Hugh helps the Eagle to take off
X-MEn’s Wolverine is to star as the mentor who tried to achieve lift- off for Olympian Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary.
Hugh Jackman will appear in the film with hot young actor Taron Egerton, who has been picked to portray eager Eddie in a movie inspired by how the Briton achieved Olympic glory even though he came last in his two ski-jumping events.
Jackman will play Chuck Berghorn, a ski expert from Lake Placid who helped the down- on- his- luck sportsman train for the Calgary Games.
several actors, including George MacKay, Jamie Bell and Daniel Kaluuya, were considered for the Eddie role.
However, Egerton clinched the part after performing in what was described to me as a ‘magical‘ screen-test opposite Jackman.
The test was filmed in new York, where Jackman is starring in the Broadway production of Jez Butterworth’s Royal Court hit The River.
DIRECTOR Dexter Fletcher and producer Matthew Vaughn hope to begin filming early in the spring. some scenes may be shot in Cheltenham, where Eddie (real name Michael Edwards) was raised.
The film-makers would like Timothy spall to portray Eddie’s father. spall has received acclaim for his brilliant portrait of artist J.M.W. Turner in Mike Leigh’s great film Mr Turner, which is expected to pick up a palette piled with nominations when contenders for the EE Bafta Awards are announced today.
Egerton, meanwhile, is an actor on the rise. The Welsh- born thespian studied at Rada and landed on his feet with his first professional job, when he appeared at the national Theatre in stephen Beresford’s family drama The Last Of The Haussmans with Julie Walters, Helen McCrory and Rory Kinnear.
He plays Edward Brittain, opposite Alicia Vikander as his sister Vera, in the deeply moving film of Vera’s memoir Testament Of Youth, which opens here next Friday.
And, after that, you can catch him in the wacky, big- screen adaptation of comic book Kingsman: The secret service, alongside Colin Firth, Mark strong, Michael Caine, samuel L. Jackson and the fantastic, scenestealing sofia Boutella.
Oh, and as this page was first to report, Take That’s Gary Barlow will write songs for the Eddie the Eagle film.