Many will remember Vangelis’ iconic theme tune from the Oscar winning film Chariots of Fire which starred the late Ian Charleson and there is a nod to that film here in the first trailer for Elsinore that stars Andrew Scott as the actor.
Elsinore is based on the life of Ian Charleson and is a powerful, deeply moving and inspiring true story of the actor Ian Charleson who faced incredible odds while preparing to give the performance of his life in Hamlet at the National Theatre in London.
Starring alongside Andrew Scott is national treasure Olivia Colman along with Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Luke Thompson, David Dawson, Monica Dolan, Matthew Beard, Joe Locke, Georgie Glen, Sadie Soverall, Adeel Akhtar, Dickie Beau, Kadiff Kirwan with Juliet Stevenson and Peter Mullan. Elsinore is directed by BAFTA nominated Simon Stone (The Dig) and written by BAFTA winner and Golden Globe nominee Stephen Beresford (Pride).
There is no existing footage of Ian Charleson actually performing Hamlet, which Scott described as ultimately liberating. “I had to imagine it from a completely different angle, to imagine how Ian might interpret it, because there is no footage — I never saw Ian actually playing it,” Scott said. “In some ways, I’m grateful for that because it lets the imagination perhaps take over.”
The National Theatre building was deliberately designed in the film to read as a fortress from the outside and a windowless box on the inside, consciously echoing the castle of Elsinore from “Hamlet” and reinforcing the film’s central metaphor.
The film will be released by STUDIOCANAL in cinemas UK wide on the 29th January 2027.
related feature : Andrew Scott & Joe Alwyn chat to us about ‘Catherine Called Birdy’
related feature : ‘All of us strangers’ – the film that Andrew Scott should have been Oscar nominated
Here’s the trailer….
