Stan & Ollie Official Trailer #1 - Fan Reactions

Steve Coogan and John C Reilly are Laurel and Hardy.

Entertainment One have released the first trailer for Stan and Ollie starring Steve Coogan and John C Reilly as Laurel and Hardy and the fans love it. Watch the trailer below.

Steve Coogan and John C Reilly give delightfully bang-on-target performances as comedy’s most famous double act as they enter their twilight years. In 1953, several years after their last film and with their immense celebrity on the wane, Stan ‘Laurel’ and Oliver ‘Hardy’ embark on a gig tour of British seaside towns and music halls.

Laurel and Hardy in 1953

Surprised by the modesty of the bookings and cramped little guesthouses, the tour starts off subdued. They struggle for audiences and their booking agent seems disinterested. But a series of TV guest spots and celebrity appearances soon rekindle the country’s interest in their genius and the buzz grows as they head towards a big London finale. As the attention builds, so too do old resentments, coming to a head as they’re joined by ‘the wives’, Lucille and Ida (Shirley Henderson and Nina Arianda, a hilarious double act in their own right). Coogan and Reilly fans know their brilliance as physical comedians, but to watch them here is a revelation; they nail body language, mannerisms and also routines the duo would have known in their sleep after decades performing together. Craft is sublime throughout, crystallised in an audacious opening with each department dazzling in a six-minute tracking sequence captured by Laurie Rose’s camera team.

Coogan and Reilly in a flashback scene from Way Out West

Director Jon S Baird (Filth), screenwriter Jeff Pope (Philomena) and producer Faye Ward (who also screens Festival Gala Wild Rose in the LFF) offer a poignant study of lifelong male friendship and a fitting tribute to two of cinema’s comedy giants.

Tricia Tuttle

FANS REACT TO THE TRAILER

Stan & Ollie has been acquired for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics for multiple territories including the U.S, Latin America, Eastern Europe, China and South Africa

Sony Pictures Classics Confirms Details Of Steve Coogan-John C. Reilly Laurel and Hardy Drama ‘Stan And Ollie’ – Toronto 

Sony Pictures Classic has confirmed Deadline’s previous scoop on the multiple territories deal for Stan and Ollie, the Laurel and Hardy drama.

Sony confirmed the following details on the deal:

• Entertainment One’s (eOne) Stan and Ollie has been acquired for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics for multiple territories including the U.S., Latin America, Eastern Europe, China and South Africa. eOne will distribute the film directly across its footprint. eOne’s Sierra/Affinity handled international sales on the film with CAA Media Finance representing domestic rights. 

• The film is directed by Jon S. Baird from a script by Jeff Pope and stars Academy Award® nominees Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly. It is produced by eOne, BBC Films and Faye Ward via her Fable Pictures banner. eOne and BBC Films financed the feature. 

• The film has been designated as the closing night film of the 62nd BFI London Film Festival on October 21; with SPC planning a theatrical release qualifying the film for 2018 Awards consideration bolstered by the performances of Coogan and Reilly. The film will be released in the U.K. on January 11, 2019. 

• Stan and Ollie follows Laurel and Hardy, the world’s favorite comedy double act, who set out on a variety hall tour of Britain in 1953. Diminished by age and with their golden era as the kings of Hollywood comedy now behind them, they face an uncertain future. As they set out, crisscrossing the country, attendances are disappointingly low. But they’ve always been able to make each other laugh and as the charm and beauty of their performances shines through their audiences laugh too, and they re-connect with legions of adoring fans, old and new. 

• The transaction comes as eOne is bolstering its in-house production activities with the recent acquisitions of The Mark Gordon Company and Sierra/Affinity. eOne is involved with 14 films playing at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival including A Million Little Pieces, Wild Rose, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, and Vox Lux. 

EXCLUSIVE SEPT. 7, 8:28 AM: In what looks to be the first deal on the ground here at the Toronto Film Festival, a sale is near for Sony Pictures Classics to acquire multiple territories including domestic on Stan and Ollie, the John S. Baird-directed drama that follows the legendary comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, during their 1953 variety hall tour of Britain which began with low attendance and eventually became a hit with old and new fans. The film stars Steve Coogan as Stan Laurel, and John C. Reilly as Oliver Hardy, the iconic comedians. Stephanie Hyam, and Danny Huston also star. Jeff Pope wrote the script.

This is one of many films eOne is involved with at Toronto, as the company ramps up its output in tastemaker fare.

Sources said SPC is mulling a plan to launch in this Oscar season, to take advantage of the strong performances by Coogan and Reilly. Buyers sparked to a screening of the film yesterday morning at the Yong-Dundas Cineplex #10. Producing is eOne, BBC Films, and Fable Pictures. Faye Ward produced and Xavier Marchand exec produced.

CAA and eOne-owned Sierra/Affinity are repping the film but haven’t commented, nor has SPC. Stay tuned.

deadline.com

Oscars: 'Stan & Ollie' Could Factor In Awards Race If It Finds a Buyer in Toronto

John C. Reilly (left) and Steve Coogan in 'Stan & Ollie'

The film, which will close the London Film Festival on Oct. 21, is set to screen for buyers in Toronto on Thursday morning following a successful sneak screening for Academy members in Los Angeles. 

Stan and Ollie, Jon S. Baird's tone poem about the late career of the comedy team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, which stars Steve Coogan and Oscar nominee John C. Reilly, respectively, won't be publicly unveiled until Oct. 21, when it has its world premiere as the closing night film of the 62nd London Film Festival. And the movie, produced by eOne, BBC Films and Fable Pictures, doesn't yet have an American distributor. But that could change after it screens for buyers in Toronto on Thursday morning as the industry converges on the 43rd Toronto International Film Festival. And if it is acquired by a distributor who guarantees a 2018 release, it could factor into this year's Oscar race. 

Stan and Ollie chronicles the aging comic duo's trying tour of English variety halls after World War II, and the tender but tenuous relationship that kept them together through many ups and downs. The film screened for a select group of Academy members in West Hollywood on Aug. 27, with The Hollywood Reporter the only media outlet in attendance, and it — and particularly the performances of Coogan and Reilly, and the makeup and hairstyling that make them look like spitting images of Laurel and Hardy — couldn't have gone over better, based on conversations at the post-screening reception. "The film is terrific," public relations branch member Bruce Feldman told me. "Beautifully made and very funny. I've talked to a lot of other members and they also seemed to like and appreciate it very much, especially those two great performances. Those performances are as good as any Oscar-nominated performance could be." He added, "It would be a shame if more people don't get to see it." Arnold Schwartzman of the documentary branch was born and raised in Margate, England, and still remembers seeing, when he was age 11, Laurel and Hardy come to town as part of the very tour chronicled in the film. "It brought back some very happy memories," he said. "It didn't have the same pizzazz as seeing them in the movies, but I did enjoy it very much. I thought it was excellent. They [the actors] both looked the part and had all the mannerisms of the originals." Many Academy members could probably also relate to the film's depiction of what it's like for an artist after the roar of the crowd has faded but one's desire to create art has not — when one does what one must in order to keep doing what one loves. (This idea feels timely in a week in which former Cosby Show actor Geoffrey Owens was shamed for having to bag groceries in order to earn enough money to continue acting.) 

Should Stan and Ollie be picked up in Toronto and slated for release before the end of the year, it would be entering the race later than the rest of the field — but that isn't necessarily a handicap. Last season, Neon's acquisition of I, Tonya during TIFF, and the film's subsequent commercial and Oscar success, offered a reminder that a savvy distributor can take a good movie far into awards season even if it only acquires it in the fall. Moreover, the best picture recognition garnered last season by Darkest Hour, which also rolled out in September, shows that, for all the demographic changes to the Academy in recent years, there remains a sizable constituency in the group that responds to traditional period-piece dramas and what might be called 'good old-fashioned filmmaking.' (Coogan knows them well, having starred five years ago in Philomena, which wound up with a best picture Oscar nom.) And since the best actor race itself is still relatively open, there could be room for Reilly and/or Coogan. Reilly is already set to make the rounds in the coming months on behalf of The Sisters Brothers, Holmes and Watson and the Wreck-It Ralph sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet, and could plug Stan and Ollie, too. 

Consulting with eOne on the rollout of Stan and Ollie are a host of former Paramount marketing, publicity and awards specialists — Megan Colligan and Perception PR's Lea Yardum, Gena Wilder and Julie Tustin — whose association with the film also bolsters its credibility as a potential contender. It was only seven years ago that they helped to propel another film about a show-business figure who was largely forgotten late in life — Hugo, which tells the story of the silent film director Georges Melies — all the way to the Dolby.

Hollywood Reporter