Station Zero

    Here at Bonehill Films we’re about to start production of our latest project, the follow-up to Gwenevere and Prairie Rascals . Bad Access to Hennock is a gripping crime drama based on the popular Bovey Tracey road sign (above). This time we’re in the present day for once, although our heroine, Celia Jesson, seems to be stuck somewhere in the 1950s. She’s a character created by top comic actress Joanna Neary , and I’ve always wanted to build a film around her.   In our story, Celia is living in the little village of Binsworthy on the edge of Dartmoor. While husband Fred is off on a golfing trip with his pals she finds herself drawn into one of those webs of mystery and intrigue one hears so much about, involving a devilishly handsome fugitive (Alex Smith) a ruthless international criminal (Amanda Lindseth) and two semi-competent gangsters (Mylo Sermon and, er, me). She has no one to turn to for help except washed-up 1980s pop star turned New Age therapist Tan...

Prairie Rascals poster by Sarah McIntyre This post contains some minor SPOILERS about Prairie Rascals , so you may want to watch the film first. You can find it here. WAGONS ROLL When Sarah Reeve and I started making our little films here at Bonehill, it wasn't because I was eager to get into screenwriting. I'm much more interested in the other bits of film making, like finding costumes and locations, working with the actors, and editing. But before you can get to those parts of the process you do need a screenplay, and since I'm the cheapest writer available, I write those myself. Writing a screenplay - at least for the sort of micro-budget productions we're making - is not like writing a book. With a novel the problem is that there a thousand different paths the story could take. With a screenplay,  998 of those paths are blocked by large signs that say YOU CAN'T AFFORD THIS, so in a way it becomes much easier: your choices are made for you. * When I set out to wr...

  The time has come to release Prairie Rascals on an unsuspecting world. Bonehill Films' Cream Tea Western has gone down well at a few local screenings, so I've decided to make it free to watch on YouTube, at least for a month or two. If you've had a chance to catch our previous film, Gwenevere , you'll know roughly what to expect - we work at an absurd speed, with a tiny budget which almost all goes on costumes and catering. But I think the story is sound, Sarah Reeve's photography is lovely, and we have some great actors.    You can see for yourself on the Bonehill Films YouTube channel. As with Gwenevere , the story was very much dictated by what we could afford and what locations were available. We've ended up with a tale of a young widow setting out to find some buried treasure before the bandits who did her husband in can get their hands on it. Her adventures eventually intertwine with those of a rich and naive young man from back east who has come to see...

Happy New Year, and apologies for a long silence: I've been busy with the next Mortal Engines book, of which I'll be able to say more soon, I hope. Meanwhile, Cream Tea Western Prairie Rascals is creeping towards completion: we have a rough cut, and are amassing the music and sound effects we need to finish it. I've also put together a brief trailer which you can watch here. It's a tricky project to trailer-ise because a lot of scenes won't mean much without their context, and I also don't want to give too much away. But hopefully this hints at the sort of thing you can expect: stand-offs, stare-outs, sudden outbursts of violence, and the wide open spaces of the Old West*. The music is by Nick Riddle (an arrangement of the cheery folk song Death Came A-Knockin' ) and the vocal is by Rosanna Lambert. *For budgetary reason, the wide-open spaces of the Old West are represented by my garden, and bits of Dartmoor not too far from car-parks.

I’ve been spending the summer in the Wild West, which Sarah Reeve and I have very convincingly recreated in a field near our house. Unfortunately it hasn't been very Wild West weather, but occasionally the sun shines, and we've made the most of it. Prairie Rascals , our new Bonehill Films production, is a Western, in which Dartmoor gets to stand in for the prairies and pinewoods of Arkansas while a cast of top Devonian and Cornish actors put on their best American accents. When her no-good homesteader husband is murdered by outlaws hunting for the the gold he stole during the Civil War, Annie Harper sets off to find the treasure for herself. Annie's played by Rosanna Lambert, a local actress who appeared briefly in our film Gwenevere as a mystical maiden. She’s great, and it’s been good to give her more to do in this one. Also returning is our Gwenevere title star, actress and artist Laura Frances Martin . Gwenevere was rather a serious role, but Laura’s a tremendously fu...