The final season of the horror anthology brought to you by that freaky puppet.
The Humans
Bob Hoskins, Natasha Richardson, Ewan McGregor, Daniel Craig, Imelda Staunton, Eddie Izzard, Steve Coogan
The Nutshell
Tales from the Crypt returns for its seventh and final season. Moving the show to England, we get a season that is more filled with crime drama and film noir than horror.
The Lowdown
The final season of Tales from the Crypt moved the action to England, where the first episode showed the Crypt Keeper (John Kassir) relocating his coffin to the U.K. Because of the change in location, the show drifts into some new thematic areas. Much of the cast in the final season is British and the stories vary from Film Noir to the World War but all remain very British in their presentation and humor.
As with the previous seasons, you get your smattering of star power throughout the episodes and witness some pretty good directors trying their hands at the small screen. Presented by HBO, the show does not face the same censorship as network television, so we get our fare share of nudity, gore, and sick and twisted humor. Blasphemy runs rampant throughout the final season as well as the taboos that you would not see in an anthology show on a lesser network. Some of it works and some of it doesn’t, but the final season throws out some pretty good episodes along the way.
[...]
Cold War is directed by the man who helmed some of my favorite music videos, Andrew Morahan. This installment features Ewan McGregor in the same year of his breakout role in Trainspotting. McGregor plays Ford, a thief who works with his girlfriend Cammy (Jane Horrocks). They also happen to be zombies. Cammy leaves Ford after one too many botched jobs and hooks up with Jimmy (Colin Salmon). When Ford comes after Jimmy in a fit of jealousy, he gets more than he bargained for when he learns that Jimmy is a vampire. Who doesn’t love a story that involves zombies versus vampires? This would have been better with a different actress portraying Cammy (Horrocks has since found her niche as a voice talent in animated features), but this episode was very funny and highly entertaining just the same.
[...]
The season was not without its downs, but the switch to British humor gave it a shot in the arm and the style of storytelling was a refreshing change from previous seasons. It was not as great as the show’s heyday but the high points of this final season were good enough to give it a passing grade.
The Package
There is only one extra, a virtual comic book called Fatal Caper, although it had nothing at all to do with the episode of the same name. It is completely voiced by John Kassir and shows comic panels as the story progresses.
STATUS: Active Development
DIRECTOR: Dominic Savage
CAST: Michelle Williams - Ewan McGregor
WRITERS: Emily Watson - Jack Waters
1939 and England has just entered the war. The Battle of Britain, a David-and-Goliath story to make your heart pound is looming. Stella (Michelle Williams), a beautiful, university educated girl suffering from a broken heart, abandons her privileged life and joins a radar unit on the coast of England monitoring enemy aircraft. There she meets Len, a shy and impossibly young RAF pilot barely out of his teens. They are improbable lovers, but in wartime anything can happen. What starts out as a tentative romance turns into an intense passion as the bombs raining down on England give them no reason to hold back.
Set against the backdrop of a country under siege, Stella and Len’s youthful naivety falls away as planes are shot down and radar huts are bombed. The dizzy horrors of Len’s aerial battles are counterbalanced by the slow, unbearably sweet progress of their love, which they first resist as too big a risk (the RAF was not known for its long lifespans). Every day, Stella listens to the sounds of pilots dying, and prays that it is not Len’s screams she is hearing. The two cling to each other as they grow up and fall in love amid the horrors of war, never knowing if and when they will die...
Robert Redford's Against All Enemies, starring Bruce Willis, and Taylor Hackford's Love Ranch, starring Helen Mirren, top the slate of productions that Capitol Films is bringing to the American Film Market, which starts next week in Santa Monica.
Also new to Capitol's sales roster are Todd Robinson's The Last Full Measure, starring John Cusack; Clark Johnson's Chinese Wall; Dominic Savage's Mood Indigo; and 3-D wildlife pic Distant Thunder, by Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone.
Total production budget for the movies, all being lined up to shoot before a possible strike would delay them, is described as "in excess of $300 million."
"This is not only the strongest slate Capitol has taken to a market, but one of the most impressive lineups ever offered by an independent sales company," Capitol's tubthumping co-managing directors, Nick Hill and Peter Naish, said in a statement. "It reflects the ambition of our company."
CHAS Christmas Concert: Supported by Ewan McGregor
In the video interview, on the stv.tv site (link at the end), Ewan McGregor speaks about how he initially got involved with the Children's Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS), who work tirelessly to help children with life-limiting conditions.
This Christmas, the world-famous Scottish actor supported a concert held on 23 December by a group of church singers which raised funds for CHAS. The annual performance has grown so popular they've had to hire the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow to fit everyone in.
The Springfield Cambridge Festival Chorus from Bishopbriggs, joined the likes of big star acts like Harry Connick Jr, The Sugababes and Katherine Jenkins who have all performed at the distinctive looking venue.
McGregor said: "I wish you the best of luck in your fundraising for CHAS. I hope the concert is a great success and a fun night for everyone involved."
The annual concert has raised over £33,000 for CHAS. The chorus has more than 90 members from a range of churches and there are members from Jewish and Islamic backgrounds too. It is supported by a 40-piece orchestra made up of professional musicians who give their time to the project on a voluntary basis.
A spokesman for the Chorus said: "The popularity of the music presented by the chorus, accompanied by a full orchestra, strikes a chord with all ages and the audience spans the spectrum from the very young to senior citizens."
Ewan McGregor will play the romantic lead opposite Jim Carrey in "I Love You Phillip Morris," a dark comedy that marks the directing debut of "Bad Santa" scribes Glenn Ficarra and John Requa.
Mad Chance's Andrew Lazar will produce with Far Shariat. Luc Besson's EuropaCorp is fully financing, and Besson is exec producer.
Carrey signed earlier in the fall to star in the fact-based tale as Steven Russell, a married father whose conman ways introduced him to the Texas prison system. There, he fell in love with cellmate Phillip Morris.
His love for Morris motivated his escape from prisons four times, once by using a green pen and bucket of water to change his prison outfit into what appeared to be surgical scrubs, another time by faking his death from AIDS and signing his own death certificate. Morris eventually got out, but Russell's escapades got him a 144-year sentence.
Ficarra and Requa wrote the script, based on a book by Houston Chronicle crime reporter Steve McVicker.
Production will begin in spring, once Carrey completes starring in "A Christmas Carol," playing multiple roles in the Robert Zemeckis-directed performance-capture film for Disney.
McGregor just finished "The List," the Marcel Langenegger-directed drama.
Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream looks to be a casualty of the awards season. The Woodman’s new film, his third straight made in England, has long been scheduled for a Dec. 28 release, which would qualify it for the Academy Awards. But the film, which stars Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell as cockney brothers drawn into a crime by a young woman, has been completely ignored by the various critics groups, the National Board of Review and – yesterday – the Golden Globes.
Today, the Weinstein Co. pushed its release date back to Jan. 18, when it will open nationally.
Cassandra’s Dream premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September and got respectable notices. The Daily Variety critic dissed it, but the reviews collated at www.rottentomatoes.com are all positive.
Get me some poison, Iago." Finally and fatally convinced of Desdemona's iniquity, Chiwetel Ejifor's magnificently held and hurt Othello shimmers with the desire for vengeance. Tightening agonizing tension still further, Ewan McGregor's lethal Iago takes his time. "Do it not with poison," he replies, gently. Taking a stealthy step towards his victim, he pauses for a beat before lowering his voice to almost a whisper: "Strangle her." The chill that grips the theater is testament to the throat-clutching tension of Michael Grandage's brilliantly calibrated Donmar Warehouse production. Shakespeare's masterpiece of cunning is revealed as a breathless, three-hour thriller.
Grandage is alive to the fact that uncontrolled rage is profoundly uninteresting to watch: If emotions boil over, tension evaporates. It's as if his entire production stands in opposition to Desdemona's phrase, "I understand a fury in your words, but not the words." Thus his actors replace spills with escalating thrills generated by moment-by-moment detail.
That much is clear in the play's first major confrontation, between Desdemona (Kelly Reilly) and her father Brabantio (James Laurenson). Confronted with his daughter's marriage to the Moor, his speeches brim with ire. But although clearly appalled by his daughter's choice, Laurenson never makes the mistake of being overwrought. As a result, the unremitting cold bitterness of his resignation -- "I am glad at soul I have no other child" -- is all the more shocking.
That's typical of every performance. Instead of flattening out the play by showing how the director views the characters, Grandage pays the text -- and the audience -- the ultimate compliment of allowing the characters to exist in three dimensions.
Lovestruck Roderigo is usually overly delineated as a ninny. But Roderigo considers himself resolute, if thwarted. Here, Edward Bennett gives the character proper dignity. That in turn allows auds the pleasure of discovering his foolishness for themselves rather than through a more attitudinous approach.
That complexity of character is even more crucially finessed in McGregor's superb Iago. He allows himself the most fleeting of smiles on the line, "And what's he then that says I play the villain?" The actor has earned it. After his Sky Masterson in Grandage's "Guys and Dolls," the physical ease McGregor brings to the stage was expected. But in his Shakespearean debut, such minute control of moment and language comes as a surprise.
Like almost everyone in this Shakespearean-period production, McGregor wears gleamingly lit, sumptuous black clothes that appear lifted from Titian portraits. But that's the sole outward signal of his villainy. His knife-edge plot to ensnare Othello depends upon his being convincing, and McGregor's easeful charm makes rare sense of the fact everyone believes him. By being insidious but never revealing his hand, his Iago makes the climatic series of intensely emotional payoffs all the more devastating.
The truth of Iago's psychopathic interior life is held back for his stream of soliloquies. Having set up Roderigo as the fall guy, Iago turns away to consider his move as he walks beside the burnished back wall of Christopher Oram's bare but water-strewn, slate-floored stage. Drenched in Paule Constable's shiveringly atmospheric, dank light and accompanied by Adam Cork's insidious and subtly threatening soundscape, McGregor's thought processes become horribly clear as his plan takes root in his head.
There's a similarly captivating depth to Reilly's unusually complex Desdemona. Out goes the pallid innocent, in comes a headstrong girl whose physical ease not only with Othello, but with Tom Hiddleston's marvelously relaxed Cassio, also helps make sense of Iago's allegations.
She seems poised between girl and woman, in thrall to her sexual awakening but unable to see she's not in control of herself or her circumstances. Her touching confusion is made plain in the ravishingly tender scene with Michelle Fairley's peerless Emilia.
As Fairley prepares her for bed, Reilly doesn't so much sing as breathe the Willow Song accompanied by the distant sound of a harp, subsumed by rising winds whipping round the castle. Fairley's worried concentration in the scene is magnetic and retrospectively acts as the spur to her terrified understanding of her unwitting involvement in her mistress' death.
Adopting an African accent that lends his character both immense authority and an essential "otherness," Ejiofor opts for the most dangerous route through the title role. Constantly hinting at but never revealing his full power until the final scene makes it all the more astonishing when his emotions reach boiling point. His wrenching outburst and Desdemona's mounting confusion and horror aren't just upsetting, but truly scary. She whirls away in terror from the bed, only to be forced to the floor and strangled directly beneath the audience's rapt and horrified gaze.
Even Othello himself is stunned by what has happened. Sweeping her body up in his arms, his wretched cry at what he has done -- "my wife, my wife" -- is shockingly powerful.
The 13-week Donmar run sold out in a single day. The indivisibility of its creatives' contributions justifies that excitement. What's unmissable, however, is the production's focused power and emotional lucidity. What makes this stand proud amid all recent London Shakespeare stagings is that no one onstage could stand accused of making speeches. Whether it's envy, love, deceit, revenge or betrayal, the engrossing needs and desires impelling every word are thrillingly conveyed.
A Donmar Warehouse presentation of a play in two acts by William Shakespeare. Directed by Michael Grandage.
Othello - Chiwetel Ejiofor
Iago - Ewan McGregor
Desdemona - Kelly Reilly
Cassio - Tom Hiddleston
Emilia - Michelle Fairley
Roderigo - Edward Bennett
Brabantio, Gratiano - James Laurenson
Duke of Venice, Lodovico - Michael Hadley
Bianca - Martina Laird
Montano - Michael Jenn
1st Officer, 1st Cyprus Gentleman - Alastair Sims
1st Senator, 2nd Cyprus Gentleman - David Mara
Sets and costumes, Christopher Oram; lighting, Paule Constable; original music and sound, Adam Cork; production stage manager, Patrick Molony. Opened, reviewed, Dec. 4, 2007. Running time: 3 HOURS, 10 MIN.
BBC Radio 4 aired a review of Othello -- complete with a sound clip from the play -- during its Front Row programme yesterday.
You can listen to it by going to the site and in the "Listen Again" section in the right-hand column, click on "Wednesday". The show will be available until next Wednesday's show airs.
The show lasts for 30 minutes, but the review is about a minute into the broadcast.
Long way up - ticket prices soar as Ewan McGregor works his magic on Othello
December 5, 2007 By Jack Malvern and Andy Ryan
The pulling power of a Hollywood A-list star and the timeless charm of Shakespeare have combined to make Othello, which opened last night at the Donmar Warehouse, the most desirable ticket in town.
The appearance of Ewan McGregor as Iago alongside fellow film actor Chiwetel Ejiofor has created a demand for tickets in the West End usually associated with rock concerts.
Tickets that should cost a maximum of £29 have fetched £800 on the internet auction site eBay but some people are offering them for up to £2,000. The potential for profit is so high that the Donmar has intervened with a warning that any ticket sold on for profit will be invalid.
Staff are monitoring ticket exchanges and have sent written warnings to sellers reminding them of the terms printed on the back of the ticket. Clause 11 states that “tickets may not be resold or transferred for profit” and that “to do so will render tickets void and the holder will be refused entry”.
A spokeswoman for the theatre told The Times that it would be enforcing the policy when it had gathered evidence that a ticket had been resold. “Any ticket that we discover we will make void,” she said. “They will be turned away. We have contacted people who are in possession of the tickets and we hope that they’ve got the decency not to sell them on.”
The high prices have been matched in theatre only by Sir Ian McKellen’s appearance in The Seagull in Los Angeles. A pair of $90 tickets sold for $2,500 (£1,215).
The Donmar sold 23,000 tickets within three hours of their going on sale in mid-October. The only remaining tickets must be bought directly from the box office, where ten seats will be made available at 10.30am every day for that day’s performance. Another 20 standing places for the three-hour play will also be sold.
Box-office staff said that demand had been created by the “Ewan McGregor factor”. The actor, who commands £5 million a film and is best known for his roles in Trainspotting and Star Wars, has already had experience of the buzz he can cause in the West End. People camped outside the box office from 6am when he appeared in Guys and Dolls in 2005.
His film career has left little time for stage work, however. His last stage play was Little Malcolm and His Struggle against the Eunuchs, which transferred from Hampstead Theatre to the West End in 1999.
Ejiofor is thought to be one of the country’s brightest acting talents. He is best known for his film roles, which have included playing a drag queen in Kinky Boots and a heroin dealer in American Gangster. His stage work includes Romeo and Juliet and Peer Gynt, both at the National Theatre, and The Seagull at the Royal Court.
The cast was assembled by Michael Grandage, the Donmar’s artistic director, who is considered by theatregoers to be a guarantor of quality.
Terri Paddock, who runs the theatrical website Whatsonstage, said that the Shakespeare was proving to be the biggest draw at the theatre this Christmas. “It’s amazing, at a time of year when you would expect people to be seeing pantomime, that the three hottest tickets are Othello, King Lear with Sir Ian McKellen, and Much Ado about Nothing at the National Theatre.”
In The Times Magazine on Saturday McGregor said of his preparation for the play: “I've never had to work harder than this. I mean, the sheer size of it. Since being in South Africa in August, I've done almost nothing except work on the play and prepare myself for the part.
“Everyone was saying, ‘Oh, you’re in London, can we have you for this, or this?’, which was nice, but I just had to say, ‘Sorry but no,’ because all I wanted to do was sit at home and learn the script.”
Grandage said that he had been trying to lure McGregor back to the stage ever since he directed him as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls.
The popular Premieres section of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival is filled with the customary selection of movies featuring stars venturing outside the mainstream to do something presumably more adventurous, as well as of films by name directors doing work outside the big studios.
The program has been bumped up to 24 entries this year and kicks off the fest Jan. 17 with the previously announced world premiere of Irish playwright Martin McDonagh's first feature, "In Bruges," a noirish thriller about two London hitmen whose enforced vacation in the Belgian city goes south. Focus feature stars Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes.
Among the directors with films in Premieres are Michel Gondry, Barry Levinson, Boaz Yakin, Mark Pellington (twice represented with "Henry Poole Is Here" and "U2 3D"), Michael Keaton and Brad Anderson. Thespians making appearances therein include Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Maria Bello, William Hurt, Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley, Ewan McGregor, Julianne Moore, Charlize Theron and Jack Black.
Premieres
...
"Incendiary" (U.K.), directed and written by Sharon Maguire ("Bridget Jones's Diary"), concerns the reactions of a young mother to a terrorist attack in London. Michelle Williams and McGregor star.
From the speed with which all the tickets for Othello at the Donmar Warehouse in London have gone, it would be
quite possible to argue that Ewan McGregor is bigger box office than Nicole Kidman or Gwyneth Paltrow. Both actresses have
starred at the small but influential venue in the past decade; both packed it out and received glowing reviews (Kidman’s
performance being famously described as “pure theatrical Viagra”). But neither show shifted seats as fast as
this one, which sold out in less than six hours.
Ewan McGregor (left), Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kelly Reilly star in Othello Photo from The Telegraph
McGregor, who was made famous by the film of Trainspotting in 1996, is playing Iago, the embodiment of jealousy,
and describes this as quite simply the hardest thing he has ever done. No ifs or buts here, no maybes or on-the-other-hands.
Ask him how it compares with life’s other challenges, like fatherhood, or going down to the foot of Africa on a motorbike,
or skimming the hills of Scotland in his brother’s Tornado jet, and none gets a look-in. Nor do the big movie roles –such
as Christian in Moulin Rouge! or Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars franchise –which have maintained his
profile these past 11 years.
In playing Iago, the biggest non-title role in Shakespeare, the 36-year-old McGregor becomes the latest of many actors
known mainly for film or TV work to take on a serious West End stage production. Apart from Kidman and Paltrow, there have
been appearances by such major players as Madonna, Kevin Spacey, Christian Slater, Woody Harrelson, Patrick Stewart and
Stockard Channing. In some cases, such as Stewart’s, there was already a body of stage work before the arrival of
Jean-Luc Picard and Star Trek: the Next Generation; in others, like Harrelson’s, it was TV and films almost
from the start. McGregor falls into the second category, his career having been influenced by the success he scored even
before Trainspotting. He was still at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, six months from graduation, when
he landed a lead role in Dennis Potter’s six-part TV classic, Lipstick on Your Collar.
The startling result –startling when you consider that he’s about to tackle one of the greatest Shakespearian
monsters –is that he’s done very little stage acting as a professional. There was the musical Guys and Dolls
two years ago, and his title role in a revival of David Halliwell’s cult classic Little Malcolm and his Struggle
Against the Eunuchs, but these were six years apart, punctuating a film career that has become busy rather than dazzling.
Last year alone there were three: Scenes of a Sexual Nature, Miss Potter and Stormbreaker. So either
he’s asking for trouble, or he’s riding his luck as gladly as he rides his BMW R1150GS Adventure, or else he
is buoyed up by the faith being placed in him by the Donmar’s director, Michael Grandage. Perhaps it’s a little
of all three. Either way, if a man can be said to bound warily into a room to discuss his situation, then that is what
he does.
“I’ve never had to work harder than this,”he says. “I mean, the sheer size of it. Since being
in South Africa [for the most recent TV motorbike epic] in August, I’ve done almost nothing except work on the play
and prepare myself for the part. Everyone was saying, ‘Oh you’re in London, can we have you for this, or this?’,
which was nice, but I just had to say, ‘Sorry but no,’because all I wanted to do was sit at home and learn
the script.”
I ask him if he is trying to prove something, and he breaks into a big, open smile and runs a hand back through his tufty
hair. It seems a fair question. Spacey, Stewart and others constantly talk about the different challenges and rewards of
live work, and make it sound as if an actor’s professional virility remains unproven if he spends a lifetime shirking
these summits in favour of lower but more lucrative pastures. “I’m just approaching it as another acting job,”McGregor
replies, “and that’s how I hope people will come to see it. I’m an actor, and that’s how I’ve
approached all the work I’ve ever done. So, no, I’m not trying to prove anything, except to be fully involved
in the production, and to nail Iago.”
No one is doubting that he’s up for it. He’s often in before anyone else, full of observations on text and
character during rehearsals. Grandage says he’s been trying to lure McGregor back to the stage since he directed
him as the hunky gambler Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre. “Ewan,”says the
director, “has a head start [for Iago] in that he looks like a guy who is good at male company. Good at it, and used
to it.”McGregor looks lean and alert. He may be a more mellow version of laddish now, but he is recognisably the
same peddler of slightly risky charm that he was as Nick Leeson, Barings Bank’s nemesis in Rogue Trader, eight
years ago.
There’s no doubting the truth of what Grandage says. For four and a half million viewers of his TV journeys Long
Way Down and the earlier Long Way Round, McGregor has become the very image of the biker-buddy, bonded but
restless, circling the globe with his friend Charley Boorman in a because-it’s-there sort of way. But for some
people, critics and civilians alike, the whole thing looks suspect. Boorman comes across as a bit of a prat, showing
off to the camera and making the most of his famous friend. This is unexpected, when you consider that he is the son
of John Boorman, who made one of the finest feature films ever about men up against it in the wild, Deliverance,
in 1972; Charley, then six, even appeared in it. But these two don’t seem to be searching for anything more than
ten hours’telly. McGregor comes out better from the inevitable comparison –the Peter Fonda rather than the
Dennis Hopper, the James Bolam rather than the Rodney Bewes.
There is other baggage that McGregor carries –the kind you bring back from extended galactic touring. “I’m
not all that aware of it,”he insists. “That’s not to say it’s not there, but I don’t come
face to face with it that often. Unless I’m at a premiere, when people want me to sign an Obi-Wan Kenobi poster.
Whether people will come to see me because of that, I don’t know. It’s quite weird, because
I honestly have no idea what people’s perception of me as an actor is, whether they accept that it changes from
person to person. What I do know is that working to the depth that we are at the moment is terrifying; there’s no
point in pretending otherwise. But that shouldn’t be seen as a negative thing –I’ve never been happier.”
He was once rude about Sean Connery for telling Scots how they should feel about their country while not living there.
McGregor regards himself as an adopted Londoner, a passionate one who considers it the best city going, and has now lived
in it for half his life. You could say he’s done his bit for the Auld Alliance by marrying a French woman in 1995 –Eve
Mavrakis, a production designer whom he met during an appearance on the TV series Kavanagh QC. They have three daughters,
one of whom, Jamiyan, was adopted two years ago from Mongolia, when she was four. McGregor tends not to talk about his
family, particularly the adoption. “I simply prefer to keep it private. Once I start to discuss it, it opens it out
and becomes, well, not private any more.”
A look of mild contrition passes briskly across his face when he thinks of Connery and the question of Scottish patriotism. “I’ve
got a very big mouth at times,”he goes on, “and I’m sure I said something stupid about him. But it’s
not really my place. The fact is that I don’t really know what’s right or wrong for Scotland. I think it’s
up to the people who live there. It seems to me that the Scottish Parliament has been reasonably successful. As I say,
it’s up to them, but, you know, if they did choose to make Scotland an independent country, I’d still live
here. I like the idea of Great Britain, of us all being together. If that doesn’t work for people financially, politically,
if there is a feeling that Scottish wealth is being bled into England, then…I don’t know, I’m so ignorant
about it.”
If “we”–that is, Scotland –get knocked out of football’s World Cup, then he instantly transfers
his allegiance to England. There you have the measure of his nationalism, or lack of it, since many of his fellow Scots
see their enemy’s enemy as their friend, turning into ardent Brazil fans if England are up against them.
But what about the Rugby World Cup? “I was hoping England would win. I just don’t like the antagonism that
exists in some parts [of Scotland]. I find it uncomfortable. I once had an English girlfriend who came up to work in Scotland,
and I got into fights because people would take the piss out of her accent, and I just couldn’t be arsed with it,
because it’s so boring and so ignorant. Come on guys, it’s a big world out there and yes, she’s an English
girl.”
But what about the England-France semi-final? “Ah, yes. Well, obviously she [Eve] would support France. My daughters
get to choose. I was watching it with my eldest, Clara. She was going to support France and me England, but then when England
scored a try in the opening seconds, I could see her face fall and I said, ‘Darling, if you want to support England,
do so,’and she did.”
The family, clearly, is central to his life. He says as much, describing it as his backbone, and anticipates the question
about how hard it must be for them, and indeed for Charley Boorman’s family, when they are off being boys on bikes.
He and Eve have been together since their early twenties, and seen many of their contemporaries’marriages come to
grief. “Listen,”he says, “we’ve had our ups and downs like everyone else, but we are happy, and
I can’t imagine it being any other way.”At the same time, he foresees no slackening of his appetite for “discovering
the world, seeing what it’s really like in these amazingly remote places…The sense of self-challenge, the
bonding between me and my mates.”He says that both he and Boorman go with the blessings of their families, adding: “We
wouldn’t do it this way again. Next time, we will break it up and make sure that we can see the children. There’s
no element of wanting to get away from them. We come back with great stories, and they’re very involved, we’re
on the phone every day, and we send them video clips. The hardest part is being away from them.”
There was another potential cause of friction, far more serious than the rugby, when his beloved older brother Colin,
a now retired RAF fighter pilot, was serving in Iraq. The two have been close since their childhood in the small Perthshire
town of Crieff. Asked how he felt about his brother being in Iraq, Ewan’s response was that he was extremely proud
of him, but at the same time wished just as passionately that he didn’t have to be there.
Did his opposition to the war threaten to cause a rift? “No. If ever there was a problem, I suppose it was when
he started. That was at the time of the first Gulf war. He was starting his training and I was starting mine, in these
completely different jobs. My worry is that no one ever seems to be accountable. Why is that? Why can national leaders
take us into wars like this for reasons that are based on lies? Why is it that they are above being accountable?”
This year he went flying with Colin, the first time he’d ever ridden pillion in his brother’s ultimate speed
machine. “I’d never seen him at work before,”says Ewan. “I could see his face down the side of
the helmet, and there he was, in charge of this effing rocket of a plane. We flew from Lossiemouth, where he’s been
stationed for most of his career. When we took off, he said, ‘We’ll go to 2,000ft and do some low-level stuff.’We
spent ten minutes skipping over the mountains and glens and it was the most exhilarating thing in the world. You can’t
see anything coming up, can’t prepare yourself for corners, and then suddenly you’re in them, with the G-force
pushing the blood back into your legs. I was queasy for days.”
And playing Iago to 250 people is harder than all that? He nods emphatically. Maybe the trademark laddishness is just
what is needed here. After all, Iago, embittered at being passed over for promotion by Othello (played at the Donmar by
Chiwetel Ejiofor), seeks to ingratiate himself wherever he can to bring about his master’s destruction. His mission
may be the result of “motiveless malignity”, as Coleridge suggested, but it is pursued with damnable skill.
As director Michael Grandage observes, the character is as much an actor as the person who portrays him.
When Patrick Stewart was in Othello on stage, he became so appalled by Iago that he wanted nothing more to do with him.
McGregor, meanwhile, has barely got to know him, and is spending his days trying to inhabit the character. As with the
biking, there are people around to help, but ultimately he’s on his own. It’s a big journey and it’s
taking him a long way down.
Othello is at the Donmar Warehouse, Earlham Street, London from November 30 to February 23 (0870 0606624; www.donmarwarehouse.com).
Although sold out, ten seats are available on the day for each performance, on sale at the box office from 10.30am; standing
tickets will also be available on the day. See Ewan MacGregor visit a project run by Riders for Health, The Times Christmas
charity, on his Long Way Down journey. Go to timesonline.co.uk/timesappeal
No more Mr Nice Guy: Ewan McGregor stars as the scheming villian in a revival of 'Othello'
Paul Taylor discovers why this usually charming actor was cast in the role
Published: 29 November 2007
There's more than a smack of the sordid bullfight about Othello. That parallel is subject, though, to several twists. It's a human being of a different race, not an animal, whom the scheming Iago reduces to a tortured, jealous wreck in the throes of a frothing fit at his feet. It's no red rag, but an emotionally charged handkerchief that the matador waves goadingly at his prey. Dragged into the ring, the innocent wives of both antagonists are killed during the course of the contest. And, also against the rules, the matador is, in the end, upstaged by the victim who is felled by his own hand.
Othello is arguably the most intense and immediate of Shakespeare's mature tragedies. Yet productions that release the play's full potential are rare. The problems that it poses for a director are part and parcel of its tremendous yet tricky brilliance. On the one hand, it would be a sentimental reading of the play that accepted Othello at his own valuation; on the other (which, for a while, was the modern orthodoxy) it is a cynical, reductive interpretation of the play that takes a steadfastly censorious view of his self-protective magniloquence. Avoiding both of these distortions and achieving a balanced view of the hero is the moral challenge to our perception that lies at the heart of the play. Few productions successfully rise to it.
Without doubt a key factor in this production selling out so quickly with tickets changing hands for up to £1,200 is the casting of Ewan McGregor.
It's sometimes argued that the play should be called "Iago", for it is Othello's right-hand man who drives the hero towards his doom. Iago is a warped, surrogate dramatist and his genre is revenge pornography (his account of Cassio's alleged horny dream about Desdemona brilliantly presses every button of perverted sexual arousal). Initially incited to vengeance when he is passed over for promotion in favour of a Sandhurst type, this chippy army man is revealed in soliloquy to be a psychopath who has to invent absurd reasons for his nihilistic hatred of the Moor.
But though Iago is a playwright who takes the exploitation of living creatures to a chilling extreme, it's sometimes forgotten just how improvisatory and hand-to-mouth are his methods. And in emphasising his diabolical ingenuity and recklessness, productions often overlook the fact that, for his plot to work at all, the character (and the actor playing him) must plausibly show why he has achieved his ironic reputation for honesty.
Michael Grandage, whose Donmar revival of the tragedy begins previewing tonight, is alert to the problems which are possibilities in disguise. Well aware of the performance history of Othello (in his earlier career as an actor, he played the idiotic Roderigo in the celebrated RSC production starring Willard White and Ian McKellen), he talks of the cultural shifts that have seen alternations in which of the two main male parts was regarded as the better role.
In the days when it was considered acceptable for white actors to play the Moor, leading thespians – such as Edmund Kean – played both roles during their career, as did Laurence Olivier, who portrayed Iago to Ralph Richardson's Othello at the Old Vic in 1938 and then blacked up as an ostentatiously African Moor to Frank Finlay's Iago in the 1964 National Theatre production.
But Grandage has been intent in rehearsal on shedding the weight of theatrical tradition. "Everything is on a knife-edge in this play, so you've got to get across the sense that nobody knows what is going to happen next." Iago takes enormous risks in the tissue of lies he concocts. No other Shakespearean tragedy could be averted so easily by someone stalking on and administering a strong dose of the facts to the deceived hero.
Casting is crucial to the chemistry that bubbles in a production between hero and villain. In this account, Iago is played by Ewan McGregor, last seen on stage as charming, personable Sky Masterson in Grandage's production of Guys and Dolls and better known as a screen actor who embraces both the indie end of the spectrum (Young Adam) and the mainstream (Star Wars, Moulin Rouge!).
The role of Othello is taken by Chiwetel Ejiofor who, though he has lately concentrated on movies (for directors ranging from Woody Allen to Ridley Scott), boasts an impressive list of theatrical credits.
The director talks of Ejiofor's "natural goodness" as a person and of how as a performer "he has access to such extraordinarily open qualities. He's somebody who manages to keep hold of something very, very childlike, who takes people as they come, and has faith that people can be like himself".
In casting McGregor as Othello's nemesis, Grandage says that he is getting away from the "bushy-eyed, fruity, over-sophisticated villain who seems to have it all worked out in advance" to someone who can move between "a charm that is not feigned" in the public scenes where he is "honest" Iago and the dark and perverted confidences delivered in the soliloquies.
Grandage is alert to the ways in which Iago can be construed as the malign step-brother of Hamlet (a perception that Simon Russell Beale drew on when he played the part for Sam Mendes). Both characters are essentially on suicide missions; there is a mystery at the heart of both their stories (the cause of Iago's malignity; the reason for Hamlet's fatalism after the sea voyage). And silence is the end of the road for both these loquacious soliloquisers who, in Iago's case, break the rule that characters tell only the truth when speaking directly to the audience.
The irony is that while Iago may wrestle with the unknowable nature of his motivation, he knows one thing for sure: that Othello has "a free and open nature". As with the jealousy of Salieri, the composer destructively fascinated by Mozart's genius, Iago's envy is an inverted, glowing tribute. Grandage's production looks poised to bring out the full balance of forces in this fierce, bloody bullfight.
'Othello', Donmar Warehouse, London WC2 (0870 060 6624),to 23 February
Tickets to see Ewan McGregor in the sold-out production of Othello are exchanging hands for more than £1,200 each.
Shakespeare's play at the Donmar Warehouse is proving more popular than the one-off Led Zeppelin reunion gig and the Spice Girls tour, according to ticket exchange company Viagogo.
The only tickets left for the 12-week run are for day seats and standing places. Donmar's box office prices range from £15 to £29 for the production but online the average price for a resale ticket is £1,220.
Eric Baker, CEO of Viagogo, said: "Who would have believed 400 years after it was written Othello would be the most popular ticket in town?"
By Steven Zeitchik and Gregg Goldstein Nov 20, 2007
The Sundance Film Festival won't announce its full program until next week and won't screen its first film for nearly two months. But barely halfway through November, the buzz is starting over an unusually large number of high-profile titles that could command an ever higher set of prices.
"There are a lot of English-language movies with stars that I'm expecting to end up at the festival," one veteran acquisitions executive said. "And that means we're going to see not just indie and specialty buyers coming out to bid but people at the studio level as well."
The prospect of a star-heavy festival is dovetailing with the bigger force dictating all things in Hollywood these days: the writers strike. If the stoppage continues and studios don't like the number or quality of their existing scripts, the finished-film market is a good place to turn.
And with stars filling every corner of that market, it might, in fact, be the first place they turn.
Such movies as the Bill Pullman-Patricia Clarkson drama "Phoebe in Wonderland," Barry Levinson's Hollywood spoof and Robert De Niro starrer "What Just Happened?" and the Tom Hanks vehicle "The Great Buck Howard" are all potential Sundance movies on distributors' lips. (Execs caution, of course, that none of these movies is guaranteed entry to the festival, with Sundance known for its eclectic and sometimes surprising lineups.)
On Monday, Sundance announced its opening-night movie, Martin McDonagh's "In Bruges," a star-laden picture in its own right, with Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes toplining the movie about hit men in Belgium; the film already has distribution from Focus Features.
Sundance has been attracting top talent since stars began making more indie movies. But come January, the festival could resemble a studio lot.
Prestige movies with wide appeal also are expected to figure prominently, including Ewan McGregor's turn in the terrorist-themed "Incendiary," Plum Pictures' parent-child drama "Trucker" and Groundswell Prods.' adaptation of the Michael Chabon novel "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" from director Rawson Thurber ("Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story)".
Comedies also are on the radar of execs who track indie productions: Among them are the Ben Kingsley/Mary-Kate Olsen pot comedy "The Wackness" and "Sunshine Cleaning," a production from indie banner Big Beach, which had a Sundance success in 2006 with another title containing the word "Sunshine."
Studios are a lot more willing to drop money in the seven- or even eight-figure range than their indie counterparts; though astronomical by festival standards, those fees are slight compared to what studios normally spend to produce a picture.
Seasoned festivalgoers recalled the 2005 edition, when Tom Freston, then of Viacom, flew in to Park City as what was then Paramount Classics made its $9 million pickup of Craig Brewer's "Hustle & Flow."
Of course that movie, often held up as an exemplar of a Sundance overbuy, might end up serving as a cautionary tale for acquisition-happy studio execs this year.
Still, experts say it's not just the offerings but the number of buyers changing this year's equation.
There are the wild cards, like the Weinstein Co., which jumped back into the game last year with several acquisitions and co-purchases and often could be counted on for a statement buy.
If newer players like the rejigged Paramount Vantage helped make last year a seller's dream (the specialty division paid $8 million for the quirky British film "Son of Rambow"), the entree of such self-financed operators as Summit and Senator could make for an even more frenzied festival this year.
But festival watchers note that new buyers might have a selective effect on purchase prices. "Some of these new companies need only one or two movies," one exec said. "The prices will skyrocket for those, but how many bidders will there be for a midlevel movie, the one that's only going to make $4 million or $5 million?"
The recent boxoffice performance of art house films might also have a sobering effect on buyers. In addition to the much-discussed phenomenon of flailing fall fare, last year saw a host of documentaries go for seven figures at Sundance, including Sony Pictures Classics' "My Kid Count Paint That" and ThinkFilm's "In the Shadow of the Moon." But docus have had a choppy time at the boxoffice this year, potentially cooling what has long been a hot Sundance category.
A number of divisions might also go a different route with the Park City festival, using it as a launching pad the way Searchlight and Picturehouse did last year for such movies as "The Savages" and "Rocket Science," respectively.
Overture's Toronto pickup, "The Visitor," is among the movies expected to get a spot at the fest, and the new label could use it as a platform to launch its April release.
According to the official site, Long Way Down will be airing on Fox Reality in the U.S. and worldwide on the National Geographic Channel in July, 2008.
The DVD will be released on December 3rd, 2007. NTSC (for North America and Japan) versions will be available exclusively -- and in limited quantities -- from the official site.
Video: Ewan and Charley talk about Long Way Down charities
By Angus Farquhar and Michael Guy 13 November 2007
Long Way Down stars Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman were joined by a host of celebrity names at an exclusive Biker Party to raise money for charity.
The highlight of the evening event at Battersea Park in London was a charity auction which raised a total of £201,300.
Check out the video below (link below) to see the stars talk passionately about their favourite charities then click the links to see them visit the projects during the filming of long way down.
The official site for Cassandra's Dream is up and running, although it contains nothing more than its trailer at this time. It will be interesting to see what gets added as time goes by.
After spending three months travelling the Long Way Down through Europe and Africa, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman concluded their 15,000 mile adventure in Cape Town, South Africa in August this year. Tonight, Thursday 8th November, Long Way Down hosted the party of the year in an effort to raise money for lead charity partner UNICEF, as well as CHAS (Children's Hospice Association of Scotland) and Riders For Health, whom they also supported on their journey.
Held at Evolution in Battersea Park and generously sponsored by Belstaff, Nissan, Nokia and TOTAL, the star-studded event was a night to remember, and an opportunity to raise valuable funds for UNICEF's projects in Africa. Hosted by Ewan and Charley, guests including Elle Macpherson, Jay Kay, Damon Hill, Sharleen Spiteri and James Nesbitt sat down to a meal before participating in an auction which helped the total money raised on the evening top £300,000. Highlights from the auction included a replica of the BMW bike that Ewan and Charley rode on their trip which fetched £50,000 and a Long Way Down limited edition Nissan Navara that sold for £42,000. At the end of the evening guests were able to enjoy exclusive live sets from both The Magic Numbers and Beth Orton.
Ewan and Charley, continuously supported by producers/directors Russ Malkin and David Alexanian, visited 3 sites over the course of their journey in an effort to raise awareness for Long Way Down's charity partners, in particular UNICEF's projects in Africa.
Ewan, Charley and the Long Way Down team are committed to raising as much money as possible for children affected by HIV, poverty and conflict in Africa and hope that tonight's fundraising event will go a long way towards achieving that goal.
Everyone at Long Way Down wishes to thank everyone who came and contributed to a great evening.
We would also like to thank our wonderful sponsors Nokia, Total, Nissan and Belstaff who supported the event and ensured that all proceeds go directly to charity.
Thank you all for your continued support
The team at Long Way Down.
Amazon.co.uk will be releasing the Long Way Down soundtrack on December 3, 2007. It will sell for £11.99 and contain 2 discs. No word yet on which tracks will be included.
Amazon.com will be selling it for $43.99, starting December 4th.
It's not hard to see the appeal of Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor for TV viewers. They're the male-buddy pair from Easy
Rider, only without the drugs. They're intrepid English travellers, in the tradition of Robert Byron, Bruce Chatwin and Michael
Palin, only with more swearing. They're rough-and-ready, sleep-under-the-stars, oil-on-my-denim-jacket roustabouts who happen
also to be well-off actors, taking a break from the graft and the glamour of the big screen. They are epitomes of laddishness
who would never be found reading Nuts or Zoo. For all the dust in their hair and gunge under their nails, they're nice boys,
plucky descendants of those Victorian explorers who tracked the source of the Limpopo, heedless of the headhunters, cannibals
and curare-tipped spears that they would almost certainly encounter en route. Their sweaty grins and capacity to endure rough
camping conditions have endeared them to the British public as surely as if Jamie Oliver and Nick Hornby had formed an inexplicable
alliance and ridden across the Sahara by tandem.
McGregor is most famous, globally speaking, for playing the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the later (ie the earlier, prequelly)
Star Wars movies, a career move he later publicly regretted (all that bogus sabre-wielding); but his reputation was made
long before, when he played Renton, the charismatic junkie in Trainspotting. He matured into a dashingly convincing romantic
lead in Moulin Rouge, A Life Less Ordinary and Young Adam along with several, more forgettable, star vehicles. He's listed
at No 36 in Empire magazine's Top 100 Film Stars of All Time. Charley Boorman is less renowned than his friend, but has
starred in umpteen movies, many directed by his father John: Deliverance (he played Jon Voight's small son), Excalibur,
The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory.
The two men met in 1997 in Cork on the set of The Serpent's Kiss, a 17th-century costume drama about topiary, leeches
and treachery, and the two hit it off over talk of throttles and exhaust pipes. They share a love of bikes that borders
on the obsessive, and a fondness for each other that's heartening to watch.
In 2004, they hit the road together on BMW Adventure bikes, journeying from London to New York via central and eastern
Europe, taking in Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Canada, and visiting places where the charity Unicef has a presence.
Having taken the precaution of bringing along a cameraman called Claudio von Planta, and some back-up vans containing a
film crew and lots of equipment, they turned it into a six-part TV series called Long Way Round. A book of their exploits
followed and was a huge bestseller. It's no great surprise, then, to find them repeating the exercise in Long Way Down,
which records the 15,000-mile trek they made this summer, from May to August, from John O'Groats in Scotland, through Italy,
thence to the Sicily ferry to Tunis on the northern tip of Africa; then journeying down the whole continent to South Africa,
taking in 18 countries on the way.
It's the same mixture as before of travelogue, male bonding and social conscience, but with a slightly edgier feel. From
the start, as they set up an Operations HQ in London, things go spectacularly wrong. The American producer-directors aren't
granted travel visas by the Libyan embassy (peevish memories of all that bombing in the 1980s, I expect). A training course,
to accustom the boys to "hostile environments" in Africa proves so gruelling, you can see their enthusiasm leaking
away. Ewan breaks his leg coming off his bike at the traffic lights in Holland Park. Then Charley's wife is diagnosed with
pneumonia and a collapsed lung. When the trip proceeds (with Mrs Boorman's blessing), they fly to Scotland to begin the
trip. But Charley gets into a row with an airline official. When she asks him to move his rucksack, he replies, "Why?
There isn't a bomb in it," and is instantly arrested and banned from all airlines in the world...
The succession of misfortunes makes, it must be said, for good TV in a series which might otherwise drown in manly hugs,
family sentiment and cries of rapture at the beauty of the landscape. One problematic strand concerns McGregor's wife Ève
Mavrakis, a French production designer, who decides, early on, she'd like to accompany the boys, despite never having ridden
a motorbike before. Students of psychology, and the "leakage" of inner thoughts, will enjoy Charley Boorman's
troubled face, as he digests the information that his laddish voyage alongside his best buddy is to be invaded by (urgh)
a soppy girl. A girl, moreover, who couldn't tell a Kawasaki from a KitKat...
I meet the boys at BBC TV Centre in west London. Since Ewan's 36 and Charley 40, it's absurd to call them "boys",
but that's exactly how they come across, as they welcome you into a glass-walled room and offer you coffee, fruit and cheese.
Ewan is, like all actors, shorter than you'd expect, but is bright-eyed, scarily alert, and possesses the confidence of
the devil. His voice slices through the room like a machete. He does most of the talking. Charley, by contrast, is rumpled
and endearingly uncoordinated, and his eyes widen like saucers when he wrestles with memories or difficult concepts. He
grew up in Ireland, riding motocross bikes from an early age. He took part in the Paris-Dakar rally last year, and is,
bikers will tell you, held in high esteem by the leather-gauntlet fraternity.
I ask about on-bike music. What's the best thing to have on an iPod when you're doing 100mph in the Mont Blanc tunnel? "I
never break the speed limit," deadpans Boorman, "so I wouldn't know." "Snow Patrol," says McGregor, "and
an American band called Bonnie Prince Billie. I was introduced to them by the actress Michelle Williams." Was that
it? Not "Born to be Wild"? Not Chris Spedding's "Motorbikin'"? "I listen to a lot of KT Tunstall,
and the Stereophonics," says Boorman. Whaaat? "And the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club." That's more like it.
How many plans were rejected before they came up with Long Way Down? Had there been a Long Way Up and a Long
Way Across? "About
the time Long Way Round went on the air," says Ewan, "we looked at the world map in our office and saw two possibilities – down
through Africa, or up through the Americas. Though Charley's been talking about a diagonal trip through Asia to Australia."
Long Way Diagonal – that didn't sound right. "Getting there through India and the Stans would be amazing," says
Charley. The Stans? "Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan – those Stans."
The big question is: why bikes? The pages of the tie-in book are often damp with misery, as Ewan and Charley become saturated
with rain and physically silted-up with sand (which gets everywhere) after travelling exposed to the elements. Did it have
to be a bike ride? This draws a lengthy rhapsody from Ewan: "Riding motorcycles was a dream I had when I was a kid.
I was never allowed a bike when I was a teenager, so it really was a dream for me, and I never quite got over it. I just
love them as objects; I like looking at them and cleaning them and tinkering with them, even if I don't know what I'm doing.
Riding them isn't like anything I know, it fulfils a big part of my life. I love the idea of getting from one place to
another on them – but long distances thrill me more than going to the shops."
"It's a choice you make," says Charley. "People choose to ride a bike because they want to. It's not an
economic necessity. The thing about a bike is, there's no phone, there's no passenger seat and no papers to put on a seat,
to start reading in traffic jams. You have to concentrate because it's easy to get knocked off. And by the time you get
home, your mind is clear."
They'd been influenced in their quests by books and films. "My favourite traveller? Easy," says McGregor. "Ted
Simon and his book, Jupiter's Travels. He was a Sunday Times journalist, and decided he wanted to travel the world
in 1972 and do it by motorbike. So he bought a stock Triumph, and went round the world... It took him four years. It's
a brilliant
travel book. We got in touch with him at the end of Long Way Round, and he came out and joined us in Mongolia. Without
that book, we might not have come up with the idea of doing the first trip." A look of pure hero-worship comes into
his eyes. "One of my favourite movies," says Charley dreamily, "has to be On Any Sunday, the documentary,
directed by Bruce Brown. It just makes you fall in love with riding motorbikes."
They took with them lightweight tents, in which they slept between sojourns in cheap hotels. Did the joy of camping wear
off after a while? "No it didn't," they say in all-but-chorus. "The nasty hotels were the worst sight," says
Charley with feeling. "You'd find yourself sleeping on your rollmat and your sleeping bag on the bed because you think,
I am not sleeping in that. No part of my body is going to touch that sheet. And you'd have been much better off putting
your tent up."
Had they been universally welcomed during their 81-day burn through the Dark Continent? "People still have a biker
image in their heads that hasn't changed from the 1950s," says McGregor with a touch of bitterness. "Sometimes
you can't get a table in a restaurant. Sometimes hotels become mysteriously full. But mostly we found people were willing
to help you – maybe there's some subconscious realisation that you've been battered by the elements, that if it's
a fucking hot day then you're fucking hot and if it's a wet day then you're wet, and they tend to look after you because
they know you're vulnerable."
Yes, but did they run into trouble – violence, threats, bribery, theft? "So many people, when they knew we
were going, told us about Africa," says Charley. "How the hyenas would eat your face, how you'd walk out of a
bar and someone will machete you to death. People have this idea of Africa as a dodgy, dangerous place. And you ask, 'Have
you been there?' and they go, 'Well, no I haven't actually been.' Now, we've been to Africa before, and in the towns you'll
find kids who'll try and lift your wallet, but you get that in London. And 99 per cent of the time, where we went on bikes,
people were friendly, interested in where we'd come from and what we were doing. They always laughed when we said we'd
come from Scotland and were going to Cape Town, like, what d'you wanna do that for?"
They did, on the other hand, see a lot of guns. "But they were more for show than anything else. In Ethiopia we saw
some spectacular desert warriors, with marvellous 1980s hairstyles all crimped, like Prince's, and with their tribal dress
they wore these shiny, polished-up AK-47 rifles. But they were just a status symbol or a decoration. You couldn't imagine
they had ammunition in them."
"Bloody expensive, ammunition," says Charley, with the air of a man who knows.
Things had become a bit lairy in Kenya, where they were given police protection – not from muggers, but from a sinister
gang of Somali bandits called the Shifter. "They offered us soldiers to escort us in case we walked into something,
but nothing happened," says Charley. "We were lucky. If you're unlucky ... we came across a school where there
had been this terrible massacre, a year and a half before: some soldiers had come in and murdered 22 children and 52 grown-ups
in the village. It was awful." Otherwise, the only danger on the trip had come from wildlife. Ewan found himself in
trouble for dissing an elephant. "It was in the Okavango Delta [in Botswana]. There were two elephants near our rooms,
and I got a bit cocky. I began filming myself, with an elephant in shot over my shoulder. As I walked away one started
following me, doing that false charge, with its ears up, trumpeting. I probably wasn't in real danger but I felt real fear.
I said, 'Come on Ewan, you don't know what you're doing. It's an elephant. You're not in Scotland. Show it a bit of respect.'
If it had decided to come for me, there's nothing I could've done. When people get trampled by elephants, you don't suffer
a broken leg, you die."
After all the laddishness, the boys-together, lighting-your-farts hilarity, Boorman and McGregor received a reality check
when they visited Unicef sites as part of their charity mandate. "We visited three of them, one on the Eritrean-Ethiopian
border, where we met kids who'd lost their limbs to landmines. Then in Gulu, northern Uganda, we visited a couple of kids,
a guy and a girl who'd been abducted into the Lord's Resistance Army and lived a life of absolute fucking terror and horror.
They were taken away at seven into this rebel army; she'd been raped, used as a whore by the army general, made to maim,
to kill and torture. The way the army keeps these kids is to take them back to their villages and make them kill people
there, even their own families. They're made to kill their own friends, even their brothers and sisters, so that they're
completely cut off. The girl came back to her village at 15, pregnant, and now she's got a two-year-old kid. She probably
has no chance of getting married or employed. Her life's been ruined." Did she talk about experiences? "No," says
Charley. "Her community around her were scared of her. You cannot believe what these kids have gone through. Unicef
work hard trying to rehabilitate them back into society, if they're lucky enough to come back. Thousands of children are
abducted, but only hundreds come back."
The boys refuse to answer provocative questions about the highs and lows of their relationship, as they lived in each
other's pockets for three months. What did each consider to be the other's worst habits? "That's a horrible question
to ask," says Ewan. "Charley here is perfect in every respect, whereas I'm a bit of a nightmare." (Charley
doesn't play ball either, but carefully blames any moments of friction between them on a chronic lack of food.) Nor do
you get far by asking about Ewan's wife Ève, who eventually came along just for a short burn through Malawi and Zambia.
Had she come for the whole trip, would Charley have pulled out? He sidesteps the question: "She came along to Malawi
and had an amazing time, and was a tremendous asset to the whole enterprise. And," he continues, going perhaps further
than he meant, "she showed that anybody can go on this trip. It doesn't matter who you are, you can go and do it." Even
girls, eh?
The boys are staying home for at least three years before they'll try another trip. There are movies to be made, and families
to re-connect with, and signing tours of the new bestseller. As for the lessons learnt on the trip, McGregor has entered
a realm that's pure Buddhism. "You know what I missed? I didn't miss anything at all. In fact, if I could've taken
less, I'd have been happier. There's something very pure about having nothing at all, about leaving your house with nothing
in your pocket, no phone, nothing. I love that. On a trip, of course, you have to take stuff. But the nirvana state would
be to have nothing at all."
Cassandra's Dream at Aspen Film's Academy Screenings series
Stewart Oksenhorn Aspen, CO Colorado October 26, 2007
Aspen — Cinema fanatics are already getting hammered with the usual overflow of quality films loaded into the midautumn season. But make sure to save some room; there's another massive helping about to be served, thanks to Aspen Film.
Aspen Film's Academy Screenings series - presented on the theory that Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members are in Aspen over the holidays, but open to everyone - will offer up a few handfuls of Oscar hopefuls later this year. The series, in its 17th year, is set for Dec. 21-Jan. 2 at Harris Concert Hall.
Among the directors to be featured are Paul Thomas Anderson, Woody Allen, Jonathan Demme, Julian Schnabel, Jason Reitman and, in his first directorial effort in a decade, Francis Ford Coppola. Appearing onscreen are former Oscar winners Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker.
Highlights of the series include Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood," adapted from the Upton Sinclair novel "Oil" and starring Daniel Day-Lewis; the European-set romantic thriller "Youth Without Youth," Francis Ford Coppola's first film since 1997's "The Rainmaker"; and "The Savages," a family comedy-drama starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney and directed by Tamara Jenkins.
Also included in the series are Woody Allen's crime drama "Cassandra's Dream," starring Ewan MacGregor and Colin Farrell; "Juno," a black comedy about a pregnant teenager directed by Jason Reitman; and Julian Schnabel's real-life drama "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," a multi-award winner at the Cannes Film Festival.
Also to be screened are Rob Reiner's "The Bucket List," a comedy starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman; "The Greater Debaters," directed by Denzel Washington and starring Washington and Forest Whitaker; the French animated feature "Persepolis"; and "Jimmy Carter, Man From Plains," Jonathan Demme's documentary of the former president.
Additional titles will be added to the program. The full schedule for Academy Screenings will be announced in late November. Tickets will go on sale to the public Dec. 12 at the Wheeler Opera House's Aspen Show Tickets.
Davidoff Adventure - The New Fragrance for Men Featuring Ewan McGregor
October 23 2007
The new fragrance for men - Davidoff Adventure was presented to the European beauty press last Thursday October 18th in London.
Guests had the chance to attend a private presentation during which the talented actor and true adventurer Ewan McGregor, shared a private moment with them, telling about his last motorcycle adventure, "Long Way Down", and evoking memories of the Davidoff Adventure advertising campaign shoot which took place in Brazil.
Guests appreciated speaking with the actor and being able to ask him questions freely.
The Sunbeam studio was all dressed up to evoke escapism. Guests enjoyed an emotional journey through a beautiful wide-spaces movie plunging at the heart of the Davidoff Adventure universe. The emotional TV spot featuring Ewan McGregor was finally unveiled in exclusivity.
The creator of the fragrance, Antoine Lie, unveiled the scent step by step in a different room completely transformed in the spirit of the fragrance, inspired from natural elements, from faraway rain forest to exotic spices and precious woods.
The discovery ended with a dinner on the 29th floor of a Londoner tower with a breathtaking view on the Thames River, world-cuisine's savours and colours allowing guests to close the journey by a truly emotional experience.
Actor Ewan McGregor says Britain's "nanny state" could cause him to move abroad.
The Trainspotting star has just completed an epic 15,000-mile motorbike journey across Africa with best friend Charley Boorman.
And he told the Radio Times: "Our trip opened my eyes to how insane the rules are in Britain - CCTV cameras everywhere, congestion charge - a ludicrous nanny state. If anything drives me out of the country it will be that - not tax, I don't earn enough."
Health and safety rules can affect actors - when Daniel Craig was unveiled as the new James Bond, he was made to wear a life jacket during a River Thames boat stunt before the world's media.
"It's not his fault. He's doing what he's told," McGregor sympathised. "Today, health and safety are out of control. In Africa, garage attendants smoked as they filled the bikes. I took great pleasure in that."
The pair's trip from John O'Groats to Cape Agulhas at the tip of South Africa was captured on film for BBC2 series Long Way Down.
The journey took them through 18 countries and McGregor said he was touched by the kindness of the people he met in Africa.
"People are nice to us because we're travellers, and the most generous and happiest are often those who have the least, whereas in Britain we're devastatingly depressed, yet have so much."
The duo had to cope with physical hardships, including being on their bikes for days without proper washing facilities.
"We never got fed up with each other, but sometimes I couldn't stand the smell after a few days without a shower," Boorman said.
EOD named "Pride of Britain" for work in Iraq (AUDIO)
9 Oct 07
The British Army is being awarded a 'Special Recognition' award at the ITV's Pride of Britain Annual Awards Ceremony in London tonight, 9 October 2007.
Ewan McGregor presenting the Pride of Britain Award to Staff Sgt Michelle Cunningham of the Joint EOD group, Basra [Picture: Daily Mirror]
The award has been accepted on behalf of the Army by Staff Sergeant Michelle Cunningham, aged 32, from the Joint Forces Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Group in Iraq.
It was presented to her by Star Wars actor and strong supporter of the Armed Forces, Ewan McGregor, who recently flew out to Iraq accompanied by an ITV1 film crew to record the presentation. The footage will be shown at tonight's ceremony and broadcast on ITV tomorrow, 10 October 2007, as if it were a live link to theatre.
Pride of Britain celebrates the achievements of remarkable British people. It is the biggest national event of its kind in the UK, attracting an audience of around seven million TV viewers. HRH Prince Charles, the Prime Minister and Defence Secretary Des Browne are due to attend the ceremony.
The British Army is being awarded a separate 'Special Recognition' award, this year, as the organisers feel the Army must be remembered in an event of this scale. ITV1 wanted to present the award to reflect the Army's contribution both at home and abroad and in particular to highlight the work of troops on operations.
Ewan McGregor meets UK Service personnel at the Contingency Operating Base (COB) in Basra [Picture: Cpl Steve Follows]
Staff Sergeant Michelle Cunningham, who serves with 721 Squadron, 11 EOD Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, is the first female Senior Non Commissioned Officer (SNCO) to pass the High Threat Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Disposal course and has just been awarded a Queen's Gallantry Medal for "displaying complete disregard for her personal safety," extinguishing a fire at an explosives factory in Middle Wallop, Hampshire, last year. Ewan McGregor told the Daily Mirror who sponsor the awards:
"I'm just so amazed by Michelle and her unit's courage. She's fantastic. I would never have the guts to do what she does. Most people, and I'm one of them, would run a million miles from a bomb but Michelle walks towards them and makes them safe. Amazing. It's important that we pay tribute to Michelle and people like her, who are prepared to put their lives in danger like this for others."
She was selected to represent the Army in order that audiences have someone they can relate to. ITV considered that the work of EOD operators fits well with the humanitarian theme of the awards, reflecting work both overseas and in the UK with the latter resonating with the public's heightened awareness of domestic terrorism.
Actor Ewan McGregor paid a surprise visit to British Forces in Basra for the Pride of Britain Awards 2007 [Picture: Cpl Steve Follows]
Despite being the only British female bomb disposal specialist in Iraq, and entering the burning explosives factory in Middle Wallop last year to bring the situation under control after a man had already been killed and firefighters had decided it was too dangerous to enter, Staff Sergeant Cunningham said:
"I'm no hero. I'm just doing a job. I love it. There aren't many jobs where you feel you can make a difference and people thank you."
With her colleagues in the Joint Forces Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group, Staff Sergeant Cunningham gave Ewan a demonstration of their bomb exploding equipment and carried out a controlled explosion on a car before inviting him to don the protective anti-blast suit they wear when defusing explosives.
Ewan visited UK Service personnel from various regiments based at the UK base in Basra Airport and also rode in a Warrior Armoured Personnel Carrier and a Lynx helicopter as well as opening a new medical unit. Major General Graham Binns, Officer Commanding Multi-National Division (South East), greeted Ewan and said:
"It's been a great morale boost that you've taken the trouble, not without personnel risk to come and show your support."
The actor, whose brother, Colin, served in Iraq last year with the RAF's 617 Squadron, flying reconnaissance missions, told the troops at Basra via the British Forces Broadcasting Service's radio at the base:
"We're all thinking about you back in Britain and we're all really proud about what you're doing here. We hope to see you back home soon."
To hear the full interview Ewan gave to BFBS in Iraq, click here.
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Ewan McGregor and his friend and colleague Charley Boorman recently spoke about their pan-African motorbike adventure known as the ‘Long Way Down’.
The 15,000-mile journey started in May 2007 at John O’Groats, Scotland and finished at the southernmost point in South Africa – Cape Agulhas – in August. Their carefully planned route took them through two continents and across 18 countries in 85 days. Along the way, they stopped off to meet local people, experience different cultures and visit three UNICEF programmes that are helping children and their communities.
Talking to UNICEF, the pair reflected on the harsh reality of life for so many children across the African continent and the people they met through the UNICEF programmes.
It was important to Ewan and Charley to explore parts of Africa that are less travelled. They wanted to make sure they heard what it is like to be a child in some of the countries they passed through – and to see firsthand what is being done by UNICEF.
A long way to travel – and to help
“We wanted to show a wide range of what UNICEF is doing,” Ewan said. “So we visited three different projects [including two] in northern Ethiopia at the Eritrean border – there’s been conflict there over the years. There’s a great deal of landmines that have been laid there and sadly, many children end up being injured by these landmines.
“We went out to Gulu in the north of Uganda,” he continued. “We met some children up there who’d been abducted as young as six and seven. They’d been forced to fight as child soldiers in a horrific rebel army and forced to torture other children, and in many cases go back to their own villages and kill and maim people in their own villages – so that the children are completely cut off from their past, so that there’s no going back.
Ewan and Charley deliver a School-in-a-Box and a Sport-in-a-Box to St. Martin's School in Uganda.
“The third visit was in Malawi,” said Ewan. “I went back there and was lucky enough to see some of the community-based child centres that UNICEF helped to set up, which allow kids to be looked after – children who’ve been orphaned by HIV and AIDS.”
Ewan and Charley were moved by what they saw in Africa and described the sense of sadness they felt at first, followed by a sense of hope.
“The first time you’re there, it’s so upsetting to see,” Charley said. “And then you do the UNICEF projects and you breathe a sigh of relief that someone is actually trying to help. And the more you look into it, the more you realize there are people out there with the same goal – to try and reach children.”
Ambassadors for change
Ewan McGregor, who is also a UNICEF UK Ambassador, said he and Charley Boorman, a longstanding supporter of the organization, are often asked what stands out most from their travels.
“For both of us, it’s the incredible, tireless work of UNICEF's local staff on the ground, working to give children the care and support they need to survive,” he said. “Day in and day out, UNICEF is taking action, preventing babies being born with HIV, helping children orphaned by AIDS, giving kids a chance to go to school. There's so much to do, but without any funding from the UN, they need money urgently to reach every child.”
“Crossing Africa, we realized the enormity of what UNICEF has set out to do,” added Charley. “We want people to help UNICEF and give something – however much it is – to help make the world a better place for every child. We've seen what a difference it can make.”
Travelling with Ewan and Charley were Russ Malkin of Big Earth and David Alexanian of Elixir Films, who are producing and directing a documentary of the journey for the BBC, as well as three cameramen and a medic.
‘Long Way Down’ is also raising money and awareness for the Children’s Hospice Association of Scotland and Riders For Health. To find out more or donate to the Long Way Down fund for UNICEF, visit www.unicef.org.uk/longwaydown. Money raised goes to children affected by poverty, conflict and HIV in Africa.
Amy Bennett contributed to this story from New York.
Ewan McGregor had only been asleep for a few hours when the sirens started wailing.
It was 4.30 in the morning and this was the warning of an imminent mortar attack. The instructions were for everyone to throw themselves to the floor and pull on their armour-plated jackets and helmets.
It sounds like a scene out of a film, but this was for real. And, even though it turned out to be a false alarm, for Ewan it was a stark awakening to the dangers that face our brave troops every day in Iraq.
The Hollywood star had arrived at the British base at Basra just hours earlier - on a very special mission to honour a courageous young woman with a Pride of Britain award.
Despite the obvious risks, he was so impressed by the remarkable bravery of Britain's only female bomb disposal specialist in Iraq that he wanted to present the award to her himself.
It will be shown on the Mirror's Pride of Britain Awards on Wednesday on ITV1 at 9pm.
At the age of 32, Staff Sgt Michelle Cunningham was nominated by the Army for "displaying complete disregard for her personal safety" by singlehandedly extinguishing a fire at an explosives factory, in Middle Wallop, Hampshire, last year.
A man had already been killed and firefighters had decided it was too dangerous to go inside the blazing building.
But, even though she knew she could have been blown up at any minute, she entered carrying two fire extinguishers, went to the heart of the fire, got it under control and made safe hundreds of explosives.
An incredible act of courage. But for Michelle, and her unit, it was just another day at work, where danger is ever-present, facing threats of explosions, booby-trapped bombs, small arms fire and rocket attacks.
Ewan, 36, said: "I'm just so amazed by Michelle and her unit's courage. She's fantastic. I would never have the guts to do what she does.
In the video interview, on the stv.tv site (link at the end), Ewan McGregor speaks about how he initially got involved with the Children's Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS), who work tirelessly to help children with life-limiting conditions.
Get me some poison, Iago." Finally and fatally convinced of Desdemona's iniquity, Chiwetel Ejifor's magnificently held and hurt Othello shimmers with the desire for vengeance. Tightening agonizing tension still further, Ewan McGregor's lethal Iago takes his time. "Do it not with poison," he replies, gently. Taking a stealthy step towards his victim, he pauses for a beat before lowering his voice to almost a whisper: "Strangle her." The chill that grips the theater is testament to the throat-clutching tension of Michael Grandage's brilliantly calibrated Donmar Warehouse production. Shakespeare's masterpiece of cunning is revealed as a breathless, three-hour thriller.
Explore has two trailers for Long Way Down: a 
Ewan McGregor had only been asleep for a few hours when the sirens started wailing.