Role Call: Awards, Trailers, and Fishy Tales

by · March 27, 2016

In our final Role Call for March, we check out a few trailers, get a glimpse of a barely covered Professor Trelawney, and celebrate as members of the Potter cast are honored with numerous awards! All that and more in this week’s Casting News!

Director Chris Columbus is promoting his new film, The Young Messiah. The film is an adaptation of Christ the Lord, written by well-known vampire author Anne Rice. Columbus produced the film, which follows biblical figure Jesus and his family as they return to Nazareth. Columbus remembers his thoughts on Jesus from his childhood, saying,

He was like a rock star … Imagine me as a kid reading Marvel comics and being taught about Jesus. It was like he was almost part of the same world, a little bit, only he’s the best one. He was like the first superhero.

Tackling such an iconic religious figure was no small task, but ultimately, Columbus felt that it was a success:

Because it wasn’t based on scripture, we had to be extremely careful how we told the story. We surrounded ourselves with religious experts, and someone from the Vatican helped us make sure, with absolute certainty, no one would take offense to the material.

The Young Messiah is in theaters now and you can check out the trailer below:

Emma Thompson (Sybill Trelawney) seems to be a very busy lady! Earlier this month, she was spotted on the set of The Meyerowitz Stories, dressed as a hippy as she tackles a still-unknown role. It is rumored that she will play the mother in the story, opposite Dustin Hoffman, Adam Sandler, and Ben Stiller.

Additionally, Thompson was revealed this week in a bit of a compromising position with her husband, actor Greg Wise. The pair followed Helena Bonham Carter’s (Bellatrix Lestrange) and Miriam Margoyles’s (Pomona Sprout) footsteps and posed naked with a fish to promote the Fishlove Theatre Series Campaign. The photos are now on sale, raising funds and awareness about destructive fishing practices. You can view the portraits here.

Audible has also launched The Turn of the Screw, a gothic thriller from author Henry James, with an introduction by Richard Armitage and read by Thompson. To learn more about the Audible book and where to purchase it, click here.

We already knew that Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley) was set to return as General Hux in the next Star Wars installment, but it seems to be confirmed that Warwick Davis will return as well! The actor, who is also slated to appear at the press opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Hollywood on April 5, took time out from filming the latest Star Wars flick to tour Dubrovnik, Croatia, where filming is taking place for one week only. No photos from his days on set have yet appeared, as the shoot has been kept very private with a reported 600 guards on set to ensure no one gets in.

Davis has also signed up to once again tickle fans with his humor during this year’s panto of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking.

I am delighted to be coming to Woking this Christmas in the spectacular production of Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs. I’m very proud of the show that we have created and I am lucky enough to be involved with the script and direction of the show. I can guarantee you and the family will have a great time. I’ve heard the Woking audiences are some of the best in the country so I look forward to seeing you all later in the year.

Domhnall Gleeson, along with Colin Farrell (Graves, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), have all been nominated for Irish Film and Television Awards! Both Gleeson, for Ex Machina, and Farrell, for The Lobster and for his television series True Detective, are nominated as Actor in a Lead Role Film, while Evanna is nominated for Actress in a Lead Role for My Name is Emily.  Brooklyn is nominated for Best Film, while The Revenant and Ex Machina are nominated for the International Film Award. Domhnall is also up for Best Supporting Role Film for his turn in Brooklyn. Awards will be given on April 9 at Mansion House in Dublin, Ireland. Congrats to Domhnall, Colin, and Evanna!

Sir John Hurt’s (Garrick Ollivander) short film Break has been named short film of the year at the Manchester Film Festival! At only 21 minutes long, the film follows an elderly couple who befriend a young family. You can view the trailer here:

https://vimeo.com/137476838

We already know that the actors we have come to know and love in the Potterverse are a talented bunch, but the the awards just keep coming! Actor Jim Broadbent, best known to Potter fans as Horace Slughorn, was honored last week with the Inspiration Award at the UK Visual Effects Society Awards for his promotion of awareness of visual effects. Congratulations, Jim!

Additionally, the trailer for Bridget Jones’s Baby, a film that also stars Broadbent, Emma Thompson (Sybill Trelawney), and Gemma Jones (Madam Poppy Pomfrey), was released this week. Take a look at the trailer for the third film in the series here:

Stephen Fry, who voiced the UK editions of the Harry Potter audiobooks, has joined the cast of television series The Great Indoors. The CBS comedy will also star comedian and former The Soup host Joel McHale. Here’s the premise of the series:

… Joel … an adventure reporter who must adapt to the times when he becomes boss to a group of millennials in the digital department of their magazine. Fry will play Antonio, the charismatic founder of ‘The Great Outdoors’ magazine, and a world traveler, explorer and adventurer. The employee-boss dynamic between Joel and Antonio is compared to that between Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon and Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy on NBC’s ‘30 Rock’.

Finally, Lee Ingleby (Stan Shunpike) is starring in a powerful new drama called The A Word. The BBC1 six-part series brings awareness to autism through the eyes of a family who find that one of their children has been diagnosed with the disorder.

Alison and her husband Paul (played with understated charm by Lee Ingleby) are building a life in the Lake District for themselves and their two children: teenage daughter Rebecca (Molly Wright) and five year-old Joe.  Joe lives in a world of routine, set to a soundtrack of his dad’s favourite music. But when Alison’s brother Eddie (Greg McHugh) and his wife Nicola return to the family home to rebuild their broken marriage, they are the first people brave enough to suggest that Joe’s problems run deeper.

Says Ingleby of his latest role,

As an actor, in some dramas all you’re crying out for is those moments of humanity. And to be given the opportunity to portray this absolutely passionate humanity was just amazing.

The A Word aired its first episode on BBC1 on March 22 and can be watched in the UK using the BBC1 iPlayer. To learn more about the series, follow the official Twitter account here.

That wraps up our Casting News for March! Make sure to also check out MuggleNet’s March Madness and vote on your favorite book chapters!