Washington, (ANI): Scottish actor James McAvoy has signed on to star in Mandate Pictures’ comedic adaptation of the Will Reiser novel “I’m With Cancer”. Nicole Holofcener will direct the flick, and Seth Rogen, who is also producing, will co-star, reports Variety magazine. McAvoy, 30, will play the part of a 25-year-old who learns that he has cancer and successfully battles the disease over several years.

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The Conspirator

James McAvoy has been making a name for himself with critically acclaimed performances in mostly period dramas, but the Scottish actor says he’s ready to branch out and do other genres. He starred with Angelina Jolie in his first big action film, 2008’s “Wanted,” and he’s set to co-star with Seth Rogen in the comedy “I’m With Cancer.” The European-set drama “The Last Station” finds McAvoy on more familiar territory: portraying a lovelorn man in a bygone era.

A lot of your movies have been about love. Are you drawn to these scripts because you’re a romantic a heart?

Yeah, I think I’m a romantic at heart. I’m an incurable romantic. I don’t mean necessarily the script [has to have] affairs of the heart with the opposite sex, although it seems that way at times, but just in terms of stories. I like romantic, sweeping stories, not just sexy love ones. I just think it’s an important part of everybody’s life. Even if we tell the same story over and over again, we need to hear it over and over again, because it’s so important.

Read more here.………..
Source: Exaimner.com

USA Today has your first look at Robert Redford’s new film, ‘The Conspirator,’ starring ‘Atonement’ star, James McAvoy. According to the paper, the film follows the search for a small group of Confederate sympathizers who aided in the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theater.

McAvoy plays a Union soldier who agrees to defend the owner of a boarding house’s, Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), son who was the main conspirator trying to escape the manhunt.

Source: Indyposted

James McAvoy: superhero! Though I never thought I’d see the day, I’m excited to report that McAvoy has been cast in X-Men: First Class as a young Charles Xavier!
The Scottish thespian will play the man who will become Professor X (you know, prebaldness, pre-Magneto battling) in the prequel, which Matthew Vaughn will direct.

Here’s a little about the Conspirator and what’s it about? The film is set in 1865 Washington as the fragile new post-Civil War union, just days old, threatens to unravel in the wake of President Abraham Lincoln’s murder at the hands of John Wilkes Booth. Since much unfolds in jails or in courtrooms, it hangs on the potent performances by its stars — Robin Wright as Mary Surratt, the only woman charged in the conspiracy, and James McAvoy as her reluctant young defense attorney — along with an ensemble knee-deep in talent and cutting across continents and generations. Tom Wilkinson, Kevin Kline, Stephen Root, Colm Meaney represent the elder statesmen, with Evan Rachel Wood, Alexis Bledel, Jonathan Groff and Justin Long leading the younger set.

Source: LA Times

Gnomeo and Juliet Interview

Fox moved at superheroic speed to fill out the members of “X-Men: First Class” — starting with the man who leads the pack.

The studio hired James McAvoy to play the role of Charles Xavier, the professor who organizes the X-Men band of mutants into a group (and force for good). Patrick Stewart played Xavier in the original set of pictures, but of course as an origin story, many of the characters in “First Class” will skew younger.

McAvoy, who’s next up in the Robert Redford post-Civil War drama “The Conspirator,” has played in films with superhero themes before, primarily as a lead character in the assassin picture “Wanted.”

Aussie bombshell Rose Byrne will play Moira MacTaggert, a scientist and love interest of Xavier.

Source: Brand X Daily

James McAvoy has revealed that he will not be participating in many of the fight scenes in X-Men: First Class.

McAvoy, who plays Professor X in the upcoming prequel, spoke to Screen Rant about his character, stating that he is rarely involved in the movie’s fight scenes.

“[Professor X] is not too combat savvy in this film, it has to be said. He doesn’t do too much, he’s sort of a consultant with the combat guys,” said McAvoy.

He continued: “But he does get involved in a few little bits of fisticuffs, I wouldn’t say that he comes out well in any of them, but I wouldn’t say that he gets his ass kicked either. Yeah, he’s not particularly combat ready.”

The actor also addressed the rumors about the ending of the film, which reportedly concludes with Professor X bald and in a wheelchair, as the character appears later in life.

“You’ll have to wait and see, you’ll have to wait and see,” McAvoy said. “It’s actually quite satisfying when you get to say that: ‘I’m not allowed to say’. Because nobody’s actually told you that you’re not allowed to say, but it’s sort of implied.”

X-Men: First Class opens in cinemas on June 3.

Source: Digital Spy

The day before I met James McAvoy I asked a female friend of mine which qualities came to mind when she thought of him. “Sexual energy,” she replied promptly. “Also, a certain type of male cockiness.”

When I put this to McAvoy, he rocks back in his chair, puffs out his cheek and blows a long, incredulous, but not entirely undelighted sounding raspberry.

“Wowser!” he says. “Sexual energy, eh? That’s really good to know. This friend of yours, can she see? Actually, the cockiness I’m probably aware of because I’ve done it on purpose a few times with the character I’ve played. Still, it’s nice to be told.”

There are, however, few if any opportunities for McAvoy to show off his sexual energy or his cockiness in his latest role. He plays a lovestruck garden gnome called Gnomeo in the animated feature Gnomeo and Juliet, a tragic – but not too tragic – saga of love, enmity and pointy hats. While this may not have been the most challenging role of McAvoy’s career, it’s certainly been one of the more time-consuming: he’s been working on it off and on for more than three years.

“It’s been very peculiar. I’d come in every three or four months, and for half a day I’d try to hit as many scenes as I could and offer up as many ideas as possible. And then I’d go away and come back three or four months later.”

Source: Telegraph

James McAvoy has revealed he has taken lessons from one of TV’s most notorious failed actors – Friends character Joey.

The Scottish screen star has admitted his technique for crying on cue involved some tweaking in a sensitive area, copied from the sitcom.

James, whose films include Atonement, made his confession as he chatted to Graham Norton for the presenter’s BBC1 chat show, to be screened on Friday.

Joey – played by Matt Le Blanc – famously described in one edition of long-running US series Friends how he would pinch himself painfully in the nether regions to make himself cry.

Asked how he can summon the tears, James said: “Generally I can do it when I need to, but every now and then I’ve had to get the tweezers out and do the Joey Tribbiani trick.”

The star also said he used to pass the time while working in a bakery before he found acting fame by writing a wish list of girls he fancied.

“I worked in a bakery making fairy cakes. It was dull and I worked on my own so I used to write all the names of all the girls I wanted to sleep with in the cakes in jam. That got me through the night.”

Source: belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Portrait Magazine has posted an article on James and he is featured on the cover. You can read their article on their site: James McAvoy: 20 Things You Need to Know About the First Class Star @ Portrait Magazine.net

James McAvoy Talks ARTHUR CHRISTMAS

In the animated family film Arthur Christmas, hitting theaters on November 23rd, actor James McAvoy voices Arthur, the awkward but enthusiastic youngest son to Santa Claus (Jim Broadbent). When the ultra-high-tech Christmas gift delivery system fails, missing one child out of hundreds of millions, Arthur embarks on a rogue mission, with the help of his rather naughty Grandsanta (Bill Nighy) and a giftwrapping-obsessed elf (Ashley Jensen), to deliver the last present before Christmas morning.

During this exclusive phone interview with Collider, James McAvoy talked about his desire to want to do more films for kids because they’re the best audience around, that he responded to the integrity and humor in the story, the challenge of voicing a character that is always so enthusiastic and nice, and that, if given the choice, he would likely go with the simple and classic ways of doing things versus the high-tech ones. He also talked about how freaky it was to watch even 10 minutes of the Showtime remake of Shameless (he starred in the original), his hopes for the X-Men: First Class sequel, which has not been greenlit yet, the amazing experience he’s had working with director Danny Boyle on Trance, for which he has one day left of shooting, how good the action-thriller Welcome to the Punch turned out, and shooting the fantastic but twisted script for Irvine Welsh’s Filth, starting in January 2012.

Source: Collinder

McAvoy plays Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson, an Edinburgh policeman with an unfortunate predilection for booze, drugs and sexually abusive relationships.

As Christmas approaches, Robertson is hoping for a nice long blow-out to indulge his various vices, but the matter of a missing wife and child and a racially fraught murder case soon complicate matters.

With a tapeworm Robertson develops serving as one of the novel’s narrators, the subject material is anything but conventional, so Scottish director Jon S. Baird will likely have his work cut out for him.

Source: Total Film

James McAvoy and Ed Norton are teaming up to play against England in this year’s Soccer Aid. The charity football match, which raises funds for Unicef, sees the Rest of the World take on England at Old Trafford on Sunday.

The England team will be captained by Robbie Williams, and will include Mark Owen, Olly Murs and John Bishop, plus football legends David Seaman and Teddy Sherringham.

New pictures from the Soccer Aid 2012 Event have been added to the gallery. And you can view video here.

Source: ITN

Posted a new photo shoot from Louise Haywood-Schiefer and some photos from James’s Macbeth Opening Night. You can view all those in the gallery.

I added a whole bunch of stuff on James on our facebook page, was too much to list but I posted things from Neverwhere, Top Gear, Welcome to the Punch and over 42 pictures to the gallery. I will make an entire post tomorrow.

James has been revealed as Charles Xavier in the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past thanks to Bryan Singer.

From the looks of this, Xavier will be hanging on to his locks for a while yet, and, given that the portion of the film featuring the First Class cast will be set in the 1970s, he’s gone for it, including a mane that might even impress Hugh Jackman’s Logan.

Days Of Future Past finds the X-team in real trouble in a dark alternate future where mutants are hunted down, put in internment camps or killed by the robotic sentinels. To stop this happening will require the efforts not only of the present-day team (including Jackman, Shawn Ashmore, Ellen Page, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin and Daniel Cudmore), but also the younger versions of some of them in the ’70s (with McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult all returning).

It’s all being shot in 3D right now in Canada ready for a July 17, 2014 release date.

Source: EmpireOnline

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and Her’

Director: Ned Benson
Stars: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy
The Buzz: One of the fest’s most ambitious projects, it could prove puzzling: Benson has made two films about a troubled marriage — one from the wife’s perspective, the other from the husband’s — packaged together as one 190-minute film.

Source:THR

Jameson BEST ACTOR?
James McAvoy (Filth)?
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave)?
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf Of Wall Street)?
Martin Freeman (The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug)?
Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)

To say that this was our biggest Awards ever is an understatement. We had Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman, Simon Pegg, Paul Greengrass, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emma Thompson and a wealth of other talent from across the film and telly spectrum in the room. Well-deserved awards went to the likes of Sally Hawkins, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, and even though he probably needs to build an extension to hold his awards haul, Alfonso Cuarón won two, accepting via video message and through his effects cohort Neil Corbould.

Source: Empire

New pictures added from the Olivier Awards.

X-Men: Days of Future Past” star James McAvoy attended the Laurence Olivier Awards in London on Sunday.

Soccer Aid is a celebrity football match broadcast live on ITV 1 and aims to raise millions of pounds for UNICEF’s crucial work in changing children’s lives all over the world. Every two years, two teams of celebrities and football legends from England and the Rest of the World play a match to raise funds for UNICEF’s work with vulnerable children.

Soccer Aid began in 2006 as a brainwave of UNICEF UK Ambassador Robbie Williams and Jonathan Wilkes. It is now in its fifth year and has cumulatively raised over £12 million to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable children get life-saving food, medicine and clean water.
Every day, children are in serious danger and thousands die needlessly in the struggle against poverty, hunger and disease. Time is running out for millions of children. It’s time for us all to act.

THE RULES
Each squad has 12 celebrities, six footballing legends (including one goalkeeper) and a professional manager. In the first half each team plays with their professional goalie and in the second their celebrity goalkeeper takes to the pitch.

To view the celebs participating in this years Soccer Aid Event you can read the following list at: Unicef.org

This year’s Soccer Aid match is at Old Trafford, Manchester. Soccer Aid will be broadcast live on ITV1 and online from 6pm on Sunday 8 June, presented by Dermot O’Leary and Kirsty Gallacher.

They will also have a preview show on Friday 6 June on ITV1 where you can catch all the behind the scenes action from the training ground and find out more about how Soccer Aid is helping to save and change children’s lives.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-2124/OLIVIER ASSELIN BENIN, 2010 On 23 October, a boy kicks a football as he wades through floodwater at the A et B Hinde School in the city of Cotonou. Like many others, the school is closed due to the flooding.

Here’s the second video from the BBC’s CBeebies Bedtime Stories, read by James McAvoy.

With “Glass” (January, 2019), M. Night Shyalaman merges comic book and thriller genres as well the films “Unbreakable” and “Split.” Samuel L. Jackson lands his first title role — “like I’m in my own motherfucking movie, it’s about time!” — co-starring with Bruce Willis, James McAvoy and Sarah Paulson. In the first footage shown from the film, we see Paulson’s psychiatrist sitting down with her three patients suffering from delusions of super-hero grandeur. Little does she know.

Actor James McAvoy was spotted outside of a famous Bath museum last week.

The Glaswegian visited the Jane Austen Centre on Thursday (January 3) and was seen pictured with a familiar face from around Bath.

The 39-year-old – who is famous for his roles in the films Split, X-Men, Filth and many more – looked right at home outside of the museum, having previously played Tom Lefroy – a close companion of Jane Austen – in Becoming Jane, a biographical film about Jane Austen’s life.

The museum posted a picture to their twitter page of McAvoy accompanied by Bath’s well-known ‘Mr Bennett’ – or Martin, as his colleagues know him.

The Jane Austen Centre said on twitter: “Guess who came to visit the Jane Austen Centre today?

“You may have seen him play Jane’s first romance Tom Lefroy…”

McAvoy confirmed his attendance on Instagram, but admitted he was keeping his head down.

He said: “Lovely day trip to Bath.

“Had to go undercover at the Jane Austen museum though.

Some guys love power tools.. Other guys plunk down cash for the latest and greatest tech, or maybe some slick new adventure gear.. But James McAvoy is all about the classics. We chatted with the February Men’s Journal cover star. about his favorite gear behind the scenes at our cover shoot, and he picked out two all-time favorites: a vintage watch and a Vespa.

To be more precise, the watch is a 1950s Waltham, an American watchmaker founded in the 1850s in Massachusetts. As watches go, it’s a very adventurous brand: Waltham timepieces have accompanied explorers. on missions to the North and South Poles (Ernest Shackleton had one on his 1907 expedition), and they were used on board American military ships and planes throughout the 20th century. McAvoy’s model is a tiny one, but it certainly has a larger-than-life pedigree.

As for the Vespa, he used to have one and is starting to miss it. While he admits that an actual motorcycle. is definitely the better pick for tearing up a race track, the scooter has its own charms, too.

“I really do quite like zipping about on a wee Vespa,” he told Men’s Journal.

We can’t argue with that. Learn more about McAvoy’s prized possessions in the video above, and don’t miss our full profile. on him in the February issue of Men’s Journal, available on newsstands now.