Ben Whishaw Unveils First Project Since BAFTA TV Win; Toby Jones ITV Drama; ‘Back To Reality’ Boarded; Pact Retirement – Global Briefs

Max Goldbart
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Ben Whishaw Unveils First Project Since BAFTA TV Win

EXCLUSIVE: Ben Whishaw has unveiled his first project since being awarded his latest BAFTA TV Award. The This Is Going to Hurt star is leading short film Good Boy, the directorial debut from Mainstream co-writer Tom Stuart, which filmed on the Glastonbury Festival site in April. In Good Boy, Whishaw stars with Marion Bailey (The Crown) as a son and mother whose attempt to rob a bank is scuppered by bizarre manifestations from their past. Inspired by the writer-director’s own experience of bereavement, the personal film explores the insidious malleability of grief and the unexpected ways it asserts itself in daily life. “The pandemic has brought us an unprecedented amount of death and behind it a dark wave of grief,” said Stuart. “I’ve learnt that it’s only by talking about my grief that I’m able to loosen its grip and I believe that art, in all its forms, will be the thing that allows us to gradually address and explore our collective pain.” Whishaw won his third BAFTA TV Award over the weekend for This is Going to Hurt, the BBC’s adaptation of Adam Kay’s bestseller. Good Boy is produced by Kay Loxley and Max Marlow for 130 Elektra Films, alongside EPs Elettra Pizzi, Stuart, Alex Gonzalez and Goldcrest Films CEO Chris Quested, with the support of Gia Coppola.

More from Deadline

Toby Jones To Lead ITV Post Office Drama

Toby Jones is to lead ITV’s drama about the post office scandal that is roundly believed to be one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history. Now titled Mr Bates vs. The Post Office, Jones will play Alan Bates, one of hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system. Following the landmark Court of Appeal decision to overturn their criminal convictions, dozens of former sub postmasters and postmistresses have been exonerated on all counts and ITV is also making an accompanying doc titled People vs Post Office: The Real Story [working title]. Joining Jones in the Gwyneth Hughes-penned four-parter are the likes of Monica Dolan (The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe), Julie Hesmondhalgh (The Pact), Alex Jennings (This Is Going to Hurt) and Ian Hart (The Responder). ITV Studios and Little Gem are producing, while Broadchurch‘s James Strong is directing.

TrustNordisk Boards Anders Thomas Jensen’s ‘Back To Reality’

TrustNordisk has taken international sales rights to Oscar-nominee Anders Thomas Jensen’s comedy Back to Reality [working title]. The Zentropa-produced feature follows a fresh-out-of-jail bank robber, Anker, on his way to collect the loot. But the only one who knows where the money is buried is his traumatized brother, Manfred, who has meanwhile fled into an alter ego, and now knows nothing about said money. TrustNordisk has taken worldwide sales on the feature as the Cannes Film Festival reaches the end of its first week. Jensen won an Oscar for 1998 short Election Night and has been nominated for several more. Zentropa also produced and TrustNordisk distributed his 2020 feature Riders of Justice.

Pact International Chief To Retire

Dawn McCarthy-Simpson, UK indie trade body Pact’s international guru, is retiring in October. McCarthy-Simpson has spent 16 years overseeing the organization’s work outside the UK, coming at a time when the industry has become far more globalized. More recently, she managed the opening of Pact’s office in Leeds. CEO John McVay described her as “the lynch pin of our international work.” “She has been to Mip so many times she could call Cannes her second home,” he joked. “Of course we wish Dawn much happiness in her retirement, but I know I speak on behalf of all our members when I say that she will be greatly missed.”

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.