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James McAvoy is currently in theaters starring in Speak No Evil, but the actor is also preparing to step behind the camera with his directorial debut, California Schemin’.

When asked about the process of getting ready to film, McAvoy said he was “excited” to experience the “whole new world” of prep work as a director.

“It’s a whole new world for me to do this,” the actor told The Hollywood Reporter at the Speak No Evil premiere in New York earlier this month. “I’ve got experience with everything else after we start rehearsals. This whole period of prep, I’ve never been a part of it, so I’m excited.”

As for how things are going, McAvoy said, “It’s going.”

“We’re working on the script; we’re casting actors, and we’re just gearing up, building a little army, which is what you do,” he said.

James McAvoy‘s directorial debut California Schemin‘ about a hip-hop hoax has presold to StudioCanal for the U.K. and Ireland and a range of other international markets.

The movie is based on the true story of Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd, two friends from Dundee, Scotland, who conned the music industry by using American accents and pretending to be a Californian rap duo called Silibil N’ Brains. The project is based on Bain’s autobiography of the same name, which was reprinted under the title Straight Outta Scotland. The duo’s story was previously told in the 2013 documentary The Great Hip Hop Hoax.

McAvoy will not only direct, but also have a supporting role. Séamus McLean Ross (Outlander: Blood of My Blood) and Samuel Bottomley (How to Have Sex) are set for the lead roles. Archie Thomson (Deep State 2) and Elaine Gracie (Romantic Getaway) were responsible for adapting the screenplay

The film,...

Exclusive: James McAvoy’s upcoming directorial debut California Schemin’ has pre-sold to a raft of international buyers, including Studiocanal for the UK and Ireland.

Filming is being lined up for the end of October in Scotland.

Bankside has also inked deals with Estonian Theatrical Distribution (Baltics), Beta (Bulgaria), HBO (Eastern Europe), McF (Former Yugoslavia), Cinetel (Hungary), Efar Films Distribution (India), Front Row (Middle East), Nos Lusomundo (Portugal) and Green Light (Ukraine).

Currently in pre-production, the film will chart the true story of two Scottish lads from Dundee who conned the international music industry by adopting American accents and pretending to be established Californian rap duo, Silibil N’ Brains.

Pic is based on Gavin Bain’s autobiography of the same name, which was later re-printed as Straight Outta Scotland. The story was later adapted into 2013 SXSW documentary The Great Hip Hop Hoax.

BAFTA and Golden Globe nominee McAvoy will direct and have a supporting role,...

After getting through the reopened old wounds and fresh corpses of “The Dry” in his dusty outback hometown, Eric Bana’s Federal Agent Aaron Falk certainly deserved a change of scenery. He gets one in woodsy “Force of Nature: The Dry 2,” though naturally the second feature adapted by director Robert Connolly from Jane Harper’s print mystery series soon finds him equally knee-deep in troublesome sleuthing. This sequel to one of Australia’s biggest homegrown hits reprises much of its page-turning plottiness — as well as a straining for emotional depth that proves elusive. IFC is releasing to U.S. theaters and home formats on May 10.

Once again, and perhaps a little too neatly, a case forces Falk to revisit the tragedies of his own past. In the prior film, a childhood friend’s funeral set him to investigating its cause, an effort which soon exposed disturbing links to his...

Exclusive: James McAvoy’s directorial debut, which we revealed last fall, has set lead cast and is heading to the Cannes market with Bankside and UTA Independent Film Group.

BAFTA winner McAvoy will take on a supporting role in the movie, which will be led by BAFTA-nominated How To Have Sex breakout Samuel Bottomley and newcomer Séamus McLean Ross, who is currently filming on Outlander: Blood of My Blood.

Currently titled California Schemin’ (working title), the film will chart the true story of two Scottish lads from Dundee who conned the international music industry by adopting American accents and pretending to be established Californian rap duo, Silibil N’ Brains.

In the late 90’s, Gavin Bain (McLean Ross) and Billy Boyd (Bottomley) had their musical ambitions consistently ridiculed for having the ‘wrong’ accents so they went for broke and reinvented themselves as Californian rappers. McAvoy’s movie will show how the...

Australian writer-director Robert Connolly had a domestic hit in 2021 with The Dry, a slow-burn murder mystery built around Eric Bana’s somber performance as a pensive city cop drawn back to the remote town of his childhood in the middle of a prolonged drought. Bana returns as Aaron Falk in Force of Nature: The Dry 2, which is otherwise a sequel in name alone. The setting this time is a lush and very wet mountain rainforest, drenched by a massive thunderstorm at a key point in the narrative. That makes half the title a complete misnomer.

This is a handsomely produced, solidly acted thriller that’s certainly watchable, though the perplexing subtitle is not its only issue. Unlike its riveting predecessor, it’s absorbing but never quite gripping.

Connolly sticks to novelist Jane Harper’s template from the first book in her Aaron Falk trilogy, in which the Australian Federal Police...