Beaverbrook, who once employed Evelyn Waugh as a writer for his newspaper, the Sunday Express (which in the novel and film becomes the Daily Excess). Waugh's original name for his character was "Lord Ottercreek", before his lawyers intervened. Monomark, like Beaverbrook, a Canadian, is played by Dan Aykroyd, a Canadian. Exteriors were shot at various locations in and around London, including the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich and Eltham Palace. Interiors were filmed in Pinewood Studios. The soundtrack features several standards of the era, including "Nina", "Twentieth Century Blues", "Dance, Little Lady", and "The Party's Over Now", all performed by Noël Coward, "Mairzy Doats" by The Merry Macs, and "Hear My Song, Violetta" by Victor Silvester and His Orchestra. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2003, and was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival before its Royal European Charity Premiere in London on 28 September 2003. It went into theatrical release in the UK on 3 October 2003, the same day it was shown at the Dinard Festival of British Cinema in France. In the U.S., the film was shown at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, the Portland International Film Festival, the US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, the Cleveland International Film Festival, the Philadelphia International Film Festival, the Newport International Film Festival and the Provincetown International Film Festival before going into limited release on 20 August. It eventually grossed $931,755 in the U.S. and £869,053 in the UK. Critical reception A. O. Scott of The New York Times said, "Mr. Fry revels in the chaos of the plot, and the profusion of arch one-liners and zany set pieces gives the picture a hectic, slightly out-of-control feel. Sometimes you lose track of who is who, and where the various characters are going—but then, so do they. Subplots and tangents wander into view and then fade away, and in the end it all comes together and makes sense, more or less…Period dramas set on the eve of World War II are a dime—or maybe a shilling—a dozen, but what distinguishes this one is its dash and vigor. It does not seem to have been made just for the sake of the costumes and the vintage cars. The camera, rather than composing the action into a presentable pageant, plunges in, capturing the madness of the era in a swirl of colors and jolting close-ups. And Mr.