last king of scotland Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Despite the fact that my family members should have owned stock in Dan Brown's bibliography given how much of it they read, and of course the rest of the world devoted years to discussing the historical possibilities of his fiction, I never read The Da Vinci Code. Quite frankly, I'm not much of a reader, owing primarily to the amount of time I spend writing, but the last book I curled up with was one about the diminishing intelligence of the American people, although for the life of me I can't remember what it was called.

In any case, I had no particular feelings about the fact that Ron Howard was adapting Brown's best seller into a feature film, with the possible exception of my superficial determination that Tom Hanks' hair was simply terrible. But when I didn't have to review or cover it professionally, I decided not only that I would save my money for something more worthwhile (I mean, Poseidon came out two weeks prior), but that The Da Vinci Code was going to be a movie that I would never, ever see.

I guess now that the great Chess master Bobby Fischer has passed into the great chessboard in the sky earlier this month, it's open season on biopics. Variety reports that Last King of Scotland director, Kevin MacDonald, has signed to direct Bobby Fischer Goes to War. The film will be a drama based around Fischer's famous match against Boris Spassky in the 1972 World Chess Championship. Spassky was a seven time Champion and was ranked as one of the top ten players in the world from the 1950's to the 1980's.

Fischer was born in 1943, and by the time he was 15, he was one of the most celebrated players of chess and a Grandmaster. He remains the only American born player to ever win the World Chess Championship. Perhaps, he is most famous for the mystery surrounding his life. As the years passed, Fischer bounced from Hungary, Germany, the Philippines and Japan. At the time of his death he was an Icelandic citizen who had become more and more isolated due to anti-American and anti-Semitic comments that he had made in the press.

The script is based on David Edmonds and John Eidinow's book of the same name. Shawn Slovo (Catch a Fire) has already been tapped to write the script and the story will put the chess match into the context of the real contest that emerged between the Americans and their Cold War combatants. So far there is no word on the cast, or more importantly who will be playing the bizarre Fischer. Production on Bobby Fischer Goes to War will commence later this year, so stay tuned for any updates that come our way.

After a series of impressive smaller roles in projects like HBO's Band of Brothers and The Chronicles of Narnia, Glasgow-born actor James McAvoy first demonstrated his leading-man potential on a broader canvas in The Last King of Scotland -- and while co-star Forrest Whitaker's turn as Idi Amin garnered raves, McAvoy's centered performance earned him quiet but sincere praise. Now, in Atonement, McAvoy's at the heart of one of the year's most buzzed-about films -- and bracing himself for a different kind of attention when the megabudget, big-action comic-book adaptation Wanted hits screens in summer 2008, where he'll be playing opposite Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie. McAvoy spoke with a roundtable of journalists in San Francisco (McAvoy on arriving in San Francisco: "It's nice; you don't have that immediate foreboding of work, like you do when you land in L.A. Whenever I land in L.A., I don't feel like I've come to America; I feel like I'm just coming to work. But I come into San Francisco, and I'm like "Hey, man! Alright!") about Atonement, the acting challenges in one of the year's most intricate films, Britain's obsession with class and how Wanted might change his 'working-class' life; Cinematical's questions are indicated.

Cinematical: After seeing Last King of Scotland and Becoming Jane -- and even, to a certain extent, The Chronicles of Narnia -- for a while, you seemed to have this sideline in playing who knew exactly how bad they were; who were conspicuously aware of their own failings. Was it a relief, with Atonement, to jump into something a bit more straight-forward?

James McAvoy: The exact opposite; it wasn't a relief in any way. I find great comfort and I find myself in very comfortable artistic territory when I play people with internal conflict; when I play people who are arseholes, or pricks and kind of know it, or they know they're doing something bad. And in this role (in Atonement), I wasn't able to do any of that. Basically, every character I've ever played, I've based entirely on internal conflict. And I love doing that, because I think it's very human. And I found this character (Robbie) ... he wasn't particularly representative of the human race, because he's so good, and he has so little conflict in him. And I didn't really recognize him as a member of the human race to begin with. And I think that that's fair to say, because he is a slightly idealized human figure; and that's necessary, because the story's a tragedy. And there are so many flawed characters in it, and I think that to make a tragedy work, you have to have bad things happen to good people. And if all the protagonists are so flawed, you've got to have one that is particularly unflawed to make it a tragedy. He becomes flawed; he becomes someone much more suicidal, and I think therefore much more representative of the human race. But for the first half of the film, it wasn't a relief; it was a worry of mine that I wasn't going to be able to portray him in an interesting fashion.

The only award Casino Royale picked up Sunday at the British Academy Awards (BAFTAs) was for Best Sound. It was nominated in nine categories -- ten if you count the publicly voted Rising Star Award, which did go to Casino Royale actress Eva Green. But it would have been very shocking if the 007 movie had beaten The Queen for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film. Oh wait; The Queen didn't win it either. Surprisingly, The Last King of Scotland won Best British Film, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay (for Jeremy Brock and Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen) and, of course, Best Actor for Forest Whitaker. The Queen did win for Best Film, though, and also took the obvious prize for Best Actress for Helen Mirren.

Some of the other unexpected wins were Paul Greengrass for the David Lean Award for Direction and Alan Arkin for Best Supporting Actor for Little Miss Sunshine, which won for Best Original Screenplay. Other prizes went to Pan's Labyrinth for Best Film Not in the English Language, Best Makeup & Hair and Best Costume Design, Children of Men for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design and Babel for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music. For the most part, the British Academy disagreed with last week's London Film Critics Circle Awards, which gave added honors to specifically British performers like Emily Blunt, Toby Jones, Michael Caine and Leslie Philips. However, Casino Royale fared badly with the critics' choices too.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA -- the Brit equivalent of the Oscars over here) just announced their nominees, and there are going to be some happy people at Fox Searchlight going into Sundance next week. Their big pick from last year's Sundance, Little Miss Sunshine, continues to pick up steam on the awards front, scoring BAFTA noms for Best Film, Direction, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Alan Arkin) and -- not one, but two! -- Supporting Actress nods for Abigail Breslin and Toni Collette.

There's no denying that people just love something about this film, but it's interesting that Collete scored a nom. Breslin is great in the film, but Collette's restrained performance didn't seem to stand out much, competing against the trio of Arkin, Greg Kinnear and Steve Carrell, so it's nice to see BAFTA recognizing her work there.

Joining the little-comedy-that-could in the Best Picture berth are Babel, The Departed, The Last King of Scotland, and The Queen. The Last King of Scotland and The Queen were also nominated in the Best British Film Category; it's likely, if one of those wins, it will be in that slot, leaving Babel and The Departed to duke it out with little Abigail and the yellow VW bus.

This marks Alejandro González Iñárritu's second Best Picture nom, with Babel already nommed for a Best Picture Golden Globe, while fellow Amigos Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro once again get left out in the cold). Innaritu is also a Directors Guild of America nominee. Del Toro did get a nod for his film, Pan's Labyrinth, in the Best Foreign Picture category, where he's up against Apocalypto (James might just have a stroke if that one wins), Black Book, which was getting heavy buzz for awhile at Toronto, Rang de Basanti (Paint it Yellow) and Volver.

Best Actor nominations include Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland), Peter O'Toole (Venus), Richard Griffiths (The History Boys) and Daniel Craig (Casino Royale). Don't look for the latter two to carry much weight with Oscar noms. If I were betting on this one, my money would be on O'Toole to take this one. Best Actress, much like the Globe noms, pits the formidable British trio of Helen Mirren, Judi Dench and Kate Winslet against Penelope Cruz for Volver. Whereas the Globes rounded out the Best Actress court with Maggie Gyllenhaal for Sherrybaby, the BAFTAs toss in some love for Meryl Streep for The Devil Wears Prada. Prada also scored noms for Emily Blunt for Best Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay.

Children of Men, sadly, continues to get ignored for the big categories, although it scored noms for cinematography and production design. I'm not sure what exactly happened to derail this film's chances for major awards; it's critically lauded, it's done decent box office, and it was on all kinds of top ten lists, but for whatever reason it's getting overlooked for the majors, which is a shame.

Full list of BAFTA noms after the jump:

The Online Film Critics Society (of which Cinematical's own Scott Weinberg is a member) have spoken, and named their picks for the best films, performances and more of 2006. A recent arrival to the critic's boards awards season, the OFCS has been known for slightly off-center picks that often speak to very different sensibility than print and broadcast critics. As if to demonstrate this very point, a brief persual of the nominees and winners (designated in bold) after the jump will reveal that the OFCS has recognized a broad and fascinating slate of films in 2006 -- including Best Picture honors for United 93, plus individual wins for Oscar dark-horses like Borat, The Fountain, A Scanner Darkly and Children of Men. ...

So, the Los Angeles film critics have chimed in with their early-season (yet year-end) movie picks for the year of 2006, and the results are, meh, not bad / not great (If it's me you're asking). There were a few surprise picks, most notably Sacha "Borat" Baron Cohen's mention for Best Actor, although the comedian must be content to share the award with co-recipient Forest Whitaker for his work in The Last King of Scotland. Most of the other picks are fairly standard (Eastwood, Frears, Greengrass, etc.) but certainly solid choices across the board.

Plus I'm thrilled they gave two pieces of praise to Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men, because it's my very favorite movie of 2006. Here's the big list:

Picture: Letters From Iwo Jima // Runner-Up: The Queen

Director: Paul Greengrass, United 93 // Runner-Up: Clint Eastwood, Flags of Our Fathers & Letters From Iwo Jima

Actor: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat & Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland (tie)

Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen // Runner-Up: Penelope Cruz, Volver

Supporting Actor: Michael Sheen, The Queen // Runner-Up: Sergi Lopez, Pan's Labyrinth (ooh, good pick!)

Supporting Actress: Luminita Gheorghiu, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu // Runner-Up: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Screenplay: Peter Morgan, The Queen // Runner-Up: Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine

Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, Children of Men // Runner-Up: Tom Stern, Flags of Our Fathers & Letters From Iwo Jima

Production Design: Eugenio Caballero, Pan's Labyrinth // Runner-Up: Jim Clay & Geoffrey Kirkland, Children of Men

For the rest of the winners -- music, foreign language, documentary, animation, etc. -- check out Variety's Award Central 2007 blog. I figure they're the ones who first published the list, so they deserve the traffic. (Expect a lot more critics' list as December trudges on!)

The ninth annual British Independent Film Awards have been announced, and I can't say there are any huge surprises, although Jeff Wells thinks its significant that The History Boys only scored four noms, compared to The Queen (leading the pack with seven noms), The Last King of Scotland and This is England (six apiece) and Red Road and Venus with a respectable five each. Some of the not-so-shocking noms include nods for Best British Independent Film to The Last King of Scotland, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, The Queen, Red Road, and This is England, Best Actress nominations include Helen Mirren for The Queen. Mirren will likely dominate the rest of a pack that includes Juliette Binoche and Robin Wright Penn, both for Breaking and Entering, Kate Dickie for Red Road, and Frances de la Tour for The History Boys.

Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy, both of The Last King of Scotland, will duke it out for Best Actor, but may be overshadowed by Peter O'Toole's extraordinary performance in Venus. Also from Venus, newcomer Jodie Whitaker, who was quite good in her role (she rather reminded me of a British Evan Rachel Wood), scored a nom for Best Newcomer, and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi has been nominated for the script (no nod for director Roger Michell, interestingly), though I'd look for Peter Morgan to take the screenplay prize for The Queen (Morgan is also nominated for co-writing The Last King of Scotland). Also of note (to me at least) are a couple of the nominees for Best Foreign Indie: Brick and Hard Candy, two films that may very well end up on my personal top ten list by the end of the year.

The awards take place November 29, 2006. Full list of nominees after the jump.

It was gone for a while -- but now, it's back -- Coming Distractions, Cinematical's weekly podcast! This week's special guest is Time Out New York Film Critic David Fear, and David and myself talk about Jesus Camp, The Last King of Scotland, Shortbus and many others -- as well as the New York Film Festival, the difference between cretins and Spartans and much, much more. You can listen to the entire podcast by just downloading it here -- and let us know what you'd most like to hear in the Podcast in the future!

(Music credits: "Overdose," Dumb.)

Today was the first day of the Telluride Film Festival. I have lots of lovely pics sitting on my digital camera to show you; unfortunately, the cable I need to download the pics is in Seattle, and the closest place to buy a replacement is 40 miles from here. Telluride is beautiful, but very isolated. Never fear, though, for the charming and delightful Eugene Hernandez, one of Cinematical's pals from indieWIRE, has a cable with him that he's going to let me borrow. If we can work out the complexities of our respective viewing schedules long enough for me to download my images tomorrow, then tomorrow night's dispatch will be decidedly more visual.

So, Day One. I got in Thursday evening after a full day of travel that included a three-hour drive from Gunnison after several hours of plane travel. The drive was lovely, so it went quickly enough, but I was too tired Thursday night to do anything other than check in at the Press Office, mosey up the mountain to my lodgings, order dinner in and collapse for the night. Friday dawned bright and sunny after Thursday's menacing clouds and occasional rain, and I can honestly say I've never seen anywhere prettier than Telluride on a clear and sunny day, not even Seattle. It's just majestic. I took the gondola down to the Press Orientation, where I picked up the official bright yellow "press" lanyard that distinguishes press from everyone else with a bright yellow badge. Much like at Sundance, every is always eyeballing each other's badges to see if you're someone important -- especially the blue badges, which are for guests, many of whom are filmmakers.