Summer News...

A very warm welcome to two new clients,

Hair & Make-Up Designer Emma Scott and Costume Designer Ralph Wheeler-Holes.

Currently in prep on Moses Jones, Emma’s credits also include Mistresses, Lost In Austen, The Abbey, Lilies, A Harlot's Progress, and The Rotter's Club. Last year she was BAFTA-nominated for her work on A Harlot's Progress, and she also received an RTS nomination for her work on The Rotter's Club in 2005.

Ralph has just wrapped on his second series of Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, which is currently a huge hit in the U.S., airing on Showtime alongside Weeds. Ralph's previous credits include credits include The Fixer, Whistleblowers and the features The Waiting Room, Piccadilly Jim and Bend It Like Beckham.

In other news...

Production Designer Cristina Casali is currently designing 1974 - Julian Jarrold's segment of the Red Riding Trilogy - for Revolution Films & Channel 4.

Director of Photography David Higgs is in pre-production on Anand Tucker's segment of the same project, 1983.

The trilogy follows the hunt for the infamous Yorkshire Ripper who violently murdered several women and children from 1974 until his capture in 1981. Based on David Peace's novel, The Red Riding Quartet.

Director of Photography Tim Fleming is in pre-production on Moses Jones for director Michael Offer and the BBC. Joe Penhall has written this 3-parter for BBC1, which Cameron Roach is producing for Kudos Film & Television.

Hair & Make-Up Designer Emma Scott is also in pre-production on Moses Jones.

Director of Photography Zac Nicholson has wrapped on Esther May-Campbell's stunning short film September, produced by Stewart Le Marechal. Zac was Camera Operator on The Boat That Rocked for Richard Curtis and Working Title, and last year shot two features - Jetsam for director Simon Welsford, and Special People for Justin Edgar, which will be released this autumn.

Director of Photography Jan Jonaeus is currently shooting Wallander for Leftbank Pictures, starring Kenneth Branagh as Kurt Wallander - a fictional Swedish police inspector created by author Henning Mankell.

Director of Photography Dale McCready continues to shoot Merlin for Shine Productions / BBC. Having started off shooting 2nd Unit on both Merlin and The Last Van Helsing for Julian Murphy, he is now in prep on Block 3 - his 2nd Block as HoD on the series.

Costume Designer Edward Gibbon is in pre-production on his third series of Skins. Having been with the show since its inception, Edward has enjoyed the challenge of creating the style look for the cast, which mainly consists of all new lead actors this year. The show continues to receive accolades as a ground-breaking series for Channel 4. As well as BAFTA nominations for Break-Through Talent and an RTS nomination for Best Drama Series, Skins has also won the Rose D’Or at Cannes for Best Drama.

Director of Photography Arnau Valls Colomer has recently wrapped on his third feature, Trash. Another feature of Arnau's - last year's hit at the Berlin Film Festival, Summer Book - will screen at the Locarno Film Festival next month. Arnau recently shot Hugo & Sebastian Godwin's short The Rain Horse for the UK Film Council, their second collaboration after the short film The Girls last year, which was nominated for a British Independent Film Award in 2007.

Editor Lucien Clayton continues to edit Star Struck (working title) for director Jamie Jay Johnson and Number 9 Films.

EL HOPPO!

The short film EL HOPPO! shot by Curtis Brown cinematographer Dave Miller continues to be a festival circuit hit.

EL HOPPO! was filmed in Spain in June 2007 and completed in September 2007 and was one of the reel talent award winners, and screened at the London Film Festival last year.

Most recently it has been nominated for Best Short Film at the Soho Rushes Film Festival and will be screening between Wednesday 23rd July to Friday 1st August 2008.

Watch the trailer for EL HOPPO! here.

Dave Miller recently wrapped on Julian Kemp's feature MY LAST FIVE GIRLFRIENDS, starring Naomie Harris and Brendan Patricks.

ROCKNROLLA trailer hits the web...

Guy Ritchie's latest film, Rocknrolla - starring Gerard Butler, Thandie Newton and Tom Wilkinson - has debuted online at Empire Magazine. Watch it here. Curtis Brown cinematographer David Higgs shot the film for Guy and producers Steve Clark-Hall, Joel Silver and Warner Bros.

NIKE Take It To The Next Level

DoP David Higgs shot Guy Ritchie's Take It To The Next Level commercial for Nike. The $6million campaign ad, shot on location in Barcelona, can be found on the Nike Football website.

David is currently prepping on Phil Claydon's feature Lesbian Vampire Killers for producer Steve Clark-Hall, which will star James Corden and Matthew Horne. Production begins May 19th for six weeks, at 3 Mills Studios.

The Thick Of It the movie...

Production Designer Cristina Casali has begun work on Armando Ianucci's feature film version of the BAFTA-winning series In The Thick Of It. Titled In The Loop, the film will star Peter Capaldi and James Gandolfini. Kevin Loader (Brideshead Revisited, Venus) is producing for BBC Films.

Berlin Film Festival - Somers Town

Shane Meadows latest film Somers Town will be screened at the Berlin Film Festival this month. Filmed using black-and-white stock in present day London, Somers Town is a film about inhospitable suburbs, broken families and loneliness that can only be eased by friendship.

Screenings of the film will take place on:
Saturday 9 February @ 17:00
Monday 11 February @ 17:30
Friday 15 February @ 17:00

Curtis Brown client Lisa Hall was the Production Designer on the film.

2008 BAFTA NOMINATIONS

Atonement has received 14 BAFTA nominations, including Best Film, Best British Film and Best Director. It has also received a nomination for Best Production Design, and we would like to congratulate Curtis Brown client Ian Bailie – who was the Supervising Art Director on the film – on his participation in such a beautifully crafted film, and for all of his hard work and efforts in helping to bring it to fruition.

Control has received 3 BAFTA nominations, including Best British Film. We would like to congratulate Costume Designer Julian Day and Supervising Costume Assistant Shaida Day for the incredible job they did on Anton Corbijn’s film.

The Stronger has been nominated for Best Short Film, shot by Cinematographer David Higgs. The Stronger was nominated for Best Cinematography at the Raindance film Festival and won the award for Best Short Film, so we congratulate director Lia Williams and producer Dan McCulloch at Tightrope Pictures on their continued success.

This Is England has been BAFTA nominated for Best British Film and Best Original Screenplay. Congratulations to Zac Nicholson who was the Camera Operator on the film. Zac is carving his own trajectory as an emerging talent in British cinematography, and last year shot the feature Jetsam, which next month screens at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Half Moon - New York Times Review

The New York Times - December 14, 2007
Harsh Realities and Mystical Power
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

For his poetic fourth feature, Half Moon, the Kurdish-Iranian writer and director Bahman Ghobadi returns to the breathtaking desolation of the Kurdish borderlands and the enduring optimism of his people.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, Mamo (Ismail Ghaffari), a famed Kurdish musician living in Iran, gathers his many sons for a trip across the border to Iraqi Kurdistan and a long-planned celebratory concert. Despite failing health and his offspring’s fluctuating commitment to the dangerous enterprise, Mamo is resolute; neither callous border guards nor his own recurring premonitions of disaster will derail the performance.

Fateful and funny, haunting and magical, “Half Moon” balances delicately between the harsh realities of its location and the mystical power of Mamo’s visions. Shooting mainly in Iranian Kurdistan, the cinematographers Nigel Bluck and Crighton Bone find an unearthly beauty amid the gambling frenzy of a cockfight and the silent ranks of exiled female singers lining the rooftops of a mountain village. As the end of the journey draws near, the line between the natural and the supernatural becomes increasingly difficult to discern.

Inspired by Mozart's Requiem and commissioned by the New Crowned Hope festival in Vienna, Half Moon is an affecting contemplation of resilience in the face of tragedy. When a higher purpose beckons, death itself must take a back seat.

Half Moon

A spirited tale of one man's attempt to realise a musical dream becomes a classic road movie in the hands of Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi. Mamo is an ageing musician living in Iran who, after 35 years of waiting, is given permission to perform a concert in Iraqi Kurdistan. Hiring an old bus, rounding up his 10 musician sons and coming up with a plan to smuggle a forbidden female singer across the border, Mamo sets off on what promises to a bumpy ride that's full of rugged realism with sudden flights of fancy. Ghobadi's wonderful film proves that however hard the journey, the show must go on.

Half Moon, Directed by Bahman Ghobadi, will be showing at the ICA from January 7-30.

The Director of Photography on the film was Curtis Brown client Crighton Bone.

"... a wonderfully rich road movie" **** Financial Times
"An exuberant, unconventional road movie" **** The Times
"Half Moon honours and elevates the unquenchable spirit of its subjects" The Telegraph
**** Time Out
**** Empire