Arthur Christmas (2011) - teaser trailer

Here's a preview of Arthur Christmas which will be out next year.
Starring: James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Ashley Jensen.

Synopsis from Sony Pictures:
Set on Christmas night, the story of Arthur Christmas at last reveals the incredible, never-before seen answer to every child's question: 'So how does Santa deliver all those presents in one night?' The answer: Santa's exhilarating, ultra-high-tech operation hidden beneath the North Pole. But at the heart of the film is a story with the ingredients of a Christmas classic – a family in a state of comic dysfunction and an unlikely hero, Arthur, with an urgent mission that must be completed before Christmas morning dawns.

James McAvoy leads the cast as Arthur, the good-natured but clumsy younger son of Santa. Arthur LOVES everything to do with Christmas; indeed, he is the only one in his family still captivated by the magic of the holiday. Hugh Laurie will play Arthur's older brother Steve, heir to the reins, a cool, incredibly capable guy who has given the North Pole high-tech efficiency, military-style precision. Jim Broadbent plays Santa, who pictures himself as the guy in charge at the North Pole, but is now more of a figurehead as the operation has outgrown him. Bill Nighy plays Santa's 136-year-old father, Grandsanta, a cranky old codger who hates the modern world, is always grumbling that Christmas 'was better when I was Santa' and has a tense relationship with Steve, who he calls 'A postman with a spaceship.' Ashley Jensen will play Bryony, a lowly elf from the Giftwrap Battalion, with an eager-to-please attitude and an obsession with wrapping and bows. Imelda Staunton rounds out the cast as Mrs. Santa, dedicated wife and mother to her husband and sons.

Any Human Heart (2010) - cast behind the scenes

Based on William Boyd's novel, Any Human Heart is currently being shown on Channel 4 in the UK in 4 parts.

Starring: Sam Claflin, Matthew Macfadyen and Jim Broadbent in the different ages of the protagonist Logan Mountstuart.

Here's a clip from Amazon behind the scenes...

Gillian Anderson and Tom Hollander
(as Duchess and Duke of Windsor)

More info on Any Human Heart

Arthur Christmas (2011)

From THR:
James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Ashley Jensen have joined the voice cast of Arthur Christmas, a 3D, CG-animated family comedy from Aardman Animations.

Sarah Smith is directing and co-wrote the screenplay with Peter Baynham. Barry Cook is co-directing the pic, which is produced by Sony Pictures Animation and sports a release date of Nov. 23, 2011.

The story answers every child's question -- "So how does Santa deliver all those presents in one night?" -- and focuses on Santa's ultra-high-tech operation hidden beneath the North Pole.

McAvoy plays Arthur, the good-natured but clumsy younger son of Santa and the only one in his family still captivated by the magic of the holiday. Laurie plays Arthur's older brother Steve, the heir to the operation who has given the North Pole a high-tech, military-style precision.

Broadbent plays Santa, who pictures himself as the guy in charge at the North Pole but is now more of a figurehead as the operation has outgrown him. Nighy plays Santa's 136-year-old father, Grandsanta, a cranky codger who hates the modern world, is always grumbling that Christmas "was better when I was Santa" and has a tense relationship with Steve.

Jensen plays Bryony, a lowly elf from the Giftwrap Battalion, and Staunton rounds out the cast as Mrs. Santa.

Michael Giacchino and Adam Cohen are composing the score.

View teaser trailer

Any Human Heart - update

Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfadyen and Sam Claflin take on the lead role of Logan Mountstuart in William Boyd's adaptation of his best-selling novel Any Human Heart. From one man's emotional, tumultuous and unpredictable journey through the 20th century comes a funny, moving and ambitious four-part drama, coming to Channel 4 in 2010.

Told through Logan's intimate journals - beginning with the idealism and arrogance of his youth, through triumphs and tragedies to the calm wisdom of his twilight years - his story reveals that all our lives are ultimately random and defined by luck and seemingly inconsequential choices.

Hayley Atwell, Natasha Little, Emerald Fennell, Ed Stoppard, Samuel West and Kim Cattrall star alongside Gillian Anderson and Tom Hollander as the lovers, wives, friends and infamous figures he encounters throughout his ordinary and yet utterly extraordinary life.

Matthew Macfadyen takes Logan through middle age from the thrill and heartache of true love and the birth of his first child to scandal in the New York art scene in the '50s and '60s, via the horrors of war. Newcomer, Sam Claflin embodies the idealism, vitality and naivety of the young Logan, where his lust for life and women truly begins as a student in Oxford and then Paris in the 1920s.

William Boyd says: "I am both thrilled and exhilarated at the prospect of these three sensational actors taking on the role of Logan Mountstuart as we follow him through the 20th Century on the emotional, dramatic and rackety journey that is his long and tumultuous life."

Gillian Anderson and Tom Hollander as the Duke & Duchess of Windsor

Throughout his life it is Logan's personal relationships which define him; through numerous flirtations and affairs to finding true love. Logan also has encounters with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Tom Hollander and Gillian Anderson); Ernest Hemingway and Ian Fleming (Tobias Menzies). Boyd's epic tale charts an entire existence and in doing so reveals that all our lives are ultimately random, defined by luck and seemingly inconsequential choices. As Logan himself says; "I am all of these different people. All these different people are me."

"Doing this role made me more nervous than I have been doing anything. I hope I don't make an idiot of myself." (Gillian discussing her role as Wallis Simpson)

The women in Logan's life are many and varied; newcomer Emerald Fennell plays the young writer's wife, Lottie, Hayley Atwell plays Freya; Logan's mistress and the love of his life, Natasha Little plays third wife Alannah and Kim Cattrall takes on the role of older Logan's glamorous lover Gloria.

Other cast in the ambitious four part serial include: Julian Rhind-Tutt playing revolutionary John Vivian, the older versions of Logan's two best friends are played by Ed Stoppard as Ben and Samuel West as Peter. The cast also includes Freddie Fox, Hugh Skinner, Charity Wakefield and Lydia Wilson.

Source: Channel 4

More information on ANY HUMAN HEART

Any Human Heart (2010)

[Currently airing on Sky tv in the UK

and will be on PBS in February 2011]

Trailer below...
More promo images

Article by Heather Hughes, TV.com: Channel 4's small-screen version of William Boyd's Any Human Heart has attracted a whole host of well-known stars, including The X-Files' Gillian Anderson, Harry Potter's Jim Broadbent and Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall. Not since Tim Roth was picked as the lead in Sky's Skellig have we been so excited about the casting of a UK adaptation!

The four-part drama, adapted for TV by Boyd himself, intimately depicts the life of fictional writer Logan Mountstuart. In it, Oscar-winning Broadbent plays the older incarnation of the eccentric (and oddly-named) novelist, while Criminal Justice actor Matthew Macfadyen and newcomer Sam Claflin depict his earlier, more naive years.

Spanning nine decades, Any Human Heart tells stories around some of the most significant historic events of recent decades. World War II and the New York art scandal of the '50s and 60s are explored through Logan's eyes, as are his various relationships. Kim Cattrall takes a role reminiscent of Sam in Sex and the City, playing one of the lothario's glamorous lovers when the show starts later this year.

Logan's three wives will be portrayed, chronologically, by newcomer Emerald Fennell, The Prisoner's Hayley Atwell and Mistresses' Natasha Little. Meanwhile, The X-Files' Gillian Anderson and Desperate Romantics''s Tom Hollander depict the Duke and Duchess of Windsor--a couple who greatly influence the path of his long life.

William Boyd describes his novel,
"I am fascinated by the life and work of that generation of English writers who were born at the beginning of the century and reached maturity by the time of World War II. People like Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene and Anthony Powell, obviously, but also less well known writers—Henry Green, Lawrence Durrell, Cyril Connolly and William Gerhardie. The last two in particular lurk closely behind Logan. I wanted to invent my own exemplary figure who could seem almost as real as the real ones and whose life followed a similar pattern: boarding school, university, Paris in the 20s, the rise of Fascism, war, post-war neglect, disillusion, increasing decrepitude, and so on—a long, varied and rackety life that covered most of the century."

IMDb
Official site

Song featured on trailer for Any Human Heart: Nightbook: Ludovico Einaudi

I'm not sure how much of this series will show Macfadyen and Atwell but I'm interested to see their characters marry after reading Pillars of the Earth, where their characters became friends.

Trailer (courtesy of cubbie866)

preview of episode 2 (thanks again to cubbie866)

Gillian Anderson and Tom Hollander
(Wallis Simpson and Edward)

I like this pic of Gillian...