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DNA FILMS
DNA FILMS
O f the three Lottery-funded film fran- chises first announced nearly two years ago at Cannes, DNA Films is the last of the trailblazing trio - following The Film Consortium and Pathé Pictures - to be officially up and run- ning. With access to a £29 million allo- cation from Lottery funds (though not a penny has yet been drawn from that alluring pot) DNA plans a total of 16 new British films over the next six years. Unlike the other two “mini-studios”, which comprise a clutch of producing entities, DNA is very much a two-man show. “D” is for Duncan Kenworthy, the man behind hits like Four Weddings & A Funeral and Gulliver’s Travels while “A” is for Andrew Macdonald, 32, who produced
Trainspotting and Shallow Grave.
And as DNA carefully plots its way towards the
new company’s first official greenlight, both Kenworthy and Macdonald also find themselves embroiled in other, altogether bigger, projects else- where. Kenworthy has just delivered Notting Hill, his Four Weddings follow-up with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, to Universal/PolyGram. Meanwhile Macdonald is currently slaving away in Thailand supervising production on 20th Fox’s The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tilda Swinton.
As a pair of Britain’s finest independent - and proud of it - producers the pair certainly seemed a natural tandem when it came to working up a fran- chise application.
Kenworthy explains: “Andrew and I had become friends over the years and discovered that we were also likeminded producers even though our films don’t necessarily look very simi- lar. We have a similar approach to filmmaking, though. It’s all about getting the right script. When the whole franchise process was first mooted we were both approached quite rapidly by other peo- ple to see if we’d join their nascent applications. We agreed however that if we were going to do it, then we’d only do it together.”
Despite the official announcement in 1997, they eventually signed their agreement with the Arts Council just 12 months ago. Now, a year on,
DNA has finally revealed its first 11 projects which are all in various stages of development, none quite yet at the greenlight stage.
“We’re moving as fast as we can,” says Kenworthy. “It just hap- pens to be a slow process. We’re acknowledging what no-one really likes to admit in this fast-paced world that sorting out a script can be a matter of years rather than weeks. We won’t be rushed by the pressure of the process.
“We appreciate that we are in the glare of publicity; that’s unavoidable indeed appropriate because of what we’re doing with this public money... which we haven’t received yet. So far we’ve run DNA on money we’ve raised ourselves or with our own money.”
The projects announced are
Blue Dot Seventeen (writer Charlie
Martin, producer John Battsek),
The Filmmaker (writer Suzie
Halewood), The Final Cur t ain
(writer John Hodge, director
Patrick Harkins, producer
Christopher Young), How To Get A
Boyfriend (writer Amy Jenkins),
Marcus Is A Twat (writer John
McNally), Mike Bassett: England
Manager (writers Rob Sprackling &
John Smith), One Flea Spare (writers Naomi Wallace & Bruce McLeod), The Probation Officer (writers Henry Normal & Steve Coogan, star Steve Coogan), Saracen Street (writer-director Peter Capaldi, producer Ruth Kenley Letts), Untitled DNA 1999 (writers Patrick Gale & Ian Sellar, direc- tor Angela Pope, producer Grainne Marmion & Lesley Stewart) and Untitled Musical Comedy (writer Jonathan Coe).
Of course, all these titles may, according to a suitably excited Kenworthy, be superceded into the starting blocks by an as-yet unannounced pro-
Photo: Duncan Kenworthy and Andrew Macdonald
ject for which DNA is presently negotiating the rights. DNA sees itself as a mini-studio rather than a production company, providing 100 per cent finance for the films it chooses to make. Since most of their 16-film slate will be budgeted at under £4 million, 50 per cent of the funding will come from the Lottery allocation and 50 per cent from DNA itself. All films made by DNA with the Lottery money will be distributed worldwide by PolyGram and every film is guaranteed a national UK distribution with a minimum and maximum publicity-and-advertising spend pre-negotiated.
EXPOSURE • 10 & 11