Page 9 - Fujifilm Exposure_15 Melinda Messenger_ok

TO TERROR
TO TERROR
Four teenagers and a bomb threat in The Hole
in production
A tense, psychological thriller shot recently at
Bray Studios in Buckinghamshire and on locations around the south of England, The Hole features some
familiar faces as well as a host of fresh young talent.
Director Nick Hamm, for five years a resident director at the RSC, has assembled an eclectic cast to play out a story of friendship, terror and betray- al set in an English public school.
Although only 18, American actress Thora Birch, who started in films aged just four, has built up an impressive list of credits in her career, culminating in the hugely successful American Beauty earlier this year.
South African born Embeth Davidtz, well known after her perfor- mances in Schindler’s List, Matilda and Mansfield Park, is an actress of similar worldliness. But Birch’s peers on set are much less travelled. American Desmond Harrington has appeared in Joan of Arc and Boiler Room, it’s true, but The Hole is his biggest film role to date.
Making his movie debut, RADA student Laurence Fox is joining the family business, in a sense, as his
father is stage and screen actor James Fox. And if actress Keira Knightley seems vaguely familiar then that might be because she starred in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, play- ing the decoy Queen. But for her too, this is a much bigger break.
The theme of youth being given its chance also extends beyond the cast, as director Hamm was finally get- ting his chance to film a book he had optioned six years before, a novel called After The Hole written by the then 17 year old Guy Burt.
“The book’s captivated me ever since I first read it,” Hamm explains. “In fact it was going to be my first film, but I could never get the script the way I wanted it. I bought the rights there and then, and it’s taken all that time to finally end up to the point where we could start shooting.”
Having actually made his film debut with Martha - Meet Frank,
Daniel and Laurence, and enjoyed success with the television comedy- dramas Rik Mayall Presents, Hamm has deftly switched from broad come- dy to the realm of tense psychological thriller with The Hole.
“I got a bit side-tracked on the comedy. I’ve been on this for about six
years, in fact I first read it when I was doing Dancing Queen with Rik Mayall and Helena Bonham Carter,” he says.
“It’s taken all that time, with sever- al different writers and a lot of different studios, to finally end up with a good script. And a script that everybody wanted to make, because the novel shares the same concept as the movie, but is much more of a chess game.
“The movie had to be both a chess game and a psychologically and emotionally involving story as well, so in a way this harks back to what I used to do in the theatre, which is more drama based.”
The story soon assumes a tense and claustrophobic tone as four stu- dents find themselves trapped, as the result of a prank, in a sealed former bomb shelter in the school grounds.
Lit by Denis Crossan BSC – whose credits include The Clandestine Marriage, The Real McCoy and I Know What You Did Last Summer – the rapidly deteriorating conditions within ‘the hole’ and the fluctuating emotions of the characters who are stuck in it, should make for an intriguing, highly original, film.
“What’s exciting about this,” adds Nick Hamm, “is that we have four tal-
ented young actors – Thora, Keira, Laurence and Desmond – really going for it, really proving themselves.
“You could look at it like it’s a psychological drama, or even a per- verted love story in a funny way, but what we were interested in is the moral ambiguity that comes in the middle of the movie, what one of the characters becomes. I decided to shoot it in sequence, to help the young cast on the emotional journey we’re taking them on.”
If entering the impressive looking set at Bray Studios does not instantly get the actors in the mood, they may care to reflect that they are filming in the studio made famous by Hammer Films – a different generation and quite different style of movie terror, but a fondly remembered one all the same.
“They are part of the great history of British horror,” nods Hamm, “and while we’re not making that type of film at all, it is quite funny that we happen to be making our film there.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
The Hole was originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
Photos opposite page top left: DP Denis Crossan BSC; main: Thora Birch on the set of The Hole; this page from top left: Director Nick Hamm, Thora Birch on the set and a scene from The Hole