Ewan McGregor has been named as the latest addition to the already stellar cast of August: Osage County, according to a recent article by indiewire.com.
Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts have already been reported to be onboard the Weinstein Co. film, which is an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play by Tracy Letts.
An official press release states “Ewan McGregor will play Bill Fordham, estranged husband of Barbara (Roberts) and son-in-law of pill-popping matriarch Violet Weston (Streep). A college professor, Fordham left his wife for one of his students, but wants to be there for his family. His marriage is disintegrating and his patience is slowly running thin.”
This is all the more beneficial for Ewan McGregor, seeing as he tends to be an actor wholly dependent on the what’s surrounding him.
After all, his showcasing performances in Trainspotting, Moulin Rouge! and Big Fish were the result of a trifecta of brilliance in the writing, direction, and other cast members.
However, pull one of these legs out of any other Ewan McGregor film and the entire project seems just a little off. The writing in The Ghost Writer was beneath the likes of McGregor’s co-stars and Roman Polanski’s near-flawless direction. The direction in The Men Who Stare at Goats failed to live up to an all-star cast and more than commendable source material. And as for the Star Wars prequels, well, take your pick – but it surely wasn’t Ewan McGregor’s fault.
The principal photography for August: Osage County will begin on Septemper 24. It’s slated to be directed by John Wells, who only has one other feature film to his name.
