Watch out for . . .
JASON BIGGS, Lauren Ambrose, Joel David Moore, Cedric the Entertainer and D.C. Pierson, who lead director Stephen Gyllenhaal’s (Maggie and Jake’s dad) corker of a film Grassroots, which opens here on October 19. Apart from his American Pie films, I always liked Biggs and here he’s good as the former real-life American journalist Phil Campbell, who, after being fired from his job, helps a wacky friend run for a seat on Seattle City Council. The guy who runs, Grant Cogswell (played well by Joel David Moore), is a bit of a hypereccentric who meanders around town in a polar bear outfit, as you do. But Cogswell also has a passion for a mono-rail transport system in Seattle and he runs on that platform. It’s an engrossing movie and it’s great that it’s coming out here before President Obama goes up against that Mormon dude Mitt Romney in the US election on November 6. Robert Mitchell, former managing director of Disney’s UK division, will release Grassroots through his new distribution company Intandem. TARELL ALVIN MCCRANEY, the American playwright whose new play, Choir Boy, will begin performances at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court from September 4. The drama’s about a choir leader at an all- black American prep school under pressure to carry on tough traditions. Dominic Smith, who is currently on the road in Bartlett Sher’s production of South Pacific, will play the choir master, with other roles played by David Burke, Khali Best, Aron Julius, Eric Kofi Abrefa, Kwayedza Kureya, and Gary McDonald. The play, which will feature well-known spirituals, will be directed by Dominic Cooke. He steps down as the Royal Court’s artistic director in April and will be succeeded by Vicky Featherstone, current artistic chief of the National Theatre of Scotland. MARK GATISS, who works both in front of and behind the camera on hartswood Films’ awardwinning BBC drama, Sherlock. he’ll portray Charles I in howard Brenton’s new play 55 Days, about the tumultuous weeks following the Civil War, in 1648, when Oliver Cromwell and the monarch struggled over England’s future against a backdrop of political and military upheaval. howard Davis is directing the play and it will run at the hampstead Theatre from October 18. Mr Gatiss was superb recently in Josie Rourke’s Donmar production of The Recruiting Officer. LUKE GOSS, who stars as the stonecold assassin at the heart of Perry Bhandal’s sleek, dark thriller Interview With A Hitman, which opens at a handful of REEL cinemas (Widnes, York, Kiddermister, Hull, Quinton and Borehamwood) today. The movie, Bhandal’s first feature film (he wrote and directs), focuses on Romanianborn Viktor (Goss), who tells how he was hired as a killer when he was barely in his teens. He becomes an enforcer for East European crime czars and soon moves to London, where he just shoots and gets the job done. Bhandal told me he filmed on location in Newcastle but did some exterior shooting in Bucharest. The director made a short film at university, then ran his own software and IT consultancy, before selling the business and taking up film-making fulltime. He’s busy working on his next thriller.