Thursday, February 18, 2010

Watching for... THE END TIME (UK, Norman Stone)

Norman Stone is a well-thought-of director with a ton of BBC Film credits, whose work includes the first screen version of SHADOWLANDS (preferred by many C.S. Lewis fans over the Anthony Hopkins big screen version, but I'm not so sure: it's definitely closer to the facts, and apparently to the spirit of the man, but I also found it a touch bland and dreary) and MAN DANCIN' (1995), a real Soul Food candidate about a man released from prison who is cast in a church Passion play in an inner-city parish.

Exclusive: Jeremy Irons to star in new film about St Columba
Mike Merritt, Sunday Mail
Oscar winner Jeremy Irons is to star in a major new movie about the saint who brought Christianity to Scotland. The film on the life of St Columba by SHADOWLANDS director Norman Stone will be shot either in Northern Ireland or the west of Scotland. . . .
Stone: ""I see Columba as a man of incredible faith, integrity and strength - but at times flawed. He struggled with hunger for power. He was cunning, brave and an independent spirit which sometimes he found difficult to fit into his holy orders. But he was a gifted man who changed the religious and social map of Scotland and Britain. He was not a saintly saint and this film will be more of a character study and a political thriller than a Christian epic. Columba will not wear a halo."
The movie will be shot either in the spring or autumn of 2010, with screening six months later.

No comments: