Projects with status: Complete

Synopsis

In a deserted street stands a box on which are written the instructions 'insert £1 coin'. Various people approach the box to try and unlock its secrets and to discover the strange noise from within.

Synopsis

A chance encounter: as a boy cycles up a quiet country lane, an apple falls from tree and rolls downhill towards him.

Synopsis

French/German border - late 1944. The forests of the Ardennes. A platoon of battle-weary German soldiers, forced into confusion and retreat by advancing Allied forces, take refuge in an isolated Siegfried Line bunker. As night falls and a rainstorm begins to blow, the exhausted soldiers huddle in the concrete shelter - trapped by the advancing GI's.

A brief and violent assault upon the Bunker from the surrounding Americans is followed by a period of tense calm and, in the cold darkness of the bunker, the wise older soldier, MIRUS, mischievously relates to the others a story he'd heard from locals in the nearby village. The ancient surrounding forest, he reveals, is haunted; witches were burned here in the middle ages and, during the Black Death, the infected victims had been slaughtered and buried here, in an attempt to cleanse the village. At the same time, the newcomers also learn of adjoining tunnels, which connect the bunker to an abandoned underground munitions storage complex which might well be the only way out.

An eerie noir thriller in the classic tradition of Val Lewton's 'psychological horror' films of the 1940's, relying on character, mood and inference, rather than the contemporary trend of graphic violence - a chilling metaphorical tale which combines the best elements of Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron and Robert Wise's The Haunting.

Synopsis

Light satiric drama about the chaotic pleasure of relationships. The young caretaker, Johnny, sees himself as a non-believer in love, until he bumps into a French girl, Marie, under a bed!

Synopsis

Daniel Dillon sold his wife and child - and then tried to buy forgiveness.

California 1849. The snowbound goldfields are littered with countless hopefuls rushing to make their fortune. Among them are the poor Irish immigrant Daniel Dillon, his wife Elena and baby daughter, Hope. Lost in a blizzard, exhausted and starving, they stumble upon a lonely hut with a sign above which reads 'Thy Kingdom Come'.

Fuelled by drink and a lust for gold, Dillon sells his wife and child to the prospector who lives there, in exchange for a gold claim.

Twenty years later Elena and Hope return to the pioneer settlement of Kingdom Come. Although rough and tough, the town is prosperous and Dillon is now a wealthy man of considerable authority, having as his mistress the local madam, Lucia.

The Claim is an epic story against the backdrop of American history in the making. This is a world of sweeping snowbound landscapes, goldmines, rowdy saloon bars and the racket and bustle of a pioneer town.

Hard times where jealousy and rejection take their toll and where one momentary lapse of weakness, twenty years earlier brings, a final and terrible retribution.
 
Based on Thomas Hardy's 'The Mayor of Casterbridge'.

Synopsis

Based on the story of the Shining Path, the terrorist movement responsible for taking Peru to the brink, The Dancer Upstairs will be John Malkovich's directorial debut.

Peru in the mid-1980s is collapsing under the onslaught of a highly organised terrorist movement, and a man named Rejas (Javier Bardem) finds himself unexpectedly at the centre of the action.

Charged with the near-impossible task of identifying and capturing the mysterious leader Ezequiel, Rejas is hampered by the corruption of his superiors and a frighteningly complacent public. As daily bombings strike at the government's foundations, a surreal cocktail of martial law, savage violence and end-of-the-world gaiety grips the nation. Under severe pressure, and perhaps intoxicated himself, he falls for Yolanda (Laura Morante) his daughter's devastatingly beautiful ballet teacher, thus stumbling into a quiet warehouse on the capital's outskirts - and the very heart of the terrorist organisation.

Synopsis

The Devil's Music is a feature film set in London in the early sixties.

It is a drama set against the revolution that tore apart the existing social fabric and which laid the foundations for the music - rhythm and blues - that still dominates the music scene today.

The film portrays the lives of three young musicians who struggle to form a rhythm and blues band and who are destined to become the greatest rock and roll band in the world.

All the music and songs within the film are original and based on the driving rhythm and blues that is the inspiration for many of today's bands.

In order to progress their careers, the members of the band dabble in dark areas and are captured by forces beyond their control.

The film deals explicitly with the dark side of the sixties social and music revolution.

The Bible makes it clear that the Devil has an agenda and the music and rhythm of the drum are his tools.

The band members learn to their cost that if you play the devil's music, rhythm and blues, you must dance to his tune - lust, betrayal and death.

Synopsis

Four guys on a journey to make the drop. Dr. Hook, Leo Sayer and cultural self evaluation in a black Mercedes 190.

Synopsis

In an elevator a chance encounter between two men creates an atmosphere which instigates presumptions. A question belying preconception cultivates these presumptions which mutate through ignorance into fear during the journey downwards. A man's mind disintegrates. The past explains all and we then witness the final, beautiful scene.

Synopsis

The Emperor's New Clothes tells the little-known story of Napoleon Bonaparte's comeback. It relates to the hitherto untold, funny and romantic tale of the diminutive world conqueror's secret return to France from exile, in disguise, to reclaim his throne and his imperial glory.

Synopsis

A knockabout comedy of fragile friendships and five pound notes.

Synopsis

A true lesbian horror flick in the Hammer tradition. In the desolation of an empty house, Mina, the heiress, discovers she is not alone.