Role Call: The Journey Into Fall – Part 2
Welcome to Part 2 of our Casting News this week! We’ve got more roles to explore, including another period piece set in India, Bellatrix starring in a music video, and one Potter star voicing an Arctic animal. Read on for the continuation of this week’s Role Call!
Sir Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore) has joined the cast of Viceroy House, which according to Bollywood Life, “chronicles the last months of Lord Mountbatten and his wife Edwina’s stay in India before British rule ended”. You can read a synopsis of the film below:
For six months in 1947, Lord Mountbatten assumed the post of the last Viceroy, charged with handing India back to its people. Mountbatten lived upstairs together with his wife and daughter. Downstairs lived their 500 Hindu, Muslim and Sikh servants. Against this turbulent backdrop, the personal and the political became deeply entwined and a decision was made that reverberates to this day.
Sir Michael will also star in Metanoia, which was announced this weekend during the Toronto International Film Festival. The film, a biopic of the psychiatrist RD Laing, also stars David Tennant (Barty Crouch, Jr.) as the psychiatrist. Shooting on the project should begin in January and you can read the premise below:
Metanoia chronicles the life of Laing, a pioneering psychiatrist of the mid 20th century, known for his work with psychotic and schizophrenic patients, as well as for his advocating the medical use of LSD, still legal at the time.
While his character is still unknown at this point, it was revealed this week that actor Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour) will voice a character in Norm of the North. The adventure comedy about a fun-loving polar bear named Norm and his three lemming pals was featured at TIFF this week, selling globally to more than 40 international territories and will see distribution in the US from Lionsgate in January.
Two new projects have been announced for Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange). The first is one we’ll have to wait a bit to see, titled Love, Nina, based on the book by author Nina Stibbe. The drama will air on BBC 1 in five installments, and Helena will play Georgia, the wife and mother of two of the boys for which Nina is a nanny. Filming is said to be taking place this month.
The second project for Helena is a music video, which you can view now! Helena stars in “Brand New Day”, the first new single for artist Bryan Adams on his 13th album, which was announced last month. Take a look at the black and white video, directed by Bryan:
Warwick Davis (Filius Flitwick/Griphook) is set to open KnotFest 2015 next weekend, along side his wife and children. The three-day festival will begin officially on Saturday September 19 with Warwick and will raise funds for Little People, UK as well as Thames Valley Playground for children with special needs. To see the full lineup for the music festival and to purchase tickets, visit the website here.
Gary Oldman (Sirius Black) will once again be starring in a space film! He’s no stranger to films that are set in far-off galaxies, and now we have another one to look forward to. Gary’s latest role will be in The Space Between Us, an intergalactic love-story that follows a young boy from Mars who falls in love with a girl from Colorado. Gary’s role in the film is not yet known, but production is slated to begin this fall.
Finally, actress, writer and director Fiona Shaw (Petunia Dursley) has taken a role in The Rising. Fiona will portray Countess Markievicz in the film, which we previously announced would also star David O’Hara (Albert Runcorn/Harry Potter as Albert Runcorn) as James Connolly. The film tells the story of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland and is meant to be a prequel to the 1996 film Michael Collins as well as The Wind That Shakes The Barley from 2006.
That wraps up this week’s Role Call – keep checking back to see all the latest info on what our former Potter cast members are up to! If you see a piece of casting you news you think we should include, send us an e-Owl!