'Pretty' development picture at Celador
Shingle finances second pic from own back pocket
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The outfit, whose parent company made its fortune with quizzer "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," finances its own development and has a $12 million fund to bankroll its productions.
"A Way Through the Woods," the directorial debut of "Gosford Park" scripter Julian Fellowes, starts shooting Monday, with the $8 million budget guaranteed from Celador's own pocket.
Romantic drama, about an apparently happy marriage that hits the rocks when a third party enters the picture, stars Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson and Rupert Everett.
Celador's next movie is likely to be "The Dark," a horror pic by rising Brit writer-director Neil Marshall, whose debut "Dog Soldiers" was a minor hit last year. "The Dark," about an all-female caving expedition that goes horribly wrong, is slated for production in spring.
Further down the line, the company is developing a movie based on the true-life "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" fraud case, in which an army major was found guilty of cheating his way to the jackpot. TV writer Russell T. Davies ("Queer as Folk") has just started writing the screenplay.
Celador also has optioned two nonfiction books: Anthony Holden's "Big Deal," about the writer's year as a pro poker player, and Victoria Coren and Charlie Skelton's "Once More With Feeling," in which two nice middle-class youngsters set out to make a superior porno movie.
Meanwhile, Steve Knight, the writer of "Dirty Pretty Things" and co-creator of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," is in talks with Celador about an undisclosed new project. He is developing "Eastern Promises" with Miramax and BBC Films, but Celador is not involved with that project.
