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| - Want to send mail to Ewan? Jonathan Altaras Associates, Ewan's previous agents, have asked that all fan mail for Ewan be directed to the following company and address (i.e not to JAA and not to the Short's Garden address found on some websites): Ewan McGregor Agent: Lindy King Care of Peters Fraser & Dunlop (PFD) Drury House 34-43 Russell Street London UK WC2B 5HA - Ewan has had a few projects undercever for a while now, wel here are all of his up-coming projects: Infomation on Studio System (subscription required) states that Big Fish will be released 1st October 2003, and that Ewan has committed to Stay, as has Naomi Watts. Tobey Maguire is "attached" to the project. Filming will be in New York, New York, United States between September 22 2003 and January 15 2004. Ewan is also attached/interested/committed to a number of other projects, some of which have been keep quiet until now: Young Adam (Drama / Feature / Warner Bros. Pictures) Cast (Joe Taylor) (Committed) Status: Releasing Big Fish (Drama / Feature / Sony Pictures Entertainment) Cast (Young Edward Bloom) (Committed) Status: Post-Production Estimated release: 10/01/2003 Valiant (Animated / Feature / Buena Vista Distribution) Voice (Valiant) (Interested) Status: Production Estimated release: 03/01/2005 Robots (Animated / Feature / Twentieth Century Fox) Voice (Rodney Copperbottom) (Committed) Status: Production Estimated release: 03/11/2005 Star Wars: Episode III (Science Fiction / Feature / Twentieth Century Fox) Cast (Obi-Wan Kenobi / Ben Kenobi) (Committed) Status: Pre-Production Estimated release: 05/25/2005 Stay (Thriller / Feature) Cast (Committed) Status: Greenlighted Borgia (Drama / Feature / Twentieth Century Fox) Cast (Cesare) (Committed) Status: Active Development Brothers In Arms (Drama / Feature) Cast (Attached) Status: Active Development The Flight Of The Phoenix (Action-Adventure / Feature / Twentieth Century Fox) Cast (Thomas Elliott) (Interested) Status: Active Development Flora Plum (Drama / Feature) Cast (The Beast) (Attached) Status: Active Development The Hellfire Club (Drama / Feature) Cast (Attached) Status: Active Development Voyage Of Dreams (Drama / Feature) Cast (Attached) Status: Active Development - Renee confesses all about Ewan Renee Zellweger has confessed to finding Ewan McGregor attractive after shooting a romantic comedy, Down With Love, with the star. In the film set in the swinging sixties Zellweger plays Barbara Novak, a feminist advice columnist who falls against her better judgement for McGregor's character, journalist Catcher Block. Speaking about her co-star she told the News of the World magazine: "I hand pick him for everything - for the past seven years! I've got a big crush on him. "Every day working with him was like being kids in a playground. We'd laugh the whole time." The star who is due to return to her most famous role as singleton Bridget Jones also confessed to finding McGregor a great kisser. Asked who was her favourite actor to pucker up with - McGregor, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant or Jim Carrey - she replied: "I have to say Ewan because he's in this new film and I remember him best. But they're all good kissers. You can't compare." - I went on a school excursion to Fox Studios in Sydney Last week and I knew that SW3 was beginning filming around the beginning of June. So hopeful me tried to find Ewan, but there are heaps of security people areound and everything's fenced off. They are definitely doing somthing in there though, there were crew everywhere. One of my friends actually spoke to a casting person and apparantly they are looking for people that are 6ft tall to be extras..hmm..my dad is 6ft tall... - FAMILY LIFE TAMES EWAN McGREGOR Jun 5 2003 From John Hiscock in New York HE is a man who has had honours, wealth, fame and some very glamorous women thrown at him. Yet actor Ewan McGregor wants to make it clear where his heart lies. "I had my bachelor years like everyone else but I have never been a serial shagnasty," he says with a grin. "I never went out with three or four women at the same time. "When you're a young man, you want to have a lot of sex and when you're an older man you want to be in love. I am very much in love. The things that make me happy are my family and my wife, and my work." Two years ago, with his wife of eight years Eve Mavrakis pregnant with their second child, there were rumours that the handsome Scot was becoming very close with co-star Nicole Kidman on the set of Moulin Rouge. But 32-year-old Ewan says his wife is the true love of his life and nothing could tempt him away. The actor and the French production designer met while they were working on an episode of the TV series Kavanagh QC and now have two daughters, Clara, seven, and 18-month-old Esther. "I realise the family is what matters," he says. "I am not interested in all the other stuff because I don't think it leads you to contentment. "Fame and celebrity is a shallow and empty thing because you'll never wake up being famous enough - you'll never wake up feeling satisfied and thinking 'I've done it, I'm really famous' because you'll never be famous enough. "You'll never be the best. - Here is some more info on that American TV Mini-series on Hitler: McGregor: young Adolf Peter O'Toole also signed up for film Ewan McGregor and Peter O'Toole are to star in an American mini-series about the life of the young Hitler. American TV channel CBS have decided to press ahead with the project despite a similar film, in which Robert Carlyle was to play Hitler, being scrapped last week due to pressure from American Jewish groups who felt it would be wrong to 'humanise' the German dictator. McGregor will (rather oddly) play Hitler while O'Toole will take the role of Paul von Hindenburg, the German President who first invited the Nazis into power in 1933. Equally bizarrely, Stockard Channing - most famous for playing Rizzo in Grease - will play Hitler's mother. The four-hour series, that will screen on American TV, will be based on the first volume of Ian Kershaw's book Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris. - Ewan's wife gives go-ahead for sex scene in new movie Robert Fairburn EWAN McGREGOR'S wife gave him the green light to smear custard on his naked co- star then spank her in his new movie. The Scots actor has revealed he asks his French wife Eve for permission before he shoots sex scenes. Talking about his role opposite Emily Mortimer in Young Adam, 32-year- old Ewan added: "I don't know what this custard scene is going to do for the reputation of Birds." He said steamy sex scenes were a key to the success of the film, which premiered at the Cannes Festival. His character Joe - a barge worker on the Clyde - gets down and dirty with Cathie in the movie based on Alexander Trocchi's novel. In one saucy scene, he smears her body with custard and tomato ketchup. He said: "Sex is used in the film to show my character's decline. It's a bit like the music in Moulin Rouge which is used to tell and further the story. "Yes, we pushed the sex as far as we could go to make it realistic. "This is not sex where your body glistens with baby oil. We wanted our sex scenes to be like they are in real life - you know, where it's not perfect. The type of sex we all have." Ewan is hoping Young Adam, which also stars Peter Mullan , will be the best Scots movie since Trainspotting, the film set in Edinburgh's drugs underworld that made his name. But McGregor has ended months of speculation by confirming he has no intention of appearing in the sequel, Porno. - From ComingSoon.net: Ewan McGregor Will Stay for New Regency Source: Variety Wednesday, May 28, 2003 New Regency is in talks with Ewan McGregor to star in the Marc Forster-directed drama Stay. McGregor will play a therapist at an Ivy League school who tries to prevent one of his students from committing suicide. The film, which has "Sixth Sense"-like supernatural overtones, was scripted by David Benioff .(Troy) - Ewan's first day on Episode III A new Episode III set diary from Hyperspace went live just moments ago, including more new info on some returning characters for the final Star Wars movie ever: Ewan's first day on the set was today. He was practicing lightsaber stuff with Nick Gillard. He will be using the same lightsaber that he has been using since Episode I. The classic saber of Ben Kenobi is mentioned to be there among the sabers in use. - Regency Books Watts for Stay LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Naomi Watts, who first gained wide notice in David Lynch's quirky mystery Mulholland Dr., has checked into Stay at Regency Enterprises for director Marc Forster. The Australian-bred actress actress joins Ewan McGregor in the upcoming supernatural thriller, due to start shooting in late September. Penned by David Benioff and sold to Regency for $1.8 million in late 2001, Stay is about a psychologist at an Ivy League university (McGregor) who tries to prevent one of his students from committing suicide. Watts will play the lead female role, the girlfriend of McGregor's character. Besides her breakout role as an aspiring Hollywood actress ensnared in a dark conspiracy in 2001's Mulholland Dr., Watts' film credits include last year's The Ring, starring as a reporter investigating the origins of a mysterious videotape that seems to cause the death of anyone who sees it. - Ewan McGregor voices Rodney the robot. Last year, the director of 20th Century Fox's computer-animated Ice Age cracked more than $176 million at the box office, nabbed an Oscar nomination with his first feature and gave the genre-dominating Disney and DreamWorks a run for their family-movie bucks. The voice cast includes Ewan McGregor as a young robot named Rodney, "who grows up on the outskirts of a huge metropolis and wants to work with the most influential character in the city, an inventor," Wedge says. Halle Berry is Cappy, the hot executive 'bot who catches Rodney's eye. Stanley Tucci and Dianne Wiest speak for Rodney's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Copperbottom. Mel Brooks is the inventor known as Big Weld. Drew Carey and Amanda Bynes are part of the Rusties, a gang of obsolete robots. Other actors in the project are Drew Carey, Jim Broadbent, Stanley Tucci, Dianne Wiest, D.L. Hughley, Jamie Kennedy and Harland Williams - Trainspotting: The Definitive Edition DVD DVDAnswers has in depth info on the definitive 2 disc DVD edition of Trainspotting, released to buy in the UK on June 16. The extras include deleted scenes featuring Ewan as Renton, a 1996 documentary and commentary (including Ewan) plus lots of other goodies on Disc 2. Don't forget, it was once reported that Ewan will be at a special party for the launch of Trainspotting: The Definitive Collection in June. If he's not in Australia filming Episode III, that is. And if he's still not at odds with the Trainspotting director-writer-producer trio, that is. - Big Fish featured in Vanity Fair Also spotlighted in the same issue is a glimpse of the film version of Big Fish, based on the novel of the same name by Chapel Hill resident Daniel Wallace. There are portraits of the costumed cast, including Danny DeVito, Albert Finney and Jessica Lange. It's not surprising that with director Tim Burton (Ed Wood, The Nightmare Before Christmas) at the helm, there's a bit of a creepy feel to the images. ...[The] July issue of Vanity Fair magazine hits newstands Tuesday. - Solid Geometry to play at Toronto (Canada) film festival Solid Geometry, which stars Ewan and was directed by his uncle Denis Lawson, will be one of six Celebrity Shorts shown starting at 9:15pm, Thursday June 5th at the Isabel Bader Theatre as part of the World Wide Short Film Festival. - More worthwhile charity work from Ewan! The Pearly Lion Tee (order) Website is up now for orders: http://www.pearlanddean.com/aboutus/pringleofscot.htm - As you would all know, DWL has been released in the US. It's at #4 and made at least $US7million. Here are some tid-bits to tickle your fancy if you are awaiting release in your country: By BEN NUCKOLS "Down With Love" is the most exhilarating piece of old-meets-new moviemaking since "Moulin Rouge," and it's no coincidence that Ewan McGregor is at the center of both. Director Peyton Reed ("Bring It On") and his team have drawn their inspiration from the Rock Hudson-Doris Day vehicles of the late 1950s and early '60s, and they replicate the look, feel and sound of those sugary, wholesome sex comedies with joyous accuracy. Except this being 2003, they're free to shed the wholesomeness when they choose. But the whole thing would be an empty, transparent exercise in style without an actor of McGregor's total commitment. He throws himself into the role of a suave ladies' man with a fearless abandon that Hudson never had. He's both sly and exuberant, calculating and uninhibited. He has no poses, no defenses, no worries that he'll look silly or full of himself. Place McGregor's blithe, womanizing journalist of "Down With Love" alongside his love-addled poet of "Moulin Rouge," and it's clear he's a rare and extraordinary performer, one who combines the old-school showmanship of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly with the emotional nakedness of contemporary Method actors. McGregor is Catcher Block, and the object of his increasing ardor is Barbara Novak (Renee Zellweger), who arrives in 1962 Manhattan from a small town in Maine with a manuscript that shares the movie's title. Her book urges women to empower themselves in the workplace and in the bedroom, treating sex the way men do - as disposable fun. Catcher is enlisted to write a story about Barbara by Peter MacMannus (David Hyde Pierce), his editor at Know magazine, who in turn is smitten by Barbara's editor, Vikki Hiller (Sarah Paulson). At first Catcher blows her off, but when the book becomes popular - and he sees how attractive Barbara is - he vows to romance Barbara and write an expose pegging her just another lovesick girl. Like Hudson's character in "Pillow Talk," Catcher creates a nerdy hick persona to woo a woman who despises him but has never seen his face. But "Down With Love" is enlightened enough to know that deception is a game women can play just as skillfully. Zellweger gets top billing over McGregor, but unlike Nicole Kidman she's not quite the match for him. While she's a forceful and sexy self-made woman - far more desirable than Doris Day could ever be - she doesn't share McGregor's ease with the movie's stylizations. Physically, her performance is clunky and awkward. In the Tony Randall role, Pierce is hilarious and stunningly precise, his every over-the-top reaction pitch-perfect. (Randall himself makes a rather flat cameo as Barbara's publisher.) The weak link in the cast is Paulson, who starts out charming but becomes more shrill and hissy as the movie goes along. "Down With Love" astonishes as it celebrates the artistry that once went into popular moviemaking. Reed's direction crackles with verbal and visual wit; Jeff Cronenweth's cinematography effortlessly recreates the old '60s Technicolor look and the optical effects in vogue at the time; Larry Bock's editing brilliantly allows jokes and compositions to spill over from one scene to the next; and Marc Shaiman's score underlines the action down to the second, with a musical cue for every crooked smile or batting of the eyebrows. The costume design, the art direction - everything is fabulous, and it's all of a piece. Only the script, by Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake, shows hints of strain. In their effort to break the taboos of the movies they're emulating, Ahlert and Drake lose some of their predecessors' verbal elegance. When you've heard the words "have sex with" a dozen times, the movie's spell over you is in danger of breaking. And the writers haven't captured the languid pacing of the previous generation's movies; though many scenes run longer than is now fashionable, "Down With Love" still feels rushed. The final half-hour in particular pushes what should be juicy material through a whirlwind that dries it out. Quibbles aside, "Down With Love" is funny, sexy and disarmingly accessible; it builds up such enormous waves of good will that its achievement cannot be understated. This is a movie that intercuts Frank Sinatra and Astrud Gilberto's versions of "Fly Me to the Moon," and when it's over you'll feel as if you've been flown there too. "Down With Love," a 20th Century Fox release, is rated PG-13 for sexual humor and dialogue. Running time: 96 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four. Ewan McGregor's Nude Attitude by Mandi Bierly On Down With Love, which pays homage to the '60s films of Doris Day and Rock Hudson: "There was no point in trying to make a modern day sex comedy. We have those already � they're called romantic comedies, and usually not very good." On the music video, shot two months ago, which accompanies Love's end credits: "I kept saying to them, 'I did Moulin Rouge and Renee did Chicago. Don't you think that we should do a song?' And I couldn't really believe that they were like, 'Well maybe. We'll see.' Are you nuts?!" On Star Wars: Episode III, which he starts filming next month: "I can't know what I'm looking forward to exploring, because I don't know what the f--- it is about. I haven't seen a script." On the Goth fans he's likely to attract now that he's wrapped Big Fish with director Tim Burton: "I remember Goths from my teenage years. Fantastic, miserable, black hair and really white � they looked spectacular. That's one of my regrets: I never went to bed with a Goth." On the possibility of filming Porno, Irvine Welsh's sequel to Trainspotting: "I read [the book] and I loved it, because I got to see what our characters were up to 10 years later. But it didn't move me quite the same way the Trainspotting novel had. It would be terrible to leave the audience remembering a poorer sequel." On the odds we'll see him nude in another movie, � la The Pillow Book. (Sorry, he only strips down to a towel in Love.): "I wouldn't consider myself an actor if I had a list of things I won't do... It staggers me how big of a deal everyone makes of it, because sadly, in my every day life, I'm naked quite a lot of the time. And yet, the second we put that on screen, everybody f---ing shits themselves. If it's just to see somebody's c--- or vagina, then that's not a valid reason. I don't really think that happens as much anymore." Down With Love Interview With Ewan McGregor As I mentioned earlier (shame on you if you didn�t read the David Hyde Pierce interview) I was able to sit down with Ewan McGregor and chat about his upcoming new movie DOWN WITH LOVE which opens up this weekend nationwide. In the below interview you will find Ewan being open and humorous as he talks about working with David and Renee, working on the movie in general and about his upcoming projects. Hmm� Did someone say something about James Bond or even PORNO? Read below to find out. (By the way chaps, remember that he is from the UK, so please envision a charming English accent) Have you seen any kind of these movies before this? These sex comedies? Ewan: Yeah I�ve watched a great many of these movies when I was a kid. I haven�t realized I�ve seen so many of them until I was sent all the reference videos to watch. And I realized I knew them all. When I got the script to read for the first time, I knew exactly what it was on about. I got it because I was familiar with it. Did you think this should�ve been done as a musical? Ewan: Basically I found myself persuading the producers that we should do a song. I couldn�t really understand why I had to persuade them. I said �Well I did MOULIN ROUGE and Renee did CHICAGO, don�t you think we should sing something?� (Laughter) They said �Well we�ll see.� I said �We�ll fucking see? What?� So eventually they buckled under the pressure or something and Marc Shaiman wrote a fantastic number. Renee and I recorded it and Marc scored it with a full orchestra and I just thought �Oh my God, it�s like a big number at the end of a Broadway show.� And he absolutely nailed it. I think with all of his music in the film. And it�s no mean task �cause it�s quite incredibly diverse music and terribly specific to that period. He�s done a spectacular job on it. I didn�t think the film, nor would I have wanted it to be a musical but certainly to do a number for the end credits was always a good idea. How difficult was it to capture the particular dialogue, rhythm and tone of the way you had to perform in this movie? Ewan: Very difficult. I just finished making a film in Scotland called YOUNG ADAM which is a very low budget and very different movie. It�s a very dark, erotic, introspective piece about a young man who kinda� the movie charts his moral decline really. I literally finished that and went to pick up my family in London and then flew out here and started rehearsing. I finished YOUNG ADAM on a Friday and started rehearsing that Monday. They couldn�t have, which is what�s fantastic about it, they couldn�t have been more different. However I found the first week, we didn�t know, the decision hadn�t been made whether Catcher Block should be an American or a Brit. So I was doing this film in a thick Scottish accent and here I was working on my standard American which is tricky you know. It�s much easier to do a regionalized American accent than a standard American. So I was working on that while I was rehearsing the scenes trying to be Catcher Block and I still felt a bit like this dismal kind of withdrawn Scottish character. (Laughter) For the first week I really didn�t know if I would be able to do it. I remember a day when we were rehearsing where I felt �I can�t. I�m not gonna pull this off. This is the one.� But that�s just becoming part of my gig I think. It seems to be that every time I start a film that feeling is stronger. I just have to accept that that�s the way it is. It makes nailing the character a little bit more enjoyable on the other end of the scale I suppose. Did you have any doubt about it? When you read the script you have to commit to that particular tone and style and trust that it will pay off like MOULIN ROUGE did or become a laughing stock. Ewan: I know exactly what you�re saying and you�re right but my thought doesn�t go as far as that. My thought goes as far as making it work and not particularly for the end result. I certainly never thought that on MOULIN ROUGE nor on this that if I don�t get it I could be a laughing stock. It never entered into my mind. What entered into my mind is nailing it or not nailing it. And this one in particular, I think you�ll find that if you ask the other actors, for all of us it was quite a specific style of playing comedy that we just don�t do anymore. The rule as far as I can remember when I started training as an actor was that you don�t play the comedy, however in this you fucking do. (Laughter) There�s no question about it and as a result it feels very slapped on from the outside which is kind of a reversal of how we normally do it. So it felt kind of uncomfortable at first and I was surprised. What I wanted to achieve was what Rock Hudson achieved in the original films, was basically you saw Rock Hudson having a great time. And I felt strongly that when you saw Rock Hudson laughing in those movies it was Rock Hudson laughing you know, as opposed to his character. There was so much of him in it. I wanted that. I realized that that�s much more complicated than it sounds because you gotta make that go on film. It took some weeks before we felt it clicking together. So that�s great. It�s a mark of something that�s difficult, that�s worthwhile doing. If it�s all easy from the word go then you�re not learning anything. You said that when you watch Rock Hudson laugh it�s really Rock Hudson�s laugh. Doesn�t that go against what an actor is trying to do and become that character? Ewan: No. I never wanted you to think that it was me as the character but there�s much more of his spirit in it. Something, I don�t know. I never questioned his role in his movies as a result. I know it sounds like I�m talking in circles. (Laughter) The character was always the character but there was so much of his easy going, good fun, spirit in there I suppose. What did you base your astronaut persona on? The accent and everything. Ewan: Well I had to be the kind of guy that she would fall in love with so he had to be everything that would opitimize the perfect love interest and not sex interest because that was what Catcher Block was trying to get her to do. He was trying to get this sex bomb to fall in love with him which is something she claimed she would never do. The accent and everything was lifted from, I can�t remember if it�s PILLOW TALK, one of the original films where Rock Hudson adopts a rather terrible southern accent. (Laughter) Which is my defense for my accent (more laughter). Will you ever put out an album? Because you keep going back to singing. Or do Broadway? Ewan: Yeah. I mean I don�t know. It would have to be fantastic. I can�t see me taking over the lead of an established musical. It wouldn�t be my bag. But to sing on stage in a musical that was new� I don�t know. I would never say never to any of it really. I love singing and music and I think it can be a very effective way of story telling. The music in MOULIN ROUGE, our focus was to make it part of the story telling not a break for a song but to further [the story]. It was easier, an extra string in your bow to get the message across. It�s easier to sing �I love you� and for it to hit the mark than say it. It�s really effective and I think it�s nice for the audience �cause you kind of receive it on a different emotional place than dialogue so together you can really swing the audience all over the place. Which is great. I think that�s brilliant. Can you speak a little about working with David [Hyde Pierce]? You guys spent a lot of time together. Ewan: I learned an incredible amount from watching him. He�s far more practiced in comedy than I�ve been. I watched and learned from him from the first day to the last. How he kind of seamlessly worked out timing for instance which is essential for comedy you know, but with a kind of natural ease. I would struggle occasionally with things like that. Together we immediately got on, it was clear you know and we had a great deal of fun with it. Which I think is really important. I�m very glad he was playing that part. It was a real joy and I did learn an awful lot. How about Renee [Zellweger]? Ewan: I�ve wanted to work with Renee for ages. This was just perfect. It was difficult for both of us. As I was talking about, the style took something to get a hold of. Then there�s the whole game playing aspect of it where she�s not who she says she is and I�m not who I say I am and just sometimes that�s just a complete mind fucking. We worked together all the time and played. I think that�s what�s beautiful about all the actors in this film is that there was a sense of playing, which I always really liked. I find it a bit annoying when it seems to be they [rehearse] it and the camera turns around and �no it�s my turn to do my bit�. It�s much more interesting to play and let the camera get what it gets. It�s more satisfying. I certainly had that experience with Renee and David and Sarah [Paulson]. Most of your films are very visually and artistically stimulating. Are you drawn to those types of films? Ewan: Yeah. Absolutely. I wouldn�t be drawn to something that isn�t artistic or visual. And challenging and different or just a good story. Ultimately that�s all it is. It can be a very complicated story but more often than not I�m drawn to very simple stories. What was the draw to STAR WARS? Ewan: I really wanted to be in it. I questioned it all the way until the final, I think I was down to the last four or something. By that time I really wanted to do it. I really seriously thought about it more so than any other part I was in the running for up until that point. It didn�t feel like my bag really but at the same time it does, it is. I wanted to be in STAR WARS, I mean ultimately that�s what it was. I really wanted to be in there. The bigger the possibility that I might be in it the more I wanted to do it. I spoke to people, this is something I�ve never done really, I phoned people up for advice. Directors at one point, actors and I asked them what they thought. Potentially there was an awful lot of baggage that would come along with it that I didn�t know I wanted. It proved that none of it really materialized, which I�m really glad about. And to me I really like being in them. They�re very difficult to make. Most of all I like that children have been able to see my work. They won�t have seen any of the other things (laughter). How do you feel about opening against THE MATRIX RELOADED? Ewan: I don�t know. I�m so ignorant about that side of it. I�ve no idea. I really don�t know if it�s a good idea or a bad idea. I can�t wait to see THE MATRIX though (laughter). It looks fucking awesome. No really, the stuff I�ve seen in it is stuff I don�t think we�ve ever seen on the big screen. But having seen this film [DOWN WITH LOVE] I would be equally excited to see this again. I don�t know. People can see two films in a week. It�s possible. BIG FISH seems to be a perfect combination. It�s a director with a strong visual style and it�s a story about stories. What was the appeal? Ewan: It moved me. I read it and it moved me. It�s about a father and a son and I think that�s quite a complicated relationship very often and it just seemed to push a lot of my buttons. I find it terribly moving and beautiful. And that was it. On top of that I get to work with Tim Burton. I get to play Albert Finney (Laughter). I still can�t quite believe that�s the case. I�m hanging out with Albert Finney on the set going �Alright Albert. Good morning.� That�s quite something and I was playing HIM. It�s a beautiful story and the idea that it�s being directed by Tim Burton, you know, it couldn�t have been directed by anyone else. Tim�s not fantasy but fantastical style you know. As the father looks back on his life and his son is trying to reconcile his relationship with his father and as he�s looking back I get to play the young father. But with all his exaggerations and enlarging of the truth. Tim just nailed it. It was beautiful to play because it was such an ease. Tim kinda just let you go. I felt set free on it. It takes a very courageous director to do that and a very self-assured one to rely on everyone else. It�s a mistake a lot of directors can make where the terrible temptation is to be in fucking control of everything and every single element because you�re the director. I�ve directed short films and I know that, I relate to that and I see it but it takes a very self assured guy to let you fly. There were real moments of being in a Tim Burton movie that I would walk on the set and would go �Fuck. This really is a Tim Burton movie. There he is.� With Tim Burton, most of it he builds and he makes sure that all his sets are real and they�re not green screens. Ewan: Very little of it was, yeah. I mean only moments that couldn�t be achieved any other way. Like 2% of the shots. Less than that. It was very occasional. It was very often the green screen in the middle of the set. It was all there and very beautifully designed. It just looked spectacular. You talked about working with Albert Finney, are there people you�ve worked with in your movies that you take from? That you just kinda sit there and watch them work? Ewan: Yeah, all of them. A lot of them. All the actors I�ve worked with I�d say to a lesser or greater degree. It�s not related particularly to them being legendary or super famous, but just watching that other actor work is what I�ve done since I started. The first job I had was a television series called �Lipstick on Your Collar� [1993] which Dennis Potter wrote, which is Britains finest television writers, and the first eight weeks of my filming experience ever were eight weeks in a war office set in the 50�s playing a Russian translator during the Suez Crisis. There were eight or nine other actors in this room and for eight weeks I just sat there and watched them work in front of the camera and some of them were in their 70�s and of all ages. Some have been working in film long before I was born so I just sat and watched them and it�s something that hasn�t really changed in me. Other actors I don�t watch quite so closely �cause they�re just not very interesting (laughter). But they�re very few. Did you model Catcher Blocks character after someone physically because he has a distinctive walk and it�s definitely not Rock Hudson? Ewan: No. It�s funny because it�s just a kind of swing thing. I don�t know. I didn�t particularly style him on one particular fashion. However I styled him on what the feeling of what those leading guys were in those movies. There was a real snazzy kind of� or at least I wanted him to be really sharp. He was an incredibly successful womanizer so he had to have some kind of pizzaz kind of thing. Now that Pierce�s [Brosnan] time is almost done, would you ever consider trying for James Bond? Ewan: I don�t know. I really don�t know. I suppose it would be like STAR WARS. I�d have to wait and see. What would worry me about it is I believe, and I may be wrong, but it takes an incredibly long time to make and also publicize. I believe that Pierce spends a great deal of his time traveling the world opening those films. I would worry that it wouldn�t leave enough time to do other things. The STAR WARS films are four months of my life and then a great many months later maybe some pic ops and then maybe a year and a half after that the film opens and then a year and a half after that the next one starts so for me it�s really spaced out. Although I�ve obliged to make the three movies, there have been so many other films in between them all that it�s been very healthy. I don�t know if this is the case, I may not be speaking the truth but I would imagine that it might be a much heftier commitment to play Bond. Are you interested in doing PORNO? Ewan: I don�t know. I haven�t read the script is the true answer. I read the book. I was fascinated to find out what happened to those characters. At the same time I felt it was the same story as TRAINSPOTTING. It didn�t move me quite as much as some of the chapters of the TRAINSPOTTING novel had done. That�s not to say that the film script wouldn�t be better than TRAINSPOTTING. It would have to be. I wouldn�t do it if it wasn�t better than TRAINSPOTTING. Because I think it would be a terrible pity to leave people remembering a poor sequel as opposed to a fucking cracking film you know. Are you looking forward to starring opposite Chewbacca? Ewan: Somebody told me that the other day. I mean I only hear about STAR WARS from people on the street usually. I found out the title of Episode II on a price line. Somebody said �What do you think about ATTACK OF THE CLONES?� I said �Well, what is it?� (laughter) �It�s the title of the next STAR WARS film�. Getting down with Renee and Ewan By Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY NEW YORK � She's the sunny Texan who slayed 'em in Chicago. He's the scampish Scot who had 'em swooning in Moulin Rouge. They both helped resurrect the movie musical. Now let's see if Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor can reinvent those innuendo-spiked Doris Day-Rock Hudson romantic romps from the pre-feminist, post-Ike '60s. Apparently, 20th Century Fox believes martini time can compete with bullet-time. The opening of Down With Love was shifted to Friday as counterprogramming to The Matrix Reloaded. Down With Love director Peyton Reed (Bring It On) sounds as if he has sacrificed more than a few bitten nails. "I asked, 'Is that a good idea? And what is The Matrix? Is that a little indie movie?' " If Zellweger, 34, and McGregor, 32, are nervous, it hasn't affected their food intake. During an hour-long interview, the duo decimate a huge bowl of gourmet nuts, heavy on macadamias (his fave) and pistachios (her fave). It's not unlike followers of Zellweger's anti-male manifesto in Down With Love who gobble chocolate to sublimate their animal urges. The single Ms. Z's middle name these days is "Just-friends-with-George Clooney," while McGregor is more domesticated than his swinger journalist. This laddy, wed to production designer Eve Mavrakis, is daddy to Clara, 7, and Esther, nearly 1�. Together, the playful actors would make any third wheel feel like an indulgent babysitter. If Down With Love proves half as entertaining as getting down with this pair, then Keanu Reeves may have a new reason to say "Whoa!" Q: How much chocolate was consumed during this film? Zellweger: We had two chocolate days. It was sugar-free. They don't tell what sugar-free chocolate does to you. It has a very interesting gastrointestinal effect. McGregor: It was written in such a way that you couldn't avoid it. Usually you can get around eating somehow. Your fork is there, but you never quite get it in your mouth. But we both had to eat it. Zellweger: You had to say the lines with big globs of chocolate on your front teeth while trying really hard to be demure and not disgusting. I swear, like these nuts, the chocolate was everywhere. Q: Why sugar-free? McGregor: Because if you are eating it all day long, you'll have a massive energy crash. Sugar-freechocolate sucks, though, I've decided. I'm only doing nut scenes from now on. These are fantastic. Zellweger: They ought to come with a bigger pair of jeans. That right there is eight steak dinners. Q:Renee, you've been compared to Doris Day. McGregor: Renee is much sexier than Doris Day, though. Can I make that plain right now? Q:I think she's undervalued for her sex appeal. McGregor: You mean Doris Day? Q:Yes.You give a hint of Rock Hudson in your performance, but it's not an imitation. McGregor: Absolutely not. I thought of it as playing the part that he would have played if he had been cast in it. I realized I was incredibly na�ve about my character. I was talking about Catcher Block the womanizer. I said, "Men just aren't like that anymore." And this journalist was like, "Hmm, what do you mean they aren't like that anymore." I was like, "Hmm, maybe that's true. Maybe things haven't changed that much." Zellweger: It would be silly to be that guy now. Q: Down With Loveis about the war between the sexes. When did you realize the opposite sex would use their wiles on you? McGregor: I realized more about me and what I would do. You realize you are playing games. When you are courting and playing emotional tricks. You pretend to be someone you're not to get a girl. I remember playing out a drama like this when I was 19 with this poor girl. Zellweger: (Laughs) This is good! McGregor: This poor thing. I really (expletive) wound her in by being a nice guy. Not by pretending to be someone else. But by being much more chivalrous and gentlemanly than I really was. Zellweger: By editing yourself to be who you thought she wanted you to be. McGregor: By asking her to the flat and getting out the spare bed in the spare room and going to my bed. The third time I did it, she left, and the (expletive) doors clicked. And I thought, "(Expletive) don't you know." (Hides his face in his hands) Don't write that. It's awful. Zellweger: The good part is you got what you had coming. That's OK. She didn't want you to be the guy you were pretending to be. McGregor: She wanted me to be the guy I was. Zellweger: You got tricked in your own game, buddy. She's like, "Yeah, I thought for sure this was going to be a really great night. But the living room sucks. I'm leaving. One more date and it's over." Q: How about you, Renee? Zellweger: I was on the baseball team and the track team and the soccer team and the neighborhood tackle football team. And we used to "find" lumber at building sites. We used it for treehouses in the woods. So I kind of was privy to the inside conversations about girls. I was on the team and would go around listening to what was said in the field house. Q: Did it help? Zellweger: I would hear what they would say about the girl and how they talked about certain things. The guys were pretty honest about it. I kept my name out of the field house as best I could. Q: Are you definitely doing a sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary? Zellweger: It's not done yet. But we talked a month ago. For real for the first time. I've been reading here and there and all over the place about what I supposedly said. But now we have discussed it, in terms of what we hope it will be. And we're potentially shooting it in the fall. Q: Are you going to have to eat again to gain weight? Zellweger: Oh, sure. Q: Now you both have your own franchises, since Ewan hasStar Wars McGregor: I wish that was my own franchise. Q: Did you seeBridget Jones? (In unison) McGregor: Absolutely. Zellweger: Not yet. McGregor: Yes, I did. Q: Is he still lying to girls? Zellweger: Can I say this about Ewan McGregor? I have never seen this man be anything but completely compassionate. Honestly. And if that's what it took to learn it, to have some girl shut the door on you and never come back again before you found out that we would love you just the way you are, I'm glad it happened. McGregor: That's so sweet. Q: Have you seenStar Wars? Zellweger: Never. No, of course, I did. I grew up with them. I had all the action figures, even the Hovercraft with the little wheels. Q:But have you seen Ewan's Star Warsfilms? Zellweger: No. I was going to say that when I was teasing him about not having seen Bridget. I didn't have a chance to see them when they came out. I wasn't expecting to be busted today. McGregor: I watched Bridget Jones in Alabama (where he was shooting Big Fish) three weeks ago. Zellweger: (Laughs) I knew it. I knew it. I knew you hadn't seen it. (A wrestling match ensues.) Q: (To Zellweger) I was going to ask if you're pleased Chewbacca is back, but now I won't bother. McGregor: I didn't even know that. Zellweger: I love Chewbacca. I saw the re-release in New York. It was quite different than seeing it as a 6-year-old. Q: I focus a lot more on Harrison Ford now. Zellweger: I bet. Before, it was the other guy. Q: Yeah, Luke. McGregor: I always paid attention to Carrie Fisher. Zellweger: You liked that white dress without much underneath. Q: Or when she was in that skimpy sex-slave outfit. The prequels aren't nearly as kinky. McGregor: They did a bit where they ripped Natalie Portman's top. Q: Yeah, but Britney Spears wears less going to the grocery. Zellweger: When are you going to Australia? You're going to make the next Star Wars now. McGregor: Beginning of June. Q: What will you tell your daughters about boys? McGregor: I'd like to think of myself as being the cool, liberal dad, but I don't know what lies beneath. When Clara was 4 months, we were in a Baby Gap in London. Eve had picked up this little skirt, and it just came out of my mouth: "Put that back. It's far too short." I love those moments when words you never could imagine saying spill out of your mouth. Zellweger: You have about five years before you have to give up the phone. (Publicists break up the party.) McGregor: (Glancing at the near-empty bowl) Look at the dent we made here. Dinner? Zellweger: I don't care about dinner. Yep, the babysitter let the kids spoil their appetites - Has Ewan stopped smoking????? "I've given up smoking, so it's quite good for me, quite handy," says Down With Love star Ewan McGregor, who was in town for a visit. - Ewan's still worth all the argy-bargee Ewan McGregor has scored a triumph at the Cannes Film Festival in a Scottish film that few believed would ever see the light of day. The movie, Young Adam, lost 40% of its financial backing on the eve of filming, and Government-backed film organisations in London refused to help out. "If it was a lightweight romantic comedy, no problem, but if it's an edgy, visual sexy drama - as this is - then they don't want to know," said Ewan, who plays a complicated introvert, Joe, who works with Les (Peter Mullan) on a Glaswegian barge in the 1950's. Eventually, Ewan and the film's brilliant director and screenwriter, David Mackenzie, persuaded London-based Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas to back Young Adam. When the film was shown here at Cannes, it recieved a standing ovation. But Ewan added: "There are people who are responsible for funding British work who were prepared not to see this film made, because it didn't fit in with their idea of what a British film should be." Young Adam is moody and dark. Ewan's character begins having an affair with Mullan's wife, Ella, played sublimely by Tilda Swinton, and there are flashbacks to a relationship he had with another woman- a character that Emily Mortimer invests with a vulnerable sensuality. The sex scenes are scorching. "They needed to be gritty and realistic. It's not movie sex, where your body glistens with baby oil. We were pushing for an intimacy akin to Last Tango In Paris," Ewan told me. "In the same way we used music to tell the story on Moulin Rouge!, we used sex to inform the story in Young Adam," he added. The film will open later in the year, probably after Emily has her baby, which is due in October. - Ewan has a few appearances on TV coming up... In the US: - Live with Regis and Kelly on Tuesday May 6. Keep an eye out for appearances on other shows that day - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on May 9 at 11:35 P.M. - Down With Love: HBO First Look on May 6 and airing 14 times ending on May 28. In the UK: - The vote for Channel 4's 100 Greatest Movie Stars, sponsored by Stella Artois, has now closed. Make sure you tune into Channel 4's 100 Greatest Movie Stars on May 4th and 5th 2003 to find out who made it into the final list. As Ewan is featured in the trailer, there's a good chance he will be featured in the programme. - DWL soundtrack looks mighty good: Retro-styled ballads and swing/lounge music set the musical tone for the Down With Love soundtrack, due May 13 on Reprise Records. Canadian crooner Michael Buble features prominently on the soundtrack with three songs: "Down With Love" (a duet with Holly Palmer, "For Once in My Life," and "Kissing a Fool." The track listing: "Down With Love," Michael Buble and Holly Palmer "Barbara Arrives" instrumental "Fly Me to the Moon," Frank Sinatra "One Mint Julep" instrumental "For Once in My Life," Michael Buble "Girls Night Out" instrumental "Everyday Is a Holiday," Esthero "Kissing a Fool," Michael Buble "Barbara Meets Zip," instrumental "Fly Me to the Moon," Bebel Gilberto "Love in Three Acts" instrumental "Here's to Love," Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger - Filming has wrapped on the Big Fish set...Star Wars here we come! - It's stars in their flies A SAUCY list has revealed which actors really are Hollywood�s BIGGEST stars. But the line-up isn�t about box office appeal � it�s which hunks make the top ten in the LUNCHBOX office stakes. The compilers reckon Ewan McGregor, Minority Report star Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson, George Clooney and Spiderman�s Tobey Maguire have some pretty impressive parts. Joining them in the list are Matt Dillon, Kevin Costner, Johnny Depp, Matthew McConaughey � currently starring in How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days � and Madonna�s ex Sean Penn. The anonymous compilers get their information from film workers who regularly see the stars in the buff as they change into costume before going on set. The top ten are not listed in order, although British Star Wars actor McGregor is rumoured to have one of the most impressive light sabres in Tinseltown. And Irish star Neeson did once star in a movie called The Big Man. The H-list � with H standing for �Hung� � is put together once a year and circulated in the movie world by email, fax or word of mouth. It was originally created in the 1940s by the saucy wife of a studio boss. Nowadays its unknown authors base their ratings on tips that film technicians, costume designers and make-up artists send to a post office box in Palm Springs, California � preferably with photographic proof. One studio insider said last night: �Second to the Oscar nominations it�s the most eagerly awaited list. - Make sure you stay tuned to the DWL website, it is ever changing! www.down-with-love.com - Another AICN DWL review that loves Ewan Here�s a prediction for you. After this and Moulin Rouge, Ewan McGregor should become a certifiable hunk of a romantic lead that gives any other romantic lead ever a run for his money. This is no Hugh Grant skit, ladies and gentlemen. This is a real actor and if all women fall in love with him after this, I�m not even gonna get mad. Despite the occasional throwaway roles (such as in Black Hawk Down), McGregor is the most interesting young actor in his generation. From Jedi, to singer, to druggie, to romantic lead, the guy can do it all. He basically plays a dual role here, and his utterly effortless transformation is very effective, and very funny. - On a wing and a prayer Can a brave British pigeon beat Hollywood's giant cartoon studios at their own game? Geoffrey Macnab looks at the great white hope of the UK animation industry It is lunch time in the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica, California, and the dining room is full of pigeons. There are models and drawings of plucky-looking birds in goggles, masks and bomber jackets overlooking the buffet table. Producer John H Williams (the mastermind behind Shrek) is showing international distributors the earliest footage from his new $40m project, Valiant. This, or so the hype has it, is to be a CGI-animated blockbuster on the scale of anything made in Hollywood, but at half the cost. And no, Valiant is not going to be made at the Disney Studios or at DreamWorks. Its home is Ealing Studios in leafy west London. It is a quintessentially British story that is being directed by a Brit - 42-year-old artist Gary Chapman - and brought to life by British and European animators working for Williams's new outfit, Vanguard Animation. Williams and Chapman introduce their audience to the film's leading characters: the gawky carrier pigeon Valiant (likely to be voiced by Ewan McGregor) who enlists in the Royal Pigeon Service at the onset of the second world war, and the scowling, ferocious-looking Prussian falcon, Von Kaiserlink (part Darth Vader, part Baron von Richtofen), against whom Valiant is pitted on its most dangerous mission - flying over key dispatches from the French Resistance to the Allies about the D-Day landings. We see knockabout scenes in a waterfront pub full of inebriated birds, and shots of the carrier pigeon making a fool of himself. There is a love interest, too: Valiant bills and coos in the direction of a demure little nursing dove...the film [is] pencilled in for release in 2005. - Ewan is in the May edition os Vogue, I've got it!! - Star Wars filming news: "We're currently on schedule to begin on or around June 30, finishing some time in September," says McCallum. Already, the crew down under has enough information from George Lucas to begin construction of environments, props and costumes..... ....It won't be until the summer (or technically, the southern hemisphere's winter) that the actors arrive in Australia, but already Stunt Coordinator Nick Gillard has met briefly with both Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor in the US. "Hayden is coming shortly to begin massive rehearsals, stunt rehearsals. We expect Ewan in the next 4-5 weeks. He's starting to work on all the fight sequences in the movie which I think will be extraordinary," he said. - News has come out that Ewan turned down Harry Potter a long time ago. It's a shame though, one more Ewan movie wouldn't hurt... - Young Adam will open at the Cannes Film Festival being held soon. Visit www.cannes-on-line.com for more information. |
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