Brian Cox brought Glenrothan, his first film as a director, a comedy-drama of two estranged brothers and a Scottish distillery, to a special screening in Soho.
Brian Cox brought Glenrothan, his first film as a director, to the Ham Yard Hotel in Soho on Thursday 9 April 2026, for a UK special screening eight days before its release in British cinemas.
Cox was born in Dundee in 1946, trained at the Dundee Repertory Theatre and was a founding member of the Royal Lyceum before studying at LAMDA. With the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company he played King Lear, and he won two Laurence Olivier Awards, for Rat in the Skull and Titus Andronicus. On screen he worked in Manhunter, Braveheart and X2, and his Logan Roy in Succession won him a Golden Globe. He was appointed CBE in 2003.
The film, written by David Ashton and Jeff Murphy, is a comedy-drama set in Scotland’s whisky country. Alan Cumming plays Donal, who returns after decades in the United States to the family distillery and to his estranged brother, Sandy, played by Cox. Shirley Henderson and Alexandra Shipp are also in the cast, and it was filmed in Glasgow and the village of Gartmore in 2024. Ashton had written McLevy, the radio series in which Cox had worked.
It first screened at Toronto in September 2025. At the London evening Cox spoke of stepping behind the camera for the first time, something he said he had never expected to do.