Andrew Scott's 'Elsinore' to Open London Film Festival
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- Elsinore, starring Andrew Scott as Ian Charleson, has been named the opening night film of the London Film Festival, with its European premiere set for the Southbank Centre yards from the National Theatre where many scenes are set.
- Director Simon Stone and writer Stephen Beresford reunite with Scott 12 years after Pride; the cast also features Olivia Colman as Charleson's doctor, Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Monica Dolan, Dickie Beau, and David Dawson as Derek Jarman, with Juliet Stevenson and Peter Mullan believed to play Charleson's parents.
- Ian Charleson took over Hamlet in a 1989 National Theatre production after Daniel Day-Lewis abruptly left the role, and reprised the part he had first played 15 years earlier despite Aids-related illness; he died eight weeks after his final performance and was the first UK showbiz star to list Aids as his cause of death.
- Ian McKellen refused the Evening Standard award for best actor the day after Charleson's final Hamlet show and instead handed his statuette to Charleson.
- Elsinore is also selected for a Toronto gala screening, with a Telluride world premiere predicted a week beforehand; the film opens in the US on 20 November and in the UK on 29 January.
- BFI London Film Festival director Kristy Matheson praised Scott's "astounding central performance," as the role has attracted significant Oscar buzz, with voters seen as keen to reward Scott after his All of Us Strangers work was overlooked by both Oscar and Bafta nominees.
Why it matters: The film positions Scott as a serious Oscar contender after his All of Us Strangers snub, with Telluride, Toronto, and London festival stops in October ahead of its 20 November US release. Beyond awards, it brings Charleson's story — and his pioneering public acknowledgment of Aids as cause of death — to mainstream audiences.
