20/03/2024 - The Water & Power Productions, Cliff Edge Pictures, and Circus Studios production will star Rhys Ifans, Olivia Cooke, Paapa Essiedu, Mia McKenna-Bruce and Antonia Thomas

Actors Rhys Ifans (© Senedd Cymru), Olivia Cooke (© Dick Thomas Johnson), Paapa Essiedu and Mia McKenna-Bruce (© Ruth Crafer)

The new Independent Film Tax Credit for UK productions with a budget under £15 million (read the news) is already having a visible impact on UK production: with a budget over £10 million and filming set to begin on 2 April at Dragon Studios in South Wales, comedy-horror The Scurry is set to take advantage of the new advantageous scheme. Starting from 1 April 2024, UK films with a budget up to £15 million and with a UK writer, a UK director, or certified as an official UK co-production, are able to claim an Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit (AVEC) at 53%.

Written by Tim Telling, The Scurry will be directed by Welsh director and actor Craig Roberts (Eternal Beauty, The Phantom of the Open [+see also:
film review
film profile]) and produced by Water & Power Productions, Cliff Edge Pictures, and Circus Studios, with True Brit Entertainment co-producing and handling the film’s UK distribution. Circus Studio will also be in charge of international sales.

The synopsis reads: “Two pest controllers are called to an eco-café in a country park to investigate what begins as a routine vermin problem – but as nightfall approaches an avalanche of deranged squirrels descend, wreaking revenge and mayhem on the staff and visitors in the park. With many fatalities the survivors take shelter in the café as a freak storm takes out the power and communications leaving them isolated and under attack. An eclectic mix of survivors include pest controllers, a sulky teenager, hypocritical vegans and a drug dealer — there is only an outside chance of survival…”

The cast includes Welsh actor Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill, The Phantom of the Open, House of the Dragon), and English actors Olivia Cooke (Sound of Metal, House of the Dragon), Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You [+see also:
series review
series profile], The Outrun [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nora Fingscheidt
film profile]), Mia McKenna-Bruce (How to Have Sex [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Molly Manning Walker
film profile]) and Antonia Thomas (Sunshine on Leith [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Red, White and Blue).

Zygi Kamasa of True Brit Entertainment has said that the ambition is for the film to recall “legendary genre films like Shaun of the Dead or Gremlins” and to be the first in “a potential British franchise.”