Ewan McGregor's hectic schedule

By the end of June, Ewan McGregor will officially have shot no less than three films in 2008. He is currently shooting scenes opposite Oscar winner Hilary Swank in the upcoming biopic Amelia for Fox Searchlight. He had been asked by the film's producers to join the cast, but there were scheduling conflicts with his dark comedy I Love You Phillip Morris, opposite Jim Carey. The film with Carey will soon finish shooting and Ewan will start production of next year's The Da Vinci Code prequel, Angels and Demons, and will play Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca. Angels and Demons which begins production in June will be shot in Europe and Los Angeles. He will reportedly somehow manage to squeeze in Amelia into his already busy schedule. This also does not take into consideration the fact that Ewan has still not announced whether he will star in The Young Pretender or Mary Queen of Scots - both of which are scheduled to go into production this June.

Source: AHN, Slash Film
Photo from Slash Film

James McAvoy to star in the Hobbit?

I rarely post on Thursdays, but I just have to post this. Awards Daily pointed to this piece of news from ONTD!:

Scottish actor James McAvoy has been tipped to take the lead role in the new movie version of Lord Of The Rings prequel The Hobbit.

J.R.R. Tolkien's novel is set to be turned into a major blockbuster under the direction of Guillermo del Toro and filming is due to begin in New Zealand later this year.

Sir Ian McKellen will reprise his role as Gandalf and McAvoy is rumoured to be the favourite to take the lead role of hobbit Bilbo Baggins.

The character was played by Ian Holm in the previous films of the fantasy franchise, but he is due to be replaced by a high profile star for the new movie.

A source tells British newspaper the Daily Express, "A number of names have been doing the rounds, including Daniel Radcliffe and Jack Black, but James (McAvoy) is the one the film's bosses really want. They're expected to have talks soon so hopefully it could be confirmed in the not too distant future."

And director del Toro adds, "I can tell you it's down to a few names that we all agree upon. For our first choice, completely magically we all have the same name."

Quite a few McAvoy fans have thrown his name around for the role of Bilbo long before del Toro was even hired. I can't tell if this will help or hurt his career - could people only see him as a faun from the Narnia universe and not as a hobbit in Middle Earth? Will he only be remembered as Bilbo regardless of what he does after? Or will it just make him even more famous and respected like most of his recent films have done?

Source: Awards Daily, ONTD!
Photo from New Chatter

Robert Carlyle joins the cast of 24

This piece of news is about a week old, but I just found it on the Spoiler TV blog:

Sources confirm to me exclusively that Scottish thesp Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty) has been cast in Fox's upcoming 24 prequel movie as Benton, Jack's mentor in Africa.

As Fox announced this morning, the two-hour telepic, shot on location in South Africa, will air on Nov. 23 and bridge the gap between Day 6 and Day 7. Carlyle's role is not expected to spill over into the drama's seventh season, but, well, this being 24, nothing's set in stone.

Source: Spoiler TV
Photo from guardian.co.uk

Lost without Desmond...

Would be a nightmare - less intriguing (what is Lost without the intrigue), less sexy, and less Scottish. I'm getting cranky just thinking about it. Despite all this, Henry Ian Cusick, who plays Desmond, recently hinted that he may not stick around until the show's end:

"Since he's not one of the Oceanic Six, my thinking is he's on the island. I am guessing there are some survivors and if they have the Oceanic Six that wants to go back, I am guessing some people are alive on the island and maybe Desmond is part of it. Or maybe not. Does he find Penny? I don't know."

Then again, death on Lost isn't really what it seems - sometimes death is only the beginning on that show. Some, however are speculating that Desmond's fate won't be revealed in the season finale because Penny will appear in the episode, leaving audiences with yet another cliffhanger. Anyway, the two hour season finale of Lost is on tomorrow on ABC.

Source: Washington Post via Undeniable Destiny - A Henry Ian Cusick fansite
Photo from Lostpedia

First photos from Ewan McGregor's new biopic

Ewan McGregor and his costar Oscar winner Hilary Swank were photographed on the set of their upcoming film Amelia in Toronto, Canada on Sunday. The film, set for a 2009 release is currently shooting in New York and Toronto (Union Station and Toronto International airport specifically).

Hilary Swank stars as Amelia Earhart, the legendary American aviation pioneer, noted as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She disappeared in the summer of 1937. Ewan plays Eugene Vidal, the father of author Gore Vidal. Gene was the love of Amelia's life, and he also held the highest civilian post in aviation as the head of the Bureau of Air Commerce. The film is being directed by my favorite director Mira Nair, who makes incredible films and Hilary and Ewan are great actors. Maybe all that will finally mean an Oscar nomination for Ewan.

I honestly didn't know Ewan had been cast in this, and I don't think many people did - it's not yet listed on his filmography at imdb, though sometimes, it takes a little while for new projects to be posted up there. Anyway, you can click on the photos to enlarge them - enjoy!

Source: Just Jared via ONTD!, Wikipedia, Booknotes

James McAvoy to reappear with Craig Ferguson

James is scheduled to make his second 2008 appearance on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to promote the upcoming action movie, Wanted. The show will air Mon. June 16th on CBS in the U.S. A really cool person on the imdb message boards pointed out that there may still be tickets available. I can't wait for the Scottish vacuum of charm to be on TV again!

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Photo from The Hot Blog

New Wanted teaser trailer

This one isn't quite as cool as the Russian trailers, but James McAvoy is the main focus of this trailer. Enjoy!



Source: Trailer Addict

John Barrowman confirms third Torchwood season

Yay! John Barrowman talks about the upcoming season of Torchwood in an Oxide radio interview when he visited Oxford. Just to warn you, there are some minor spoilers of the season two finale. I'm not sure when it aired, but it only appeared on youtube today, so I think it's quite recent. You can listen to the full interview here.

Source: youtube and Barrowman Fans!

Photo from Totallytorchwood.blogspot.com

Weekly schedule for Late Show with Craig Ferguson

Mo 5/19: Valerie Bertinelli, Paulina Porizkova, Estelle
Tu 5/20: A.J. Buckley
We 5/21: Laura Dern, k.d. lang
Th 5/22: Steven Wright
Fr 5/23: Richard Lewis, Tricia Helfer, Duffy

Scottish films at the Festival de Cannes

May is pretty much Cannes Film Festival month (this year it runs from May 14 to May 25), which is huge for the film industry. Indie films New Town Killers starring Dougray Scott and Stone of Destiny starring Billy Boyd will be represented at the festival. The production team of New Town Killers will try to sell the film and attendees can view a promotional screening at their office at the festival, while a filmmaker from Stone of Destiny will be on a panel about producing and making films in Scotland.

I'm not sure if Stone of Destiny will actually be screened at Cannes because there are reports that its world premier will be at the 62nd Edinburgh International Film Festival (June 18 to June 29) where it will be competing for the UK Film Council-sponsored Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature. Here's a synopsis of Stone of Destiny from Newsahead:

The Anglo-Canadian film is the story of Ian Hamilton, a dedicated nationalist who reignited Scottish national pride in the 1950s with his daring raid on the heart of England to bring the Stone of Scone back to Scotland. Often referred to as the Stone of Scone, it was the stone upon which all monarchs of Scotland were crowned from the very first King back in 847. After a long and colorful history, it ended up back in Edinburgh Castle 11 years ago and still resides there.

You can read a synopsis of New Town Killers in a previous post.

Source: Dougray Scott Unplugged, Boyd oh Boyd, iofilm, Newsahead

David Tennant - sexiest man on TV?

It's a slow news day, but here's a little David Tennant news. David has been named the sexiest man on TV in a new survey. David was chosen by about 38% of the 1600 TV fans in the UK wide poll. Prison Break star Wentworth Miller came in second. The poll was conducted by the Hallmark Channel to determine if attractiveness keeps TV viewers watching their favorite shows. Wow, that channel is taking its polls rather seriously!

And totally off topic: just wanted to say hi to the lovely imdb people (or is it person?) who come here from time to time. Thanks!

Source: news.scotsman.com and digital spy

Vote for David Tennant

David Tennant is among the celebrities nominated at the Hello! Magazine website as the 'Most Attractive Man Of The Month'. If you want to vote for David you go here.

Source: ONTD!

Photo from Totallytennant.blogspot.com

Wanted to open the L.A. Film Festival

Wanted, starring James McAvoy will be the first film screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 19, 2008 before its North American release on June 27. Wanted is one of two high profile Universal Studios films based on graphic novels that will show at the festival - the other being Hellboy 2.

Source: Shared Darkness and Living in Cinema

Photo from Myspill.com

Photo post

Here's a few photos I found online of James McAvoy, David Tennant, and Ewan McGregor. I believe the James McAvoy photos are newly released photos from an older photo shoot, while the David Tennant photo is the first one of him as Hamlet. Enjoy!

Go here for more photos of Ewan.

Go here for more photos of James.

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Who's ready for a Wanted sequel?

The first Wanted movie starring James McAvoy isn't even in theaters yet, but writers Derek Haas and Michael Brandt have been hired by Universal studios to write a sequel to the as yet unreleased film. While it isn't unusual for a studio to pay for sequels to films before the film's release, studios usually only do this when they are sure the film has the possibility of being a huge franchise. And with Wanted being somewhat of a smaller blockbuster (it's budget is reported at US$65 million ) it's very interesting that the studio is willing to go in this direction - maybe this means the movie is really good.

Source: Pop Critics

Photo from KillerMovies.com

Weekly schedule for Late Show with Craig Ferguson

Mo 5/5: Hugh Laurie, Michael Starr
Tu 5/6: John Goodman, Jason Aldean
We 5/7: Felicity Huffman, Mike Doughty
Th 5/8: Emily Deschanel, Melvin Lardy of "Ax Men"
Fr 5/9: Rachel Griffiths, Christopher Gorham

Kevin McKidd post

Photo from Kevin McKidd Online

There hasn't been one of these in a while, but with Made of Honor opening in the US today, the L.A. Times did a feature story on the Scottish actor, rather than on the film's leading man, Patrick Dempsey. Here's an excerpt from the article:

"It's [Made of Honor] poking fun at that very upper-class shortbread-tin, kilt-wearing bracket of Scottish society -- people who live in castles and hunt for wild animals," says McKidd, who was thrilled to go from the geographical novice during the L.A. portion of the shoot to the on-set expert when filming moved to his homeland. "It was a real joy. I got to show people Scotland. And we had freakishly beautiful weather."

Just go here for the rest of the article (and a really lovely picture of Kevin).

Source: The L.A. Times

Othello to broadcast on the radio

The production of Othello starring Ewan McGregor will air on BBC Radio 3 on Sun. May 4 2008 at 20:00 London time. I'm not sure what that time is in other countries - I've always been horrid with time zones. You should be able to listen to the full 2 hours 45 minutes here.

Source: BBC Radio 3

Photo from Bloomberg.com

David and John's perfect day

Photos from TotallyTorchwood

Scottish actors David Tennant and John Barrowman have been invited to help launch Scotland's National Tourism Organization's Perfect Day website by spending a day in the Scottish Highlands. Both Doctor Who stars have also been asked to visit the National Trust for Scotland's new interactive visitor centre. Go here for more on how to book a trip to Scotland.

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