Elsinore (2026)

Producer Andrea Occhipinti has finally brought Ian Charleson’s story to the big screen after a two-decade journey that began with a chance encounter in Rome. The film, which opened the London Film Festival to a standing ovation, chronicles the Scottish actor’s triumphant final performance as Hamlet at the National Theatre in 1989, shortly before his death from AIDS at age 40. For Occhipinti, the project is deeply personal, rooted in his own loss of friends during the height of the crisis and his 1987 meeting with Charleson, who was visibly struggling with depression and his health. The path to production was as winding as the story itself. After Charleson’s death, his friend Ethan Silverman shared the details of the actor’s final months with Occhipinti, sparking the initial idea for a film in 2005. It took another fifteen years to secure the right creative team, including writer Stephen Beresford and director Simon Stone. The project eventually found its financial footing through Studiocanal, which had recently acquired a stake in Occhipinti’s production company, Lucky Red. The casting of Andrew Scott as Charleson was a deliberate choice to mirror the original actor’s background, as both are theatre and movie stars with Irish and Scottish roots, respectively. Scott had previously played Hamlet, making him a perfect fit for the role. The film’s central theme is one of community and protection, highlighted by the character’s defiant spirit and the line, “I’d rather die of Hamlet than AIDS.” With Focus Features set to release the film in the U.S. on November 20, Occhipinti is already preparing for a significant awards push. The production team plans extensive screenings for Academy and Golden Globes voters, banking on the strong word-of-mouth momentum that has followed the film’s festival premieres in Telluride, Toronto, and London.