Taylor Kitsch, Brendan Gleeson tapped for The Grand Seduction Film shooting in St. John's and outport N.L. communities(CBS NEWS)

Brendan Gleeson, seen at the 2012 Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles, will star in the Newfoundland-shot film. (Chris Pizzello/Associated Press)

Young Canadian star Taylor Kitsch and accomplished Irish actor Brendan Gleeson will take the leads in The Grand Seduction, the upcoming English-language remake of the Quebec hit.

Produced announced casting news for the Don McKellar-helmed production from Los Angeles Monday afternoon.

Taylor Kitsch, seen in Los Angeles in May, will play the lead role in the upcoming English remake The Grand Seduction. (Chris Pizzello/Associated Press)

Based on the 2003 film La Grande Séduction (also called Seducing Dr. Lewis) penned by Ken Scott and directed by Jean-François Pouliot, the comedy follows a big-city physician who turns up in a harbour town that's in desperate need of a doctor.

There, a village leader (Gleeson) spurs the inhabitants into a campaign to seduce the young doctor (Kitsch) to settle permanently in the community, so the town can secure a factory to save it from financial ruin.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/07/31/grand-seduction-kitsch-gleeson.html

Ryan Gosling, Liam Hemsworth and Tom Hardy? Are Foreign Hunks Replacing American Stars? (E ON LINE)

Thu., Mar. 15, 2012 5:23 PM PDT
by Leslie Gornstein

All of the biggest male movie stars used to be from the good ol’ USA. Now American kids are swooning over Liam Hemsworth and Tom Hardy. Where have all the American idols gone?
 
                                                                                            —Sigh, via the inbox 


Oh, knock it off. If you look at the top 10 or so male stars of the moment, you'll see that Taylor Kitsch comes from...oh, wait. He comes from Canada. Well, there’s Ryan Gosling! He's...oh, scratch that. He's Canadian, too. So what is going on here?

I dug deep, and I found the one person you can blame for all this... Take a look at IMDB’s top 20 stars of right this very second. Then narrow it down to just the men. The list includes the aforementioned Kitsch, Hemsworth, Hardy and Gosling, plus Josh Hutcherson, Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Armie Hammer, Channing Tatum, Leonardo DiCaprio and Liam Neeson.

Of those 11 criminally beautiful souls, five come from outside these United States—the U.K. or Canada, to be precise. The other six salute the Stars and Stripes. Why so many foreigners? And why specifically from the U.K. and its historically linked offshoot, Canada?


READ MORE:  http://www.eonline.com/news/ask_the_answer_bitch/ryan_gosling_liam_hemsworth_tom_hardy/301501

Christopher Plummer/BARRYMORE Movie: Oscar 2013? (ALT FILM GUIDE)

The play Barrymore, which in 1997 earned Christopher Plummer a Tony Award for his portrayal of legendary stage and screen star John Barrymore, will be shown at movie houses in Canada in May. Screenings in the United States and elsewhere will follow in October.

Could that possibly mean a third Oscar nomination for Plummer, this year's Best Supporting Actor winner for Mike Mills' Beginners? Unless Academy rules have changed in that regard — and Barrymore gets shown for a week in the Los Angeles area — that's certainly a possibility.

Filmed plays — Barrymore was filmed with multiple high-definition cameras last year — have earned Academy recognition in the past. For instance, a 1965 filmed version of Britain's National Theatre presentation of Othello earned acting nods for Laurence Olivier, Frank Finlay, Maggie Smith, and Joyce Redman.

In 1975, James Whitmore was shortlisted in the Best Actor category for the Theatrovision production of his one-man show Give 'em Hell, Harry!. Written by William Luce, Barrymore offers a portrayal of John Barrymore while rehearsing Richard III several months before his death.

In addition to the actor known (back in his heyday) as The Great Profile, the play features only one more character, the stage manager, who communicates with the actor through a loudspeaker.


READ MORE:  http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/christopher-plummer-barrymore-movie/

Donald Sutherland: "'The Hunger Games' could be the most influential American film since I can’t remember" (TELEGRAPH)

Donald Sutherland: "'The Hunger Games' could be the most influential American film since I can’t remember" Surprised to see the sparring partner of Eastwood and Marvin, boundary-pushing leading man and unlikely sex symbol starring in a teen fantasy being called 'the new Twilight?' You're not the only one, Donald Sutherland tells SEVEN magazine.

Shaking hands with Donald Sutherland is like being greeted by the head wizard at a Nordic potions academy. He is 6ft 4in with shoulder-length white hair and a long white beard. The beefy hands grip you firmly while the pale blue eyes inspect you unhurriedly. Up close, he is a dead ringer for Getafix the Druid from Asterix the Gaul. His manner, on the other hand, could not be more different. “There is no such thing as Chilean sea bass,” he intones decisively. I’m waiting in the doorway of his suite at the Four Seasons Hotel, Beverly Hills, while his lunch order is being organised. “The Chilean sea bass is a marketing invention,” he declares in his velvety baritone. “It is in fact the Patagonian toothfish.” I later Google Chilean sea bass and discover he is completely correct.

But then Sutherland’s hallmark, as a veteran actor of some 120 movies, is a majestic kind of old pro, no-frills precision. His fellow Canadian Christopher Plummer may have taken home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar this year, but one can’t help feeling that Sutherland could – with a rich, juicy lion-in-winter role – do the same. His vast CV takes in a few oddities (Beerfest, The Poky Little Puppy’s First Christmas), but the high points are enduring peaks (MASH, Klute, Ordinary People and, of course, Don’t Look Now). Indeed, no British interview with Donald Sutherland is complete without a discussion of his and Julie Christie’s legendary sex scene in that film. I lasted all of 22 minutes before I brought up my conspiracy theory – but more of that later.

READ MORE:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/9130828/Donald-Sutherland-The-Hunger-Games-could-be-the-most-influential-American-film-since-I-cant-remember.html

Christopher Plummer: Ready for his Oscar! (IONSTRATFORD)

All Stratford eyes should be on the Academy Awards Sunday night.

82-year-old Christopher Plummer is up for his second Oscar for Beginners, in which he plays an elderly widower who comes out of the closet and embraces his homosexuality. Despite illness, he lives life to the fullest and sets an example for his son, portrayed by Ewan McGregor.

Iconic Canadian actor Christopher Plummer has been the toast of the film awards season, winning trophy after trophy for his impish, yet touching performance in the melancholy comedy-drama Beginners, directed by Mike Mills. T

The Toronto-born performer, who has in recent years kept busy with roles both on stage (Barrymore, Stratford’s Caesar and Cleopatra and The Tempest) and screen (Beginners, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,The Last Station), hasn’t let being an octogenarian hamper his career.

Read further:  http://ionstratford.ca/2012/02/26/christopher-plummer-up-for-an-oscar-sunday-night/