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Ewan McGregor Wants to Play Obi-Wan Kenobi Again

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Ewan McGregor‘s back in Scotland celebrating Trainspotting‘s 30th birthday.

The Hollywood star, famed for roles in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Moulin Rouge!, Black Hawk Down, Down With Love, and who is currently in theaters with The End of Oak Street, spoke at an Edinburgh International Film Festival session on Friday afternoon, shortly before a party celebrating the anniversary of Danny Boyle’s 1996 film, which launched McGregor to stardom. The live event is set to host McGregor and his Trainspotting castmate Ewan Bremner, as well as producer Andrew Macdonald, screenwriter John Hodge and author Irvine Welsh for an in-depth conversation about the cult film, centered on drug addiction and urban poverty.

The conversation was hosted by Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle, who kicked off the proceedings by asking McGregor about his upbringing in Crieff and whether he feels patriotic as a Scotsman in showbiz. Over the course of 90 minutes, McGregor entertained the tightly packed crowd at Edinburgh’s Central Hall with anecdotes about working with Baz Luhrmann, making a film with his 30-year-old daughter and getting naked (which had McGregor re-enacting the moment he slipped over, nude, in front of “300 old ladies” during a stage performance of What the Butler Saw).

McGregor said he “learned a lot about not giving a shit” after his Star Wars prequels were “dragged through the mud.” Deciding whether to take on the role in the first place was “hard” because “the job of an actor is very different in those films.” However, McGregor relished the chance to return in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series and admitted being surprised by the warm reaction from fans. “I never went to the conventions [after the prequel films]. Because I think I felt like people didn’t like them, and that’s okay. But when we went to do the premiere [of Obi-Wan], they played the first two episodes. I don’t know how many [but] thousands of people were behind me and I felt this rush. I had never heard that noise.”

McGregor admitted to “trying really hard” to “be a young Alec Guinness” — and found the role much easier in the TV show, when he was closer to the age of Guinness, who played the older version of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy. On whether he will return to the character, McGregor replied: “I hope so! I really would like to do it again because at the end of the series, […] we walked off at the end. There’s got to be a great story or two, or three, or four, or five… Maybe a series or movies.”

It was a jovial session up until McGregor became visibly emotional and had to pause to hold back tears while reflecting on working with his 30-year-old daughter, Clara, in 2023’s Bleeding Love, shortly after he’d divorced her mother (McGregor is now married to U.S. actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead). In the film, based on a story by Clara, he plays her onscreen father while her character struggles through drug addiction. “It was a very painful time, and my children were very hurt, and Clara was very hurt, and very vocal with me. She expressed her… Sorry,” he said, becoming tearful, “[That] took me by surprise! Expressed her anger and when she told me some time later, after a year or two, that she was writing a story about us, I was really scared that it was going to be something like that. When I read it, it was so beautiful and moving, and about the reparation of a relationship between a father and a daughter that hadn’t fully happened yet between us.”

Time dwindled as McGregor told Tuttle about what he looks for in a director and the journey of becoming a director himself with 2016’s American Pastoral. He expressed hope at one day making a movie in his native Scotland. Then came questions from the audience, which allowed the conversation to get even sillier (much to McGregor’s and the audience’s delight).

So, would McGregor consider playing James Bond? “Disappointingly, I never hear my name mentioned in all of the [discourse] at the moment,” he said, prompting laughter. “I might just have missed that boat. Maybe they’ll be looking for somebody a bit younger, as you could imagine. But I would have [liked to play Bond]. That’s a fascinating role. The idea of playing that world is something I haven’t really done.”

McGregor was quizzed on his motorbike documentary series Long Way... (2004-present) with best friend Charley Boorman, and even confirmed the pair will be embarking on a trip across the Atlantic in two weeks on a vintage Oyster yacht.

The 2026 Edinburgh International Film Festival runs Aug. 13-19. Industry events have included talks with Christine Vachon and Ken Burns.

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Slipknot Announces Sid Wilson’s Exit

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After reports of Sid Wilson‘s departure from Slipknot, the band has confirmed he is no longer part of the lineup.

In a statement that briefly appeared on the band’s website, they announced they would “no longer be associated” with the DJ and keyboardist, who joined the metal group in 1998 before they released their self-titled debut album the following year.

“Effective immediately, Slipknot will no longer be associated with Sid Wilson,” said the band in a statement, which was captured by Stereogum. “We wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

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The announcement comes after TMZ reported in late July that Wilson had been kicked out of the band.

One of the original nine members of the band, Wilson’s exit comes after the departures of Craig Jones in 2023 and Chris Fehn in 2019, as well as the deaths of Joey Jordison in 2021 and Paul Gray in 2010.

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Slipknot Announces Sid Wilson’s Exit

Published

on

After reports of Sid Wilson‘s departure from Slipknot, the band has confirmed he is no longer part of the lineup.

In a statement that briefly appeared on the band’s website, they announced they would “no longer be associated” with the DJ and keyboardist, who joined the metal group in 1998 before they released their self-titled debut album the following year.

“Effective immediately, Slipknot will no longer be associated with Sid Wilson,” said the band in a statement, which was captured by Stereogum. “We wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

Related Stories

The announcement comes after TMZ reported in late July that Wilson had been kicked out of the band.

One of the original nine members of the band, Wilson’s exit comes after the departures of Craig Jones in 2023 and Chris Fehn in 2019, as well as the deaths of Joey Jordison in 2021 and Paul Gray in 2010.

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‘Survivor’ Team On Epic Season 50 & What It Means For Show’s Future

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Survivor executive producer Matt Van Waganen, casting director Jesse Tannenbaum, editor and returning cast member Tiffany Nicole Ervin dished on the CBS reality series’ “incredible” Season 50 and looked ahead at the upcoming Season 51 during an appearance at Deadline’s Contenders Television: The Nominees Studio.

“Well, I think for us, Season 50, when Jeff [Probst] first talked about it, it was about being a celebration. And every time we talked about this, we thought, how can this be a celebration? And for us, celebration meant throwing everything at the players that we could, which I think we did,” said Van Wagenen. “And as we threw things at them, they really took it all in and attacked it, so they bought in with everything that we were doing, which made it for me an amazing season to watch and be a part of for sure.”

As Van Wagenen looks ahead to Season 51, he revealed “50 was really the leaping-off point for what we are calling the open era, and that really is — the phrase we use out there is ‘permanent uncertainty.’ As much as we had a lot of question marks and a lot of curveballs in 50, we’ve amped it up for 51.”

Watch the panel conversation below and scroll down for photos from the event.

Speaking about casting the castaways, Tannenbaum said “it is hard to predict because sometimes you’re dealing with people, talking to them, and they’re completely different on the show than they were through the casting process. He adds, “we really work hard to find compelling people to play one of the most incredible reality shows that’s ever been created. You throw them out there, and it’s up to them what they do with this opportunity, and that’s in their gameplay, and that’s in the personality they bring to the show. So it is a little complicated.”

Ervin, who first appeared on Survivor 46, shared her excitement at returning for Season 50, and admitted Van Wagenen “is not lying when he says they threw everything they had at us.”

“I’ve been watching this show my whole life as a person, played it, and then to be able to come back on such a monumental season, it was palpable how excited and how grateful everybody was to just be a part of such an experience,” she said. “And then to take it a step further and say, not only am I on a landmark season, but I’m doing things that have literally never been done before, so even though something as chaotic and crazy as the blood moon coming at me, I’ve never seen it before. But I’m like, let me at it!”

Tiffany Nicole Ervin

Tiffany Nicole Ervin

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Barefoot, who has served as an editor on Survivor since its Season 1 launch, spoke of mining an enormous amount of footage to capture just the right moments. “We’re looking for those, not just the story points, but the little moments, the little things that you may miss. We, the editors, we’re the first audience to see how it plays on a screen, and we’re fans. When I see an eye roll from Tiffany, it’s like, I’m putting a mark on that, and I will use that shot somewhere.”

All had praise for Probst, who has hosted the series since its launch, and serves as executive producer and showrunner. Probst’s enthusiasm “is infectious,” said Tannenbaum. “When you think about surviving, you think about Jeff, that’s natural. The amount of care and passion he has, not just for the show, but for every single person that works on the show, for the cast that has been on the show, the future cast, even the applicants that go through the casting process and might have met him and didn’t go further, he’s like, how are they doing? How do they take the news? Are they okay? He just truly is caring, and that’s nothing but inspiring to make us want to work that much harder.”

The long-running reality series received five Emmy nominations for Season 50 including Outstanding Reality Competition Program, Outstanding Host for a Reality Program (Probst), Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Program, and Outstanding Picture Editing for a Structured Reality or Competition Program.

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