13/03/2006

A new digital film studio with £4.5m backing from the National Lottery, Film Four and regional screen agencies will be launched on March 23 to help generate and sustain a low budget film industry in the UK.

Warp X, which was the successful bidder of the Low Budget Feature Film Scheme tendered last year by the UK Film Council and Film Four, is a start-up company based in Sheffield, linked to Mark Herbert and Robin Gutch’s production company Warp Films, as well as Warp Records.

Seen as a “one-stop shop” where filmmakers will be offered development support, production finance and theatrical distribution through a deal secured with Optimum Releasing, Warp X will make seven low budget feature films over the next three years. The Warp X partners had previously worked on Shane Meadow’s Dead Man’s Shoes and also collaborated on his upcoming film, This Is England, set to be released later this year by Optimum Releasing.

"Warp X wants movies that can be made faster, lighter, with no excess baggage, and then use that freedom to ‘re-tox’ British cinema with an injection of adventure", said Herbert and Gutch. "Our ideal is to make films which audiences find exhilarating, whether they be original interpretations of marketable genres or stories with a passion and hook that gets them noticed in the marketplace”.

The novel aspect to Warp X is that creative talent, casts, crews and producers will be able to participate in the film’s revenue from the first pound grossed. “Revenue will be reinvested in the scheme and Warp X, which means there is a real opportunity for Warp X to grow into a sustainable creative business in the Future”, added Herbert and Gutch.