Andrew Scott [pictured from his own Hamlet poster] will play the late Scottish actor Ian Charleson in Elsinore, a biopic about Charleson’s final, celebrated turn as Hamlet at London’s National Theatre while battling illness.
According to Variety, the film is being directed by Simon Stone from a screenplay by Stephen Beresford, the writer of the 2014 historical drama Pride, which previously starred Scott. Olivia Colman is also attached, reuniting two of Fleabag’s most acclaimed performers for what Stone calls ‘a beautiful ode to the power of community in times of crisis.’ Stone says in a press statement to Variety, ‘Stephen Beresford’s screenplay is both heartbreaking and hilarious, a beautiful ode to the power of community in times of crisis,’ and adds ‘Andrew Scott is one of the greatest actors of his generation as Ian Charleson was: it’s momentous casting.’
Reports from Cinema Express, WhatsOnStage and The Times of India corroborate the casting and creative team, and Cineuropa notes Stone’s involvement alongside his other recent projects. Studiocanal’s UK account also teased the project on social media, describing the film as telling the ‘deeply moving and inspiring true story’ of Charleson’s preparation for Hamlet in the autumn of 1989.
Charleson is widely known for film roles in Chariots of Fire and Gandhi, but it is his stage work, and in particular that 1989 Hamlet, that has resonated across theatre history. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1986 yet returned to the role of Hamlet at the National Theatre after Daniel Day‑Lewis withdrew; the production, notable for its length and physical demands, drew rave reviews despite Charleson’s visibly declining health. He died on 6 January 1990, eight weeks after the production closed. Speaking to the Daily Mail shortly after Charleson’s death, Sir Ian McKellen said it was ‘a tribute to Ian that he should ask for the cause of his death to be made public’ and described Charleson’s decision as ‘the most marvelous offer of support that he could have given to other men and women all over the world suffering from the AIDS virus.’
Variety and other outlets report that filming is scheduled to begin in the UK on 5 January 2026, a date that falls a day shy of the 36th anniversary of Charleson’s passing, with additional British cast members to be announced. Coverage so far frames the film as an exploration of performance, secrecy and community at a fraught moment for gay men in the 1980s and 1990s, and highlights Beresford’s previous work on Pride as signalling a sympathetic, ensemble‑minded approach to the material.
The project will require balancing theatrical biography with the social and medical realities of the period. Industry reporting emphasises the film’s intent to depict both the physical demands of the Hamlet role, a marathon of stamina and craft, and the personal choices Charleson made about disclosure and privacy. Those choices carried public consequences: at the time, Charleson’s posthumous confirmation as the first widely known UK celebrity to die of AIDS became a focal point in national conversation about the epidemic.
Elsinore’s creative team and its leading cast give the project a high‑profile platform to revisit that history. The announcement has been carried across entertainment outlets from Variety to local theatrical trade titles, all noting the symbolic weight of retelling Charleson’s story through contemporary performers who themselves have publicly navigated questions of identity and fame. Production houses and spokespeople have framed the film as both a tribute and a dramatization; until the film is complete, those claims remain the project’s stated aims rather than settled interpretation.
Filming begins in January.
Source: Noah Wire Services
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