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

Ewan McGregor trailers: Jack the Giant Killer | Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Jack the Giant Killer Official Teaser Trailer HD
The first trailer for Bryan Singer’s JACK AND THE GIANT KILLER, a “fresh” take on the fairytale ‘Jack and The Giant Beanstalk” which centers on a young Prince that accidentally unlocks the gateway between our world and a world of giants. When they take his Princess, he sets out to rescue her, battling the giants along the way. So to be clear; the title refers to Jack as a killer of giants, not necessary “giant” killers.

The film stars Nicholas Hoult (Beast, from X-MEN: FIRST CLASS), Ewan McGregor, Ian McShane, Stanley Tucci, Warwick Davis, Eleanor Tomlinson, Ewan Bremner and Eddie Marsan. The epic fairytale film hits theaters on June 15th, 2012.


Source: Flix66


First Trailer for 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen'
The first trailer for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, an adaptation of Paul Torday's novel of the same name has made its way online, and while the music and the title cards make it feel a bit hokey, it does seem like there's some great chemistry between Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor along with an interesting story about bringing a sport to a region where science says it cannot be done. Watch below!

Here's the first trailer for Lasse Halstrom's Salmon Fishing in the Yemen from Yahoo! Movies:

Lasse Halstrom (What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Dear John) is directing the adaptation of Paul Torday's novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, written for the screen by Academy Award winning writer Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire). The story follows fisheries expert (Ewan McGregor) who is approached by a consultant to help realize a sheik's vision of bringing the sport of fly-fishing to the desert and embarks on an upstream journey of faith and fish that just might prove the impossible, possible. Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas also star in the film which CBS Films will bring to theaters on March 2nd, 2012.
Source: FirstShowing

First official images - Ewan McGregor & Emily Blunt - Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Here’s our first official look at Ewan McGregor’s new movie, Fishing in the Yemen ahead of it’s debut at the Toronto Film Festival who have unveiled these new images. He stars alongside Emily Blunt & Kristin Scott Thomas in a movie directed by Lasse Hallström.

Ewan McGregor stars as a fisheries scientist who finds himself saddled with the task of introducing salmon fishing to the Highlands of Yemen. Director Lasse Hallström adapts this charming British comedy from Paul Torday’s acclaimed novel.

Read more at HeyUguys

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Ewan McGregor and Betty White to Judge Heroic Dog Award Show

The Hallmark Channel has announced that Ewan McGregor and Betty White will join Whoopi Goldberg and other stars in judging a new heroic dog award show.

The American Humane Association explained the TV contest, the ‘Hero Dog Awards,’ recognizes “thousands of specially trained dogs giving comfort to people every day.”

Each dog will compete in eight categories: law enforcement and arson dogs; service dogs; therapy dogs; military dogs; guide dogs; search and rescue dogs; hearing dogs, and emerging hero dogs, for “ordinary pets who do extraordinary things.”

The winning dogs will strut their paws along their own red carpet awards gala in Beverly Hills. The show will even award Rin Tin Tin with a legacy award and present it to one of his doggie descendants. Rememberd as a movie icon, the canine star was rescued from the frontlines of World War I in France.

Other celebs listed to judge include Jillian Michaels and Kristin Chenoweth. The show will air on Hallmark on Nov. 11 in a 90-minute premiere.

Source: Ecorazzi

Ewan McGregor shooting 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen'

Shooting on Salmon Fishing in the Yemen reportedly (via Best of Ewan) started on August 6. The nine week production will take place in London, Scotland, and Morocco. Ewan McGregor plays Dr. Alfred Jones alongside Emily Blunt, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Amr Waked. Photos of Ewan shooting on August 6 are above.

Ewan McGregor joins 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' + 'Jackboots' to premiere at Cannes

Ewan McGregor has been cast alongside Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas in Lasse Hallström's Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Written by Simon Beaufoy, the romantic comedy is based on Paul Torday's novel of the same name. The film is being sold to buyers at the Cannes Film Festival. A synopsis is below:

Dr. Alfred Jones is a henpecked, slightly pompous middle-aged scientist at the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence in London when he is approached by a mysterious sheikh about an outlandish plan to introduce the sport of salmon fishing into the Yemen. Dr. Jones refuses, but the project, however scientifically absurd, catches the eye of British politicians, who pressure him to work on it. His diaries of the Yemen Salmon Project, from beginning to glorious, tragic end, form the narrative backbone of this novel; interspersed throughout are government memos, e-mails, letters, and interview transcripts that deftly capture the absurdity of bureaucratic dysfunction.

With a wickedly wonderful cast of characters--including a weasel-like spin doctor, a missing soldier and his intrepid fiancée, and Dr. Jones's own devilish wife--Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is the whimsical story of an unlikely hero who discovers true love, finds himself first a pawn and then a victim of political spin, and learns to believe in the impossible. [ComingSoon.net via Best of Ewan]

There are also reports that animated movie Jackboots on Whitehall featuring Ewan McGregor and Alan Cumming will premiere at Cannes.