Source

British director Michael Winterbottom is going to the ‘Promised Land,’ which is not always such a pretty place, and he’s taking fellow-Brit actor Jim Sturgess with him.

Variety reports that the hip filmmaker (’24 Hour Party People’) has chosen ‘Promised Land’ as his next feature project; the film focuses on the events that led up the 1948 partitioning of Palestine, and the creation of the state of Israel.

Source: Moviefone

Due to start shooting in late summer, The Promised Land is billed as a political crime thriller set in British-ruled Palestine at the end of World War II, and covers the period leading to the establishment of Israel.

Firth has been cast as Avraham Stern, the leader of the Underground organization Lehi, which lead a violent campaign against the British Mandate in Palestine during the 1930s and 1940s. The British authorities also called the Lehi “The Stern Gang.”

Sturgess and Macfadyen will play British police officers trying to end the Jewish revolutionaries and underground groups’ violent campaign to expel the British, which culminated in the 1946 attack on the British headquarters at King David Hotel in Jerusalem that left dozens of British soldiers dead.

Source: Palestine Note

Check out the IMDB page here

Anyway, I found a new video from Glamour behind the scenes photoshoot.

Credit: jimsfantasygirl / Jim Sturgess Online

Make sure you read it HERE

From Fangoria.com

Sitges ‘09: My Sitges Story – Part 5
Tony Timpone

Ridley has never branched out from his cult identity, but that may all change with his new commercial chiller HEARTLESS. I went into this film largely blind, which may be the best way to appreciate all the film’s terrifying surprises. 21’s Jim Sturgess (an gut-wrenching and emotional performance) stars as a photographer in East London whose hellish existence (he has a horrible birthmark on his face and lives in a city of urban blight) gets even more hellish when he encounters real demonic horror. Let’s leave the plot synopsis there so you can discover the film’s dark pleasures on your own. Ridley later tells me that the film has not nailed a U.S. distrib yet, but don’t expect that to last for long.

From Twich Film

Ridley’s cast play a large part in the success of his eclectic approach; the supporting lineup of experienced British character actors turn in sterling work (Timothy Spall and writer/director Noel Clarke (Kidulthood, Adulthood) among them) but Jim Sturgess is phenomenal in the lead role. Jamie has several key dramatic setpieces which could so easily have collapsed into saccharine tedium; he dreams another, ‘normal’ Jamie lives a successful life in an alternate reality; he doubts his self-worth, his ability to make friends, have relationships.

Yet Sturgess imbues these moments with an honesty that is nothing short of devastating. A quiet conversation with his mother where (like any caring parent) she assures her son he is a wonderful person who’s going to find that person who will love him for who he is inside is heartbreaking for all its obvious simplicity. A later monologue where he doubts this is similarly effective. One key scene shortly after the central demonic bargain has been struck switches from queasy (yet very funny) comedy to nerve-shredding horror with dizzying speed, yet it’s Sturgess’ performance as much as Ridley’s direction that means such genre-hopping never falters.

To reiterate – that horror is horrific.

Can’t wait to see the movie myself!!

Here’s some parts of interview.

Did you call friends and family on the phone and speak in the Irish accent?

Sturgess: Yeah, my mum hated it. She couldn’t understand a word I was saying.

Kingsley: She said, “Speak properly!”

Sturgess: Yeah!

Kingsley: “Speak properly! Stop showing off!”

What did you learn about yourself by doing this movie?

Kingsley: You learn about each other. You learn actors, when they’re pushed into a corner, are very mutually supportive — especially in the scenes where Jim and I are very tough on each other … That’s what we learned. You learn about yourself in a situation, not about yourself in isolation. We learned a lot about that mutual dependency when the film gets dangerous. I mean, I was hanging out the back of a fast-moving ambulance. That wasn’t CGI. That ambulance was moving very fast.

Sturgess: I couldn’t tell. I was looking at the ceiling! I was strapped in. I didn’t know what was going on!

Jim, do you know what’s going on with the “Spider-Man” stage musical? There were rumors you might be cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man.

Sturgess: I’m not doing it … I did a workshop to help out.

Jim, can you talk about your upcoming horror film?

Sturgess: It’s a film called “Heartless. It’s kind of psychological, weird; it’s a very strange film. It’s all set in East London and it’s done. I think it comes out in February [2010].

Source: Examiner

Taymor, the director of “The Lion King,” conceived of “Spider-Man” as an “installation show,” something big and bold and full of special effects. Something, in other words, like Cirque du Soleil.

That’s fine if you’re going to put the damn thing up in Las Vegas, where “installation shows” run several times a day and are funded in large part by hotels and casinos.

But at $45 million — and with a weekly running cost of almost $900,000 — “Spider-Man” at the 1,700-seat Hilton could never be profitable.

The show would have to run five years, selling every single seat in the house, to just break even.

“That,” says a source who crunched the numbers, “is insane.”

The musical was directed by Julie Taymor and Evan Rachel Wood was one of the leading actress. Jim is never confirmed for this musical although several sources have admitted that Wood and Taymor want him on this show.

Just thought I let you know cause we never been sure if he’s going to do it or not.
Anyway, new layout is on its way. This one has been online for way too long.

From the slide:

Jim Sturgess
Type: Up-and-comer.
Most appealing role: As Jude in Across the Universe, Sturgess held his own, crooning sexy Beatles tunes like “Something,” then transforming into angry sexiness with “Revolution.”
Trademark vibe: Adorably sweet.