10/11/2006

After last week’s tsunami wave across UK cinemas – Borat (over £6m from 428 sites), which will no doubt continue to break box office records – only six new films are taking their chances on UK screens today, including three US-backed feature films by UK filmmakers: Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, Anthony Minghella’s Breaking and Entering and Tom Vaughan’s directorial debut Starter For Ten.

Launched early October at the RomeFilmFest, The Prestige [+see also:
trailer
film profile]’s UK premiere last Sunday was attended by Sir Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman. The film, which tells the story of two rival turn-of-the-century magicians, was scripted by Nolan and his brother Jonathan. Other UK elements in the film include singer David Bowie’s cameo role as inventor and electrical wizard Nikola Tesla. The film was produced by Disney with Warner Bros handling UK distribution.

Breaking and Entering [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is the first film that director Minghella has written since his 1991 debut Truly, Madly, Deeply. The London-based melodrama about a trendy architect (Jude Law) who falls for a Bosnian refugee (Juliette Binoche) was produced by Mirage Enterprises and The Weinstein Company for MGM. BVI is handling UK distribution.

Starter For Ten [+see also:
trailer
film profile], financed by HBO in the US with BBC Films in the UK, is being released by Icon Film Distributors on 200 prints. Produced by Tom Hanks and executive produced by Sam Mendes, the film received excellent reviews in the UK press and was described by influential weekly magazine Time Out as "an expertly crafted entertainment that follows all the beats of a traditional romantic comedy". Critics raved in particular over James McAvoy’s performance as a working class boy from Essex who enrols at a posh university and tries to find love by appearing on a TV quiz show.

Another new UK opener today is the low budget supernatural thriller Puritan, directed, scripted, edited, produced and even released by Hadi Hajaig through his company Parliament Films.