Ewan McGregor Will Spend 'Last Days In The Desert' With Tye Sheridan

[Bim]

http://****************.com/movies/ewan-mcgregor-spend-days-desert-tye-sheridan/

Ewan McGregor Will Spend Last Days In The Desert With Tye Sheridan

Rodrigo García has long been a well-respected name in the television industry, helming pilots for such successful shows like Carnivàle, Big Love and Six Degrees. In recent years, however, he’s also been gaining more credibility as a Hollywood director, thanks to the success of his films Mother and Child and Albert Nobbs, the latter of which Glenn Close and Janet McTeer both earned Oscar nominations for.

His next project certainly sounds like an intriguing challenge: an indie drama called Last Days in the Desert, about a holy man and a demon journeying through the desert together. Continuing the streak of good luck in casting that began with Albert Nobbs, García has snagged A-lister Ewan McGregor to lead the film.

McGregor will star as both the holy man and the demon, the pair of whom face questions about their fate after encountering a family clinging to life in the brutal heat of the desert. Sheridan, a teen actor who made a terrific first impression with Mud and Joe, will likely co-star as a member of that family, alongside Ciarán Hinds and Ayelet Zurer, both of whom were previously confirmed for the film.

Oddly enough, this isn’t McGregor’s first time taking on dual roles in a project. He previously played Lincoln Six Echo, and the character’s clone Tom Lincoln, in Michael Bay’s 2005 sci-fi thriller The Island. Considering how deftly he handled double duty in that project, I can only predict good things for Last Days in the Desert.

García is directing from his own script, which is definitely a positive sign. He also wrote Mother and Child, and he both created and scribed for HBO’s In Treatment, a show that was widely hailed for its smart writing throughout its run. García was actually honored with a Writers Guild Award for Best New Series back in 2008, so his talent with a pen and paper is not in question.

The film will begin production later this month in the Southern California desert. Gravity lenser Emmanuel Lubezki will serve as the director of photography, so viewers are likely be in for some extremely impressive, evocative visuals. According to Lubezki, Last Days in the Desert will take five weeks to shoot. While commenting on becoming involved with the film, the cinematographer called García’s screenplay a ”tiny little beautiful, extraordinary script.”

I’m already extremely excited about this project. With all the talent involved, from García to Lubezki to McGregor and Sheridan, the potential for thought provoking, visually stimulating drama seems extremely high. Whether we’ll see it later this year or sometime in 2015 is still unclear, but I’ll be counting down the days as soon as a release date is announced.

Consider me intrigued by this one

 

[Bim]

First on set pictures of Ewan: http://origin-www.justjared.com/201...ast-days-in-the-desert-first-on-set-pictures/

 

[Quasimod0]

Obi-Wan in his early Tatooine days

 

[Bim]

Obi-Wan in his early Tatooine days

You read my mind

 

[Bim]

More pictures of Obi-Wan Ewan filming

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...sht-robe-California-set-Last-Days-Desert.html

 

[Duke]

I enjoy his films, so I'm looking forward to this one.

 

[Bim]

I'm curious to see how he plays the two very different roles for this.

 

[Apollo]

The secret is out.

Fascinating!

Spoilers

Spoiler

When the trades announced last February that Albert Nobbs director Rodrigo García was making a small indie starring Ewan McGregor in dual roles, his characters were described as a “holy man and a demon.” But unveiled in yesterday’s announcement of Premieres for the 2015 Sundance Film Festival were the more specific details for Last Days in the Desert that said holy man and demon are actually Jesus and the Devil, “in an imagined chapter from his 40 days of fasting and praying in the desert.”

In the film, Yeshua—Hebrew for Jesus—is tempted by evil while alone in the wilderness. “You can see the demon as the Devil,” says McGregor. “Or you can see him as another side of Yeshua perhaps, an embodiment of his doubt. He’s there testing him into trying to suggest that his father doesn’t love him, that his father’s not interested in his struggle.”

While in the desert, Yeshua also encounters a family that is experiencing its own father/son difficulties. Tye Sheridan (Mud) plays the Boy who wants to leave their bleak desert surroundings and travel to Jerusalem for a better life; his Father (Ciarán Hinds) insists he stay close to home.

Read the rest at http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/12/09/ewan-mcgregor-jesus/

 

[Bim]

Saw that today, sounds very intriguing. I'm very interested in this one for sure t:

 

[Apollo]

The studio released a poster.

 

[Victarion]

Sand everywhere.

 

[CapedCrusader14]

I don't like sand.

 

[Bim]

Sundance review: http://www.theguardian.com/film/201...-review-last-days-in-the-desert-ewan-mcgregor

Sundance 2015 review – Last Days in the Desert: Ewan McGregor plays Jesus and Satan in beautiful battle

The temptation of Christ in the desert forms the heart of this painterly film – but it is a meditation on fathers and sons as well as Father and Son

Jesus got his idea of teaching through parable somewhere, so who’s to say he couldn’t find inspiration from his own life? Last Days in the Desert, starring Ewan McGregor as both Jesus and the shadowy personification of a taunting Satan, is a smart and beautiful meditation of fathers and sons (and the Father and Son) that is slow but never boring. Rodrigo Garcia’s quiet, patient film toggles between ambiguous dialogue and bluntly telegraphed messaging, but when you are playing these roles you can afford to go a little grand.

Furthermore, the real star of the picture is Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography which transforms California’s Anza-Borrego Desert state park to the stark crossroads of Levantine good and evil. Just when you think you’ve seen the best magic hour landscape of rock formations, another comes to top it.

The Gospels leave enough for the imagination during Jesus’s post-baptism, pre-triumphal-entry time in the desert. For 40 days he fasted and resisted temptation. George Stevens’ Greatest Story Ever Told visualised this with painterly images of wispy Max von Sydow meeting homunculus Donald Pleasence. Martin Scorsese’s Last Temptation of Christ featured Willem Dafoe in conversation with a lion and tongue of fire. Garcia’s version offers a doppelganger in the same clothing but different attitude. Satan is more than just a devil on the shoulder – he’s a character with a degree of wisdom, and more first-hand knowledge of Jesus’s father than Jesus does.

After an opening act of wandering through Lubezki’s postcards, Jesus comes across a family. For an instant Ciarán Hinds with his staff and robes looks a bit like a Monty Python gag, but his son (Tye Sheridan) sells it more. (McGregor sticks with received pronunciation, but at least he’s got a sun-cracked face.) With an ill wife (Ayelet Zurer) Hinds has moved his family to the precipice of a great cliff, hoping to build a home.

Sheridan, who slowly reveals himself to be as much of this story’s protagonist as Jesus, wants desperately to go to Jerusalem and to see the world, and his talks with his new holy pal help him decide his fate. This twist, as it were, is the film’s masterstroke. One could maybe call this New Testament fan fiction, with Sheridan’s character as a Mary Sue. Or you can see the Sheridan-Hinds conflict as a mirror between Jesus and God’s.

Amid this family struggle we see Jesus wrestling not only with Satan, but also testing out just how he’ll begin his ministry. When he offers words of consolation he later criticises himself for being too vague. I don’t think there’s been a screen version of this kind of Jesus. Were Last Days in the Desert a different kind of film, you’d be rooting for him to whip out one of his miracles during a key moment – thankfully it is not.

On the spectrum of Jesus movies this belongs closer to Pasolini’s Gospel According to Matthew than, say, Nicholas Ray’s King of Kings, at least in its ascetic aesthetic. Certainly more than the recent wretched Mark Burnett and Roma Downey production Son of God. The off-book exploration will, I think, be of value to believers, but that’s an issue for the film’s marketing department. As an artwork about a man with a calling, the rich, hazy time spent in the desert certainly inspires.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

 

[Airwings]

Could be a great film, but far from blockbuster success.

Maybe Sheridan regret doing this? But he had to because he hadn't got the role of Cyclops yet.
Now he should only do big, expensive films, right?

 

[Pickleweasel]

Could be a great film, but far from blockbuster success.

Maybe Sheridan regret doing this? But he had to because he hadn't got the role of Cyclops yet.
Now he should only do big, expensive films, right?

what are you talking about?

 

[dustbros]

Whitewashing!

no, the Book did not say jesus was a satan! what a blasphemy!!

 

[Bim]

Another positive review: http://national.deseretnews.com/art...ncing-Jesus-in-6Last-Days-in-the-Desert7.html

Ewan McGregor pulls off a convincing Jesus in ‘Last Days in the Desert’

PARK CITY, Utah — Publishers discovered a long time ago that Jesus sells magazines, so it should be no surprise that one of the hottest tickets here at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival was the premiere of “Last Days in the Desert,” directed by Rodrigo Garcia and starring Ewan McGregor as both Jesus and Satan.

The wait list was full, tickets sold out, and theater packed. And it was worth it.

When I see yet another Jesus film hit theaters, I immediately wonder whether this Jesus will resemble the one described in the Gospel of John, the one that is both human and divine. Or, as Bible scholar Eugene Peterson put it, the God who “became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”

I ask because most Jesus movies fall flat by overemphasizing either Jesus’ humanity or his divinity. Paint Jesus as a wispy ethereal spirit and you’ve got a Jesus who’d be of no interest to a bunch of first-century fisherman, drunks and prostitutes. But to portray Jesus as just another guy also misses the mark, because after all, Jesus claimed to be uniquely God’s son, and even more radically, to be one with God.

Garcia manages to strike a pleasing balance. He gives us a Jesus who is clearly, deeply and achingly human, one who suffers from God’s silence in the desert and cries out “Father where are you? Father speak to me!” At the same time, Garcia’s Jesus is directly connected to God and claims to be God’s only son, saying, “there are no others.”

When I asked Garcia how he pulled off this delicate balance, he credited McGregor. The Scottish actor cited three scenes where Jesus clearly has a direct connection to God, and said he intentionally and consciously drew on that connection as the backdrop for everything else Jesus did in the desert, no matter how mundane.

For those looking for a retelling of the Gospel account of Jesus’ temptation in the desert, this is not it. “Last Days in the Desert” is an imaginative exploration of what is not recorded in the Bible, much like Anne Rice did with Jesus’ childhood in “Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt.”

Garcia said he originally wanted to explore the idea of Jesus fasting and praying in the desert, seeking guidance from his often-silent Heavenly Father and getting ready for a public ministry. Unexpectedly, Jesus comes upon a family with serious issues. He stays to help, and there his nemesis Satan begins to test and challenge him.

The Satan in “Last Days” is portrayed as an alter ego of Jesus, so McGregor plays both Satan and Jesus. Satan’s biggest test is posed as follows: If Jesus can bring this troubled family together in a way that satisfies the ailing mom, restless son, and stubborn father, he will leave Jesus alone for the rest of his desert journey. This is no small challenge. The mom is dying, the teenage son is eager to leave home and go to Jerusalem and Dad wants the son to stay in the hot, barren Judean desert to work the family land.

Thematically, this becomes an intimate father-son film in which Jesus comes to the desert to seek counsel and guidance from his father before going to Jerusalem, and then meets another son who desperately wants to go to Jerusalem but is forbidden by his father to do so.

McGregor delivers a stand-out performance, and after the premiere he quipped that “somehow playing Satan came more naturally to me then playing Jesus!” The dialogue in “Last Days” is intentionally sparse, half the length of the typical screenplay, and the story unfolds unhurriedly, as would 40 days in the hot, parched desert.

The post-premiere buzz about “Last Days” is well deserved, in part because Garcia and McGregor bring a fresh look at Yeshua (Garcia uses the Hebrew name for Jesus throughout the film), the itinerant rabbi who lived 2,000 years ago yet is still talked about today.

Dick Staub is author of “About You: Fully Human and Fully Alive” and the host of The Kindlings Muse (www.thekindlings.com). His blog can be read atwww.dickstaub.com

 

[Apollo]

Did anyone get to see this movie?? I was looking & hoping to see if it was playing anywhere near me, but couldn't find anywhere.

 

[DeGenerate10]

I've never even heard of it. I'm a big McGregor fan so I'd love to check this out.

 

[Bim]

Did anyone get to see this movie?? I was looking & hoping to see if it was playing anywhere near me, but couldn't find anywhere.

No, i havent yet. Keeping my eyes open for it, but nothing in my country so far