Advertisement

John Hurt 'cut from final film', reveals Gary Oldman

Hurt... won't be in new Churchill drama Darkest Hour - Credit: AP
Hurt… won’t be in new Churchill drama Darkest Hour – Credit: AP

Sir John Hurt’s final film will not be ‘Darkest Hour’, his friend and former co-star Gary Oldman has revealed.

Oldman plays Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Joe Wright’s forthcoming biopic, and Hurt was all set to play Churchill’s predecessor Neville Chamberlain.

But in the end, Hurt, who died in January this year at the age of 77, was too ill to make it onto set.

“He wasn’t in it,” Oldman told Yahoo Movies. “Sadly, John never made it to the read-through. He was going through some treatment.

“I adored John, and I had worked with him before, and was just thrilled to do it again with him, especially with Churchill and Chamberlain.

“But he was sick. He was too sick.”

(Credit: Working Title)
(Credit: Working Title)

Oldman, who had appeared alongside Hurt in 2011’s ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ and the ‘Harry Potter’ movies, then confirmed his role as Chamberlain was taken over by veteran stage and screen actor Ronald Pickup.

Screen legend Hurt died at his home in Cromer, Norfolk, on January 25, days after his 77th birthday.

He had been treated for early-stage pancreatic cancer in the years prior to his death, but had confirmed he was in remission in late 2015.

According IMDb, there are three films which featured Hurt that are yet to be completed, or are in post-production stage.

In ‘That Good Night’, he plays the lead role of a terminally ill screenwriter, and he also has supporting roles in the thriller ‘Damascus Cover’ with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Olivia Thirlby, and in ‘My Name Is Lenny’, a biopic of the boxer Lenny McLean, with Josh Helman and Nick Moran.

Read More:
RIP Michael Parks, actor dies aged 77
Paul McCartney reveals Pirates 5 role
Aliens series chronology explained