MovieWeb has the trailer for Ewan's upcoming film Amelia, with Hilary Swank and Richard Gere. The film is about Amelia Earhart, and American aviation pioneer, author and women's rights advocate who disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island during an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937. Ewan plays a love interest.
Pictures and videos of Ewan at the Shanghai International Film Festival
This site has several pictures of Ewan Shanghai International Film Festival (there's a link at the bottom of the page for pictures of Ewan's arrival at the airport).
There are also three videos on YouTube of the press junket:
Thanks to Barbara and Fuumin for the great finds, and thanks to custardflix for putting up those videos!
SHANGHAI -- Sony's "Angels & Demons" on Sunday will become the first foreign movie to close the Shanghai film festival -- though it has not yet been cleared for commercial release by the Chinese authorities.
The studio is hoping that a positive reception for the movie will ease its passage through censorship and approval, enabling it to bag one of the 20 slots per year in the country's import quota. "The Da Vinci Code" was released in China, although films with religious themes are not always approved for distribution.
Sony is backing up its bid by bringing in top talent including Ewan McGregor, co-star Ayelet Zurer and Michael Rosenberg, president of the pic's producer Imagine Entertainment.
While Ron Howard's previous Dan Brown adaptation "The Da Vinci Code" proved a controversial choice, Sony said that so far only two other countries worldwide have not released the picture – Syria (where it was banned) and North Korea.
Studio sources report that tickets to Sunday festival screenings of "Angels" sold out in a matter of hours.
CANNES -- Ewan McGregor is reteaming with "Young Adam" director David Mackenzie for the romantic drama "The Last Word," with shooting set to start in September.
TrustNordisk is preselling the Scottish-German-Danish co-production, which is described as a love story set in a city where people are slowly losing their sensory perception.
Mackenzie will shoot from a script by Danish writer Kim Fupz Aakeson, who penned the screenplay to Berlinale competition entry "Little Soldier."
Glasgow-based production banner Sigma Film, Hamburg-based Amusement Park Films and Zentropa in Denmark will produce.
Sigma and Zentropa have a long history, having worked on such titles as Andrea Arnold's debut "Red Road," Shona Auerbach's "Dear Frankie" and Lars Von Trier's "Dogville" and "Manderlay."
Ewan McGregor of "Angels & Demons"—Is He the Most Underrated Actor Around?
May 15, 2009
It's hard to talk about how fierce Ewan McGregor is in the flawed Angels & Demons. His role as the right-hand holy man to the just-dead Pope is tied into plot details that lead to spoilers. But in a movie in which most of the actors, led by Tom Hanks, hold back — McGregor lets it rip. The Scottish actor has a reputation for taking risks. And yet McGregor, 38, is traditionally the forgotten man when it comes to winning Oscar nominations. He was the romantic soul of 2001's Moulin Rouge, but Nicole Kidman got the acting nomination. Nothing for Ewan. I'm not saying that anyone connected with the deadly Star Wars prequels deserves credit. But McGregor, as the young version of Alec Guinness's Obi-Wan Kenobi, was the only one to emerge from the Jar-Jar trilogy with his dignity intact. It's time to make up for past insults. So let's look at the roles for which McGregor deserved his share of award glory:
Trainspotting, director Danny Boyle's balls-out 1996 film version of the Irvine Welsh novel about Scottish heroin junkies, makes a good start. McGregor played Renton and from his opening run through the streets to a surreal dive down a toilet it was a performance of ferocity and feeling. Trainspotting was the second of three films McGregor would do with his mentor Boyle, freshly Oscared for Slumdog Millionaire. But after Boyle gave the role meant for McGregor in 2000's The Beach to Titanic box-office prince Leonardo DiCaprio, McGregor refused to speak to Boyle. He still hasn't. I recently interviewed McGregor on my "Popcorn" show on ABC News NOW, and asked him if there was any chance of a reconciliation. I even offered to do an intervention. McGregor addresses this issue and more in this clip from the show (visit the site - link below - to see the clip):
Velvet Goldmine, Todd Haynes' swooningly sexy 1998 tribute to Seventies glam rock, cast McGregor as an Iggy Pop-ish rude boy in mascara whose suck-my-cock swagger transfixed the David Bowie-ish figure played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers. McGregor threw himself into the makeup, the clothes, the drugs, the bi sex and the blazing music with a dynamism that is never less than mesmeric.
Moulin Rouge, the above mentioned spectacle from Aussie director Baz Luhrmann, features McGregor as a penniless poet named Christian, crooning an elephantine love medley with Nicole Kidman, referencing — among other tunes — "All You Need Is Love," "I Will Always Love You," "Silly Love Songs" and "Up Where We Belong." On my "Popcorn" show, I begged McGregor to sing a snatch of the medley live. He refused, dammit! I just dared Craig Ferguson to get Ewan to sing on his show tonight. We'll see. But McGregor's unbridled emotionalism as Christian is, I believe, the secret of the film's continuing appeal.
Young Adam, a 2003 tale of adultery and murder directed by David Mackenzie, won McGregor the Scottish equivalent of an Oscar. The movie found him playing an amoral drifter on a barge navigating the waterways of Glasgow, and having an affair with fellow Scot Tilda Swinton as the wife of the barge owner. In the U.S., McGregor's nude scenes got as much attention as his acting. "I have no problem with nudity," he told me. "Nudity, sexuality and sex are all part of life." Maybe McGregor's willingness to go commando onscreen (catch The Pillow Book) hurts his chances at Academy attention. McGregor, admirably, goes his own way. In the upcoming* I Love You Phillip Morris*, McGregor shares hot love scenes with costar Jim Carrey. "He's a nice kisser, Jim, tender but firm," McGregor told me. His only regret? "Jim doesn't call and doesn't write." Neither does Oscar. But it's a time for a change.
Stay, a 2005 film from director Marc Forster (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, The Kite Runner), is the unfairly neglected film that McGregor told me he'd most like audiences to find on DVD. It's a tough, uncompromising story, with McGregor as a Manhattan shrink treating a suicidal art student (Ryan Gosling) in ways that unhinge them both.
Ewan McGregor visited Good Morning America today (May 13) to promote his new movie “Angels & Demons” in New York City.
Looking like a stud, the 38-year-old wore black pants matched with a black sweater and tee while he entertained the crowd, throwing some horse shoes.
McGregor himself has been all over the world filming for his movies that has led him to some surprises. During “Moulin Rouge,” the movie was taped in Sydney instead of Paris, and his latest movie, “Angels and Demons,” takes place in Rome, yet it was taped in L.A. “Imagine that? That was the only reason I took the job and then they said my scenes were in LA.”
Adding, Ewan says, “I’ve often fantasized that Rome would be a great place to work. Swan off set with your sunglasses on, walk to the nearest café, but that didn’t happen.”
Ewan will be playing in the follow-up to “The Da Vinci Code” as Camerlengo Patrick McKenna - who is charged with the interim ruling of the Vatican City after the death of the Pope.
The Vatican was restructured in Los Angeles due to being denied permission for any filming inside its walls.
While Mr McGregor was stuck in LA, co-star Tom Hanks ran around Rome after the baddie as a symbologist and detective Robert Langdon.
“We had only three or four scenes [together] and a bit of running around, but it was very nice,” says Ewan.
And what does he think of Hanks as an actor? “He’s a lovely man and a great actor and like most good actors, he was very comfortable to work with and there was no starry behavior, you know, he was one of the cast.”
Visit the site (link below) for more great pictures of Ewan!
Jim Carrey starrer "I Love You Phillip Morris" has been acquired for domestic distribution by Consolidated Pictures Group.
The picture features Carrey as a married conman who falls in love with his cellmate, played by Ewan McGregor.
The production and distribution group, which launched at the Sundance Film Fest, has set a Valentine's Day release.
CPG principals Timothy Patrick Cavanaugh, Randall Miller, Jody Savin and James Mancuso made a mid-seven-figure deal with the film's financier, EuropaCorp, and a significant P&A commitment. Savin and Miller self-distributed their 2008 film "Bottle Shock."
The film, written and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa ("Bad Santa"), debuted at Sundance and makes its Gallic premiere as a Directors' Fortnight offering at Cannes.
The film is produced by Mad Chance's Andrew Lazar with Far Shariat, and Luc Besson is executive producer.
CPG has brought on Matthew Cohen to supervise marketing and distribution. He worked on the campaigns for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Hairspray" and "No Country for Old Men."
British actor Ewan McGregor poses during the photo call for the World Premiere of the movie 'Angels & Demons', in front of St. Peter's Basilica, in Rome, Sunday, May 3, 2009.
From left, actor Tom Hanks, Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer, British actor Ewan McGregor, Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino, writer Dan Brown, and director Ron Howard look at their shadow cast on the red carpet as they pose in front of St. Peter's Basilica during the photo call for the World Premiere of the movie 'Angels & Demons', in Rome, Sunday, May 3, 2009.
The following is a rough translation of the German article.
If Roman Polanski calls, they all come. For the political thriller “The Ghost”, the producer got the stars: ex-Bond Pierce Brosnan, Hollywood star Ewan McGregor, “Sex and the City” legend Kim Cattrall.
In the five-star hotel Usedom Palace rooms were booked with an ocean view. In the fish restaurant came in the shy Polanski, since the weather was not cooperating. He needed rain clouds and the sky over Usedom was bright blue.
The actors enjoyed the Baltic Sea atmosphere: Ewan McGregor strolling comfortably from the hotel and Pierce Brosnan taking a walk on the beach. In the film, Usedom will represent the American vacation island Martha’s Vineyard. For an authentic look, even electricity pylons from the USA were set up.
I Love You Phillip Morris, which features a graphic homosexual romp, has failed to find a US distributor
A prison comedy starring Ewan McGregor and Jim Carrey as gay lovers may not be shown in American cinemas because it is considered too risqué.
I Love You Phillip Morris, in which the stars play inmates who find love behind bars, has failed to find a US distributor and is expected to go straight to DVD.
Film industry insiders said the movie, which features a graphic sex scene and frequent references to gay sex, had fallen foul of anti-gay prejudice in America.
Carrey plays Steven Russell, a married policeman from Texas, who comes out of the closet and then becomes a conman to fund his flamboyant gay lifestyle.
He is sent to prison, where he meets and falls in love with Morris, played by McGregor. Following Morris’ release, Russell escapes from prison four times to be reunited with him.
The $13m (£9.3m) film is based on the true story of Russell, who was sentenced to more than 100 years behind bars because of his repeated escape attempts.
The independent movie, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, has attracted mixed reviews, with one critic for Variety, the movie bible, remarking that the “clingy physicality of Steven and Phillip” and “spectacular, ride ’em-cowboy sex scene” would give some fans of Carrey’s mainstream movies a heart attack.
Lewis Tice, director of publicity and marketing, at distributors TLA Releasing, said he believed the graphic homosexual sex depicted in the film had turned off distributors.
“The depiction of the sexual activity was far more than I’ve ever seen in a mainstream film with a mainstream celebrity,” he said. “There’s a graphic sex scene in the first 10 minutes that I was surprised to see.”
Tice added: “Lesbian gay bisexual and transvestite cinema is still seen as an underground, specific genre. When it comes to Hollywood mainstream, they want the widest audience possible for the amount of money they spend.”
Scott Stiffler, author of Why Hollywood Avoids Gay Movies, added: “Mostly straight, multiplex-going audiences don’t want to see a romantic comedy in which two dudes get it on; unless it is meant as a joke.
“Even Brokeback Mountain, which grossed $83m domestically, couldn’t come close to the $120m gross that I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry [about two heterosexual men who enter into a civil partnership as part of a pension scam] made in the US.”
Britain is one of only a handful of European countries where a deal has been secured to show the movie, which is due for cinema release this summer. The film is currently being re-edited in a last ditch attempt to find an American distributor. If it fails to do so, it will go straight to DVD.
The failure of the movie to secure a cinema deal in the US will be a blow for both Carrey and McGregor.
Carrey, who was paid more than £10m per film following the success of The Mask, has had a string of recent flops.
Meanwhile, McGregor’s political thriller, Incendiary, in which he starred alongside with Michelle Williams, failed to set box offices alight.
Yesterday Andrew Lazar, the producer of I Love You Phillip Morris, insisted a deal will eventually be found.
ET Online has exclusive new scenes from Angels & Demons, and Ewan is featured in several of them! We can also hear his lovely accent quite well. Check it out!
Actor Ewan McGregor is threatening legal action over an Internet impostor pretending to be him on various social networking sites.
The online fraudster purporting to be McGregor has convinced nearly 20,000 fans to subscribe to his regular updates on Twitter.com.
The phony messages tell followers the alleged star is "about to enjoy banana pancakes" and "finally has some relaxing time".
But McGregor is adamant the messages aren't from him.
A spokesperson for the star says, "Ewan does not have a Twitter site or one on MySpace either. Someone is just making it all up. People monitor his movements. We are looking into taking action to have the Twitter site removed."
The prospect of Jim Carrey making out with Ewan McGregor was just the kind of thing that got the media buzzing during the Sundance Film Festival.
But four weeks later, “I Love You Phillip Morris,” a dark comedy featuring Carrey as a gay con man and McGregor as his prison lover, is still not sold, and the producer says it has been taken off the market.
He added: "If it's a film that has somebody with marketing value, but it's a more difficult film, the price may not be large. Whoever's handling the sale of the film may take a while to come to terms with that."
"I Love You Phillip Morris" is a case in point. It marked the directorial debut of "Bad Santa" scribes Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, and features Jim Carrey as a gay con man and Ewan McGregor as his prison lover.
Considered a hot property in the weeks prior to the festival, the tonally complex film left many distributors scratching their heads after its Sundance premiere -- even though some of those who passed said they enjoyed it. The simple fact: They could not envision the film finding an audience.
According to producer Andrew Lazar, it is no longer on the market and the production company plans to announce a theatrical deal "very soon." But during the festival, the filmmakers said they intended to continue editing the film -- turning its premiere into a de facto work-in-progress screening -- so it remains unclear how the newer version will play.
Polanski transforms German island into Martha’s Vineyard
27.02.2009
Roman Polanski has begun filming his new thriller ‘The Ghost’ on the German island of Sylt on the North Sea.
The local port was turned into a film studio and many wooden buildings were refaced to resemble American style houses. Sylt is being transformed to resemble the American popular vacation spot Martha’s Vineyard, on the Atlantic Ocean.
Polanski, who is not allowed into the United States because he has been convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in 1973, chose instead to film in Germany.
The film crew is composed of 120 people. Ewan McGregor plays the lead role. Pierce Brosnan will also appear in the film.
The Polanski film crew will be on-location on the island until the 6 March. The film’s release date has not yet been announced.
BBC bosses chop scenes from aspirational biking classic in light of Ross/Brand gaffe
BLIMEY, BMW aren't going to be happy about this - a lot of the firm's branding on the bikes used in Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round TV show has been cut before it is shown again, on the orders of BBC bosses worried about the show's content in light of the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand affair.
According to BBC insiders, TV top dogs are paranoid about the amount of problems anything even slightly controversial could now cause. As a part of measures to redress what could be seen as an imbalance in BBC output bosses have ordered the popular biker show to be re-edited to cut references to the brand of motorbikes used and products used.
Rarely seen early film starring Ewan McGregor. Family Style won the Lloyds Bank Film Challenge in 1993. Written by Matthew Cooper and starring a pre Trainspotting Ewan McGregor. It’s also an early work of director Justin Chadwick who would go onto direct The Other Boleyn Girl more than a decade later.
The theatrical trailer for director Ron Howard’s The Da Vinci Code follow-up Angels & Demons is now online.
Tom Hanks returns as symbologist Robert Langdon for this prequel story, that has the Harvard professor up against the ancient secret society, The Illuminati, which has returned for revenge against the Catholic Church.
Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgård also star in the film, which will be released May 15, 2009.
Watch the trailer here below or in high definition at MSN.
Official Synopsis
The team behind the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code returns for the highly anticipated Angels & Demons, based upon the bestselling novel by Dan Brown. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Harvard religious expert Robert Langdon, who once again finds that forces with ancient roots are willing to stop at nothing, even murder, to advance their goals. Angels & Demons will be released by Columbia Pictures and Imagine Entertainment.
When Langdon discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati - the most powerful underground organization in history - he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization’s most despised enemy: the Catholic Church. When Langdon learns that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable Illuminati time bomb, he jets to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist. Embarking on a nonstop, action-packed hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra will follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that mark the Vatican’s only hope for survival.
HOLLYWOOD kisses will be auctioned off to raise money for a good cause.
Silver screen superstars including Ewan McGregor, Kate Winslet, Liam Neeson and Helena Bonham-Carter have all puckered up to raise money for a 50-seat cinema in the new children’s hospital at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.
They have left the imprint of their lips on cards and signed them, and the prints are featured in the window of Newcastle’s famous Fenwick store.
More than 50 signed smackers have been secured by MediCinema, the charity which brings the magic of the big screen to patients, including those in beds and wheelchairs.
They will then be auctioned off later this year.
Ewan McGregor, who is a longstanding patron of MediCinema, said: “I have seen at first-hand how much patients and their families look forward to an all-encompassing cinema experience.”
Other celebrities who have donated their lips to the charity are Bill Nighy, Dame Helen Mirren, Jeremy Irons, Bryan Ferry, Jamie Bell and Lauren Laverne.
The new children’s hospital is due to be finished in 2010, but it is hoped the cinema will be completed later this year.
It will bring together all children’s treatments under one roof. Helen Lamont of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust welcomed the venture. She said: “This is a particularly innovative idea which will significantly enhance a patient’s stay in hospital”.
For more information on the collection of celebrity kisses, visit www.medicinema.org.uk.
BERLIN -- Ewan McGregor and Carey Mulligan are in talks to headline "The Electric Slide," based on the true story of Los Angeles-based furniture salesman turned bank robber named Eddie Dodson.
McGregor is in talks to play Dodson, while Mulligan, a Shooting Star at the Berlinale and also the talk of Sundance after her turn in "An Education," is being touted as his girlfriend.
Tristan Patterson, who wrote the script based on Timothy Ford's Gear magazine article "The Yankee Bandit: The Life and Times of Eddie Dodson, World's Great Bank Robber," will make his directing debut.
L.A. indie production and finance banner Myriad Pictures is putting the financing together for the project and is preselling to buyers and backers in Berlin.
The film will be produced by Christine Vachon, Brad Simpson, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Jocelyn Hayes.
It centers on Dodson, who owned a high-end boutique furniture store on Melrose Avenue in L.A. in the 1980s.
He lived the Hollywood lifestyle, partying and hanging out with celebrity friends, when he fell in love and took the biggest risk of his life to impress his new girlfriend -- he robbed a bank. Dodson went on to rob more than 72 banks in the L.A. area before the FBI finally nailed him.
"This is an amazing story," Myriad CEO and president Kirk D'Amico said. "It's just unbelievable the way this guy was able to rob bank after bank and always slipping away just before the FBI got there."
Anything Justin can do, Ewan can do better.
If Roman Polanski calls, they all come. For the political thriller “The Ghost”, the producer got the stars: ex-Bond Pierce Brosnan, Hollywood star Ewan McGregor, “Sex and the City” legend Kim Cattrall.
HOLLYWOOD kisses will be auctioned off to raise money for a good cause.
