Fyeah-olivia-colman

Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman are set to star in “Elsinore,” based on the life of Scottish stage and screen star Ian Charleson.

The film — from StudioCanal, LD Entertainment, Lucky Red and Magnolia Mae Films — is described as a “deeply moving and inspiring true story” of the actor Ian Charleson, who faced incredible odds while preparing to give the “performance of his life” in “Hamlet” at the National Theatre in London.

Scott will portray Charleson, while Colman will play his doctor. Charleson is best known for his starring role as Olympic athlete and missionary Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, which won four Oscars, including the best film honor. He also portrayed Rev. Charlie Andrews in the 1982 eight-time Oscar winner Gandhi.

Charleson was diagnosed with HIV in 1986 and died of AIDS-related causes in January 1990 at the age of 40. In October and November 1989, he performed Hamlet at the National Theatre. When Ian McKellen was honored with the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor for playing Iago in Othello, the actor lauded Charleson as the “perfect Hamlet."

First look at Olivia Colman in Wicker.

Directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, and adapted from Ursula Wills-Jones' short story The Wicker Husband, the film sees Colman play a "smelly, single, and perpetually ridiculed" fisherwoman living on the outskirts of a village.

She sparks outrage among her neighbours when she asks a basketmaker to weave her a husband, starting an unexpected romance that challenges tradition.

Colman is joined by the likes of Peter Dinklage, Elizabeth Debicki, and Alexander Skarsgård in the cast.

The film is set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, which will take place in Park City and Salt Lake City from 22 January to 1 February.

A description of Wicker on the festival's site reads: "In their audacious and delightful follow-up to 2020’s Save Yourselves!, Sundance Film Festival alums Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer adapt and expand Ursula Wills' beguiling short story about envy, commitment, and the trappings of societal norms.

"Wilson and Fischer bring this medieval oddball village to life with an all-star cast and generous helpings of wry wit."

Heaping praise on the film's stars, it continues: "Olivia Colman’s sardonic fisherwoman flies in the face of expectations and assuredly unravels tradition as she fights for the relationship she wants and the treatment she deserves from Alexander Skarsgård’s enigmatic and composed wicker man.

"Part fable, part historical comedy, and fully eccentric, Wicker invites us to reconsider and even set alight the stories we’ve told ourselves about marriage, creating space for true romance to unfold."

Announced back in 2023, Australian filmmaker David Michôd – best known for Animal Kingdom and Christy – serves as producer on Wicker.