Buoyed by Brit bounty in U.S., new breed gets bolder
Emerging talents and established players are tackling similarly audacious, risky subjects, convinced there is a niche for films that Hollywood won't essay.
Much of the fresh thinking comes from new directors getting their first crack at theatrical films after earning their spurs in TV, commercials or shorts. And some resourceful producers have found new ways to raise coin.
The favorable exchange rate, with the dollar strengthening by about 25% against the pound, already has prompted increased interest in filming in the U.K. by U.S. film and TV producers.
The Brits are divided on whether the Academy Awards and U.S. box office windfalls for "The Crying Game" and "Howards End" will deliver lasting benefits to the local film industry, which has struggled to survive in the past few years.
But many believe the Oscar winners have refocused global attention on the country's assets: creative and technical talent, services and locations.
"The Crying Game" has encouraged young British filmmakers to try similarly bold, imaginative topics, said Simon Perry, chief exec of funding agency British Screen Finance. He offered as examples Mike Leigh's "Naked," in competition at Cannes ("a serious film about sex and violence"); Andrew Birkin's "The Cement Garden" (depicting incest and masturbation); and tyro helmer and National Film School graduate Elaine Proctor's "Friends" (South African saga about three young women of different races whose kinship is put to the fire).
And the offbeat comedy "Leon the Pig Farmer" was made for T155,000 ($ 240,000 ). "We're part of what the new British cinema is trying to do: make mainstream films with an edge," said Paul Brooks, the film's exec producer.
"Leon" is the saga of a Jewish lad in London who discovers his dad (by artificial insemination) is a Yorkshire pig breeder. It has grossed T425,000 ($ 658,000) in seven weeks in the U.K. and been sold to a handful of foreign territories by Australia's Beyond Intl.; a U.S. deal is being hatched.
It was co-directed and co-produced by Gary Sinyor, 30, a National Film & TV School graduate who penned the script, and Vadim Jean, 28.
The producers raised the cash from private investors using the government's Business Expansion Scheme (which provides a 40% tax break) and persuaded cast and crew to defer fees.
The cash component will be recouped from the U.K., and revenues from the rest of the world will pay the deferrals, asserts associate producer Simon Scotland.
He says that formula was the only way to get the film made.
Scotland and Sinyor are exploring conventional ways of financing Sinyor's next, "The Tender Trap," a$ 1.5 million to $ 2 million comedy.
Brooks is taking the BES route to finance "Bedlam," a$ 1.5 million thriller about a serial killer, sexual repression and guilt, shooting in London in July.
Experienced TV helmer Rob Walker will direct and he's adapting the script from the book by Harry Adam Knight; cast includes Simon Callow and Anita Dobson.
And of course, the success of "The Crying Game" has helped Stephen Woolley, the hottest producer in London.
He acknowledges the film has been a boon for him and partner Nik Powell after the collapse of their Palace Pictures. Their Scala Prods. banner has "Backbeat" cranking up this week, backed by their new benefactors at Polygram; Woolley is working with Jordan on "Interview With the Vampire" for Warner Bros. and David Geffen; and Scala will partner with Jody Foster's Egg Prods. on Jordan's "Jonathan Wild."
Woolley said British cinema audiences are unlikely to flock to British films because they can see a vast range of programs about British and European subjects on television. He contrasts the multitudes of Americans who turned out for "The Crying Game" with its relatively slim following here, confined largely to London.
The William Morris Agency's U.K. topper, Steve Kenis, suspects there may be a new window of opportunity for British producers, but warns it won't be open long.
"We will have to keep producing at least four films a year like 'Howards End' and 'Enchanted April' that do reasonable box office around the world, particularly in the U.S., if we are to get a feature film base going," Kenis said.
