04/09/2009

Director Nigel Cole (Calendar Girls) has completed principal photography on comedy/drama We Want Sex, produced by Number 9 Films’ Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Carlsen.

The film stars Sally Hawkins as Rita O’Grady, the catalyst of the 1968 Ford Dagenham strike by 187 sewing machinists that led to the Equal Pay Act being passed. The film also stars Andrea Riseborough, Bob Hoskins, Daniel Mays, Geraldine James, Miranda Richardson, Rosamund Pike and Rupert Graves.

BBC Films, the UK Film Council’s (UKFC) Premiere Fund, BMS Finance and Lip Sync Productions are financing with HanWay Films handling worldwide sales. The film has already sold in over 25 territories including ARP in France, Lucky Red in Italy and Paramount Pictures in the UK.

Woolley said, “My producing partner Elizabeth Karlsen and I have been nurturing this film for four years now, and whilst its basic subject matter is one of huge importance for the women’s movement - that of equal pay - our screenplay is full of humour and charts the emotional peaks and troughs that these women experienced throughout their history making efforts.”

BBC Films Creative Director Christine Langan said, “With a wonderful team and a stellar cast, Elizabeth, Stephen and Nigel have been in their element and have really done justice to Billy Ivory’s heart warming script.”

Sally Caplan, Head of the UKFC’s Premiere Fund, added, “We Want Sex is a really exciting film for the UK Film Council and the kind of narrative that the British film industry does so well – a story, brought to the big screen by some of our finest home-grown film talent, that depicts with humour and emotion a turning point in British history.”