Shane Meadows, Paddy Considine reunite for film
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- The gloves are off for writer-director Shane Meadows, who is teaming with collaborator and actor Paddy Considine to develop "King of the Gypsies" for Meadows to direct and Considine to star in.
The movie, which details the true-life story of Bartley Gorman III, last of the bare-knuckle world champion fighters, reunites Meadows and Considine four years after the duo's collaboration on "Dead Man's Shoes."
The development is buoyed by a 46,000 pound ($91,000) cash injection from EM Media, the regional screen agency funding body in the East Midlands area of England.
EM Media chief executive Debbie Williams -- in the Scottish capital to trumpet six EM Media co-financed productions that will bow during the Edinburgh International Film Festival -- said she hopes the agency will "continue to punch above its weight."
EM Media is one of the main partners in Warp X, a digital film studio established to revitalize low-budget British filmmaking set up by the U.K. Film Council's New Cinema Fund, Film4 and Screen Yorkshire. Projects have U.K. distribution through partner Optimum Releasing and air on British broadcaster Channel 4.
Williams also said that Considine's script "Tyrannosaur" will get 25,000 pounds ($49,000) to develop into a movie that will mark the his directorial debut. Considine, who is teaming with producer Diarmid Scrimshaw for Warp Films on the project, previously developed and produced the BAFTA-winning short "Dog Altogether."
The script is billed as a moving and frank insight into the life of a good woman trapped in a violent relationship with a vicious businessman.
Other projects on the eclectic EM Media slate include one from Paul King, director of the cult British TV comedy show "The Mighty Boosh." Titled "Bunny and the Bull," the film is described as a road movie "set entirely in a flat" and marks the big-screen debut for King from his own script.
Other projects on EM Media's latest slate include the Julie Rutterford-penned script "A Boy Called Dad" for Brian Percival to direct that gets 250,000 pounds ($493,000) from the European Regional Development cash pool via EM Media toward production, as well as writer Hugh Ellis and previous collaborator and director Kenny Glenaan for their project "Red Sail."
The six finished EM Media-backed movies unspooling at Edinburgh include a Glenaan and Ellis project, "Summer"; Chris Waitt's "A Complete History of My Sexual Failures"; Duane Hopkins' "Better Things"; Martin Radich's "Crack Willow"; Olly Blackburn's "Donkey Punch"; and "Mum & Dad," from Steven Sheil.
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