News: Lindsay Lohan

This week’s Bobby is yet another step on the path to Lohan estabilishing herself as a serious, grown-up actress, rather than merely yet another former child star turned alcohol-fuelled tabloid-fodder, and most agree that she makes a decent job of it.

Just shown at the Sundance Film Festival is another grown-up movie, Chapter 27, which revolves around the life of Mark David Chapman, played by the often rather good Jared Leto, in the days leading up to his murder of ex-Beatle John Lennon in 1980 (a mere six years before Lohan was born), and she’s getting ready fortaking the lead in serious thriller I Know Who Killed Me, about a girl who develops twin personalities after avicious kidnapping.

She’ll also be going literary in her bid to be taken seriously, first cropping up alongside Sean Bean and Annette Benning in Oscar Wilde adaptation A Woman of No Importance, before starring alongside Keira Knightley in The Best Time of Our Lives, about Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, and opposite Oscar nominees David Strathairn, Ellen Burstyn and Ann-Margaret in The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, from a screenplay by Tennessee Williams – not to mention Cyrano de Bergerac-based romantic comedy Speechless.

First of all, though, she’ll star opposite Jane Fonda as yet another rebellious teenager in teen comedy/drama Georgia Rule – during the filming of which the youngster immitated her character by getting so out of control she was officially reprimanded by the production company for failing to turn up to shoots thanks to her all-night partying. Tut tut…

News: James McAvoy

The star of this week’s tip-top The Last King of Scotland has has already completed work on Penelope, starring opposite Christina Ricci and Reese Witherspoon. From what we can tell, it sounds like a Tim Burton-esque fable with Ricci as a woman deformed by a family curse, desperately searching for love and acceptance.Coming up in the next year or so, McAvoy will continue to add to his enviable leading ladies opposite Keira Knightley in the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s bestselling Atonement, following that up with a role in the Anne Hathaway-starring Becoming Jane, about the young Jane Austen’s tragic romance with Tom Lefroy – who else but McAvoy? – the man who helped inspire her novels.

Meanwhile, although McAvoy has claimed to have little interest in big Hollywood blockbusters, it looks like his first action role could also be on the cards. Set to star opposite Morgan Freeman, McAvoy will play the son of a super-powered assassin who takes on his father’s mantle in this big screen adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic series Wanted. Shooting is set to start this month for a 2008 release – and could well see McAvoy really hit the big time.

News: James McAvoy

The 27-year-old Shameless star may remain best known for his TV work, but the next year or so could well see him hit the big time, with this week’s Starter for Ten just the first of many films in which he’ll be taking the lead, rather than the supporting turns he’s mostly had to put up with to date. Next up is The Last King of Scotland, an adaptation of the Giles Foden novel about the relationship between Mentalist Ugandan dictator Idi Amin – a top-notch Forest Whittaker – and his scottish doctor, played by McAvoy, which received rave reviews at its London Film Festival screening, and is due for a nationwide release in the second week of January. He has also already completed work on Penelope, starring opposite Christina Ricci and Reese Witherspoon, a Tim Burtonesque fable with Ricci as a woman deformed by a family curse, desperately searching for love and acceptance.

Coming up in the next year or so, McAvoy will continue to add to his enviable leading ladies opposite Keira Knightley in the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s bestselling Atonement, following that up with a role in the Anne Hathaway-starring Becoming Jane, about the young Jane Austen’s tragic romance with Tom Lefroy – who else but McAvoy? – the man who helped inspire her novels.

Meanwhile, although McAvoy has claimed to have little interest in big Hollywood blockbusters, it looks like his first action role could also be on the cards. Set to star opposite Morgan Freeman, McAvoy will play the son of a super-powered assassin who takes on his father’s mantle in this big screen adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic series Wanted. Shooting is set to start in January 2007 for a 2008 release – and could well see McAvoy really hit the big time.

News: Working Title Films

Britain’s favourite production company has got plenty more films in the works, following on from this week’s Sixty Six and its global success with the likes of the Bridget Jones films, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Billy Elliot, Love Actually and the rest.

The one most likely to make them truck-loads of money is the Rowan Atkinson-starring Mr Bean’s Holiday, due out in the UK in March 2007. It has been a decade since the last time the mute, bumbling Mr Bean saw the light of day – a blessed relief, in some people’s eyes – yet the 1997 movie spin-off of Atkinson’s TV series met with such unprecedented global success that it’s amazing that it’s taken them this long to get around to a sequel.

Much more promising, however, is another sequel to an altogether different nearly decade-old film: The Golden Age, a follow up to 1998’s superb Elizabeth that will reunite director Shekhar Kapur with almost all the original cast, from Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I through to Geoffrey Rush as the wonderfully Machiavellian Sir Francis Walsingham, with new roles for the likes of Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh. For those history buffs among us it should very much be one to look forward to until its October 2007 release – even if the last movie took sizable liberties with the records…

Another promising new Working Title production is the adaptation of Ian McEwan’s bestseller Atonement, to star Keira Knightley and James McAvoy for a September 2007 release. But the real gem is bound to be Hot Fuzz, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s follow-up to the magnificent horror comedy Shaun of the Dead. With Pegg starring as a London supercop posted to the sleepy West Country, surrounded by a cast packed with British comedy talent, it looks all set to be version of Shaun using cop movies rather than zombie flicks as its inspiration – and should, from early reports, be truly brilliant. We’ll have to wait until 16th February 2007 to find out, though…

News: Anne Hathaway

The star of The Devil Wears Prada is doing a good job of proving herself as a serious actress as well as an adept comedienne. Following her supporting turn as one of the neglected wives of Brokeback Mountain, her next role is as 19th century novelist Jane Austen in Becoming Jane – a part she won over the likes of Kate Winslet, Natalie Portman and Keira Knightley. Part funded by the UK Film Council – which has been responsible for more misses than hits, yet sill has some quality movies like The Constant Gardener and the upcoming The Last King of Scotland to its credit – Hathaway’s co-stars will include James Cromwell, Julie Walters, Maggie Smith and rising star James McAvoy.