Projects with status: Complete

Synopsis

You can't cheat Death forever or can you? The Gift of Death is a fantasy folk story in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm, with some unusual twists in the tale. A young man has Death as his godmother and she gives him the ability to bring the sick back from the brink of dying but only sometimes. He becomes famous and successful, but ultimately finds his own life in jeopardy.

Synopsis

Leicester, 1972. T-Rex are chewing up the charts and Jack, a mixed race teenager with a lot more than schoolwork on her mind, has a hectic month of growing up to do. This is coming-of-age, Midlands-style: forget the Prom, corridor passes and making out at the drive-in. Think Baked Alaska, the Colgate ring of confidence and sneaky cigarettes behind the bike sheds.


When we first meet Jack it's the day of her first period and just four weeks before she has to run the race of her life for a place on the county athletics squad. Convinced she is champion material, her bullish PE teacher, Mr Loughborough, is piling on the pressure to train hard, and buys her a long-coveted pair of swanky red trainers to demonstrate his commitment.


But a 13-year-old's life is not just one long 200 metres: Jack shines in academia and art class as well as on the track, and she's got her eye on a rather handsome classmate called Steven Green. Sex, 'frigging' and the big 'V' are the subject of every school bus seminar and playground pow wow. And Jack's mum Vivian is determined to keep a beady eye on her daughter's new-found interest in matters carnal. Vivian is also convinced her daughter is about to be offered a cocktail of class A drugs on every street corner.


While on a school cross-country run up to the local tourist trap and nookie spot, Jack is approached by Spanner, a David Cassidy look-alike with a nice line in cannabis consumption and floppy hair. He introduces Jack to the delights of getting slowly wasted in the sun. Meanwhile Jack's best friend Maxine sets her pal up in a garage tryst to do the deed with Steven Green and his spotty mate Poor Bastard. But the three of them are disturbed by a local policeman. By now determined to throw off her cumbersome virginity, Jack steals a handful of contraceptive pills from her mum's bedside cabinet and finally gets together with Spanner...

Synopsis

The Governess is a moving love story set in the 1830's. When Rosina Da Silva's father is killed, she is forced to disguise her Jewish identity and seek employment in the world outside the sheltered East London community in which she was born and brought up. The only job that she can find is on a remote island in Scotland as governess to a spoilt young girl, Clementina. Her employer, Charles Cavendish, is a mysterious man, who is conducting secret experiments in a wing of the old house. When Rosina, overcome by curiosity, breaks into his workroom at night, she discovers that he is experimenting with photography, working towards a solution which will fix the fleeting images he has taken.


Cavendish, lonely and unrecognised in his work, invites Rosina to join him in his workroom. They begin an intense and passionate affair. When Cavendish's son Henry returns home from university, this affair takes a turn that threatens to tear the whole family apart.

Synopsis

A statue of 'The Happy Prince' (happy because he had devoted his life to pleasure behind his palace walls) looks out with horror at the destitution of his citizens. He persuades a little swallow to abandon his winter trip to Egypt and be his messenger, a job which entails stripping the statue of its precious jewels and gold to help feed the poor. Winter sets in, the once sparkling statue now looks grey and crumbling.

Synopsis

On a remote German island in the Baltic sea, a young, idealistic bookseller dreams of a different life. A chance meeting with a beautiful Irish musician and a mysterious, enigmatic man catapults him into an unconventional underworld and an adventure far beyond the realms of his imagination.

Synopsis

A fiery drama detailing the uncanny friendship of two hard-living men, and one woman, set against the sweeping backdrop of America's south west in the years following the Second World War.

Synopsis

Directed by Simon Donald, who has adapted his successful play for the screen, The Life of Stuff is like life itself, a brutal blend of comedy, thrills and the unexpected.


Wannabe gangster Willie Dobie has bought a squalid warehouse, which he plans to turn into a flagship of his criminal empire. Believing he has eliminated his arch rival, 'Mad Alec Sneddon', he plans to hold the party of a lifetime to celebrate. Helping to organise this event are his main henchmen, the psychotic David Arbogast and eczema-ridden Leonard. Making up this motley crew are Holly and Evelyn, lured to the party by the promise of a good time and good drugs; Fraser, the innocent perpetrator of Sneddon's demise, and Janice, who also played an unwitting part in the murder - both now trapped in the basement.


During the course of the evening, with events spiralling ever more crazily out of control, Dobie is brought violently to the realisation that his dream of 'donship' is just that; a dream which will be shot down in flames as Sneddon avenges his 'death'.

Synopsis

The film tells the story of a lonely old man who is looking for a way to recreate the happiness he enjoyed a long time ago. Believing that companionship or even romance is the key to that happiness, he pays particular attention to his female next door neighbour. While spying on her, the situtation starts to become darker and stranger.

Synopsis

A magical tale about the power of romantic love, shot over six days in London.

Synopsis

Victor Bukowski is an out-of-work actor with problems. He's got a lousy agent, he makes a habit of falling out with directors - and he's still in love with his ex-girlfriend Sylvia - who's marrying Dave tomorrow. Victor blames himself for causing the break-up of the relationship by telling her he was having an affair, and he refuses to let the past go. In desperation he has resorted to slashing his rival's tyres, bombarding Sylvia with flowers, losing all self respect in a vain effort to win her back. He discusses this with his exasperated best mate Freddy, the local tobacconist and anyone else who'll listen. And there's no love lost between Victor and Sylvia's best friend Alison. She thinks he's a phoney, neurotic clown - and she doesn't rate him much as an actor either. But Victor knows he and Sylvia had something special, something unrepeatable, and if only he'd played by the rules...





When he pours his heart out to sympathetic barmaid Diane, he finds himself embarking on an unexpected and magical emotional journey, meeting aspiring novelist Louise along the way. Drunk and dishevelled, Victor stumbles into the pouring rain and decides to end it all. But then a dustcart appears over the bridge and Victor is rescued by two dustmen Rafael and Don Miguel. Just how different would life be if Victor could go back to that warm August Bank Holiday...

Synopsis

In a last-ditch attempt to save a Boston Senator's chances of re-election to Washington, his campaign director, Marcy, flies to Ballinamore in Ireland and to her bemusement, arrives during the annual matchmaking festival. Her mission is to shoot a campaign film presenting her boss as a family values candidate close to his Irish roots, but what awaits her on the Emerald Isle is not exactly what she had anticipated.

Synopsis

'The Misadventures of Margaret' is a romantic comedy set in two time frames - contemporary New York and 18th Century France.





It tells the story of a young American academic, Margaret Nathan, whose ordered, safe existence and seven year-old marriage to English professor Edward starts to fall apart when she begins to adapt a French diary, written by a dashing but pompous 18th Century man of letters, known simply as The Philosopher.





The diary relates the seduction by the Philosopher of a Young Girl, newly arrived from England, and her subsequent undermining of his dearly-held opinions regarding life and love.





As Margaret continues to adapt the diary, she begins to question not only her marriage but also her philosophy of life. Her vivid imagination catapults her into a series of encounters that include her handsome, but rather dim, dentist Dr Lipi, the charmingly earnest sound engineer, Martin and her bi-sexual friend, Lily. At the same time she forces her sister Till Turner to re-evaluate her own relationship with her womanising novelist husband Art.





When Margaret beings to suspect that Edward is having an affair with one of his young students, the terribly determined Sarah from Brighton, she moves in with her gay best friend and cynical publisher, Richard Lane, in order, as she says 'to throw her last scruple to the wind'.





Will Margaret's marriage survive her 'misadventures'? Will she?





Based on Cathleen Schine's acclaimed comic novel, 'Rameau's Niece', 'The Misadventures of Margaret' is a very contemporary film with a know-ing nod to Hollywood's Golden Age of comedy.