It's still pretty early to be talking too earnestly about next year's Oscars, but as is always the case at this time of year, some major frontrunners have already begun to emerge for the top prizes.
There can be no doubt that one of those is John Malkovich. The veteran star's leading turn in new film Wild Horse Nine – which is out now in UK cinemas – has seen him named the current favourite for the best actor gong ahead of Andrew Scott for Elsinore and Matt Damon for The Odyssey, as he looks to earn the first Academy Award of his impressive career.
The film is the latest from In Bruges and The Banshees of Inisherin writer/director Martin McDonagh, and when the filmmaker spoke exclusively to Radio Times at the recent London Film Festival he admitted that he didn't think any other actor "could have been so good" in the movie.
In fact, Malkovich is well suited for the role that you might imagine McDonagh had written the part especially for him. But it turns out that wasn't actually the case.
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"That came later," McDonagh explained. "I wrote Sam Rockwell's part for Sam. All of the things I've worked with Sam on [also including Seven Psychopaths and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri] I've written for Sam, actually. But not for John."
He continued: "But I can't imagine any other actor in the world who could have done what John did with the part. His danger and his dexterity with comedy were amazing. But it's also the quiet moments of remorse that John comes into his own. He's just brilliant in the film."
Asked if there were any particular line deliveries or moments from the performance that had especially wowed him, McDonagh admitted there was one moment very early on in the process when he knew he was onto a winner.
"There was one line where both Sam and I during rehearsals... John just kind of blew us away with his line reading of it," he explained.
"And we knew we were going to be in for a good next two and a half months of working with him. Because he can be scary, you know. He's a lovely guy, but when does the scary thing, the scary John Malkovich thing, it's astonishing."
Malkovich plays an ageing CIA agent named Chris in the film, which sees the character and his fellow agent Lee (Rockwell) head to Easter Island not long before the Chilean coup in 1973.
Between bouts of sightseeing, Chris – who is aware he is nearing the end of his life and career – reckons with his dark past in the agency while also dealing with some more pressing threats.
Fans of McDonagh's previous films will definitely notice some familiar themes and motifs from his earlier works in Wild Horse Nine, not to mention plenty of his characteristic witty dialogue.
Asked whether he tended to think about the connections between each of his films as he was writing them, McDonagh admitted that that was the case "to a degree." But he believes there are certain aspects to this new one that represent a new frontier for him.
"I think this one has a seemingly similar setup to In Bruges," he said. "In terms of two cranky blokes arguing in a beautiful, strange location.
"But I think part of that setup is often to subvert it to a degree, so I think this one particularly goes to a political place that none of my films have before, maybe.
"And I find that kind of fascinating. That you can gently bring an audience or your audience into something they feel comfortable with and then twist it a little bit."
Wild Horse Nine is now showing in UK cinemas.
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