Andrew Scott Stars as Ian Charleson in Biopic ‘Elsinore,’ Focus Feature Award Card
The drama also stars Oscar winner Olivia Colman and adds a prestige title to the studio’s awards slate.
The deal closes a bidding war among studios for Simon Stone’s drama and adds a prestige contender to the Focus slate.
The studio is planning a festival launch to kick off the film’s awards run. Each of the fall festivals — Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York — are interested in the title, though a premiere venue has yet to be set.
Written by Stephen Beresford, Elsinore tells the story of actor Ian Charleson, best known as Olympic runner Eric Liddell in the 1981 best picture winner Chariots of Fire.
The film focuses on the final months of Charleson’s life, when heplayed 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.
Scott, an Emmy nominee for the miniseries “Ripley” and a BAFTA lead actor nominee for “All of Us Strangers,” stars as Charleson and also produces.
Earlier this year, Scott starred in the war drama Pressure, also released by Focus.
Olivia Colman plays the doctor who treated him through his illness.
The ensemble includes Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Luke Thompson, Monica Dolan, Juliet Stevenson, Joe Locke, Adeel Akhtar, Matthew Beard, David Dawson as filmmaker Derek Jarman, Kadiff Kirwan, Dickie Beau and Peter Mullan.
Alongside Scott, “Elsinore” was produced by Andrea Occhipinti of Lucky Red (“Il Divo,” “Everybody Knows”) and Gaby Tana of Magnolia Mae Films (“Philomena,” “The Dig”), with Pete Shilaimon and Mickey Liddell of LD Entertainment, Stefano Massenzi and Carolyn Marks Blackwood.
The film comes from StudioCanal, LD Entertainment, Lucky Red and Magnolia Mae Films, with Stone shooting on location across the U.K. earlier this year. The artisans team includes cinematographer Mike Eley and editor Valerio Bonelli
