The Conspirator to premiere on 15 April

According to @JamesMcAvoyMB on Twitter, the theatrical release date has been set for James McAvoy's The Conspirator on 15 April 2011
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First trailer for Lincoln assassination drama "The Conspirator" online

Robert Redford helms the James McAvoy starrer The Conspirator, which follows the arrest and trial of Mary Surratt (Robin Wright) after her involvement as a co-conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September 2010, The Conspirator is scheduled to hit cinemas in the Spring.



More info at Flickering Myth

James McAvoy talks 'X-Men' with MTV

James McAvoy took some time off from promoting The Conspirator at the Toronto International Film Festival to talk about playing Charles Xavier with MTV News. X-Men: First Class is currently shooting in England and will open in 2011.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Two brand new 'Conspirator' clips featuring James McAvoy

The first clips from The Conspirator are now online. There's a chance they'll be yanked from YouTube, so check the out while you can.

'The Conspirator' lands distribution deal + new TIFF portraits with James McAvoy

Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate have acquired The Conspirator for a Spring 2011 North American release. An official release date hasn't been confirmed yet.





A batch of TIFF portrait photos with James McAvoy have been released. The really cute photo of James and Conspirator co-star Justin Long comes courtesy of Life (via ONTD) and was taken by Jeff Vespa.

James McAvoy at the Toronto International Film Festival

James McAvoy was at yesterday's gala presentation of The Conspirator at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival. You can watch a portion of the film's press conference at the film festival's official site. A portrait photo that was taken yesterday is posted above.

Some new film stills from The Conspirator are below.

James McAvoy to star in 'At the Mountains of Madness'? + TIFF appearance speculation

Guillermo del Toro's 3D adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, is set to shoot in May of 2011. Universal reportedly wants James McAvoy in the lead role, while del Toro wants Tom Cruise instead. Both actors would presumably be free at the time, though at this point both actors aren't even officially attached to the project. A synopsis of Lovecraft's novella is below:

The story is written in first-person perspective by the geologist William Dyer, a professor from Miskatonic University. He writes to disclose hitherto unknown and closely kept secrets in the hope that he can deter a planned and much publicized scientific expedition to Antarctica. On a previous expedition there, a party of scholars from Miskatonic University, led by Dyer, discovered fantastic and horrific ruins and a dangerous secret beyond a range of mountains taller than the Himalayas. [Wikipedia via Collider]

The Conspirator will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival later this month, but there hasn't been official confirmation on whether or not James McAvoy would make an appearance in Toronto. According to an Exclusive Artists Management press release, James will be at the festival:

Exclusive Artists Management will be providing celebrity hair and makeup artists to participate at this year's Toronto International Film Festival for the seventh consecutive year.

...Some of the confirmed actors that our teams will be getting camera ready include Helen MIrren, Carey Mulligan, Evan Rachel Wood, James McAvoy, Rachel Weisz, Frieda Pinto, Minnie Driver, Vera Farmiga, Kristen Scott Thomas, Bryce Dallas Howard, Winona Ryder, Michael Sheen, Thomas Hayden Church, Chris Cooper, Josh Lucas, Amy Ryan, Sam Rockwell, Zach Galifianakis, Amber Tamblyn, Dominic Cooper, Kate Mara, Jim Broadbent and Melissa Leo

TIFF schedule: 'Beginners', 'Bunraku', and 'The Conspirator'

Screening schedules for the Toronto International Film Festival are now online.

Beginners, with Ewan McGregor:

Saturday September 11
9:00 PM
VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN)

Sunday September 12
3:00 PM
RYERSON

Sunday September 19
9:30 PM
SCOTIABANK THEATRE 1

Bunraku, featuring Kevin McKidd:

Saturday September 11
11:59 PM
RYERSON

Tuesday September 14
10:15 PM
SCOTIABANK THEATRE 2

Friday September 17
5:00 PM
SCOTIABANK THEATRE 2

The Conspirator starring James McAvoy:

Saturday September 11
6:30 PM
ROY THOMSON HALL

Sunday September 12
12:00 PM
RYERSON

Sunday September 19
2:45 PM
VARSITY 8

Toronto 2010 line-up revealed; includes 'Beginners' and 'The Conspirator'

The Toronto International Film Festival announced (via Awards Daily) part of its 2010 line-up this morning. Robert Redford's The Conspirator (starring James McAvoy) will have its world premiere at the festival's gala program and Mike Mills' Beginners (starring Ewan McGregor) will have its world premiere at the special presentation program. The 35th annual film festival runs from September 9 and September 19. The festival will announce more titles in the coming weeks and you can head on over to indieWIRE for the complete list from today's announcement.

First look at 'The Conspirator'

USA Today has a first look at Robert Redford's The Conspirator and includes some film stills featuring James McAvoy.

James McAvoy (Atonement) stars as a decorated Union soldier who reluctantly agrees to defend one of the accused, boarding-house owner Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), whose son was the lone conspirator to escape the manhunt.

"There was a question of whether she was complicit, guilty by association, or even more guilty," says Redford, who directs but doesn't star in the movie. "The lawyer that defended her didn't want to defend her. He was a Union soldier who became a lawyer." His contempt for the suspect gives way to a fear that she is being prosecuted solely to bring her fugitive son out of hiding.

..."He barely survived the war. He was very heroic and won medals for bravery in the field, and comes back and wants to go back into law, and right away he's pulled into this case because no one else will defend this woman," Redford says.

...The Conspirator is independently financed and doesn't yet have a distributor. It's the first project made by the American Film Co., which plans to create historical dramas. [Anthony Breznican]

You can get even more information on The Conspirator over at the American Film Company.

All photos by Claudette Barius, ©The American Film Company Productions

New James McAvoy interviews: New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald

James was interviewed by Melena Ryzik at The New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekend back in January, and now, finally, the audio interview is online. It's a really great interview so if you want to listen just head on over to The New York Times website.

There's also a new interview James did with Time Out Sydney (via JMMB) to promote The Last Station which opens on April 1 in Australia. Below is an excerpt from the interview.

Your wife [Anne-Marie Duff] is in the film too. You must be excited to have a baby on the way.
Very excited! All the usual nerves, but we're very excited.

You've just completed The Conspirator. How was it being directed by Robert Redford?
The weirdest thing about Robert is that he forces you to call him ‘Bob'. It's a bit like calling Prince Charles ‘Chuck'.

Rumours are rife on the internet that you've been cast in The Hobbit. Are you Bilbo Baggins?
No, I'm not. I can tell you that for a fact. [Nick Dent]

Another interview with the Sydney Morning Herald:

McAvoy had been keen on the role for years, sticking with the project even as his own profile was raised significantly through not only The Last King of Scotland (2006) and Wanted (2008) but also Atonement (2007) and Becoming Jane (2007).

''It was one of those things that when the film finally came back and they said they had an opportunity to get it off the ground again, a lot of people expected me to say, 'No thanks, I've moved on in my career and I'm doing better now,''' McAvoy recalls. ''But there was no reason not to do it - it was a brilliant script and you shouldn't turn your back on good work.''

The work, adapted from a novel by Jay Parini, relies on the diaries kept by those who orbited Tolstoy.

''A lot of people might think that the high-strung portrayal of that household might be over the top or even made up but it really was like that,'' McAvoy says. ''It might not have been as funny as we portray it sometimes but it all went down like that. My character kept multiple diaries, so you could find an entry that reflected how your character felt in relation to a scene in the film.

''You knew that he wrote that down that very evening, just hours after the event.'' [SMH]

James McAvoy's 'Last Station' interview + new 'Last Station' clips

James McAvoy recently did an interview and talked about his role in The Last Station and working with actors Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, and Paul Giamatti. Both Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer were nominated for Golden Globes earlier today in the Best Actress, Drama and the Best Supporting Actor categories for The Last Station. You can mosey on over to Awards Daily for the full list of nominees.

An excerpt of the interview is below and you can read the full interview here.

Back Stage: You were speaking with Michael Hoffman about this film long ago. How did the role finally become yours?

James McAvoy: There was a point when I wasn't certain the job was being offered to me—probably because nobody knew who I was. But he knew who I was, enough that he liked my work, I think. But the job still wasn't an offer. Anyway, he couldn't get the film made, and then by the time that it came back around, he could offer me the job.

Back Stage: Do you know why he was interested in you in particular?

McAvoy: I think he thought I was a good person at playing the lead role in something in which the lead character wasn't the focal point, and that was the case with "The Last King of Scotland"—playing that guy who carries you through the film, even though he's not the sort of über-figure in that film.

Back Stage: And you have a purity onscreen.

McAvoy: It's just something I think I've been able to do, that people have picked up on. And when you do something once, people kind of go, "Well, that's what you can do." It's a nice quality to portray, and I like that. But I can't lie: There will be a part of me that goes, "Ya, I want to play a bad guy; I want to play nasty people." And actually I've played quite a few egotistical people as well, and that's something that I'm quite interested in. Ego is something that I think is quite a fun thing to play. [Backstage via James McAvoy Message Board]

Some new clips with James from The Last Station are now online. I can't embed them so be sure to go here and here to watch them.

There's also a little bit of news on The Conspirator. The film, which has been shooting in Savannah since October, wraps today. Savannah is being used to substitute for 1860s Washington, D.C. The film centers on Mary Surratt's trial after she is accused of conspiring to kill President Lincoln.

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James McAvoy does press for 'The Last Station'

Below are a few photos of James from the November 22 press conference for The Last Station in New York. You can head on over here to check out the full set.




A new clip from the film is now online, but sorry folks, I can't embed it. You can watch it over on YouTube.

James also did an interview and discussed working on The Last Station and The Conspirator. Here's an excerpt from the interview:

JAMES MCAVOY has refused to work with actress wife Anne-Marie Duff in case they become "a target".

The Scots actor feared they would suffer in the spotlight the same way Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez or Liz Taylor and Richard Burton did.

But the couple - who met on the set of Channel 4's comedy Shameless - are finally appearing on the big screen together.

James, 30, said: "We've been offered a hell of a lot of parts playing opposite each other in films and TV and we just turn them down.

"If you do work together you put yourself up, you make yourself a target and you make your relationship a target and all of that. We're very keen not to do that.

"But in The Last Station we don't play opposite each other in the film. We don't really act with each other hardly at all."

James added: "It was nice to spend those two months together rather than spending those two months apart, while she's off somewhere doing God knows what and I'm off somewhere doing God knows what. So it was fine. It was quite easy with this one."

He's currently working on Oscar-winning director Robert Redford's latest film The Conspirator...He admitted Redford is working him hard - asking him to ditch his Scots accent and speak with an American one, even off the set.

"Bob wants me to stay in an American accent all the time," he winced. "I'm trying to but I just can't be bothered all the time.

"I'm trying to make Bob happy, but that's an exhausting task.

"I'll get there eventually, hopefully, one day. So, no. I'm not particularly method with either my accents or my acting."

..."This is the first time I've ever made a decision based on something else and that was partly because of Robert Redford. I wanted to work with him because he's a great director and has made some incredible movies." [The Daily Record via ONTD!]

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Photos courtesy: WireImage

'The Last Station' release date and LA screenings, AFI Fest 'Last Station' tickets still available, and 'Conspirator' set photos

The Last Station will reportedly be in limited release on December 4 in the US, and you can view a press release for the film in PDF format. There are spoilers, so don't read it if you don't want to be spoiled.

There will be a Los Angeles screening of The Last Station on Saturday, November 7, and a Q&A will be held immediately after. There are some details on screening locations and tickets:

The screening will take place at 6 p.m. at:
The Pacific Design Center
8687 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(validated parking)

To RSVP, please call 323-634-7031 or send an email to: rsvp@bk-pr.com. Make sure you include "The Last Station" in the subject line.

On the AFI Fest front, tickets for The Last Station screening are still available in same day rush line seats and patron passes for the opening on November 3 at 7pm and November 7 at 3pm. The November 3 screening follows the tribute to Christopher Plummer at the Mann Chinese Theater 1. You can go here to reserve tickets.

Below are photos of James McAvoy and his co-star Justin Long from Friday night's shoot of The Conspirator:










Photo credit: Michael Edde

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James McAvoy and Alexis Bledel kiss on the set of 'The Conspirator'

Alexis Bledel plays Catherine Morgan, James McAvoy's wife in the film, and there's footage of them shooting the kiss:



There are more photos of James on the set for you to check out here. It looks like all his photos are on the last page.

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Updates on 'The Last Station' and 'The Conspirator'

There are some lovely photos of James McAvoy from The Last Station that made their way online last week (via JMMB) and you can have a look at them in PDF format here, here, and here.

Focus Features International (FFI) will handle international sales of The Conspirator. CAA already has the North American rights to the film. So, there won't be distribution issues this time.

There's a photo of James McAvoy and his Conspirator co-star Evan Rachel Wood from last week:


There's another photo of James from today's shoot here. The film's crew will be shooting in downtown Savannah in Orleans square on Tuesday night. The scenes will involve shooting off fireworks periodically throughout the evening.

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Day 2 on 'The Conspirator' set

There's footage from the 2nd day of shooting, with James McAvoy shooting scenes and fans discussing their experiences on the set. Check it out:



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Clips from 'The Last Station' and news from 'The Conspirator' set

The UK release date for The Last Station has now been set for February 19.

There are spoilers in the new English language clips, so don't watch if you don't want to be spoiled:











The Conspirator began shooting today in downtown Savannah (thanks to the folks over at IMDb for pointing us to all this info). Savannah is being used as a replacement for Washington D.C. in 1865. There were production tucks near Taylor and Barnard Streets and there were tourists in the area. Shooting is set to end on December 15.

You can watch reaction from tourists and locals today:



There's also some footage from the shoot:



There are lots of photos with James McAvoy from the set:

Photo credit: Emily Goldman/Savannah Morning News

You can also check out lots more photos of James here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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