When you hear the title The Colossus and discover that it features Ian McKellen, you might naturally think that Fox has decided on another X-Men spin-off.
Unfortunately for fans of the metallic mutant, it’s really a period film about South Africa at the turn of the 20th century. Still, they have pretty much the same audience.
Fictionalising real events and based on Ann Harries’ novel Manly Pursuits, the movie will find Francis Wills (Colin Firth) hired to ship English songbirds to the deposed South African premier Cecil Rhodes (McKellen). Along the way, he falls for feisty political activist Rachel Weisz and tries to help stop the oncoming Boer War.
This can’t end well: a stuffy man getting involved with Weisz as a spunky campaigner? Did Wills not see The Constant Gardener?
Anyway, Sean Mathias (Bent) will direct.