Quick reminder that viewers in the US will be able to see a guest turn from actor Alastair Mackenzie in the acclaimed "Inspector Lewis" series when the Sudden Death Question episode airs this weekend on PBS Masterpiece Mysteries (check local listings). You can see an official preview here at the PBS website, with cast crew etc listings, or watch the episode online, as seen in the clip below.
As a reminder, US viewers can see Al (a co-founder and producer at Sigma)co-star in New Town Killers. With the DVD readily available in the UK and US, the film recently screened on SkY (also on Demand) and is now available to watch for free online here at HULU for US viewers. Enjoy!
The US will finally see an official DVD release of Richard Jobson's New Town Killers starring Sigma Films co-founder, actor Alastair Mackenzie. While released last fall in the UK, the US will see the DVD released on MAY 25 with pre-orders available here. Bonus: Thanks to the very fine cinematographer Simon Dennis, we can see this great and intense clip of Alastair along with co-star Dougray Scott in New Town Killers.
As a reminder, Al was the featured actor in the season opener of Murdoch Mysteries, which is out on DVD May 4 (Just because, reminder too May is a good month for the wonderful Mackenzie brothers as David will see the UK DVD release of his film Spread on May 17) Finally, according to his IMDB page Alastair has apparently been doing some voice work for the video game Bio Shock 2, but no idea what this is, how much you can hear him or what the deal is with this, sorry.
Calling all Nessie Hunters! Here is a chance to see a film about a (twisted) sort of hunting as Richard Jobson's New Town Killers will screen at the Loch Ness Film Festival this September in Scotland. While already out on DVD, this is a nice chance to see this movie starring Sigma's own Alastair Mackenzie along with Dougray Scott which is playing at the festival at the Craigmonie Centre on the 24th of September. More info about the festival can be found at this link. How very cool!
Thanks so much to the Loch Ness Film Festival for the heads up! :)
Big news today as director Richard Jobson and NEW TOWN KILLERS starring Dougray Scott and Sigma's own Alastair Mackenzie was nominated at the Scottish BAFTAs! Richard Jobson was nominated for Best Director, for his movie which was also recognised as a contender for "Best Picture" Also recognised was James Anthony Pearson for his performance as Sean Macdonald in the best acting category. WOW! The Scottish BAFTAs will be presented in a few weeks in Glasgow on Sunday, November 8th, 2009. CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ENTIRE CAST & CREW OF NEW TOWN KILLERS!!!! This is very cool news on top of the fact the film is now officially released today on DVD. You can see the entire cover art below-thx dvdcovers- with the DVD (already long available for rent ) also available for download via ITunes for UK residents only (no word if we will ever see it here in US, but the DVD will play on my mac, so Im ordering the DVD as soon as I get some extra cash, cant wait for that making of feature! :))
A few quick updates today on Richard Jobson's "New Town Killers" starring Dougray Scott, Alastair Mackenzie and James Anthony Pearson. Mr. Jobson has updated his website with the news that the film will screen next month at the Dinard Film Festival which runs October8-11th in France. Readers will recall that Sigma's Hallam Foe was a big winner at Dinard previously in 2007 so lets hope this is a good sign for good luck with NTK! :)
On a related note, previously I had posted that New Town Killers was to be released on DVD October 19th. Last month I also posted about the synopsis and the pre-orders for the disc; today there is a small update regarding the additional behind the scenes features. The audio commentary includes the director of course but also Dougray, Al, James and Liz White. who knows if this is accurate but god willing we will actually hear from Al on the DVD! Also on the disc is the aforementioned behind-the-scenes feature called "New Town Killers-The Story" According to the BBFC, this feature will run 30 minutes and 45 seconds, and will include the following:
Product Description Cat & mouse thriller tells the story of two bankers who offer Sean the chance to clear his sister s debt on the condition that he can hide from them for 12 hours on the streets of Edinburgh. Sean accepts the offer and soon realises it s a tragic game of life and death that the bankers will stop at nothing to win.
Synopsis With a premise that suggests an early 21st century variation on David Fincher's paranoia classic THE GAME (1997), NEW TOWN KILLERS stars Dougray Scott as Alistair, a slimy, icewater-veined financier who gets his kicks and thrills by targeting human prey. His modus operandi involves bringing in an innocent young candidate for a new job, Jamie Stewart (Alastair Mackenzie) and demanding as a prerequisite that the two play a mysterious game together. They must find a down-and-outer and challenge him to escape from their clutches over the course of one long and fateful night. The "prey" on this occasion is Sean McDonald (James Anthony Pearson), an inner-city teen with a serious problem on his hands: his pregnant sister risks being killed by the thugs to whom she owes gambling money. Alistair informs the young man that if he manages to evade them in their chase, he will receive enough money to clear off the towering gambling debts of his pregnant sister; if he loses, he will be killed. Out of concern for his sister, Sean agrees to the contest, though victory seems impossible for two major reasons: first, the crafty Alistair has closed all major exit routes from the city without informing Sean of this, and second, Alistair secretly plants a tracking device on Sean that the young man isn't aware of.
Well I am still hugely discouraged, but felt I should point out some of the good things, including two interviews of note. First, thank you as always to ever awesome Alan at GaleMovies we know of a new video interview with Richard Jobson at BBC Films. (be sure to check out Alan's excellent review of New Town Killers here) I had to chuckle at myself because one of the things RJ mentions is about people complaining 'too loud too fast.' *Guess thats what I am :((... too loud a fan heh, and wanting things too fast (although an effing week after a supposed big deal is an eternity in this day an age. and they wonder why scant enough attention is paid to Scottish film-tis sink or swim time folks just sayin)
Also of note :P is a truly wonderful interview with Martin and Stacey of Isa & the Filthy tongues. Now talk about fast, kick ass music! Not only does this great piece give new details on how they and their music became part of New Town Killers, but also that Big Star is going to be part of the Soundtrack for David Mackenzie's Spread, starring Ashton Kutcher. Huzzah! Big Star will be (re?) released as single July 6! Quotes of interest: PB : 'Big Star', your new single, is also appearing on a soundtrack for another film, ‘Spread’, which is a Hollywood film, isn’t it ? SC :Yes. It is the next Ashton Kutcher romantic comedy, but it is very dark.
MM : It is about the sex industry in America. We have done the film with Richard about violence and now we have done one about sex(Laughs). SC : It is going to be playing here at the Edinburgh Film Festival in June and then it will be released in America in August. It doesn’t have a release date here yet. The distribution rights haven't been bought, so hopefully that will happen after the film appears in the festivals in the UK. PB : How did you become involved with the soundtrack for that ? SC : Luck (Laughs). MM : My niece knew a guy from a club. He opened a club in Edinburgh and he booked us into it and then e-mailed me afterwards and asked us for music. He had been asked by this film director friend of his called David MacKenzie, who was Scottish and directed ‘Spreads’, to send him some stuff. It was, therefore, a friend of David MacKenzie's in Edinburgh who ran a club who liked us. There was really a lot more of an element of chance involved in that one.
While I posted this last year, do check out the excellent video for Big Star, as well as a cut from FlyKKiller which is part of the soundtrack for New Town Killers.
Attention fans in London! You will have the chance to see a special series of screenings this weekend as Empire Leicester Square will be showing Richard Jobson's New Town Killers starring Dougray Scott and Sigma's own Alastair Mackenzie starting Friday June 12. Tickets are now available via this link for the movie which will be showing every night for a week at 21:00 (9pm). While the film is having the special debut/screening on Thursday at the Omni Vue; you can also see it the entire weekend at the Vue Carlisle, Inverness and Livingston.
Also the film will be showing at Eden Court theater, with a special Q & A session with director Richard Jobson to take place JULY 3rd. Show times are listed via this link.
Yahoo movies has posted a new video interview with director Richard Jobson and Dougray Scott that contains some new footage from the film. You can see what is a roof top chase featuring not only Dougray and James Anthony Pearson but gasp the other star of the film Alastair Mackenzie, what a concept heh...sorry do I sound bitter? ;P
The rooftop chase is also listed on another site but I cant get it to work here in the us of course, and am trying to track that down elsewhere. Tickets remain on sale for the screening of New Town Killers at the Omni Vue in Edinburgh which will feature a Q & Q with Dougray and RJ, with a private after party to follow. Additional Interviews with Richard Jobson can be found via Indie London and Screenjabber.
Bad news Alastair Mackenzie fans, as it looks as if Al will not be in attendance this week for the screening of New Town Killers :(((((((((( pfffffttttt
The Scotsman reports that the director Richard Jobson will conduct a Question and Answer session, along with star Dougray Scott and James Anthony Pearson. Mr. Scott's beautiful wife Claire Forlani (Sigma Films "Hallam Foe" ) is also reported to attend the event. As reported here many times the film will screen this week at Vue Omni in Edinburgh, Scotland with a private party afterwards to feature a performance by the fabulous Isa and the Filthy Tongues.
Related: Mr Scott attended a book launch today in London, pic-------->
The Scotsman has now posted their review of Richard Jobson's New Town Killers, along with a new interview with the director and star Dougray Scott. The interview naturally contains no mention of Sigma own and co-star Alastair Mackenzie, but it can be read here. As for the actual review, the latter half is worth a read:
New Town Killers is the kind of film that stretches its cast physically rather than emotionally, an action movie that almost runs out of breath. Jobson's own authorial touches include a literal cliffhanger where our hero grapples with the ledges and pipes of an Edinburgh townhouse and two encounters with a gang of Edinburgh toughs which end in greasy terror in two different ways. Less successful is a scene where two children get hold of a gun late on in the film; by this time quite a few bodies have already piled up and this pause to meditate on violence and the innocent feels unnecessary, overscored and underpowered, even if one of the kids is played by the director's daughter. Viewed as a reasonable B-movie or a so-so A-movie, it's still Jobson's most effective film to date, capitalising on Dougray Scott's smooth villainy, fluent action sequences and some nicely gothic shots of Edinburgh. It also shows a certain ethical sturdiness that seems quaint in these exploitative times; it may be hip as old boots, but in New Town Killers, no transgression goes unpunished in the end. It's only when the characters stop and deliver monologues about the class divide that the film flags – Jobson appears to have Beethoven's ear for the way people talk, and the philosophical exchanges between alpha male and his beta quarry have all the sparkle of a mortgage application. Still, provided you close your ears when anyone speaks for longer than 30 seconds, you'll have a grand time.
On a related note, Dougray Scott and his beautiful wife Claire Forlani (Sigma's Hallam Foe) were guest at tonight's Raisa Gorbachev Gala Fundraiser Ball held at Hampton Court Palace London, photo of the handsome couple ------>.
New Town Killers will be released on Thursday with a screening, Q & A and private after party featuring a performance by Isa & the Filthy Tongues. The trailer can be found here; theme song by ISA here
A reminder today that Richard Jobson's "New Town Killers" will be screening next week in Edinburgh, Scotland. The new film which stars Dougray Scott, and Sigma co-founder Alastair Mackenzie will be shown at Vue Omni Edinburgh, and there will also be a special Q & A session. Tickets for this event on June 12 are now available here via this link. If anyone is lucky enough to attend, can someone please have mercy on poor me and send in pics/reports? I also hear reports there is to be a fabulous after party with the awesome Isa and the Filthy Tongues due to play-LUCKY, fingers crossed more info/audio/video of that will be available at some point too.
By way of director Richard Jobson's official Twitter, BAFTA members can see a screening of the movie Tuesday, June 9 in Glasgow, and Wed June 10 in Edinburgh. Also thanks to Alan over at Gael Movies blog (recommended reading!) we now know New Town Killers will be screening in August at the Hippodrome Theater. Screening dates for the film start August 14. I do not know if these are the dates the film are opening wide, but Ive heard August as the month it does indeed go wide in the UK; more when I can get it!
Finally, even though we have the glorious fabulous new Poster for New Town Killers below, check out these two posters( One,Two) on my Flickr from Allcitymedia, which were NOT selected for the final sales sheet. Gotta say, I agree with the final decision; always cool to see their names etc but in this case, the red one was a great teaser, love the newest one best though!!!
As a follow to the post below, there is some very good news today involving "New Town Killers," starring Dougray Scott, and Sigma Films' own Alastair Mackenzie. Reviews for the film are now pouring in, with Empire giving it four stars ("searing thriller") and Total Film the same, noting the new film from director Richard Jobson is "a spiky little speedball of caustic social commentary and guerrilla thrills." Press is starting to become more plentiful with an article on Dougray here from the Daily Mail as well. Finally BEHOLD IN GLORIOUS LARGE SIZE HERE VIA MY FLICKR THE NEW POSTER for New Town Killers, with a fabulous pic of Alastair-wall paper anyone? :) New Town Killers will be released next week.
CHECK IT OUT! New extended clip of Alastair Mackenzie and Dougray Scott in New Town Killers, written and directed by Richard Jobson. NTK opens in Edinburgh on June 11.
PS: LOVE LOVE LOVE THE NEW POSTER, Sigma films Alastair Mackenzie looks so badass, very cool poster :)
PPS: I live, barely. Very very sorry for lack of updates and posts. Been overwhelmed with other great project now concluded, plus Im quite ill at moment alas. Silver lining I guess laying in bed makes time to get caught up on mails and such, more updates soon
Check it out!!! Today we have quite a treat: our first look at I Love Luci!!! A Sigma films short, you can see the first footage of Camila Rutherford and Colin at work in the new film written & directed by Sigma's own Colin Kennedy and produced by Brian Coffey of Sigma! LOL at all the sugar hahaha, SWEET Business indeed Colin!!!!xx
Part of a special promo being screened at Cannes, you can see the first footage below at 7:30 in to the spot. Bonus too is A NEW SCENE from Richard Jobson's New Town Killers, featuring a very dangerous Dougray Scott in pursuit of James Anthony Pearson (that starts at approx 1:42) Finally you can see A SHORTED VERSION OF the previously released TRAILER for Valhalla Rising at the end which stars Mads Mikkelsen- BOOOOOO YOU CUT OUT JAMIE SIVES, WHY???suckage.
VERY IMPORTANT! Please note that this same promo reel is on the UKfilmcentre.org.uk website WITH A BRAND NEW CLIP OF MADS IN VALHALLA RISING, but the SOUND DOES NOT WORK!!! AGGGH! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Uk film council/center/scottish screen people, can someone please fix that video???? You can see that video here, sans audio. While no Jamie Sives I could see alas, this Valhalla Rising clip is of Mads fighting when tied to the pole that we've seen in all those promo pics, tis freaking awesome, 2 minutes long, and its at the very end! Check it out!
"Baby you can drive my car, Yes Jamie youre my star, baby you can drive my car, and Jamie I looooveee you... beep beep'm beep beep YEAH~
:)
There is a random and sort of fun article now online regarding my most favorite actor Jamie Sives, and his new film "It's a Wonderful Afterlife." In the film, Jamie is playing a police detective, and this article from Metro features the director Gurinder Chadha discussing working with actors and cars, noting that the new film "features five cars, including an SUV, an ambulance and a police car, each carefully chosen for their character by Chadha and her art department. “You might not notice them, but because they belong to the character they should be there. You need to employ an action vehicle person whose job it is to just move the cars around.”
Cool~ No word if Jamie is going to be plowing through the streets of London, ala Starsky and Hutch style, but this next part cracked me up as the article continued: Meanwhile, actors have to be insured on their characters’ cars — and drive them. The previous day, one of Chadha’s actors plowed into a fence; some can’t even drive at all. “In those situations you just turn the engine on and cut there, turn the engine off, and then someone pushes it from the back so it looks as if they’re starting to pull off.”
hahah! no word if it was Jamie doing the plowing, but I figure not lol. He's driven in movies before or thru the magic of Hollywood made it look like hes driven in other films, most recently driving an ambulance. I'd trust him to drive my car any ole time thats for sure! ;)
On a serious note though, the piece does mention how tricky it can be to shoot scenes in cars. One good reminder/example of this can be witnessed from the recent production of New Town Killers, featuring Sigma's own Alastair Mackenzie, who has several scenes in the car. Director Richard Jobson has posted on his website many excellent behind the scenes photos involving setting up shots for the car etc. Check them out here.
Right, back to business, and time for a proper update on the upcoming New Town Killers. Reminder, the trailer for the film opening in the UK in June can be seen, here. Director Richard Jobson recently gave a new interview where he discussed (finally huzzah!) his star, Sigma Films own Alastair Mackenzie. In the lengthy, detailed and frankly very good interview, Mr. Jobson discusses the motivation and reasoning why he sought to cast the beloved star of Monarch of the Glen in a role of this ruthless person.
PB : The other well-known name in the film is Alastair Mackenzie who is best known for Sunday night television and being in ‘Monarch of the Glen’. Was it a conscious decision to cast him against type ?RJ : Actually I thought I cast him to type because I wanted him in that character to be someone who had gone somewhere like Glenalmond, the private school in Perthshire, and who came from a very privileged background, as Alastair also does. When I met him I thought there was no point in testing anyone else for the part because he was so much that character. I just wanted him to build on that character’s incredibly privileged history, but also to make him very vulnerable. His Achilles heel is his ambition. He wants the big piece of the cake, but he doesn’t understand what the big piece of the cake means, so he makes a Faustian pact with Dougray’s character and pays the price for it.
He briefly mentions A Woman in Winter, which stars Jamie Sives, and notes of the film itself: "Words and finding a connection with words are very important to me. The difference now is I want there to be a story.I think 'A Woman in Winter' might be the last really abstract thing I will ever write. It was probably the bravest thing I have ever written because it dealt with really big themes that I might add genuinely interested me. In the sense of how I am going to use the words and the characters and where I am going cinematically now I really want the stories though to be about something."
A second interview worth the read is definitely with Stacey C, the lead singer of Isa & the Filthy Tongues. The group performs the title track to New Town Killers, which is now available, and in the interview, Stacey mentions Richard Jobson and the film.
Richard Jobson, who is now a movie director, loved our album so much that he asked us to write the theme song for his new movie 'New Town Killers'. Richard wrote the lyrics and we wrote the music. It was amazing to hear my voice on a huge screen at the premier in London last October.
We had a lot of contact with Richard Jobson, plenty of drinks and discussions... but mostly we talked about what it was like at the beginning of punk - he was in a punk band in Scotland in 1976 which was unheard of back in the day! London was the epicentre of punk at that point and none of those London bands even had a single out till October/ November 1976 and their LPs came out in 1977... so Richard was right there at the beginning. I think the Skids had their first single out in summer 1977 - 'Test Tube Babies', it was called! We have a lot in common with him. The boys in the band came from a similar town. You know, the kind of town that's industrial, unemployed and bleak.
Almost one month ago to the date, I posted that New Town Killers, directed by Richard Jobson and starring Dougray Scott and Sigma's own Alastair Mackenzie, had been rated 15 in the UK and several posts on it coming out in June. Got another google alert the other day, and it had the same thing, so I ignored it-mistake! LOL. For as I was reading the Gael Movies blog, he posted the rating from the other day but noted there was a release date added by the BBFC of June 12. (Thanks Alan!)Not certain how certain that is lol, but at least that is a specific date for now.
I took a look on the BBFC site and also saw now too that in addition to the rating for the film and what looks like the DVD, there is something called "New Town Killers-The story [additional material]"
Running 30 minutes and 45 seconds in length, this also was rated 15. Not sure if this is the DVD bonus features or a special to air on say film 4 or something but it will feature clips from the movie as well as a behind the scenes feature with only DOUGRAY SCOTT and James Pearson listed WHERE IS ALASTAIRS NAME! Holy crap I will be pissed, actually more hugely disappointed than anything really, if they don't include Al. Not sure if he just prefers not to be in the spotlight, doing press or stuff like this, but I can attest his many and I do mean MANY fans will be sorely disappointed if there isnt at least a brief interview with him or shots of him at work. LOL so there :P I know the director Richard Jobson has loads of behind the scenes stills including Al on his website, so I am hoping this is just an oversite or something. bleh. Anyway, features as follows:
00:19:30:02 NEW TOWN KILLERS - THE STORY (BEHIND THE SCENES) 00:03:40:06 (THE PROPOSAL) (FILM CLIP) 00:01:21:11 (THE LIST GAME) (FILM CLIP) 00:01:16:19 (THE TUNNEL) (FILM CLIP) 00:03:11:16 (THE ROOF CHASE) (FILM CLIP) 00:01:45:04 NEW TOWN KILLERS (TRAILER)
