News and updates on the work of Scottish actors around the world.
Sky has today announced that Martin Clunes, Dougray Scott and Robson Green will appear in the fourth series of Strike Back.Read more at CultBox
Currently filming on location in South Africa and Hungary, the new ten-part series will air on Sky1 this summer.
Green (Soldier Soldier) will play Lt Colonel Philip Locke, a commanding officer in chief will join the Section 20 team, while Clunes (Doc Martin) will play Sebastian Gray, a former MI6 agent turned independent intelligence officer working in Beirut. Scott (Mission Impossible II) will play James Leatherby, a wealthy rogue operative and self-styled war junkie.
“Trainspotting” wasn’t so much released into theaters in 1996 as it was injected straight into moviegoers’ psyches, sending them spiraling into an ecstatic alternate reality full of sex, sewage, and Scottish slang. Over the ensuing decades, director Danny Boyle has hinted at the possibility of a sequel to the film that established him (and the film’s lead actor Ewan McGregor) as indelibly original creative talents. But it wasn’t until yesterday, during an appearance at 2013’s SXSW film and media confab, that Boyle confirmed that he had recruited McGregor and the rest of the gang to reunite for film to be “loosely” based on Irvine Welsh’s follow-up novel, Porno.Read more at Word & Film
"Our kids make us act like kids," said Ewan McGregor who plays knight Elmont in the 3-D action flick."And we act like kids together at work, and right now," Tucci added.When asked if they played hide and seek whilst filming, a very giggly McGregor said: "No! Have you played hide and seek here in the palace? No? Well you wouldn't have to look far."Hunger Games star Tucci however seemed keen to start a game, "alright well I'll start counting" he said, sending his co-star into fits of laughter.41-year-old McGregor confessed what made him scared as a child saying Doctor Who used to make him hide behind the sofa."Yeah I was scared about that, oh and the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was scary. Oh God, I still get scared by it."Climbing up bean stalks and riding horses posed some challenges for the duo as Tucci highlighted: "Oh yeah, a lot of things went wrong, we're lucky to be here", again sending McGregor into uncontrollable giggles."Inevitably someone would slip down the beanstalk or your sword would get caught. It wasn't the easiest of shoots."Tucci, who plays power-hungry villain Roderick, also confessed that he was not great at chasing girls saying he "ran across town once" and made a "phone call " to get the girl.
James McAvoy, best known as a film actor, proves a commanding Macbeth, and the relationship with his wife is powerfully caught. The text makes it clear that the couple had a child who died in infancy and McAvoy and Claire Foy as Lady Macbeth suggest both an undertow of grief and the sense that their murderous ambition is some kind of sick compensation for their loss.Read more here
At the start it is Foy’s Lady Macbeth who leads the way, like a bossy schoolgirl who has set her heart on becoming head-girl. Unlike his morally blind wife, however, Macbeth knows what murder will cost, and initially at least, has a strong sense of what is right. McAvoy thrillingly suggests a man on the rack of his own guilty mind who learns that the only way to secure his position and silence his conscience is to become inured to atrocity with further killings.
He also does full justice to the haunting poetry of the last act in which Macbeth realises just what he has lost - not least himself and any sense of purpose or meaning in life. It is the reason that Macbeth is a genuinely tragic character and not just a serial killer.
As anticipation mounts among fantasy fans ahead of the Radio 4/4 Extra co-production of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, RadioTimes.com can reveal the first exclusive shot of the star-studded cast, which reads like a who's who of cult TV and film.
Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch and X-Men's James McAvoy are joined by Game of Thrones and former Fades star Natalie Dormer, Doctor Who alumnus Sophie Okonedo and Homeland's David Harewood for the tale of London Below, an alternate reality beneath the capital where famous landmarks take on a life of their own.
Screen legends Christopher Lee and Bernard Cribbins also star in an adaptation that is being described as an "audio film".
The six-part series begins with an hour-long episode at 6pm on Saturday 16 March on Radio 4 and continues with five 30-minute instalments stripped across the week on Radio 4 Extra from Monday 18 March.
More photos and news to follow in the coming weeks...
Lost's Henry Ian Cusick may be found on The CW next season.
Cusick, who portrayed Desmond on the ABC island mystery series and also starred on Scandal's first season, has joined the cast of The Hundred. In the drama, nearly a century after a nuclear war has destroyed civilization, a spaceship sends 100 juvenile delinquents back to Earth to investigate the possibility of re-colonizing. Cusick will portray Kane, an ambitious officer aboard the spacecraft who has his eye on the top job.
The Hundred is based on the forthcoming Kass Morgan book of the same name.
Right now, also due to being in the wrong country — like this minute — I’m missing this, which arrived a few hours ago: [photo]Source: ComicBook.com
That’s left to right, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Harewood, Natalie Dormer, Dirk Maggs, James McAvoy, David Schofield and Anthony Head, all gathered today to record the BBC Radio 4/Radio 4 Extra production of NEVERWHERE.
(It’ll start on Radio 4 and then go over to Radio 4 extra.) The adaptation is by Dirk Maggs, who did the last three Hitchhiker’s Guide Radio adaptations. He’s co-directing it with producer Heather Larmour, who is the one who went off and made this happen after a small enthusiastic chat in a London coffee shop much earlier this year — the kind of conversation that you have that normally just leaves you feeling happy, but doesn’t actually turn into anything real. This time it did.
The cast includes…
James McAvoy RichardNatalie Dormer DoorDavid Harewood MarquisSophie Okonedo HunterBenedict Cumberbatch IslingtonAnthony Head CroupDavid Schofield VandemarBernard Cribbins Old BaileyRomola Garai JessicaChristopher Lee Earl of Earl’s CourtAndrew Sachs TooleyGeorge Harris AbbotDon Gilet Fulingous, Ruislip, BlackfriarAbdul Salis Sable, Sump, Clarence, Homeless ManPaul Chequer Gary, Guard 2Lucy Cohu LamiaYasmin Paige Anaesthesia, Tenant 2 – female, Match girlJohnny Vegas Lord RatspeakerStephen Marcus Varney, Homeless man, Letting agent, Guard 1Karen Archer Sylvia, Old Woman, Dream Hawker, Mother……and lots more (including an author, who recorded his bits last month). It will go out in six episodes.
Am I excited? I am. Very much so.
(Also, CHRISTOPHER LEE IS GOING TO BE SAYING LINES I WROTE. This makes me happier than I have any right to be.)
It will be broadcast somewhere in the first 4 months of 2013. And you will be able to listen to it wherever you are in the world, using the BBC’s iPlayer.
I’m currently listening to Tor Dot Com’s AMERICAN GODS MIX TAPE while I work on the HBO American Gods pilot episode. http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/11/the-complete-american-gods-mix-tape
Right. Back to work…
StorylineAn intense and erotic love is born out of loneliness and secret passion. The woman is married. The young soldier is starting to recover. She is not who he thinks she is. A film about the urgency of deceit and desire; seeing and not seeing.
It explores the lives of three lonely and damaged people, and the lies each tell themselves and others in order to escape into a more exciting and erotic world. This is also a film about the urgency of deceit and desire in the midst of illicit love, set among the bleak and haunting remnants of Glasgow's docks.
