Focus Features has dated Simon Stone’s “Elsinore,” starring Andrew Scott, for a limited launch on November 20 before expanding over Thanksgiving and throughout December. A first-look image has also been released by the studio.
It’s quite amazing what just a few buzzy articles can do to catapult an actor to the top of the Best Actor race, sight unseen.
It all started 27 days ago when The Playlist’s Gregory Ellwood reported that he’d heard “Elsinore” was generating exceptional buzz, getting into every festival to which it had been submitted, with several executives reportedly believing Scott is not just an Oscar contender but the current frontrunner for Best Actor.
Word about “Elsinore” was further echoed seven days later, this time by Variety, which had sources telling them that programmers at each of the major fall festivals — Venice, Telluride, Toronto, and New York — were circling the film, with, again, several anonymous executives believing Scott was the current frontrunner for Best Actor. Sorry, Tom Cruise.
“Elsinore” stars Scott as acclaimed British actor Ian Charleson (“Chariots of Fire”), focusing on the final years of Charleson’s life and his celebrated 1989 stage performance in “Hamlet” while he was seriously ill with AIDS. The film also stars Olivia Colman, Johnny Flynn, Joe Locke, and Billie Piper. Take note, Stone’s last film was “The Woman in Cabin 10”..
Should we believe the buzz surrounding Scott? The film will premiere at Telluride, then screen at TIFF a few days later. I’d like to see it screen at the far pickier New York Film Festival, whose lineup will be revealed next week, before buying into the hype surrounding the film itself, which sounds a little too baity for my tastes. However, I do believe Scott will contend.
This year’s Best Actor race is looking much more stacked than the Actress race, which I tackled yesterday. You have Scott, Tom Cruise (“Digger”), Matt Damon (“The Odyssey”), Ryan Gosling (“Project Hail Mary”), Pedro Pascal (“Behemoth!”), John Turturro (“The Only Living Pickpocket in New York”), Sebastian Stan (“Fjord”), and Jafaar Jackson (“Michael”) — John Malkovich (“Wild Horse Nine”) is also getting strong word of mouth out of test screenings.
Scott is coming off acclaimed performances in “All of Us Strangers,” “Blue Moon,” “Wake Up Dead Man,” and “Pressure.” If the industry buzz reported by Ellwood proves accurate, “Elsinore” could become a defining chapter in Scott’s career.
Bassim Tariq was the first one in the chair. The "Mogul Mowgli" director spent two years building out the Mahershala Ali vehicle before exiting in 2022, and he's now letting the air out on this one.