Ewan McGregor

Joel Edgerton! Kumail Nanjiani! Benny Safdie?!?

Both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick fans should be happy with Mike Flanagan’s adaptation.

Ewan McGregor plays the adult Christopher Robin in Disney’s moody live-action take on Winnie-the-Pooh.

There are a lot of freeze-frames in T2 Trainspotting. To an inattentive viewer, they might look like empty style for style’s sake, or a nod back to the flashy visuals and hyperkinetic editing of the original Trainspotting from 20 years ago. But the freeze-frames also turn the film’s subtext into text. T2 is about a group of immature men coming to grips with the fact that they are getting older. The freeze-frames — along with a steady stream of flashbacks — enable the film to do the very thing the characters wish they could do, but can’t: Stop the inexorable march of time, and even, for brief moments, turn back the clock to their youths.

If you’ve seen Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, you know that the Scottish accents of the main characters can be so thick that it’s sometimes hard to understand what they’re saying. But did you know that their accents were so thick initially that Boyle actually re-recorded the first 20 minutes of Trainspotting’s dialogue so that American audiences would be able to understand them without subtitles? We’re not entirely sure he was successful. That’s just one of the facts featured in the newest episode of You Think You Know Movies!

It’s been eleven years since the first Trainspotting gave us an instant classic, and enough time has passed for Renton, Spud, Simon, and Begbie to learn that their lives as constantly drug-addled youths were unsustainable. In the meantime, Begbie has done some time in prison, Renton and Spud have gotten into system-cleansing athletic routines, and Simon has a very special business venture in the works.

Over the past few years, there has been a small but noticeable attempt to rehabilitate the image of the Star Wars prequels in popular culture. Last November, for example, the A.V. Club published an article on why the Star Wars prequels don’t deserve our hatred. Similar pieces have been published in The Mary Sue, USA Today, and many other websites and online publications. It just goes to show that there is a lid for every pot, no matter how misshapen that pot may be.

When an actor expresses interest in returning to an iconic role, I always wonder whether the actor needs the movie more than the studio needs the actor. Ron Perlman, for example, has spent years talking up his interest in another Hellboy movie, despite it being fairly obvious that the studio had no real interest in getting that project off the ground. So when Ewan McGregor told reporters last year that he would come back for an Obi-Wan Kenobi standalone movie, I wondered: does this make sense for everyone involved? Or was McGregor just doing the Hollywood equivalent of jumping on a trending hashtag?

So far, we have heard rumors that two of the three planned 'Star Wars' spinoffs were to follow Boba Fett and Han Solo. Then there was the mysterious third spinoff, which we haven't much concrete information on. Until now. A recent report suggests that despite earlier reports that the spinoffs wouldn't follow any Jedi or Sith characters, Lucasfilm is currently working with artists and a writer to develop an Obi-Wan Kenobi movie.

Although the trailer doesn't sell any of the plot of 'Mortdecai,' it does sell Johnny Depp's newest weird character: a snobby art dealer who appears debonair but is actually a bit of a bumbling oaf. Depp doesn't wear any silly hats this time around, but he does have a silly mustache and a wacky accent, so everything balances out in the end.

Ewan McGregor is in negotiations to join the cast of Gavin O'Connor's 'Jane Got a Gun,' which would (hopefully) put an end to the production's endless troubles. He would be starring with his former 'Star Wars' castmate Natalie Portman.

Ewan McGregor's been an outstanding talent in films from 'Trainspotting' to the 'Star Wars' prequels, but in today's Way Back When we give you a look at McGregor before he was famous.