I love Michael Sheen. Although, for me, he is forever typecast as PM Tony Blair. I would go for Ioan Gruffudd.
Hollywood and Owain Glyndwr?
Ifans for me pushes too many comedy buttons by pure association.
Michael Sheen? - versatile actor, not very macho but a chameleon and very proud Welshman.
Russ Crowe? - too typecast by Maximus and Robin Hood now surely.
Ioan Gruffudd? - too pretty perhaps?
This guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwan_Rheon looks gruff enough also
Of course doesn't have to be a taffy - as long as the accent if genuinely good (i.e. not William Hurt/ Colm Meaney!)
Hi Ceri mate,
I'll have a go tonight putting reviews on the bookstore and yes, I'd be very proud to be your film official film reviewer!
Just to say again and for all - I think you've done such an amazing job getting this site together. It makes me really proud. I'm not a nationalist sort by nature and in fact, If I were to come from a large imperialist country you'd probably find me among the biggest dissenters. But when you delve into the history of the Welsh (incidentally not taught to our kids in schools) you can see how incredible it is that we're still here at all. And the fact that Cymraeg still exists and is championed in places like this gives me so much hope that all is not lost.
Anyway, back to Glyndwr....
Personally, I want an independent Wales. I think it's the ONLY way to reinvigorate the language in schools and to make us a totally bilingual country. The advantages of which are clear to anybody who has ever tried to learn a foriegn language as an adult. To link the point to the thread I suspect that more than any other political campaigning, more than any Welsh Assembly at home - the biggest and best thing Wales could do to gain support for herself within Wales and from the apathetic Welsh population - is to get a rousing movie made. Not just something 'set in Wales' - but something that touches on Welsh themes and identity in a positive, populist way. I think the only way you get that made is by backing from US studios and US dollars.
Nick
Indeed,... AND why do Welsh screenwriters not do so? We have a plethora of talented TV writers. Hundreds of episodes of Coronation St, Eastenders, The Bill, Dr Who etc have been written by Welsh screenwriters. Is there a perception that writing for Hollywood ( or the film industry generally ) on Welsh themes will not attract funding.
If so.....lets consider the following scenario. A 50 year old chemistry teacher is dying of cancer and decides to make methamphetamine to pay his medical bills at which point both his own and his family's lives start going to hell. That would never fly!!! Oh wait....that's 'Breaking Bad' , one of the most popular and critically acclaimed TV series of all time!!!
My point is that Hollywood ( and the American cable TV companies ) are NOT afraid to experiment and there is most definitely an opening for any writer who comes up with a sufficiently powerful and original Welsh themed script. It just hasn't happened yet
In this context you might enjoy reading the following article over on the bookstore about an old S4C series on Owain:- http://www.welsh-american-bookstore.com/index.php/Guest-Articles/filming-owain-glyndwr-david-barry.html
Incidentally ...did you have any joy with the bookstore login process? If you want to post reviews there ( or even snippets with 'Read more' links to your blog ) please feel free Heck we can make you our official AmeriCymru film reviewer if you like.
Often wonder the same thing mate re: actors - or related to it, sometimes you'd think the Welsh thesps never speak about where they're from. For example, I recently watched the DVD extras for Silence of the Lambs. The supporting actors are all gushing about the "polite little Englishman" Anthony Hopkins.
I mean, you'd think being on set with them for a few months, that he'd say something wouldn't you? Or worse to contemplate, maybe he did tell them but, being north American, they just didn't get it?
The blind spot the rest of the English-speaking world has for Wales is considerable and can't be underestimated. Evidenced when Tom Cruise saw the film Twin Town and then hired Dougarry Scott for Mission Impossible 2. When asked how he found the then-unknown Dougarry, on another set of DVD extra interviews, Cruise replies "I first saw Dougarry when I saw the Scottish film Twin Town!"
Twin Town has a reference to Wales more or less in every scene and Cruise has grandparents from Flintshire! Yet he couldn't recognize Twin Town as a Welsh film. It really is bizarre how we continually slip under the radar.
True that....I don't see Hollywood making a movie about Nye Bevan anytime soon but as you rightly say we have some great medieval stuff.
Very much so Ceri. Of course one of the problems with selling Welshness to the USA could very well be that the history of Modern Wales, is very much the history of the left. Socialism, welfare state, chartists, protest- not themes that tend to go down too well in certain parts.
Madoc, Rhdori the Great, Llewellyn Y Olaf, Glyndwr, Dic Penderyn, Iolo Morganwg - there's a hilarious comedic tale right there.
Personally I'd love to see a movie made about this guy:- http://americymru.net/profiles/blogs/welsh-american-chartist-john-rees
Just wanted to bump this thread after reading a few of it's pages.
Great to see so many people talking about this over the course of the last few years. If anyone would like to read my essay/article about the need for and lack of Welsh film representation, it is here on my new blog.
http://wibbleclarkeblog.tumblr.com/post/66574487958/its-a-celtic-country-isnt-it-wales-on-screen-wales
Rather than an effort on self promotion (which would also be nice) I'd just like people to consider that there are MANY tales from Wales that could be adapted for the screen and could sell Welshness to the world. So many stories and most importantly - we shouldn't EVER worry about historical accuracy. So if somebody had an idea for a Glyndwr film that required an actor in his 30s - it doesn't matter folks just run with the idea and talk about it. This is the power of mythology.
Nick
The weird thing is, if Mel Gibson directed it, we probably would see a trilingual version (after all, he did "The Passion of the Christ" in Aramaic - even though the New Testament was originally written in Greek - and "Apocalypto" in Zacatecas, the language of the Aztecs). And the real nitty-gritty violence would be in place, since Mel never flinches from bloody battle scenes. But he and Randall Wallace, William Wallace's descendant, did take a LOT of liberties with history in "Braveheart," so maybe not. It would have to be someone willing make it as authentic as possible and true to history. I don't know of the director or screenplay writer who could make that happen, though.
G'day
Apologies - somehow I missed that. I'm sure you're right about Wrexham.
Gaynor
Actually I thought we had mentioned him, also I believe his family came from Wrexham which is Glyndwr country!
We haven't mentioned Russell Crowe, who I believe has Welsh ancestry somewhere along the line.
This discussion is entirely new to me. It surely has to be Ioan Gruffudd and the film would have to be made in Welsh with English subtitles. However, if Wesley Snipes is willing to learn Welsh, I don't see why he couldn't be in it (that goes for Steven Seagal too).
You point out that Timothy Dalton is not "racially Welsh" and then suggests Christian Bale who has always said "I'm not Welsh I was just born there"If you were to have a blockbuster type film made about Glyndwr, first I would not have it made in Hollywood and 2nd I would find a good Welsh actor who has not be seduced by the lights of LA. Ioan Gruffudd has talked about making a film of Hornblower but nothing about Owain!
Diolch for cross posting Nathan...and I really hope Hollywood never gets its hands on John Cowper Powys. Cant see them ever doing that justice. Think I'd rather see the Lars von Trier version with a completely star free cast
I've long harboured a wish to see John Cowper Powys's magical historical novel Owen Glendower brought to the screen. It almost reads like a screenplay... As a non-American Welshman I'd rather NOT see Hollywood tackle it. If Wales can win awards for Hedd Wyn it could make its own tri-lingual Owain Glyndwr movie - in Welsh, English and French - and receive international praise and support. We have the resources. Something real, gritty and at least partly in Cymraeg... Bring it on!
I've long harboured a wish to see John Cowper Powys's magical historical novel Owen Glendower brought to the screen. It almost reads like a screenplay... As a non-American Welshman I'd rather NOT see Hollywood tackle it. If Wales can win awards for Hedd Wyn it could make its own tri-lingual Owain Glyndwr movie - in Welsh, English and French - and receive international praise and support. We have the resources. Something real, gritty and at least partly in Cymraeg... Bring it on!
Of course he is....I stand corrected

Best of luck
Angharad Evans





















updated by @ceri-shaw: 07/03/23 02:29:16AM