Projects matching: Just

Synopsis

Reuniting the Merchant-Prawer-Jhabvala-Ivory team with Henry James following The Europeans in 1979 and The Bostonians in 1984, The Golden Bowl is the story of two impoverished lovers (Uma Thurman and Jeremy Northam) who decide to wed for money -- she to an American billionaire (Nick Nolte), he to the billionaire's daughter (Kate Beckinsale). Concealing their relationship from both spouses, the couple carry on their clandestine relationship until it ends in tragedy partly due to her cruel manipulations. The golden bowl of the title, which plays a key role in the lovers' secrets and lies, is a beautifully crafted object with a hairline crack almost invisible to the eye.



Director James Ivory had been mulling the idea of returning to James when he began to read The Golden Bowl, the author's most difficult but also most accomplished novel. He gave up halfway through. He and screenwriter Ruth Prawer-Jhabvala turned instead to The Portrait Of A Lady and The Wings Of A Dove but when they found they had been pipped to the post by Jane Campion and Iain Softley respectively, they went back to The Golden Bowl. With backing from Miramax Films and TF1 International, the film began shooting over the summer of last year, using several spectacular locations including Syon House just outside London.



With their trademark elegance, subtlety and meticulous attention to period detail, the Merchant Ivory team won over most critics at the Cannes Film Festival where the film premiered. It will open in the US in November through Miramax Films, which will also release the film in the UK.

Synopsis

The Killing Zone is the taut, suspenseful - and sometimes darkly comic - story of Matthew Palmer; an underworld assassin. A professional killer, who floats in and out of each slaying, Palmer does each job quickly, efficiently. He is observer and executioner only. He has just two jobs to complete before he retires. After that - escape with his girlfriend Kerry, reward . . . rest.





Unfortunately for Palmer, both jobs dredge up past personal follies, exposing his previously traitorous acts against his former employers, blurring his personal and professional commitments, putting him on the run, pitting him against victim and fellow assassin alike, driving all involved with him toward a bloody climax.

Synopsis

Stephen Norrington, best known for splashy special effects action movies such as Blade, returns to home soil with The Last Minute, a black comedy about the lure of fame and the price of failure, produced by his regular collaborator Matthew Justice.



Max Beesley, the boyish charmer who became a teen heartthrob in the recent BBC adaptation of Tom Jones, takes the lead as Billy Byrne, a supercool, supertalented young artist who is the toast of the town. But, just as he begins to get used to the heady cocktail of success, his star crash-lands back on earth and he finds himself caught up in a dangerous world of crime and murder.



The film was, says Justice, "a fantastic opportunity to do a movie that does not rely on all the genre trickery of our previous pictures, although naturally, old habits die hard!"



Thanks to Palm Pictures, Justice and Norrington were allowed to make the film exactly as they had always planned, with "a small, young, talented and hungry crew working with a great cast in and around London," explains Justice. Shot last summer in East London and at Three Mills Studios, the film features a supporting cast of new and old faces alongside Beesley, including Jason Isaacs as a sledgehammer-wielding bootboy with a taste for crooning, veteran baddie Udo Kier and newly crowned king of the wideboys, Frank Harper.

Synopsis

The Loss of Sexual Innocence directed by Mike Figgis is a beautiful, richly textured film of interconnected short stories concerning the events of one man's life and paralleling them with the classic story of the fall from grace of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.





Told in a non-linear structure, The Loss of Sexual Innocence is the story of Nic, told through the crucial, sometimes humorous an often heart-breaking episodes of his life. As the film weaves it's vivid, hypnotic narrative, we catch glimpses of what makes Nic the man that he is, tracing incidents that happen to him as a five year old boy, as a twelve year old adolescent, as a 16 year old teenager, and as a fully grown man.





Cross-cut with the tale of Nic is the classic parable of Adam and Eve, which serves as an allegory to the events of Nic's life and, the two tales intertwined, ultimately serves as a powerful summation of the loss of innocence of not just Nic, but of the humanity of our species.





Bold, visually striking images, combined with a sonorous musical soundtrack composed and recorded by Mr Figgis make for a deeply moving, visually exhilarating piece of filmmaking that grows increasingly powerful with each viewing.

Synopsis

The last day of creation. A stranger arrives in London. No one knows who he is or where he has come from. By the time he leaves, the entire universe will have been erased.





The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz is a black comedy about the Apocalypse.





A manhole opens just outside the M25, London's orbital motorway. A man crawls out. He wears clothes from another century, his face is pale and strange. His name is Tomas Katz.





By the motorway, he hails a taxi. After a brief discussion with the taxi driver, something strange happens . . . Tomas Katz is now dressed as the Taxi Driver and is driving the cab. The Taxi Driver is dressed as Tomas Katz, and is standing on the hard shoulder.





Tomas Katz, dressed as the taxi driver, heads into the centre of London.





Outside the Ministry of Fisheries, the Tomas Katz-Taxi Driver picks up the Minister and takes him to a press conference. By the time they arrive at their destination, the Minister has transformed into the Taxi Driver, and Tomas Katz has become the Minister.





As the Minister, he enters the press conference and declares war on the Middle East.

Synopsis

The Quarry Men revolves around two friends, Alex and Aidan (Craig Henderson and Richard Wellings-Thomas), who go on holiday to Cornwall hoping for two weeks of drink and debauchery courtesy of Alex's uncle's pub. Unfortunately for them, the uncle has other plans and puts them to work.



Inspired by the El Mariachi school of film-making, The Quarry Men is writer/director/producer Toby White's attempt to prove himself as film-maker. "I had been let down on the financing of another feature, an ambitious romantic comedy with a budget just shy of £1m. People loved the script but didn't know me. I had to show I was worthy. To this end, The Quarry Men was conceived," he says. "The script was written in a week because, like most good stories, the idea was based on personal experience." It also helped that the resources were already in place. The cast for the previous project had already been chosen and they were easily able to slip into the second film's roles.



The Quarry Men was shot in a country pub in Cornwall, which was between owners. However, with just a month in which to work, filming became rushed and White admits the initial end result was not good. "It wasn't a feature. After editing a rough cut of one hour, the editor encouraged us to finish it." With news that the pub sale had folded, White and his team were able to return to the same location: "Pick-ups and whole scene changes were made. With another half an hour in the can we had a feature film."

Synopsis

The story of a rat catcher, his laboratory, & one daring rat . . .

Synopsis

Three-minute Wonder explores the qualities of that burning, midsummer heat which makes colours too bright and causes everything to shimmer. The summer holidays which in childhood just seem to go on forever.

Synopsis

Night time. It's raining outside. Eight people in a bar, just five minutes left. That's five minutes before the clock strikes midnight, December 31, 1999.

Synopsis

He's wooden, he's square, and he just doesn't fit in. What's more Toby the Square Boy seems to have trouble remembering where he lives, what would you do if he knocked at your front door and called you 'Daddy'? Should life for a seven year old boy really be this difficult?

Synopsis

Young American antiques dealer, Charles, is captivated by the enigmatic Mrs Hoogstraten when he finds her giving him the once-over at a London flea market. She is married to the brilliant but stifling Hoogstraten, a wealthy collector of unfathomable objects. But her look tells Charles that she's ready for a change.





Charles's shiftless existence takes on a new purpose as he searches for increasingly bizarre contraptions to satisfy Hoogstraten's peculiar appetite and so to get nearer to Mrs Hoogstraten. The trail leads to a mysterious young woman, a narrow-boat laden with Egyptian antiquities, and the sinister Dr MacGregor. When Charles returns to London, he finds that Mrs Hoogstraten is about to leave . . . and wants him to join her on a night train to Venice. Charles sees his dreams about to come true - but what is he getting himself into? Is he just another 'thing' to be used in the Hoogstraten game of manipulation, obsession and desire? What do the Hoogstratens really want? A night of passion unleashes uncontrollable forces in this extraordinary tale of mystery, romance, antique mechanical objects, and murder.





Set in a contemporary London of crumbling Gothic Victoriana, with music from the 1920's through to the present, and masterful lighting by Ken Westbury (Dennis Potter's director of photography), Unknown Things is an incisive, sardonic exploration of sex, death, and the darkest corners of the mind . . . a chilling, sinister love story strongly played by a young and sexy British cast.

Synopsis

Seventeen year old Justine (Laura Fraser) is fed up with the lack of success she has with guys. It seems as though the boys have it easier. She's ready to take that big step, but with whom? To ensure she chooses the right candidate - her 'Mr Barcode' - Justine enlists the help of her worldly-wise best friend Fran (Marcelle Duprey). Alex (Kieran O'Brien), the school stud is the obvious choice. So together, Justine, Fran and their geeky friend Chas (Luke De Lacey) hatch a plot to get Alex to a computer show where he is bound to fall for Justine's charms. Only things don't go according to plan! At the last moment, Alex abandons the plotting trio in order to go out with the man-eating Hoover (Natasha Bell).





A deflated Justine wanders through the great halls while Chas is in his perfect world. None of the excitement of the show can soothe the rejection she feels until she is enticed into the make-over machine, the Narcissus. Their machine can give you the face you've dreamt of; in fact the 'you' of your fantasies can be yours with the help of the Narcissus!





Having created the perfect Justine on screen, she then sets about creating her ideal man.