Ian McKellen Forced to Skip TIFF Premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s ‘The Christophers’ on Medical Advice: ‘Better Safe Than Sorry’

It was doctor’s orders, but sadly Ian McKellen couldn’t attend the Toronto Film Festival premiere of “The Christophers,” a new Steven Soderbergh film that gives the Oscar nominee his meatiest role in years. In a pre-taped introduction, McKellen said his “medical advisers” told him he shouldn’t fly.

“Better safe than sorry,” the 86-year-old actor said. McKellen went on to note that the last time he was in the city was in 1999 when he was shooting “X-Men,” the comic book adventure that saw him originate the role of Magneto, a part he will reprise in the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday.”

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“If you enjoy it, will you tell your friends,” McKellen beseeched the audience at the Princess of Wales Theatre. “That’s partly what festivals are about, isn’t it?”

McKellen may not have been on hand, but Soderbergh was there, along with screenwriter Ed Solomon and his co-stars Michaela Coel and Jessica Gunning. “The Christophers,” which came to TIFF looking to land distribution, is about a crotchety painter (McKellen) whose estranged children (Gunning and James Corden) hire a forger (Coel) to steal and complete some of his unfinished painters so they can have a bigger inheritance. The audience seemed to eat up the twisty comedy, which gives McKellen the opportunity to unleash one delicious putdown after the other.

Soderbergh said “The Christophers” came out of an idea he had to create a film around a Tom Ripley-esque character. The finished product ended up taking a much gentler tone than a typical Patricia Highsmith joint.

“I had always wanted to be doing something about a lot of mentors of mine in both writing and comedy who had given up, and we started talking, and immediately I said, Oh my God, I know what this is about,” Solomon said during a Q&A following the first screening of “The Christophers.”

“Ed brought to it something that I thought was deeper and more fun, frankly, so I just encouraged him to go and take a run at it,” Soderbergh added.

Coel said she loved working with McKellen, calling him a “hero.”

“He’s just the loveliest soul,” Coel said, adding, “He just had an upward spirit…I loved the idea of a character like Ian McKellen and me coming together and like loving each other.”