Peter Mullan: 'Sunshine On Leith' and 'Welcome to the Punch' interviews

"My singing is different"

Peter Mullan has joked he will "redefine" singing in his new film Sunshine On Leith.
The Scottish star will belt out some Proclaimers songs as he takes the lead role in Dexter Fletcher's big-screen musical adaptation, featuring Proclaimers hits including I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), I'm On My Way and Letter From America.
"I'm going to redefine singing as you know it. My voice is so different - you'll never hear a singer quite like it," he said.
Read more at Belfast Telegraph (includes photo above)


Peter Mullan interview - 'Welcome To the Punch' UK premiere

Published on Mar 5, 2013
Source: YouTube

James McAvoy: interviews

James McAvoy: 'Esquire UK' Feature April 2013 

 

James McAvoy shows off his piercing blue eyes in this brand new feature from Esquire UK‘s April 2013 issue, featuring cover girl Rachel Weisz.
Here is what the 33-year-old Welcome To The Punch actor had to share with the mag:
On being a geek at heart: “I am a nerd but I don’t dive head-first into any fiefdom of nerdiness, except for maybe Star Trek.”
On his new film Welcome to the Punch: “Don’t get me wrong. I love British cinema, but there’s also a place for ostentatious, balls-out entertainment.”
On the skill of playing audiences: “Big year, really, for me, in terms of getting to play somebody that challenges the audience more than I have done in the past. As an actor, you’ve got to try and make the audience like you, even if you’re doing bad things. I quite like that dynamic.”
The full interview appears in the April issue of Esquire UK, on newsstands now, and is also available as a digital edition!
Source (including photo): Just Jared

James McAvoy on Macbeth and Welcome to the PunchJames McAvoy in new film 'Welcome to the Punch'. Picture: Contributed

His new life role as a dad took James McAvoy off our screens for a while but now he’s back, busy and doing as much ‘growing up’ as his two-year-old son.
Stroking a dagger-shaped (and faintly ginger) beard, James McAvoy is ruminating on the odder, insider-y aspects of his career – the foibles of friends, the strange relations with your family, the quirky casting choices, the methods of collaborators.
Read more at Scotland on Sunday


Listen again: James McAvoy on heat radio

From HeatWorld Radio:

This week on heatworld Saturday we were joined by the lovely, handsome James McAvoy. He stars with Mark Strong in new cops & robbers movie Welcome to the Punch which is out in cinemas next Friday. Lucie Cave went along to a posh hotel to chat to James about all things filmy, beardy and manly.

Source (including photo): Heatworld


James McAvoy - Interview


After a couple of years off, James McAvoy has the leading role in three big British films in 2013. First is the American-style London cop thriller Welcome to the Punch, opposite Mark Strong, then he teams up with Danny Boyle for the action movie Trance, and later this year he leads the starry cast of Filth, based on the notorious Irvine Welsh novel. Meanwhile, he's been getting rave reviews in the title role in Shakespeare's Macbeth on a London West End stage before he rejoins the X-men for the super-sequel Days of Future Past.
Read the full interview at Contact Music

James McAvoy: 'Macbeth' review, 'Neverwhere' teaser, 'Welcome to the Punch' trailer, 'Crow' update

Macbeth

photo source: Express

A review of James McAvoy's Macbeth has been published by The Express


Neverwhere
From Radio Times:

James McAvoy in Neverwhere teaser trailer: "I'm not going mad. Am I?" 
Listen to a snippet of the upcoming Radio 4 drama starring McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch and Christopher Lee
James McAvoy introduces us to his Neverwhere character Richard Mayhew in this brand new clip from the BBC Radio 4 drama.
Adapted from award-winning author Neil Gaiman’s novel, Neverwhere sees Mayhew catapulted from his ordinary life into a subterranean world beneath London following an act of kindness.
“I helped a girl called Door, now something strange has happened and it's like I'm falling through gaps,” laments McAvoy in the clip. “I need to get back…my life. I’m not going mad. Am I?!”
As well as McAvoy, Neverwhere features an all-star cast including Benedict Cumberbatch, Anthony Head, Bernard Cribbins and Christopher Lee.

Read more and listen to the trailer at Radio Times 


Welcome To The Punch
Official trailer

Source: YouTube
Photos  - FanCarpet has some new photos from Welcome To The Punch here.

The Crow
From Digital Spy:

James McAvoy dismisses 'The Crow' rumours
James McAvoy has dismissed rumours linking him with the lead role in the proposed remake of The Crow. The X-Men: First Class star described the reports as "rumour mill" but did not rule out appearing in the film should he be approached. 

Read more at Digital Spy

James McAvoy: 'Welcome to the Punch' screening and QA, plus 'Trance' trailer

Welcome to the Punch + Q&A with James McAvoy
3 March, 2013 at 5:45 pm
BFI, London

Eran Creevy’s second feature brings together a superb British cast for this high-octane thriller.
With James McAvoy, Mark Strong, Andrea Riseborough, David Morrissey, Peter Mullan

Courtesy of eOne Momentum

After his highly acclaimed, micro-funded debut, Shifty (2008), writer-director Eran Creevy’s second feature brings together a superb British cast for this high-octane thriller. Jacob Sternwood (Strong) is forced out of hiding when his son is hospitalised, presenting detective Max Lewinsky (McAvoy) with one last chance to put this notorious criminal behind bars. However, as Lewinsky draws in on his target, both he and Sternwood find themselves entwined in a conspiracy that runs much deeper than their own conflict.
Source: BFI


Danny Boyle's 'Trance': James McAvoy Blows Minds, Literally...and Gorily — NSFW Trailer

From Hollywood.com:

And now for something completely crazy: the trailer for Danny Boyle’s upcoming hypnotism/art-world thriller, Trance (in limited release April 5). The Slumdog Millionaire director seems to be creating a psychotic hybrid of Inception and The Thomas Crown Affair in which James McAvoy plays a sap who undergoes hypnosis by a scheming Rosario Dawson.
He’s either hypnotized into unwittingly helping Dawson and her fellow baddies steal a painting or he’s undergoing a second round of hypnosis to unpack and recover memories from a heist he’s already had purged from his consciousness. If you ask us, McAvoy’s cryptic response to whether he’s ever submitted to hypnosis before—“Uh, no, at least not that I can remember”—favors the latter interpretation. Either way, Boyle is abandoning his Slumdog and 127 Hours Oscar-bat schmaltz and heading back into nasty, gnarly Shallow Grave and Trainspotting territory. Blood spurts. Fingernails are ripped out. Nubile bodies are on display. And people can still talk even after having half their noggin blown off. (Be forewarned, that list image, occurring at the 1:12 is really grisly.)
Thought that Boyle couldn’t get any crazier than when he had a Mary Poppins army battle a giant, inflatable Voldemort at the Olympics Opening Ceremony last summer? Looks like he’s topped himself.

Check out this slightly NSFW (courtesy of the bloody mayhem) clip:

Read more at Hollywood.com

James McAvoy: Comic Relief, 'Welcome to the Punch' and 'Trance' news

James red-dy for Comic cash bash

Red-dy ... James McAvoy in Stella McCartney designed T-shirt

Movie star James McAvoy nose how to do his bit for charity — backing this year’s Comic Relief. The Last King of Scotland actor teamed up with designer Stella McCartney to show off her new range for the fundraising drive.
And 33-year-old Shameless star James posed in a T-shirt featuring comedy legend Tommy Cooper — complete with oversize specs and the charity’s famous red nose.
The range, on sale at TK Maxx, also includes images of The Beatles and Marilyn Monroe.

Read more at The Sun 

Welcome to the Punch Photos with James McAvoy and Mark Strong
IFC Films has provided us with four new photos from Welcome to the Punch, writer-director Eran Creevy's drama that takes us inside the London crime underworld. James McAvoy portrays Max Lewinsky, a detective who has missed every chance to put away notorious criminal Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong). When Jacob pops back on the grid during a bank robbery, Max springs into action to lock him up for good. Take a look at these photos featuring Mark Strong, Johnny Harris, and Peter Mullan.





Welcome to the Punch comes to theaters March 15th, 2013 and stars James McAvoy, Andrea Riseborough, Mark Strong, David Morrissey, Peter Mullan, Daniel Mays, Johnny Harris, Steve Oram. The film is directed by Eran Creevy.
Source (including photos): Movie Web

According to Indie Wire ...

James McAvoy's Welcome To The Punch gets U.S. theatrical & VOD release In March
IFC Flims has given the picture a March 27th limited theatrical date with a VOD bow to follow three days later on March 30th.

Read more at Indie Wire



First Look: James McAvoy in ‘Trance’

Danny Boyle’s Trance stars James McAvoy as an art-auctioneer who nicks a painting but forgets where he put it – so he hires a hypnotherapist, played by Rosario Dawson, to find clues hidden in his brain.
It’s due out 27 March 2013 in the UK and Ireland and will have a limited release in the US from 5 April 2013.
Source: Showbiz Geek

WorstPreviews has all three posters here

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

James McAvoy: 'Welcome to the Punch' trailer

'Welcome to the Punch': James McAvoy hunts Mark Strong in new trailer

Welcome to the Punch has debuted its first trailer.

The video sets up the hunt between James McAvoy's detective Max Lewinsky and Mark Strong's exiled master criminal Jacob Sternwood.

The film centres on Sternwood, who returns from exile to rescue his critically wounded son from hospital.

Lewinsky's single-minded attempt to make the most of this opportunity to capture his foe slowly gives way as he realises there is more to the case than meets the eye.



David Morrissey, Andrea Riseborough, Elyes Gabel, Peter Mullan and Daniel Mays also feature in the Eran Creevy-directed British thriller.

Welcome to the Punch will arrive in cinemas on March 15.

Source: Digital Spy

James McAvoy: movie updates

Trance set photos
This series of set photos gives us our first look at James McAvoy in Danny Boyle's current film project Trance. The photos were provided by Boyle himself on his Facebook page.  

The movie is a thriller that tells a story about about an art heist gone wrong, and it's also been described as having the same dark, sexy, hard-edged tone of Boyle's other films like Shallow Grave and Trainspotting.

The movie will be released by Fox Searchlight on March of 2013. As a fan of Boyle's work, I'm looking forward to seeing how this one turns out!
Source (with more photos): Geek Tyrant



Welcome to the Punch gets a release date 
James McAvoy is starring alongside the likes of Mark Strong in Welcome To The Punch, which is now lined up for a March 15th 2013 release date.  

Welcome To The Punch finds ex-criminal Jacob Sternwood (Strong) forced to return to London when his son is involved in a heist gone wrong. This gives his nemesis, detective Max Lewinsky (McAvoy), one last chance to catch the man he’s always been after. As the two enemies hurtle towards an unavoidable face off, they start to uncover a deeper conspiracy they both need to solve in order to survive.

Written and directed by London born film maker, Eran Creevy, Welcome to the Punch was filmed across the London and was given unprecedented access to Canary Wharf.
Source: The Movie Bit
 James McAvoy film 'not humble'

James McAvoy has said his new thriller doesn't feel like a British movie.
The actor stars in London-based movie Welcome To The Punch, the second film by British writer/director Eran Creevy.
But X-Men star James told Empire magazine: "The script didn't feel like it had the humility and humbleness of a British film
"Don't get me wrong - I love British film and I love gritty, British drama. But we're not trying to go, 'This is the real world.' We're going, 'Here's a... rip-roaring, really emotionally powerful piece of entertainment,' you know?"
James plays troubled Detective Max Lewinsky in the film, due out next year, which also stars Mark Strong.
The director told the mag that James was prepared to make his character unlikeable.
"A lot of actors would say, 'I can't be seen doing this!' James is like, 'I'll do that. I want him to be arrogant and pig-headed and bitter'," he said.
Source: UKPA

'Welcome To The Punch' with James McAvoy gets 15 March 2013 U.K. release date

For fans of gritty British crime dramas, of which there are many, Eran Creevy’s Welcome to the Punch looks very promising. It’s got a top-notch cast of talent including James McAvoy, Mark Strong, David Morrissey, Andrea Riseborough and Peter Mullan, and a pretty crackerjack story, with the ingredients lining up for a promising picture. And while we wait for a stateside date, things are moving right along overseas.

While IFC Films picked up the rights for the film in the United States last week, Creevy has tweeted that Welcome to the Punch will hit cinemas on March 15, 2013 in the U.K. No word on what that means for the U.S. and other territories, but chances are pretty good we could see this one at Sundance or even SXSW in 2013. 

Based on Creevy's Brit List script, the story follows an ex-criminal who is forced to return to London from his Icelandic hideaway when his son is involved in a heist gone wrong. This gives a dogged detective one last chance to catch the man he’s always been after.

Read more at IndieWire 

James McAvoy: movie updates

• Welcome To The Punch

IFC Films acquires rights to James McAvoy-led Welcome To The Punch

FC Films announced today the company is acquiring all U.S. rights to director Eran Creevy’s action thriller Welcome To The Punch from Worldview Entertainment. The film, which was also written by Creevy, stars James McAvoy, Mark Strong, and Andrea Riseborough. The project was produced by Rory Aitken and Ben Pugh of Between the Eyes and Brian Kavanaugh Jones of Automatik. Worldview’s Christopher Woodrow, Molly Conners, Maria Cestone and Sarah Johnson Redlich executive produced with Ridley Scott and Liza Marshall of Scott Free Productions, Xavier Marchand of Momentum Pictures, and Stuart Ford of IM Global.

In Welcome To the Punch, former criminal Jacob Sternwood (Strong) is forced to return to London from his Icelandic hideaway when his son is involved in a heist gone wrong. This gives detective Max Lewinsky (McAvoy) one last chance to catch the man he has always been after. As they face off, they start to uncover a deeper conspiracy they both need to solve in order to survive.

Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, said: “Welcome To the Punch is an ingenious action thriller featuring some of the best actors working today including James MacAvoy, Mark Strong and Andrea Riseborough. Eran Creevy made a huge mark with Shifty but he's really arrived with Welcome To The Punch. We could not be more excited to partner with him and a who's who of international partners including Ben Pugh and Rory Aitken of Between the Eye Productions, Brian Kavanaugh Jones of Automatik, our friends at Scott Free Productions, Stuart Ford and his team at IM Global, Alliance Films and Worldview Entertainment.”

Read more at Broadway World

• The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby

Glamour Magazine have shared another photo of James McAvoy filming in New York here 

James McAvoy: movies updates

Movie updates:

• Filth resumed shooting on 13 Feb and there have been several set photos and observations shared online.

The James McAvoy Message Board share photos and comments from the set here and here. 

More on set pics from Deadline News and Scotsman  

• Welcome to the Punch is rumoured (via Twitter) to be screened at the Berlin Film Festival, according to someone on the James McAvoy Message Board 

• More about the X-Men:First Class sequel 

MTV News recently caught up with the sequel's screenwriter Simon Kinberg at the première of his latest film, "This Means War," where we discussed his plans for Magneto, Xavier and the rest. 

"I don’t know what the title is going to be but certainly I’m working on the sequel to 'X-Men: First Class' right now," Kinberg said. "I’m going to be writing and producing it, I’m starting now, with Matthew Vaughn directing." 

When asked about what he enjoys most about incorporating so many characters into the story, Kinberg first emphasized his fanboy-ness, along with excitement to further explore the many layers of Magneto and Charles Xavier. 

"I’m a huge X-Men fan. I grew up loving the comic books and it was really exciting to be able to do the origin story of Xavier and Magneto, and getting those two actors, [James] McAvoy and [Michael] Fassbender, were really amazing," he said. "So being able to explore those characters with actors of that quality will be exciting a second time around, and doing some things unexpected with those characters, which is the plan." 

Kinberg went on to say that while they're still in the early stages of story-planning, the second film will likely involve a lot more Magneto. 

"That’s what was so cool about the first one and what we want to continue," Kinberg said of exploring the supervillain's tortured beginnings. "Magneto becomes the villain ultimately of the franchise but he’s a much more complicated character as a young man. He’s someone you sympathize with, you care about you root for even though might not necessarily agree with his methods, you understand his philosophy." 

So with the sequel will Magneto still be bridging the gap between good and bad or will he be a full-on villain? 

"We’re still figuring that out. I think the truth is ultimately that because Michael is such an interesting actor, he’ll never be full-on anything. He’ll have a villainous side and he’ll have a sympathetic human side you’ll be able to relate but you’ll also be afraid of him. He becomes Magneto, he says 'Call me Magneto' at the end of the first movie." 

Watch the interview at MTV

First look at James McAvoy in 'Welcome To The Punch' and in 'Filth'

How did the UK film-makers behind Welcome To The Punch attract an A-list cast, top financiers and Ridley Scott? Made for just $153,000 (£100,000) under Film London’s Microwave scheme in 2008, Eran Creevy’s Shifty was one of the most impressive UK debut features in recent years. With a sharpness that belied its micro-budget origins, the urban crime thriller scored a Bafta nomination and put Creevy and his producers, Ben Pugh and Rory Aitken of London-based Between The Eyes, into the industry spotlight.

Their follow-up, Welcome To The Punch, is now in post. The film is an action thriller about a London detective (James McAvoy) and an ex-criminal (Mark Strong) forced to return from his Icelandic hideaway, who become allies in a bid to expose a high-level conspiracy. The cast also includes Andrea Riseborough and Peter Mullan.

Read more at Screen Daily




Take a look at James McAvoy in Filth



It’s been a long old while since one of Irvine Welsh’s scabrous black comedies was adapted for the big screen, but fans of Filth will be pleased to see that James McAvoy looks suitably dissolute in the latest images from the forthcoming movie adaptation.

McAvoy plays Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson, an Edinburgh policeman with an unfortunate predilection for booze, drugs and sexually abusive relationships.

As Christmas approaches, Robertson is hoping for a nice long blow-out to indulge his various vices, but the matter of a missing wife and child and a racially fraught murder case soon complicate matters.

With a tapeworm Robertson develops serving as one of the novel’s narrators, the subject material is anything but conventional, so Scottish director Jon S. Baird will likely have his work cut out for him. However, he does have a rather excellent cast to work with, with McAvoy supported by Jamie Bell, Joanne Froggatt, Eddie Marsan, Jim Broadbent and Imogen Poots.

Filth is expected to arrive in the latter part of 2012, although no release date has been confirmed as yet. Could it be a worthy successor to Trainspotting? Let’s hope so.

Source: Total Film

James McAvoy - Welcome to the Punch / Xmen First Class

James McAvoy begins filming Welcome To The Punch in London
Last Wednesday (20 July) it was announced that principal photography has begun for director Eran Creevy's Welcome To The Punch. Starring James McAvoy, Mark Strong and Andrea Riseborough, the film will shoot in 3 Mills Studios and on location in and around London, England.

Welcome To The Punch finds ex-criminal Jacob Sternwood (Strong) forced to return to London from his Icelandic hideaway when his son is involved in a heist gone wrong. This gives his nemesis, detective Max Lewinsky (McAvoy), one last chance to catch the man he's always been after. As the two enemies hurtle towards an unavoidable face off, they start to uncover a deeper conspiracy they both need to solve in order to survive.

Read more at The Fan Carpet




“X-Men: First Class” Hits DVD and Blu-ray on September 9th

Fox has announced that they will release Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class onto DVD and Blu-ray on September 9th, a mere three months after hit theaters. The film will be offered in two different cases: one features James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier and the other has Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr aka Magneto. The Blu-ray will include over two hours of special features, a digital copy of the film, ten Marvel X-Men digital comics including a new X-Men: First Class back story.

Source: JamesMcAvoy.org

James McAvoy joins Welcome to the Punch

James McAvoy is in final talks to star in the U.K. crime thriller Welcome to the Punch, which will likely be his follow-up to X-Men: First Class.

Eran Creevy (Shifty) will direct from his own screenplay. Little is known about the plot, except that it's a crime thriller which is being compared to Heat and Internal Affairs. Rory Aitken, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, and Ben Pugh will all produce. Production is scheduled to start in July, and is scheduled to reach theatres in 2012.

Source and more info: Movie Web

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