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in production
KEEPING FAITH
KEEPING FAITH
WITH A VISION
WITH A VISION
As Predicted, No Full Monty 2 From Writer Turned Movie Director, Simon Beaufoy
Simon Beaufoy, writer of The Full Monty, is currently making his directing debut on The Darkest Light which has been filming on location in North Yorkshire over the summer. From roistering com- edy in an industrial inner city to a som- bre drama amid remote hills and val- leys, it’s hard to imagine a bigger contrast with the film which earned Beaufoy an Oscar nomination as well as a string of other awards earlier this year.
The man who created a team of redundant Sheffield steelworkers turned reluctant strippers has now fashioned a powerful story of how a young girl’s desire and determination to save her brother’s life divides a whole community.
“It’s about the part that faith has to play in our increasingly secular society,” says Beaufoy, who’s co-directing with Bille Eltringham, partner in Footprint Films along with producer Mark Blaney.
They have worked on a number of short films together and chose another regular member of the team, Mary Farbrother, to be cinematographer on Bournemouth-based Footprint’s first feature, which is being financed by Pathé Pictures in asso- ciation with BBC Scotland and the Yorkshire
Media Production Agency. It also received National Lottery cash. Getting the funding package together was not easy, even for the writer of the most successful British team of all time. “People wanted a Full Monty 2,” he sighs. “This patently isn’t. Not only that, it’s got children in it and it’s not an easy subject.”
“The foundations were made for Darkest Light prior to Montymania,” says Blaney. “It was originally going to be a BBC and British Screen production with a budget of £1m, but the brave decision was made that it couldn’t be done for that. We had always thought that we ought to be able to make our first feature for a million but the reality was different. It was part of the learning curve to recognise this.
“The main factors were that we were shoot- ing in a remote part of the country so everyone was away from home. The children’s limited working hours meant a longer shoot and we also used a lot of animals.”
When Footprint set about putting together a new financial package for the film, Beaufoy’s name was an asset. “Simon’s success certainly opened some doors, especially in North America, but they
weren’t necessarily ones we wanted to go through. But they tended to lead to something that did work,” according to Blaney.
“I like to think that people’s assumptions about what seems its lack of commerciability - the fact that it is a story seen through children’s eyes - will in the end be its selling point. It’s certainly not a children’s film, but the children will be what catches the audience’s imagination.
“Pathé and the other partners have been very supportive about this, but I know they have gone out on a limb to say the least, even granted Simon’s success.” This time round they had a bud-
Photos: above; Mark Blaney, Simon Beaufoy and Bille Eltringham on location; main: Keri Arnold and Kavita Sungha in The Darkest Light.
EXPOSURE • 26 & 27