03/02/2003

Working Title Films (WT) the most successful British film production company is not only betting on established names such as Rowan Atkinson (Bean) whose James Bond spoof Johnny English will be released in the UK next April, but also on up-and-coming actors, writers and directors.
For the live action feature based on the classic TV series “Thunderbirds”, WT has cast virtual unknowns like Philip Winchester, Lex Shrapnel, Dominic Colenso and Ben Torgeson as four of the five Tracy brothers while American star, Bill Paxton, will play Jeff, the Tracy patriarch and head of International Rescue. Jonathan Frakes is scheduled to begin shooting Thunderbirds at Shepperton Studios in March.
Working Title also recently bought the film rights to two novels: “Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About” by Mil Millington and Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Everything is Illuminated”, winner of a Guardian First Book Award. Millington, a journalist with The Guardian, was approached by WT even before his novel was published. Given its subject matter: a thirtysomething woman’s inability to cope with chocolate, Chardonnay and men, WT hope to repeat the successful formula of Bridget Jones’ Diary.