News and updates on the work of Scottish actors around the world.
Curtis told Bullz-Eye: "We've got a brilliant guy playing Vincent van Gogh - which is who it's about - who you should look up on YouTube. He's a guy called Tony Curran, who really could not look more like [him].
"He's a wonderful actor who was in this brilliant movie called Red Road that came out, a rather serious movie. But he's going to be great. I’ve had a lot of fun. We start to shoot in about a month." [Digital Spy]
"That for me is the most important thing. I have a voice because of my work. I’m loud and I speak my mind,” he said. "I feel it’s a lucky position to be in – that people want you to speak out for something you want to say anyway.""My work has enabled me to do something with my opinions for good."
"(The Princess Royal) was lovely…She asked me if I was getting enough work. I love that. I said I had just come back from Australia so if I fainted to not be alarmed. She thought that was hilarious."
SourceThe $3-million film, directed and written by Mike Mills, is among about 50 projects that received approval for tax credits under the state's new film incentive program.
The city figures prominently in the film. So far, the production has shot at Griffith Park, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and on Monday will move to Highland Park to film a Halloween party scene. The crew will also spend several days downtown filming at the Biltmore Hotel.
Even the city's Silver Lake dog park will have a bit part in the movie, location manager Chris Miller said [Los Angeles Times]
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!]
Based on the article “The Yankee Bandit: The Life and Times of Eddie Dodson, World’s Greatest Bank Robber”, written by Timothy Ford and published by GEAR Magazine, THE ELECTRICE SLIDE tells the true story of suave hipster and celebrity-magnet Eddie Dodson, who in 1980s Los Angeles owned and ran one of the city’s most stylish art deco furniture stores. Celebrities flocked to buy the latest pieces and Eddie was living the high life along with the Hollywood elite.
But when Eddie met cool and unimpressed Jenny, he decided to do the most outrageous thing he could think of to win her attention - he robbed a bank. Eddie discovered in himself the uncanny ability to charm pretty bank tellers into emptying their drawers of cash and getting away with it. And Jenny discovered that a boyfriend who robbed banks was about as hot as it got.
Over a period of months, Eddie and Jenny robbed over 70 banks in the Los Angeles area, often narrowly escaping the increasingly frustrated FBI. When the authorities interviewed the tellers who had been robbed, each of the described Eddie “like a movie star, the most charming man they had ever met.” The media, jumping on the story, dubbed him “The Gentleman Bandit.” But Eddie’s criminal lucky streak would not last forever as the FBI closed in and angry loan sharks with unpaid debts threatened his life.
Source
The series will then air in its regular time period, on Tuesday nights from 9:00-10:00pm et beginning the following week, February 9th 2010.
Is the season goes off without a break, and Lost’s two hour finale is counted as two of the announced eighteen episodes (which is probably the case) then we will see the two hour finale of lost on May 25th, 2010 — right at the end of Sweeps. As it appears right now, Lost will will also go up against NBC’s coverage of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and will not take the a much rumored break.Henry Ian Cusick’s Desmond is not listed as a season-six regular, although he’ll be appear as a recurring character. [/Film]
The second annual gala, by non-profit organization Go Campaign, aims to raise money for orphans and vulnerable children around the world.
Funds raised this year will support orphaned infants in rural China; a kindergarten for HIV/AIDS affected kids in Moshi, Tanzania; a mobile education unit in Haiti; legal rights and health rights education for children in Arusha, Tanzania; the construction of an eco-building and micro-business in the mountains of Peru; and a shelter for refugee youth returning to Liberia, among many others.
The night, to be held at Social Hollywood on November 20, will also honor TOMS shoes founder and chief shoe giver Blake Mycoskie.
All proceeds from the event will go directly to support the charity. [AHN via Best of Ewan]
In the wake of the American Film Market, Myriad Pictures has racked up sales in multiple territories...as well as presales for the Ewan McGregor starrer "The Electric Slide."
Pre-sales on "Electric," the story of Los Angeles bank robber Larry Dodson, were stuck for the following territories: Scandinavia - Nordisk; Switzerland - Rialto; Turkey - ANS/D Prods.; Iceland - Myndform; Poland - Monolith; Benelux - European Film Partners; Bulgaria and Romania - Programs 4 Media; the Czech Republic - AQS: Former Yugoslavia - MG Film; Greece - Spentzos; Hungary - RTL; the Middle East - Easgle Films; Pan Asian Py TV - Star TV; Portugal - Valentim and Cinesky for the airlines. [THR]
In a first in the late-night talk show world, CBS’ Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson beat NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in the coveted 18-49 demo, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Ferguson has been inching closer to this for a while: In five of the last seven weeks, he’s tied Fallon. But this is the first time since Ferguson’s 2005 premiere that he’s beaten his competitor from NBC in the advertiser-coveted demo. Jimmy Kimmel Live! managed to tie Late Night last week, too. [EW via ONTD!]
“The recession has hit British television, but fingers crossed, it will be a go. We expect things to start to move in January. We’ve got great ideas for the show. I think there’s a further lease on life for many years to come, but certainly for a [fourth season],” [ Russell T.] Davies says. John Barrowman is finishing his run in “La Cage Aux Folles” in London, so there’s plenty of time to trade his feather boa for Captain Jack’s trench coat. [TV Guide Magazine]
UNICEF ambassadors Ewan McGregor, Claudia Schiffer and Her Majesty Queen Rania are fronting a new marketing drive to mark the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In a new series of ads they highlight the problems facing children today and appeal for aid.
On November 20, 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child became the first legally binding international convention to affirm human rights for all children.
The Convention is demanding a revolution that places children at the heart of human development.
A rugged and mythic Scotland is the setting for Pixar's action-adventure The Bear and the Bow. The impetuous, tangle-haired Merida (Reese Witherspoon), though a daughter of royalty, would prefer to make her mark as a great archer. A clash of wills with her mother compels Merida to make a reckless choice, which unleashes unintended peril on her father's kingdom and her mother's life. Merida struggles with the unpredictable forces of nature, magic and a dark ancient curse...Turning her into a Bear. [Wiki]
"...one of the best bits about it all is that we have had a lot of letters...from people who are very grateful that a show of this size and reach is dealing with a subject like this.
"What's going on over there is very controversial politically, but we've been trying to tell the human story out there.
"We're telling the story of these very brave men and women and what it is to come back, pick up your life and move forward with that experience of a war zone.
"So there's been a lot of positive feedback from veterans and people working in the support system, as well as parents, loved ones, wives and husbands of returning veterans. They are delighted we are casting light on a subject that not a lot of people are talking about.
"It makes me very proud and pleased - it's nice to know people are happy with it. It's great to know that people are not just watching, but taking something from it." [Daily Record via Kevin McKidd Online]
On Modern Warfare 2, which is now out on XBox 360 and Playstation 3:
He has provided the voice for super soldier Captain "Soap" Mactavish, the head of an anti-terrorist task force.
And the actor, who previously had a small voice role in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City seven years ago, said he loved the chance to just let loose and enjoy himself playing soldiers.
"It was tiring because I would spend the whole day screaming orders at the top of my voice and then to get my voice to the place it needed to be, I found I was throwing myself about the studio like I was jumping on a real motorbike or a Jeep at times.
"But it was great fun and was like all the acting you'd want to do when you were a boy.
"I also got to keep my accent which was refreshing as well, as I spend all my energy at the moment hiding my native voice."
He joked: "I think that's one of the reasons I got the part actually - they needed to record in LA, I've got a work permit there, I'm Scottish and Gerard Butler wasn't available."
Lost, starring Henry Ian Cusick is also nominated for TV drama and best TV sci-fi/fantasy
"It's lovely, it's a fantastic thing, I was saying earlier on to people, I mean, ten years ago, to be honest with you, you wouldn't have thought too much of this, it was always nice to get a wee-kind of nod - but the quality of the nominations now is just getting higher and higher."
"The acting awards this year and last year - there's so many top quality Scots male actors at the moment that to be included amongst any kind of list of nominees you've got to be happy with that. You've got to be pleased with that. So, it's really come up, I think." [Yahoo! News UK]
THE TV search gets under way next week for The Greatest Scot - and today we name the five People's Choice candidates to join the existing list of 30.
A panel of experts has already chosen the 30 names, who will be featured during a week-long STV series, which will be screened on five consecutive nights starting at 9pm on Monday.
The programmes will also feature a different People's Choice candidate every evening chosen by Record readers and STV viewers.
And from Monday you will have the chance to vote for the Greatest Scot.
The overall winner will be revealed on a St Andrew's Day results show on November 30 when STV's Stephen Jardine will count down the top five nominees and unveil the people's all-time Greatest Scot.
The winner will be marked with a permanent piece of art by a Scottish artist which will be donated to the nation. [The Daily Record]
And finally, David's upcoming film, St. Trinian's II: The Legend of Fritton's Gold is scheduled to premiere on December 9 at the Empire cinema in Leicester Square.
