Just what is it like when an actor ”gets the call” that Woody Allen wants to see them? The star of ”Cassandra’s Dream” talks to EW about working with a legend — and reminisces about his experiences on ”Star Wars” and ”The Island”By Gregory KirschlingIn Cassandra’s Dream, Woody Allen’s latest movie (which opens in limited release on Friday), Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell play brothers in London who try to improve their lots in life by falling into crime. It’s a dead-serious thriller from Allen, one that makes his previous dark London movie, Match Point, look almost chipper by comparison.When the film played at the Toronto Film Festival last September, EW sat down with McGregor to see if every actor is still dying to be in a Woody Allen movie, what it’s like working with the guy, and what Star Wars and The Island did for his career.[b]ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So this is Woody Allen doing something different, huh?EWAN MCGREGOR:[/b] I don’t know. I don’t know what it is. Last week we were at the Venice Film Festival, having our press conference, and all of the questions were to Woody Allen, as it should be. So, we just sat and listened to his quiet answers, and it was lovely to listen to because there were some great European, deeply intellectual questions flown out that he listened to very intently, and then went, ”Well, all I can tell you is that it’s a story I wrote about two nice boys that were brought up by two nice parents and things went wrong in their lives.” And he is just so simple about it![b]He lets the work speak for itself.[/b]Yeah, yeah. People were asking about Greek tragedy and Cassandra and Cain and Abel and the murder being discussed under a tree, and he was like, ”You know, it’s very possible that I’ve read all of the books, and it’s possible that it subconsciously ended up on the paper. But I just wrote a story of two nice boys.”[b]I always wonder what its like when an actor gets a call and Woody wants to meet with you. Was this the first time for you, getting a call from Woody?[/b]Yeah, yeah. I mean, in terms of directors there isn’t anyone else, is there? There are great directors out there, and I’ve been able to work with some fantastic directors, but there isn’t anybody else like him so, of course, when you get the call, you go straight over to New York.[b]Have you talked to other actors about that ? the idea that if you’ve had some success, you hope that Woody calls at some point, and if he does, you go? Is that the consensus in the community?[/b]Of course. I think so. I mean, sadly, that’s how I felt. Drop everything and go. Not to the point where I pulled out of anything else, because luckily I didn’t have anything else on at the time. You have to do it, and it’s quick. He shoots so quickly, and that’s another thing about him that we can talk about. But in terms of feeling like you’re in a Woody Allen film, there is so much myth about him as well. In the acting community there are so many stories that I had heard about how he doesn’t speak to you or call you by name or direct you, and I heard he fires you. So, you go into it with all this ? and then he spoke to me every day, called me by my name, directed me really thoroughly, and I wasn’t fired! So, luckily, none of it came to be true.[b]What’s it like to read a Woody script for the first time with the idea that you might be in it? Did you know anything about it?[/b]No, he didn’t tell me anything about it. My first meeting with him, he came and he said, ”I’ve seen some of your work, and I have a part I think you might be nice for, and I just wanted to meet you in the flesh. Thanks for coming.” And that was it. And I felt like I should say something, even though it was probably a mistake, so I said, ”When are you making a film?” And he said, ”Well, we are making the film in May and really that’s all I can tell you, thanks for coming in,” and off I went. And the next day after they sent the script, and I said I wanted to do it.Source: www.ew.com

Here’s the trailer for The List, previously known as The Tourist:Thanks to forsage for sharing the trailer 🙂

McGregor to play romantic lead in dark comedyBy MICHAEL FLEMINGEwan McGregor will play the romantic lead opposite Jim Carrey in “I Love You Phillip Morris,” a dark comedy that marks the directing debut of “Bad Santa” scribes Glenn Ficarra and John Requa.Mad Chance’s Andrew Lazar will produce with Far Shariat. Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp is fully financing, and Besson is exec producer.Carrey signed earlier in the fall to star in the fact-based tale as Steven Russell, a married father whose conman ways introduced him to the Texas prison system. There, he fell in love with cellmate Phillip Morris.His love for Morris motivated his escape from prisons four times, once by using a green pen and bucket of water to change his prison outfit into what appeared to be surgical scrubs, another time by faking his death from AIDS and signing his own death certificate. Morris eventually got out, but Russell’s escapades got him a 144-year sentence.Ficarra and Requa wrote the script, based on a book by Houston Chronicle crime reporter Steve McVicker.Production will begin in spring, once Carrey completes starring in “A Christmas Carol,” playing multiple roles in the Robert Zemeckis-directed performance-capture film for Disney.McGregor just finished “The List,” the Marcel Langenegger-directed drama.Source: www.variety.com

Woody Allen’s “Cassandra’s Dream “ looks to be a casualty of the awards season. The Woodman’s new film, his third straight made in England, has long been scheduled for a Dec. 28 release, which would qualify it for the Academy Awards. But the film, which stars Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell as cockney brothers drawn into a crime by a young woman, has been completely ignored by the various critics groups, the National Board of Review and ? yesterday ? the Golden Globes.Today, the Weinstein Co. pushed its release date back to Jan. 18, when it will open nationally.“Cassandra’s Dream” premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September and got respectable notices. The Daily Variety critic dissed it, but the reviews collated at www.rottentomatoes.com are all positive.Source: www.nydailynews.com

By Warwick Thompson Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) — When a Hollywood star agrees to appear in a studio-sized, not-for-profit Shakespeare production, you can be sure tickets will sell out in minutes. Whether he can distinguish a couplet from a codpiece is another matter.Fortunately, Ewan McGregor gives a very creditable performance — codpiece and all — in “Othello” at London’s 250- seat Donmar Warehouse. The actor, whose films include “Star Wars” and “Moulin Rouge,” brings an understated clarity and compelling plausibility to the role of Iago.What he does not bring is a grander sense of the role’s wild poetry. His Iago does not scale the thrilling peaks of evil, nor mine the caves of despair, but instead remains rooted in a middle ground of cinematic verity.He even alters the text to intensify the realism. Iago usually claims to be “four times seven years” old. The 36-year- old McGregor replaces this with “five times seven years,” displaying a lack of trust in the audience’s ability to suspend even a small amount of disbelief.Director Michael Grandage provides a transparent, simple and generally well-paced production in traditional costume. Though there are some longueurs, the memory of them is swept aside by an exciting climactic murder scene, staged with brutal honesty.Christopher Oram’s minimalist set is a bare flagstone floor with a rust-colored wall behind it. A few simple items of wooden furniture are used to suggest interior and exterior locations, and the whole is beautifully lit by Paule Constable.Source: www.bloomberg.com