Page 8 - Fujifilm Exposure_4 Samantha Janus_ok

Scorpio Rising Yet another British success story in the making.
These are exciting times in a film indus- try, buzzing with production and alive with possibilities, perfectly exemplified by the small British company Scorpio Productions. Comprising two young producers, Zygi Kamasa and Daniel Figuero, the outfit already has the star- studded period drama, The Scarlet Tunic, on release, and is almost finished on its second fea- ture, a futuristic thriller entitled Sunset Heights.
But where other companies are not slow in getting their projects on film, few have shown the kind of resourcefulness and determination that Scorpio have in
getting them
released. When
no domestic UK
distributor was
willing to take a
chance with
The Scarlet
Tunic, adapted
from a Thomas
Hardy short
story, the pro-
ducers and
director Stuart
St Paul took on
the tough role
themselves.
“That’s what it’s all about these days,” explains Figuero, “you’ve got to go out there and do it otherwise your film sits on the shelf for years. Distribution is the key really, there are so many films being made that are trying to get dis- tribution deals but can’t get them. We overcame that by doing it totally ourselves.”
Since its premiere last November - appropri- ately in the West Country area made famous by Hardy’s writing - the film has played all over the region and in the process has moved slowly into profit. And in March the film opens in London. This should finally put Scorpio’s doubters and nay sayers to shame.
But The Scarlet Tunic is not exactly an every- day story of West Country folk. Shot on location in Dorset last year, it can boast a cast most produc- ers would kill for, including art house pin-up Jean- Marc Barr, rising starlet Emma Fielding, plus char- acter stalwarts like John Sessions, Jack Shepherd and Simon Callow.
“It’s set in the early 19th century,” explains Kamasa, “and it’s about a group of German sol- diers who come over to train with the York Hussars - who were like this elite regiment at the time - in England, prior to going to fight Napoleon
in mainland Europe. But in 1802 there’s a break in the war, and there are talks of peace. So they look forward to going back home, but because they’re now with the York Hussars there is talk of them being sent to India to fight for Britain there.
One of them, a Sergeant played by Jean-Marc Barr, is in complete turmoil over this when he meets the daughter of a wealthy landowner, who is herself betrothed to marry a local businessman. She’s played by Emma Fielding - and of course the nice thing about something written by Thomas Hardy is that there are so many great characters.”
In spite of the familiar attractions of the piece - period romance, inter- esting cast, the ongoing screen popularity of Hardy stories - finding a suit- able distribu- tor still proved a major
headache.
By releas-
ing the movie themselves, something made a lot eas-
ier by the fact that so much of the budget came from private investors, some of whom paid their money in return for a chance to appear on screen as extras, they retained a great more overall con- trol.
“That gave us a lot of freedom,” admits Kamasa, “it’s actually a great position to be in, not having to release something hurriedly because the distributor says so.” Even then, it has proved a tortuous process of migraine inducing intensity.
“The problem for us,” Figuero explains in a break from post production on Sunset Heights, “is that we’ve had to break the mould in distributing The Scarlet Tunic ourselves. Every stage of the business is so complicated and time consuming, but we were determined that whatever it took we would get our film out there.”
Having achieved this astonishing feat once, Scorpio are not anxious to repeat the experience with Sunset Height, recognising the incessant pressures and extreme demands of being involved with a film so closely from pre-production to release and beyond.
With a sales company now behind them, it seems likely that this very different movie will be picked up by an existing domestic distributor, and the producers have high hopes of it also being
Photo above: Director Colm Villa with Toby Stephens, Patrick O’Kane and Peter Vallance on the set of Sunset Heights
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