Imperial Film Productions Ltd
Next feature planned:
A Story with Style and Romance, and Passion, Deceit and Death...
Based on the novel by Jane Huxley
"This is a thrilling, cleverly constructed story of love distorted by jealousy." - Dame Beryl Bainbridge DBE
"Compelling." - Simon Cowell
"Wonderful characterisation and story telling." - Tarquin Olivier
"I really like the project, the way it's written; the feelings that are involved... friendship, love, jealousy and the sadness of a destroyed dream." - Raoul Bova
SEE PRESS REPORT FROM ZURICH
Creative Talent:
Director: Peter Davies
Director of Photography: Chris O'Dell BSC
Production Designer: Simon Lamont
1st Assistant Director: Terry Bamber
Composer: John Scott
UK Executives:
Development Executive (and Screenplay adaptation): Frank Tuscany FBKS
Personal Assistant/Script Editor: Esmé Malan
Co-Producer: Tatiana von Saxe
Associate Producer: Tarquin Olivier
Special Consultant: Gareth Owen, Sir Roger Moore's Office, Pinewood Studios, UK
Legal (Contracts) Consultant: Ralph Harvey
Official Interpreter/Translator: Silvia Lombardo, Chartered Institute of Linguists
Italian Contacts:
Studios: Cinecittà Studios in Rome, is a very enthusiastic and supportive member of the team as the key elements take place in Capri and its surrounds and some London interiors will be shot in the Rome studios. Italy now offers a 25% investment incentive.
Fiscal Representative: Marco Valerio Puglini of Panorama Films, our Italian Production Service Company.
Casting Director (Italy): Danny Stevens Millefiorini
Belgian Contacts:
Co-Producer: Iwona Sellers
Co-Production Company: uMedia Family for Belgian Finance (50%, capped at 40% of the budget) and Benelux Distribution.
Professional details are at IMDbPro.
Cast:
See below against Character List where already agreed (subject to contract and availability):
Where other parts below appear available, certain actors and actresses have been approached and are reading the screenplay. The character list below is by no means complete and will be added to when parts not listed are cast.
Brief Résumé
Summer Night, Winter Moon
1935. Art dealer Trevor and his best friend Dante, an Italian/American fashion photographer, are visiting Capri where they both fall for Antonia, a local beauty. One of them marries her. Back in London Antonia is last seen in Regent's Park walking her Jack Russell terrier. The remains of a female body are recovered from Regent's Canal, and both her husband and his best friend are suspects in what increasingly appears to be a murder.
This fast-moving story travels backwards in time. Exploration of the mystery of Antonia's fate follows twists and turns as hair-raising as the roads on the mountainous isle of Capri. The audience is ushered to the astonishing ending, proving along the way that the deepest mystery of all is that of the soul torn between desire and loyalty.
Notte Estiva, Luna Invernale
1935. Trevor un gallerista ed il suo migliore amico Dante, un fotografo di moda Italoamericano, in vacanza a Capri, si innamorano entrambe di Antonia, una bellezza del luogo. Uno di loro finisce per sposarla. Al ritorno a Londra, Antonia viene vista a Regent's Park mentre porta a passeggio il suo Jack Russel Terrier. I resti del corpo di una donna vengono trovati al canale Regent's e suo marito ed il migliore amico di quest'ultimo vengono entrambi sospettati di omicidio.
Una storia dal ritmo veloce che ripercorre il passato. Dall'esplorazione del destino misterioso di Antonia seguono degli intrecci tortuosi come lo sono le strade montuose dell'Isola di Capri. Il pubblico viene introdotto ad un finale stupefacente, dopo aver scoperto durante il percorso che il mistero più profondo è quello dell'anima, che è divisa fra il desiderio e la lealtà. (Italian translation by Sylvia Lombardo)
SHORT TREATMENT
Night. 1935. Trevor looks down in horror as the police arrive outside his house. He gathers essentials and escapes through the back.
A few days earlier his wife Antonia was last seen in Regent’s Park walking her Jack Russell terrier. The remains of a female body have been recovered from Regent’s Canal and both her husband Trevor and his best friend Dante are suspects in what increasingly appears to be a murder.
It’s less that a year since Trevor Snow, a contemporary art dealer, brought his beautiful young wife Antonia Giordano back from Anacapri where she lived with her father Piero and Aunt Flaminia. The newlyweds form a seemingly harmonious triangle with Trevor’s childhood friend Dante Terranova, a fashion photographer and heir to an art fortune from his stepfather H. H. Tompkinson.
The triangle is not helped by the machinations of Dante’s malicious lesbian step-sister Josephine and Trevor’s ongoing relationship with high class prostitute Honey Dew.
This fast moving story travels backwards in time, and this reverse chronology explores the mystery of Antonia’s fate, following twists and turns as hair-raising as the roads on the mountainous Isle of Capri.
You are ushered into the astonishing ending, proving along the way that the deepest mystery of all is that of the soul torn between desire and loyalty.
With a brisk pace the suspense is instilled from the opening scenes, affording the audience a voyeuristic thrill along with a keen psychological insight into human nature, all seen against the upper set of London society’s places of worship such as Claridges, the Café Royal and Pimlico together with the sumptuous backdrops of Naples and Capri.
THE CHARACTERS
Trevor Snow (John Moulder-Brown)
A romantic art lover, he holds dear a strong bond with his best friend Dante. They grew up together in West Palm where they scrumped apples and fished together, and the friendship was further cemented when he rescued Dante from a horrific fire. His other love is Honey Dew, a high class prostitute whom he regards more as a mistress. Constantly haunted by the memory of his father driving over a cliff edge after being left by his mother.
Dante Terranova (Raoul Bova)
A self-confessed womaniser and permanent playboy bachelor, this smoothy happy-go-lucky with Latin blood is now content as a fashion and society photographer since his mother married the wealthy art gallery owner H. H. Tompkinson, to whom he is now heir. Rarely seen without his beloved camera. Very loyal to Trevor despite past moments of betrayal - until Antonia appears on the scene...
Antonia Giordano (Caterina Murino)
This beauty lost her mother during childbirth and has lived a sheltered life in Anacapri with her father (Piero) and his sister (Aunt Flaminia). Literate and ambitious to see the world, she is swept off her feet by the gauche Trevor and in the confusion marries him whilst suspecting in her heart that it is Dante she truly loves.
Piero Giordano (Michael Jayston)
A former teacher turned fisherman when he lost his beloved wife whilst giving birth to his adored only child Antonia. He has an amazing faith which holds him firm in the belief that Antonia will return safely.
Flaminia Giordano (Cicci Rossini)
Antonia’s aunt who has brought her up since birth. Like her brother Piero she is very strong, but perhaps more practical and has taught Antonia much wisdom.
Josephine Tompkinson (Sally Farmiloe)
Dante’s step-sister. Sophisticated, hard-bitten and cynical. Regards Dante as useless and Trevor as a näive sweet little boy who knows nothing of life - or of the affair going on. Having a gay relationship with Honey Dew, Trevor’s AC/DC (unknown by him) mistress.
Honey Dew (Lisha Wu)
In reality a high-class prostitute but thought of by Trevor more as a friend and mistress. She cares for him in a genuine way, unlike Josephine who will happily stick the knife in. She wouldn’t hurt or betray him, but still wants the cash at the end of their session.
H. H. Tompkinson (Sir Roger Moore)
Josephine’s father who married Dante’s mother. A charming and quintessential Englishman. Very wealthy art gallery owner. Tolerates his wayward daughter and is impressed with Trevor, to whom he entrusts the running of his gallery.
(Detective) Inspector Fielding (Marcus Harris)
Like a terrier with a bone, this intrepid Detective Inspector is determined to discover the murderer but is baffled by Trevor who manages to evade his questions in his very nonchalant way despite the fact that it is his wife who is missing and yet seems more concerned about the dog who has also disappeared. Fielding is not helped, and is sometimes hampered by, his gauche side-kick Sergeant Dale who is more interested in the offer of a beer whilst on the case.
(Detective) Sergeant Dale (Watch this space...)
A PC plod with Inspector Fielding wondering how he made the grade. Enthusiastic enough but limited to doing what he is told to do.
Rufus (Stephen Fry)
Owner of a Brighton art gallery who innocently gets embroiled in deceit plotted by Josephine against Trevor.
Annameka (Annameka Porter-Sinclair)
A sultry Piccadilly Dance Club singer who taunts Trevor with the evocative "Isle of Capri", (courtesy British Pathé) its meaningful words sinking in as he tries to continue a conversation with Dante whilst at the same time discovering that she obviously "knows" Honey Dew and Josephine...
The full screenplay is available as an FD file or (fdr or fdx) .pdf to genuinely interested parties after contacting me below:
Our other project is:
"Margery Booth: The Spy in the Eagle's Nest" - See also www.MargeryBooth.com. The true story of Wigan opera singer turned spy. She sang before Hitler who filled her dressing room with dozens of roses, not realising that she had top secret papers concealed in her knickers. She was allowed to sing to British PoWs where she made many useful contacts, eventually giving evidence against SS officers at the Old Bailey after the war. Co-producer: HRH Prince Frederick von Saxe-Lauenberg,
TREATMENT:
Margery Booth - The Opera Singer who spied on Hitler
It was her beautiful mezzo-soprano singing that melted the heart of one of the most evil men in history. From humble beginnings in Wigan, Margery Booth, by sheer determination and armed with the magical gift of a magnificent singing voice rose to be one of the top opera stars of Europe.
Courted by Ernst Ströhm, a wealthy business man and heir to a brewery fortune, Margery succumbed and eventually married him. Although the union was initially successful, it ultimately proved to be a disaster and after the war in Europe ended Margery eventually divorced him.
Through her husband’s contacts in high society in Germany she rose to the top, and her highly acclaimed performances drew the attention of none other than the Führer himself, Adolf Hitler, who on one occasion personally delivered 200 red roses wrapped in a swastika flag and, totally enamoured of her continued to ogle her throughout her performances from his private box.
Margery had, however, been recruited by MI9 who had also recruited John Brown, a former but now disillusioned member of Moseley’s infamous Fascist Blackshirts, and through the SOE arranged for him to be captured on the Normandy beaches so that he could work as a spy in a POW camp.
As a guest in Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair, Margery rubbed shoulders with the top ranking Nazi hierarchy and, now totally trusted by Hitler, she was allowed to visit POW camps where she not only sang but was able to contact John Brown and collect secrets for passing on.
Margery was suspected at one stage by the SS who moved in to search her, but John thrust some secret plans down her dress when they weren’t looking. They escaped their search unscathed, but henceforth she was forever known as Margery the Knicker Spy.
In the closing days of the war she was arrested again but escaped during an Allied bombing raid just as she was about to be tortured, eventually reaching the American lines. Then nearly shot, but fortunately it was her accent which miraculously saved her as an American soldier recognised it, having had been in Lancashire before the war.
Margery Booth’s story is one of the most amazing - and until now untold - stories of the war, and I have been privileged to research and write it for Imperial Film Productions.
This then is her story. Ralph Harvey - screenwriter.
The full Screenplay, by Ralph Harvey and Frank Tuscany, is available as an FD file (fdr or fdx) or .pdf file to genuinely interested parties.
IMPERIAL FILM PRODUCTIONS through Imperial Film Distributors company Mérindol Films Ltd are also Sales Agents and Distributors for "THE SCANDALOUS FOUR" which has won four awards, including Best Film and Best Director.
Other planned productions include:
"Red Burgundy", a feature based on the novel of the same name by Joan Z Shore. France, 1986. Several couples arrive at a château in the heart of the wine region for a residential wine and cookery course. But are they all what they seem to be, and what DID happen during the war? The adaptation is currently in progess.
"A Saint for Austria", a feature about the Emperor Charles of Austria who succeeded Franz Josef in 1916 and inherited a terrible war, only to die in exile in Madeira a few years later. He was eventually beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2004. The screenplay is nearing completion.
"Flea" - a TV sitcom based on a completely different set of characters, never done before. Pilot script nearly ready.
"The Watts" - Children's animation story with series potential based on a completely new type of character with very strong merchandising angle plus book possibility now with publishers Delancey Press.
"Lady Godiver", a feature with great flexibility from comedy to drama due to the subject matter. Don't let the title confuse... Those with a knowledge of Cockney will understand more readily!
"Rescue the Tsar" (Working title). Screenplay based on unique diaries found in the British Library which caused embarrassing questions in the House of Commons in the 1970s. Why was a retired Bletchley Park code-breaker asked to read some of the chapters? Why did Peter Bessell disappear and what was the Thorpe trial REALLY about?
"Pictures in the Dark" - Feature about Jimmy Wright, a cameraman who was blinded during the war when flying but rebuilt a career as a film Producer and BAFTA winner. Jimmy also invented the idea of Books for the Blind. Completed Screenplay by Maurice Stevens.
Contact Details:
Frank Tuscany FBKS
Member of BAFTA and the European Film Academy
+44 1273 301151
+44 7739 329747
franz@imperialfilmproductions.com
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