FCUK New Cinema Backs Three Good Runners on Form
The UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund has announced support for three new films, totalling £1.67 million in production finance. All the filmmakers involved have previously been supported by UKFC in earlier projects.
Paul Trijbits of New Cinema Fund commented, “Sarah Gavron, Pawel Pawlikowski, Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsiger are now established filmmakers whose films are recognised by A-list film festivals and have garnered major awards. Their films challenge, provoke and entertain audiences all over the world. The New Cinema Fund is genuinely proud to be part of their ongoing work."
PAWEL PAWLIKOWSKI - The Restraint of Beasts
Principal photography has begun on Pawel Pawlikowski’s new feature, the black comedy The Restraint Of Beasts, starring Rhys Ifans (Enduring Love, Notting Hill), Eddie Marsan (Miami Vice, Vera Drake) Ben Whishaw (Perfume, Layer Cake), and Warren Clarke (O Lucky Man, Clockwork Orange). Produced by Tanya Seghatchian (Harry Potter),
The Restraint Of Beasts is adapted by Pawel Pawlikowski from Magnus Mills’ Booker Prize nominated novel of the same title. Tam and Richie, two Scottish labourers and their English foreman Eddie, are sent to build a fence on a god-forsaken hillside in the North of England. In a haze of fags and booze, their ineptitude takes a calamitous turn and they find themselves burying more than just fence posts.
The UK Film Council (through The Film Consortium) supported Pawlikowski and Seghatchian’s previous film, My Summer Of Love, winner of the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film at last year’s BAFTAs, two Evening Standard British Film Awards, the Michael Powell award at the 2004 Edinburgh Film Festival, and was nominated for four European Film Awards. The Restraint Of Beasts is an Apocalypso Pictures Production, the co- financiers are BBC Films, the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund, (who have invested £650,000 in the project) and the Wales Creative IP Fund. Capitol Films will handle worldwide sales.
NEIL HUNTER & TOM HUNSINGER - Sparkle
Principal photography has also begun on Sparkle, the third film from the writer/director team Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger of critics’ favourite Lawless Heart which received production funding from the UK Film Council. Produced by Martin Pope (who also produced Lawless Heart) and Michael Rose (executive producer of the Oscar winning Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Chicken Run), Sparkle is a Magic Light Pictures production, co -financed by Isle of Man Film, New Cinema Fund, Baker Street/Take 9 Partnership, North West Vision and the BBC Films.
Sparkle is a comedy about an opportunistic young Liverpudlian who comes to London and decides to sleep his way to the top. Life gets complicated when he meets a powerful older woman, then falls for a girl of his own age. Hunter and Hunsinger continue to develop their trademark technique of extended improvisation throughout the writing and casting process, and with Sparkle work with a new cast of acting talent including Bob Hoskins (Mrs Henderson Presents, Vanity Fair, Mona Lisa), Stockard Channing (Six Degrees of Separation, The West Wing), Lesley Manville (Vera Drake, All or Nothing), Amanda Ryan (Simon Magus, The Woodlanders) and rising star Shaun Evans (Being Julia, The Boy and Girl from County Clare).
The New Cinema Fund is investing £377,600 to this film and the Development Fund invested pre-production finance of £15,467. Sparkle will be distributed in the UK by Vertigo with Beyond handling international sales.
SARAH GAVRON - Seven Seas
The New Cinema Fund continues its support of upcoming film maker Sarah Gavron. The young director builds on the success of her drama This Little Life with her new drama Seven Seas. The film is produced by Ruby Films's Alison Owen (Proof, Sylvia,Elizabeth) and is co-funded by FilmFour in collaboration with the New Cinema Fund, which is investing £650,000.