Whither the Eccleston?

[Rob McCow]

It's the first place that Boak and Piper turn to! Yes, it's thread where we keep an eye on the guy who told us to live a good life for him and not to fart while he's saving the world.

Keeping PS up to date with the oldest news, TV Guide have apparently revealed that a certain ex-Doctor Who is going to be turning up in the hot (Hot! Hot!) new series, Heroes.

Claude, an invisible man played by British actor Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who), appears January 22. "He's been living with his invisibility for many years and has come to grips with it, so he'll give us a different view into this hero world," [Heroes creator Tim] Kring explains. "He's big, imposing and charismatic, and will become a mentor to Peter - albeit a tough, reluctant and stern one. He'll help Peter learn to use and control his powers."

Jan 22 is my birthday.

[Perry Vale]

Happy Birthday.

[Si Hunt]

Who cares where he is? Traitor!

Si.

[Milky Tears]

Looks like he has cool and awesome hair in ITV1's Perfect Parents guff on 28th December. Luckily, STV are showing Scotsport instead. His gurning face disgusts me!

Boak's been doing Strictly Confidential, hasn't he?

[Dave Lewis]

His gurning face disgusts me!

If he's invisible, you won't be able to see it. I've been re-watching "Cracker" this week, and he does some excellent gurning at times, particularly when 'his' wife's giving birth. Then there's the death gurning which follows on shortly from where I'm up to.

As for his supposed inability to do comedy, what about the moment in "One Day A Lemming Will Fly" where, after Jimmy Beck has shaved his moustache off, our friend from the north dons a false one and makes a witty remark? Laugh? I nearly suffered a major psychiatric affective disorder.

[Logo Polish]

So if the role's invisible, is he just doing it in voice over?

[Rob McCow]

Perhaps they're just lying and they've only got someone who sounds like Eccleston.

Or maybe he goes invisible apart from his big flappy ears?

[Gisela]

Don't be so mean!

Because of him we have a third series of Doctor Who

[Pip Madeley]

Without an actor as fantastic (yes I get the irony) as Christopher Eccleston, Doctor Who would've died on its arse, quite frankly.

[Rob McCow]

I wouldn't have started this thread if I didn't think that:

a) He's a superb actor in everything he does; therefore, well worth keeping an eye on.

b) He had an absolutely unique take on the role of the Doctor that rebooted it for the 21st Century.

c) I was impressed with his moral stance - after leaving Who, he didn't hawk his wares in Hollywood, but used his fame to raise awareness for tsunami victims in Indonesia.

d) He has big flappy ears.

e) Billie Piper got on so well with him that she mis-spelt his name 'Ecclestone' throughout her autobiography.

[Fatso the wombat]

He appears in it.

I've seen a very brief clip of him in it. He has stubble.

[Pip Madeley]

He has stubble.

Can't he afford a Bic?

[Fatso the wombat]

What with being invisible, he probably has trouble seeing himself in the shaving mirror...

[Pip Madeley]

He has hands, he can feel his face.

It's not bloody good enough, Eccleston!

[Rob McCow]

Moving rapidly on...

It looks like playing Doctor Who might have given our favourite Salford boy a bit of a taste for fantastical roles. First he took a role as an invisible man in Heroes; now it's been announced that he'll be the bad guy in the latest attempt to jump on the Lord of the Rings bandwagon - fantasy film The Dark is Rising.
The film is based on Susan Cooper's Arthurian fantasy saga for "young adults" (or "children" as they were called back when the books were actually written...). Eccleston will be playing The Black Rider, an evil lord of the dark (hey, even evil lords of the dark can come from the North).
Shooting starts soon in Romania.

SFX take the opportunity to crowbar in another 'lots of planets have a north' reference. Huzzah.

This is good news, I think. Although will he make a return to serious movies? Ever?

[Perry Vale]

Although will he make a return to serious movies? Ever?

No, he's typecast now. That'll teach him to leave Doctor Who.

[Si Hunt]

Only doing a multi-Doctor story in the new series will restore his place in my semi-affections.

Si.

[Milky Tears]

He ain't my favourite Salford boy.

[Rob McCow]

Target Located! From www.scifi.com/scifiwire

Dark Is Now The Seeker

The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising is the new name of the movie from Fox Walden based on the second of Susan Cooper's five fantasy books. The studio made the change on July 27.

Originally titled simply The Dark Is Rising, the movie is being adapted by writer John Hodge (Trainspotting) and director David L. Cunningham ("The Path to 9/11"). It opens Oct. 5.

The Dark Is Rising, which won the Newbery Honor in 1974, mixes Arthurian and other English folklore themes in its time-hopping narrative about young Will Stanton, who discovers that he is the Seeker and one of the last remaining "Old Ones," guardians and warriors of the Light.

In the movie, Will (Alexander Ludwig) is befriended by the mischievous Merriman Lyon (played by Deadwood star Ian McShane) and the ethereal Miss Greythorne (Six Feet Under's Frances Conroy). Will must gather the six Signs, or mystical medallions, in order to combat the Dark. But Will faces a potent adversary, called simply the Black Rider (Christopher Eccleston), a malevolent figure on a massive horse, whose goal is to stop Will and seduce him to the Dark.

Come! Join me in the floppy eared dark of the north! Lots of Darknesses have a north...

[Pip Madeley]

He's spoken (very little) about Who in an interview for the Daily Record:

He said: "99 percent of the dramas I've made have been for adults, and this was a real opportunity to try something new. I've had experience of making drama for children with Doctor Who. I think it's important if we can provide complexity and grey areas rather than just a funfair ride. That's what appeals to me.

"I think a younger audience is much more exacting than adults actually... they're much fiercer in their attachment once they've taken you to your heart, but they have better detectors than us."

Christopher brought Doctor Who back to the BBC and to millions of fans old and new who were gutted when he quit after one series. While Scot David Tennant has become an even bigger Doctor there have always been questions about why Christopher took on the role just to quit so quickly.

All he will say is that he "was very proud to play the Doctor."

[Pip Madeley]

He's been in the wilderness, but he's back and playing a Doctor:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bhIf2SmQR1E

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ1Rf0F0ezY

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-12SsdsT-OQ

Surprised Alex hasn't mentioned it, he loves Sarah Silverman!

[Mr BHT]

Christopher Eccleston for me was such an inspired choice to play the Doctor - it just seemed to odd to take one of the best actors in the world and get him to play the best and most unique character in the world in such an ordinary style. I know first and foremost the show had to be a hit, but the moves to ensure that means the 2005 season leaves me cold on so many levels.

That's not say Eccleston didn't have his moments. I suppose if you are going to make the show 'ordinary' then you need an actor of Eccleston's calibre to really raise it up a notch. He does play every single scene to the best of his ability. In Dalek he truly gives everything he has and his scenes with Nancy and the homeless children in The Empty Child are very touching and unpatronising, especially in comparison to the tower block stories. His regeneration scene is also very well done (although I still believe tacked on). The lines about Barcelona and no longer been able to see Rose with this 'daft old face' give a very brief glimpse of a more eccentric, 'unique' Doctor that he could have become in later seasons.

[sugartongs]

I'm watching him now in Let Him Have it on ITV4. As if seeing him (he is a BLOODY good actor) wasn't enough it's also got Bilis Manger in it! And Mark McGann (ooh, so close!)
Ronald Fraser and Michael Gough as a couple of Judges too - whee!
And now Vernon "War Games" Dobtcheff - whoo!

(Oh and in Hancock's Half Hour i've seen a young Dennis Chinnery and Anne Reid - well shocked i was!)

[Rob McCow]

Let Him Have it on ITV4

What is that? It sounds like a reality gameshow involving lots of slime.

[Andrew Curnow]

It's a film about, I believe, the last man to be hanged in England (being Eccleston's character, Dereck Bentley). "Let him have it" is a key line in the court case I think. I've not seen it, although we've got the DVD and Zel's seen it - I remember when it came out in the cinemas (and it's quite an old film now) there was a review in the paper which detailed the hanging scene, which is quite shocking in that it is in 'real time' and is over so quick.

I think that's right - sugartongs will be able to correct me, having just watched it!!! Zel said it's a very good film, but it's not my sort of movie .