About

JOIN OUR FILM FAMILY

Please join us in making our second fiction feature THIS FAMILY, sex, death, cooking, and a poetic journey through the life of a family....

We're the film family who made 'Wreckers' with Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy and Shaun Evans, our debut feature which has been seen all over the world despite its modest budget.

Wreckers - our first feature

We have already begun filming THIS FAMILY in fragments over time.

Now let the drama begin!

We hope you enjoyed our interview above: we've also embedded links throughout our campaign page to some of our lovingly crafted test films for you to watch.

THIS FAMILY - INTRODUCTION

From director D R Hood:

This film is partly a love song to the childhood of Owen, at the heart of my story. Was it as beautiful as his family has remembered it? I want to explore what ties home can have for us even long after we have apparently grown up.

I began writing THIS FAMILY even before 'Wreckers' and the family of characters has grown with me till they are bursting to get onto the screen.

I hope that THIS FAMILY will have resonances for you and for many others across the world. Love them or hate them, familes – their secrets, their bonds, their anger and their love – are the crucible of life.

Myself and my team are already filming THIS FAMILY over time with our main shoot planned for late spring 2016. We've filmed landscapes, we've filmed pigs, horses, and houses and we've laid our hands on some fabulous archive footage and photographs from the 1960s and 1970s for the backstory of the family.

Now we need to film the main drama and we need your help with this.

Our Kickstarter campaign is simple but ambitious: it is about helping us pay our actors and our crew for the five week shoot that will make the film fly.

please fund our crowd

THIS FAMILY - CAST ATTACHED

We're thrilled to have the following cast members attached to THIS FAMILY subject to schedule and financing.

DIANA QUICK

Diana is attached to play the matriarch of the family, Marianne. Diana rose to fame playing Julia Flyte in the iconic TV series of Brideshead Revisited. I have wanted her to play Marianne ever since seeing her in the savage play 'The Wide Sargasso Sea'.

ROBERT SHEEHAN

Robert is attached as Owen's wild younger brother Danny. Robert is the brilliant young actor from Channel Four's 'Misfits' and soon to be seen in blockbuster 'Geostorm'.

SINEAD MATTHEWS

Sinead will play hapless Auntie Anna who has a bit of a thing for her nephew Owen. She is a Mike Leigh and National theatre regular, last seen as Queen Victoria in 'Mr Turner'. Sinead played Sharon in 'Wreckers' and I have wanted to work with her again ever since.

THIS FAMILY – THE STORY

Owen re-enters the mysterious house of his childhood. He's still in thrall to his mother, Marianne, a starlet in her youth – at least in her own mind. The family gather for her last birthday. They slaughter a pig and prepare for battle...

Three men in the older generation and two in the younger: Marianne fights to keep them all in her power. In a bid for freedom, Owen pleads with his ex-partner Caroline to join him.

History, memory, ghosts, half-understood secrets, conversations in doorways, aunties, animals, sex, death and cooking... Through it all, Owen quests for Caroline like Launcelot through the old house. But she's on a quest of her own, and she may leave the country soon.

Our film will be poetic and funny. It's about learning to live life, and it also evokes a moment in history: the older generation of the family were young in the late 60s/early 70s and the younger generation are living the fallout from their parents' dramas and lost ideals.

On a deeper level THIS FAMILY is about lifecycles and generations passing through a single place. Owen and Caroline too, will pass from this house, and even the moors beyond the house will change. The younger generation are always the true inheritors.

Exploring that mystery of time is why the film has stayed with me.

I hope you will be able to help us put this family on the screen at this moment in our history.

THE FORM OF THE FILM

We began filming last year, and we have found an extraordinary new form to tell the story, placing the core drama in a mosaic of fragments of experience and memory, 'a documentary of the soul'.

We will use rehearsal and theatre techniques with our actors to liberate their performances and keep the film light on its feet. A box of old toys dragged from the attic will expose the roles the characters have played since childhood. The forest and the moor outside the house cut in like ghosts of a landscape. To help understand the concept think of 'The Arbor' (the theatre inserts), 'Dogville', 'Anna Karenina' (though not with a $30m budget). Theatre techniques - but in an entirely filmic way.

https://vimeo.com/66659443

The above link takes you to a test film we made exploring what it would be like to have a ghostly presence in your family... (there is a ghost in our film).

https://vimeo.com/86702268

The above link takes you to a short film we made about a location we love. We have been very inspired by this house and its owners, with whom we are speaking about THIS FAMILY.

https://vimeo.com/53671772

The above link takes you to our sizzle reel.

OUR FILM FAMILY

We are celebrating ten years at our company at LIKELY STORY. Our short film, 'The Other Man', won the UKFC/Kodak prize at the Edinburgh Film Festival 2006 and continues to be shown worldwide. Our first feature film 'Wreckers' stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy and Shaun Evans. 'Wreckers' premiered at the 55th BFI London International Film Festival October 2011, where I was nominated for best British debut as director. 'Wreckers'' US premiere was at Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2012. 'Wreckers' opened theatrically in the UK January 2012 to excellent reviews and won the Perspectives award at Moscow IFF June 2012. 'Wreckers' has screened on BBC1 and 2, with cinema release in Korea and Japan and VOD release worldwide.

Here are some reviews of 'Wreckers'

www.likelystory.co.uk/wreckers_reviews.html

Here's the 'Wreckers' trailer

www.likelystory.co.uk/wreckers_trailer.html

And here's the Curzon Q&A from 'Wreckers' with two actors we just love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV85tpdlWiY

ABOUT US

We are working again with the same predominantly female creative team from 'Wreckers':

D R Hood - Writer/ Director

Prior to 'Wreckers', I directed multi-award winning short films 'The Other Man' with BAFTA winner Anna Maxwell Martin, and 'Journey Man', with Ruth Madoc. 'Journey Man' was a global festival hit, was nominated for the TCM classics prize, won many major awards and had eight months’ theatrical exhibition in the UK. I have had work commissioned by Granada and Channel 4, and wrote the screenplay for Tim Krabbe’s cult novel 'Vertraging' for Dutch company 24FPS. I have also directed for theatre and audio, including audio versions of Aristophanes’ 'The Clouds' with Andrew Sachs and extracts from Homer’s 'Iliad' with David Warner.

'A strikingly confident voice here which marks [Hood] out as a talent to watch' Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International on 'Wreckers'

'A debut that changed the face of British Cinema' - Artificial Eye on 'Wreckers'

Annemarie Lean-Vercoe – Director of Photography

Annemarie Lean-Vercoe is the first cinematographer ever selected as one of Screen International’s ‘Stars of Tomorrow’. Annemarie studied cinematography at the National Film and Television School in the UK, where she was the recipient of the Freddie Francis scholarship. Since graduating in 2003 she has shot award winning work across Africa, Asia, North America and Europe. Annemarie has worked several times with acclaimed British directors Michael Winterbottom ('Everyday') and Mat Whitecross ('Moving to Mars', Grierson award 2009). 'Wreckers' was Annemarie‘s first feature as director of photography, swiftly followed by 'Honeytrap'. She has also lensed for television, including 'DCI Banks'.

www.leanvercoe.co.uk

Claire Pringle - Editor

Claire edited my award-winning short film 'The Other Man', as well as 'Wreckers', and is a brilliant editor of family relationships and stories. She has edited three other indie features and many shorts, and has also edited many comedy slots for Stewart Lee and other comedians.

Anna Best – contributing artist

I saw a short film about childhood and memory made by Anna last year and asked her to contribute to our 'fragments of memory' and to act as a dramaturge to our film. As an artist, Anna is interested in investigating 'the local and particular'. She has made projects with The Barbican Art Gallery, Danielle Arnaud, Beaconsfield, The Photographers’ Gallery, Camden Arts Centre and Tate Modern. She is currently working between rural Dorset and London, making video work featuring land and family.

www.annabest.info

THE PRODUCERS

Simon Onwurah and Idris Ahmed are the producer team that enabled 'Wreckers'' outstanding production values, and they are working together with us again on THIS FAMILY.

Simon Onwurah - Producer

Simon's work as a producer spans both drama and documentary. As co-founder of Non-Aligned Films Simon produced several films for his sister director, Ngozi Onwurah: her futuristic feature film 'Welcome II The Terrodome', Toronto film festival winner 'Hangtime', 'Coffee Coloured Children', and Berlin awarded 'The Body Beautiful'. Simon teamed up with Dictynna on her Edinburgh award winning short film 'The Other Man' and produced her debut feature 'Wreckers'. Simon is also a hugely experienced line producer who has produced work across factual, entertainment, and drama-doc for national and international networks including the BAFTA nominated series 'Paul Merton in China'.

Idris Ahmed - Line Producer

Idris’ journey started in location management with major broadcasters and independent production companies. Recent projects include 'You, Me and Them' for Hat Trick, Channel 4’s multi award-winning comedy 'Fresh Meat', and the BBC serial crime drama 'Good Cop' starring Boardwalk Empire’s Stephen Graham. Idris also worked on the Emmy award winning 'Sugar Rush 2', and with Michael Fassbender on two series of Sky One’s supernatural drama 'Hex'. Idris moved into line producing, working with us on 'Wreckers' and has also produced a short film, 'Telescope'.

James Appleton - Executive Producer - Storyhouse Pictures

James is a hugely experienced former short form / branded content film producer / director. He is now building a future in feature film development and production with his company Storyhouse. James is coming on board to exec THIS FAMILY with a generous offer of equipment invested from his digital cinema facilities company Cameraworks. LIKELY STORY and STORYHOUSE: a winning combination....

Nora Vogt - Production Assistant

Giovanni Compagnoni - Assistant Editor/Camera

Both Nora and Giovanni are award winning graduates from London Film Academy where Dictynna is visiting tutor. Nora is originally from Oslo... perhaps Ibsen makes her partial to a family drama? As well as assisting us, she is currently producing her first short fiction film, also aided by Kickstarter. Giovanni was LFA's student of the year on graduating in 2015. As well as assisting on THIS FAMILY, he is working in camera and editing on a web series and indie feature.

If you have got this far you may be in the need of some refreshment On the theme of mothers and family, here are some of the pigs who may be in our film:

https://vimeo.com/146714429

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