From left and Elliott Tittensor, photographed in the Middleton Rose Garden at The Langham,

UK STARS of Tomorrow

Introducing the rising talents among UK actors, writers and directors, who are destined to grace our screens for years to come. By Fionnuala Halligan

he ninth annual Stars of Tomor- rising names such as , James tined to grace our screens for years and dec- row showcases the hottest new McAvoy, and Robert Pattin- ades to come. T acting and film-making talent son — and others whose burgeoning talent Many thanks to The Langham, London, emerging from the UK this year. is more subtle and raw and shows a prom- which graciously hosted the photoshoot for It’s no easy task to whittle down the ise of great things to come. the event and which will host the Stars cel- number to around 30 each year and our The UK talent pool is constantly refresh- ebration party on July 4. Stars curator Fionnuala Halligan spends ing itself and Halligan had hundreds of Mike Goodridge, editor several months sifting through short films, names to contend with this year. Through a reels and submissions, gradually working process of consultation with producers, Photography by Yves Salmon at The out the final list. casting directors, agents, managers and Langham, London. Make-up by Debbie » There are some obvious shining candi- other sources, she has come up with Finnegan for MAC. Lighting by Bowens dates — our past Stars have included fast- another group of stars-in-the-making des- International. ACTORS STARS OF TOMORROW

NICO MIRALLEGRO AND ring , and is also due to From left . Tom Harries and Karla Crome ELLIOTT TITTENSOR (pictured attend the BRIT School — alma mater previous page) of Amy Winehouse and Adele — from Co-starring in Spike Island, Mat White- September for a two-year-course. cross’ new film about a group of teenag- Aged 10, Holland was spotted in his ers obsessed with rock band The Stone dance-class showcase and invited to be Roses, Nico Mirallegro and Elliott Tit- part of Billy Elliot on stage. After six tensor are also best friends off-screen, months of rehearsal he became the sev- having grown up together in Heywood, enteenth Billy to perform the role at Lon- Greater Manchester. It was Mirallegro don’s Victoria Palace Theatre (there are who told Tittensor about the auditions four Billys working at any one time). Hol- for the film in the first place. land trod the boards there for 18 months. Tittensor is best known for playing On finishing Billy Elliot, he signed Carl Gallagher in Shameless, and Spike with an agent and landed the key part of Photographed in the Artesian Bar at The Langham, London The Langham, Bar at Artesian in the Photographed Island is his big move into features. “It is Lucas in Juan Antonio Bayona’s harrow- the best job I’ve done in my life,” says the ing drama The Impossible, opposite irrepressible 22-year-old. “I really loved and Ewan McGregor. Shameless but I wanted to test myself.” Filmed in Alicante and Thailand and set Spotted by a casting director at school around the 2004 South East Asian tsu- in Manchester, along with his identical nami, hundreds of children auditioned twin brother Luke, Tittensor is now for the role. Though the film has not yet focusing “on grafting and trying to get been seen widely, Holland’s performance myself another job. The next big thing is has been stunning enough for WME to to spruce up my accent — I’d love some- sign him up in the US as The Impossible thing that isn’t Mancunian.” gears up for an autumn awards run. Meanwhile, the 21-year-old Miralle- Contact Olivia Woodward, Curtis Brown gro (he has an Italian father) has been a +44 (0) 20 7393 4484 busy lad of late as well — you may [email protected] remember him as Johnny the boozy but- ler in the BBC’s Upstairs Downstairs. He TOM HARRIES has also had parts in Moving On and Tom Harries made a big impact in Marc Exiles. Spike Island is his big feature Evans’ Hunky Dory, as sexually confused breakthrough, and is a far cry from his teenager Evan opposite debut in TV soap at the age of and (the film was shot 15 when, he says: “I kept missing my during 21-year-old Harries’ time at the mark because I didn’t know what a Royal Welsh College of Music and mark was and I was too scared to ask.” Drama, which he has since left). That Mirallegro’s goal now is to “keep was followed by a role in the BBC/HBO working, but on the right things; some series Parade’s End, based on the Ford nice dramas and a few good films to Madox Ford novels, shooting in Belgium catch people’s eye”. opposite . Elliott Tittensor contacts Mary FitzGerald Now Harries is on stage in London in and Lucy Johnson, Curtis Brown a revival of Torch Song Trilogy, directed +44 (0) 20 7393 4493 by at the Menier Choco- [email protected] late Factory. He is playing Alan, the role Nico Mirallegro contact Oriana Elia, The taken by Matthew Broderick in the orig- Rights House Talent inal Harvey Fierstein film. “It’s a crack- +44 (0) 20 3291 2929 ing part,” says Harries. [email protected] Cardiff-born Harries also sings, as Hunky Dory illustrates, starting off as a TOM HOLLAND session musician in his father’s band, Tom Holland sat his GCSEs and turned but it’s an actor’s life for him. 16 last month. “I want to finish my “This has always been something I’ve childhood and enjoy it as much as I can, loved doing. I’m lucky in that I’ve had a but there are so many things I want to strong sense of direction all along,” he do,” he says. says. “It’s easier to go for something if Nothing unusual in that, but Holland you know you really want it.” is also on a professional roll. He has Contact Abi Harris, Ken McReddie been cast — alongside fellow Star of Associates Tomorrow George MacKay — in Kevin +44 (0) 20 7439 1456 Macdonald’s How I Live Now, co-star- [email protected] »

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KARLA CROME (pictured “I was at a low point in my life,” LENORA CRICHLOW previous page) he recalls. “I had lost my job at the Lenora Crichlow sprints onto the “She is really special,” says one of the community centre. I was on my arse. big screen in this month’s Fast Girls, UK’s leading casting directors of the I had nothing.” an enjoyable pre-Olympic UK ‘girl 23-year-old actress Karla Crome. Laverty pushed and so did Craw- power’ feature most notable for the Special enough to land the coveted ford. “He has a presence,” she says. warmth of her presence as its lead. lead in the BBC2 drama Murder, “He has a twinkle and the camera Off-screen, however, it has been a directed by The Killing’s Birger loves him. He has a complete will- long-distance effort for this native Larsen. “It’s a direct-to-camera piece, ingness to do what he needs to do, to Londoner. almost,” says Crome of the hard-won leave his doubts at the door. Paul has Playing lonely ghost Annie in the role. “He just puts the camera on you seen one side of the world and he’s BBC3 supernatural drama/comedy and clears the room, it’s amazing.” really not scared about things.” Being Human has won Crichlow Crome is from a determinedly Brannigan has not hesitated for a some devoted fans, while other tele- non-showbiz family — her mother is second since. After The Angels’ Share vision roles have gained her atten- a nurse and her father a plumber — comes a role in Jonathan Glazer’s tion including the part of Sugar in and she studied at London’s Italia Under The Skin with Scarlett Johans- the adaptation of ’s Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and son. “I’m raring to go now,” he says. Sugar Rush, and she had a central was part of the National Youth The- Rigby may be on Broadway for a Contact Olivia Woodward, Curtis Brown role in the expensive BBC drama atre, for which she wrote the play If while yet but the 29-year-old gradu- +44 (0) 20 7393 4484 Material Girls. Chloe Can, which was staged at Lon- ate of the Royal Academy of Dra- [email protected] Having just wrapped Doors Open, don’s Lyric Theatre. matic Art (RADA) has never had “a a TV film based on the In addition to Murder, Crome can grand plan — I like to take things as ASHLEY THOMAS novel and co-starring , currently be seen as Mia, the they come”. Ashley Thomas — aka Bashy — has it is now time for 27-year-old 16-year-old caretaker of hit-man/ He would, however, like to return three films coming out this year, to Crichlow to act out her ambitions woman Chloe Sevigny’s extended at some point to his stand-up and complete his full set of showbiz cre- on a bigger stage. Trained at the family in /Red Produc- writing, something which has been dentials. Born in London, the YoungBlood Theatre Company at tion Company’s Hit And Miss. on the back burner with nightly per- 27-year-old Thomas was fixated on ’s Riverside Studios, The actress is now shooting the formances of his show. “Winning theatre as a kid, studied it to GCSE Crichlow has been with her agent next series of TV drama Misfits. She the Bafta felt like things have level and attended the BRIT School. since he spotted her in a school play plans to continue writing to flesh changed, but I’ve been in the show Then music came to the fore, with aged 11. out the acting gigs. “In the last year, since then so I can’t really say,” he Thomas’ natural talent for hip hop “I have always performed,” she it has all blown up,” she admits. says. “It will be interesting to see and emerging to make a big says. “It is what I did as a kid. There’s “Until then, the work came in and what happens next.” impact in the UK, in particular with footage of me aged two, dressing up out and it was never as consistent as Contact Lydia Hampson, PBJ his 2007 track ‘Black Boys’ and and putting on a show. And it’s all I it is now. Things definitely seem to Management album Catch Me If You Can. want to do now. I don’t want to limit be changing.” +44 (0) 20 7287 1112 Thomas then moved to the big myself. I want to do more big-screen Contact Michael Duff, Troika Talent [email protected] screen, starting out in Shank in work. I’m open to opportunities and +44 (0) 20 7336 7868 2010. This year should see him we’ll see what happens.” [email protected] PAUL BRANNIGAN make a real impact on that front, Contact Andrew Braidford, The BWH Glasgow-born Paul Brannigan with key roles in Cockneys Vs Zom- Agency DANIEL RIGBY shares a lot with Robbie, the young bies and , and +44 (0) 20 7734 0657 It has been a fast and furious year for man he plays in Ken Loach’s Cannes the lead in boxing drama The Man [email protected] talented actor and stand-up-comic jury prize-winner The Angels’ Share. Inside opposite Peter Mullan, due Daniel Rigby. After winning a TV They have both experienced diffi- out in the autumn via Kaleidoscope. IAIN DE CAESTECKER Bafta for his role as the young Eric cult times, including a fractured Thomas is now writing a screen- “I don’t think too far ahead,” says Morecambe in the well-received childhood and a stint in prison; they play and working on new material 24-year-old Scotland-born Iain de drama Eric And Ernie, Rigby started have both got that broad, broad for a potential album, and an EP is Caestecker (the name signals his out in the role of Alan Dangle in Glaswegian accent; and they both coming out this summer. father’s Belgian ancestry). But the Nicholas Hytner’s production of One have an uncanny ability to turn “Not many people have over- future is looking good for the actor Man, Two Guvnors at the National things around. night success,” he notes. “It is a lot who has had an agent since he was Theatre. It has become a runaway Since coming out of jail in 2007, of hard work. People ask me which spotted in drama class as a child. success that played to packed 25-year-old Brannigan has worked would I sacrifice, film, music, thea- With four eagerly anticipated UK houses, transferred to the West End, on community youth programmes tre, if I had to. My answer is none. films out shortly, from art filmShell , and finds itself a Tony award-winner tackling a range of subjects from I’ll sacrifice sleep as opposed to any directed by former Star of Tomorrow on Broadway. alcohol awareness to knife crime, of them. I love them all the same, in Scott Graham, to Jeremy Lovering’s “It’s going brilliantly,” he says often engaging his students in role different ways.” thriller In Fear, as well as roles in from . “If anything, the play. That is where Loach’s collabo- Contact Deborah , Independent Filth, based on Irvine Welsh’s novel, reaction here has been even more rator, Paul Laverty, found him. But Talent Group and black comedy The , De effusive than in the UK. Now we Brannigan took some coaxing into +44 (0) 20 7636 6565 Caestecker is now making the move From left Paul Brannigan, deborahwilley@independenttalent. just have to wait and see if people auditions with casting director Kahl- from TV to film. Ashley Thomas and com Photographed in the Artesian Bar at The Langham, London The Langham, Bar at Artesian in the Photographed buy tickets.” een Crawford. You may have seen him as the » Lenora Crichlow

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charming titular vet in Young James that with a year-long acting class before Herriot for the BBC, which lines him up nabbing a prime role opposite Paddy as a national-treasure-in-waiting. Now Considine in Shan Khan’s contemporary filming the supernatural thriller The thriller Honour. Secret Of Crickley Hall for the BBC, De Shot on the Isle of Man and in Lon- Caestecker is on the brink of bigger don from a screenplay that was on the things. “I’ve always had a romantic Brit List of best unproduced screen- notion about wanting to be in films,” he plays, Honour sees Hart in the juicy part says. Four in a year seems like more of a girl on the run, in fear of her life than a notion. from an honour killing. Contact Christopher Farrar, Hamilton Hodell “I had just graduated and this was +44 (0) 20 7636 1221 my first role. I could hardly believe it,” [email protected] she says. “I am very new to all this. All I can hope is that it keeps going this well.” Arriving in London with her mother at Contact Kate Bryden, Gordon and French the age of six, Guyana-born Letitia [email protected] Wright first fell in love with acting at her +44 (0) 20 7734 4818 Finsbury Park primary school when she got the opportunity to play a young GEORGE MACKAY Rosa Parks onstage. Just 21, George MacKay has been grac- “I felt so comfortable,” she recalls. “I ing screens for over a decade, ever since even did the whole American accent!” a casting director spotted him as a Now an outgoing 18 and sitting her 10-year-old on a visit to his London A-level exams, Wright has chased her school. The result was a part in PJ Hog- passion with a passion. Drama school an’s Peter Pan, eight months in Aus- every Saturday was followed by sending tralia, and the beginnings of a passion. her self-made tape to every agent in “As I learned more about it, it became London until she finally got a callback. more and more what I wanted to do,” Small parts in the long-running BBC says MacKay. “Now it’s impossible to TV drama Holby City were followed by a think of doing anything else.” strong impact in last year’s MacKay is widely regarded as a film- drama Top Boy, and Wright displayed a star-in-waiting. “He’s just so talented,” graceful ease in Sally El Hosaini’s urban says one casting director. “It’s not a drama My Brother The Devil. question of ‘if’, but ‘when’.” After she finishes her exams, bigger His parts have been growing in stat- things will almost certainly follow. “I ure as well. MacKay has been cast oppo- will definitely be going to drama site Saoirse Ronan and fellow Star of school,” she says. “I will definitely be Tomorrow Tom Holland in Kevin Mac- getting a degree. I’ve made a conscious donald’s How I Live Now, and has shot decision that I’m in this to do good work the lead in indie project Private Peaceful and I want a long career. I want to be for director Pat O’Connor with Richard respected.” She’s already there. Griffiths and Frances de la Tour. Contact Femi Oguns, Identity Agency Group He is also set to appear in the TV +44 (0) 20 7470 8711 filmBest Of Men, about the founding of [email protected] the Paralympics, and in the low-budget film Breakfast With Jonny Wilkinson, AIYSHA HART based on a play at the Menier Chocolate Her mother hails from and Factory. her father is from Saudi Arabia, where “I just want to work consistently and Aiysha Hart lived for a short while as try as many things as I can,” he says. a child. Contact Donna French, Gordon&French “I remember coming back to the UK +44 (0) 20 7734 1818 and into primary school, and being hit [email protected] by the idea of drama and the drama society,” Hart recalls. “It was all new to JAMES FLOYD me and it’s where I felt at ease, where I Not many people drop out of the Lon- got all my confidence from.” don School of Economics to pursue From left Iain De Caestecker, Now 24 and raised mostly in Surrey, Letitia Wright, Aiysha Hart and their dream as an actor. Still, 26-year- Hart studied English literature and film George MacKay old Londoner James Floyd was able to

at King’s College London and followed London The Langham, at Ballroom in the Grand Photographed teach maths while he struggled through » n 26 Screen International June-July 2012 www.screendaily.com www.screendaily.com June-July 2012 Screen International 27 n ACTORS STARS OF TOMORROW

Jeremy Piven in ITV’s drama series Mr Selfridge, playwright and a poet) and was heavily influenced ning London stage pro- currently shooting around London. He has just by her time at the Contact Theatre in Manchester duction of Les Misérables, signed with William Morris Endeavor in Los Ange- and its director John McGrath, who now heads the and was chosen to per- les and says, modestly: “I couldn’t be any happier National Theatre of . In 2010 Warsama form it at the show’s 25th really, with the way things are going.” made the decision to focus on acting; her first anniversary perform- Contact Grant Parsons, Curtis Brown credit was a compelling turn in Justin Chadwick’s ance at the vast O2 +44 (0) 20 7393 4464 BBC drama Stolen opposite Damian Lewis. Arena. Barks won the [email protected] Now she has landed a key role in Focus Fea- part again in Tom Hoop- tures’ Jordan and UK-shot sci-fi thrillerLast Days er’s anticipated film ver- YUSRA WARSAMA On Mars opposite Liev Schreiber, Romola Garai sion for Working Title Films, after a gruelling She has casting directors’ and 2011 Star of Tomorrow Tom Cullen. Warsama 15-week casting process and despite reported com- hearts-a-flutter with her says: “I spent my first days in rehearsal wonder- petition from Taylor Swift. She stars opposite

Photographed in the lobby at The Langham, London The Langham, at in the lobby Photographed combination of Somali ing, ‘Is this really happening, or am I having an Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. “I wanted the heritage and Manchester out-of-body experience?’” part more than anything in my life,” she admits. theatrical background. Contact Lindy King, Julia Charteris, United Agents Barks says she has loved the move from stage to Yusra Warsama is +44 (0) 20 3214 0800 screen, revelling in the “freedom [of] it being so “unique and exciting”, [email protected] intimate, playing that heartache as if you were sit- says one casting expert. ting in front of me. Yet you walk onto a set and it’s a Born in the UAE to a Somali nomad mother and full street in Paris. It’s both smaller and bigger than Yemeni father, Warsama came to a “terraced house The 21-year-old Isle of Man-born singer/actress I ever dreamed it.” Inspired by Jackman’s stage- in rainy Manchester” in 1986, aged 18 months. Samantha Barks has enjoyed a stellar trajectory. At screen career, Barks hopes to line up more film. “I “Hearing and understanding the Somali lan- the age of 16, she moved to London by herself and haven’t stopped since the age of 16,” she says. “And guage and heritage growing up in Manchester ranked third in reality TV show I’d Do Anything, it suits me that way. I love it.” meant I had to negotiate between two cultures — trying out for the role of Nancy in Andrew Lloyd- Contact Kirk Whelan-Foran, United Agents and that has made me who I am,” she says. Webber’s stage production of Oliver!. Barks was +44 (0) 20 3214 0800 A quiet child, she grew up writing (she is also a later offered the role of Eponine in the long-run- [email protected]

CREATIVE SKILLSET IS PROUD TO SUPPORT THE SCREEN INTERNATIONAL UK STARS OF TOMORROW From left James Floyd and Trystan Gravelle We wish them every success some tough early years (“You’ve got to go through in my career I was overly confident,” he admits. “I TRYSTAN GRAVELLE the grinder, take a few hits, a few emotional tum- knew this was a special film.” “I wasn’t a horrible child,” says the effortlessly in their future careers. bles, to be any good in this line of work,” he says). With formal training from the National Youth charming Welsh actor Trystan Gravelle. “I just got People who see him convince as the troubled Rash Theatre and a RADA summer course at the Old up to no good like anyone else.” Drama was, of A Bigger Future 2: in Sally El Hosaini’s extraordinary drama My Vic, Floyd will be seen soon in the BBC drama The course, the answer and he certainly turned out to be Brother The Devil won’t understand why the tal- Best Possible Taste playing Freddie Mercury to talented at it. Gravelle won a scholarship to RADA, Skills. Jobs. Action. ented Floyd has ever struggled, but he says his Oliver Lansley’s Kenny Everett. He has also shot and went to the Royal Shakespeare Company after unusual, flexible heritage initially made it tougher the thriller Rearview as well as Sky Atlantic’s The graduation for three years, followed by a lengthy www.ABiggerFuture2.co.uk to find work. Blind Man Of Seville, in which he plays a bull- stint at The Globe. Gravelle has already performed With a blond-haired father and a Singaporean fighter. many of the stage’s great roles to acclaim — there is mother of Malaysian and Indian descent, Floyd “It is really shaping up this year,” says Floyd, no doubt anyone who has performed at the has played everything from British to Spanish, and to underline that, he has just signed with UTA RSC can act. But he has never had time to crack Indian and now, in My Brother The Devil, a British in . film, until now. Gravelle has followed up a role as Arab . “I don’t feel I have a race or culture,” he says. Contact Peter Brooks, Creative Artists Management in ’s Anon- “That’s why London makes sense to me.” +44 (0) 20 7292 0600 ymous by landing a coveted part as the young Brit- As for My Brother The Devil, “It is the first time [email protected] ish lead (“a social climber, a ladies’ man”) opposite »

SS6098_BF2_ Stars.indd 1 11/06/2012 14:09

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From left Henrietta Ashworth, Dominic Buchanan, Daniel Wolfe and Jessica Ashworth Photographed in the Infinity Suite at The Langham, London The Langham, at Suite in the Infinity Photographed

UK STARS the film-makers

JESSICA AND HENRIETTA ASHWORTH your twin. We don’t have to explain things to table as we grow up,” explains Jessica. “But we still Screenwriters each other.” have that hive mind working.” “It is like a hive mind,” explain 24-year-old twin They have always written together, says Henri- Contact Camille McCurry, United Agents screenwriting sisters Jessica and Henrietta Ash- etta, and completed their first feature spec The +44 (0) 20 3214 0803 worth. Or at least Henrietta explains, and Jessica Shakespeare Club when they were 15. Jessica also [email protected] agrees. Their script Olivia And Jim, a road-trip works as an actress, and will next be seen in John comedy-drama, came joint third on the 2011 Brit Osborne’s The Devil Inside Him at the White Bear DOMINIC BUCHANAN List and has been optioned for development by Theatre in London, whereas Henrietta “just wants Producer Diarmuid McKeown, the former managing direc- to be a screenwriter”. To that end, she has received Young producer Dominic Buchanan has just tor of Cloud Eight Films, for his new set-up Equa- the prestigious Arts and Humanities Research joined commercials and content company Stink tion Pictures. Council Award to begin a Masters in film at Uni- Films as their head of film, marking a swift rise “One of us comes up with an idea and tells the versity College London this year. The pair have for the 30-year-old London native. Having pro- other,” says Henrietta of their technique. “I don’t also been picked up for US representation by duced the Cannes Un Certain Regard title Gimme think we would do it without each other.” Jenny Maryasis at UTA. And they will continue The Loot, which won the grand jury prize at this Jessica adds: “It is a relaxing way to write, with writing together: “We bring separate things to the year’s South By Southwest, Buchanan is also »

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independently producing Film Lon- to “crack it by Christmas,” he says. In don’s Microwave-backed feature Lilting, From left Mustapha Kseibati, development with Between The Eyes, it to be directed by Hong Khao, whose William McGregor, Jamie Stone is a teen horror comedy, but if you want and David Leon screenplay was joint third on last year’s to know more about Kseibati’s sensibil- BritList. Previously Buchanan worked ity, look no further than the fact his all- at The Weinstein Company as an assist- time favourite film is Back To The ant and Universal Pictures Interna- Future. tional in acquisitions, and also at “I love films that have a sense of fun, Qwerty Films. Now, at Stink, he will be action and adventure but with a dra- working with former Stars of Tomorrow matic core,” he says. “I’m passionate Jonathan Entwistle and Claire Wilson about films that have positive messages on their drama Meeting A Soldier, for kids, but not in a way that’s rammed among other projects. down their throats.” Contact [email protected] Kseibati’s second short film, Skate- Photographed in the Infinity Suite at The Langham, London The Langham, at Suite in the Infinity Photographed boards And Spandex (backed by B3 DANIEL WOLFE (pictured Media and the now-defunct UK Film previous page) Council), is being developed with the Writer-director BBC and Little Comet as a family com- In the promo for The Shoes’ internet edy in the vein of Malcolm In The Mid- sensation ‘Time to Dance’, an intense dle. His first short was calledBig Tingz, Jake Gyllenhaal pulls an American Psy- also with B3, and his third and most cho on east London’s dance scene in a recent, Painkiller, was made with B3 grim yet compelling music video-meets- and the BBC Writersroom. short-film. The man behind it is Man- Kseibati, who suffered severe asthma -born director Daniel Wolfe, who as a child, estimates he spent “10 hours writes with his brother Matthew. Their a day watching TV in my bed for 10 screenplay Catch Me Daddy is in devel- years. I’m very receptive to that sense of opment at Film4, with Mike Elliott set to the magic of movies.” produce through his Emu Films. He has been selected for this year’s Shooting is set for Yorkshire this Creative Skillset-backed Guiding Lights autumn, with StudioCanal discussing scheme, where he will be mentored by the acquisition of UK rights and Ben Paul Andrew Williams. Drew (aka Plan B) attached to star. Contact Amanda Davis and Sam Greenwood, Wolfe has a strong relationship with the Curtis Brown musician and director, having shot the +44 (0) 20 7393 4484 award-winning video series for Plan B’s [email protected] The Defamation Of Strickland Banks album. Though signed to Partizan in WILLIAM McGREGOR 2006 (and Somesuch & Co in 2010), Writer-director 32-year-old Wolfe still felt compelled to Talented young director William return to study, graduating with an MA McGregor started out brandishing a in screenwriting from the Royal Hollo- camera on the farm in rural Norfolk way University of London in 2009. where he grew up, making a film about Wolfe started his working life as a chef piglets at the age of 16. in Manchester. It was while travelling in By 19, he had completed fantasy Vietnam that he saw a poster about Phil- short Who’s Afraid Of The Watersprite? lip Noyce’s The Quiet American and in his second year at the University for joined the film’s production department. the Creative Arts. The Cambridge Inter- And it is only in the past decade that national Student later Wolfe has worked his way up from being renamed itself the Watersprite Film a runner in Soho to where he is now, Festival in its honour. “primed and ready to go”. “I was naive, to an extent,” McGregor Contact Josh Varney, Independent Talent recalls. “We went out to Slovenia and Group shot this ambitious fairy tale. In a way +44 (0) 20 7636 6565 I’m trying to get back to that now.” [email protected] Still only 24 and working full-time at The Mill shooting commercials, MUSTAPHA KSEIBATI McGregor is readying his first feature, Director The Rising, with producer Hilary Bevan Mustapha Kseibati is utterly focused on Jones, which is backed by the BFI. Set in finishing his first feature script, hoping Industrial Revolution-era Wales, the » n 32 Screen International June-July 2012 www.screendaily.com www.screendaily.com June-July 2012 Screen International 33 n From left Ruth Fowler, Fyzal Boulifa and Mahalia Belo Film-Makers STARS OF TOMORROW

film is about two sisters “trying to documentaries, and he only started RUTH FOWLER deal with a world which is set writing “by accident” at the NFTS Writer against them”. when it came time to produce Sky- “I have this really bad reputation,” McGregor is still making short born. That’s one happy accident, and says Fowler with a laugh. “People films, though, and is a particular fan one he looks set to continue. Google me and they aren’t sure what of the Sci-Fi London 48-hour film Contact Jago Irwin to expect when they meet me.” challenge, where he has submitted [email protected] Well, she does call herself a ‘socio- some outstanding entries over the +44 (0) 20 7636 6565 pathic narcissist’ on her website. last two years. “I didn’t really start Once upon a time, a down-on-her- out thinking of this as a career, but DAVID LEON (pictured luck Fowler wrote a book (Girl, I’ve enjoyed it and nobody is telling previous page) Undressed) about her experiences as me to stop,” he says. Actor-writer-director a stripper in New York, but that luck Contact Jennie Miller, Independent The most recognisable face in the has changed now and this Los Talent Group Stars of Tomorrow line-up of film- Angeles-based, UK-focused Cam- +44 (0) 20 7636 6565 makers due to his success as an bridge University graduate from [email protected] actor, David Leon is making a noise KIBWE TAVARES Wales is finding she has the right these days behind the camera. Writer-director reputation with all the right people. JAMIE STONE (pictured From the short filmFather , which Do yourself a favour and take a look A devoted and passionate gonzo- previous page) he co-wrote, to last year’s showstop- at the (very) short filmRobots Of Brix- style journalist and blogger (she is Writer-director per Man And Boy, which won the ton on Vimeo. It has had more than fully behind the Occupy movement), Jamie Stone has just been nomi- best narrative short award at the 250,000 hits so you won’t be the only Fowler wrote a sparkling screenplay nated for a Student Academy Award Tribeca Film Festival, 32-year-old one taken aback by Kibwe Tavares’ called Fly Me for Park Entertain- for his National Film and Television Newcastle-born Leon has been com- accomplished final project for his ment about airline entrepreneur School (NFTS) graduation short manding attention on an interna- Masters degree in architecture (he Freddie Laker, which made her fans Skyborn. So when he says “there has tional level. also holds a Masters in engineering). in the film industry. Now she is been a fantastic response from all “I have been forging this path in a Robots caused something of a stir in about to start adapting Marina comers”, since the screening, he is single-minded, doggedly deter- architecture circles when it won the Lewycka’s bestselling book A Short not exaggerating. mined way,” he says. “You’ve got to RIBA silver medal — the highest History Of Tractors In Ukrainian for Though he was signed by an really prove yourself — you’ve got to accolade for a student architect — but Ruby Films and the BBC. agency on the back of his first-year produce exceptional work for people it has set Tavares firmly on the path of Fowler has also finished working short Sh-boom, interest in Stone has to listen. I’ve been careful to try to a film-making career. with Matt Jones (Shameless) on the skyrocketed since Skyborn, much make quality over quantity.” “It was my final thesis, self- pilot for an original series with the like the Gilliam-like aircraft at its Now Leon is ready to make the funded, and I worked on it for six to working title Talent for Company Tel- centre. Stone describes the short as next step with his first full-length seven months,” recalls the south evision and Sky. She is also adapting “rustic sci-fi”. It is Mad“ Max post- feature Driven, which he hopes will London-born and based founder of Terence Blacker’s novella Boy2girl as apocalyptic but more British, so wet, shoot in Newcastle and Northum- animation collective Factory Fifteen. a teen musical for Kindle Entertain- and includes a lot of strategic fog berland in early 2013. Damian In addition to the prestigious ment. She has stories of her own as because we had no money”. Lewis, and RIBA prize, Robots — which was well. “I grew up in a tiny little town in Skyborn, based around the Icarus Peter Capaldi are set to star in this inspired by 28-year-old Tavares’ Wales, with one bus going out of myth, was a terrifically ambitious gritty drama loosely based on Leon’s reflections on the riots in Brixton in there,” says 32-year-old Fowler, who undertaking, and it could have fallen own childhood experiences. 1981 and 1985 and their effect on the travelled the world working as a “chef flat. But 26-year-old Stone displayed Photographer Rankin’s Rankin black community — won the special on yachts for rich people”. such a confident grip on his story Film is attached as executive pro- jury award for animation at the Sun- “I wanted to be a writer but I that he made it all look seamless. ducer. Leon starred in Rankin’s The dance Film Festival earlier this year. didn’t have any life experience. Some Now the film-maker, with his Lives Of The Saints. “People I’ve Now he is shooting his second writers live in an imaginary world, fine-art background — Stone was worked with as an actor have had a short, Jonah, written with former but I like to go out and see and do artist-in-residence at the Henderson belief in me and a willingness to get Star of Tomorrow Jack Thorne and things. I spend six months out there, Gallery in , then studied involved,” he says. produced by Ivana MacKinnon for then I go back into reclusive mode.” film at Edinburgh College of Art — Leon is also working on a Film4, BFI and Shine Pictures. This Contact Charlotte Kelly, Casarotto is focused on how to turn Skyborn 20-minute short called Orthodox semi-mythical story about tourism Ramsay & Associates into a feature, the largest and “most and he is on UK TV screens in the and the world’s biggest fish is being +44 (0) 20 7287 4450 realistic” project on his plate right ITV detective drama Vera. shot on location in Zanzibar and is a [email protected] now. “One of the reasons I wanted to live-action affair with digital anima- His father is the film-maker Nor- become an actor was that I was in tion and set extensions. “I didn’t plan MAHALIA BELO man Stone, so he has been exposed love with storytelling,” he says. “I on being a film-maker,” he admits. Writer-director to film all his life. “I have no illusions have been inspired by film my whole “But doing Robots made me under- Mahalia Belo, known as May, gradu- this is an easy way to make a living, life and I want to touch people in the stand it’s the perfect thing for me.” ated this year from the NFTS with but it has always looked like a lot of same way.” Contact Anthony Mestriner, Casarotto the short Volume. It is a stunning, fun,” he says. Contact Curtis Brown Ramsay & Associates take-notice debut in which the Lon- With a strong interest in anima- +44 (0) 20 7393 4493 +44 (0) 20 7287 4450 don-born director creates an exqui-

Photographed in the Infinity Suite at The Langham, London The Langham, at Suite in the Infinity Photographed tion, Stone has also shot several [email protected] [email protected] site, haunting suburban world and »

www.screendaily.com June-July 2012 Screen International 35 n Film-Makers STARS OF TOMORROW

marries it to a dreamy but always-men- tially to be set in the UK, but he also has the 30-year-old. A struggle to break in acing drama. ideas for Morocco and the wider Middle From left Annemarie followed but Earl hit his mark at the “The attention to the aesthetic was East. “I am not officially in development Lean-Vercoe, Stuart Earl NFTS where he was signed to United and Henry Darke very important — it was almost there yet, but I’m close,” he says. Agents at his graduation screening before the film,” Belo explains. Contact [email protected] three years ago. Since then Earl has Working with an all-female crew, in picked up a Creative Skillset-backed particular writer Ingeborg Topsoe (with ANNEMARIE LEAN-VERCOE Trailblazer award at the Edinburgh whom she continues to collaborate), Cinematographer International Film Festival in 2009 for cinematographer Chloe Thompson and The lush vistas of UK thriller Wreckers his work on varied features and shorts. production designer Laura Tarrant- saw cinematographer Annemarie Lean- Standouts include his scores for By The Brown, Belo believes in “building a Vercoe move into dramatic feature lens- Grace Of God, In Our Name and, most world and finding the story within it”. ing last year to universal acclaim. A recently, My Brother The Devil alongside She adds: “The best things I’ve done 2003 graduate of the NFTS, Lean-Ver- the last of the three instalments of TV have been from a feeling or an image.” coe will now shoot her second feature, drama . The results, which also include the supernatural thriller The Girl In The Earl is now composing his first music NFTS’s first 3D film Thea, have been Corn, for director Laura Smith and pro- for theatre, for A Doll’s House at the arresting enough to draw Film4 as col- ducer Kwesi Dickson this autumn. She , and preparing a five-part laborators on developing Volume into a is also helping prep This Family, the new BBC TV drama. “Music can easily feature. She is also writing a thriller with film fromWreckers director DR Hood. destroy a film,” he says. “You have to be Topsoe called Stockholm, and is in talks The talented Lean-Vercoe is also sensitive and I think I’ve found a way to on various other projects. working on a documentary about Lon- understand how it can work together. I A graduate of London’s Central Saint don-based charity Kids Company for love performing music but the interest- Martins (Fine Art 4D), Belo came into Humane Pictures, with Mat Whitecross. ing part is creating, arranging, writing. directing through the art department The two previously worked together on Film is the most collaborative way to do before moving to the NFTS and is an the 2010 documentary Moving To Mars. it, which is what I love about this job.” experienced animator. The 30-year-old A graduate of Central Saint Martins’ Contact Silvia Llaguno, United Agents says she has “an off-the-wall back- foundation art course with a degree +44 (0) 20 3214 0901 ground — but everything has really from the London College of Printing [email protected] helped me get this far”. before entering the NFTS, Lean-Vercoe Contact Roxana Adle, Independent Talent served an apprenticeship as trainee HENRY DARKE Group camera assistant on features including Writer-director +44 (0) 20 7636 6565 Tomb Raider, where she recalls “making A graduate of the London Film School [email protected] a lot of tea for the cameraman and run- — which he attended on a Creative Skill- ning around with boxes”. set bursary — film-maker Henry Darke FYZAL BOULIFA (pictured Being a female cinematographer in a is readying his first featureBig Mouth, previous page) male-dominated field has its advan- based on his 2010 short of the same Writer-director tages, she says. “I look at reality with a name. Set in Cornwall — or “underneath In The Curse, Fyzal Boulifa’s latest short slightly different, lyrical perspective,” the chocolate box side of Cornwall” — it film (supported by Film4 and the BFI she suggests. “And with documentaries, is about a “deaf boy who is trying to keep Film Fund) which shot in Morocco and I’ve been sensitively and discreetly able his family together; the more he tries, took the top short-film prize at Directors’ to build trust with people, to go into the more the opposite happens”. Fortnight in Cannes, a young village girl their lives and see things that would Big Mouth is part of the LFS/Skillset/ is watched by a local boy as she lies with normally be behind closed doors.” The Bureau’s Hothouse development her older lover. What happens next deals Contact [email protected] scheme and will be produced by Lisa mostly with power and destiny. He Williams at Kevin Loader’s Free Range describes it as a “pitch-black fairy tale” STUART EARL Films. The son of Cornish playwright but Boulifa’s approach is clean, simple Composer Nick Darke, Henry’s own first play and haunting. Preferring to use non- The first film composer to feature in Highfliers was read at the Royal Court actors, this largely self-taught Leicester Stars of Tomorrow, South London-born Theatre in London as part of the Young native (of Moroccan descent) has dealt Stuart Earl comes from a non-musical Playwright’s Season in 2004, and the largely with issues of cultural and sexual background. 30-year-old has gone from strength to alienation and identity in shorts from He explains he started out playing the strength ever since. Afternoon (2007) to Whore (2009) and clarinet at school, and only picked up In addition to Big Mouth, Darke is also Burn My Body (2010). the guitar to “woo girls”. But he became developing a comedy set in Shoreditch, “I have felt a bit in limbo, caught in serious about music as a teenager. Very east London, called In-Between Love, set between cultures, growing up in the serious. Earl studied music theory at to star , with whom Darke Midlands,” he explains. “The characters Oxford University where he encoun- worked on the Coming Up strand’s in my films are often the same way.” tered the work of George Fenton, whose drama Hooked. Where The Bulls Run, Now, with The Curse just finished, daughter attended the same college. about two brothers visiting Pamplona, 28-year-old Boulifa says he is ready to “Naively, I left uni thinking, ‘Oh rounds out Darke’s mini-slate. make the leap into feature films — ini- maybe I’ll try my hand at that’,” recalls London The Langham, at Garden Terrace in the Photographed Contact [email protected] » n 36 Screen International June-July 2012 www.screendaily.com www.screendaily.com June-July 2012 Screen International 37 n One to one Stars of Tomorrow

Pete Travis & William McGregor The director of Vantage Point and the upcoming talks to young director William McGregor about social work, agents as bouncers and the importance of the right script

Q William McGregor I’m always and I met someone who agreed to WM How much did you learn in interested in what gave help me with the rest. And I found a that time? ‘You have to go out

Yves Salmon. Photographed at The Soho Hotel, London Hotel, The Soho at Photographed Salmon. Yves film-makers that initial spark, Nick Hornby story that I loved, PT You learn all the time. You learn what motivated them to make called Faith. I wrote a begging letter on everything you do. I learnt that there knowing that you films. What got you going? to Nick Hornby and he let me have it you don’t get anything unless you would rather die than Pete Travis I used to be a social for a couple of hundred quid. So I work hard for it, to be honest. If I had not do this. If you don’t worker. I did community work in adapted his short story and shot a a quid for everybody that came up to King’s Cross, London, when it short and that was the first thing I’d me and said, ‘I’ve got this great feel like that, then you was a pretty rundown part of the done that was, I suppose, proper. script, I want to go to Cannes and sell shouldn’t do it’ world. It was great but it was seri- it. What do you think I should do?’… I Pete Travis, director ously hard work. And I just want- WM Did that help to get you think, ‘Why don’t you just make ed a year out. So I picked what noticed? something?’ If you really feel like I thought would be a piss-easy PT I got an agent from it. Film-mak- you’re born to do this, it’s something think you have to be quite ruthless course, which was communica- ing is like this really exclusive night- you cannot not do. You don’t take a with yourself because this world is so tions at Goldsmiths. I assumed it club and there are great big bouncers script to Cannes and hope somebody competitive. Honestly I think that meant you watched films all day; on the door who are agents. And if will buy it. You fucking make a short was one of the reasons I was picked when I got there, I was shocked to you don’t get one, you don’t get in. I film for no money and use your to do Vantage Point, because I was find out you had to make some- had sent it [the short film] to a bunch mates and your money and sell your younger and cheaper than Paul thing. I was into a lot of left-wing of agents and I got this phone call car and your cat and your house. Greengrass. He’d just done Bourne. movies, Fassbinder, and I liked the one morning. This guy said to me, ‘I They wanted something handheld idea of cinema as a political tool. So watched your film at 5 o’clock this WM You said earlier that politics and realistic and they’d just seen I did a drama-documentary about morning and loved it.’ I thought, ‘Oh got you into film-making. Was that Omagh. So I do think you have to the only three things I really knew God, he’s a weirdo.’ He told me his what drew you to Dredd? hold out for the one thing you want about: football, the miners’ strike young son had been up all night PT It’s always for me the script; it to do more than anything in the that I’d stood on a few demos for, teething and he’d finally given up on always starts with that. And I loved whole world. And I knew when I got and the Spanish Civil War, which sleep and watched my short. And Alex Garland’s script, it’s just extraor- Omagh, that would be the one for me. I kind of fantasised about when I that was Alan Radcliffe. His son was dinary — really visceral and real and That would be the first film I would was younger. So I wrote this ridic- Daniel Radcliffe. And he was a very tough. That’s why I did it. Somebody make properly. And I think it shows. ulous story about a football hooli- big agent at William Morris in Lon- much more famous than me once gan who meets an old woman who don. And I signed with him. But then said there are only two decisions you WM Hopefully, later in the year, I’ll used to be involved in the Spanish it took me ages to get another job. make as a director that are worth be shooting my first feature, The Civil War. My tutor loved it and I anything. The script and who’s in it. Rising. Do you have any specific sent it to the NFTS. But they said I WM When did you get your break? Whatever you do with the cam- advice? wasn’t quite good enough… PT I couldn’t really get a job, and I got era, if you’ve picked the wrong script PT It’s not original, I can’t remember so broke I did the first job that came or actors it makes no difference. who said it first but my advice is: WM I got rejected from there as along that paid the rent, a kids’ show Those two things are most impor- ‘everything cuts together’ and ‘get well a few years ago. that was seen by Christine Langan. tant. I spent a long time actually more sleep than the actors’. A lot of PT I got down to the last 20, I think. She was looking for a director for an waiting for Omagh. I suppose if people fret about what will and what They said I needed more experience episode of the second series of Cold there’s any advice to give someone won’t cut together and everything working with actors, which was Feet. And what’s really interesting, when they are starting out it’s don’t does actually cut in my experience. actually really good advice for me. the other directors of that series were do something if you don’t feel you’d Maybe not well, but it does. I also So I spent the next five years blow- Tom Hooper and Tom Vaughan. And give your life for it. Because if you think you have to be very passionate ing all my money on fringe theatre. I Christine Langan is now the head of get that one shot and it’s something about what you want to do. You have put on a bunch of plays. It’s great fun BBC Films. So that was the big break you don’t care about that much, then to go out there knowing that you but it’s like pouring money down the for me. After that I made two TV you won’t do it very well. would rather die than not do this. If toilet. After doing that I got a job as a films with . Paul You see the choice that a lot of peo- you don’t feel like that, then you researcher for a local TV show Greengrass saw one and offered me ple make after making really interest- shouldn’t do it. Most people in your because I knew I didn’t want to go Omagh, which was the first [feature] ing short films, and you think, ‘Why life come second if you’re a director back to being a social worker. But I film I did. From when I made the did you do that?!’ Sometimes it just and you’re serious about your work. wasn’t getting any closer to making short until then it was five years, so it looked like someone paid them a lot I’ve just got very understanding peo- a film. I had saved a bit of money was pretty fast. of money. Which is fair enough but I ple in my family. ns » n 38 Screen International June-July 2012 www.screendaily.com www.screendaily.com June-July 2012 Screen International 39 n One to one Stars of Tomorrow

Simon Curtis & Jamie Stone director Simon Curtis talks to Student Academy Award-nominated film-maker Jamie Stone about the transition from stage to screen and keeping open as many doors as possible

Q Jamie Stone I come from an art JS Is there a part of you that would amount of attention that was going to and animation background and ‘You can become have liked to have gone to film be lavished on those performances I’m trying to make the transition school? concentrated all our minds. from shorts to longer narratives. How a brilliant director SC Sometimes I wish I was more tech- did you find the transition from without knowing nically expert in terms of talking with JS What advice would you have for theatre to TV and then on to feature a single thing the crew. But the weird thing about a young director when it comes to London Chiswick, House, at High Road Photographed Salmon. Yves films? directing is that you can become a bril- working with, or trying to work with, Simon Curtis Being a director is about a camera, liant director without knowing a single top actors? such a hard thing to define, isn’t it? without having thing about a camera, without having SC Be enthusiastic and respectful and Having done my first film recently, ever met an ever met an actor. There are no rules. acknowledge their experience. You can I was struck by the many different The alchemy of one piece of work, learn from them and I think it’s a two- skillsets needed at different stages in actor’ that’s directing. way street. So much about directing the process — to develop the script, Simon Curtis, director When I was in the theatre and is relationships and knowing how to raise the finance, the skills you need wanted to work in film, a very eminent get on with people. I’ve worked with to cast it, choose the crew, the skills film director let me come on his set and some of the dames, if you like, and you need to shoot it, edit it, navigate I swear I don’t think I heard him say a some don’t want to be bothered and the studio system and then the skills single thing the whole day! It was very don’t want notes and others want a lot you need to promote it. They’re all confusing. It can turn out that the gaf- of notes. different jobs. In some ways I was fer is the loudest person there. So it can There was one famous actress I very glad to have the experience I’ve be confusing going to someone else’s worked with and I asked her agent for had, particularly in the theatre and set, you don’t quite know what’s going advice before I set out to work with her TV industries. on. I was lucky because I’ve watched and he said, ‘Don’t let her smell your The thread that runs through my lots of other directors’ sets and been on fear.’ Which is a terrifying thing to be career is working with actors; theatre is lots of sets. I was an assistant director told! I think in a long career they work a brilliant training ground for learning to and , on so many sets they don’t want to be how to work with actors — you get then when I was at the BBC, I worked messed around, they like it to be an effi- used to lengthy relationships with alongside people like David Yates, Joe cient set, they like it to be a happy set, them on a particular piece of work. Wright, Tom Hooper, and as a producer they like to have time to do their work. The thing that’s most striking about I worked with Stephen Daldry and Sam said to me, ‘I don’t mind a film set is that you’re making hun- Mendes. So I have a lot of experience of what happens, but I don’t want to be dreds of final decisions every day — watching other directors at work and rushed into doing my scene at ten to this is the only time you’ll be doing that seeing how other people define what seven’. last year, he scene — but in the theatre you have the directing is. And that has been invalu- had very definite ideas of how the day luxury of a proper rehearsal over three, able experience. should go and I would ignore that at four, five weeks. my peril, especially from someone who But the big lesson having made My JS My Week With Marilyn brilliantly is so experienced in every aspect of Week With Marilyn is the exposure of a captured the battlefield psychology film-making. Of course you can’t please film is so huge it’s got to be something, a film set can have. Do you have any everyone all the time but it’s about tak- whether you’re right or wrong, that you tips for keeping a set together? ing things on board — it’s a long, com- making or breaking of the film. Make as if they are doing their best for you ones are going to remain open and believe in passionately. SC I like a lot of running jokes, actually. plicated relationship that is always sure it is realistic. Every schedule is and the schedule is an important part which are going to be slammed in your In theatre and television there’s In a sense, I cast a crew as well as cast- different, always surprising. going to be too tight, but is it realistic? of that — it gives you the space to hear face. As a director I look at theatre, I more of a chance of doing two or three ing the actors. For Marilyn I brought a You need a sense of the day, that you people’s needs with confidence that keep an eye out on TV, and film of theatre shows a year or one or two TV lot of crew from the BBC, people I JS Are there any really common can afford those extra shots in the you can help. I look back with horror at course. A career is a long thing, hope- shows a year; you can take a gamble, trusted as well as people I liked. And mistakes you see young film-makers morning because you know you can do some of the early schedules I did and fully, so be as open to as many possi- make it quickly, edit quickly, it goes on I got a lot of support from them. Mak- make? the scene in the afternoon in one shot. some of the terrible mistakes I made. bilities — you will have a question of quickly and it either sinks or swims ing a film is like going to war — it can’t SC I think the schedule is so important. Having that takes the pressure off eve- whether you should do TV work or and you move on. always be fun but it can’t always be a And I would urge all young film-mak- ryone else. So it comes back to that JS If you were coming straight out of hold out for film and the project will Whereas film you’re sort of stuck nightmare and I try to keep the atmos- ers to form a good relationship with a thing of creating an atmosphere where film school, what would you be doing make that decision for you. If you fall in with it for a very long period, so it’s got phere on a set as light as possible. On very good first AD. Make sure your first everyone can do their best work — now? love with a TV script, there’s no reason to be something you are passionate [Marilyn], the level of impersonation of AD isn’t new to the business as well! from the actors, DP, sound, make-up. SC Try to open as many doors as possi- not to do it. I would encourage you to about. famous people on that set and the The making of the schedule is also the » Everyone wants to feel respected and ble, because you don’t know which go with your gut. ns » n 40 Screen International June-July 2012 www.screendaily.com www.screendaily.com June-July 2012 Screen International 41 n One to one Stars of Tomorrow

Rebecca O’Brien & Dominic Buchanan Ken Loach’s longtime producer Rebecca O’Brien talks to budding producer Dominic Buchanan about being sociable, learning on the job and having organisational genes

Q Dominic Buchanan What tips say no! And once I got into it, I industrial scale of a studio film. I like would you give a young realised I wouldn’t go back. ‘The film network is a to know everyone who is working for producer? R O’B I always think I’m not as good us. The low to medium budget, the Rebecca O’Brien A producer has to as other people are at any one thing, supportive network, £3m-£5m ($4.6m-$7.7m) mark, is go into the real world, I don’t think but I’m quite good at joining them once you’re in it. People where I like to be. I’d love to have you can train a producer. You can together and smoothing things over. are very helpful to each made Star Wars — honestly! — but only really produce when you’re I’m very sociable and I love putting I’m very happy where I am. I felt after London Films, of Sixteen at the offices Photographed Salmon. Yves producing. I was lucky to learn people together and making things other, even though we made Land And Freedom, which on the job. I started in production happen. Because I’m a jack of all they’re rivals’ was such an all-encompassing film, and location managing and line trades, film is a perfect thing for me. Rebecca O’Brien, producer we really felt we’d been to war and producing. But I’d never raised And because it changes all the time we’d somehow had a parallel experi- money. The first film I produced on every film you do, even if you’re ence. We came home exhausted and was 100% funded by the BFI. The making films with the same people. DB It can’t always have been after that I was so proud of making second thing I produced was Hid- You’ve got a different job every time, smooth sailing? that film, artistically, that I felt I den Agenda with Ken [Loach] and almost. R O’B I had lucky breaks. I ended up didn’t even need to make another I didn’t have to raise the money working on My Beautiful Laundrette. film in my life. In a way if you’ve for that. As a producer, you seek DB It’s interesting to know you’re Everybody who worked on it was achieved something you’re really out people — the bits you can’t do, sociable — I am, and I always end new — and brilliant. But I wasn’t proud of early on it makes things you find someone who can. I found up connecting people in some way. expecting to be a producer, you evolve easier — you’re not striving ambi- an executive producer who would I did fashion week parties in New into it. And it’s your enthusiasm for tiously. You have ambitions but it raise money for us and that just York and, when you think about it, getting things to happen which doesn’t get in the way of the project. happened to be [Working Title’s] that’s producing too. makes you a natural producer. Then I Eric Fellner. I also had executive R O’B My mum and granny were hooked up with Ken and that was DB What has been your biggest producers on Land And Freedom. organisers. There’s an organisa- another piece of serendipity. I ended obstacle? I can do it now but it takes a long tional gene in me. We lived in quite a up being Working Title’s expert on R O’B It’s always the disaster you time to get fully qualified. big house in Scotland and when we Ireland as I’d done a Maeve Binchy don’t anticipate. That’s something But generalising about producing moved there my mum wanted to TV series with them there [Echoes] you can never work out. Persuading is just hot air, really. It’s a really sup- make the best of it, so she threw this and they were planning a film with people to part with their money. And portive network once you’re in it, the huge carnival fete for the Freedom Ken, which actually didn’t happen. So they’re so stupid that they don’t love film network. People are very helpful From Hunger campaign in 1963. he and I were suddenly stuck without your film the way you do! But I’m an to each other even though they’re She wasn’t content to have a pipe a film to do and he asked me if I’d be optimist so obstacles are hurdles to rivals. It’s about knowing people and band. She organised the house to be interested in trying to get what get over. Ken had a nasty accident the advice you seek is always about set on fire and the fire engine to became Hidden Agenda together. It last year and that was very hard. He specific problems — who would you come. She set up a dog-racing track took two or three years to get off the was taking his plate back to the cater- go to in Jordan to help set up a in the garden. And I was brought up ground. We had three or four false ers [on the set of The Angels’ Share] shoot? You don’t go around asking, with her being a role model. She had starts, it was terribly controversial. and he fell and hit his head on the ‘How do I be a good producer?’ a mental illness, sadly, and she But the fact we’d pulled it off made us sharp corner of a step. Twelve Though maybe I should try — I’m wasn’t always like that, but when feel we could do more things. That’s stitches in his head — I’m not very still waiting for that blockbuster hit. she was well, there’d always be a what bonds you, going through the good at blood. I was sitting on the There are always ambitions, even at major event happening. So I got experience of making a difficult film ambulance steps trying not to pass this stage. I’d love for Ken to have a used to having these life-changing together — and still speaking at the out myself. That’s not Ken the film- hit in his own country. experiences and that’s why I became other side of it. We went on to Land maker, that’s Ken my friend. And What brought you into producing? a producer — you get a life-chang- And Freedom. We’ve done 12 films then the crisis was what the hell do ing experience every year. since then, not counting the docu- we do; it was day one of the shoot. DB I was doing acquisitions and I worked at a film festival, Edin- mentary or TV bits and pieces. We didn’t know — he’s 75 — how he I started to realise I wasn’t going burgh, I did three summers there was going to be after this. Was he to end up there. I was asked to back in the ’70s. And that’s how I got DB Is there any type of film you’d going to be able to recover? We had produce Gimme The Loot [which to know a lot of people. Then I saw a like to do that you haven’t done? to suspend The Angels’ Share for screened in Un Certain Regard at small ad — back in 1981 — in The R O’B Not really, because I discovered three weeks. And we weren’t ever Cannes this year] because I knew Observer newspaper for a one-week when I made Mr Bean in Los Angeles sure how we were going to go back. the director-writer, Adam [Leon]. film-production course, and that — which wasn’t a big film but it was Anyway, we got there, but I wouldn’t There was no reason for me to was it, that was me. a studio film — that I don’t like the like to go through that again. ns » n 42 Screen International June-July 2012 www.screendaily.com www.screendaily.com June-July 2012 Screen International 43 n where are they now? Stars of Tomorrow

1 2 3 4 6 8 Adam Scourfield Adam

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Kampusch in Constantin Films’ Eng- 1 and Joshua Romola Garai, with Focus Features is set to direct comedy Swung, to star lish-language 3096 Days, about the kid- Bowman on board for world sales. Elena Anaya, and adapted by Ewan 2 Sebastian Armesto, Georgia MyAnna Buring Class of 2011: one year on… nap victim’s eight-year ordeal, which King, and went straight from Morrison from his novel of the same has wrapped at Bavaria Film Studios. Alexandra Roach Kill List into filming Tom Green’s BBC1 name. With backing from Creative Last year’s Stars of Tomorrow are conquering the world. Fionnuala Halligan tracks them down Douglas Booth went straight from 3 Phoebe Fox, Antonia three-part series Black Out opposite Scotland, he hopes to start shooting Campbell-Hughes and Douglas the Stars shoot to playing Romeo in Booth Christopher Eccleston and Andrew this autumn. director Carlo Carlei’s Romeo & Juliet, 4 Joe Cole Scott. She is currently filming the eight- Actors year leading the cast in a production of Alexandra Roach is finishing work opposite Hailee Steinfeld. He has also 5 Robert Emms part series Ripper Street for the BBC. Screenwriter Jay Basu’s Fast 6 Tom Cullen and MyAnna 8 Tirso de Molina’s Damned By Despair, on Anna Karenina for , play- landed the coveted role of Shem in Dar- Buring She will appear in The Twilight Saga: Girls is out this month. He is cur- Vanessa Kirby is about to begin adapted by Frank McGuinness. Armesto ing the role of Countess Nordstrom. She ren Aronofsky’s Noah, opposite Russell 7 Arjun Rose, John Maclean and Breaking Dawn — Part 2 at the end of rently writing the sequel to Gareth 1 work on The Necessary Death Of will also appear in the five-part TV also starred in Private Peaceful for Pat Crowe. Colin Kennedy the year. Edwards’ Monsters, to be called Dark Charlie Countryman opposite Shia drama Parade’s End, adapted by Tom O’Connor, and director ’s 8 Jay Basu Continent, for Vertigo. It will be di- 9 Rowan Athale LaBeouf, before starting work on Rich- Stoppard from Ford Madox Ford’s nov- Trap For Cinderella, all due out this year. 4 Joe Cole played the lead in Directors & writers rected by Tom Green (Misfits). Basu ard Curtis’ About Time. Once that has els, and directed by Susanna White. Offender, to be released by is also writing a Jack the Ripper film wrapped, Kirby will return to the stage, Georgia King went straight into shoot- Phoebe Fox is currently shooting Revolver, and has also been filming the Arjun Rose has signed a TV devel- for Pathé, alongside an Ireland-set playing Masha in the Young Vic’s pro- ing Austenland, and has just filmed the 3 the lead role in Switch, a new series second series of The Hour for the BBC. 7 opment deal with Elton John’s crime film, which Lenny Abraham- duction of . lead role in Ryan Murphy’s (Glee) pilot for from the Being Human team, in which Rocket Pictures and is set to shoot The son is set to direct. Joshua Bowman has wrapped film- NBC, The New Normal, alongside Ellen she plays a witch. After that, Fox will Robert Emms went from Blindside, his second feature after ing on the first series ofRevenge for CBS Barkin, playing an American (King got play Cordelia to ’s Lear 5 to Mirror Mirror, and featured in Demons Never Die, in January 2013 with Rowan Athale recently shot his first in the US, one of the hottest new shows the part without Murphy realising she at the in London. the Cannes Critics’ Week opener Broken Alcon Entertainment. He has also 9 feature as writer/director, Waste- on US television which is currently was English). Antonia Campbell-Hughes is well with Cillian Murphy and Tim Roth. signed with Anonymous Content. land, with , Matthew being retransmitted on E4 in the UK. John Boyega played a young Mike on her way to being the UK’s indie John Maclean’s short Pitch Black Lewis, Luke Treadaway, Gerard Kearns, 2 After being nominated for the pres- Tyson in Da Brick and stars opposite queen. Straight after Stars of Tomorrow 6 After touring the awards circuit Heist went on to win the Bafta for short Neil Maskell, past Star of Tomorrow tigious Ian Charleson award this , Thandie Newton and 2011, she shot Storage24, which hits for his role in Weekend, Tom Cul- film. He is currently writing a feature, Iwan Rheon, and Vanessa Kirby, whom year for his work on A Woman Killed By Joseph Mawle in Biyi Bandele’s adapta- cinemas this June, and followed it up len is in Jordan shooting the feature commissioned by Film4. he met on the Stars of Tomorrow 2011 Kindness, Sebastian Armesto will be tion of Half A Yellow Sun, shot on loca- with the lead in Kelly + Victor. Her big- Last Days On Mars for director Ruairi Having won the Scottish short film photoshoot. The film is currently in back at the National Theatre later this tion in Nigeria. gest part, though, was playing Natascha Robinson opposite Liev Schreiber and Bafta for I Love Luci, Colin Kennedy post-production (see p63). ns n 46 Screen International June-July 2012 www.screendaily.com www.screendaily.com June-July 2012 Screen International 47 n