‘Elsinore’ with Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman Gets November Release Date and First Look Ahead of TIFF
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Focus Features acquired "Elsinore" and set a November 20 limited theatrical release, expanding wider over Thanksgiving and into December — the same slot it used for last year's "Hamnet" after its TIFF premiere.
- Ian Charleson, the film's subject, was the "Chariots of Fire" and "Gandhi" actor who continued performing as Hamlet alongside Ian McKellen after his 1986 HIV diagnosis and died of AIDS in 1990 at age 40, having asked that his diagnosis stay secret until death to raise AIDS awareness.
- Andrew Scott stars alongside Olivia Colman, with a supporting cast that includes Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Luke Thompson, David Dawson, Monica Dolan, Matthew Beard, Joe Locke, Adeel Akhtar, Juliet Stevenson, and Peter Mullan.
- Simon Stone ("The Daughter," "The Dig") directs from a screenplay by Stephen Beresford ("Pride").
- The TIFF premiere is billed as a "Canadian premiere," and because "Elsinore" was not announced for Venice, a Telluride world premiere is the likely scenario.
- Studiocanal handles worldwide sales and theatrical distribution across the UK, France, Germany, Italy (via Lucky Red), Poland, Benelux, Australia, and New Zealand, with Focus Features covering North America and Universal Pictures International handling Latin America.
Why it matters: Focus Features is repeating its 'Hamnet' Thanksgiving strategy, with Studiocanal rolling the film out theatrically across 8+ territories — a wide release signaling real distributor confidence in an AIDS-era drama as an awards play. Charleson's story, an actor who kept performing Hamlet after his HIV diagnosis, gives the campaign unusually durable subject matter.
