Americans involved in Cuthbert film

Nov 29 2007 By Iain Laing, The Journal

THE US company that created the special effects for the Batman Begins film has joined forces with a North-East business to produce a “road movie” based on the death of St Cuthbert.

Gateshead-based FNA films is hoping that its newly-formed partnership with US-based Brickyard VFX will help attract some of Britain’s best-known actors to work on its first feature film, Get Cuthbert.

FNA has also acquired the services of an American script editor Wendall Thomas, who also teaches at the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television in Los Angeles, to help give the film mass appeal needed to sell in the US.

Filming was due to take place earlier this year, but was put back to next summer due to ongoing negotiations to get American backers on board. With the extra backing, Zahra Zomorrodian, producer and founder of FNA, believes the film is well placed to become a world-wide success and help her business become a major player in the movie industry.

She said: “The film would have gone ahead with or without the American involvement. However, we wanted to ensure the groundwork was done thoroughly before starting the expensive job of filming. Now we now have the opportunity to really push this project and make it a real success both for the writers and FNA.”

With a £1m budget, Get Cuthbert is FNA’s most expensive production, with the bulk of its work in corporate productions, including recent videos for Your Homes Newcastle and the North-East Regional Health Authority.

Written by Neil Armstrong and Brian Walsh, Get Cuthbert is described as a “road movie for the 9th Century”. It is set in the North-East and will be filmed all over the region. It is about three bickering monks from Holy Island who are entrusted with getting the St Cuthbert’s bones away from marauding Vikings, to the safety of Durham.

Since setting up as a registered business in 2004, FNA has doubled its turnover year-on-year and directly employs four people but hopes to increase this in the New Year.

Zahra said: “The long-term goal is to have a business that employs quite a few people, without having to employ so many freelancers. This film will help make steps towards this.”