After Ira Sachs brought the Croisette The Man I Love, the story of a gay stage actor navigating 1980s New York while confronting an AIDS diagnosis, Simon Stone explored similar territory with a biographical drama centered on actor Ian Charleson, who privately battled the disease at the height of his career. Variety reports that the filmmaker behind The Dig and The Woman in Cabin 10 is expected to unveil Elsinore during the upcoming fall festival season with Focus Features grabbing the film for what will be an awards run. Telluride, Venice and Toronto might all be in the cards. The project is toplined by Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman. There is a large empty slot in the Focus schedule for November so we imagine this might drop there after possible showings at NYFF and London BFI.
Written by Stephen Beresford, this tells the story of actor Ian Charleson and focuses on the final months of Charleson’s life, when he took on the role of “Hamlet” at London’s National Theatre while privately battling AIDS. Charleson died in January 1990 at age 40, just weeks after the run concluded. Colman plays the doctor who treated him through his illness. Other players include Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Luke Thompson, Monica Dolan, Juliet Stevenson, Joe Locke, Adeel Akhtar, Matthew Beard, David Dawson, Kadiff Kirwan, Dickie Beau and Peter Mullan.
