The idea of government-subsidized filmmaking is almost unheard of in the States, but in the rest of the world it’s almost essential for the independent filmmaking world to receive some kind of financial support from a funding body. The UK Film Council, which looks after such handouts, with funding from the National Lottery, have announced their latest round of development grants, and it’s revealed some projects we weren’t previously aware of, as well as a few extra details on some that we were.
The largest grant, at £100,000 ($154,300) has gone to AG Cross Street Films, who are developing a script by “Billy Elliot” writer Lee Hall entitled “For The End of Time.” The project is a biopic of the French composer Olivier Messiaen, who composed ‘Quartet For The End of Time,’ a work generally thought of as one of the 20th century’s masterpieces, while in a prison camp after the fall of France in 1940. He also had a minor form of synaesthesia, and often incorporated notations of birdsong into his work. It sounds like a potentially fascinating subject – our guess is, from the title, that Hall will be focusing on the wartime aspect of Messiaen’s life.
Number 9 Films (“Breakfast on Pluto,” the forthcoming “Perrier’s Bounty”) received two grants, for the Enda Walsh-written Dusty Springfield biopic “Dusty,” which we’ve covered before, and a new script from playwright Conor McPherson, entitled “Strangers,” based on a novel by Japanese writer Taichi Yamada, which follows a TV writer who meets a couple who bear an eerie resemblance to his dead parents. James Marsh (“Man On Wire,” “Red Riding: 1980”) is attached to direct, which is enough to make us clamor to see this one.
Meanwhile, “Corsica 72,” a Mafia script from “Casino Royale” screenwriters Neil Purvis and Robert Wade also received funding, and appears to have gained a director since it placed second in the Brit List; Oliver Hirschbiegel (“Downfall,” “Five Minutes of Heaven”) is set to take the helm. Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need To Talk About Kevin,” starring Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly, also got a grant, as did John Madden’s adaptation of the bestselling novel “The Outcast.”
In terms of greener talent, the great Paddy Considine will be making his feature directorial debut, having won a BAFTA in 2008 for his short film “Dog Altogether,” reteaming with his producer on that film, Diarmid Scrimshaw for “The Journeyman”, while Laura Wade’s play “Posh,” which premieres at the Royal Court Theatre in April, is being adapted by Blueprint Pictures.
With the exception of Ramsay’s film, these projects are still in development, so it’s a few years until we’ll see any of them on screens, but there’s plenty to be excited about here. We’re still going over the UKFC’s press release, so there’s more to come later in the day.