Icon nabs Fraser's 'Dean Spanley'

Film company grabs rights to period drama

By ARCHIE THOMAS

Icon Films has snapped U.K. rights to Brit-Kiwi co-production “Dean Spanley,” Kiwi director Toa Fraser’s period drama about an ailing father, his son and their encounters with an eccentric stranger in Edwardian England.

Peter O’Toole, Jeremy Northam and Sam Neill star in “Dean Spanley,” which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

Alan Sharp (“Rob Roy”) penned the screenplay, adapting an obscure novel by late Anglo-Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany. Producers are Matthew Metcalfe of General Film Corp. and Alan Harris of Atlantic Film Prods. Executive producers include David Parfitt (“Shakespeare in Love”) and Finola Dwyer (“Backbeat”). International sales are being handled by NZ Film.