First official trailer for “Elsinore”: Andrew Scott in a chilling role as the actor who played Hamlet while dying — in cinemas November 20

Focus Features released on Monday the first official trailer for the biographical drama “Elsinore,” in which Andrew Scott plays Scottish actor Ian Charleson in the final months of his life. As Collider reports, the footage opens with Scott inside a dark theater, preparing to take the stage as Shakespeare’s Hamlet — the role that would become his farewell to the audience.

The film, directed by Simon Stone and written by Stephen Beresford (from an idea by Ethan Silverman), follows the true story of Charleson, the star of “Chariots of Fire,” who was diagnosed with AIDS in the 1980s — at a time when the diagnosis was almost a death sentence. In 1989, seriously ill, he replaced Daniel Day-Lewis in the role of Hamlet at London’s National Theatre, after Day-Lewis walked out of the production mid-run. His universally acclaimed performance turned out to be his swan song — Charleson died a few months later, at the age of 40, and insisted that the cause of his death be made public, helping raise awareness of the then poorly understood epidemic.

Alongside Scott, the film stars Olivia Colman as Dr. Margaret Johnson, one of Britain’s first doctors specializing in AIDS, as well as Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Luke Thompson, David Dawson, Matthew Beard, Joe Locke, Monica Dolan, Georgie Glen, Sadie Soverall, Adeel Akhtar, Dickie Beau, Kadiff Kirwan, Juliet Stevenson and Peter Mullan. Scott is also a producer of the film.

“Elsinore” had its world premiere at the Telluride Festival and was honored at Toronto’s, and it will also open the London Film Festival in October. Critics’ reception has been enthusiastic — the film holds 89% on Rotten Tomatoes — and Scott’s performance, according to Collider, is described as “authentic and scorching,” already entering end-of-year awards conversations.

Distribution begins in select cinemas on November 20, expanding over Thanksgiving and in December — right at the peak of awards season.