James McAvoy has decided to step behind the camera and change his position from spotlight to director’s chair. California Schemin’ is his new venture as a director, which he teased about at the Glasgow Film Festival last month.
The actor-turned-director has mentioned on his Instagram that the film will be about friendship, career, rap, and glorious failure. The directorial debut of James McAvoy aims to entertain as well as shock the world in a way that has never been experienced before, even when it was presented in documentary form.
Plot details of California Schemin’
At the Glasgow Film Festival, which continued from 26 February to 9 March 2025, he touched a bit about his directorial debut, whose storyline focuses on two rap artists, as per Deadline. The story comes from an autobiography written by Gavin Bain with the same name.
It was later reprinted as ‘Straight Outta Scotland’ and was even transformed into an SXSW documentary, ‘The Great Hip Hop Hoax’ (2013), helmed by the director Jeanie Finlay.
McAvoy’s version of the story is set in the late 1990s when Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd’s hip-hop duo called “Silibil N’ Brains” had some ambitions. The British musical biopic will show how they reinvented themselves as Californian rappers and conned the world.
Originally, they were Scottish. They recorded their own tracks after getting backlash for their fake accent and showed up in London, claiming to be childhood friends with Eminem.
It resulted in something favorable for them: a massive record deal, hefty advance payments, and appearances on MTV. However, everything bobbed up as a hoax.
Want to read about the directorial debut of Kate Winslet? Her film “Goodbye June” will be streaming soon on Netflix.
What are the other details of the directorial debut of James McAvoy?
- The Speak No Evil actor just wrapped his production for California Schemin’ and is now in the post-production phase.
- The film was shot in November on locations like Dundee and Glasgow.
- James McAvoy will be seen in a supporting role in the film, along with directing it.
- The film is produced by Homefront Productions and Patriot Pictures.
- Studio Canal will release the film in the United Kingdom and Ireland while Bankside Films is looking after the international sales of the project. UTA Independent is taking care of the North American side.
- McAvoy admitted that “it was the most stressful thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
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What inspired James McAvoy to direct California Schemin’?
James McAvoy is a Scottish actor, and he was delighted to find a story related to his home country. There was a Scottish element to it, which he was happy about as he was able to film it in his hometown.
He said,
“I rejected a lot of scripts that came my way…They were brilliant scripts and totally valid films that I would love to see, but I needed to wait for something else, and thankfully, it was still a Scottish film.” [Source]
Also, he was inspired by several great directors like Jon S. Baird, Danny Boyle, Joe Wright, and M. Night Shyamalan. He confessed that he has instilled learnings from them into his directorial venture.
He was more impressed with Danny Boyle and Jon Baird, who had an obsession with their stories and transferred the same passion into their actors. Joe Wright had the same enthusiasm as reflected in his work and ideologies. M. Night Shyamalan is one of those directors who always came prepared and was technically clear on his points on how he wanted to take his film forward, McAvoy revealed.
He elucidated that from these lessons, he tried to instill one thing in his film’s sets on a daily basis, which was ‘trying to be positive’. He was of the view that an angry, agitated, or bad-tempered director did not send out good vibes to the set and the people around.
Therefore, he always tried to be positive to create a “better atmosphere” which injected a new energy in his people who were always ready “to put themselves out there more”.
Cast and crew details
Alongside James McAvoy playing a supporting role in the film, Seamus McLean Ross will play the role of Gavin Bain, and Samuel Bottomley will portray Billy Boyd.
Archie Thomson took the responsibility of adapting the screenplay, and Kahleen Crawford is the casting director.
Executive producers are Natalie Perrotta and Jim Steele from Patriot Pictures, Naysun Alae-Carew, Nic Crum, Lauren Lamarr from Blazing Griffin, Stephen Kelliher and Yana Geprgieva from Bankside Films, Steven Little and Kieran Hannigan from Screen Scotland.
Barry Hutchison and Fiona Hutchison are co-producers for Zertex Media, while Isabelle Georgeaux is for Pont Neuf Productions.
When is California Schemin’ releasing?
The release date of the film has not been announced yet as it is still in the post-production stage. It is expected that it will premiere sometime in 2025.
We are eagerly waiting for the film, are you? Let us know in the comments below.
Passionate Entertainment Writer | Trusted Pop Culture Voice
Madiha Ali is an experienced entertainment writer with over five years of expertise in covering movies, TV shows, celebrity news, and pop culture. Her bylines appear on trusted platforms like High on Films, Ary News, The Express Tribune, Tea and Banter, Show Snob, CelebFeedz, Snapfeedz, Daily Planet Media, The Irish Insider, and Movie Insiderz.
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