This month in SEAN, Helygen has the latest photos from new films starring Gerry Butler and Ewan McGregor, as well as updates on Brian Cox, Alan Cumming and John Hannah. Also cast your vote for a Scottish filmmaker to make the Sundance Film Festival.

Scottish Filmmaker Shortlisted For Sundance

LA based Scottish filmmaker Roderick Abercrombie has been shortlisted for a Talenthouse Sundance Prize. Roderick’s short film ‘Out of the Blue‘, embodying the themes of ‘Imagination’ and ‘Freedom of Expression’, is now one of 10 semi-finalists for the prize.

The winner will have the their film showcased during the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and you can vote for Roderick by watching his film and following this link.

Roderick spoke about the film to Talenthouse:

I had an empty room, filled it with little paintings, took out a flipcam and made a little film, basically out of nothing. I found some music that I had made with two Glasgow School of Art graduates, Karl Kerridge, Tony Hill, and used that as a soundtrack. The very act of doing that gave me a back a sense of identity and a sense of purpose.

Out of The Blue

httpv://youtu.be/1mUvHJdQwiI

Vote for Roderick here

 

Billy Connolly and Brian Cox to star in radio drama

Two of Scotland’s top actors, Billy Connolly and Brian Cox, will star in a Christmas Day radio drama.

The pair will play brothers who join forces in a journey across Scotland to trace a childhood sweetheart.

The drama, The Quest of Donal Q by Scots writer David Ashton, is loosely based on the classic Cervantes tale Don Quixote.

It will be broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland on 25 December and repeated on BBC Radio 4 in the new year.

Connolly will play Donal while Cox will star as Sandy, brothers who were separated as children in an orphanage.

Donal is adopted by a rich couple and brought up in California; Sandy remains in Dundee.

Ten years after falling out in a fierce row, Donal returns to ask his brother for help tracing Jeanette, a fellow orphan they both loved, now said to be in dire straits and in need of a “knight in shining armour”.

Head of BBC Radio Scotland Jeff Zycinski said it was “fantastic news” to have two of the biggest stars in Scotland coming together.

“This is a lovely Christmas gift for our BBC Radio Scotland audience to enjoy as one of the highlights of this year’s fantastic festive line-up of programmes,” he said.

Next year BBC Scotland’s drama department will deliver about 65 hours of commissions to Radio 4, Radio 3 and Radio 4 Extra as well as BBC Radio Scotland.

Highlights include a Victorian detective drama, McLevy, starring Brian Cox and Siobhan Redmond.

Also planned are productions of two classic American novels, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

Source: BBC
Also reported by Herald Scotland

Exclusive images from Ewan McGregor‘s HAYWIRE

With director Steven Sodebergh‘s spy-action flick Haywire opening January 20th, Relativity Media has provided us with two exclusive images from the film. Staring MMA fighter Gina Carano as a burned spy who takes revenge against her handlers, Haywire also stars Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Angarano, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, and Bill Paxton. I caught Haywire last week at the AFI Fest in Hollywood and thought it was great. Especially the action scenes. While Carano’s acting still needs a bit of work, whenever she’s punching or killing, she’s fantastic. Haywire should definitely be on your radar.

Read more at Collider

You can also check out the latest trailer here.

First look at Gerard Butler in Playing The Field

A soccer mom comedy doesn’t exactly scream out “Must See” to us, but in this case, we’re keeping our minds open. Granted, the Gerard Butler comedy filmography isn’t exactly the most compelling argument in this movie’s favor, but with a cast featuring a bevy of beautiful women — Uma Thurman, Jessica Biel, Judy Greer, Catherine Zeta-Jones — and a draft of the script penned by “The Kids Are All Right” writer Stuart Blumberg, our interest is piqued.

A few new stills from the movie have landed online, and yeah, they aren’t exactly the most revelatory, but it’s nice to see Zeta-Jones back in action. Directed by Gabriele Muccino (”Seven Pounds,” “The Pursuit of Happyness”), the film centers around Butler, who plays a troubled father and former pro soccer player who tries to make up for lost time by coaching his son’s team. He ends up in trouble when he gets involved with some of the local soccer moms. Biel will play Butler’s ex-wife who is engaged to be married, while Thurman will play a woman on the prowl for Butler. Zeta-Jones plays a hot newscaster, while Greer takes on the role of a lathered-up housewife.

The movie was first conceived as a story set in the world of baseball, but given those increasingly important foreign dollars these days, the sport was changed to soccer. FilmDistrict will get the film into theaters on March 9, 2012. [via Blackfilm]
Source: Indie Wire

Watch David Tennant go full douchebag in a new Fright Night featurette!

“Was there any other character created this year that surpassed David Tennant’s great heights of douchebaggery as Fright Night’s magician, Peter Vincent? There’s a reason the Fright Night 2 rumors hinted at an all-Tennant sequel — because he’s hilarious. Now here’s a glimpse at some additional Vincent material in a special behind-the-scenes feature about his Criss Angel-inspired character.”

i09 have a small clip from the special features that will be accompanying Fright Night’s Blu-ray & DVD release, on December 13th.

View it here

Alan Cumming heading home to celebrate Scottish theatre

Alan Cumming is returning to his native Scotland to put on a free show in honour of the country’s performance history.

The X-Men star, who now lives in New York, will front an event celebrating traditional Scottish pantomimes, music halls and variety shows.

And Cumming is convinced Scotland’s rich history of entertaining has helped shape him as an actor.

He says, “Being away from Scotland makes you question what it is that makes you Scottish, and when it comes to acting I realise that my performance style is very different to my colleagues elsewhere in the world.

“Our whole way of breaking through the fourth wall is all derived from our culture that is steeped in variety and music hall and panto.

“My Staging The Nation event is an attempt to demonstrate that and to look back atwhere it might all have come from and to see its impact on theatre in Scotland today”.

The show, one of the the National Theatre of Scotland’s Staging The Nation events, will take place at The King’s Theatre in Glasgow on 26 November

Source: Female First

Also reported by Daily Record and National Theatre of Scotland

Spirit of Scotland nominations

Karen Gillan is among the screen nominees for the 2011 Spirit of Scotland awards.

Vote here

John Hannah joins ‘Damages’

Comedy actress Jenna Elfman is taking a dramatic turn with a major recurring role on the upcoming fifth and final season of DirecTV’s Damages, starring Glenn Close and Rose Byrne. The former Dharma & Greg star is joining another major new addition to the show, recently cast Ryan Phillippe. Elfman will play an investment bank employee troubled by her company’s conduct. When she approaches Channing McClaren (Phillippe), the iconoclastic founder of a website devoted to corporate and government transparency, it lays the foundation for the case that will pit Patty Hewes (Close) and Ellen Parsons (Byrne) against each other.

Also recently cast as a recurring on Damages‘ fifth season, set to air next year, is John Hannah (Spartacus) as McClaren’s loyal adviser and protector.

Read more at Deadline Hollywood

Hot Scots to light up National Portrait Gallery

New portraits of some of Scotland’s most famous faces are to be unveiled at the refurbished Scottish National Portrait Gallery, when it re-opens next month.
Photographs of Scots including actors Sir Sean Connery, David Tennant and Karen Gillan and singer Paolo Nutini are among the images to be displayed in the gallery when it opens to the public on December 1.

The collection, called Hot Scots, a display of 18 works recently acquired for the national collection, will feature well-known Scottish names from TV, film and music including Hollywood stars James McAvoy and Gerard Butler.

Among the other new portraits are images of the writer Armando Iannucci, Michelin star chef Tom Kitchin and artist and playwright John Byrne.

The portraits have been taken by a series of noted photographers including Eva Vermandel and Albert Watson.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery has been redeveloped in a £17.5 million project.

Hot Scots will be shown in the new Contemporary Gallery on the ground floor.
Source: Herald Scotland

National Gallery website

Also covered by the Inverness Courier

Weekly schedule for Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

Mo 11/28: Aisha Tyler, Justin Moore, Tom Lennon as the voice of Geoff
Tu 11/29: Mindy Kaling, Michael Connelly, Tom Lennon as the voice of Geoff
We 11/30: David Sedaris, Needtobreathe, Jeff Cesario, Tom Lennon as the voice of Geoff
Th 12/1: Kristin Chenoweth, Ken Tucker
Fr 12/2: Ana Gasteyer

www.cbs.com/late_late_show

Watch UK TV Live and On Demand Now

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For more from Helygen check out her website here and follow her on twitter @helygen.