Grants for Newell & Mackenzie
by Annika Pham
Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral), Patrice Leconte (The Man from the Train [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and David Mackenzie (Young Adam) are among the recipients of development funding from the UK Film Council in its last round of support.
Newell’s new project The Stand-In is written by Deborah Moggach and produced by Laura Bickford (Traffic) from 50 Cannon. The psychological thriller, which was awarded £81,875, focuses on an English actress who catches her big break playing US starlet Lila Dunn’s stand-in and begins a journey of unhealthy obsession and revenge.
French director Patrice Leconte will revisit his award winning film Monsieur Hire with an English language interpretation. The co-production between the French Philippe Carcassone and the UK Carl Clifton received £73,000 for its development.
After the dark Young Adam, Mackenzie is now developing an adventure comedy based on Brian Henningan’s novel, Patrick Robertson. The eponymous project written by Peter Hewitt and Phil Hughes (Thunderpants) received £52,000. It’s the story of a high-living salesman mistakenly kidnapped whilst in the Far East. The film is produced by Paul Goodman (Litmus Productions).
Chris Cunningham, renowned UK music video director (Björk, Aphex Twin) was awarded £95,3000 for the development of his feature film debut, RanXerox, written by Gordy Hoffman (Love Liza) and produced by Fernando Sulichin (Rule 8 Productions) and James Wilson.
Stephen Evans (The Madness of King George) is executive producing a modern re-working of Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew called The Pear Tree. The project, which received £59,750, will be directed by TV comedy writer and performer Ben Miller with Sophie Winkleman.
Finally Jigsaw Films’ Sarah Radclyffe and Courtney Pledger are producing Alan Gibbon’s fantasy trilogy Legendeer written by Paul Hoffman, which received £98,050 in development support.
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