Ewan Mcgregor Page 3

'Star Wars' is a phenomenon. The oddball 1977 original movie (later deemed to be "Part 4") was the first true blockbuster, changing the way movies are merchandised and reigniting the steadily dying science fiction genre. It turned the space opera into a crowd-pleasing licence to print money, and we all love it for that. On the other hand, the best way to send any self-respecting geek into a fit of frothing rage is even allude to the prequel trilogy without discussing how you would have made it better yourself. 

Harrison Ford in 'Star Wars: A New Hope'

The thing is, the original trilogy is still held in such high regard, that the series is still a viable investment; not only are we getting an entirely new trilogy beginning at the end of 2015, but a remastered collection of the entire saga so far is set to be released digitally online on 10th April, 2015. As if you needed something to get you in the mood.

Continue reading: May The Fourth Be With You! Or April 10th For The Full 'Star Wars' HD Collection

The Sundance Film Festival is currently in full swing, having begun on 22nd January, and wrapping up on 1st February. This year, something particularly special is in the air at Salt Lake City, as the festival is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. That's right, the Sundance Film Festival has been running for 30 years! Starting out back in 1985, Sundance screened 86 films with the help of 13 staff members. Last year, the festival showcased 186 films of 12,218 that were submitted. That sort of growth has helped Sundance become one of the biggest independent film festivals in, not only North America, by the world.

Kevin Bacon at The Sundance Film Festival, 2015 (Credit: Larry Busacca - Getty Images)

This year, 54 first-time filmmakers are having their films premiered at the festival, but there are plenty of well-known faces there, as well, as 200 films are being shown this year for the monumental anniversary. For the 12th year running, The Village at the Lift has been set up in Park City with a café, restaurant, nightclub and photo studio. And this photo studio has seen a host of celebrities for the festival flocking in to pose for pictures in promotion for their various films, taken by Larry Busacca.

Continue reading: Our Favourite Pictures From The Sundance Film Festival 30th Anniversary [Photos]

August: Osage County appears to have all the qualities needed to make a movie to combat January blues: a stellar cast, strong female characters and enough gentle humour to rival a Richard Curtis script. But do critics agree?

Julia Roberts stars in August: Osage County.

Based on the play by Tracy Letts, the film follows a group of strong, and somewhat eccentric, women in the Weston family and is centred on their Midwest childhood home at the time of a family crisis. Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady), Margo Martindale (The Americans), Julia Roberts (Eat, Pray, Love), Juliette Lewis (Open Road) and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) star as the women of the Weston family. Ewan McGregor (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen); Dermot Mulroney (New Girl); and Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) appear in supporting roles. 

Continue reading: 'August: Osage County' Reviews Preoccupied With Adaptation Issues

Johnny Depp has been spotted on the set of the upcoming crime movie Mordecai sporting a brutally waxed moustache, slicked blonde hair and a dashing three-piece suit complete with pocket handkerchief.

Johnny Depp Goes For A Drastic New Look.

No, Depp isn't auditioning to become the new Hercule Poirot: he has assumed the lead role of Charlie Mortdecai in the film adaptation of Kyril Bonfiglioli crime anthology, The Mortdecai Trilogy. Depp has been cast as the infamous anti-hero art dealer who goes on a hunt for a stolen painting that is believed to hold an access code to hidden Nazi gold.

Continue reading: Johnny Depp Goes Blonde For 'Mortdecai' Art Dealer Role [Pictures]

Hugh Jackman had his wife to thank after a he discovered an unusual growth protruding from his nose. The actor revealed earlier this week that he had a cancer spot removed from his nose, sharing the news with his fans via his Instagram, along with a picture of his bandaged nose, and gave us all a reminder of why wearing sunscreen is an essential task.

According to the actor, his wife Deborra-Lee Furness noticed the spot on Jackman and insisted that he have it checked out. Her weariness proved to be potentially life-saving for the Wolverine star, as his check up revealed that the growth was cancerous. It was a close call for the Aussie actor, who joins the likes of Eric Dane, Bruce Jenner, Ewan McGregor and Anderson Cooper, who have all shared their own brushes with cancer in the past.

"Deb said to get the mark on my nose checked. Boy, was she right! I had a [basal] cell carcinoma," the actor said in the caption for his pic. "Please don't be foolish like me. Get yourself checked. And USE sunscreen!!!"

Continue reading: Hugh Jackman Reminds Us All Why We Should Wear Sunscreen After Having Skin Cancer Cells Removed

Don Cheadle is set to play jazz legend Miles Davis in an upcoming film focussing on the trumpeter's "silent period" alongside Ewan McGregor and Zoe Saldana. Though Cheadle has stressed that the movie will not be a biopic in the strictest biographical sense, Kill the Trumpet Player will focus on "a few dangerous days in the life of Miles Davis, as he bursts out of his silent period and conspires with a Rolling Stone writer (McGregor) to steal back his music," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Don Cheadle Will Act And Direct In An Upcoming Miles Davis Movie.

As well as taking on the complex lead role, Cheadle will also direct the piece and has been planning the film for several years. "It's not a biopic, per se. It's a gangster pic. It's a movie Miles Davis would have wanted to star in," he told the Wall Street Journal, adding "Without throwing history away, we're trying to shuffle it and make it more cubist."

Continue reading: Don Cheadle To Play Miles Davis In 'Kill The Trumpet Player' Gangster Jazz Film

Lynne Ramsay is being taken to court by the producers of the oft-troubled Western Jane Got Her Gun, starring (supposedly at least) Natalie Portman. Ramsay walked out on the project a day before shooting was scheduled to begin, placing the picture in limbo until a replacement was eventually found. The lawsuit goes on to claim that Lynne was drunk and abusive on the set.

Ramsay reportedly left the project the day before shooting was due to begin

The court papers, acquired by The Hollywood Reporter, were filed in a New Mexico court this week and state that Ramsay was paid $750,000 to work on the screenplay for the film and direct, but she dropped out of the project at the last minute without warning. The producers are now claiming that her sudden abandoning of the project was not off character either, as the Scottish director was supposedly highly unprofessional on set, drinking and abusing staff before filming had even begun.

Continue reading: Lynne Ramsay Sued By Movie Bosses After Ditching Natalie Portman Western

John Wells' August: Osage County adaptation premiered last night at the Toronto International Film Festival after years of being performed as a Pulitzer Prize-winning Tracy Letts play. The movie boasts a star-studded caast, including Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis and Sam Shepard.

Meryl Streep & Julia Roberts Serve Up Roaring Performances In August: Osage County.

The plot centres on outspoken matriarch, Violet (Meryl Streep), who is addicted to painkillers with the excuse that she has mouth cancer. Her husband Beverly (Sam Shepard) hires a Native American housekeeper (Misty Upham) to take care of his wife and he moves away. Upon her husband's absence, Violet summons her three grown-up daughters who have each moved away from the isolation of their family home, set in the desolate landscape of Oklahoma.

Continue reading: 'August: Osage County' Premieres At TIFF: How Did The Adaptation Of The Play About Strong Women Fare?

Peter Capaldi is a modest man. You'd never hear him boasting about winning an Oscar. Yep, the Glasgow-born actor, named as the new Time Lord last week, has more in his locker than the foul-mouthed and brilliant spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It.

In 1995, Forrest Gump fended off competition from Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption and Four Weddings and a Funeral to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Tom Hanks beat Morgan Freeman, Paul Newman and John Travolta to Best Actor, Jessica Lange for Best Actress for Blue Sky and Robert Zemeckis won Best Director.

However, look further down the list of winners and you'll find him. Peter Capaldi, winner of the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film for Franz Kafka's It's A Wonderful Life. Ok, so he tied the award with Peggy Rajski and Randy Stone's Trevor, but he still won.

Continue reading: Peter Capaldi, The First 'Doctor Who' With An Oscar. Oh, You Didn't Know?

Ewan McGregor is a well-known motorcycle enthusiast, so maybe thats what gave him away when he stepped out of a Beverley Hills salon this week looking almost unrecognisable. The actor, known for his ginger-blonde hair, looked completely different as he was spotted with jet black hair and a same-colour moustache, but still failed to evade the watchful stare of a paparazzi camera lens.

The look is quite the drastic make-over for the Scottish star, but rather than abandoning his ginger/Scottish heritage, the actor does have a reason behind this look; at last we think he does. McGregor is taking on the role of John Bishop, the main antagonist in the upcoming Western Jane Got A Gun, and it is believed his new look is in aid of the performance. Either that or Ewan just fancied a major change to his looks and decided that growing a beard again wouldn't cut it.

Ewan McGregor still failed to fool some onlookers

Continue reading: Ewan McGregor Almost Fools Us All With Drastic New Make-Over

Ewan McGregor's Renton famously announced that he hadn't "felt that good since Archie Gemmill scored against Holland in 1978!" in Danny Boyle's classic Trainspotting in 1996. Now, two decades later, we could find ourselves checking in with the Glasgow addict again, though we doubt he's be feeling particularly euphoric about the state of Scottish football in recent years. After several false starts, filmmaker Boyle says a script for a Trainspotting sequel is in progress, based on Irvine Walsh's 2002 novel Porno. The Manchester-born director - who helmed the Olympic Games opening ceremony in London before turning down a Knighthood from the Queen - is planning to release the new film in 2016, on the 20th anniversary of the original.

"This has been a long time coming," the Oscar winning director told Canadian film website The Playlist. "There's always been this long term plan for Trainspotting 2." Encouragingly, Boyle believes the original cast could be re-assembled to play middle-aged versions of their characters, including McGregor. "I don't think there will be any barriers to Ewan or any of the cast coming back.The reason for doing it again is that people cherish the original, people remember it or have caught up with it if they never saw it because they were younger," the filmmaker added. 

It's likely that McGregor has been offered various unsavoury Trainspotting-linked projects in the past, though a sequel with Boyle at the helm will no doubt be too good to turn down. The Scottish actor has forged a hugely successful career since the movie, though he's perhaps guilty of taking big money mainstream roles over anything particularly challenging. Another stab at Renton could change that.

Continue reading: Trainspotting Sequel: Will Ewan McGregor Return? (And Other Questions)

Don’t be fooled by the appearance of the US Box Office charts, it was not a good weekend for the film topping the list, Jack The Giant Slayer.

The Bryan Singer tale stars Ewan McGregor and Nicholas Hoult, and beat out the competition to post takings of some $28 million on its debut. That’s a pretty unremarkable figure in itself, but it’s put into stark contrast when you consider that the flick was the first big-budget movie of the year, costing around $200 million to make. Now things don’t seem quite so rosy for it.

Things weren’t looking great for the film when it came in for a decidedly uninterested set of reviews in the press, with Rolling Stone – for instance – providing a particularly damning “Jack the Giant Slayer proves the axiom ‘If you can't make it good, make it 3D.’” Overall the film scored a mere 52% average on the reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, so we’re pretty sure alarm bells might have started to ring for Warner Bros.

Continue reading: 'Jack The Giant Slayer' Struggles To Topple Budget Deficit Despite No.1 Spot

Warner Brothers were punished for their bizarre release date and dodgy marketing for 'Jack The Giant Slayer' this weekend, taking just $28 million at the box-office despite analysts predicting more than double that. The movie - starring Ewan McGregor, Nicholas Hoult and Stanley Tucci which was made for $190 million plus $80 million global marketing costs - finished at No.1, though attaining the top-spot with a big-budget early March release is hardly anything to shout about.

Directed by Bryan Singer, 'Jack The Giant Slayer' is an adaptation of the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale. Its shoddy opening could prove disastrous for the movie given Sam Raimi's 'Oz The Great and Powerful' - which is looking to attract exactly the same audience - rolls out next weekend to high anticipation. "Our audience in the United States was a little bit more narrow than we wanted, but the Canadian numbers are really strong, and the overseas reaction has exceeded our expectations," said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Brothers' executive president of domestic distribution, "The story on this movie is far from being written - we need more time," he added, to the New York Times. 

'Jack The Giant Slayer' took around $13.7 million from release in 10 Asian countries and Warner Brothers hope that the movie ultimately takes $225 million from foreign theaters, an ambitious figure. It's worrying times for the studio, whose last four movies - Gangster Squad, Beautiful Creatures and Bullet To The Head - were box office failures. 

Continue reading: Fi, Fi, Foe, Thumping: 'Jack The Giant Slayer' Bombs At The Box Office

When The Impossible - a disaster movie starring Ewan McGregor - was announced, the film community sighed. Written off as a box office failure; the critics waiting to pounce, it would appear that director Juan Antonio Bayona has managed to pull off... the impossible?

Well, perhaps not impossible, but the emotive, powerful true story behind the film has propelled it into strong position with the reviewers. Released on New Years Day in the U.K., and a short while before in the U.S., The Impossible is certainly worth a watch, even if it won't make the end of year lists.

Empire Magazine, in a 4/5 review, say, "This rousing, superbly acted, no-holds-barred melodrama is a mighty feat of physical filmmaking," while Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian states, "This film is not especially complex, and not subtle, but there is judgment and intelligence in the simple idea of survival being the most agonising thing, and making survivor guilt the psychological aftershock of a shattering and irreparable blow." The Los Angeles Times also awarded it 4/5, saying, "It is the kind of ode to the human spirit that you hope comes along, and not just during the holiday season."

Continue reading: At The Movies: The Impossible Review Roundup

Ewan McGregor's stunning turn in Juan Antonio Bayona's The Impossible is being lauded by critics left, right and center, with some suggesting it may be the Scottish actor's finest turn since Trainspotting. Of course, the disaster-epic is a very different film from Danny Boyle's 1996 classic, and it's the first time McGregor has played a father or family man.

The movie tells the true story of a family's experience of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. It had its world premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, where it received critical acclaim. Following its full release, Empire magazine dubbed it a "rousing, superbly acted, no-holds-barred melodrama is a mighty feat of physical filmmaking." Peter Bradshaw mused, "This film is not especially complex, and not subtle, but there is judgment and intelligence in the simple idea of survival being the most agonising thing, and making survivor guilt the psychological aftershock of a shattering and irreparable blow." High praise indeed, though it seems McGregor is finally getting the praise he deserves following a series of criminally underrated performances. Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer avoided just about every nominations list, but oozed suspense, drama and a subtle performance from the 41-year-old. Beginners was even better, while last year's Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was a hit with critics despite a fairly average box-office performance.

McGregor's co-star Naomi Watts is nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actress. McGregor did not receive a nomination for Best Actor. 

Continue reading: The Impossible: Is Ewan McGregor Finally Getting The Praise He Deserves?

Naomi Watts feared for her life when a stunt she was filming in The Impossible went wrong. The incident occured when she was filming an underwater stunt, for the movie, which tells the tale of a family caught up in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami on the coast of Thailand. “Something went wrong technically with the chair they strap you to when they submerge you in the water,” she told The Metro. “It spins you around under water and [the crew] just weren’t able to shut it off at the right point. I couldn’t get out and was really struggling for breath.”

Watts was quick to add that although it gave her a glimpse into the horror suffered by the real victims of the tsunami, she acknowledges that “even this incident was nothing compared to what it was really like.” The movie also stars Ewan McGregor, as her on-screen husband and she reveals that she had something of a head-start on her co-star, as he had never played the role of a parent in a movie before, whereas she had plenty of on-screen and off-screen experience in that respect. “Definitely having been a mother and playing this character, it added a lot of weight to it,” she explained.

Naomi’s two sons, Sasha and Sammy, were onset with her during the filming and she made sure that they were involved in the make-up process when her injuries were being created, so that they were not upset by their mother’s appearance. “They were putting on the chocolate powder for dirt and the blood. They thought that it was incredible fun and they understand that it is all make-believe.” The Impossible is in cinemas now and has been well-received by critics, who have praised JA Bayona’s sensitive but moving treatment of the real-life tale.

Ewan McGregor's films are almost always something to be excited about, with a bibliography including Star Wars, Moulin Rouge!, and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (let's forget all about Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang). His latest movie is The Impossible, alongside Naomi Watts, about a family trying to survive after the devastating Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand, in 2004. 

With the Guardian, he speaks about the difficulties the film faced, from the weather, to being cursed. He told the paper that the "What you got from [from the story] was the brutality and truth... But it's not until you get on the set that you think: Oh my God." adding that "It was a very difficult film to make." With terrible weather on the wrong days, to fine weather when they needed storms, lots of things went wrong. "There was some talk among the Thai crew that the film might be. cursed, you know? That the spirits or the gods might be preventing us from making the film." 

The Thai film crew were in fact so spooked that they held rituals, sending lanterns in the sky which didn't fair well in the wind. The film is receiving mixed reviews, but we'd not quite say it's cursed. Peter Bradshaw reviewed it for the Guardian and admitted to being "blindsided by its real emotional power", and watching it "through a wobbly blur of tears." However, be grateful for those tears, as McGregor notes: "Jota [Juan Antonio Bayona, the director] has always said - and he's right - crying was a real privilege in that situation [of the tsunami], because nobody had time. And so when people did cry, they totally fell apart." It will be released nationwide on January 1st. 

It is becoming more and more popular practice to make movies about recent history. Kathryn Bigelow has successfully made films about the American-Middle East conflicts in Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker, while this year's Beasts of the Southern Wild broaches the topic of 2005's Hurricane Katrina which left almost 2000 dead and thousands homeless. The latest movie of this trend is The Impossible, starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, and is about the enormous Tsunami that hit south east Asia on Boxing Day in 2004. 

The Impossible is the true story of a Spanish family who headed to Thailand for a Christmas vacation, only to be met with disaster after the joys of the festive day. Perfect timing, therefore, to be released just before Christmas, on December 21st this year. Although in reality it was a Spanish family, they've been transformed into a fictional British family. After the walls of water hit and begin their devastation, the family are separated and its this that fuels the movie. Peter Bradshaw, for the Guardian, says that "McGregor delivers a performance with a sledgehammer emotional punch." A sentiment that is repeated by almost all critics, even those who didn't like the film as a whole. Bradshaw added that "With simplicity and conviction, it manages to be something other than a conventional disaster movie."

However, the Washington Examiner rightly questions whether the film may only "serve only to trivialize [the] experience", which is precisely what the New York Times thinks it did, saying "There is a troubling complacency and a lack of compassion in "The Impossible," which is less an examination of mass destruction than the tale of a spoiled holiday." However, in distinct contrast, the Los Angeles Times says that "It is the kind of ode to the human spirit that you hope comes along, and not just during the holiday season" and Time Magazine tentatively says "The Impossible is life-affirming." Disaster movies tend to either be focused solely on intense drama, or intense emotion, but The Impossible seems to do a little of both. Judging by the mixed reviews it'll be down to the audience to decide whether this was a good move. 

Continue reading: Is The Impossible A New Kind Of Disaster Movie?

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is riding high in the US box office charts (way higher than its nearest competitor, Rise of the Guardians) this week and it’s unlikely that will change, though there are at least two releases this weekend that have been causing a stir. Tom Cruise stars in Jack Reacher – the adaptation of the Lee Child novel and This Is 40, the new comedy from Judd Apatow; a sequel to the popular comedy Knocked Up.

Some fans of Lee Child’s novels questioned the decision to cast Tom Cruise in the title role of Jack Reacher. He was, after all, originally on board as a producer only but after reading the script, it seems, he decided he’d like to have a go at starring in the movie too. It looks as though the gamble has just about paid off, as long as you enter the movie theatre with the understanding that what you are about to see is very much A Tom Cruise Movie, with Tom Cruise in standard Tom Cruise “cool and calculating” mode, as described by Betsy Sharkey of Los Angeles Times.

So far, the reviews are just about erring on the side of positive, with an aggregate of 63% on Rotten Tomatoes. Let’s face it, Tom Cruise’s rep has hardly had an easy ride this year and this is hardly challenging new ground for the Mission Impossible star, who has frequented many a steely action thriller of late. However, many reviewers have surmised that really, it’s Cruise that makes this movie. “This is Cruise’s show. And he nails it,” says Peter Travers of Rolling Stone. One for the Cruise fans, then. Wherever you are.

Continue reading: Hot Tickets! US Movie Releases: Will Tom Cruise Make Or Break 'Jack Reacher'? Is 'This Is 40' As Good As 'Knocked Up'?