Projects matching: Just

Synopsis

Birmingham is not exactly renowned as a movie location, but after Atom Egoyan recently put it on the map with Felicia's Journey comes another film set in the city. Justin Edgar and his co-writer Mike Dent both hail from the home of Spaghetti Junction, balti curries and the Bullring, so it was a natural choice as the backdrop for their teen comedy Large, which shot for six weeks on location in Birmingham.



The pair had previously collaborated on a short, Larging It, which led to the feature. They teamed up with producer Alex Usborne, whose credits include The Acid House and Tales From A Hard City, and debut director Edgar recruited a young cast of British newcomers as well as studding the film with comic cameos from TV personalities Les Dennis, Morwenna Banks and Phil Cornwell.



The film tells the story of young Jason Mousely, who on his 18th birthday is due to inherit a fortune from his late father, rock legend Barry 'Blaze' Mousely. The catch is that to collect his inheritance Jason must show himself to be the opposite of his departed dad - he has to be a responsible citizen with a steady job, a wholesome girlfriend and a respectful attitude to his stepmother. And he has just one day to prove it before he turns 18.



Large is produced by Sheffield-based Picture Palace North for FilmFour and The Film Consortium. The title is one of the first from FilmFour Lab's 2000 production slate, with the Lab's Robin Gutch describing it as the ideal film to launch the slate. It is, he says, "an evil brew of bawdy wit and adrenaline-powered comedy, with interior design to die for".

Synopsis

A sexy, glamorous, romantic comedy, in the style of classic 1930's Hollywood, with world famous songs by Cole Porter and Irving Berlin.


In 1939 the King of Navarre and his three best friends swear an oath to give up women for three years whilst devoting themselves to the study of philosophy. One of the terms of their pledge specifically prohibits women from their presence, but the arrival of the Princess of France and her three beautiful attendants on a diplomatic visit, throws the plan into disarray.


In secret the King and each of his friends pursue the girls and the entire court become intoxicated by love.


The mood is broken by the news of the death of the Princess's father and the girls return to France. France has fallen to the Nazis.


Before they leave, the heartbroken men must prove that their love is not just an infatuation and remain faithful to them. And as proof of their devotion the loving couples are happily reunited at the end of the war.

Synopsis

Jake and Steven are 16 and living in a small town on the South coast. It's the end of Christmas term and they're excited about the skiing holiday they're about to go on. But it's not just the holiday, it's everything. 16 going on 17 is a great age to be, and Jake and Steven know that the next year is going to be the best ever, with better parties, more laughs, even less parental control and all the girls a year older and maybe this year they'll make good promises.


So Jake, Steve and their classmates go with Mr. Diamond, their English teacher, to France to ski. One of their friends, Heather, has brought along a videocam and is making a documentary about them all, what they want, who they want, ambitions and fear, that kind of thing. Day one they hit the official slopes but the next days it's off-piste. The eleven friends lark about for Heather's camera when BANG! The avalanche hits and they're all swept away on a sea of snow.


Jake wakes up buried in a snow-cave next to Steven. He thinks they're both goners but next time he wakes up it's hospital, rescued. He finds Steven in a nearby bed. Everyone is dead, all of them, Heather, Mr. Diamond, everyone . . .


Back home it's a huge tragic news story. Jake and Steven fly back to their families and a grieving town with the coffins of their friends on the plane with them. As the town, school and families struggle to come to terms with it, Jake and Steven are lost, separated from everything, unable to understand.


They meet and talk. Why didn't we die too? What should we do? What's the point? They stand on a high cliff and look down. Should they jump? No. They decide they'll make a book and fill it with a series of tasks, not important tasks, just things they want to do before they die. And they'll spend the year doing them . . .

Synopsis

There was a man . . . and there was a shed. He needed to come . . . so he invented a gun . . . and that was the start of something beautiful.

Synopsis

Frank (Matthew Rhys) plays a college drop out who faces a summer of discontent. With his two close friends the boys pass the summer talking about girls, talking about chasing girls and, well, chasing girls. Kelly Reilly plays Cherry, the object of Frank's affections.





Based on Nick Grosso's West End play, 'Peaches' is an hilarious snapshot of contemporary urban youth.

Synopsis

Nick Grosso's award-winning play Peaches, produced by the Royal Court in association with the National Theatre Studio in 1994, launched the career of one of Britain's most promising new playwrights. Grosso now dons the director's hat with this adaptation of the play for the big screen, an ordeal that took some six years to realise.

Exploring the identity crisis afflicting so many young 1990s men, the story revolves around sex-obsessed Frank and his student friends. From a Leeds college bar to the pubs of North London, their emotional adventures are charted in the seemingly nonchalant and comically-hip language of confused and hapless twentysomethings.

Frank's summer as a carefree slacker looks rosy until his best friend starts a job scheme. Then, when his other mate moves in with a girl and a college sweetheart tells him a big secret, Frank's world starts to spin out of control.

The film was inspired by Grosso's own personal philosophy when, as a student, life "wasn't about work, but about getting up in the morning -- about chicks and babes. Work was just a distraction".

Besides Grosso's status as a voice of his generation, the film's saleability rests on its two stars, Matthew Rhys and Kelly Reilly. The former is an up-and-comer whose credits include the soon-to-be-released Sorted and Titus, the latter was recently seen in Ben Elton's Maybe Baby, and both have starred alongside Kathleen Turner in the West End stage version of The Graduate.

Shot with backing from a mix of private equity finance and the Irish Film Board, the film will be offered to agents and distributors in the autumn.

Synopsis

Like all the films produced by Peakviewing, Pets is an adventure intended for the whole family. Josh Grolman and Jenna Dover star as a brother and sister who get embroiled in a battle over a truck full of stolen gold bullion while their parents are meeting the bank manager in a last-ditch attempt to save their farm from foreclosure. The children call on the unlikeliest of allies -- their pets -- who club together to see off the crooks and save the day.



Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the film is that it was shot over just six weeks at the end of last year. That the film features a cast of talking live and animatronic animals makes that breakneck shooting schedule all the more remarkable.



"Babe had something like a year, but we had to keep the schedule down for budget reasons," says director David Lister. "The animatronic animals made a big difference. They are a lot more controllable than real animals, who tended to squabble amongst themselves. It really worked best when we had a live animal and an animatronic puppet. It's quite a stylised film -- the animals talk, so you have to suspend disbelief -- but we used lots of primary colours in the design and occasionally went for unusual camera angles to heighten that stylised sense."



Since then, Lister has shot two further films for Peakviewing: Dazzle, a romantic comedy about a fairy with amnesia, and spooky story The Meeksville Ghost.

Synopsis

Poached tells the story of a young salmon poacher who comes to terms with his desire to leave his problematic family and homeland. Set in the rural community of the Scottish borders.

Synopsis

Pete's (Rhys Ifans) business is going bust, his sperm count is dodgy, and his relationship with Sarah (Sadie Frost) is on the rocks. He's infatuated with his secretary Charlie (Dani Behr), despite her being hitched to his bike-messenger Trevor (Andrew Howard) and he's spending too much time in Harry's (Nick Moran) coke den. In short, Pete's in trouble.


Then his charming Irish accountant and boyhood pal Deeny (Joseph Fiennes) fixes up a meeting with the mysterious Russian Mr Kant (Steven Berkoff) and his 'assistant' (actually his daughter) Masha (Tara Fitzgerald). Masha and Pete get it together and Mr Kant comes over with the emergency loan. Pete is saved.


But then comes the payback: Pete is summoned off the M25 by Masha, and ordered to Russia. There, he is taken in hand by Dr Jones (Keith Allen), Mr Kant's guru, made love to again by Masha - and then appears to be killed by Mr Kant's terrifying bodyguard (Olegario Fedoro) as a warning to other Western 'partners'. Meanwhile it's clear that Deeny set the whole thing up and is plotting to take over Pete's firm - indeed his whole life.


However, Pete's not dead. Returning to London, he finds Sarah's pregnant and he's got to kill Deeny. The only people Pete can turn to are Charlie and Trevor. Masha is pregnant too and Mr Kant won't intervene.


Pete's got a great plan, and Masha agrees to help with the greatest - and most bizarrely convincing alibi ever, but just as its all coming together Pete learns that Deeny has Sarah and Charlie at his mercy. Now Masha and Mr Kant must help and race to his aid, but Pete has to face Deeny alone, head-to-head, and right up to the final frames.

Synopsis

When producer Alison Owen first read the script for Rat, written by 65-year-old Irish writer Wesley Burrowes, she was convinced "it had been written by some post-modernist kid out of film school". An easy mistake to make given that the script she describes as a "Kafka comedy" is about a Guinness-loving man who comes home from the pub only to turn into a rat.



"For me, the joke was never that a man turns into a rat, it was more the humorous potential of a clash of perspectives," says Burrowes. "You have an ordinary family to whom this tragic thing happens and the real comedy is in the way they receive it. They're immensely pragmatic, ordinary, decent people and suddenly this calamity occurs and they proceed to treat it as if it's just one of those domestic events that are upsetting... like woodworm in the furniture."



Director Steve Barron signed on immediately, as did Stewart Till of Universal Pictures International. Production took place in Ireland in November 1999 with Imelda Staunton and Pete Postlethwaite in the key roles of wife and husband rat. Barron and Owen took the unusual decision to use real rather than animatronic rats.



"Our film is sort of opposite to films like Stuart Little or Babe," Owen explains. "Whereas those films are all about the audience imbuing the animal with human characteristics, in Rat the characters are imbuing the rats with human personalities and the audience sees this as completely ridiculous."



Rat premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in July to great audience acclaim.

Synopsis

When misanthrope Russell Square falls under a tube train he thinks his troubles are over. However, finding that he has fallen into a bizarre nowhere called The Gap, inhabited by an Angel called Islington, he realises that his troubles have only just begun.

Synopsis

When seven-year-old Davy is trapped inside his home with the man who nearly killed his mother, he is forced to fight back. Fuelled by fear he grabs the opportunity to retaliate with the only weapons he has at his disposal - the shiny new keys he wears around his neck.