Lately more used to voice work and eccentric cameos, it's a good few years since John Cleese stepped up for a role as a scenery-chewing villain. Putting that sad situation to rights, however, is the indie fantasy adventure Albion: Rise Of The Danann, in which he'll play Albion's tyrannical king. Debra Messing will be his queen.
According to the available synopsis, the film involves a 12-year-old girl (Avery Rath) who is spirited away to a mystical land on a magical horse. When she gets there she finds that she alone is the key to saving the kingdom. The word "destiny" will almost certainly crop up somewhere.
Albion, of course, is the ye olde name for Britain, while "Dannan" would seem to refer to the legendary Tuatha Dé Danann: the pre-Christian invaders of Gaelic Ireland who were driven underground and became bad elves the Sidhe. We have visions of Cleese in full-on Tim The Enchanter / Erik The Viking mode, but with pointy ears. This is probably completely spurious. By the hoary hosts of Hoggoth.
Liam McIntyre (Spartacus) and Daniel Sharman (Teen Wolf) bulk up the cast elsewhere, while Stephen Dorff will play our heroine's father and Jennifer Morrison plays a mad woman.
The director is Castille Landon, switching from acting to behind-the-camera duties for the first time. She also co-wrote the screenplay Ryan O'Nan and Sarah Scougal. Shooting starts (in the US and Bulgaria) sometime this month.