17/10/2005

Celador Productions behind Neil Marshall’s successful horror film The Descent [+see also:
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film profile] (over £2.7m (€ 4m) in the UK) is teaming up again with the director on another thriller set to go into production late 2006/early 2007. The film will be co-produced by Marshall’s own production company Northmen Productions co-headed by long-time partner Keith Bell.
Also in development are Farang, a low budget road movie to be filmed by Peter Webber (Girl With a Pearl Earring) in Thailand from a script by Richard Cottan, as well as Bafta-winner Adrian Hodges’ adaptation of Claire Tomalin’s biography of Samuel Pepys The Unequalled Self to be co-produced by the UK Film Council Development Fund.

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Celador Films whose first feature film production was Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things, is also moving into production on Martyn Pig, a coming of age film noir about a boy, a girl, a corpse and a suitcase full of money… Based on a novel by Kevin Brooks, the film will be adapted for the big screen by Tom and Charles Guard who will make their directorial debut with shooting set to take place next year in the US. The film will be co-produced in the US by New-York based Anna Waterhouse.

"The plan is to continue with the formula of producing and financing movies in the £3-£5m (€ 4.4-7.3m) range, while also beginning to develop higher budget films that would require and hopefully attract third party partnership funding", said Celador Films’ joint managing director Christian Colson.
But the next Celador film to hit the screens in the UK is Separate Lies, the directorial debut of Oscar-winning scriptwriter of Gosford Park Julian Fellowes. The £5m (€ 7.3m) film is the story of an apparently perfect marriage between corporate lawyer James Manning (Tom Wilkinson) and Anne (Emily Watson) which hits the rocks when a third party enters the picture (Rupert Everett). The film will have a prestigious Mayor’s Gala Screening on October 24 in London as part of the Times Bfi London Film Festival which starts next week. The UK official release through 20th Century Fox will be on November 18.