EwanMcgregor Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Us critics, we don't hate Michael Bay. Well, not all of us, and not all the time. I wasn't a fan of his Transformers, nor Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and I haven't watched The Rock or Armageddon in their entirety in years, but I distinctly enjoyed 2005's The Island during its ill-fated theatrical run (gross: $35 million, cost: between three and four times that), and I still do as a decent sci-fi/action matinee outing.

But how?, I've been asked. It does after all bear every other trademark of a Michael Bay outing: explosions, rampant product placement, blatant racial stereotypes, explosions, perpetual dusk lighting, explosions, and a female lead constantly flattered by her wardrobe (yeah, a real woe-is-us scenario).

Though it would never ever happen in a million years (we wish and hope and pray), it's still fun to play around with image software to see what a live-action movie based on the animated TV show The Simpsons would look like if it starred a bunch of today's hottest actors and actresses. Australian graphic artist (and Cinematical reader) Brad Anderson created this project as a way to promote his new graphic design business, and I have to say he did a pretty good job finding celebrity images and then tweaking them to fit the Simpsons mold. Can you guess who is who just from looking at the image above? Go ahead and try, I'll give you a moment ...

Give up?

Here's the cast: Homer (George Clooney), Marge (Cate Blanchett), Bart (Ewan McGregor), Lisa (Reese Witherspoon), Maggie (Jennifer Aniston), Otto (Johnny Depp), Krusty (Vince Vaughn), Ned Flanders (William H. Macy), Moe (Steve Buscemi), Mr. Burns (Willem Dafoe), Millhouse (Dustin Hoffman), Mr. Smithers (Stephen Colbert) and Chief Wiggum (Ricky Gervais). We posted the Simpsons family in the gallery below, along with a larger version of the image up top. Head over to Brad's site to view the rest, and throw this guy some business if you're looking for a graphic designer. For the love of god, he's a Simpsons fanboy! Pay the man!

Overture has acquired the movie The Men Who Stare At Goats, which is based on the awesomely insane non-fiction book by intrepid reporter Jon Ronson. The book is a series of Ronson's investigations into the more bizarre aspects of the Bush administration's military, er, strategies. Like trying to kill goats just by staring at them or control the weather with your mind and, well, basically everything that dude in college who took too much acid was trying to tell you was true.

George Clooney plays the nutty (yet dreamy!) psychic spy Lyn Cassady who claims that he's been "reactivated" after 9/11, and Ewan McGregor is the reporter who investigates Cassady's strange tales. The fictionalized version of Ronson's book sounds a little more madcap than the reporter's tales of torturing suspected terrorists with the Barney theme song for hours, but I can't wait to see Clooney go eye-to-eye with a "de-bleated" goat for hours.

Goats is slated for a December 2009 release.

Our pals at Moviefone have posted an interview with Ewan McGregor in which the always-charming Scotsman expresses his opinion on a number of highly relevant topics, starting with his work in Angels & Demons and extending to issues such as onscreen nudity and Megan Fox awareness.

First, though, the news: despite director Danny Boyle's enthusiasm for the idea, McGregor has no interest in appearing in a sequel to Trainspotting. "I didn't think the book was very good," he said, referring to the Trainspotting novel's sequel, Porno. "The novel of Trainspotting was quite fantastic ... and then I find that the sequel ... it didn't move me as much."

He also said the sequel's story is too similar to Trainspotting's. "Renton walks away with all the money at the end again. And I thought I don't want to make the same story again. And, also, I think just the idea of getting the cast together again 10 to 15 years later isn't good enough, you need more than that."

So that's it on the Trainspotting sequel. Then, in news sure to astonish certain Cinematical editors I could name, McGregor is asked whether he has a tattoo sleeve like Megan Fox said he did, and McGregor says, "No. I have a tattoo ... but who's Megan Fox?"

Who's Megan Fox?! One can only conclude that McGregor doesn't go to movies about giant space robots that harass teenage girls who wear ill-fitting T-shirts, and that he also doesn't read Cinematical. The guy's really missing out.

I actually think this is sort of clever, in a "we can afford to do this" kind of way (which is more than I can say for The Da Vinci Code, am I right?!). Apparently, when the production of Angels & Demons had been refused permission to shoot key scenes in the Vatican, special effects director Ryan Cook had a team of people blend in with tourists and take about 250,000 pictures and shoot hours of video to use as reference back in Los Angeles.

Said Cook in an interview with an Italian movie magazine (then excerpted by The Scotsman, and further excerpted here): "The ban really put us in a lot of trouble because we could not use the precision instruments which are used to take photographs and make reconstructions in the computer."

On a mild tangent, I have to ask whether or not our readers are getting excited for the film itself. Of all the anticipation for summer blockbusters, and especially out of the May offerings, this seems to be the quietest title of the bunch (though twice-baked, half-volume controversy and the lack of a Cannes bow will do that to a film). I've only been assured that this book was better than its predecessor (I know, this one's a prequel), so did anyone here like Da Vinci? And whether you did or didn't care for that film, are any of you specifically psyched for round two?

[via MCN]

Do you remember a George Clooney project, green-lit in May, Men Who Stare at Goats?
Not only does it boast the coolest title in the world, but it's racking up a cast of equal greatness. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, and Jeff Bridges are joining Clooney, under Grant Heslov's direction.

The film is based on Jon Ronson's book of the same title, and follows his investigation into the secret wing of the U.S. First Earth Battalion, a paranormal research unit created in 1978. Its goal was to create "Warrior Monks," supersoldiers who could do all sorts of comic-booky things like walk through walls, become invisible, read minds, and kill creatures by staring at them long enough. One soldier in Ronson's book claims he killed a hamster and a goat doing just that.

The adaptation is already switching things around a bit -- it's set in Iraq (where some of the supersoldiers have been reportedly deployed), and McGregor will be playing a stand-in for Ronson named Bob Wilton. He's desperate for a story, and stumbles upon the craziest one of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, played by Clooney, who claims to be a secret psychic soldier, reactivated after 9/11. As they travel through Iraq, investigating the story, they meet Bill Django, played by Bridges, who is the founder of the program and Cassady's mentor. Spacey will play Larry Hooper, another former psychic who is running a prison camp in Iraq.

While the topic of psychic supersoldiers seems to lend itself to comedy, Iraq and prison camps don't, so who knows what tone this will strike. Every actor in this can switch effortlessly from dramatic to quirky -- it's going to be a treat seeing them all in one film. Especially one with psychics and goat murders.

Jim and Ewan sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N..well, you get the idea. Thanks to Jim Carrey Online, we now have our first official look at the happy couple in the black comedy, I Love You Phillip Morris. Elisabeth brought us a behind the scenes photo back in May, but in spite of the thrill of seeing Jim Carrey and Rodrigo Santoro dripping with sun-tan oil and Versace, I was a little disappointed that my favorite Scot was nowhere to be seen -- until now.

Morris was written and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who are also the guys responsible for the raunchy holiday offering Bad Santa. The script was based on the book by the same name from the Houston Chronicle crime reporter, Steve McVicker. Carrey stars as Steven Russell, a happily married con-man who finds himself falling in love with his cell-mate, Phillip Morris (as played by McGregor). Russell spent years defying the judicial system, and also spent most of his criminal career hopping in and out of prison through a variety of elaborate schemes. Russell even posed as his Morris' lawyer to get him switched to a closer prison. But it all came crashing down when in 1988, Russell was sentenced to 144 years in prison. Leslie Mann joined the cast back in April as Carrey's abandoned wife, and Santoro also stars as another of Carrey's paramours.

Even though plenty of actors still struggle with playing characters in same-sex relationships, without 'wimping' out all together (yes, I'm looking at you Will Smith). But like always, I think that McGregor will pull through just fine. As for Carrey? Now that's another question all together...what do you think?

I Love You Phillip Morris is scheduled to arrive in theaters in Spring, 2009

[Thanks: Coming Soon]

Having been one of the ten people on earth who hasn't read The Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons, it's no surprise that I'm not terribly amped for the follow-up flick from Ron Howard. But, I know I am in the minority here, so feast your eyes on a new batch of photos (courtesy of Trovacinema) of Tom Hanks and company hard at work on the big-screen Angels and Demons. Most of the cast is pictured in the photos, and by the looks of it, everyone seems to be having a grand old time on location in Rome.

Demons will center on Robert Langdon (Hanks), who's smack dab in the middle of a fight between The Vatican and The Illuminati. Once again, the Harvard professor will have to take down an ancient conspiracy, but this time they have an eye on assassinating high-ranking members of the church. Casting finally finished back in April with the addition of Ewan McGregor (which is a good thing for me, because if anyone can make me sit through a film I normally wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole, it's McGregor), and Ayelet Zurer as the daughter of a CERN physicist looking to solve her father's murder.

Shooting on the picture just began last week, and Howard will finish up location shots in the next three weeks. Then the production will move back to the states where they can complete interior shoots on the Sony lot. So as long as a SAG strike can be avoided, Howard should be able to get the production in on time.

Angels and Demons is scheduled for release on May 15th, 2009.

I saw into the casting future, and it was through Dlisted. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Rodrigo Santoro, last seen tall and glittery in 300, has been cast as Jim Carrey's lover in I Love You,Phillip Morris.

He is not the titular Phillip Morris, however. That honor still belongs to Ewan McGregor. If you have forgotten the plot of this love caper, a married Jim Carrey is sent to prison, where he falls in love with his cellmate. When Morris is released, the infatuated Carrey escapes three times to be with him. Somewhere in the middle, though, he hooks up with Santoro.

While this is just now hitting the legitimate newswire, on Tuesday Dlisted had a photo of the happy couple. (Don't ask me what I was doing on Dlisted, I don't have an answer!) So he has already been in the film long enough to get a wardrobe -- if that counts as wardrobe.

Since this is from the team of Bad Santa, and has Leslie Mann as Carrey's dumped wife, I think there's potential even with the erratic Carrey. And I'm anxious to see McGregor in a bonafide comedy, as he was by far the best thing about Down With Love. And it is rather fitting that he's the man Carrey changes teams for -- McGregor has topped that list for most of the guys I know. I bet we'll be seeing the full monty, too.