We’ve got an exclusive look tonight at some rather fine artwork for Airborne, the latest film from Dominic Burns and it’s an effective tease for what looks to be an intriguing horror film.

Burns has assembled a nicely diverse cast for the film which includes Simon Phillips, Jazz Lintott, Craig Conway, Alan Ford, Billy Murray and Julian Glover as well as the return of Mark Hamill to the big screen.

We spoke to the Star Wars actor last year on set and he was very enthusiastic about the project which lines up nicely alongside Burns’ next film, UFO, which features  Jean-Claude Van Damme as part of the cast.

Paul Chronell, writer of last year’s thriller Four, is on scripting duties here and we’ve already had a look at the teaser trailer for the film (which you can see here) and have this as a brief synopsis,

As a snow storm closes in, one final plane takes off. The plane reports to the ground that both pilots are dead, while the slowly dwindling number of passengers on the plane wish that they’d never left the ground.

Here’s the poster, click to enlarge.

Black and Blue Films and Press on Features have sent us the brand new poster and synopsis for their latest movie, ‘The Rise and Fall of A White Collar Hooligan’. The movie has just finished filming and we’re told the movie is ‘a blisteringly violent hooligan picture in the tradition of The Football Factory, Green Street and Rise of The Footsoldier’.

The Rise and Fall of A White Collar Hooligan stars  Nick Nevern (Adulthood, Terry), Simon Phillips (Jack Falls), Roland Manookian (The Football Factory, The Business), Billy Murray (Essex Boys, Rise of the Footsoldier), Rebecca Ferdinando (Bonded By Blood), Charlie Bond (Strippers vs Werewolves), Ricci Harnett (Rise of the Footsoldier) and is directed by Paul Tanter who wrote all of the Jack Falls series of movies as well as directing the most recent and is really going from strength to strength.

I’ve placed the synopsis below for your reading pleasure and you can scroll down to see both the UK Quad and UK One Sheet for the movie which will be with us 2012. Keep your eyes peeled for a trailer which we’re hoping to see in the not too distant future.

Synopsis: Casual football hooligan Mike Jacobs is going nowhere in life when he meets old friend Eddie Hill at a football match that turns nasty off the pitch. Under Eddie’s tutelage he soon finds himself inducted into the world of credit card fraud, where organised gangs withdraw hundreds of thousands of pounds from cash machines every night. As Mike becomes seduced by the money and women that come with his new lifestyle, the dangers increase and he soon finds events spiralling beyond his control.

Based on a true story, The Rise and Fall of a White Collar Hooligan follows the journey of a man tempted by the trappings of power and is the first feature film to address the huge criminal industry of credit card fraud.

We had a good time with Dominic Burns’ How to Stop Being a Loser and the recent premiere in London gave us a chance to catch up with the cast and crew.

Along with Dave’s review (which you can read here) we have two interviews coming up over the next couple of days, with leading man Simon Phillips and Burns himself.

Our good friends at Upbeat were on hand to capture the activity at the film’s premiere this week with Burns and Phillips joined by Gemma Atkinson and Craig Conway among others. Burns is back next year with a total change of scene as Mark Hamill returns to the big screen for Airborne which features many of the same cast as this one, so look out for that.

Here’s the word from the red carpet of How to Stop Being a Loser.

We’ve been given five pairs of tickets to the UK Premiere of How to Stop Being a Loser which takes place next Monday, 14th November and you could be walking the carpet with the stars. Find out more by scrolling down.

From Black and Blue Films, How to Stop Being a Loser follows James (Simon Philips), a chap who is useless with women but finds his luck changes under the tutorage of pick-up artist and womanising guru, Ampersand (Craig Conway). But as James learns the dark art of seduction he begins to wonder if Ampersand is all he appears to be and questions what would truly make him happy in life.

Hilarious chaos ensues in this deliciously warm London comedy in the tradition of Four Weddings & a Funeral.

How to Stop being a Loser is in Showcase cinemas Friday, 18^th November.

To win just watch the trailer and then answer the question below:

The premiere takes place this Monday, 14^th November in central London and to enter, you must be free to attend.

To be in with a chance of winning tickets, simply answer the following question based on the trailer above using the form below:

What colour jumper / sweater is Gemma Atkinson’s character  ‘Hannah’ wearing at the bowling alley?

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

T&C

Tickets available to those over 18 only.

1. Travel not included
2. Prize includes entrance to the film for one winner and their guest
3. Travel is the responsibility of the winner
4. Winners need to be at Apollo Cinema, Piccadilly Circus by 7pm on Monday, 14^th November.
5. Competition closes at 12pm, Friday, 11^th November

Here’s the first UK Quad poster for new British movie, How to Stop Being a Loser which hits UK cinemas 18th November. It has a great cast which includes Gemma Atkinson, Simon Phillips, Stephanie Leonidas, Martin Compston, Billy Murray, Colin Salmon, Martin Kemp, Sheridan Smith, Adele Silva, Colin Salmon and Richard E Grant. If you missed the trailer for the movie, you can check it out in the post we’ve put up previously.

From Black and Blue Films, How to Stop Being a Loser is about James (Simon Phillips), a chap who is useless with women but finds his luck changes under the tutorage of pick-up artist and womanising guru, Ampersand (Craig Conway). But as James learns the dark art of seduction he begins to wonder if Ampersand is all he appears to be and questions what would truly make him happy in life. Hilarious chaos ensues in this deliciously warm London comedy in the tradition of Four Weddings & a Funeral.

Check out the new poster below and we’ve also been sent a section of new images from the movie all of which you can click and watch them grow!

I guess you can’t argue with the title of this movie! Although it’s a little odd, when you see the trailer, there is no way that you could deny that this movie is Strippers vs. Werewolves!

Kaleidoscope Entertainment have released the first trailer for their new horror which stars Strictly Come Dancing and Hollyoaks star Ali Bastian alongside Martin Kemp, Billy Murray, Adele Silva and even Freddie Kruger himself, Robert England!

The Sun who have the poster give us some clues as to the plotline -

Martin Kemp is werewolf Mickey, accidentally killed in a strip joint by one of the dancers. Despite the club owner’s efforts to hide the body, news of the death reaches evil pack leader Jack Ferris, played by former EastEnder Billy Murray. The girls have until the next full moon before the baying wolf pack return to seek a bloody revenge.

Strippers vs. Werewolves will be with us in 2012. Check out the trailer below and click the poster and image to enlarge.

Back in 2008, Jenna Jameson, Robert Englund and Director Jay Lee showed us that while a stripper-based Horror movie may not exactly get you any Academy nods, it is still a viable genre that will at least get you ample rotation on Netflix.

This time around however, the formula has been readjusted from Zombies, as was the case with the aforementioned Zombie Strippers, to Werewolves, in the upcoming Strippers vs. Werewolves!

In order to satisfy your fiendishly curious minds, I have offered up a glimpse at the first official poster for the film below:

Strippers vs. Werewolves is Directed by Jonathan Glendening, and includes cast members Robert Englund, Billy Murray, Barbara Nedeljekova and Sarah Douglas. The film’s poster implies a winter 2011 release, but as it is still in production, and since winter has already passed, perhaps we will have to wait until October to see this film’s release.

Cheers ahoy to Bloody Disgusting.

We’ve been keeping a close eye on the UK horror thriller Airborne for a while now, visiting the set and talking to stars Simon Phillips, Gemma Atkinson and the one and only Mark Hamill.

What we were missing was a chance to take a look at the film itself and now we’ve got our hands on the first official trailer. Director Dominic Burns has put together a fine cast including Jazz Lintott, Craig Conway, Alan Ford, Billy Murray and Julian Glover and the trailer promises a tough, tense ride when the film hits next year.

Here’s the synopsis:

As a snow storm closes in, one final plane takes off. The plane reports to the ground that both pilots are dead, while the slowly dwindling number of passengers on the plane wish that they’d never left the ground.

And here’s the trailer,

Black and Blue & Press on Features have just sent over their brand new trailer for new movie, How To Stop Being A Loser. You might remember we placed the new posters for the film a little while back and they tie in perfectly with this new footage. How to Stop Being a Loser boasts a fantastic cast which includes Simon Phillips, Gemma Atkinson, Stephanie Leonidas, Martin Compston, Billy Murray, Craig Conway, Colin Salmon, Martin Kemp, Sheridan Smith, Adele Silva and Richard E Grant.

Dominic Burns helms the projects which is a comedy about a loser guy trying to improve his life by using a self help guide from a pick up artiste.

Synopsis: How To Stop Being a Loser tells the story of a hapless single man called James (Simon Phillips) who’s luck appears to change when he meets romance guru Ampersand (Craig Conway)… but is Ampersand all he appears to be? And does James actually know what he wants. Hilarious chaos ensues in this deliciously warm and silly London comedy in the tradition of  Four Weddings & A Funeral and  Bridget Jones.

Check out the brand new trailer below and let us know what you think.

Black and Blue & Press on Features have been in touch and asked to to debut these three new posters for brand new movie, ‘How to Stop Being a Loser’. The movie has a fantastic cast which includes Simon Phillips, Gemma Atkinson, Stephanie Leonidas, Martin Compston, Billy Murray, Craig Conway, Colin Salmon, Martin Kemp, Sheridan Smith, Adele Silva and Richard E Grant.

Dominic Burns helms the projects which is a comedy about a loser guy trying to improve his life by using a self help guide from a pick up artiste.

How to Stop Being a Loser is set to hit our cinema screens this summer.

Check out the posters below and click to enlarge.

When talking about British Film there are certain, unavoidable, assumptions one automatically makes.  Those crisply enunciated words have long conjured pictures of rolling hills, heaving bosoms, mad Kings and foppish fools.  An entire industry has been built upon the ever changing hair of Mr Hugh Grant and Jane Austen’s back catalogue has been taken advantage of in the parlour time and time again.

It is a world apart from those reliable old exports that we may find the Britain of gangster flicks.  They populate a straight-to-DVD nether world which has scant regard for global recognition.  These are not slick Ritchie flicks, attracting Hollywood stars to a middle-class vision of roughing it.  These are honest to goodness, behind the scenes at the terraces, unflinching looks at a crude life of crime.  A fist-full make it to limited big screen release bolstered by underworld faces, true-crime notoriety and boxing names.  Few seek to venture outside the paint-by-numbers plot lines.  None seemed to wander far beyond our shores.  Until now!

Dead Cert is a creature apart from its plodding predecessors.  Granted a premiere at FrightFest 2010, Black & Blue Films and Raw Film Productions’ bold new project is treading new ground in its shiny old loafers.  The film takes the staples of the genre: busty birds, brawny boys, turf wars and violence and throws in a bloody new twist – vampires!  The only heaving bosoms here run ruby red with the claret of punters past.  It sounds compelling stuff and late last year HeyUGuys were lucky enough to be granted front row seats as the carnage commenced.

A gang of tough London gangsters get more than they bargained for when a group of businessmen make an offer to buy their club, the Inferno. They turn out to be nothing less than Vampires wanting their land back and turn viciously on the gangsters when they fail to have demands met…

To bring the ambitious project in shy of a million pounds without damaging its slick appeal the producers sagely cropped production costs and, aside from location days in the country lanes and strip clubs of Essex, the bulk of Dead Cert’s shoot took place in an echoing Dagenham Warehouse.  It was here we joined the cast and crew during their (frosty) penultimate week of filming.

The eclectic cast features genre veterans Billy Murray and Craig Fairbrass, Lock Stock alumni Dexter Fletcher and Jason Flemyng and character greats Perry Benson and Steven Berkoff.  Sugar and spice are provided by scream queens Janet Montgomery and Lisa McAllister while Big Joe Egan offers all the muscle anyone could ask.  Murray also acted as one of the film’s producers and his camper van, parked up in a far corner of the warehouse, offered the closest thing to a VIP area we found on the back-to-basics shoot!  The atmosphere on location was one of tremendous camaraderie, despite the freezing temperatures.  There was a real sense of mucking in and even the syrup-drenched, bloodied extras were psyched to take a turn in the killing room.

In fact every cast member we spoke to echoed the instant sense of inclusion they felt when joining the project.  Black & Blue have sought to assemble something akin to a rep company and the benefits of that solidarity were plain to see.  Jobbing British actor Danny Midwinter (Rise of the Footsoldier, Freight) had the role of Dennis Christian written especially for him.  When we sat down together he became quite choked about his time on the film.  Billy Murray had been something of a mentor to him over the years and brought him through a dark time in his life – offering a shoulder, not to cry on, but on which to lean until he was ready to stand alone and an invite join the Black & Blue family.  It was a story I heard repeatedly during my two days on set.  Many of these good ol’ boys have had careers that ebb and flow with the slow mud drag of an estuary tide.  They are old timers, pros in the very truest sense of the word and the combined weight of their experience lent an authenticity to the production which left me intrigued to see the finished product.

Conventional career success has come more smoothly to Andy Tiernan (300, Mr Nice) perhaps, yet nevertheless he was relishing his role as the monstrous Chekha.  Snarling with savage charisma as cameras rolled he slinked across a bloodied banquette to mesmerise his prey.  Off-set he grinned with ill-disguised glee as he told me how much he loves to be a bad guy.  Andy met director Steve Lawson at a convention and had been on board with the project in its various incarnations from day one.  He, Steve and producer Jonathan Sothcott, shared a desire to see vampire pictures return to a Lost Boys sensibility.  To show the smile beneath the teeth!  Andy also pushed to bring Perry Benson and Ricky Grover into the fold “these two great home-grown comedy talents”.  A versatile actor who delights in a challenge, he had chosen to play the part of Chekha entirely in Romanian simply “to give it something different”.  That something different required that he translate his dialogue line by line – quite a demand for a non-Romanian speaker!

The man behind the Dead Cert story, Ben Shillito, also acted as our guide.  The behatted Sickipedia fan told us outrageous lies about the cast and crew, jokes we cannot repeat here and above all made us very welcome.  Ben and Steve Lawson were originally sent a vampire vs. demons script to develop for Dead Cert but chose ultimately to go their own way.  Dead Cert as it now exists was born during a brainstorming weekend with co-writer Nick Onsloe.  Ben’s obsession with gothic horror, mainstream and obscure, was well matched by Jonathan Sothcotts’s passion for Hammer and when the two met everything fell into place.

Ben and Jonathan had Billy Murray in mind for demonic lead Dante Livenko from the outset.  Billy had other ideas.  Having signed on as the project’s producer he had no idea he would end up its star.  When we chatted over a bucket of severed limbs he acknowledged he had somehow been sweet-talked into complying!  Ben described Billy’s performance as “calm, menacing and brilliant.  Billy is Christopher Lee in this role”.  Billy himself was more modest as he admitted how much fun his walk on the dark side had been.   Indeed his transformation to Dante was a million miles from the crinkle eyed charmer of our interview.  As I went over my notes he reappeared, threw me off my feet and swooped down to take a cheeky bite and readers…

I believed in vampires!

Meanwhile on set it was all kicking off.  The gleaming Inferno club of our first visit with its writhing glamour girls and immaculate bars was a gore spattered, intestine strewn abattoir.  Luckily This is England’s Perry Benson and young gangster favourite Roland Manookian soon arrived – tooled up and ticked off – to set things straight.  And lest you think Dead Cert is all about jobs for the boys, let me assure you that the girls were equally well-represented.  Lusty beauties, feisty girls next door and vampish vixens abounded.

The Dead Cert set was a vibrant, violent delight and the footage we saw promised nothing less from the final cut.  Selected tickets are still available for the debut screening this Thursday night at Frightfest and, if you’re planning to lounge around London town, we urge you to give it a go.  As the East End boys would have it:

This one’s got a lot of heart!

Just for the Record gets its DVD release today.  The latest offering from British hard man movie veterans Raw Productions and Black and Blue Films represents quite a departure from the usual blokes, birds and bust ups you might expect from a glance at the impressive ensemble cast.  Uniting honest-to-goodness Brit luvvies Rik Mayall and Steven Berkoff with genre regulars Danny Dyer, Craig Fairbrass, Billy Murray and Sean Pertwee, the mockumentary details, in flashback and anecdote, a doomed film shoot.  A year after the collapse of low-budget flick Just for the Record, documentarian Andy Wiseman (Rik Mayall) sets out to uncover and capture the cause of the films demise.  Along the way he encounters a cast of real-life characters so far-fetched it soon becomes horribly clear why the movie failed…

The film-within-a-film premise of Just for the Record is an interesting one and on paper the cast are strong.  Though the main characters are little more than archetypes, some of the more experienced players have obvious fun with their limited roles.  The bone dry, straight-to-camera, delivery of Billy Murray as boozing thesp Wilson Barnes being a particular highlight.  Just for the Record’s ‘visionary’ director Harlan Noble is another treat –Black and Blue collaborator Roland Manookian is a born entertainer and has a light comic touch which lends interest to his one-dimensional character.  There is pathos in his enthusiasm for his past work (in the Ninja Shark arena) that provides one of the films few really genuine funny moments before tedium and distaste kick in.  Though he is, as yet, a face rather than a name, he has already accumulated a serious body of work and has a bright and promising future ahead if he gambles and breaks cover from the gangster stable.

By way of contrast Just for the Record features a star appearance from DVD-shifting powerhouse Danny Dyer, in a surprising turn as sleazy producer Derek La Farge.  His schmoozing, smooth talking patter intended to offer hilarious contrast to his usual brand of “awright treacle” Ray Winstone charm.  The problem:  Ray Winstone can parody his caricature and play against type because he is a talented actor who understands nuance.  Danny Dyer ought to play to his strengths – or play to the terraces – until he has mastered his art.  His performance seems almost to be an in-joke with someone just off camera and, after an initial chuckle at the terrible accent, the joke wears wafer thin fast.   Interestingly the DVD cover bears little resemblance to the original poster and is pitched directly at his target audience – the words ‘action‘ and ‘cut‘ writ large in no nonsense caps.  Man font!

Glimpses of the dry wit of writers Ben Shillito and Phillip Barron occasionally break the surface and a handful of lines raised a laugh from the sympathetic audience.  Sadly their intelligence is lost in a surfeit of stereotype, poor production values and, curiously old-fashioned, one-note humour.  Rik Mayall’s phoned in performance has such bad sound quality that, at times, it appears he has literally called in his lines from his Blackberry while Steven Berkoff is given little to do beside rant and swear in an armchair.  Badly costumed and preposterously moustached, the disparity between the performances and occasional flares of good writing only serve to highlight the am-dram feel.  One has the impression that first time director Steve Lawson had all the best intentions for this movie but lost them beneath a shoot which turned into a jolly for his mates.

Just for the Record didn’t do it for me but there is no denying that these companies shift films.  One for the lads over a post-pub kebab, the film is available on DVD now from all good stockists.

Dead Cert is a film we’ve had our eye on for a while now.

Director Steve Lawson’s take on vampires running amok in London’s gangster-strewn underworld has attracted a pretty impressive UK cast including Craig Fairbrass, Billy Murray, Kick-Ass’s Dexter Fletcher and Steven Berkoff and now there’s a trailer for you all to see what the fuss is about.

Embedded below is an unofficial production trailer and sets out the story effectively, with plenty of fangs and fists rolling between gangsters and vampires and there’s something of the From Dusk Till Dalston about this one.

We spoke to the director Steve Lawson before the film rolled into production (you can read our interview here) and we’re hoping to sit down with him again

Check out the trailer below.

Here’s our Dead Cert coverage so far, and there’s plenty more to come from this one. Expect big things from this one.

Shooting has nearly wrapped on indie horror flick Dead Cert, and we’ve been lucky enouh to be sent a set of stills from the film.

Quite apart from the fact that it seems to be filled with some disturbingly attractive vampires (the goth girls were never that hot when I was at school), the film also seems to be taking on a really nice look. Let’s hope we see a trailer at some point in the near future.

Oh, and for a bit of Friday fun, feel free to post captions for the photos on the board.

]]> http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2009/11/06/more-dead-cert-stills-released/feed/ 4 http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2009/10/26/dead-cert-update-and-production-stills/ http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2009/10/26/dead-cert-update-and-production-stills/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:52:25 +0000 Ben Mortimer http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/?p=2449

Recently HeyUGuys published the new poster for Black & Blue productions’ forthcoming film, Dead Cert. A few days before the poster went online, we managed to sit down with the film’s producer, Jonathan Sothcott, and director, Steve Lawson to find out how things were going.

When we last spoke to Lawson, the script was still in development, and the cast was just beginning to come together. Barely weeks later, things had moved on significantly. As Steve explained, “Actors have had a lot of input on the dialogue, which has made it a lot clearer”¦ A lot of the cast that we wrote the characters around are back here again”.

As well as an expanding cast, which now features Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels veterans Dexter Fletcher and Jason Flemyng, the production designers have been busy building sets for the film. Rather than spending much of their budget on hiring studio space, Sothcott opted to rent three warehouses in Essex. He explains, “We’ve turned [the warehouses] into a mini-Leavesden. There’s three different studio builds. Billy [Murray] and I went down to have a look yesterday”¦ It’s literally like walking on to one of the stages at Pinewood.”

Dead Cert promises to be a huge step forward for Lawson, whose previous work was, ultra-low-budget mockumentary Just For the Record. This new film is far more action orientated, and requires a host of effects shots, both practical and digital. The first day on the film is a location shoot, at night. As Sothcott explains, “The first thing we’re doing in Docklands is a body going through a car windscreen.”

In addition to Dexter Fletcher and Jason Flemyng, Dead Cert features some of the more prolific actors working in the UK today. Craig Fairbrass (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) plays the lead, but also cast are Stephen Berkoff and Billy Murray. As it turns out, Murray was cast long before even he realised, “I ram-rodded him into playing Dracula for this.” Sothcott explains, “I told everyone else he was doing it long before I’d even mentioned it to him”.

During our interview Lawson provided us with some interesting information, “I’m going to shoot some scenes on 35mm”. When asked for more information Lawson explained, “It’s something I decided to do about a week ago”¦ to get a test for it and see the difference between it and the RED, and also to get the experience of using it”.

When asked whether the footage was simply an experiment, or if it would feature in the finished film, Lawson told us that it would “We’ve got a good post house, who tell me it can be done. It will look different, but the way I’ll shoot it, I’ll be clever with it. There’s dream sequences throughout this, so I’m going to shoot the dream sequences on 35[mm]“.

In a few days time we’ll have some more details about the film up, including interviews with some of the cast. We’re also hoping to feature a production diary, written by one of the members of the film’s crew. If that’s not enough for you, Sothcott has promised us a trailer by Christmas.

Production on this film is moving at breakneck speed. At the time of writing the film crew are finishing the location shoots, and will be moving into the “˜studio’ within days. Lawson puts this efficiency down to the enthusiasm of those he’s working with, “Everyone believes in the project, and everyone’s got behind it, so the last thing I’ve got to do now is tie it all up and deliver what we’ve got”.

Dead Cert is in production at the moment, and should be hitting cinemas at some point next year.