Billy Boyd Tagged Articles at Cinematical

What happens when you take Nick Cage's geeky sidekick and mash him up with a French actress, a hockey player-turned-model and a hobbit? You get a new bilingual, indie, romantic comedy called Shoe at Your Foot. The feature stars Justin Bartha (National Treasure), Melanie Laurent (Days of Glory), Jessica Paré (Stardom) and Billy Boyd (Lord of the Rings). According to The Hollywood Reporter, this will be the first feature for writer/director Jennifer Devoldere, and the English/French comedy has already started filming in Paris, which will be followed up with a week of production in Montreal.

Shoe is about an American guy named Jack (Bartha) who wins a vacation for two to Paris. However, his girlfriend (Paré) dumps him right before they're set to leave. Jack's Scottish best friend (Boyd) convinces him to go alone. He takes the advice, but finds further troubles as his luggage was swapped with a French businesswoman named Chloe (Laurent). One would think it would be as simple as the pair falling for each other as they meet and exchange belongings, but it is a bit more quirky than that. On one side, there's Jack, who can't speak French and is stuck in his hotel with no money or clothes. On the other, there is Chloe, who "falls in love with his belongings (including his shoes) and, feeling fate has brought them together, sets out on a search to find him." I wonder if this will be followed in a few years by Shoe to the Head, a sequel that covers their romance as they realize that weird shoe fetishes don't make for healthy relationships.

Graeme Obree is the quintessential cycling underdog who never got the chance to thrive. Or, more aptly, he is a man with really crappy luck and one hell of a unique vision. The basic story is as follows: Obree is a down and out cycling enthusiast struggling to make ends meet. Instead of searching for funding, he decides to make his own bike, in his own unique style. Using everything from scrap metal to laundry machine parts, Obree builds a more aerodynamic bicycle that wins him the hour speed record. Then his bike was banned. He tried again with a new model, broke records and found success -- that is, until that model was also banned.

Struggling with depression, Obree left the world of racing, wrote a book, and now it's a movie called The Flying Scotsman, directed by Douglas Mackinnon. It stars the snarky Sickboy Jonny Lee Miller as Obree. Laura Fraser, who played a chilling Livinia in Titus plays Obree's wife, and that little Pippin Hobbit Billy Boyd plays his close friend. The Flying Scotsman premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this year to tepid reviews. Now, the film has been picked up by MGM for world-wide distribution.

It will be interesting to see how the film holds up to the crazy story. The North American release date is December 29, so it won't be long before we can wow over Obree's handiwork. Sports equipment has become a big business, and I can't help but wonder how much more fun sports would be if people were allowed to build their own machinery.

There are some films that adhere so closely to type that you know everything about them the moment the trailer has ended: characters, relationships, goals, dreams -- all are revealed in those two minutes. And you know, too, if this is a movie you want to see because it will move you to tears with its well-loved cliches, or if those same cliches will fill you with rage, and you need to avoid it like the plague. Gaby Dellal’s On a Clear Day is one of those films.

If you’ve seen The Full Monty, you’ve seen On a Clear Day. Hell, if you’ve seen Brassed Off, you’ve seen it. Or even Calendar Girls. Like those films, it’s just what it appears to be: a heart-warming story about someone who is hit with bad news, and hatches a crazy plan which, though he might not know it at the time, will restore not just his self-worth, but also the love of his drifting, distant family. It’s never surprising, but it doesn’t want to be; in fact, the whole thing is shamelessly tear-jerking and cliched, and also, impossibly, immensely likable.