The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists

David Tennant seems to be quite active in the movie scene right now – which I am quite pleased about! This is from his previous film “The Decoy Bride” released earlier this month to this new animated comedy called “The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists” which is directed by Peter Lord (the same guy who made Chicken Run/Wallace and Gromit!). It is a movie adaptation of The Pirates! book series, the plot focussing on the main character ‘Pirate Captain’ who sets out on an adventure to win the Pirate of the Year award – trying to beat his competitors Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz. David Tennant plays Charles Darwin whom the characters team up with, with other famous names being part of the project as well, with the likes of Hugh Grant (starring as the Pirate Captain), Salma Hayek and Martin Freeman.

Tennant expressed his enthusiasm for his role in the film and said:

“I don’t even know how long I was working on it, certainly over a year, maybe even two years. It was a long process that the actors would just revisit every now and again… It was clearly a laborious and fastidious process, but it is so exciting to be any contributing factor to that.”

The film looks set to be a good family flick, with it being screened in 3D as well (well, what isn’t in 3D nowadays?), here’s the trailer if you fancy a sneak peek at the movie:

If you want to find out more, visit the film’s website here – although I did find it quite hard to navigate on my rubbish computer… maybe save it for when you have access to a computer that isn’t as slow as mine! You won’t have to wait long to find out whether the long production of the film was worth it – The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists is due to be released on the 28th of March 2012 in the UK.

Glasgow, the new Hollywood?

Last year we saw Glasgow being used as the home for movie sets, from Brad Pitt’s upcoming zombie film World War Z to a Bollywood film featuring Slumdog Millionaire star Anil Kapoor. I just thought I’d do a blog on the other film that was recorded here – Cloud Atlas, seeing as it’s due for release later on this year, around October time. The streets of Glasgow were changed to look like San Francisco hills while they made the film adaptation of the book by David Mitchell, funnily enough called ‘Cloud Atlas‘. The story isn’t the classic beginning, middle, end narrative but 6 different stories set over various time periods and places which are all connected (sorry that’s a bit vague, I haven’t actually read the book).

The new film will feature Oscar-winning Halle Berry, along with many other familiar faces like Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon and Jim Broadbent of Harry Potter, Moulin Rouge and Bridget Jones’ Diary fame. It is also co-directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski brothers that are most famous for The Matrix movies. Feel free to check out the film’s IMDB page for the full cast list and details!

More of Halle Berry on set in Glasgow, rocking a wig

Halle Berry, on set

Tom Hanks

Believe it not, this is Hugh Grant!

Familiar faces among the Cloud Atlas cast

Cloud Atlas

It’s so exciting when there’s something big like this Hollywood production in town, for instance apparently lots of people descended on the city when Brad Pitt was in town filming World War Z, with an appearance from Angelina Jolie too. However there was criticism that it made people’s journeys much longer with all the traffic and disruption caused for the filming. Despite differing opinions though, Glasgow becoming a new favourite place favoured by Hollywood directors to film means extra money for the economy – according to the Guardian, an extra £150 million has been made from filmmaking in the city in the last decade. Not bad.

On a side note, recently in Edinburgh, James McAvoy was also spotted filming outside one of my friends’ workplace – The Christmas Shop near the Grassmarket for any of you that want to know. All the stars seem to be avoiding wherever I am! Anyway, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion – is all this good for Glasgow’s economy and publicity? Or would you rather they take it somewhere else?