BREAK WRITER/DIRECTOR MICHAEL ELKIN TO SMA
After being delayed by Convid-19 Break, written and directed by Michael is to have the UK’s first ever red carpet drive-in premiere at the Brent Cross Centre in North London on July 22 and a more conventional gala premiere at The Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square, August 19. Film stars Sam Gittins, Jamie Foreman, David Yip, Adam Deacon and Rutger Hauer in what was sadly his final role. The film follows a gifted, inner-city kid wasting his talent on crime and violence, until a chance-encounter presents him with an opportunity to turn his life around as he takes up snooker.
See biog here: https://www.smatalent.com/elkin-michael/
THICKER THAN WATER COMPOSER JOACIM STARANDER JOINS SMA CREW
Swedish composer Joacim Starander is one of his country’s leading film and tv composers and has just completed scoring season 3 of Nice Drama’s 7-part series ‘Thicker Than Water’ for Viaplay.
Recent credits include the feature ‘100 Years of Evil’ for Golden Eagle Films, which had a US release and the hit Swedish crime series ‘Hassel’ also for Nice Drama.
KERMODE & MAYO LIST THE JIM MARSHALL MOVIE IN TOP 5 WEEK 6
His latest feature documentary Show Me The Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall, celebrates the greatest and most gifted photographer who created iconic images of 60’s rock ‘n’ roll stars, jazz greats, and civil rights leaders. It opened in the UK January 31 after a premiere at The Curzon Bloomsbury. Jim Marshall had the power to look into the soul of an individual and to capture the mood of an entire generation. January 31. Kermode & Mayo’s Film Review for w/c February 2 lists the film in the top 5 to see. The film opened in the USA spring 2019 at SXSW and won Best Documentary Feature Film and the Audience Award at The San Francisco International Film Festival.
JOHN LANGRIDGE’S ’13 GRAVES’ HAS LONDON PREMIERE
John Langridge’s 2019 award winning psychological horror feature ’13 Graves’ has a London premiere June 2019. Distributed by Evolutionary Films it won Best Feature at Queen Palm International Film Festival 2018 and John was Nominated for Best Director and Best Writer. At Independent HorrorMovie Awards 2018 it won Best Feature and John was again Nominated for Best Director and Best Writer. In the Top Indie Film Awards he was also Nominated for Best Director and Best Writer.
NOVELIST PAUL MURDOCH ADAPTING HIS HIT NOVEL ‘SUNNY’ FOR TV
Paul’s 2018 novel ‘Sunny’ about sectarianism and racism in Scottish schools has been hailed as a major weapon in the fight to eradicate these dangerous social issues and he’s now adapting it into a 6-part tv series. To date he’s published 7 novels including 3 in ‘The Peck Chronicles’ fantasy series. He’s done workshops and presentations in schools and libraries in the UK and throughout Europe to more than 30,000 children and produced and presented a series of educational cross cultural video programmes for schools.
KEITH ENGLISH’S FILM THE MORE YOU IGNORE ME TO BE PART OF AUSTRALIA’S BRITISH FILM FESTIVAL 2020
Keith English’s feature, The More You Ignore Me, will be screened as part of Australia’s November British Film Festival following a successful run in New Zealand. It is currently streaming in the US after winning Best Comedy at the UK’s National Film Awards. Adapted by Jo Brand, from her own novel it tells the poignant and darkly funny coming-of-age story of dysfunctional family life in 1980’s rural England. Produced by Debbie Gray of Genesius Pictures, it stars Sheridan Smith, Mark Addy and the young rising actress Ella Hunt.
DALAI LAMA FEATURE DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR JOINS SMA
Producer, writer and director Jean-Paul Mertinez runs Illumina Studios & Media, his Soho production company. He is currently producing a number of major feature documentaries, the first of which is An Officer & His Holiness: The Dalai Lama’s Secret Escape into Exile, which will have a major event premiere in India early in 2019. The film tells how and why the spiritual and political head of Tibet escaped from the Chinese oppressors into India in March 1959 and has not been able to return since. Interviews with those involved together with historic b&w footage brings to life the incredible dangerous escapade. This the first of 3 films about the Dalai Lama and his work.
‘STILL’ WRITER/DIRECTOR SIGNS WITH SMA
Director and writer Simon Blake’s first feature Still starring Aidan Gillen, Jon Slinger, Elodie Yung and Amanda Mealing premiered in 2015. It won Best First International Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh and Simon also won Best Director at The London Independent Film Festival 2015. It was Nominated for The Roger Ebert Award for Outstanding Debut at the Chicago Film Festival, The Heinrich Award for New Directors at The Braunschweig Film Festival and The Regle Du Jeu Heartbeat Award at The Dinard Film Festival. He has also made a number of shorts including Love In Vain, The Show, Lovejuggling and Awayday which won Best Short and Best Screenplay at The Valencia Film Festival. Chosen by The British Council in its Best of British tour, Awayday has screened at more than 50 film festivals worldwide. Simon also wrote and co-produced the feature Heaven’s Only Daughter for the independent film maker Philip Harder.
CHRIS ROWE’S BRILLIANT SCORE FOR SPITFIRE FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
Composer Chris Rowe getting rave reviews for his score for the 90 mins feature documentary Spitfire now on general release after star studded red carpet premiere at the Curzon Mayfair on July 7 attended by top brass from the RAF, some of the surviving pilots from The Battle of Britain Squadrons and celebs, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the RAF.
LID PUBLISHING RELEASES FERGUS O’CONNELL LATEST PROJECT MANAGEMENT BOOK
Fergus O’Connell’s latest business book, The Project Management Book: 50 Ways to Run Successful Projects in Half the Time has just been published by LID Publishing. His 15 business books have been published in 25 languages running alongside his successful career as one of Ireland’s most successful novelists. He’s recently completed a screenplay based on his book The Paradise Ghetto (Accent Press) which is now in development.
![Roger Price new photo P1030457[3]](https://smatalent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Roger-Price-new-photo-P10304573.jpg "Roger Price new photo P1030457[3]")
CRIME WRITER ROGER A. PRICE TO SMA
Crime novelist and screenwriter Roger A. Price after a 30-year career in the Lancashire Police Force, the Regional Crime Squad and the National Crime Squad is now an established crime writer with four successful novels to his credit and a fifth due out in 2018. Now concentrating on an original returning 6-part tv drama series, McCall & Stamp, about covert and undercover police work drawing on his own experiences in the UK, across Europe and the Far East.
ALEXANDER BALANESCU SCORES GLOBE THEATRE’S HIT PLAY
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre’s production of The Secret Theatre, directed by Matthew Dunster, is getting great reviews at London’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, as is Alexander Balanescu’s brilliant score for Anders Lustgarten’s Elizabethan espionage thriller. The music has been described as “Hitchcockesque”.
Many congratulations to our Swedish composer Uno Helmersson
Many congratulations to our Swedish composer Uno Helmersson for ace review for his score for The Lion Woman He’s currently working on the next series of the brilliant The Bridge http://smatalent.com/helmersson-uno/
NATALIE HOLT RTS NOMINATED FOR THREE GIRLS
Congratulations to composer Natalie Holt on her RTS Nomination for her brilliant score for Phillippa Lowthorpe’s Three Girls. Meanwhile the Kudos tv film The Boy With The Topknot airs 9 pm Monday November 13 on BBC 2. Journey’s End premiered in October at The London Film Festival and Pin Cushion opened The Venice Film Festival.
Ian Arber Scores BBC2 Comedy
Ian Arber after I am Bolt and Mo Farah: No Easy Mile scored Lucky Giants 6-part comedy Quacks currently airing on BBC2 to rave reviews.
Henrik Lindstrand Nominated For Ø
Henrik Lindstrand nominated for “outstanding score – drama for Scandi English language series“Ø”at the LA Webfest 2017. Currently working on international drama series Greyzone.
AWARD WINNING WRITER CASSIAH JOSKI-JETHI TO SMA
Since graduating from Birmingham University in 2014 with a First Class Honours BA Degree in Drama & Theatre Arts, Cassiah Joski-Jethi has had five writing commissions, been involved in two feature films, directed two theatre pieces – one of which she wrote – directed four music videos, and her award nominated play Under My Thumb received rave reviews at London’s Greenwich Theatre in the autumn of 2016. The play will tour the UK this year including the Edinburgh Festival, Brighton, London with further dates to be announced
Shaun Robert SMITH – director/writer
Shaun’s first feature Broken, starring Morjana Alaoui, Mel Raido and Craig Conway, premiered at London’s Frightfest in August to rave reviews resulting in Shaun being nominated for Screen International’s Rising Star award:
The pick of all these British premières was easily Shaun Robert Smith’s Broken – Hollywood News
Where Broken excels is the extraction of intense characters and genuine atmosphere ..,. a gratifying immersive experience Trangressive Cinema
A film with strong performances, engrossing from the start … it’s made with care and passion. Letterboxd – Dean Russell
A stunning tour-de-force by director Shaun Robert Smith featuring brilliantly fearless performances, especially from star Morjana Alaoui this unique thriller is a 2016 highlight – Britflicks
Anchored by a harrowing performance from Alaoui, British director Shaun Robert Smith’s Broken toes the line between psychological dread and explosive horror right up to its you-gotta-see-it-to-believe-it ending – Brooklyn Film Festival Review
A seriously sharp and beautifully crafted thriller … Smith’s feature debut is a stunning technical feat – National Student
It’s a beautifully made film and director Shaun Robert Smith has crafted set pieces that get under your skin and make you feel for our heroine. We know where this I s going and why and we completely understand when it all goes to hell why it does – Unseen Films
Shaun has several other films in development currently including The Under Men based on his award winning short, The Soldier which won Best Film, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects and Best Editing at The London Short Film Festival in 2007. Set 13 days after the D-day landings, the film explores the consequences of the Third Reich’s disease testing experiments.
He trained at Stamford College and later at Birmingham Metropolitan College. He has been working in films for some 18 years starting as a prosthetics makeup supervisor before graduating into editing and then running a production company making tv commercials for Coca Cola, BP and others as well as high end music videos.
He also moved into writing/directing short films including The Forgotten Ground and This Place. He directed the web series Naomi Donne’s Made Up Stories for Goldfinch Entertainment and was prosthetics supervisor on Shane Meadow’s This Is England, The Devil’s Dosh for infidelis Productions and The Hooligan Factory for Think Big Productions.
Sean’s website
Sean’s IMDb page
Nick BROWN
Nick Brown found initial success with his Agent of Rome novels published by Hodder & Stoughton. Described by The Times as ‘gripping’, the critically acclaimed series has now reached six volumes and has been translated into Spanish, Italian and Dutch. He was inspired to write historical fiction by the work of C.J. Sansom and when he discovered the research about the Roman ‘secret service’ he knew he’d found a compelling angle for his protagonist, Cassius Corbulo. Nick is currently adapting the books into a television series.
He has ‘ghosted’ a number of screenplays in a variety of genres, from science fiction to family drama. His high – action thriller First Duty has recently been optioned By Dynamic Pictures and will be directed by Misko `Massanyi.
After completing a history degree at the University of Sussex, Nick travelled to Kathmandu, Nepal, working as a sports coach/tutor at an orphanage. Back in England he completed a PGCE at the University of Exeter and went on to teach for five years in the UK. His next post was as a teacher of English and history at an international school in Warsaw. He feels that his experience in both subjects has informed his writing and that ten years as a teacher has taught him the value of collaboration.
A voracious devourer of music, film, TV and books of all kinds, Nick lives with his wife in Norwich.
DIRECTOR SURI KRISHNAMMA ON A DOUBLE
Suri Krishnamma currently directing a block of Coronation Street and then on to completing Iron Men, a feature documentary about West Ham’s move from Upton Park, their home ground for 120 years, to the Olympic Stadium.