James McAvoy's directorial debut is about Silibil N' Brains, a Scottish hip-hop duo consisting of Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd (no, not The Lord of the Rings actor) who posed as California rappers to get a record deal.
Deadline reports, “In the late '90s, Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd had their musical ambitions consistently ridiculed for having the ‘wrong’ accents so they went for broke and reinvented themselves as Californian rappers. The currently untitled movie will show how the duo rerecorded their own tracks with fake accents and turned up in London claiming to be an established duo on the Cali scene as well as childhood friends with Eminem. They quickly bagged themselves a record deal, a hefty sum in advances, and an appearance on MTV… until it all came crashing down.”
“What these two young men from Dundee attempted beggars belief and I can’t wait to bring this absolutely incredible, and also very Scottish/Californian story to the cinema,” says McAvoy to Deadline. “Using Scottish talent behind and in front of the camera is something I’m passionate about and I’m over the moon to be making my directorial debut in my homeland. The film will first and foremost be a celebration of the Scottish spirit, but the Silibil N’ Brains duo’s audacious fakery can’t help but appeal to audiences worldwide.”
James McAvoy's Directorial-Debut Announcement Comes After He Said That He Needs to “Slow Down”
James McAvoy is a Scottish actor best known for his roles in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Split, The Last King of Scotland, Atonement, It: Chapter Two, and for playing Charles Xavier in several X-Men movies. The untitled Silibil N’ Brains (pictured, above) movie is his first time in the director's chair for a feature film.
In a December 2022 interview with The Guardian, McAvoy talked about slowing his roll. “I put in the work quite a lot and I love it,” said McAvoy. “But I don’t want to live to work. The industry is great and it’s given me an amazing life. But it survives on the sacrificial nature of performance. The film industry or the TV industry, they’re just using you up. I don’t want to just be that guy who was Bill Murray’s character in Lost in Translation, where he’s basically not got a life because he did the movies – and he can’t remember any of the movies. And yet he’s estranged from his wife and kids.” He continued:
“Do I keep chasing, do I keep progressing, do I keep trying to climb the ladder, the mountain, all that kind of stuff? Or do I just continue to enjoy the act of acting – but taking the foot off the pedal? And not feel like I’m never gonna work again. Or that I’m gonna lose momentum, which arguably I have, if I just don’t take every great job that comes my way. You need to slow down a wee bit.”
McAvoy's upcoming Silibil N’ Brains movie is produced by Homefront Productions and will start filming in 2024 in Scotland.