Epic: Matthew Macfadyen confirmed & filming begins in January

It's been a question of will Epic ever be filmed and will Matthew Macfadyen be a part of it.  Epic was originally supposed to begin in October 2012 but then was delayed for financial or political reasons.

Recently, we learned that German capital was being invested in Epic, with Matthew's name still attached.  Later, we found out that both Matthew and Patrick Stewart's name were associated with Epic but again, weren't sure that it was old information or new.

We, next, found the Scotsman Magazine article in which Matthew himself said the following:

One of the projects he had lined up has just fallen through, but Macfadyen is philosophical about that. “I was going to make a film called Epic. It’s a very funny comedy about filmmaking in a fictional post-Soviet state. Some of the money came from a Russian film foundation.

“But a week before shooting was supposed to begin, they gave it a quick read, and all of a sudden they pulled the money. The script pokes fun at the post-Soviet world and tinpot dictators. So they might have been worried about the reaction of some real-life leaders…”

There it was, we thought.  The project was dead.

Then, Ben Hopkins, the writer/director wrote the following on his website:

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013: On the 15th of Jan, shooting starts on one of the scripts I wrote with Pawel Pawlikowski... a comedy called EPIC, set in a fictitious Central Asian/Caucasian country called "Karastan" and dealing with (at least some of) the absurdities of making films, and fillm festivals. I am directing, the crew is Georgian and German, the budget is tight, the weather cold, the prospects nevertheless good. The shoot finishes off in Frankfurt at the end of February.

Exciting news, but still no direct confirmation that Matthew was still a part of Epic.

In the end, Ben Hopkins himself has answered our question.  He has told one of our forum members that filming begins on January 15th and Matthew Macfadyen and Myanna Buring are confirmed!

(A huge thank you to Matthew, Ben, Jane, Arco, Luce and Marina who have all been involved at various times in confirming that Matthew is a part of Epic)