The Cult of the Count Tolstoy
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Michael Hoffman's films have been fueled by powerful scripts and an almost mystical blending of established talent and young stars-to-be. In 2002's The Emperor's Club, an idealistic and possibly closeted private school teacher (Kevin Kline) is confronted with a brazenly manipulative transfer student (a brilliant job of scene-stealing by a then-14-year-old Emile Hirsch) whose unbridled ambition threatens the futures of his less-assertive classmates (Paul Dano, fresh off LIE, and a soon-to-be hot as a pistol Jesse Eisenberg). The Last Station benefits in every possible way from Scottish sensation James McAvoy.

"I think people feel they've watched a movie about this tempestuous marriage between these two titanic personalities, but really the movie is all about the sentimental education of the Valentin character. And this is a remarkable quality that James has, I saw it in The Last King of Scotland, and I immediately went hunting for his phone number because even in that film, where he's a pretty morally compromised character, you still give yourself over to him and allow him to become your eyes and ears, your heart and soul in terms of your experience of the story. He's a great writer, by the way, and actually he and I rewrote several scenes over the course of rehearsals. My prediction: James McAvoy will be a wonderful film director."

Hoffman noted that part of McAvoy's almost invisible contribution to the film is to soften the edges of Helen Mirren's hard-charging Countess Sofya, who at one point in the film seems to lose her mind, grabs a pistol and commits a symbolic assassination by shooting holes in a picture of her rival, Chertkov.

"Sofya is not such a sympathetic character, and Helen's done an amazing thing to make you like her. She's never ingratiating, never self-pitying, she's always dignified – that creates a chance for the audience to really connect with her. So the fact that James is gradually falling for her helps a lot, because you trust James so much."

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