not the biggest Highlander fan but will be my first time seeing it on the big screen)
But what I’m REALLY excited about is seeing his foray out of retirement, Ever to Excel, Murray Grigor’s documentary about St Andrew’s. Yes I did have a rant about the mis-management of the film’s distribution last year here but I’m delighted it’s finally getting shown! 

Read more at Finding Connery

Bonds reunion at the Oscars
According to The Edinburgh Evening News, Sean Connery was ‘not asked’ to attend the James Bond reunion at Oscars. Read more here

Billy Connolly: 'Troubles' film restored | New role in Eric Idle's 'What about Dick?'

A fly-on-the-wall documentary which shows Billy Connolly on tour in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles is to be screened at the Glasgow Film Festival. Big Banana Feet was made in two days during Connolly's 1975 tour of Ireland. The only remaining copy of the programme is in an American film archive which has been restored and brought back to Glasgow for the screening.

See a clip on the BBC website or watch the full interview of Billy Connolly in conversation with film-maker David Peat at BBC

Billy Connolly to star in new Eric Idle production 

Stand-up comedian Russell Brand will take the titular role in former Python Eric Idle's latest musical, What About Dick?. Set in the early 20th Century, the production is to be presented as a radio play with the cast reading from scripts. It will run for just 4 nights in April, from the 26th to 29th, and will also star Tracey Ullman, Billy Connolly, Sophie Winkleman, Eddie Izzard and Tim Curry. Jane Leeves, a former (Benny) Hill's Angel but better known for the role of Daphne in long-running US sitcom Frasier, will also appear, and Idle himself will act as narrator.

Written by Idle with his long-term musical collaborator John Du Prez, the story is described as a "farcical romp" that follows Oxford student Dick as he studies philosophy and gynaecology; Izzard's character is the inventor of the vibrator. A previous version of the production was staged in a similar form in 2007. Idle told the Los Angeles Times that he and Du Prez have spent the last 5 years re-writing the scripts and adding more songs to the show. He added: "It's essentially the same idea as before, but the part of Dick got bigger - if I'm allowed to say that."

Idle also confirmed that What About Dick? will be recorded for release as a 'concert film'.

Source: The British Comedy Guide

'Ecstacy' gets UK premiere

The film adaptation of Scottish author Irvine Welsh's book Ecstasy is to have its British première at the Glasgow Film Festival in February.

The film is based on the short story The Undefeated, one of three tales featured in the best-selling book.

Starring Lord of the Rings' Billy Boyd, it is one of 239 films to be shown at the 10-day event.

Other highlights include The Decoy Bride starring David Tennant, and Emily Blunt's Your Sister's Sister.

Read more at BBC

The Glasgow Film Festival 2012

Jonathan Melville tweeted recently: "With @glasgowfilmfest tickets now on sale, here's my interview/preview with co-director Allan Hunter bit.ly/yttfvq #GFF12"

This is that interview:
‘It’s about being as open-minded as possible’: Allan Hunter on Glasgow Film Festival 2012

The Glasgow Film Festival has gone from strength-to-strength in the past few years, with the launch of the 2012 programme much-anticipated by film fans around the country.

Ahead of the press launch on the evening of 18 January, we sat down with Festival co-director Allan Hunter to find out what’s coming to Glasgow between 16 – 26 February, how the team decide what to show and what it’s been like to see the Festival grow to its current stature.

What can you tell me about the films you’ve chosen for 2012, particularly the Scottish talent on offer?

The opening gala is Your Sister’s Sister, about a man who’s getting over the death of a friend so he arrives at his friend’s family cottage and when he turns up her half sister is already there, and I can’t tell you more than that. The closing gala is Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre, which was at Cannes and has won a lot of prizes.

There are quite a lot of Scottish films this year, such as Zam Salin’s Up There, starring Burn Gorman. Zam’s done quite a lot of shorts, including Laid Off, which this is based on. It’s a sort of lugubrious existential black comedy and the premise is that a guy dies and discovers that the afterlife isn’t as exciting as he wants it to be, it’s all a bit disappointing really. He’s sent to work to look after the newly-dead and it takes off from there.

We’ve got Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy, starring the charismatic Adam Sinclair, and there’s Silver Tongues which is based on a Scottish short but it’s now an American indie because that’s where the funding came from. Decoy Bride is there, starring David Tennant and Kelly Macdonald, and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen with Ewan McGregor.

You might remember at last year’s Scottish BAFTAs that David Peat was given the Outstanding Contribution for Craft Award, so we’re going to show the Billy Connolly documentary, Big Banana Feet, which he worked on with Murray Grigor and they’ll chat over old times.

The big film in our Out of the Past strand is Bertrand Tavernier’s Death Watch, a film set in Glasgow which has been out of circulation for a while. There is a glorious digital restoration and Tavernier is coming over for that; he’s a big fan of Glasgow and of The Ubiquitous Chip!
Read more at Reel Scotland


Classic Glasgow movie among festival highlights
The resurrection of a classic Glasgow-shot movie, along with new films starring David Tennant, Emily Blunt and Gene Kelly, as well as writer Irvine Welsh's new movie, are all part of this year's Glasgow Film Festival (GFF).

Death Watch, or La Mort en Direct, was shot in Glasgow in 1980, starring Harvey Keitel, Romy Schneider and Harry Dean Stanton, but has long been unavailable in the UK.

However, the Glasgow festival, growing in popularity and acclaim and this year running from February 16 until 26, is to show a digital restoration of the movie, which will be re-released later this year.

The festival will open with the UK premiere of Your Sister's Sister, directed by Lynn Shelton. It stars Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt and Mark Duplass in a "painfully funny and utterly captivating tale of bad timing, broken hearts and the healing power of love", according to the festival.
The festival's closing gala is Le Havre, made by Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki and which won the prestigious Prix Louis Delluc in France and a number of other international awards.

The 2012 festival features 239 films in total, including a record number of UK and European premieres.

Films are being shown at 16 venues across the city. They include Welsh's Ecstasy, the romantic comedy The Decoy Bride co-starring Tennant and Kelly Macdonald, the acclaimed American independent drama In the Family, the period drama Bel Ami starring Robert Pattinson and Cloudburst with Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker.

Allison Gardner, co-director of the festival, said: "I think the superb quality and international credentials of the opening and closing galas reflect the very special programme of films and events that we have put together for the 2012 festival."

Allan Hunter, co-director of the festival, added: "This year's programme is a rich and diverse selection of prize-winners and premieres from around the globe and around the corner."
Read more at Herald Scotland and STV

Sean Biggerstaff at the Glasgow Film Festival

Here is the only photo I've been able to find of Sean Biggerstaff's appearance on Feb. 19 2008 at the Glasgow Film Festival. If I find any more I'll make sure I post them.



Photo from www.flickr.com

Sean Biggerstaff to appear at the Glasgow Film Fest

Sean Biggerstaff's bio-pic Consenting Adults will be screened at the upcoming Glasgow Film Festival, where Sean and the director, Richard Curson Smith will introduce the film in person. It will show on Feb. 19 at Glasgow Film Theatre 2. You can go here to book tickets and for a detailed schedule of the film festival.

Photo from www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk

Cassandra's Dream to open the Glasgow film festival

Ewan McGregor's latest film, Cassandra's Dream will be the opening film at the fourth annual Glasgow Film Festival. The festival will be held from Feb. 14 and 24, and you can visit the festival's official site to find out how to purchase tickets.

Photo from www.ew.com