News: Hugh Jackman

After this week’s The Fountain, and recent outings including Flushed Away, The Prestige and Happy Feet all having been released in the space of just a couple of months, Jackman’s really churning them out. His own X-Men spin-off, Wolverine, is due for 2008 as well – but it’s not all big blockbusters, as his lead role in Woody Allen’s Scoop (set in London but as yet not set for release in the UK) should attest.

Of Jackman’s other upcoming projects, most interesting are likely to be The Tourist, where he’ll play a lawyer who leads Ewan McGregor into a hidden world of sex and kidnapping, genius Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai’s 1930s-set The Lady From Shanghai (again opposite Rachel Weisz), and weirdo Aussie director Baz Lurhmann’s ambitious-sounding epic Australia, in which Jackman will star alongside fellow antipodean Nicole Kidman.

There’s also The Amateur, with Jackman playing a geeky CIA code cracker who turns himself into a killing machine when his wife is killed by terrorists, a small role in period piece A Plumm Summer, full-on action thriller Drive, with Jackman as a Hollywood stuntman trying to escape a hitman, romantic comedy Rebound Guy, and supernatural musical romance If You Could See Me Now – and that’s before you even start on the rumours of a remake of Oklahoma! with Jackman reprising the role that brought him such success on the London stage before Hollywood came a-calling.

Busiest man in Hollywood? He’s certainly a top contender. Does the guy even know how to say “no”?

Review: Miss Potter

UK release date: 5th January

Beatrix Potter (Renée Zellweger) didn’t just write and illustrate world-famous children’s books, she was a protofeminist — making a fortune in a man’s world — and an early environmentalist — saving her beloved Lake District from property development. That’s the spin of Babe director Chris Noonan’s heart-warming but overly sentimental costume drama, in which Zellweger gurns a lot through her portrayal of the creative Victorian free spirit.

What makes the film work is Ewan McGregor’s effortless charm as the timid publisher who shares her vision of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and becomes her first romance in the bestselling process, and a sparkling Emily Watson as his spinster sister, who eventually befriends Beatrix.

Directed in picture-postcard style, with occasional flashes of cartoon animation depicting Potter’s creations and inner emotions, this is a sweet and lightweight treat.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate PG
Running time 92mins

Review by Alan Jones

News: Ewan McGregor

McGregor is working harder than ever these days, with this week’s Miss Potter the first of eight movies in which he’ll be starring over the next couple of years.

There’s action thriller The Tourist, alongside the equally prolific Hugh Jackman, animated adventure Agent Crush, alongside the voices of Neve Campbell and near-legendary Sir Roger Moore, comic fantasy I, Lucifer, as man whose body is taken over by Daniel Craig’s Satan, and sci-fi thriller Franklyn, about which little is as yet known other than that McGregor is set to star, and The Great Pretender, where he will play a Hollywood star playing Bonnie Prince Charlie in a film as well as the lookalike extra who is roped in to taking over when the hotshot actor goes missing.

On top of all that, he’ll be cropping up in Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream – as yet not set for release on either side of the Atlantic, but likely to be out this year – and the intriguing-sounding Number 13, based around the set of genius director Alfred Hitchcock’s last, never completed, movie, where love triangles and murder abound just as much as they ever did in Hitch’s own flicks. A fair array of different types of films there, and not a lightsabre in sight – which must come as a blessed relief…

News: Daniel Craig

Unsurprisingly for an actor who’s been working in films for a fair while, and for whom the role of James Bond in this week’s Casino Royale is if anything a bit of a departure, Daniel Craig has plenty of very varied projects on the go – he won’t be one to rest on his 007 laurels.

Already completed, and due for a US release in August 2007 (though no UK date has yet been set) is sci-fi thriller The Invasion, where Craid will star opposite Nicole Kidman, who plays a psychiatrist who uncovers the cause of an alien disease that threatens to destroy the whole of mankind.  Craig and Kidman will then be reunited in the first of the adaptations of Philip Pullman’s excellent philosophical fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, pitched as The Golden Compass after the North American edition of the novel, but likely to revert to the book’s original title, Northern Lights, for its UK release, probably in December 2007. Amusingly enough, Craig is playing the mysterious Lord Asriel – a part played by former Bond Timothy Dalton in the London stage production.

After that, Craig will take on the ultimate in evil as Satan himself in I, Lucifer, Craig’s evil one posessing the body of Ewan McGregor after a bet with God, and taking full advantage of the freedom a human body can bring.

And then, of course, there’s the as-yet untitled Bond 22. Craig is currently contracted for two more films as 007 – but quite what direction they will take is anyone’s guess – even those involved most likely don’t know yet. Rumours, however, suggest that parts of the next Craig Bond movie will be inspired by aspects of the Bond novel – though not the Roger Moore-starring film – For Your Eyes Only…

News: Hugh Jackman

Though almost unknown when heended up as a last-minute replacement for Dougray Scott on the first X-Men film back in 2000, Hugh Jackman’s career is now in full-on overdrive, with his turn in this week’s The Prestige just the latest impressive addition to his film CV. With his own X-Men spin-off, Wolverine, due for 2008, this freshest Australian superstar is really churning them out,with lead roles alongside his The Prestige co-star Scarlett Johansson in Woody Allen’s Scoop and Rachel Weisz in Darren Aronofsky’s ambitious The Fountain and voice work as a rat in Wallace and Grommit creators Aarman Animation’s Flushed Away and as a penguin in the much-anticipated Happy Feet already completed and ready for imminent release.

Of Jackman’s other upcoming projects, most interesting are likely to be The Tourist, where he’ll play a lawyer who leads Ewan McGregor into a hidden world of sex and kidnapping, genius Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai’s 1930s-set The Lady From Shanghai (again opposite Rachel Weisz), and weirdo Aussie director Baz Lurhmann’s as yet untitled next project, in which Jackman will star alongside fellow antipodean Nicole Kidman. And if that’s not enough, just this week another project has emerged, The Amateur, with Jackman playing a geeky CIA code cracker who turns himself into a killing machine when his wife is killed by terrorists.

At this rate, Jackman could soon see himself making a serious challenge to Russell Crowe and even Mel Gibson as Hollywood’s premiere Australian male – especially if Crowe keeps appearing in dross like A Good Year and Gibson keeps getting drunk and making sexist/racist remarks to police officers…

Review: Scenes of a Sexual Nature

UK Release: 3rd November 2006

Ewan McGregor and Sophie Okonedo are part of an ensemble cast in this multi-stranded tale of Londoners indulging in relationship angst (and a bit of something else) on Hampstead Heath. Sexually-charged interactions add to the heat of a summer afternoon, but first-time director Ed Blum spares us the graphic details and instead focuses on the characters’ emotional dysfunctions.

Scenes work best when aiming for laughs, like Tom Hardy striving to be a cockney Casanova or Gina McKee in stilted conversation with Hugh Bonneville during a blind date. At other times, Blum shoots for a melancholy tone but given that he’s juggling over ten minor intrigues, there isn’t enough time to really feel for any of the characters.

That said, the performances are glowing all round and enhanced by lots of casually amusing dialogue. Overall there’s a free and easy ambience about the film that proves quite seductive.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 91mins

Review by Stella Papamichael

News: Ewan McGregor

The actor who has managed to combine heroin chic with Jedi heroics continues to churn out an insane number of very varied films, with five last year alone, and another seven in the pipeline after this week’s Scenes of a Sexual Nature. Due out at the start of January, McGregor will next be starring alongside Renée Zellweger as she takes the lead in the Beatrix Potter biopic Miss Potter, yet another potential Oscar contender (there’s always a glut of them at this time of year).

Other potentially interesting projects include the next – as yet untitled – film from Woody Allen, alongside Colin Farrell, Tom Wilkinson and (somewhat bizarrely) former Eastenders actress Tamzin Outhwaite, and The Tourist, in which McGregor will play a man implicated in a woman’s disappearance after being introduced to a sex club by X-Men‘s Hugh Jackman.

Most promising, however, is likely to be I, Lucifer, based on the novel by Glen Duncan in which a man has his body taken over for a month by Satan himself after a deal between the Evil One and God. McGregor will play the unfortunate vessel for the Devil, with new Bond Daniel Craig playing the fallen angel who posesses him. Could be entertaining – and is bound to cause a bit of religious controversy when it finally makes it to our screens.