I'm not allowed to tell you much about Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds at the moment because of the dreaded 'embargo' (quite why I don't know - it was shown and reviewed at the Cannes Film Festival in May but hey, I'm a good boy).
I can, however, tell you that that's Michael Fassbender up there, playing a British spy called Archie Hicox, who involves himself with with 'Basterds' (a group of of Jewish American soldiers out to get Nazis in the 2nd World War occupied France). He is also RATHER BRILLIANT.
I've been a bit slow on the uptake with Fassbender. Maybe because I haven't always enjoyed the movies he's been in - although looking back, he's always been great in them. Or maybe because it's very difficult to see someone as a cool, sexy leading man when they have the word 'bender' in their surname.
I NOW THINK HE'S AWESOME. Inglourious Basterds confirms his massive range, as he plays it all stiff-upper-lip and posh. He'll also be seen soon in the brilliant Fish Tank, about a teenage girl living on a depressed Essex tower block estate, where he's much more a man of the people (but hiding a secret).
I now need to go back and rewatch him getting beaten up by ASBOs in Eden Lake and starving himself for Northern Ireland in Hunger.
He's also in 300 but I don't think I can manage that.
Big movies to come include comic book yarn Jonah Hex (with Megan The Fox), ancient Roman horror film Centurion (directed by Neil 'Dog Soldiers' Marshall) and historical romance Birdsong (with Paddy Considine).
All of which makes him officially THE NEXT BIG THING.
