Weekly schedule for Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

Mo 5/31: Morgan Freeman, Kate Mara (R 5/3/10)
Tu 6/1: Willie Nelson, Ellie Kemper (R 4/16/10)
We 6/2: Evangeline Lilly, Charlyne Yi, Laraf
Th 6/3: Jamy Ian Swiss, Jeff Stilson
Fr 6/4: Jay Mohr, Ed Alonzo

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James McAvoy to play Professor X in 'X-Men: First Class'

James McAvoy has been cast as a young Professor X/Charles Xavier in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class. 20th Century Fox has set a June 3, 2011 release. Shooting is scheduled to begin this summer in London.

According to Fox, “First Class” will “chart the epic beginning of the X-Men saga. Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were the closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.” [Heat Vision]

Sony picks up UK rights to 'Retreat' with David Tennant

David Tennant had been reportedly attached to star in Retreat, and now Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has obtained the UK rights the film. Shooting was reported to have been originally scheduled to start in May in Canada, but now it could shoot sometime in the summer in North Wales:

Dave G Bishop, Head of Acquisitions, Northern Europe, SPHE, said, “We’re excited to be working with Magnet Films on this fantastic project. Carl Tibbets has written a thrilling script that keeps you guessing to the very end and with such great British acting talent attached, we’re confident the film will be both a critical and commercial success.”

Gary Sinyor, Managing Director, Magnet Films, added, “Retreat has the potential to be not just a crowd pleaser, but also a critical success based on the intelligent page-turner of a script and the marquee cast." [Screen Daily via David-Tennant.com]

John Hannah promotes 'Spartacus: Blood And Sand'

John Hannah has been busy doing press for Spartacus: Blood And Sand in the UK (it premiered tonight on Bravo) and some of his interviews are below.

John on Frost Over the World:


John on GMTV:


An excerpt from an interview with Digital Spy:

What attracted you to Spartacus?
"As an actor it was completely different from everything else I'd done, in terms of the content and in terms of the character. It was nearer theatre than any kind of contemporary TV that I'd done, and I think the American cable channels have been doing some fantastic work recently with things like Rome, The Sopranos and Deadwood and stuff like that. It's very much in that kind of range. So it was a no-brainer really. Once I'd read the script I was desperate to do it."

Can you explain a little bit about your character Batiatus?
"Historically the lanistas [gladiator managers] were looked down upon by society while being deeply revered, in the way that football managers are. A little bit like brothel keepers, they were sort of needed but you would not necessarily want to be seen with them in daylight. Like second-hand car salesmen, once they do well enough these guys want to become a little bit more establishment. As the show develops, Batiatus does start seeking higher positions. And he'll do anything to get there. He's incredibly manipulative, incredibly evil. At the same time, he's also a nice guy - he's trying to have a kid with his missus and he wants to have a family and all of that, but he'll think nothing of killing competitors and getting rid of them in any way that's required for him to get on."

You're well-known for your roles in romantic comedies. Do you think people will be surprised by your role in this show?
"I hope so. I'm sure people are savvy enough these days to realise that actors as individuals would like to do different things in the same way that they don't want to see the same people doing the same things all the time. And also just as a TV viewer myself I'm kind of bored with the same kind of things being on TV. This is something incredibly different-looking, incredibly different in content. And I think that's why it's been such a hit. I think the TV-watching public in this country are sick of everything being a bit soapy, a bit detectivey. Lawyers and doctors and hospitals and pubs..." [Catriona Wightman]

Billy Boyd at the Glasgow 'Pimp' premiere

Billy did a red carpet interview (via Basically Billy Boyd) with Beverley Lyons at the premiere of Pimp. I can't embed the video, but you can go to The Daily Record to watch the interview. You can also watch a clip from the film below:

Sydney Film Festival schedule includes 'Alice Creed' and 'The Ghost Writer'

The 57th annual Sydney Film Festival runs from June 2 to June 14 and the festival's screening schedule is now available.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed with Martin Compston will premiere on Saturday, June 5 at 8:15pm at Event Cinema 8. The film's second screening is on Tuesday, June 8 at 8:45pm at Dendy Opera Quays 2.



The Ghost Writer with Ewan McGregor will have its Australian premiere on Sunday, June 13 at 9:30pm at the State Theatre. The second screening is on Monday, June 14 at 4:45pm at Event Cinema 8. Ewan McGregor might attend the film's premiere. Tickets for the second screening have already been sold out, but as of now, tickets for the premiere are still available. Head on over to the Sydney Film Festival website for more information on tickets.

Ewan McGregor: 'Don Quixote' not officially confirmed?

Over a week ago director Terry Gilliam revealed that Ewan McGregor would star in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Now, it appears that the film hasn't entirely gotten off the ground. Ewan spoke to MTV at last Wednesday's 30th anniversary screening of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back and pretty much said that Don Quixote may happen and he's interested in starring in it.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Weekly schedule for Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

Mo 5/24: Ben Stein, Mishka, Craig Shoemaker
Tu 5/25: Kristin Davis, Judd Apatow
We 5/26: Antonio Banderas, Paula Poundstone
Th 5/27: Michael Sheen, Band of Horses
Fr 5/28: Jeffrey Ross, the National

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Ewan McGregor at the 30th anniversary of 'The Empire Strikes Back'

Ewan attended the 30th anniversary screening of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back at the Arclight Cinema in Hollywood yesterday. The screening benefited the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Education Outreach at Chicago's Field Museum, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation as part of the Empire Gives Back charity. The screening raised more than $40,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital:

The event marked a rare Star Wars event appearance by Ford, who was joined by fellow big screen saga luminaries Billy Dee Williams (Lando), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), and Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan). From the animated realm of The Clone Wars, James Arnold Taylor (Obi-Wan), Catherine Taber (Padmé), Matt Lanter (Anakin), Jaime King (Aurra Sing). Cary Silver (producer) and Dave Filoni (supervising director) were in attendance. [StarWars.com via Best of Ewan]

You can also watch a brief red carpet interview with Ewan at about 1:44 here.

First official look at Kevin McKidd in 'The Great Ghost Rescue'

Shooting has been going on for a couple of weeks now and some exclusive stills featuring Kevin were released over at Empire a few days ago. The Great Ghost Rescue is an adaptation of Eva Ibbotson's children's novel and will probably be released in 2011 in the UK. Photos with Kevin McKidd as Hamish are posted below.

Henry Ian Cusick talks the 'Lost' finale

The Lost cast has been doing some promotion for the series finale, and Henry Ian Cusick talked to the press at an ABC/Disney press event on Sunday.

Henry talks about the final day of shooting:



Excerpts from two interviews (via Cusickgallery.net) are below.

You can check out the full interview with ComingSoon at the source:

Q: With three shows left is there anyway that the finale is going to satisfy all of the fans?
Cusick: Probably not all of the fans. I think that's an impossible task.

Q: Do you think it will please general "Lost" fans?
Cusick: What's great about the show is that there are so many talking points. There are so many walks of life getting together to talk about the show and so many issues to be brought up and that's exactly what the ending will bring up. People will be talking about it for weeks afterwards and that's what the show has always done.

...Q: Was there a question of the show that you had as fans that did get answered?
Cusick: There was a point in the show where I thought I don't care about the answers anymore. I knew what I wanted from the ending and what I wanted the message to be. I like this thing of it coming from a place of love and coming from a place of no fear. All of a sudden it just seemed a lot bigger. Small questions I just thought I don't care anymore. I don't care why I can see the future. It didn't matter. It just seemed to be bigger than that. [Heather Newgen]

Interview with HitFix:

Actually, there's some confusion as to whether or not Cusick does, in fact, know how "Lost" ends.

"I think in act 11 there is a secret scene that no one got," Cusick says. "Only the people who are in it, but nobody knows. Everyone is keeping very quiet about it."

...How did the writers explain Desmond's place in the season to the actor?

"They phone you up and say they don't need you. Oh, okay," Cusick recalls. "Basically the phone call was 'We don't need you except for the final seven [episodes] but you'll get a really cool storyline.' You have to just trust them." [Daniel Fienberg]

Ewan McGregor cast in Terry Gilliam's 'Don Quixote'

Terry Gilliam has cast Ewan McGregor in his second attempt at directing The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Back in 2000 the film was plagued by flash floods and injuries, and then shut down after a few days of production. Ewan McGregor will take over Johnny Depp's role as an ad executive who travels through time to 17th century Spain, and becomes Don Quixote's sidekick - Robert Duvall will be replacing Jean Rochefort as Don Quixote. Shooting is expected to start in September. Gilliam talked a little about Ewan to Empire:

"And Ewan has gotten better over the years. He was wonderful in The Ghost. There's a lot of colours to Ewan that he's not been showing recently and it's time for him to show them again. He's got a great sense of humour and he's a wonderful actor. He's wonderfully boyish and can be charming - when he flashes a smile, everybody melts. He wields it like a nuclear bomb!" [Empire]

David Tennant news update: 'Rex' canned, 'Glorious 39' headed to the US + more

NBC did not pickup Rex is Not Your Lawyer for its upcoming fall season, so it's been scrapped.

In other news, David Tennant has been cast in Decoy Bride alongside Alice Eve and Kelly MacDonald. The project was announced at the Cannes Film Festival last Friday and is set to start shooting for 5 weeks this June. It will shoot on the Isle of Man and in Scotland.

The Decoy Bride tells the story of a superstar actress, Lara (Eve), who just wants to marry her cute British boyfriend James (Tennant), and believes the sleepy Scottish Island of Hegg is the one place the world’s press won’t find them. But when an ingenious paparazzo tracks them down, the diva must find a decoy bride and thinks local girl Katie (MacDonald) will be an ideal replacement. But when Katie meets James, sparks fly. [ScreenDaily]

Glorious 39 which was released in the UK last year, is now headed to the US. No word yet on when it will be released. Thanks so much to mcfangirl for this information.

Finally, you can check out some photos of David Tennant on the Glasgow set of BBC drama, Single Father.

Happy birthday Craig Ferguson

Today is Craig's 48th birthday. If you want to leave him birthday wishes, you can Tweet him a message.