Projects in genres: Literary Adaptation

Synopsis

Julia Lambert is a celebrated and glamorous actress, famous throughout England and happily married for years to her agent, Michael. But underneath the artifice, she is tortured by her fading looks, her philandering husband and her estranged son. When she meets Tom, a young American fan, she is swept off her feet, and embarks on a secret and passionate affair which threatens to create a social scandal that could destroy her career and marriage; until she discovers he has had an ulterior motive all along. There is no way that Julia Lambert is going to be taken for a fool, and she plans her revenge, the ultimate act of a woman scorned.

Synopsis

When a wedding comes to a small town in the Indian countryside, it's a good opportunity for Mrs Bakshi to find eligible mates for her four daughters, but the smart and headstrong Lalita is determined to marry for love. Sparks fly when she meets the handsome American Will Darcy, but is it love or hate?   Gurinder Chadha directs this Bollywood-style re-telling of Jane Austen's classic tale of marriage and manners, transplanted to modern-day India, England and America, and complete with lavish musical spectacle.

Synopsis

In Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, we find Bridget (Renee Zellweger) where we left her - in the arms of gorgeous human rights lawyer Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). But what happens after the happy ending?

Synopsis

Set against a primitive and unforgiving landscape, Cold Mountain tells the story of Inman (Jude Law), a wounded Confederate soldier who is on a perilious journey home to his mountain community, hoping to reunite with his pre-war sweetheart Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman). In his absence, Ada struggles to survive and revive her father's farm with the help of an intrepid young drifter Ruby Thewes (Renee Zellweger).   Directed by Anthony Minghella from a screenplay he wrote based on Charles Frazier's National Book Award winning Civil War novel of the same name, Cold Mountain stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Ray Winstone, Donald Sutherland, Brendan Gleeson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Giovanni Ribisi, Natalie Portman, Kathy Baker, James Gammon, Eileen Atkins, Charlie Hunman, Jack White, Jena Malone, Lucas Black, Ethan Suplee.

Synopsis

On a beautiful cloudless day a young couple celebrate their reunion with a picnic. Joe Rose and his girlfriend Claire are about to open a bottle of champagne when a cry interrupts them. A hot-air balloon with a child in the basket and an adult being dragged behind it has been ripped from its moorings. Joe immediately joins in with an effort to bring the balloon to safety, but in the ensuing rescue attempt a man is killed.   Witness to this tragic accident is bystander, Jed Parry. Joe and Jed exchange a passing glance - a glance which carries devastating consequences and which indelibly burns an obsession into Jed's soul. Delusional and dangerous, Jed's fixation gradually uproots Joe's life; testing the lmits of his beloved rationalism, threatening the love of Claire and driving him to the brink of murder and madness.   Based on Ian McEwan's best-selling novel of the same name, Enduring Love is a story of love, faith and suspense, and how life can change in an instant.

Synopsis

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermione return as teenagers to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for their third year of study, where they delve into the mystery surrounding an escaped prisoner who poses a dangerous threat to the young wizard.

Synopsis

Layer Cake, a metaphor for the many murky layers of the criminal world, is set in modern day London and features smooth-talking and sophisticated drug dealer 'X' whose plan is to quietly bank-roll enough cash to retire young (early). Operating under the polished veneer of a legitimate businessman, his mantra is to keep a low profile and run a tight operation until it's time to get out.    'X' sees his opportunity to make a final score when crime boss, Jimmy Price, asks him to find the wayward daughter of rival crime boss, Eddy Temple. He agrees to take the seemingly innocuous gig as his opportunity to get out of the business with the blessing from Jimmy Price. From the glitz of the London club scene to the underbelly of its criminal world, a dark, twisted thriller ensues.    When a seemingly straight-forward drug deal goes awry, 'X' realises he has to break his die-hard rules and turn up the heat, not only to outwit the old regime and come out on top but to save his own skin.

Synopsis

In the summer of 1970, Belfast's lines of division were still being drawn. Two young boys from 'up the road' and 'over the bridge' escape the confines of a city overshadowed by hatred and fear by becoming their heroes, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Together they swear an oath to be blood brothers for life and flee an imploding city for the freedom of the Australian outback.

Synopsis

Mona has just got hold of a brilliant moped that only cost a tenner. No engine but still dirt-cheap. She lives with her brother, Phil, who used to run a pub before he found God and poured away all the booze. Tamsin is rich, spoilt and trying to live a life of seductive decadence.   Mona and Tamsin meet on the moors, above their quiet Yorkshire village and begin an intense, unlikely friendship. While Tamsin is tragic and fantastical, Mona is rough and witty. Tamsin is quickly charmed and Mona is hooked. Both want to escape their lives but Phil wants to save them, and everybody else. Mona wants the old, dangerous Phil back; the brother that she loved, but Tamsin wants to see what it takes to break him. As the lives of the three characters converge, a sexually charged struggle between good and evil leads to a dramatic and shocking climax.  

Synopsis

It is 1661, and Edward Knyaston (Billy Crudup) is theatre land's most famous "leading lady". Overnight his life is shattered by the Reformation law, which forbids an actor to play women on stage. Seemingly headed for the bottom of a bottle, it is up to his lovelorn dresser Maria (Claire Danes) to teach him what it means to be a man again.   A beautiful, touching and funny period romp about, love sex and everything in-between.

Synopsis

When The Bridge of San Luis Rey breaks, five travellers are precipitated into the gulf below. Was it chance or the hand of God that brought these five together at that fatal time in that place? Or were they in some way responsible, themselves, for what happened? These questions are raised with uncynical compassion and answered by Wilder with an indirect affirmation of the power of love.   Set in early 18th century Peru at the height of the Spanish Inquisition, this timeless story of delicately interwoven lives traverses worlds as diverse as the theatres, convents, brothels and docks of Lima, Peru to the sea-faring explorations, scientific institutions and courts of Madrid, Spain.   'Soon, we too shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten, there is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.' (Thornton Wilder, 1927)

Synopsis

Based on the acclaimed novel by John King, The Football Factory is about a forgotten culture of males fed up with being told they're no good and using violence as a drug they describe as being more potent than sex and drugs put together.  Adapted and directed by Nick Love, The Football Factory is seen through the eyes of four men, all of who have a different story to tell about their experience with tribal culture on the terraces of the beautiful game.  Tommy Johnson (Danny Dyer); a bright thirty year old with a steady job and close family leads us through the story and is the link to the other three characters.  Billy Bright (Frank Harper); a right wing fascist who forms part of the older generation of the Chelsea Headhunters but is full of bitterness in what he sees as a country that has failed him.  Zeberdee (Roland Manookian) a mouthy hooligan whose life has already run into the cul de sac of crime and drugs.  And Bill Farrell; a seventy year old war veteran who tries to enjoy every day to the limit.  The Football Factory is frighteningly real yet full of painful humour as the four character's extreme thoughts and actions unfold before us.