Gerard Johnson’s thriller ODYSSEY gears up for UK shoot
SCREEN DAILY
Hyena director Gerard Johnson is to begin production on his latest thriller Odyssey, produced by UK outfits Electric Shadow Company and Stigma Films.
The four-week shoot will start later this month in north London. The feature unfurls around an estate agent, carrying around with her the city’s secrets, and out for revenge.
It reunites Johnson and Stigma Films with star of their BFI London Film Festival 2019 premiere Muscle, Polly Maberly. She appears alongside Swedish Sex Education actor Mikael Persbrandt.
‘Sex Education’ Star Aimee Lou Wood Joins Nick Frost, Paapa Essiedu, Billy Howle & Niamh Algar In Crime-Thriller ‘Sweet Dreams’
DEADLINE
Sex Education and Living star Aimee Lou Wood, recently announced for series three of The White Lotus, is joining Nick Frost (Fighting with My Family), Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You), Niamh Algar (Raised By Wolves) and Billy Howle (Under the Banner of Heaven) in crime-thriller Sweet Dreams.
Ahead of the EFM, Metro International Entertainment has boarded worldwide sales on the ensemble project from writer-director Carl Tibbetts (Black Mirror). The team is looking to shoot in October this year with additional casting underway.
‘This Town:’ First Look At Drama From ‘Peaky Blinders’ Creator Steven Knight
DEADLINE
The six-part series is produced by Kudos of Banijay UK and Nebulastar for the BBC with Mercury Studios co-producing in association with Kudos North, Stigma Films, and Nick Angel. The show was filmed on location in the West Midlands and at Steven Knight’s Digbeth Loc Film and TV studios.
Plot of the series follows a band’s formation against a backdrop of violence, capturing how creative genius can emerge from a time of madness. Starring are Levi Brown (Loss and Return), Jordan Bolger (The Woman King), Ben Rose (Line of Duty) and Eve Austin (You) as the four young leads.
First Look At Sci-Fi Thriller T.I.M.
EMPIRE
As our phones and other devices become increasingly complicated and intelligent, we’re all worrying that they’ll eventually go scarily wrong. It’s a concept explored in co-writer/director Spencer Brown’s new sci-fi thriller T.I.M., which has wrapped shooting and stars Georgina Campbell, Eamon Farren and Mark Rowley.
Co-written by Sarah Govett, the film follows prosthetics scientist Abi (Campbell) and her adulterous husband Paul (Rowley) as they adjust to life outside the city and Abi begins working for high-tech company Integrate, developing a humanoid AI – T.I.M (Farren).
Black Teacher in White Education System Book ‘I Heard What You Said’ Snapped Up for Series Adaptation by Stigma Films
VARIETY
The U.K.’s Stigma Films has snapped up TV rights for Jeffrey Boakye’s “I Heard What You Said,” an Amazon Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2022.
Told via a series of encounters based on the challenging and outrageous things people have said to him or about him, Boakye, a Black, male English teacher who has had to teach problematic texts, recounts how it feels to be on the margins of the British education system.
The deal was brokered by the Sarah Such Literary Agency.
Seize Them! is the hilarious new female-led medieval film starring Aimee Lou Wood and Nicola Coughlan
GLAMOUR MAGAZINE
Seize Them! is the hugely anticipated new British comedy movie that boasts a cast of the best homegrown talent in its lead roles.
Yes, you heard that right! Sex Education‘s Aimee Lou Wood, Bridgerton‘s Nicola Coughlan, and Shrill‘s Lolly Adefope have all come together for the new medieval-themed film, which will certainly elicit plenty of deep belly laughs.
Directed by Curtis Vowell, the female-led movie is based on the conquest of Queen Dagan (Aimee), who navigates a series of hardships as she attempts to reclaim her kingdom from the charismatic Humble Joan (Nicola).
Bankside Films boards Irish comedy ‘West The Road’ starring Imelda Staunton, Hannah Waddingham
SCREEN DAILY
UK sales outfit Bankside Films has acquired West The Road, the feature debut from Irish writer-director Ita Fitzgerald, set to star Imelda Staunton, Derry Girls’ Siobhán McSweeney, The Magdalene Sisters’ Eileen Walsh and Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham.
Production will start later this year in County Kerry, western Ireland. The feature follows a group of women brought together by the death of a childhood friend. When they discover that she was forced to give her daughter up for adoption at the age of 15, the group embarks on a journey from the west of Ireland up the Wild Atlantic coastline – accompanied by a donkey called Thatcher – in search of the child.
‘The Last Of Us’ & ‘GOT’ Star Bella Ramsey Finds Next Distinctive Role As Lead In Movie ‘Monstrous Beauty’; Dominic West, Ruth Negga, Fiona Shaw & HanWay Also Aboard
DEADLINE
EXCLUSIVE: After playing formidable and unique young women in The Last Of Us and Game Of Thrones, Bella Ramsey has found their next potentially memorable role as the star of period drama Monstrous Beauty.
Ramsey, who shot to fame as the precocious Lady of Bear Island in GOT, is heading back to court but this time as an aspiring playwright in the court of King Charles II who suffers from a rare condition that means she is entirely covered in hair. This is their [the actor is non-binary and now prefers they/them pronouns] first role announced since HBO’s blockbuster hit The Last Of Us.
Producer Matthew James Wilkinson talks Stigma Films’ growing film and TV slate
SCREEN DAILY
Producer Matthew James Wilkinson of Stigma Films is attending Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) with the UK premiere of The Score, just one of several projects on his growing slate.
Wilkinson has just wrapped the shoot for T.I.M., Spencer Brown’s contained ‘monster-in-the-house thriller’ which Altitude has pre-sold to a number of territories including the UK.
The cast for the sci-fi, AI-themed thriller features Black Mirror star Georgina Campbell. The film wrapped its shoot in and around London in late July. “It’s a brilliant commercial idea and a well written script,” says Wilkinson.
Gravitas Ventures Acquires Musical Crime Drama ‘The Score’ Starring Will Poulter, Johnny Flynn, Naomi Ackie & Lydia Wilson
DEADLINE
Gravitas Ventures has acquired U.S. rights to the musical crime drama The Score, starring Will Poulter (Dopesick), Johnny Flynn (The Outfit), Naomi Ackie (Master of None) and Lydia Wilson (Flack). The Anthem Sports & Entertainment Company plans to release the feature directorial debut of writer-director Malachi Smyth exclusively in theaters on June 3rd, with a release on VOD to follow on June 10th.
In the film from the producers of Danny Boyle’s Yesterday, two small-time crooks, Mike (Flynn) and Troy (Poulter), are on a mission—the ‘score’—that they both expect will transform their circumstances. As they wait for a rendezvous hand-over at a roadside café, Troy falls in love with the waitress, Gloria (Ackie), and begins to question his life choices…while the threat of real danger is driving to meet them.