09/11/2011

A young group of British filmmakers are launching a studio in the north of England which they hope will give Britain its own version of a Hollywood major.

Backed by private equity and with the help of their local council, which has given them a large chunk of land to develop into a fully-fledged film studio, the group of five behind Sheringham Studios were doing the rounds at this week’s AFM, as were a number of Europeans making hay while the sun still shines over here.

The company, which is run by Lee Murphy, CEO; Luke Openshaw, screenwriter and producer; Richard Wood, managing director; Holly Ives, associate producer; and Phillip Tatton, production assistant, is also accompanying its first film, Money Kills, which was directed by Murphy. Openshaw produces from his own script. The film is being distributed at the AFM by Fabrication Films.

The action adventure movie follows soldier John Heart, whose friend and mentor, Police Chief James White, is abducted and his family left for dead by the crime lord Vladimir Coskey.

Saying that it beat The Weinstein Company and Miramax to the rights, after several years of haggling with the author, Sheringham Studios has also acquired rights for the novel “The Damage is Done” written by Warren Fellows, and published by Pan Macmillan, which will be one of a number of upcoming projects.

As well as the prison drama, The Damage is Done, and the short film The Craftsman, based on a short story by Stuart Neville, Sheringham Studios is in pre-production on several yet to be announced features covering a unique dystopian science-fiction epic, a cold case detective psycho-thriller and a globe-trotting action adventure.

Meanwhile, the team are also building a state-of-the-art facility for film production, video games, SFX, animation and sound production in the Staffordshire countryside, England, using the land provided by the city and funds from their backer, Peter Coates, the owner of Bet 365 and premiership soccer club, Stoke City.

“The facility is set to incorporate sound stages, audio suites, special make-up FX workshops and recording studios in the image of WETA, Warner Bros. and Lucas Film. Britain needs its own equivalent of a major Hollywood studio,” said Murphy. “We don’t have that.”

Murphy and Openshaw are both film graduates and Wood and Ives previously worked as teachers.