We’ve just been sent the first press release, poster and synopsis for Jonathan Sothcott’s new movie, The Mask of Red Death which is an adaption of the Edgar Allan Poe short story, The Masque of the Red Death published in 1842.

The movie adaption has been undertaken before with the most prominent version being the 1964 version but Roger Corman starring Vincent Price and Hazel Court. This new $1.5m version is due for release in 2013 with Sothcott (Elfie Hopkins, Strippers Vs Werewolves)  producing and British film maker Robert Pratten (Mindflesh, London Voodoo) helming the movie as Director. The press release informs us that the movie will be a a post-apocalyptic, steampunk-styled adaptation of the classic horror story.

The marketing for this is going to take a rather new form of ‘transmedia’ and will be be integrated with a new technology called Conducttr which allows audiences to take a participatory role in the storyworld.

“Although audiences can’t affect the outcome of the movie – it plays like any other – they will be incentivised  to collect items across the web and physical locations in order to have a heightened experience of the movie when it screens.”

Sounds fun!

No cast has been announced as yet but read on for the synopsis and click the poster to enlarge and we’ll update you with more information when we get it. Shooting is due to commence 1st June 2012 so stay tuned for more.

Synopsis:

London. 2020 as the radioactive clouds begin to fade after a devastating nuclear war, the last dregs of humanity fight to survive – drought and famine cripple this cracked, broken world. Electricity is a thing of the past. Hideous mutants stalk the night, desperately searching for food and warmth. A cold planet.A dying planet. Superstition is rife. Evil rises. Through the husk of the once great metropolis stalks a lone figure, The Red Death: to some a God, to others a freedom fighter. To all a nightmare of agonising death.

From the shell of a once great building, all that remains of his empire, corrupt billionaire Marzo rules what is left of London. His kill squads murder, pillage and rape. His group of friends indulge in every excess. Yet neither money or power can save Marzo from the Red Death… and it is coming for him.

Sothcott and Pratten team for steampunk ‘Red Death’ adaptation

 London. On the eve of the Berlin film market, prolific independent producer Jonathan Sothcott (Elfie Hopkins, Strippers Vs Werewolves) has announced ambitious plans for a post-apocalyptic, steampunk-styled adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic horror story The Mask of the Red Death, to be directed by acclaimed British film maker Robert Pratten (Mindflesh, London Voodoo).

“London. 2020 as the radioactive clouds begin to fade after a devastating nuclear war, the last dregs of humanity fight to survive – drought and famine cripple this cracked, broken world. Electricity is a thing of the past. Hideous mutants stalk the night, desperately searching for food and warmth. A cold planet.A dying planet. Superstition is rife. Evil rises. Through the husk of the once great metropolis stalks a lone figure, The Red Death: to some a God, to others a freedom fighter. To all a nightmare of agonising death.

From the shell of a once great building, all that remains of his empire, corrupt billionaire Marzo rules what is left of London. His kill squads murder, pillage and rape. His group of friends indulge in every excess. Yet neither money or power can save Marzo from the Red Death… and it is coming for him.”

Mask of Red Death will be a transmedia project encompassing a feature film, mobile app, web videos and social media. All media and marketing for the project will be integrated with a new technology called Conducttr which allows audiences to take a participatory role in the storyworld. Although audiences can’t affect the outcome of the movie – it plays like any other – they will be incentivised  to collect items across the web and physical locations in order to have a heightened experience of the movie when it screens.

Sothcott, Head of Programming for the Horror Channel prior to his successful career as a film producer, said “I have been looking for a project to work on with Robert that was more than just a film. As a producer I am constantly looking for new ways to tell stories and transmedia represents a very exciting opportunity. This version of Poe’s most famous story has everything the modern horror audience could want – its terrifying, sexy, action-packed and gory. As a film maker, Robert has a unique visual style that will make for an incredibly stylish film – this will be every bit as shocking as Mindflesh was and the post-apocalyptic setting allows us to give it a unique flavour – part steampunk, part cyber goth.”

Pratten commented“”When Jonathan mentioned the idea to me my mind first went to Tenpenny Tower in Fallout 3. It’s not quite like that at all but it does give you the idea of a rich dude trying to protect himself from the inevitability of death after an apocalypse.

This is a great opportunity to show how society might look after a reboot from a damaged hard drive: there’s a lot of what we recognize mashed up with medieval behavior we thought had been erased.In a world today in which many are predominantly hostile to spirituality, all they’ve done is replace faith in God with a faith in silicon chips and silicon breasts. In an post-apocalyptic Britain set in 2020, with life as we know irretrievably lost, new leaders will need to create myths in order to bring hope to the hopeless. And where there is no hope there’ll be violence, drugs, superstition and lust driven by the fear of facing our own mortality.”

The $1.5 million picture is scheduled to begin principal photography on June 1^st 2012. No casting has been announced as yet.

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Mask of the Red Death was first published in 1842 and has been filmed a number of times, most notably by Roger Corman in 1964 with a cast including Vincent Price and Hazel Court.

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!

The main thing that separates HeyUGuys from other film sites is one of the things I value most about us – we aren’t obsessed with the Hollywood Blockbuster.  While we enjoy the privilege of bringing you coverage of the popcorntastic openings of films such as Iron Man 2 and The Prince of Persia we also embrace the opportunity to support newer voices in British cinema.  To that end we spent last night in Mayfair.  We were not there shopping for fine designer goods, nor were we fine-dining from a quadruple starred plate.  We were there to celebrate film – gritty British film.  That film was Just for the Record and the night was about as gritty and Britty as you can get without a bulldog, a Union Jack, or George and his Dragon putting in personal appearances!

This joint production from Black and Blue Films and Raw Film Productions documents the downfall of a low budget British Rom Com.  Drawing on the personal experiences of its seasoned cast of players it offers a sneak peek at a world that exists beyond the camera’s reach.  With an aesthetic as quirky and off-beat as its script Just for the Record dares reach beyond the gangster pigeonholing of its cast.

The girls were glam, with tans as deep as their cleavage and heels as vertiginously high as hopes for the film’s success.  Cast members Steven Berkoff, Sean Pertwee, Triana Terry, Craig Fairbrass and Roland Manookian all turned out in support of the film at the Mayfair Curzon alongside Raw regular Ricky Grover and actress Pooja Shah.  Touchingly newcomer Triana – Just for the Record’s posh ‘star’ Lucy Smithfield – was preoccupied with worry that people would mistake her for Steven Berkoff’s “dolly bird”.  In fact she was the most elegantly dressed woman of the evening by far and glowed with quiet pride at her starring role.  The rep company of players that Raw and Black and Blue have assembled during their association has fostered a warm, familial, atmosphere and that warmth was tangible on the red carpet and in the foyer as cast and crew reunited to celebrate the gala night together.

When we caught up with Steven Berkoff before the screening he was keen to emphasise the fun he had had on the film.  Acting independently of the rest of the production he had felt freed by the idea he could make the part of DP Mike Rosberry his own.  He had had a wonderful experience with first time director Steve Lawson and was thoroughly looking forward to working with him again.  As Just for the Record is a mockumentary about the worst possible experience an actor can have on a film set we had to ask Steven what his worst experience on a film had been.  He was a jolly good sport and confided a fantastic story.  In 1995 he was a principle player in Cindy Crawford’s acting debut Fair Game alongside William Baldwin.  In preparation for the demands of playing a Russian Colonel he carefully researched dialect and military history…only to be asked to re-record the entire performance in post-production with a stiff-upper-lip English accent!  We dare not reproduce the sound file here but needless to say his opinion of producer Joel Silver necessitated some very strong language.  Fortunately for Just for the Record producers Jonathan Sothcott and Steve Lawson, he was far happier about his latest role!

Supporting actor Craig Fairbrass was swift to sing the films praises speaking from the perspective of his vast experience of lower budget filmmaking.  He felt the film portrayed a truly entertaining glimpse behind the scenes.  Keen to emphasise how proud he was to once more star alongside Steven Berkoff and Danny Dyer his modesty was a credit to his impressive reputation.  He’d had so many experiences of on-set nightmares that he literally did not know where to begin.  From tears to flouncing directors, competitive cast and street fighting crews. His approach these days is to manage the drama by justifying it as six weeks of “agg” out of his life that “might, just might, be brilliant”.  Next for Craig is another Black and Blue production, Devil’s Playground also with lad’s favourite Danny Dyer and co-starring Dexter’s Jaime Murray.  Despite multiple upcoming projects Craig’s heart lies with his self-penned drama, Gunned Down, his “baby”.  Reuniting with Steven Berkoff he intends Marbella set Gunned Down to be a gritty, honest film that takes him straight back to his gangster roots.  As he acknowledges: “people love that stuff”.

In the aftermath of the storm in a Twittering teacup Danny Dyer was camera and conversation shy, but it is a testament to the sense of family that Steve Lawson has created that he came out to support the film in spite of this.  Just for the Record may not be everyone’s cup of tea but there is no denying it has the front to be exactly what it is…

A pretty pukka picture!

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.