16/07/2007

The £13.5m film version of Toby Young’s bestselling comic biography How to Lose Friends and Alienate People starring Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Shaun of the Dead) is being backed by the UK Film Council’s Premiere Fund, Film4 and the Aramid Entertainment Fund.

The project, conceived by independent production company Number 9 Films, began shooting in the UK and US this month with the majority happening at London locations, including 3 Mills Studios.

The film, scripted by Peter Straughn, charts the rise and fall of Young at Vanity Fair magazine, New York. Pegg will play Young’s characters while Jeff Bridges, Kirsten Dunst and Gillian Anderson also feature in the cast. Robert Weide, co-creator of cult television series Curb Your Enthusiasm and Academy Award nominee for Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth, will direct.

Stephen Woolley (Interview with the Vampire, The Crying Game) and Elizabeth Karlsen (Ladies in Lavender [+see also:
trailer
film profile], The Crying Game) are producing for Number 9 Films.

Intandem Films have arranged the financing for the film and is handling worldwide sales having already secured Paramount Pictures International for the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Sally Caplan, head of the UK Film Council’s Premiere Fund, said, “This is an exciting independent British film, encompassing an excellent script, and a director and cast with a strong comic vision. The project has great potential in the international marketplace, to raise the profile of both British film and of rising star Simon Pegg”.

Simon Fawcett, CEO, Aramid Capital Partners, said, “We believe this to be an exciting opportunity for the Fund to provide finance, in conjunction with the UK Film Council and Film4, to a project with an excellent script, a strong cast and producing team and one we feel showcases some of the best creative talent in the UK film industry today”.