Projects in genres: Literary Adaption

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.    

Synopsis

'The Republic of Love' is a warm hearted love story set in a cold city, a paradox that explores all the issues, dilemmas and barriers facing the lucky and unlucky in love in the 21st century.

Synopsis

The Statement shines a light on some of the darkest corners of the religious and political establishment. Set in modern day France, it is the story of Pierre Brossard who, as a young man, was a war criminal under the Vichy regime. Brossard has never been brought to trial and has lived a peaceful and anonymous life sheltered by right-wing elements within the Catholic Church. A new investigation into his crimes is launched and Brossard finds himself the target of hit men on the one hand and police investigators on the other. A wily old fox, he keeps outwitting his pursuers while desperately trying to figure out who they are.

Synopsis

Touching The Void is based on the international best seller by renowned climber Joe Simpson, which describes one of the most extraordinary true stories of survival and adventure of our time. The book recounts a climb Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, undertook in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. The two young and ambitious mountaineers set off to scale the hitherto unclimbed west face of Siula Grande, a remote and treacherous 21,000ft peak.   Starting the descent through a blizzard, Simpson fell, shattering his leg. An heroic battle for survival unfolded in which both men were faced with life or death decisions which test the human spirit to its limit. Simpson and Yates returned to Siula Grande together for the first time to retell their story for the camera.

Synopsis

Diagrams of chemistry apparatus and educational film footage react and combine in this quirky interpretation of a poem by Nobel Laureate chemist Roald Hoffmann. The film is an experiment to illustrate how technology changes the way we represent the world with results that prove ironic and inconclusive.

Synopsis

Set in the 1930s, the world of the Bright Young Things is one of nightclubs, dancing, jazz and speed. Their lives revolve around an endless series of parties and pleasure seeking: motorcars, jazz bands, gossip journalism, drugs, gramophones - Inevitably, however, the frantic pace of living takes its toll and one by one they begin to crash and burn in the search for newer and faster sensations.

Synopsis

Set in 17th century Holland, Girl With A Pearl Earring tells the imagined and highly suspenseful story behind one of Vermeer's greatest and most enigmatic paintings. Griet, a tilemaker's daughter, is forced by tragedy to become a maid for the master painter. Fascinated by his craft, she soon shows an aptitude for helping in his studio, where she finds herself drawn to the man and his world of colour and light. As she becomes part of his work, their growing intimacy spreads disruption and jealousy within his ordered household and beyond, fuelling a scandal which threatens to ruin them all.