new snap shot of our changing city..:cheers:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaw3JvRk9uU

[more] (http://www.northwestvision.co.uk/page/digital-departures-final-12-announced)

DIGITAL DEPARTURES ANNOUNCES STUNNING SHORT LIST

A STUNNING, world-class group of film and TV professionals have been selected as finalists in the prestigious Digital Departures micro-budget filmmaking initiative, created by Northwest Vision + Media.

Together with its partners the Liverpool Culture Company, the UK Film Council and the BBC, Northwest Vision + Media are delighted to announce an impressive short-list of 12 filmmaking teams, each competing for a chance to make one of three £250,000 feature films in the next 14 months.

The final countdown sees a reunion for Liverpool Writers Frank Cottrell Boyce (24 Hour Party People, Millions) and Carl Hunter, whose current feature Grow Your Own has opened at cinemas across the country. They are joined by Liverpool producer, Sarada McDermott, in a feature called Triple Word Score.

Internationally-renown director, Terence Davies, (Distant Voices Still Lives) has also been selected, working with Sol Papadopoulos and Roy Boulter, the Merseyside-based producers whose latest feature, Under The Mud, is also currently receiving international critical acclaim.

Liverpool producer Chris Bernard (Letter To Brezhnev) teams up with Cumbria’s award-winning writer/director, Juliet Mckoen, who took the film industry by storm with her feature, Frozen, starring Shirley Henderson, winning a phenomenal 11 awards last year.

And Liverpool rock legend, Pete Wylie, joins forces with Eastenders writer, Jeff Young, in their musical feature, The Don.

In addition to established talent there are many new and emerging filmmakers involved in Digital Departures. Indeed, 10 of the final 12 filmmaking teams have people within the core writer/director/producer group who have been developed by, and are featured in, Northwest Vision + Media’s new Talent Year Book 2007.

Liverpool writer/producer, John Maxwell, has made it through to the short-list with his feature idea The Northern Cowboy. He’s joined by Colin O’Donnell, Story Editor at Hollyoaks, who is writing horror film, Salvage.

Also on the short-list are Liverpool director, Julie Lau, with a project called Left Handed, writer Lynne Harwood of Formby with Looking For Iris, Liverpool producer Richard Cottier is working on a film called Arabian Nightz, and The Maimed is a feature by Liverpool writer Gavin Whitefiled and director Laurence Easeman.

Liverpool writer Leigh Campbell has also been short-listed, for her feature Starstruck, and Birkenhead director, James Marquand is part of the team producing Whores With Guns, to be written by top Liverpool comic John Bishop and produced by Liverpool’s Philip Evers.

[more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=dixie--8217-s-incredible-story-heading-for-the-cinema&method=full&objectid=19350375&siteid=50061-name_page.html)]

Dixie's incredible story heading for the cinema

Jun 25 2007

by Alan Weston, Liverpool Daily Post

IT was a different era in which top footballers were paid just £8 a week and caught the tram home with fans after playing a game.

Now the life and astonishing career of Everton goal-scoring legend Dixie Dean is to be brought to the screen for the first time.

Tabacula Films, based at Toxteth TV – whose latest film project alongside Souled Out films about the Cunard Yanks had a sold-out Liverpool premiere last week – are currently fund-raising for their next major project: a feature-length drama documentary about the player, with the working title Dixie Dean: The People’s Legend.

It will be directed by Ian Lysaght, himself a keen Everton fan, and is due to be released next year on the 80th anniversary of Dean’s 60-goal season of 1927-8.

[more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=dixie--8217-s-incredible-story-heading-for-the-cinema&method=full&objectid=19350375&siteid=50061-name_page.html)]

Dixie's incredible story heading for the cinema

Jun 25 2007

by Alan Weston, Liverpool Daily Post

IT was a different era in which top footballers were paid just £8 a week and caught the tram home with fans after playing a game.

Now the life and astonishing career of Everton goal-scoring legend Dixie Dean is to be brought to the screen for the first time.

Tabacula Films, based at Toxteth TV – whose latest film project alongside Souled Out films about the Cunard Yanks had a sold-out Liverpool premiere last week – are currently fund-raising for their next major project: a feature-length drama documentary about the player, with the working title Dixie Dean: The People’s Legend.

It will be directed by Ian Lysaght, himself a keen Everton fan, and is due to be released next year on the 80th anniversary of Dean’s 60-goal season of 1927-8.

Fantastic news! As well as being possibly the greatest forward ever, there's a hell of a lot of fantastic tales about him. From bowing down in front of the kop 3 times when he scored, and losing a testicle for ignoring a defender who threatened him not to score again, to fighting Nazi's in Germany just before WWII, and tales of captured foreign soldiers shouting "f*** your Winston Churchill and f*** your Dixie Dean!"

Can't wait for this. :banana: Neither can banana here.

to fighting Nazi's in Germany just before WWII.

He decided to get stuck in even before the invasion of Poland and Britain's declaration of war? :? What a guy!

New city soap set to win major BBC deal

LIVERPOOL has emerged as favourite to attract a new soap to replace BBC1’s Neighbours, potentially creating hundreds of new jobs in the arts sector.

Kirkdale-based film producer Colin McKeown, who worked on Coronation Street and was one of the original creators of Channel 4’s Brookside, is in detailed talks with the BBC about a pilot series for a new soap.

Recent Bafta-winning writer Jimmy McGovern is committed to the project as executive script writer/producer, and will head a team of talented local writers.

Last night, Mr McKeown, who heads LA Productions, said the proposed programme would not be a carbon-copy of Brookside, the one-time daily series produced by Mersey Television when it was headed by Phil Redmond. Mr McKeown has a working name for the show, currently under wraps, but says the storylines will prominently feature regeneration and the gentrification of Liverpool. A final decision is expected within weeks, with the first episodes scheduled for televising next summer.

Neighbours leaves the BBC next summer after a higher offer was made by Channel 5, and now a replacement is being sought for the lucrative early-evening prime spot.

Initially, the replacement programme will span a 20- week run, with episodes aired two times a week. But, if it turns out to be a hit with viewers, it is likely to be screened five days a week. If Mr McKeown wins the contracts, the aim is to shoot the scenes on location, with his base at the former St Lawrence School, in Westminster Road, Kirkdale, acting as a headquarters for the show.


"I think this is a great opportunity and we are very hopeful that we will be given the programme. It will mean a lot to Liverpool, particularly in the year that it is celebrating European Capital of Culture, to be the location of a soap that reflects the changing face of our major cities.


"It would certainly mean the recruitment of a lot of people, with lots of spin-off work in the service sector. This is a real window of opportunity for us."


Mr McKeown, who was also behind the Liverpool One police drama, is also working on a separate project with the children’s charity Childline, tackling the issue of homophobic bullying.


"It is a very important issue affecting a growing number of children. There are some big-name people willing to participate and we are now in the process of seeking funding or sponsorship for the programme.


"We need to attract more film and programme making to Liverpool. I had been hopeful that government measures about tax-breaks for the film industry would help us on Merseyside, but it has not turned out like that.


"One of the local companies announced it was to make 10 films on the back of the tax-break policy, but only one materialised. The rules, unfortunately, changed. The tragedy is that here in Liverpool we have a huge pool of artistic and creative talent. We can only hope that Gordon Brown will react to the needs of the film industry when he becomes Prime Minister."


Mr McKeown has been in the forefront of film and television work in Liverpool, and helped establish Liverpool Film Studio as a training arm for the sector.


He also worked on Family at War, Emmerdale, Eastenders and he helped create a soap in Kazakhstan with Tony Jordan.


A spokesman for the BBC said: "The BBC looking at a number of options to replace Neighbours. A decision has yet to be made."

no doubt they will call it 'aaray'! a daily pleasant discourse of scouse whinging and criminal angst from Liverpool's notorious inner suburbs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl1n-PM0NZg
Very clever and a lovely tune.

Liverpool soap lined up for BBC

A new Liverpool-based soap opera from the co-creator of Brookside is being considered by the BBC for 2008.

TV and film producer Colin McKeown, who worked on Coronation Street and was one of the original creators of Channel 4’s Brookside, is in talks with the broadcaster about a pilot series.

The as yet unnamed soap is, which is being executive produced by former Brookside writer Jimmy McGovern, is believed to be being considered for the Neighbours slot, which will become vacant when the Australian soap moves to Five next year.

The show, being produced by McKeown's LA Productions, is to be shot on location in the Kirkdale area of Liverpool. If the 20-week pilot series gets the go-ahead, it is likely it will air next summer.

McKeown told the Liverpool Daily Post: "I think this is a great opportunity and we are very hopeful that we will be given the programme. It will mean a lot to Liverpool, particularly in the year that it is celebrating European Capital of Culture, to be the location of a soap that reflects the changing face of our major cities."

A BBC spokeswoman, however, told DS today: "The BBC is currently looking at a number of options to replace Neighbours. A decision has yet to be made."

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/a63324/liverpool-soap-lined-up-for-bbc.html

Filmed on location in Kirkdale,this already sounds like a bad idea.

Christ Kirkdale. :ohno: I found out at an funeral a few years back from an aged and distant relative that one of our ancestors in the C19th had gone by the nickname, Bank Hall Bessie. I'm not sure I wanted to know much more.

Anyway, that could be a mistake. The Echo article, which appears to be the source of that one, mentioned that it would be filmed in McKeown's studios (which are in Boundary St, Kirkdale) and on location, in Liverpool. "On location in Kirkdale" may be an inaccurate conflation of those two things.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if such a programme was filmed in somewhere like Kirkdale anyway. It's the sort of thing we're used to.

Liverpool's attractive suburban streets appear on tv every week, however, in Phil Redmond's Hollyoaks. However, they pretend that they are in Chester.

Try this version from a few days ago:


New city soap set to win major BBC deal

Jun 26 2007

Liverpool Echo


LIVERPOOL has emerged as favourite to attract a new soap to replace BBC1’s Neighbours, potentially creating hundreds of new jobs in the arts sector.

Kirkdale-based film producer Colin McKeown, who worked on Coronation Street and was one of the original creators of Channel 4’s Brookside, is in detailed talks with the BBC about a pilot series for a new soap.

Recent Bafta-winning writer Jimmy McGovern is committed to the project as executive script writer/producer, and will head a team of talented local writers.

Last night, Mr McKeown, who heads LA Productions, said the proposed programme would not be a carbon-copy of Brookside, the one-time daily series produced by Mersey Television when it was headed by Phil Redmond. Mr McKeown has a working name for the show, currently under wraps but says the storylines will prominently feature regeneration and the gentrification of Liverpool.

That doesn't sound like Kirky to me - unless it's about a community RESISTING the gentrification of Liverpool with sacrifices being made at the Shrine of Scottie Road. :cheers:

Ok, not exactly Liverpool in film but...

Description: This is a car advertisement from Great Britain. When they finished filming the ad, the film editor noticed something moving along the side of the car, like a ghostly white mist. They found out that a person from Liverpool had been killed a year earlier in that exact same spot. The ad was never put on TV because of the unexplained ghostly phenomenon. Watch the front end of the car as it clears the trees in the middle of the screen and you'll see the white mist crossing in front of the car then following it along the road....Spooky! Is it a ghost, or is it simply mist? You decide. If you listen to the ad, you'll even hear the cameraman whispering in the background about it, near the end of the commercial. A little creepy but pretty cool!

Click here for ghostly mist or fog, Car Ad (http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=5522308)

fuck off juxty :lol:

fuck off juxty :lol:

:) good isn't it...!

I can only watch it once, scares me every time i see it especially at this time of night.

:) good isn't it...!

I can only watch it once, scares me every time i see it especially at this time of night.

i thought bullshit until i put my speakers louder and actually heard the cameraman

i thought bullshit until i put my speakers louder and actually heard the cameraman
Some things just can't be explained. I had to put my speakers on full volume before I could hear the Scouse cameraman.

Slightly random compilation of shots taken around the Pier Head at the weekend, plus some shots of the approach to Lime Street station.

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Very good video, i like the style of filming, the end bit was like a big wheel rotating verging on Phsycedelic...:cheers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TctA0EG2VNI

go9qwFDbA1g

superb stuff... :)

go9qwFDbA1g

Stunning, powerful, well composed. Well done, and keep up the good work!

:applause:

Found this on youtube

2UW8ba14NyI

More of the same naughtiness. But nice to see St John's Gardens being used.

d0tu2j7Ubro

They look like a little group of monkeys, scampering about the city centre. Music is a bit annoying though.

tVYp7w_Gb6A

Nice evening shots around the Walker Art Gallery and Lime Street

KmB7Mdsb7MU

a great video, showing a night time drive around town

9L2yyZicHgs

That's a very good video, goes well with the Ian Brown soundtrack.

http://www.wirralcam.org/waterfront.shtml

People on the beach walking dogs

They've gone. But they might be back.

Edited - yes they are back.

'Art house' Liverpool video:

ZmYwwvmRxh0

Movie legend Martin Scorsese to make film of George Harrison’s life
Sep 28 2007 by Alan Weston, Liverpool Daily Post

LEGENDARY director Martin Scorsese is to make a documentary film about the life of Beatle George Harrison.

Harrison’s widow Olivia, 59, will take on the role of one of the producers alongside US film-maker Scorsese.

Surviving ex-Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are expected to participate, according to movie trade magazine Variety, as would the Beatles’ Apple record label.

The film will cover the guitarist, singer and songwriter’s time as one of the Fab Four, when he composed such memorable tunes as Something and Here Comes The Sun.

It will also cover his inconsistent solo career, his foray into movie production with such projects as Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and his exploration of Eastern spiritual pursuits.

It is believed Scorsese will be given unlimited access to the Harrison family archives.

The director, 64, famous for movies like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas, said: “George Harrison’s music and his search for spiritual meaning is a story that still resonates today and I’m looking forward to delving deeper.” Harrison’s second wife, Olivia, said: “It would have given George great joy to know that Martin Scorsese has agreed to tell his story.”

Harrison died of cancer at the age of 58, in 2001.

He was still married to Pattie Boyd when he met his second wife in 1974 and the pair famously fought off an attacker who broke into their Oxfordshire home and stabbed the guitarist in 1999.

Harrison’s family will be supplying materials for the as yet untitled film from their extensive archive. Interviews and early production begin later this year, according to Variety.

Beatles fans eager to see the film will have to wait for a while, however, as it is thought that it will take several years to complete.

Scorsese, who won an Oscar this year for the crime saga The Departed, has previously made several films on the subjects of both music and faith.

He is preparing for the April, 2008, release of a concert documentary about the Rolling Stones, called Shine A Light. He turned his attention to Bob Dylan in the 2005 documentary No Direction Home, and depicted the band’s farewell concert in 1976’s The Last Waltz.

Scorsese also explored issues of faith in movies like Kundun (1997) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

The Harrison film will be edited by David Tedeschi, who served the same role on the Rolling Stones film, Shine A Light.

The film will be a co-production between Spitfire Productions, Scorsese's company Sikelia Productions and Harrison's Grove Street Productions.

Nice to see George Harrison being recognised by the film community after the contribution he has made to the British film industry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handmade_Films


'Handmade Films was a British film production company set up by George Harrison, formerly of The Beatles, and his business partner Denis O'Brien in 1979. It was originally formed to finance the Monty Python film Life of Brian after the original financiers EMI Films pulled out.

Films produced by the company include:


Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)


The Long Good Friday (1980)


Time Bandits (1981)


Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982)


The Missionary (1982)


Privates on Parade (1982)


Bullshot (1983)


A Private Function (1984)


Water (1985)


Mona Lisa (1986)


Shanghai Surprise (1986)


Withnail and I (1987)


The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989)


How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)


Nuns on the Run (1990)


In 1994, the company was acquired by the Canadian company Paragon Entertainment, who restarted production under the HandMade name. The company's most notable release since then is Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)'.

The UK press are absolutely marmalising the new Across the Universe film. It appears that American reviewers were much kinder.

I have only seen the trailer and from that it seems a bit naff. I won't be going to see it. I can see it working in the US, and that is, after all, what counts.

The UK press are absolutely marmalising the new Across the Universe film. It appears that American reviewers were much kinder.

My 17 old was telling me that the film has quite buzz at his school here near LA and on the internet message boards.

He has suddenly started pushing the scouse side of his mid-atlantic accent all of a sudden :)

The UK press are absolutely marmalising the new Across the Universe film. It appears that American reviewers were much kinder.


It always the same,our press can't bare to give us good press.You've only got to look at the Royal Hoylake shite to see where they're coming from,our city just wont be silenced and they hate that.

I watched it last night. Went the late showing (10:00pm) at SilverCity screens which usually has about 20 people in attendance, more than 50 for this one. Not much Liverpool content apart from the lead character "Jude" being a Scouser. Shots of, mostly, Stanley Dock at the start and end of the movie with a good shot of the Three Graces from Albert dock late on in the movie and a few shots of Perch Rock lighthouse and the static exhibit in Salthouse graving dock, Edmund Gardner, the Mersey Pilot boat. If you are only going for the Liverpool content, don't.

I thought I was an excellent movie and enjoyed the different renditions of the Beatles classics. The movie starts with switching between a performance in the Cavern and a prom in the USA. The music was excellent and the movie is a must for anyone who likes the Beatles music. The cinema photography was excellent also, quite psychedelic to give the sixties atmosphere of acid trips. It is definitely a women's movie and it got an ovation from them at the end of the movie.

I tried to pick out accents after the show but could only hear Canadian accents. Also, we were the oldest people at the showing with most people being in their early twenties. Don't know why the UK critics panned it, I found it a very good movie and a very welcome change from stuff like 'Priest' and 'Formula 51'.

Scally Nige heading for small screen stardom

LIVERPOOL’S Keith Carter is on the verge of superstardom with his host of comic characters spearheaded by Scouse scally creation Nige.

After going down a storm at this year’s influential Edinburgh Fringe he has written a TV series based around Nige for fellow comic Steve Coogan’s production company Baby Cow which is to be broadcast on BBC3.

Radio 4 will also broadcast his new comedy series entitled The Shift, loosely based around life on the production line at Ford’s Halewood as experienced by his dad, Phil Carter.

Carter will also headline next year at Montreal, the world’s most auspicious comedy festival and has been invited to star in his own shows in Melbourne and New York.

“After Edinburgh I had all these offers from industry people who had not seen Nige before because they had not bothered travelling up to Liverpool,” said the 37-year-old Toxteth-born comic, who went down in legend as the man whose performance as Nige before watching Capital of Culture judges in 2003 swung the title the city’s way.

“Unfortunately most of them wanted to present stuff that was detrimental to Liverpool, things which I just wasn’t going to do. They just saw Nige as the stereotype of a stupid Scouser who trips over and robs things out of shops – but there’s a far more intelligent level to it than that.”

Beneath his spliff-smoking exterior and slack-eyed demeanour, Nige is a streetwise wisecracker expounding ways to change the world without ever actually getting around to doing something about it. Major topics of discussion include his nan’s cat Bin Laden, Pink Floyd and alien abduction.

Carter has other characters up his sleeve, however, which are already familiar to his Liverpool fans but wowed the unsuspecting Edinburgh audience. They include know-all cabbie Gerald Morris, electro-pop preener with Eric’s band Electric Moustache, now hairdresser Colin Kilkelly, and the un-PC has-been comedian Ronnie Binks.

The versatility of his writing and character led to Radio 4 producing The Shift, which started off as a half hour one-off but was thought of as so good it has been extended into a series by BBC bosses.

“I’ve had to edit some of the stuff beacuse I wouldn’t have been able to use half the stories my dad told me about,” said Carter, who has received full parental approval for the project, which follows a father and son relationship about the dad who despairs when his boy gives up his university studies to find out what real life is all about on the factory floor .

He added: “On the line at Ford’s they used to take bets on which of the new recruits could even last a day. There’s loads of tricks they’d play too. To break the boredom of each car going by on a 12-hour shift you’ve got to do something to pass the time.”

The icing on the cake on what should be a very busy 2008 is Liverpool’s Royal Court commissioning of Keith and his occasional writing partner Stanley McHale to write a new comedy as part of their grass roots policy of promoting local writers and actors.

Entitled The White Star, it’s based on the true story on ex-Liverpool sailors who hijacked a trawler after being made redundant in the late 1970s and sailing to Brazil.

“You only have to hear the first line and every Scouser will say well that will do for me!” said Carter.

It appears that from now on it’s not only Liverpudlians who will be thinking the same thing about the man behind Nige.

Film star shoots the Pool
Oct 9 2007 by Helen Hunt, Liverpool Echo

HOLLYWOOD star David Morrissey is filming his latest movie in the city.

The actor has appeared in a whole raft of blockbuster films and television shows, making him a well-known name on the big and small screen.

Best known for his portrayal of Capt Webber in Captain Correlli’s Mandolin - the 43-year-old has chosen Liverpool as the perfect location for a new film he is directing called The Pool.

The boy meets girl romance uses a number of locations in the city - including Crosby beach, Liverpool Cathedral and New Brighton.

The Kensington-born star’s film company, Liverpool-based Tubedale Films, is making the film.

The Pool stars Londoner James Brough and Liverpool-born Helen Elizabeth (who both wrote it) and is due to be screened next summer.

Movie recreates grim era of soccer violence
Oct 20 2007 by Greg O'Keeffe, Liverpool Echo

A CULT novel about Merseyside football hooligans is being turned into a film.

Cameras have already started rolling on the set of Away Days, written by Wirral author Kevin Sampson.

David Hughes, the former keyboardist with Mersey group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, has bought the rights to adapt the book and shooting began in the former Cammel Laird’s shipyard yesterday.

Gangs of New York and Snatch star Stephen Graham is one of a few well-known actors who will be in the film.

Set in the late 70s, Away Days is about a 19-year-old called Paul Carty who is torn between the Pack – a group of Tranmere Rovers hooligans – and his family and potential future.

The novel is also about Thatcherism, music, youth unemployment and heroin addiction.

Mr Hughes, who met Kevin Sampson as Wirral teenagers at Eric’s club on Matthew Street, said: “The ethos is, right across the board, to try and promote new talent and launch a new Brit Pack of actors from this film.

“We want to try and add to the existing and ever-growing pool of film-making talent in the city.

“We’re using great Merseyside locations like the shipyards, the Heebie Jeebies bar on Seel Street and great moody panoramas of the Mersey estuary and docklands.

“But we’re also shooting all over Wirral from Egremont and Eastham to Ellesmere Port. Some of the action takes place on trains and we managed to find somewhere in Bury that has a train track with vintage 70s trains.”

Mr Hughes has previously won success providing the scores for major films like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels with John Murphy and US hit The Batchelor, starring Renee Zellweger.

He formed production company Red Union which is behind the Away Days film with Kevin, who also managed Liverpool band The Farm.

Kevin wrote Away Days in 1998 and has written for magazines including NME and The Face.

Other novels include Powder, Outlaws, Clubland and his latest Stars are Stars; about a teenager during the Toxteth riots.

A movie where Scousers are cast - and crew

LIVERPOOL people are the stars of a movie being filmed in four cities across Britain and Ireland.

Award-winning film-makers Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor started shooting the Liverpool scenes for All Day And All Night at Croxteth Park yesterday.

The feature-length film is set against the backdrop of four cities and is being produced in conjunction with Dublin, Newcastle/Gateshead and Birmingham.

Residents from each city have been recruited to take part in the film both as cast and crew.

All Day And All Night is a coming of age story about a 17-year-old girl, Helen, as she prepares to leave the care order she has been subject to since she was a baby.

Out of the blue, an opportunity comes her way that will have a profound impact on her future.

Co-director Christine Molloy said: “Each city is undergoing significant regeneration, both social and economic, which makes them ideal to bring together in this single cinematic narrative, which examines issues of social and personal history.

“This ‘bringing together’ will be evidenced not only in the story but also in the choice of locations that have a remarkable consistency from city to city.

“To this end, the cities appear to have more in common than would at first appear.

“The interchanging extends to the cast which is comprised of people from the four cities, most of whom have never been in a film before.”

Shooting began in Dublin last week and will end in Newcastle on November 5.

Screenings of All Day And All Night are expected to take place at cinemas around the UK and Ireland next spring.

Three short vids of Liverpool in the fog today.

SYSoCQeI8ek

s-fanppjPg0

Kr_Q1t4svhU

O5FisUML890

Silly little speeded up video i made, if the sound annoys you, turn it off...:nuts:


Might be best to pause and let it fully load begore playing if your broadband is crap like mine.

OoEhc11EKMI

Silly little speeded up video i made, if the sound annoys you, turn it off...:nuts:


Might be best to pause and let it fully load begore playing if your broadband is crap like mine.

OoEhc11EKMI

thats actually quite cool! would be better if you could hear the engine instead of the chipmunks on speed

O5FisUML890

Can anybody tell me the name of the music in this vid? I remember hearing it on the radio about 18 months ago and have been wanting to hear it again ever since. The repetition is strangely appealing.

Thanks in advance.

Can anybody tell me the name of the music in this vid? I remember hearing it on the radio about 18 months ago and have been wanting to hear it again ever since. The repetition is strangely appealing.

Thanks in advance.
Rob, it's called Popcorn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popcorn_(instrumental))

PS - It's the version by Hot Butter

Very nice video Juxtapol.

Edited: just seen the fog ones as well - superb. Really pleased someone was out with a camcorder that day.

Rob, it's called Popcorn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popcorn_(instrumental))

PS - It's the version by Hot Butter

Dave, Ta v much. :cheers:

Kazaaa....

Brothers’ ambition for city movie industry
Nov 19 2007 by Paddy Shennan, Liverpool Echo

It’s been years in the planning but now, finally, filming has started on the latest made in Liverpool movie: Charlie Noades RIP. Paddy Shennan reports from the set . . .

STANDING around in a muddy, puddle-filled scrapyard in Liverpool on a bitterly cold day may not be the definition of glamour, but the Fitzmaurice brothers aren’t complaining.

Actor, writer and producer Neil and producer Tony are celebrating the start of location work on their second film, Charlie Noades RIP, a comedy set in a Liverpool scrapyard run by the Parr family (the first thing I see on set is a sign saying “Parr’s Scrapyard: Our Business Is Rubbish”).

It sounds like some story on screen (the plot revolves around a potent mix of offbeat characters and a modern-day treasure hunt) – and it’s certainly been some story off it:

This is the film which Neil wrote the script for six long years ago, 18 months after his first feature, 2000’s Going Off Big Time.

This is the film Neil describes as being “massively low budget” – it’s set to come in around £300,000 in an industry which generally views a £5m investment as measly.

This is the film which Neil and Tony – and their other brothers, associate producers Ian and Peter, who work behind the scenes in family firm North Star Productions – hope will serve as a catalyst in launching a long-term film industry in Liverpool.

And this is a film which happens to boast a sparkling cast. Neil, of course, made his name co-writing and co-starring in Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights, before being seen in Peep Show, Eyes Down and Mobile.

Joining him are John Thomson, Jon Henshaw, John McArdle, Pauline Daniels, Suzanne Collins, Dominic Carter and Lynn Francis, together with fellow Phoenix Nights stars Justin Moorhouse (he plays a guy called Elvis who actually thinks he’s The King, despite living in a caravan in the scrapyard), Dave Spikey, Steve Edge and Archie Kelly.

Filming in and around Liverpool and Wirral is taking place between now and December 7 and, in between takes in the real-life Lyons’ scrapyard in Fairfield, Neil, who plays Steve Parr, says: “It’s fantastic to be up and running at last. Tony and I have been living and breathing this for the last six years.”

And Tony says: “After planning it for so long and trying to get all the finance together, it’s great to be here shooting scenes at last – and with such a great cast. Things are going well and we’re all delighted.”

Neil believes there could be much more at stake than this single film, explaining: “When we made Going Off Big Time, there hadn’t been any films made in Liverpool for a while. Then a few more got made here and suddenly, apparently, we had a film industry.

“We do have the talent here and the locations, but there isn’t a self-sustaining film industry – companies come and make films then go away again. That’s fine, but it’s a short-term thing.”

He adds: “What we need is a good funding base. It’s taken us six years to get together the private investment to make this film and it’s very much been about the kindness of friends (and a couple of strangers!).”

There’s a distinct buzz on set – and plenty of laughter. John Thomson, who plays Sonny, a divorcee with an addiction to the Discovery Channel, says: “It’s a warm and funny script and we’re having a lot of laughs doing it.

“I already knew most of the cast and we’ve been in great danger of wearing ourselves out, because we’ve been so busy telling each other jokes off camera. I always like working in Liverpool and with Liverpool people.”

Scouser John McArdle, meanwhile, who plays Steve Parr’s dad, Les, is burning the candle at both ends to be a part of the film.

He explains: “I was working with Neil on the BBC1 drama Merseybeat and he was telling me about this film then – and that was four years ago. I said I’d do it if I was around. I was delighted to receive the script because Neil’s a lovely writer and this is a good story with a good set of characters.”

And, as Neil points out later, John has been putting in full days on the film despite having to be on stage in Bolton, in Oh What A Lovely War, each evening: “The poor man’s knackered, but it shows the spirit there is on set.”

It’s hoped that Charlie Noades RIP will be premiered at the Cannes Film Festival next May, ahead of a UK cinema release in the autumn, and Neil says: “To bring it out in 2008 is massively important for us, because it’s a Liverpool film.”

And who is Charlie Noades? You’ll just have to wait and see.

For more information, go to www.charlienoadesrip.com

Jimmy McGovern drama triumphs at International Emmy awards
Nov 20 2007 by Catherine Jones

Liverpool writer, Jimmy McGovern (smiling) _320

JIMMY McGovern’s The Street has triumphed at the International Emmy awards.

The Liverpool writer’s BBC drama was named best drama series at the ceremony at the Hilton New York hotel.

Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent shared the best actor award for his role as an embittered pensioner in The Street.

The powerful drama series, which follows the lives of different residents of one street, has already won British television's top industry awards, winning both the 2007 Bafta and Royal Television Society awards for Best Drama Series.

Last week, Liverpool director Terry McDonough – who has just finished work on the current, second, series – said he was looking forward to going to New York for the awards.

He said: “Coming back with an Emmy would be fantastic.

“Jimmy is the best writer I have ever worked with.

“He is so succinct and has a real vision.”

Jimmy today celebrated his good news with a cup of tea.

He said: “I decided not to go to New York because I thought if I go we will never win.

“I got a text at 1.45am telling me the news.

“I had been in bed asleep but then I was so excited I had to stay up and went and had a cup of tea.

“It’s great news and I think we deserved to win and I think this second series also deserves to win awards.

“I would like to thank the writers who contributed to the first series, all Scousers: Arthur Ellison, Alan Field, Marc Pye and James Quirk.”

Batman: The Dark Knight film set to boost tourism in Liverpool
Jan 2 2008

THE CAPED Crusader is set to make Liverpool a tourism hotspot in 2008.

Experts today predicted the star appearance of the city’s waterfront in this year’s Batman film would attract visitors from around the world.

Directors cast Liverpool in The Dark Knight after visiting the city in 2006.

The final cut of the movie - set to become one of the biggest hits of 2008 - has not yet been seen, but it is believed the city’s famous waterfront plays a major role.

VisitBritain, the country’s tourism body, said the film would prove an irresistible draw for visitors known as “set-jetters”.

It picked out Liverpool alongside London as one of the UK’s tourism hotspots for 2008, with Capital of Culture identified as a massive draw.

Officials believe tourists will now flock to the city due to the combined lure of a Hollywood blockbuster and a packed programme of cultural events.

The Dark Knight will again star Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader as a sequel to Batman Begins. It is due for release in July.

Other UK landmarks, such as London’s Piccadilly Circus and Battersea power station, will also feature.

Tom Wright, chief executive of the national tourism agency, said: “If the right film is chosen, it acts as free advertising for a destination, location or attraction; shown to millions of people around the world and whenever they watch the DVD.

“Showcasing destinations through film helps maintain the popularity of our beautiful landscapes and countryside.”

The optimism followed a rallying call from regeneration chiefs.

Cllr Mike Storey, executive member for regeneration, said: “The message is definitely getting through that 2008 is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase this city.”

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to visit Merseyside over the next year for events including Sir Paul McCartney’s concert at Anfield and the MTV Europe music awards.

Heared about that Batman news today, sounds interesting if the waterfront will be present and recognisable in that film, as in the waterfront proper, or will it be confused along with other UK landmarks, such as London’s Piccadilly Circus and Battersea power station.

Some of the New York forumers are complaining that Batman:The Dark Knight looks like it was filmed in Chicago:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=559816

Lets hope Liverpool gets a look in somewhere in the film.

Some of the New York forumers are complaining that Batman:The Dark Knight looks like it was filmed in Chicago:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=559816

Lets hope Liverpool gets a look in somewhere in the film.

Yes, watched that trailer, and Liverpool wasn't evident, i get the felling that if you do see a Liverpool landmark, it will be computer processed into a Gotham scene. Will have to wait for the full film to find out how Liverpool, London and even Hong Kong features.

The Echo said it was going to be a Waterfront shot with the bat signal above it,I hope they're right.

The Echo said it was going to be a Waterfront shot with the bat signal above it,I hope they're right.

That would be ace. Maybe Liverbats could be superimposed onto the Liver Building. I'm quite chuffed about this piece of news.

That would be ace. Maybe Liverbats could be superimposed onto the Liver Building. I'm quite chuffed about this piece of news.

The Anglican Cathedral lit up at night WAS always the Bat symbol in my imagination....

He'd look great prowling around that monolithic, Goth pile.

The Echo said it was going to be a Waterfront shot with the bat signal above it,I hope they're right.

the only problem i have with that statement Paul is that it says the word Echo in it !

the only problem i have with that statement Paul is that it says the word Echo in it !

I know it doesn't fill you with confidence does it? Maybe the New Yorkers complaining that it looks like its filmed in Chicago have mistaken the Liver Building with the very similar building they have there? Time will tell I suppose,it's not released until July.I suppose it's good they chose Liverpool in the first place.

I don't think using 'Liverpool' as a stand-in for Gotham City really counts as Liverpool anyway. We should differentiate between films that are set in Liverpool and those that suck up aspects of our city and pretend it's somewhere else.

Liverpool's 'Georgian' area is always being used as a representation of somewhere other than Liverpool. Why can't it be used to depict the Liverpool that gave rise to such architecture and the lives that inhabited these buildings?

A little less scally and a little bit more George Melly for a change?

:nuts:

The Echo mocked up the skyline with a bat signal above it, but this may falsely be getting peoples ideas up that as Babaloo states, Liverpool will be represented as Liverpool very recognisably, which i think it won't. The best way to create Gotham, is to put a collection of buildings from all around the world together, which most people won't recognise in the final film, i.e. an ideal Gotham.

Wouldn't it be great if the Liver birds came to life and flew around to help Batman fight the villains...! Maybe an idea for a Liverpool superhero comic.

Batman - The Dark Knight trailer:

tkT1wdRePco

HD trailer here:http://www.atasteforthetheatrical.com/

Maybe an idea for a Liverpool superhero comic.

You might want to read about John Constantine, and the shite Keanu Reeves film based on that character. :cheers:

You might want to read about John Constantine, and the shite Keanu Reeves film based on that character. :cheers:

Cheers, just had a google, pity the Americans can't accept an original, foreign character in their films.

Jan 7 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL on Film, a collection of archive footage of some of the defining images of city life throughout the last century, is to have a public screening next week at the Woolton Picture House.

The showing is timed to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the community cinema. Liverpool on Film has been put together by the North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University, as part of a programme to make its collection available to the public.

The film will be shown on Thursday, January 10, at 7.30pm.

The public screening follows on from the release of the archive’s successful DVD of the same name, inspiring the NWFA to show several films on the big screen as they were originally intended – and to see others for the first time in 75 years.

NWFA’s service manager Marion Hewitt said: “This is a great opportunity for the people of Liverpool to take a look at life in their city in the past century.”
Films to be shown date from the earliest days of film-making in 1897 to the Swinging Sixties.

The programme will include the Lumiere Brothers’ views of the city and the river in 1897, the premiere of a stunning restoration of an early colour Pathe newsreel of sights of the city and views of the trams and Overhead Railway.

The city’s relationship with the Mersey is well illustrated in Down to the Sea, and with scenes of emi- gration to Canada via the famous Cunard Liners of the 1920s.

The need for post-war rebuilding is seen with developments of new housing in the 1950s, and from the ’60s viewers can see the rebirth of local industries and the services provided to ratepayers in the newly restored Turn of the Tide and Rates for the Job, two promotional films made for the city council in 1966. Alice Morris- on, from North West Vision + Media, said: “The North West Film Archive is one of our region’s real gems and North West Vision is proud to support Liverpool on Film, enabling local people to access a piece of their region's past.”

The evening’s show will be presented by the Archive’s collections assistant Geoff Senior.

Tickets are £3 available from the cinema box-office.



Hopefully this material can be kept in Liverpool where it belongs.

Imagine that ... Edge Lane used for pop video
Jan 8 2008 Vicky Anderson
Israeli popstar Aviv Geffen

THE Middle Eastern pop star behind what was known as the Israeli version of Imagine was in Liverpool yesterday to film the video he hopes will launch his career in the UK.

Aviv Geffen counts David Bowie, Lou Reed and Thom Yorke of Radiohead as fans, and at his biggest appearances has performed in front of 300,000 of his countrymen. He has even translated Bob Dylan into Hebrew.

His politically charged, progressive pop has made him a superstar to the country’s liberal youth but a pariah to Israeli authorities.

Geffen, 34, was on stage with Yitzhak Rabin when he was assassinated in 1995. The gunman was also aiming for the singer, who then went into exile in London.

Now, he is currently recording his English language debut album in London with producer Steve Orchard, who has also worked with the likes of Paul McCartney, U2 and Goldfrapp.

Last night, he filmed the video for his song Black and White at the old Littlewoods building on Edge Lane.

He is being represented in the UK by Atomic Kitten manager Martin O’Shea, whose production company Integral are behind the clip.

The trip to the city gave Geffen the chance to catch up with an old friend, Liverpool footballer Yossi Benayoun, also from Israel. The pair had lunch and paid a visit to the Cavern.

Geffen said: “It’s my first time here in Liverpool and I’m already looking forward to coming back on tour. Yossi showed me around a little and it is a really special spot.”

A solo artist, he has also had success collaborating in art rock band Blackfield with Steven Wilson, the frontman of British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree.

About his music, Geffen says: “I’m the same as bands like Sigur Ros, or Bjork, someone from a foreign place who is bringing fresh music, and British people like to hear that.

“In Israel, I’m like the ‘rebel’ artist, the only one who stands against his own government, I’m a real activist.

“I don’t want to be a huge celebrity, I’m really just showing a tiny image of Israel and I want to show there’s some great musicians there.”

As he readied himself for the shoot, he said the set looked “amazing”.

“It’s a love song, but there will be a huge explosion with 25 cars burning,” he laughs. “Like I didn’t have that enough in Israel.”

They've decided to use Chicago over Liverpool for the new Batman film.:down:

I see Liverpool is not going to feature in Batman in anyway at all.

Thought this was a bit of dodgy news, because we never heared about film crews and streets being cordoned off, and explosions and light effects etc.

Bloody journos, tell you about something great that never actually happened, then make more news later about how it actually never happened.....!

Prison Break star reveals his Mersey roots
Jan 23 2008 by Alan Weston, Liverpool Daily Post

THE star of the latest hit US television series has revealed his Merseyside roots.

Dominic Purcell, better known as musclebound Lincoln Burrows, in Prison Break, joins other international stars such as Halle Berry, and Kim Cattrall of Sex and the City fame, to reveal his previous connections with Liverpool.

Purcell is the latest in a long line of Merseyside actors who have burst through on the international stage in recent years, such as Liverpool-born Jason Isaacs, who has had a starring role in the Harry Potter films and last week narrowly missed out on a Golden Globe award for the BBC show The State Within.

In the case of 37-year-old Purcell, he was born here before emigrating with his family to Australia at the age of two.

“I spoke with a Liverpudlian accent until I was six years old and went to school,” he said.

“And there I was mercilessly teased by my Aussie buddies, so I quickly lost the Liverpudlian thing and started to speak like an Australian.”

However, his growing fame as Lincoln Burrows meant that another accent change was needed – and this time it was the Australian accent that was sacrificed.

He said: “I was speaking American all day and then I’d get home and speak Australian and I just felt so exhausted by going back and forth that I just decided to speak it all the time. Now I just speak American.”

Now, he says, he considers himself international, after having settled just outside Los Angeles where he moved to pursue acting after drama school.

LIVERPOOL’s Lime Pictures has been commissioned by the BBC to produce a full series of supernatural drama Apparitions.

Lime has already produced a two-part Apparitions special, starring Martin Shaw, which was set to air early this year.

But the Childwall company says the drama will now form part of a longer series to be broadcast later this year.

Shaw, star of Judge John Deed and The Professionals, plays Father Jacob, a priest working to promote candidates for sainthood who becomes drawn in to exorcism as he discovers a dark battle between good and evil.

Lime Pictures’ creative director Tony Wood said: “To have the show commissioned as a series before the two-part special has even been transmitted is a great vote of confidence from the BBC.”

Lilies actress joins feature film Starstruck shooting in city

May 1 2008 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

THE shoot for the third of the Liverpool-based feature films backed by Northwest Vision and Media was being completed in West Derby this week.

Starstruck is a drama written by locally-born writer Leigh Campbell, which tells the story of two Liverpool schoolgirls obsessed with a young Premiership footballer.

They lure him to a caravan for a night of passion but things don’t play out the way they planned them. Fans expecting a star turn from a real player from the Reds or Blues, however, will be disappointed.

“We’ve made it a fictional team that just happens to come from Liverpool,” said 40-year-old mother of three Leigh, a former pupil at Aigburth Vale who studied at Liverpool University. “Besides, it has less to do with football and more to do with obsession of teenage girls with celebrities and stardom.”

One of the film’s own stars is young Liverpudlian actress Kerrie Hayes, who plays Nicole. “I’m not into football at all in real life, so I’ve had to take all my knowledge of the game from the character,” explained Kerrie, who first drew attention in the BBC series Lilies.

The film was made under the Digital Departures initiative launched early last year by Northwest Vision. Three films were chosen and given a £250,000 budget and limited time shoot.

The other two, Salvage – a horror movie filmed predominantly on the old Brookside set – and Of Time and the City, a documentary about his home city by award-winning director Terence Davies, are already in the can.

The latter will be screened at this month’s Cannes Film Festival.



It would be good if we could have three films every years filmed in and about Liverpool life.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kN6iskTfCMo&feature=related
Much better than the original, don't you think?

Morning in the Streets
First broadcast in 1959
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/white/189_white.shtml

Partly filmed in Salford,which accounts for the wooly accents.

Liverpool lands top Jimmy McGovern new telly project on BBC
Jul 5 2008 by Tina Miles, Liverpool Echo

A NEW Jimmy McGovern TV project is revealed today ... and it will be filmed in the city.

The five-part 45 minute series, provisionally titled Moving On, will be created by city-based production company LA Productions.

The programme is expected to include some of the city’s biggest names as well as undiscovered talent.

Bafta-winning writer McGovern is committed to the project as executive producer and will head a team of local writers.

It will be aired across one week in the BBC1 daytime schedule next year.

Each episode takes place in different houses in Liverpool and involves a family or individual moving in or out.

Moving On executive producers Colin McKeown and Jimmy McGovern said the stories will explore current issues.

Jimmy, who penned The Street, Priest and The Lakes) said: “Our aim is to produce riveting drama on a modest budget and to do it to such a high standard that people demand to know why it isn’t shown in the evening.

“For Colin and myself, part of the attraction is that we’ll be making them in Liverpool, our home town, a city full of talent.

“I can’t wait to get started.”

Kirkdale-based film producer Colin McKeown, who worked on Coronation Street and was one of the creators of Channel 4’s Brookside, today promised some familiar faces in the cast.

Colin, who was also behind the Liverpool 1 drama, said: “It’s been a long time since there has been a BBC drama in Liverpool. This will be a ground-breaking piece of television so we shouldn’t set our horizons low. We want as many big names from Liverpool as we can.

“It will be an exciting challenge to create an intelligent afternoon series which tackles a range of issues.”

Liam Keelan, BBC commissioning editor and executive producer, who is also from Liverpool, said: “I want BBC daytime to be topical and to grab people’s attention so a drama from someone of Jimmy’s calibre and credibility fits the bill perfectly.”

Colin and Jimmy together produced the film Liam, directed by Stephen Frears, which won at Cannes and gained international release.

Spooky show with city as star
Jul 25 2008 by Tina Miles, Liverpool Echo

DOCTOR Who director Joe Ahearne’s spooky new drama is being filmed in and around Liverpool.

A host of top TV names are working on supernatural thriller Apparitions, which will be aired on the BBC this autumn.

Liverpool’s Lime Pictures has already produced a two-part special of the show, which stars Martin Shaw as a priest who uncovers a battle between good and evil.

The Childwall-based company was then commissioned by the BBC to produce a full series.

Shooting for the six-part drama began in May and is expected to finish next week.

Locations include Garston, Knowsley Hall, Scotland Road, Tuebrook, Allerton, Toxteth and Everton Brow.

Tony Wood, creative director of Lime Pictures, said: “Joe Ahearne has created a gripping story of intrigue and mystery, which raises as many questions as it answers.

“Martin Shaw is the perfect choice to play the lead role. I am delighted to be working with the BBC on this project, which I hope will become a long-standing relationship.”

Shaw, star of Judge John Deed and The Professionals, heads a cast of well-known film and television actors.

He plays Father Jacob, a priest working to promote candidates for sainthood who becomes drawn into exorcism.

Benidorm actress Siobhan Finneran joins the series from the third episode as Jacob’s right-hand woman.

The cast also features Shaun Dooley (The Street), Casualty actor Elyes Gabel, ex-Eastender Michelle Joseph and child actress Romy Irving.

Guest stars include Neil Pearson, best-known for Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason and Drop The Dead Donkey, and Wallasey-born Elizabeth Berrington, who has appeared in Moving Wallpaper and The Office.

They will also be joined by actress Claudia Harrison, who starred in crime drama Murphy’s Law and Rick Warden, famous for Rome.

The BBC said the decision to commission a longer series was a “real testament” to the vision and creativity of the Lime Pictures team.

tinamiles@liverpoolecho.co.uk

City’s ‘owt in front as Hovis ad hits streets
Jul 29 2008 by Catherine Jones, Liverpool Echo

ONE of the longest TV commercials ever to be made will be filmed on the streets of Liverpool this week.

The city beat competition from Prague to be chosen as the location for the Hovis ad which will involve up to 650 extras.

The filming will end up as a two-minute advert due to be shown in the commercial break during ITV soap Coronation Street in September.

The storyline of the ad includes moments in British history over more than 100 years.

Manchester-based company Chief Productions was due to film a recreation of the 1984 miners’ strike at Princes Dock today using 150 extras.

Other locations include James Street in Garston, Sweeting Street off Castle Street in the city centre, and the River Mersey where “Millennium” fireworks will be let off.

Garston is also the location for a recreation of a street party to mark the 1953 Coronation, while Falkner Street in Toxteth will be used to film soldiers leaving for the battlefields of Flanders. Nearby, historic Percy Street will have 150 marching suffragettes.

Kevin Bell, locations co-ordinator at Liverpool Film Office, said: “This is by far the biggest commercial to be shot in Liverpool and it’s a tremendous coup for the city.

“It demonstrates the breadth and diversity of the locations Liverpool can offer that we’re able to facilitate a shoot on this scale.

“The city has a real can-do attitude when it comes to accommodating major productions, and I know the team were impressed by the assistance and support we’ve offered them.

“We’re having a bumper year for filming as a result of the Digital Departures initiative run by North West Vision and the incredible worldwide interest in the city during its year as Capital of Culture.”

Council leader Warren Bradley said: “Liverpool has a tremendous reputation as a location to shoot major productions.”

Film production is worth around £12m a year to the city’s economy.

catherinejones@liverpoolecho.co.uk

From the Echo -

In frame for star role

Aug 16 2008 by Kevin Core, Liverpool Echo

LIVERPOOL is being lined up as a location for a major new blockbuster by film director Guy Ritchie.

The Snatch and Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels director, who is married to Madonna, has been spotted in the city this week checking out areas for a big screen version of Sherlock Holmes.

So far, he has been scouring locations that could double as Victorian London for the Warner Bros movie, scheduled for release in 2010.

The locations he has been especially interested in are believed to be warehouses in the Great Howard Street and Stanley Dock area.

It is not clear whether principal actors will be heading to the city, but Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr is lined up to play the Baker Street detective.

The makers say the film is a gritty, dark version of the Arthur Conan Doyle classics, which will bring the physical side of the character to the fore.

Fans of the original stories know that far, from being a weakling, Holmes was a boxer and swordsman at university, and later studied martial arts.

One onlooker told the ECHO: “He (Guy Ritchie) seemed impressed with what he’d seen. There were a lot of people scouting and checking the location so you could tell it’s going to be a pretty big operation.

“He came down on the train and had come from Lime Street so maybe he’s here for more than just the docklands scenes.”

The film is not to be confused with a comedy take on the Holmes story being prepared by Sony Pictures, starring Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell.

The film will not be based on any specific Conan Doyle story and producers say it will include action alongside detective work.

Filming is due to start in October.

From here - http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2008/08/16/in-frame-for-star-role-100252-21543392/

In the Dark Knight, is the scene where Bruce Wayne meets Harvey Dent in that posh restraunt filmed in the Raquet Club? They were supposed to film a bit in the city, and I thought the green fire escape signs (which are blurred) must be British.

Another britflick obsessed with the past - makes a change from Dickens, Austen et al. It will only be the 66th film about Sherl. Expect something new. Especially as Guy is doing it.

One day ... films will be made in Liverpool about Liverpool. It's a long time coming and will probably be made by people from France.

Liverpool plays host to demonic war
Nov 10 2008 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

A NEW supernatural drama which is expected to be the hit of the BBC’s autumn/winter schedule was largely shot on Merseyside and produced by a Liverpool based company.

Apparitions, starring Martin Shaw as a priest drawn against his will into the world of demonic possession and exorcism, was filmed around the city and at the huge abandoned seminary of St Joseph’s at Up Holland.

It was also produced by Lime Pictures in Childwall.

The series of six one hour episodes is already being hailed by the critics as being another potential award winner for writer/director Joe Ahearne, whose previous works include This Life.

"It’s been properly researched so there’ll be no projectile vomiting or heads spinning around 360 degrees or anything but it will sometimes be a tense and shocking thriller, nevertheless," said Mr Ahearne, who created the character of Father Jacob (Shaw) and his encounters after studying various theological works including two books written by Vatican exorcist Gabriele Amorth.

The writer, who said he developed the idea around the concept "that extreme sanctity and extreme evil were interwoven", admitted that he is a lapsed Catholic and now an atheist.

"So what happened while working on this did nothing to rock my belief system or lack of it although there were some strange things - what I would call coincidences - which happened while we were filming," he explained of the tradition for dramatic productions about the paranormal to produce their own catalogue of unexplained events.

"For instance we were filming a scene in episode two in which a nun goes into a room and senses something very bad and the lights blow out. The next day I was getting out of bed and all the lights in my room blew. The same thing happened when we got to edit the scene itself."

There were also "coincidences" affecting actors staying at Liverpool’s Malmaison hotel: one was woken in his room at 3am when a TV apparently switched itself on to feature a programme about the life of Jesus while another discovered water on a bathroom floor had condensed into the shape of large crucifix.

Mr Ahearne also found the day after reading about how exorcism can cause timepieces to stop that his own watch had stopped at the very time he had been reading about it.

He added: "But how many times does a watch stop during a lifetime? Out of all the times, the one occasion you’re likely to remember it happening is when its in association with something like this. That’s why I prefer to call them coincidences."

One of the most disturbing scenes that did get to him, however, was the filming of a simulated satanic Black Mass at a deserted chapel, supervised as with all the scenes, by an advisor from the Catholic church.

"There was something about the atmosphere that it created which was truly horrible and seemed to affect everybody. Very uncomfortable. It also occurred during the heaviest rainfall of the year and helped create a atmosphere of true horror."

He said thanks for sorting this and other scenes out were due to Liverpool based locations manager Kevin Jackson.

"He's an absolute champion for getting Liverpool.He found a lot of difficult locations. For example I wanted a possessed man's flat to echo the house in The Exorcist which had an external long flight of stairs up the side. He found one.

He found an interior church to double for a church in Rome. We had to do major stunts inside the church with levitations and people burning and gunfire. He also had to find a crypt. He found a park to double for Kensington Gardens.

"He even had to get permission to cause a hurricane outside the gates of the seminary and for a pig to be hurled from a tower block."

"Er, a dead pig obviously."

Whether there is a sequel in the offing and whether it will again be filmed here was not something that had yet been decided, though.

"I think to reveal anything more would spoil it for those who want to watch until the sixth part," he said before adding finally: "Just remember that the watchwords for Apparitions is that no-one is safe.

"I’ll say no more."

* Apparitions begins on BBC1 on Thursday night

Sounds interesting and well worth a watch even though the locations may not be recognisable if many are indoors. I wonder if the advisor to the Catholic church gets paid or do you just put some money in the plate for the church roof fund.

Whilst a few quid going into the local economy is always welcome, it's a pity that these series can't be set in Liverpool rather than just raping its cityscape. Casualty 1900? is filmed in the former Royal Infirmary but it's 'set' in London. Why? Liverpool 1900 was every bit as interesting as London 1900.

What happened to the new series that Dean Sullivan was supposed to star in?

Wasn't he going to play a professor of ancient history or something?

Or was it a scally?

Sherlock Holmes is back with stars Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr
Nov 21 2008

SUPERSTAR trio Jude Law, Robert Downey Jr and Guy Ritchie have found a prime location to film forthcoming blockbuster Sherlock Holmes – Liverpool’s disused docks.

A stretch of Waterloo Road has been transported back in time to re-create dirt-covered streets of the 19th century, complete with horse-drawn carts and carriages.

Looking dark and brooding on set in a black three-piece suit, Downey Jr is starring as supersleuth Holmes in a story based on a graphic novel by the producer, Lionel Wigram.

His stalwart sidekick Dr Watson is played by Jude Law, who looked ever the traditional Victorian gentleman clad in a tweed suit. Rachel McAdams, of Wedding Crashers fame, is playing the female lead.

And director Guy Ritchie has had a special visitor on set, as his eight-year-old son Rocco joined him yesterday.

Heavy security surrounded the closed-off Old Bridge Gantry, on Waterloo Road next to Stanley Dock – home of the popular Heritage Market.

Police and security guards manned the barriers, where onlookers waited – undeterred by strong winds – hoping to catch a glimpse of the A-listers.

Beyond the barriers, an abundance of trailers serving the cast and crew could be seen. The three – rumoured to be staying at either the Radisson, Malmaison or Hope Street Hotel – have been sighted on and around the location. It is not known if Ritchie will return to London today, as his “quickie” divorce from Madonna is due to be heard before a judge in the High Court’s Family Division.

It is thought that filming will continue at Stanley and Clarence docks until tomorrow.

On Wednesday, scenes featuring extras in period dress and props such as horses and carts were shot.

A crew member said: “It was fantastic, it was transported back to the past, to the time when it probab-ly would have been a thriving port.

“They spread peat over the road surface to hide the yellow lines.’’

Due out next November, the film will depict Holmes – always renowned as a boxer – as less stuffy and more adventurous, using physical prowess along with his intellect.

Our Day Out (1976)

Part 1

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Part 2

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Part 3

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Part 4

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Part 5

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Part 6

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Part 7

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rather than watching the players it is better to look out through the windows as the bus leaves the school and heads through Liverpool to the tunnels... much lost.

From the Echo -

Liverpool movie boom is legacy of 2008

Dec 27 2008 by Catherine Jones, Liverpool Echo

MOVIE and TV crews spent more than 580 days filming in Liverpool during Capital of Culture year.

The figure is a 23% increase on 2007 and Liverpool Film Office bosses said today it highlighted the city’s standing across the world.

Filming projects included the Guy Ritchie-directed Sherlock Holmes, featuring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law.

The figure of 589 days’ filming also covers TV drama and documentaries, adverts, pop promos, corporate videos and short films.

It adds up to 216 productions filmed in the city and across Merseyside over the last 12 months.

Liverpool Film Office, which was the first of its kind to be created in the UK, also received 274 enquiries from film companies during 2008 – a 47% rise on last year.

Film chiefs said a third of all production was directly related to Liverpool’s role as European Capital of Culture, and 18% was travel- related.

Kevin Bell, locations coordinator for Liverpool Film Office, said: “It’s certainly been a good year.

“Everyone we speak to all over the world is aware of Capital of Culture and the profile it’s given Liverpool. It had a direct impact on production.

“We’re still working out how much the filming is worth financially to the city, but it’s in the millions.

“Something like Of Time and The City was a fantastic advert for Liverpool, and the Hovis commercial was a phenomenal project.”

Article continues here - http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/capital-of-culture/2008/12/27/liverpool-movie-boom-is-legacy-of-2008-100252-22555924/2/

Just been watching a really crappy film called 'the gang that couldn't shoot' about incopmpetent New York gangsters (comedy)

The comparisons between the two cities now are almost invisible, but this film, shot in summer, in the really shitty low rise parts of the city, down my the docks etc, brought forth really strong memories of Liverpool in the late 70s' early 80s'!

Down at heel port city etc

Interesting film for the background scenery!

ref: (http://sfluxe.com/2009/01/09/john-lennon-biopic-starts-casting/)
John Lennon Biopic Starts Casting

Kristin Scott Thomas, Anne-Marie Duff and Aaron Johnson will star in Nowhere Boy, the upcoming biopic on acclaimed musician John Lennon. The film is being directed by Sam Taylor-Wood, his feature debut.

The film details the young life and rise to stardom of the Beatle. Scott Thomas will play Lennon’s tough-talking Aunt Mimi, who played a major role in bringing up the rock icon, Duff will play his mother Julia and Johnson will portray Lennon.

Scott Thomas, known best for her roles in The English Patient and The Horse Whisperer, is currently earning a lot of awards buzz for her role in the drama I’ve Loved You So Long. Duff has appeared in Notes on a Scandal and the British television series Shameless, which is currently being remade for American audiences.

Johnson previously starred in the comedy Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and recently wrapped Matthew Vaughn’s comic book adaptation Kick Ass, where he stars opposite Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong and Nicolas Cage.

Taylor-Wood was nominated for a Palme d’Or at the 2008 Cannes film fest for her debut short Love You More, produced by her mentor, the late Anthony Minghella. Nowhere Boy was written by Matt Greenhalgh, who won a special achievement BAFTA last year for his script for Control, about doomed Joy Division singer Ian Brown.

Nowhere Boy is scheduled to shoot in March on location in Liverpool and at Ealing Studios.

Awaydays (http://www.awaydaysthemovie.com/index.html). I found this while googling for the book. The movie's out this spring.

"Kevin Sampson first wrote Awaydays in 1982. That version was an awful lot slimmer - about 60-odd pages - and concentrated much more on the fashion and music side of the story. He started the book after The Face, the U.K's style bible through the 80s, had turned down an article he wrote about the way Liverpool's football lads had pioneered a way of dressing at the match in the late 70s. In declining the article, The Face's Editor Steve Taylor implied that, as this was a youth cult he didn't recognise, it was too marginal for the magazine. Rejection is one of the most powerful motives in creation, and Kevin was determined to get the story out there.

"That look - wedge haircuts, Lois jeans, Pod shoes and that, it had been around for a while. You look back at Souness's debut away at West Brom in January 78 and Liverpool must have had 15,000 there. The season before maybe the look was a cult thing, 30 or 40 lads in the Road End wearing mohair jumpers, straights and Samba. But by that West Brom game, everyone had a flick, everyone had a duffel coat, everyone looked the part...

I decided to set Awaydays in late 1979 for a few reasons. One big thing I wanted to do with the book is to show how, six months into their first term, Margaret Thatcher's governement was already sewing the seeds of discontent and disillusionement among Merseyside's youth. It was like watching a virus start to take a hold - the symptoms start to show, then people start to drop, one by one. I tried to show that through Elvis's gradual disintegration.

But on the positive side, there was also the Liverpool indie scene that centred round Eric's and Zoo Records. Both the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes released their first singles in 1979, and there was a real sense of something new and brilliant happening. I wanted to weave all those things in - the unique look of the boys at the match, the music scene and the start of Thatcher's gradual undermining of the working class in general and Merseyside's youth in particular.

Yet I shied away from making it a Liverpool story. Again there are many reasons. Chief among these is that Awaydays is an intimate and reflective tale of a young man's search for meaning and identity in his life. Somehow the open terraces of Tranmere and the Northern wastelands of Crewe, Doncaster, Halifax etc lend themselves better to that kind of narrative than the packed stadia of the old First Division. The likes of Man.United and Arsenal and even Nottingham Forest in those days.. they were News, they were in your living room, you knew everything about them. There was no mystique. Setting Awaydays around Tranmere was purely a creative decision and one I made instinctively. If Carty and Elvis followed Liverpool they'd have been two lads in an away following of thousands. They'd have never met!"

The 1982 version was only ever sent to Penguin, who rejected it in unambiguous terms. Kevin didn't put himself through the humiliation again. He concluded that the world of publishing was dominated by remote academics who would never in a hundred years get the point, or the appeal of Awaydays. The Face came back a year later, in July 1983 and asked him to re-submit the article he'd written on Liverpool's match lads. By then Wham! had begun cavorting in Fila tennis shorts and the London media was alive to these crazy young Casuals (how can a youth cult so dedicated to fine detail be called "casual", by the way? As ever, with this thing, the style commentators badly missed the point, and the moment). But getting published by The Face opened the door to the magic kingdom for Kevin, and he began to write regularly for The Observer, The NME and Arena.

But if it weren't for Irvine Welsh, Awaydays may well have remained a lost classic. The publication of Trainspotting in 1993 was a landmark moment - Kevin's literature equivalent of Punk Rock.

"Trainspotting re-drew the entire map for me", says Kevin today. "Up until then there had been very, very little new writing coming out of the U.K that chimed with young peoples' lives and experiences. You kept reading about supposed young guns like Ian McEwan and Martin Amis but, for me, they were middle-aged. They read middle-aged - even when they were quite young. And they were very middle class. Trainspotting came along and blasted all that cold, analytical prose out sight. To book-lovers, Trainspotting was revolutionary - brave, visceral, savage, unrestrained, dirty, seething brilliance. I will always love Irivne Welsh for that. And I just thought, fuck it, I'll have another crack at that Carty story. There's something in that. I know there is."

This time round the publishing world agreed. In May 1997 four publishers bid for Awaydays, with Cape securing a two-book deal acquiring Powder, too. Awaydays was published as an Original Paperback by Cape in March 1998, the Vintage paperback following in April 1999. First Editions of the Cape Original now change hands for hundreds of pounds."

Further to the above, Dave Hewitson's book 'The Liverpool Boys Are In Town' covering the fashions of that era is also now available. There are some cracking photies in there. I think Dave has the Transalpino shop in Gostins Building? Others may be able to confirm that.

It's got a five-star review on Amazon - though you might want to check the name of the bloke who left the review ;)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Liverpool-Boys-Are-Back-Town/dp/1904438687

Scene from Awaydays

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Jimmy McGovern TV drama series screened in Liverpool

AWARD-WINNING writer Jimmy McGovern joined actors and producers for a preview screening of a new BBC daytime drama series.

Moving On was executively produced by the Bafta and Emmy award winner and producer, Colin McKeown.

The five contemporary dramas, running over a week and made by LA Productions, were created by up-and-coming writers.

The stories attracted a cast of high- profile and well-known actors and actresses, including Neil Fitzmaurice, Sheila Hancock, Dervla Kerwin, Christine Tremarco, Mark Womack, Ian Hart, Lesley Sharp and Joanne Frogatt.

Each episode, filmed in Kirkdale at the end of last year, is linked by a central theme, how to move on and reach a turning point in your life.

The screening at the Liverpool Film Academy, in Kirkdale, last night was followed by a question and answer session.

Producer Colin McKeown said he and McGovern set out to find the right writers for the series by offering the opportunity to as many people as possible.

He said: “The process of selecting these stories was a challenge thrown out to all levels of writers, from the inexperienced to those who have had some writing success.

“A shortlist was formed and five stories were then entered into a script process, presided over by Jimmy, who worked closely with the writers to produce the final shooting drafts.

“It’s thanks to Jimmy’s tutorage to the writers that the quality of the scripts were such that it enabled us to put together a stellar cast and deliver a first-class drama series.”

Jimmy McGovern, who created the drama series, The Street, said: “All five dramas were done for the same budget as just one episode of The Street.

“I’m very proud of all five, it is very hard to find good stories. We asked the writers to come up with unique stories and I was a fresh eye every now and again.”

Moving On was commissioned by Liam Keelan, controller of BBC Daytime.

Mr Keelan, who is from West Derby, said: "This is one of the most ambitious contemporary dramas to bef showcased on BBC One daytime.

“The new writing talent and star names backed by Jimmy McGovern offer a breadth of stories unique to BBC daytime and which is bound to resonate with our audience."

MOVING On starts at 2.15pm, on Monday, May 18, on BBC 1.

Peaches Geldof to appear in Liverpool slasher film
May 28 2009

PEACHES GELDOF will appear in a slasher-style movie to be filmed in Liverpool.

Sir Bob Geldof’s daughter was lined up for the lead in Cross Country by Merseyside producers, brothers Tim and Paul Fielding.

The 20-year-old will spend two weeks in Liverpool when shooting starts in September.

Tim, from Flexstone Pictures in Formby, said: “We’ve known Peaches for quite a while and we were impressed with her show reel and met up with her.

“We signed her up to be the female lead Kate in Cross Country. She loved the script. She’s a wonderful woman and a really good actress. It’s what she really wants to do, acting is where her heart is.

“I don’t think she’s been up to Liverpool, but she’s going to spend a couple of weeks here when we film the interior scenes.

“It’s great for the city and it’s great for us because we love to film here.”

Tim, 28, who was born in Fazakerley, said more top names would be announced in the near future.

He said: “It’s a horror film, but more of a psychological thriller than blood and violence.”

When Cross Country wraps, Peaches will then appear opposite Scottish actor John Hannah and actress Beatrice Rosen in Woodland Cross.

Former Edge Hill students Tim and Paul, 29, opened Flexstone Pictures, based in Cable Street, four years ago.

Tim said: “There are a lot of opportunities for filmmakers in Merseyside. Paul and I always said we wanted to bring at least two films to the city and some of the crew are from Liverpool.”

Taken from: http://www.liv.ac.uk/news/press_releases/2009/06/cityinfilm.htm

Launch for online catalogue of Liverpool film

Researchers at the University of Liverpool will launch a new online resource that catalogues more than 1,500 films made in and about Liverpool over the past 100 years.

The database is part of the City in Film project which explores the relationship between Liverpool’s architecture and the moving image. The resource includes information on films from the late 19th century to the present day and allows film makers and researchers to search for footage taken of various Liverpool locations and buildings.

Over the course of the two year project, researchers have examined footage shot by film pioneers such as Mitchell and Kenyon in the early 20th century, as well as a range of amateur and independent films from the 1960s and ‘70s. Information on the film makers, as well as the format in which the footage was recorded, is included in the database.

The oldest film footage that the team studied was taken in 1897 by French film makers, the Lumiére Brothers, who photographed moving picture scenes in Liverpool, including the first tracking shot filmed from the city’s overhead railway. Later footage, developed by local film and video makers, includes street scenes, housing conditions and theatre and arts schemes from the 1970s. The majority of footage is held at the British Film Institute (BFI) and the Northwest Film Archive, but the database also details films held by private collectors and film enthusiasts.

Dr Julia Hallam, from the University’s School of Politics and Communication Studies, said: “Liverpool’s rich history and grand architecture has attracted film makers to the city since the beginning of moving picture technology. We have located and catalogued approximately 1,700 films that feature the city to help us explore the evolution of film and how Liverpool’s urban landscape has been used over the past century.”

Professor Rob Kronenburg, from the School of Architecture, added: “The online catalogue will be invaluable to researchers, film makers and the media industry because it will allow the user to search for footage featuring a particular building or street, as well as detailing where the footage can be found and

who to contact for more information. We are now looking to build the database further to include more amateur and independent films.”

The team is also working with National Museums Liverpool to develop a digital map of the city, which will highlight Liverpool locations and landmarks that have been featured in films from the late 19th century to the present day.

To access the City in Film catalogue, visit: http://www.liv.ac.uk/lsa/cityinfilm/catalogue.html

Thanks for that link Tom. It's good to hear what's going on and to know that the NW film archive in Manchester isn't the only source for such material about the city.

Alex Cox's Three Businessmen (1999)

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Just uploaded Nick Broomfield's first film Who Cares? (1971) to youtube. 2 parts.

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^^ Thanks for posting those clips, Adman. I suspect that Terence Davies 'borrowed' some of that footing for Time and the City because I have seen some of those images more recently.

Part one sets out in detail the strategy of allowing an area to deteriorate to the extent that the remaining residents can't wait to leave.

Yes, he also borrowed some from 'Morning in the streets'.

Edited...

I'm not sure if youtube vids are classed as Liverpool in film...
So, I've moved it to the Liverpool Images thread...
I hope Liverpool moving Images are allowed on there...:dunno:

Who can help me out on this one, ive been trying for a long time now to find all the locations use in the old 1950 film the Magent but this one has me stuck, ive had people on flickr put forward a few ideas but none seem right to me. Can anyone spot this location? could be Wallasey where plenty of the film was shot, most of the Liverpool locations was dockland so i tend to think this might have been on the Wirral side but i just dont know, anyone?

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/76/160421268_d6c38bc9b0_o.jpg

Who can help me out on this one, ive been trying for a long time now to find all the locations use in the old 1950 film the Magent but this one has me stuck, ive had people on flickr put forward a few ideas but none seem right to me. Can anyone spot this location? could be Wallasey where plenty of the film was shot, most of the Liverpool locations was dockland so i tend to think this might have been on the Wirral side but i just dont know, anyone?
If you have the movie, you'd know for sure it was Wirral. The editing can't be trusted, but if you know the home they used, Fox appears to run across the road to it just after this pic. There's an RW Burgess Estate Agent a few frames before.
Do you know the location of the house they used? Can you post the flickr link as well?

I've seen the same photo a few times and have always supposed the road to the left is Caerns Road in Oxton, just as it crosses Palm Grove. I don't think the building is there any longer though, just some more modern flats...

I've seen the same photo a few times and have always supposed the road to the left is Caerns Road in Oxton, just as it crosses Palm Grove. I don't think the building is there any longer though, just some more modern flats...
Wouldn't bother with 4737carlin. I feel it's more attention seeking rather than a genuine enquiry:ohno:

Opening of the Queensway Tunnel
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That is great. The fellow on teh bike.. and what was that man doing in the middle of the road with a dipstick thing?

That is great. The fellow on teh bike.. and what was that man doing in the middle of the road with a dipstick thing?
Did you spot Hessy's in Manchester Street at 0:36? I never knew they had a shop there.

"One of Denis Mitchell's best remembered documentaries, made for the BBC in 1958 and transmitted in early 1959, it depicts working-class life in the back-to-backs of an unnamed northern city. Much of the shooting took place in Liverpool, but areas of Manchester, Salford and Stockport also make an appearance."

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Did you spot Hessy's in Manchester Street at 0:36? I never knew they had a shop there.

I didn't spot it actually, but I think that was where their very first shop was.

I've seen the same photo a few times and have always supposed the road to the left is Caerns Road in Oxton, just as it crosses Palm Grove. I don't think the building is there any longer though, just some more modern flats...

Right got a hour free before so i went and had a look. Interesting call, the road has a curve and goes down hill a bit as well but the road to the left (Caerns Road) goes slightly up hill which the one in the film dosen't. Plus the wall looks pre 1950 and is different from the one in the film.

I take is this was the view you mean? if it was a view up Caerns road thats to straight and has the modern flats on the corner

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v733/4737carlin/film%20locations/magnet/IMG_1520.jpg

If you have the movie, you'd know for sure it was Wirral. The editing can't be trusted, but if you know the home they used, Fox appears to run across the road to it just after this pic. There's an RW Burgess Estate Agent a few frames before.
Do you know the location of the house they used? Can you post the flickr link as well?

Well this is the sequence which started off in Harrison Park, along Sea road by the gold course
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v733/4737carlin/film%20locations/magnet/450searoad03.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v733/4737carlin/film%20locations/magnet/450searoad02.jpg

across Mount Pleasant Road
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v733/4737carlin/film%20locations/magnet/450mountpleasantroad03.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v733/4737carlin/film%20locations/magnet/450mountpleasantroad04.jpg

He then stops on Mount pleasant
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v733/4737carlin/film%20locations/magnet/450mountpleasantroad02.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v733/4737carlin/film%20locations/magnet/450mountpleasantroad01.jpg

Thats the view of him from the front, the view of him fron the back is on Manor Road about a mile away
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v733/4737carlin/film%20locations/magnet/450manorroad02.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v733/4737carlin/film%20locations/magnet/450manorroad03.jpg

He then runs down across the road im trying to find and into a house which i did get told was pulled down these days but have also been told it was/is on Magazine Road
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4737carlin/160421268/in/set-72157594155680148

The road im after could be anywhere really

Good finds there Carlin.

From the Echo -

Mersey Tunnels feature in film of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Sep 8 2009 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Echo

A MERSEY tunnel played host to a magical adventure as a scene from the final Harry Potter movie was filmed.

Crew from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – the final Potter film – arrived at the mouth of the Queensway Tunnel in Liverpool yesterday for the start of a four-day shoot.

The filming will take place at night in the Birkenhead tunnel while it is closed for routine maintenance.

Fans hoping to catch a glimpse of stars like Daniel Radcliffe who plays Harry Potter or Emma Watson who performs as Hermione are likely to be disappointed as publicist for the Warner Brothers film said none of the main cast members are involved in the shoot.

The film will be split into two parts, but film bosses declined to say which section the tunnel scene would feature in.

Film bosses were tight lipped about which part of the plot was being filmed, but it is likely to be an action scene given that stunt experts Bickers Action are involved.

JK Rowling’s seventh Potter book features a part known as the Seven Potters where seven Harry Potters are created to act as a diversion for the wizard from Death Eaters controlled by villain Lord Voldemort.

It is believed the scene is related to this part of the plot.

The scene is thought to involve Hagrid, who has so far been played by Robbie Coltrane, racing through the tunnel on Sirius Black’s trademark motorbike with Harry Potter in a sidecar fighting off enemies with his wand. A publicist for the film said: “We have got a unit shooting for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

“There are no principal cast members there.

“It is all going very well and everybody has been very accommodating locally.”

From here - http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/09/08/mersey-tunnels-feature-in-film-of-harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-100252-24630624/

Excellent news,it may be a small bit part but it's something at least,it would still warrant a 15 minute piece over four days on local news if it was in Manchester.:)

I can see 'em filming from where I'm sitting.

I can see 'em filming from where I'm sitting.
I thought the traffic jams into the tunnel eased off after 09:00:)

Liverpool’s burgeoning film industry set to net £14m this year

Sep 11 2009 by Ben Schofield, TMNW


LIVERPOOL’S growing film industry will make more money for the city than ever before by the end of 2009, new figures show. Industry experts said filming on Merseyside will net £14m for the city region’s economy – £2m more than 2008’s total. They also revealed acclaimed director Ken Loach will spend five weeks here in October filming his new movie, Route Irish.

August was a bumper month for movie makers in the city, with 106 film days being filmed here, equalling the busiest month ever seen. The latest figures were released in Liverpool Film Office’s quarterly report to Liverpool City Council, which provides its funding. Cllr Gary Millar, Liverpool’s executive member for enterprise and tourism, said last night: “Liverpool is now rightly regarded as one of the UK’s film meccas, be it as a location or a source of inspiration. Over the last decade, the city has matured in how it sells itself to the major film companies, while just as critically developing a successful conveyor belt of fantastic writers and producers who are experts in turning ideas into reality. The accumulated experience of hosting Hollywood blockbusters and home-grown films has created a pool of talent, from technicians to actors, that is having a major impact on our economy and the city’s worldwide profile.”

The Film Office, which was the first of its kind in the country, was instrumental in persuading Potter makers Warner Bros to return to the city for their Queensway tunnel shoot. The company was last in the city for a Potter movie in November, 2007, when it shot a CGI plate in the docks for the current Potter film.

This week’s filming is estimated to be worth £500,000 to the city, with two hotels booked out to accommodate the 200-strong crew and cast. The set-up is similar in scale to the Sherlock Holmes shoot by Guy Ritchie that featured Robert Downey Jnr earlier this year.

August’s roll-call of productions included two features films, two dramas as well as a number of factual programmes, the majority of which were by home-grown film companies.

Kaye Elliott, director of production and locations at North West Vision and Media, which works on behalf of the digital and creative industries in the region, said: “Liverpool has a long tradition in film and television production and the city continues to attract productions time and time again. Along with the experienced crew, excellent facilities and huge and varied range of locations, it’s easy to see why feature film makers find it the perfect place to film.”

Cllr Millar added: “Our film office has played a major part in this renaissance and is among the very best in how it goes about promoting and championing our offer and for that alone are worth their weight in gold.”



North West Vision and Media (a government funded organisation) isn't based in Liverpool. It's based elsewhere - it started off here though.

I notice the cockneys are jumping on the casual bandwagon with the new film the Firm coming out soon,now it's always nice to see the scousers at the forefront of British culture and the rest following but how about a film depicting the city where it all began,Awaydays wasn't it.We started that,the rest followed,the truth is being distorted with shit like this.

Filmmaker Ken Loach directs new movie Route Irish in Liverpool

Nov 13 2009
A NEW Ken Loach movie about the aftermath of the war in Iraq was today being filmed in Liverpool.

Route Irish stars Liverpool actor Mark Womack, Merseyside comedian John Bishop and Silent Witness actress Andrea Lowe.

Walton war veteran Craig “Freddie” Lundberg – who was blinded when his unit was attacked by enemy forces in Iraq two years ago – also plays a key role.

Filming began last month at locations including the Merseyside Dance Initiative on Hope Street in Liverpool city centre, Liverpool’s Malmaison hotel, the River Mersey and also near St Bride’s Church on Percy Street.

Filmmaker Ken Loach – who directed the 1968 drama The Golden Vision, about Everton legend Alex Young, and the Liverpool-made film The Big Flame – said: “The writer Paul Laverty has spent a lot of time in the city. We talked about the project and we both decided we would shoot it in Liverpool.

“We’ve been really lucky the locations have fallen into place. Liverpool is a good place to work.”

The movie, which takes its name from the most dangerous stretch of road in Baghdad, is billed as a tense love triangle between two friends and a woman.

The men work as private security contractors in Iraq.

Producer Rebecca O’Brien said: “This is a film about the aftermath of war and the fact people are left traumatised.

“There are a lot of Liverpool voices in this film.

“Paul met war veteran Craig Lundberg when he was working on Ken Loach's Looking for Eric.

“When Ken met Craig he thought he would be really good for the role of the main character’s friend.”

The film was also shot in Jordan, which doubled as Iraq, and is planned for release next year.

Trailer for a new film about John Lennon filmed in Liverpool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Km9L1Sqd0

Convincing Irish accents. Where's it set? :?

Bubblin Dublin Obviously

most actors who attempt the scouse accent always end up sounding like Wakko Warner to me. Wakko Warner being an Americans interpratation of the scouse accent.

It's lazy and that ('Irish') accent lacks edge and cadence. If you listen to John Lennon's accent and contrast it with the 'Liverpool' accent proffered by Sam's new squeeze (the guy who is playing Lennon) you realise what is missing. He sometimes gets it more right than other times. It's quite hard to sustain a proper Liverpool accent if it's not your natural accent and let's not forget that actors don't have to - just as long as a take, erm, takes.

Can't wait to hear Christopher Eccleston's next Liverpool accent.

I though Eccelstone's (in that 90s series about teaching) was pretty good.

Stephen Dorff though. :lol: And as for Bobby Carlisle! :ohno:

You should have heard the Barnsley accents in the Playhouse's recent production of 'Kes'. There was one lad playing Billy Caspar's brother who, to his credit, was really going for the born-within-the-sound-of-Ian-McMillan effect (as opposed to just generic Yorkshire), but who actually succeeded in creating an entirely new language previously unknown to the world of linguistics.

And hilariously, the many kids who were in the production as Billy Caspar's school mates didn't even bother trying the accent, thus giving the impression that this corner of Barnsley was populated mostly by scousers.

I though Eccelstone's (in that 90s series about teaching) was pretty good.



One of those (allegedly) Liverpool based info sites described his as being a Liverpudlian actor so that shows how good he is.

You should have heard the Barnsley accents in the Playhouse's recent production of 'Kes'. There was one lad playing Billy Caspar's brother who, to his credit, was really going for the born-within-the-sound-of-Ian-McMillan effect (as opposed to just generic Yorkshire), but who actually succeeded in creating an entirely new language previously unknown to the world of linguistics.

And hilariously, the many kids who were in the production as Billy Caspar's school mates didn't even bother trying the accent, thus giving the impression that this corner of Barnsley was populated mostly by scousers.

I must admit that I couldn't bring myself to go to that one. I have read the book and seen the movie at least twice but I couldn't quite get my head around what a stage version might add.

It added nowt Bab. I know it's not very community-minded of me, but I think it was a grave error to include real local school kids alongside the adult actors. While there were some strong scenes, the whole thing was completely undermined by these non-actors who were never more than just a bunch of inexperienced kids on a stage.

Using non-actors in a film when you have the talents of Ken Loach is one thing. Trying the same trick in a theatre is quite different. Not that this was the only problem with it, so maybe I'm being rather harsh. I'm sure it was a good experience for them.

Nowhere Boy gets its first ever Public screening tonight at Fact. It starts at 7pm with a Q&A session after the screening.

tickets still available.

Kes...the book's a classic but the film's a masterpiece :cheers:

Anyone seen the Liverpool fil 'Under the Mud'?

Was going to buy it for someone for xmas. Would anyone recomend it? Reviews on HMV look promising.

From the Daily Post -

Liverpool earns a massive £100m from the movie industry

Dec 26 2009 by Catherine Jones, Liverpool Echo

FILMING in Liverpool generated an estimated £100m for the city’s economy during the first decade of the 21st century.

In 2009 alone almost 250 different productions, from promotional films and adverts to TV shows and big-budget movies, were shot in city locations.

They included two major Boxing Day releases – John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr.

And Liverpool Film Office said despite the economic downturn the start of the next 10 years also looks rosy with a number of productions already confirmed or in talks for 2010.

A second series of the Moving On TV dramas, which won praise in 2009, and a range of other drama series are expected to hit city streets.

Article continues here - http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/12/26/liverpool-earns-a-massive-100m-from-the-movie-industry-100252-25469475/

So that equated to 10 million a year over the decade, better than nowt I suppose!

Really, though - the 51st State. That has to be a contender for the Worst Film of All Time. Not even ironically shite, just shite.

McGrath, you have to admit that scene where the Scouse scallies frighten all the animals in the zoo by swinging from the ceiling is a masterpiece. They will have loved that in London.

yeah, a troop of skinheads with swatikas tattooe'd on their faces... a type of animal I have never actually seen here.

You should have heard the Barnsley accents in the Playhouse's recent production of 'Kes'. There was one lad playing Billy Caspar's brother who, to his credit, was really going for the born-within-the-sound-of-Ian-McMillan effect (as opposed to just generic Yorkshire), but who actually succeeded in creating an entirely new language previously unknown to the world of linguistics.

And hilariously, the many kids who were in the production as Billy Caspar's school mates didn't even bother trying the accent, thus giving the impression that this corner of Barnsley was populated mostly by scousers.

I thought his brother sounded jamacian!!! I couldn't concentrate on the play properly as his accent was so awful and so distracting, not a play I would have recommended, the 39 steps on the other hand was superb, it was so good I made sure I went out and got the Hitchcock film version and that of course was great too.

Anyone seen the Liverpool fil 'Under the Mud'?

Was going to buy it for someone for xmas. Would anyone recomend it? Reviews on HMV look promising.
I've seen this film and its very enjoyable. The plot holds up well and there a few laughs along the way. I would describe it as a scouse feel good movie. This is all the more impressive bearing in mind that as a 90 min feature film it cost £45,000 and the script was written and acted by 'non professionals' (from the local youthy). The Guardian quotes it as "the Best British Film you'll never see"...

I just watched a bit of the film "The Crew" on Sky Player this evening and it's got to be one of the worst films I've seen in my life. Some of the scouse accents are just laughable - if you've got an Xbox 360 or Sky Anytime, you should look out for it.

It does feature the Blue Coat for a tiny bit though, and that's my old school, so I'd give it at least a 6/10.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0947XvKzGE

Standards are obviously slipping at the great school. :lol:

It looks absolute garbage based on the trailer. :bash:

u0947XvKzGE

Hound of The Baskervilles (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2002/04_april/01/baskervilles.shtml

On the other day - you may be able to find it to view on the iplayer.

I thought I recognised Liverpool - they used the Canning Street area to double as Victorian London again.


THE first Sherlock Holmes drama to be made in more than a decade will be filmed in Liverpool next month.

The city centre will be used as a backdrop for scenes set in London including the famous Baker Street.

Camera crews will film on Canning Street, at Liverpool Town Hall and the corner of Love Lane and Stone Street during the first week in May.

Liverpool-born actor Ian Hart will star as Holmes' sidekick Doctor Watson in the BBC's adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-84579403.html

Noticed that the recent, albeit awful, Go Compare advert was filmed in San Carlo here in Liverpool.

Anyone seen Sherlock Holmes yet?

There's a scene on the Dock Rd with the Stanley Tobacco Warehouse, the old dock wall etc on show quite prominently and I suspect shortly afterwards that they use one of the side streets around there for a few seconds of screen time.

it is also superimposed onto the south bank of the thames when they are on top of tower bridge

I saw it and it looked pretty good. The film was ok, but I mainly went to see Stanley Dock.

I just watched a bit of the film "The Crew" on Sky Player this evening and it's got to be one of the worst films I've seen in my life. Some of the scouse accents are just laughable - if you've got an Xbox 360 or Sky Anytime, you should look out for it.

It does feature the Blue Coat for a tiny bit though, and that's my old school, so I'd give it at least a 6/10.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0947XvKzGE

I saw that myself last night and you're right the accents are so bad,outsiders rarely get it right.Sadly they all think they can do it.

Anyone seen Sherlock Holmes yet?

There's a scene on the Dock Rd with the Stanley Tobacco Warehouse, the old dock wall etc on show quite prominently and I suspect shortly afterwards that they use one of the side streets around there for a few seconds of screen time.

you know, I'm pretty sure that the tiny section they show on the promo, where the two jump down from some pediment, is the south corner of St George's hall.

you know, I'm pretty sure that the tiny section they show on the promo, where the two jump down from some pediment, is the south corner of St George's hall.

i thought that aswell its right at the start of the film i think!

Above the Merseyrail entrance?

i thought that aswell its right at the start of the film i think!

I cant remember, im not that much of a nerd believe it not ; )

But it was great seeing this series of buildings used, although it doesnt say much that Liverpool has buildings that are run down enough to pass as London Warehouses at the river front!, 1800's style!

Still, at least they are being used ; )

Captain America: The First Avenger to be filmed in Liverpool

Jul 30 2010
SCENES from a multi-million pound Hollywood blockbuster about comic book hero Captain America will be shot in Liverpool, the ECHO can reveal.

Filming for Captain America: The First Avenger is due to start in autumn at locations including the city’s iconic Albert Dock.

The silver screen adaptation of the famous comic book – set to be the hit movie of next summer – could see stars including Samuel L Jackson, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Evans grace the city.

The movie – which stars American actor Evans as the superhero – was originally supposed to be filmed in Los Angeles, but set problems led Marvel Studios to the UK.

It is understood scenes will be shot in various UK cities, including Manchester and London.

Liverpool Film Office today confirmed it was liaising with producers “over a major feature film”.

Bafta and Emmy-award winning producer Colin McKeown is the driving force behind the city’s LA Productions.

He said: “I have known about this for some time because everybody talks. The last Hollywood flick the city was involved in was The 51st State – but this promises to be five times what that was.

“From what I understand, there is going to be an awful lot of community involvement. It was mentioned they might be using a submarine in Albert Dock – it all sounds really good.”

Captain America tells the tale of military reject Steve Rogers, who volunteers for a top secret research project which turns him into a star-spangled wartime superhero.

The film picks up six decades later, with Rogers joining new heroes to become an “Avenger” of the modern age.

Filming of the blockbuster in Liverpool follows more than 250 different productions shot in city locations last year.

They included John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr.

Mr McKeown said he wanted to see “as much community involvement as possible” for Captain America.

He said: “The city is full of filming expertise and it would be a crying shame if that was not tapped into.

“I think Marvel will be really pleased at what the city can offer and I am sure this film will really bolster our film-making credentials.

“The more we are involved in big-budget productions, the more confidence studios and producers will have. That can only bode well.”

City residents could even appear in the Joe Johnston-directed flick after a casting call for extras was launched.

Extras agency Casting Collective is appealing for men and women aged 16-90 who are “free to work in September”.

This is great news for the North West, I'm sure NorthWest Vision + Media, introduced the films production team to all the facilities houses, kit, camera and crew teams here as well! Oh no scrub that they didn't do any of that! Anyone get a visit, a call, anything? Anyone even on the NWV+M website thats still actually trading! American film, London crew, same old!

Even with all that investment and subsidy, in all these decades, manc still aint got a skills base or will to undercut their masters in london.

It's like it was all planned.

Filming in Liverpool for new BBC period drama The Crimson Petal and the White

Aug 21 2010
VICTORIAN dress was the order of the day when a film crew descended on Liverpool’s Georgian Quarter.
They are in the city to shoot a new BBC2 period drama The Crimson Petal and The White.

It is understood star Richard E Grant was due on set in Huskisson Street yesterday to film scenes for the four-part TV drama, set in the 1870s.

Meanwhile X-Files star Gillian Anderson, who previously appeared in Victorian dress in the 2005 adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, plays the part of a brothel madam.

Captain America filming to get underway on Liverpool docklands

Sep 16 2010
ALL-ACTION Hollywood fantasy will roar into Liverpool next week, when filming starts on comic book blockbuster Captain America.

Crews will start filming the big budget big screen version of the iconic cartoon hero for six weeks around Stanley Dock.

And they have already booked out around 600 hotel rooms to accommodate everyone from big name stars to make-up artists and lighting experts.

Shooting will start next Thursday, moving north from its current London suburb location, although on-set preparations have already begun.

Captain America: The First Avenger focuses on the comic book star of the 1940s, who fought the Nazis in World War II.

American actor Chris Evans, who starred as the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies, takes the title role of the patriotic masked crusader.

Other famous names in the cast include Tommy Lee Jones, who will play US Army Colonel Chester Phillips and Mamma Mia’s Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark.

Lord of the Rings actor Hugo Weaving is Captain America’s arch nemesis Red Skull, head of Nazi terrorist intelligence.

The comic book movie is the latest Hollywood epic to choose Liverpool as its location.

Stanley Dock is proving a magnet for film-makers, with the upcoming X-Men sequel also rumoured to be considering it.

Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jnr and Jude Law, shot its dockland scenes there and director Guy Ritchie was spotted in the city’s Georgian Quarter at the weekend, apparently on a research mission for the sequel.

Sherlock Holmes 2, which is due to start filming next year, was reportedly being filmed exclusively in Europe. But the area’s architecture, especially around Falkner Square, make it perfect as a double for Victorian London and Holmes’s famous Baker Street address.

REVEALED: First pictures of Captain America submarine on set in Liverpool

Sep 28 2010
THE ECHO can today reveal these exclusive photos taken of the full size submarine created for blockbuster Captain America.

Comic enthusiasts and film fans have eagerly awaited proof of a boat that was rumoured to have been built at Stanley Dock.
http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/4351/captainamericasubmarine.jpg (http://img834.imageshack.us/i/captainamericasubmarine.jpg/)

But heavy security meant the large Liverpool set for the upcoming Marvel film was kept under wraps.

The dock area was transformed into 1940s New York before cast including actor Chris Evans arrived to film the Marvel Studios blockbuster, Captain America: The First Avenger.

The star, who plays the title role and has already had a high profile superhero part in Fox’s Fantastic Four films, was photographed heading to work on the movie – in prosthetic feet – on Monday.

There was speculation Hollywood film bosses would build a full size German U-Boat inside the closed set.

The First Avenger: Captain America, directed by Joe Johnston, is due for release in the UK in July 2011.

Captain America was first thought up to help encourage patriotic feeling during World War II.
Captain America submarine

The big-budget film will tell the origin of Captain America, one of Marvel’s most iconic superhero comic book characters.

The story will follow a young soldier called Steve Rogers, who volunteers to undergo a series of experiments and becomes Captain America.

Since it was first released, Marvel has sold more than 200 million copies of Captain America magazine in 75 countries.

Hollywood producers tour Liverpool looking for film locations

Oct 13 2010
SENIOR executives from some of America’s top film and TV companies visited Liverpool for a tour of the city.

Four Hollywood moguls were treated to lunch at the town hall with the Lord Mayor and Liverpool film-makers before touring city sights and taking a trip on the River Mersey yesterday.

The city has already featured in Hollywood blockbusters Captain America and Sherlock Holmes, as well as countless other film and TV shows.
The execs, including senior staff from leading TV station HBO, film companies Endgame and Summit Entertainment, and leading actors’ agency Paradigm, are in the North West on a four-day visit hosted by the Vision and Media organisation.

Lynn Saunders, of Liverpool Film Office, said: “I think it was a great opportunity to showcase the city to producers who may or may not have specific projects in mind.

“They were asking us to stop so they could take photos of places.”

The execs were taken around Beatles’ sites and historic venues before lunch, where they chatted to Merseyside filmmakers including Colin McKeown, Danny McCall, Neil Fitzmaurice, and Sol Papadopoulos and Roy Boulter of Hurricane Films, which produced Terence Davies’s Of Time And The City.

Mr Papadopoulos said: “It is always good to have people travelling from other parts of the world to the North West.

“We had two American producers from LA visiting us last week to look at possibly shooting in Liverpool with it doubling as the East End of London. They were knocked out by the place.”

Greg Schenz, senior vice-president for business and legal affairs of Endgame Entertainment, whose movies include An Education, The Brothers Bloom and Easy Virtue, said: “They are showing us everything your region has to offer and perhaps to find locations which are economic to shoot in.”

He added: “In driving around, I noticed a lot of places which could double for Boston, Chicago and London as well, and that was refreshing to see.”


Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2010/10/13/hollywood-producers-tour-liverpool-on-a-visit-looking-for-film-locations-100252-27458917/2/#ixzz12FKLhhag

From the Echo -

Early 60s Liverpool is being recreated in a new low budget film being shot in Liverpool

Nov 17 2010 Catherine Jones

THE buzzing world of early 60s Merseybeat is being recreated in a new film being shot in Liverpool.

Ace Films’ low budget First Time Loser has been shooting ‘cheek-by-jowl’ with multi-million dollar blockbuster Captain America in the city, but on a tiny fraction of the budget.

The film, written and directed by former Liverpool Express manager Joe Scott, tells the story of 17-year-old teenage drummer Patsy who escapes a shotgun wedding in 1962 Belfast and comes to Liverpool.

Here he falls in with the fictional Vince Lightning & The Shocks and mixes in the world of Merseybeat bands including The Big Three, The Undertakers, Gerry and the Pacemakers and a pre-Beatlemania Fab Four.

Article continues here - http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2010/11/17/early-60s-liverpool-is-being-recreated-in-a-new-low-budget-film-being-shot-in-liverpool-gallery-100252-27671158/

Filming for BBC drama Justice moves to Liverpool’s Edge Lane

Nov 29 2010 by John Sutton, Liverpool Echo

THE filming of a new television drama series chronicling a community court has moved into a new set in Liverpool.

Justice, which is due to air in the spring, stars former Brookside actress Gillian Kearney as Louise Campbell, a reporter investigating the court’s leading judge – who is not all he seems.

Earlier this month, scenes were shot in the ECHO newsroom, where another Brookside favourite, Louis Emerick, played the editor.

For the next few weeks, filming has moved out to Liverpool Innovation Park, off Edge Lane, where the old Marconi building now doubles as offices, a courtroom, and a judge’s chambers – complete with a signed Everton shirt hung on the wall.

Producer Colin McKeown, of Kirkdale-based LA Productions, is working with the BBC on the daytime drama series.

He said: “The idea behind the court in Justice is people seeing justice being done in their own communities – like the village elders presiding over the village.

“It was inspired by the community justice centre in Kirkdale.

“The programme has Liverpool voices – the heart of Liverpool beats within the drama.”

Before going among the microphones and cameras on set for an afternoon’s filming, the ECHO caught up with Kearney in the green room. Justice is her first project since giving birth to son John 13 weeks ago.

She said: “I am really enjoying playing the part of Louise. I spoke to some of the reporters at the ECHO about her, what she would be like and how she would dress – I really want her to be a character with a bit of attitude.”

The Casualty actress, from Aigburth, said she likes being back in her home city.

She added: “I really like filming back in Liverpool – the people here are friendly, they look out for each other and care about where they live.”


Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2010/11/29/filming-for-bbc-drama-justice-moves-to-liverpool-s-edge-lane-100252-27732808/#ixzz16f1CMXMb

Hollywood star Stephen Graham films Dave Kirby movie in his home town of Liverpool

HOLLYWOOD actor Stephen Graham returned to Liverpool to film a new role set in his home town.

He was taking a break from filming American TV series Boardwalk Empire in which he plays Al Capone.

Stephen, 37, joined fellow Kirkby-born actor Andrew Schofield for The Last Ferry, which was written by Liverpool writer Dave Kirby.

Stephen, who plays “tough cookie” Franny in the movie pilot, said: “It’s set around a group of Liverpool taxi drivers. The script and the story is powerful and emotive and the characters are totally real. I couldn't wait to get started.”

Filming for the Miracle Productions’ short movie took place across Merseyside including “Billy Cooke's Cafe” in Boundary Street.

Writer Dave Kirby hopes to make a longer version. He said: “It’s nice to attract such a strong, talented cast.

“When Stephen read the script he loved it.

“It was an idea for TV at first. It’s been on the back burner for a couple of years. It’s a gritty vigilante story.

“The main character Terry, played by Andrew, has had a terrible beating off a street gang and he starts becoming more withdrawn.

“The taxi drivers see the worst of society. Terry’s only place of solace is high up above Liverpool looking at the ferries.

“Stephen’s character is used to the gang culture because he was born in the 80s. He’s hardened to it so the gangs don’t intimidate Franny.

“There is a lot of layers to this story. These lads are pushed to the extreme.

“It’s a story that is set in Liverpool but it could be anywhere in the country.”

The Last Ferry, directed by Ian Lysaght, also stars Paul Broughton, Stephen Marcus, Jake Abraham, Jack Rigby and Paul Duckworth.

Stephen was set to return to New York to start filming the second series of Boardwalk Empire.

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-entertainment/echo-entertainment//tm_headline=hollywood-star-stephen-graham-films-dave-kirby-movie-in-his-home-town-of-liverpool%26method=full%26objectid=28260636%26siteid=100252-name_page.html#ixzz1FSzZcRqv

Ken Loach and Mark Womack talk about the making of their new film Route Irish

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THERE’S a scene late on in Ken Loach’s new Iraq war film Route Irish in which we’re asked to witness a very graphic – and as it happens, very real – piece of waterboarding torture.

It’s something that happened to thousands of Iraqis during and after the invasion of their country.

But while those of a sensible and sensitive nature can imagine and feel ashamed of the horrors perpetrated on the Iraqi people, what brings this even more sharply into focus is that it happens in a Liverpool lock-up, and is carried out by a Liverpudlian (actor Mark Womack’s ex-SAS soldier Fergus) on another Brit – played by Trevor Williams.

“One of the stages on the script said Iraq in an English country garden,” says the softly-spoken British director.

He adds: “It was an extraordinary performance by Trevor.

“If it were a ‘sir’ somebody or another who had done that scene, he’d be nominated for every gong going, but because it’s a guy from the north west, an ordinary guy, it won’t be remarked on, it won’t be recognised.”

The film crew tried several ways of shooting the scene, but nothing looked right, so it was decided to carry out the waterboarding for real.

Ken explains: “We tried a mask but it didn’t really work, it just interrupted the flow of the interaction. And it didn’t stop the water very well anyway.

“Trevor said ‘I’ll just do it’. Obviously we had someone there all the time. But he wasn’t physically tied down, he could at any point say enough.”

Mark adds: “Like Ken said, he was phenomenal. There were points during the filming of that scene where I thought his performance was so good I didn’t know whether he was still acting. There were points where I was about to stop and I was thinking, have I gone too far?”

In fact Mark’s character Fergus becomes so fired up as the conspiracy thriller’s storyline unfolds, that the idea of how far is too far becomes blurred.

The plot revolves around the death of Frankie, a Liverpool soldier turned security contractor, on the infamous ‘Route Irish’ road between Baghdad airport and the Iraqi capital’s safe Green Zone, and his best friend Fergus’s search for the truth of how he died.

The film, out today, was shot in Liverpool and Jordan two years ago, but Ken and long-time collaborator Paul Laverty had been toying with the idea of a movie about Iraq for some time.

“We didn’t know how to approach it because there are so many stories you could do about it,” explains the 74-year-old.

“And then it all crystallised as the war became privatised and the contracting companies moved in, and the army moved out.

“So we thought, well we should do something about the privatisation of the war, and then the breakthrough comes when Paul writes a character, and he wrote the character of Fergus.”

It’s a character that certainly gives Mark something to get his teeth into in his first leading role in a feature film.

The 50-year-old set about researching the role by going to charity Combat Stress to meet ex-servicemen and women suffering with post traumatic stress syndrome.

He says: “The stuff you learn from them, and the stuff you learn about the way these people are treated when they get home, is really phenomenal.

“One in 10 prisoners in this country today are ex-servicemen, and about a quarter of them are homeless, and it’s absolutely frightening really.

“And to also learn that this post traumatic stress syndrome can take up to 14 years to manifest itself.

“I met an old boy there from the Korean war, still stressed. And it’s not government funded, they’re trying to raise money in order to help these people.”

“Fergus is a professional soldier, he’s a good soldier, but he leaves the army with not much money,” explains Ken.

“He’s suddenly got the chance for a big pay day and he’s caught up in all the horrors of the war, but the only way he can use his skill, his trade, is to stay there, and of course the act of staying there destroys him.

“He comes back a hollow man.”

The Route Irish cast also features real-life Liverpool veteran Craig Lundberg, who lost the eyesight in both eyes in an attack by insurgents, and who was invaluable on set, and comedian John Bishop, who plays Frankie.

“John wasn’t quite as well known as he is now,” smiles Ken, who acknowledges Bishop’s stellar profile could attract more people to the film.

While many of the cast are Scousers, Liverpool also had a starring role in the film, with the veteran director shooting scenes on the Mersey ferry, along the waterfront, at the Malmaison, in the Georgian quarter and city centre.

Ken, whose association with Liverpool goes back more than 40 years, says: “It’s a city with a very rich culture, built on struggle, and the people here are very open and gregarious which makes them very good to work with in films.

“And, not to minimise the hard times people have had and are having now, but there’s a generosity of spirit that makes it a very good place to work.

“It’s a very compulsive city I think, a very special city.”

Meanwhile the man who gave us Cathy Come Home, Kes and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, is already on to his next project – a story with ‘more of a smile on its face’ set in Glasgow.

It’s obvious that even at 74, the passion to create is still there.

He considers: “You meet so many people who are really having a hard time and have really done extraordinary things, that making films is a very soft, indulgent option, so in a way, out of respect for them, you can’t walk away from telling their stories.”

LIVERPOOL COMEDY 'CHARLIE NOADES RIP' HITS THE BIG SCREEN

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From January.
A new Liverpool comedy written by and starring one of the writers of Phoenix Nights is to be premiered on 18th January at the Showcase Cinemas Liverpool and will go nationwide this month.

A host of celebrities are expected to attend the VIP launch of Charlie Noades RIP, which has been shot entirely on location on Merseyside. The film stars the two times British Comedy Award winning actor and writer Neil Fitzmaurice also famed for his roles in Peep Show and The Office.

Neil says of the premiere: “I’m just so proud of the work that everybody put in to get this film made, it was a true labour of love and we had to overcome a lot of obstacles to get here! It’s independent cinema at its purest and a lesson of just what can be achieved with dedication, inspiration and a lot of perspiration! We want to keep on making homegrown movies that feature this wonderful city and all its talents!”

The all British cast boasts an impressive line up of respected names including John Thomson (Cold Feet), Dave Spikey (Phoenix Nights), John McArdle (Prime Suspect, Cracker, The Bill), John Henshaw (Nice Guy Eddie, GBH), Ewen Macintosh (The Office, Little Britain), Suzanne Collins (Brookside, Doctors, The Bill) and Liverpool’s own Micky Finn, Ozzie Yue and Pauline Daniels. A debut performance from Ian McCulloch legendary front man of Echo and the Bunnymen is also featured.

Charlie Noades RIP is the latest offering from North Star Productions - makers of the cult gangster classic, Going Off Big Time, also written by Neil Fitzmaurice. Directed by Jim Doyle and produced by Tony Fitzmaurice, Charlie Noads RIP made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival where it received rave reviews.

Tony Fitzmaurice said: “It was fantastic to be able to shoot the entire film on Merseyside. The cast includes several renowned local faces who really have done a fantastic job in doing the script justice. Its superb family entertainment and we want everyone on Merseyside to go and see it, get behind it and help us showcase the huge amount of artistic talent we have in our region.”

The absorbing plot fuelled by intrigue and secrecy centres around a struggling family scrapyard business. When the lead character Steve Parr (played by Neil Fitzmaurice) discovers he has been bequeathed a mystery legacy he embarks on a nail-biting treasure hunt in a bid to change his family’s fortunes forever. An action-packed script punctuated with hilarious one-liners features outstanding performances with romantic and sometimes moving moments throughout.

Billed as highly entertaining, warm, funny and uplifting, Charlie Noades RIP is a family film and will run from January 21 in Showcase Cinemas Liverpool, The Plaza in Crosby and The Scala in Prestatyn with more local cinemas to follow before being rolled out across the UK at the end of the month. The DVD will be on general release later in the year.

New Lime Pictures made topical legal thriller set for BBC One daytime

LIVERPOOL’S Lime Pictures revealed today they are making a new hard-hitting topical drama for BBC daytime.

The Case will explore the high pressured life in and out of court as barrister Sol Ridley and his junior, Julie Prior, defend Tony Powell against a murder charge.

The series will be filmed across the North West with locations in Liverpool and Manchester.

Commissioned by BBC daytime controller Liam Keelan, (pictured) from Liverpool, The Case was written by David Allison.

Speaking about the new commission, Mr Keelan said: “A topical legal thriller, The Case promises to be compulsive viewing for our audiences.

“I hope this new series helps reiterate BBC Daytime’s commitment to bring more unique British drama – in the same vein as The Indian Doctor, Moving On, Missing and Land Girls – to our schedules.”

Carolyn Reynolds, executive producer at Lime Pictures, said: “Lime Pictures are delighted to be working with BBC Daytime on The Case.

“This series will take a controversial, talked-about subject and create a compelling drama about a barrister fighting for the truth.”

In the plot Tony admits that he assisted his terminally ill partner Saskia to commit suicide, but he vigorously denies murdering her.

The five 45-minute episodes of The Case will be screened in the autumn.

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2011/03/21/new-lime-pictures-made-topical-legal-thriller-set-for-bbc-one-daytime-100252-28372865/#ixzz1HFbT9BwP

Liverpool briefly appears in the Captain America:The First Avenger Movie Trailer.:)

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I watched Ken Loach's Route Irish for the first time over the weekend. Liverpool looks good in it and Loach certainly worked that ferry boat but overall the film was a tad shite - inconsistent acting, too much moralising (big moral issues work best understated) implausible narrative twists ...

It could have been a much better film.

5/10.

Scousers in Hollywood: Liverpool’s Emmy-winning make-up and prosthetics expert on contributing to major Hollywood movies

AN EMMY-WINNING make-up and prosthetics expert from Liverpool today revealed how he landed the job that led him to countless film projects.

Davy Jones from Netherley has credits including Pirates of the Caribbean, which starred Johnny Depp, and Hollywood horror film Blade 2 with Wesley Snipes.

But the 50-year-old, who also runs make-up and prosthetic courses with his wife Lin from their city centre workshop, started his career at Mersey TV, now Lime Pictures.

He said: “I used to work at Brookside doing the props and I loved it. I started making stuff as a hobby. People would ring up and say they wanted a prosthetic.

“I cut my teeth doing the make-up on Hollyoaks and in my spare time I started teaching myself how to sculpt and mould.

“My big break was Thief Takers and I ended up getting Band of Brothers.

“I was part of a massive make-up crew of about 30 or 40 artists, watching Tom Hanks direct. I remember just trying not to stick out.”

His first film was HBO’s The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (shown in cinemas here) starring Geoffrey Rush, which earned Davy an Emmy – the TV equivalent of an Oscar.

He went on to work on the movies Alexander and Blade 2.

He said: “I’d been working in Liverpool for 10 years. I was 40 so I never felt I’d get a chance to move onto the big movies.

“I got the call to do Blade 2 and do the tattoos for Wesley Snipes. You think no-one knows you and then you get a phone call that will change your life. And that led to the Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

“It’s amazing to watch the scenes as they are being filmed. When I watch the films I know exactly where I was stood on the set when they shouted ‘Action’ or where I later ran to patch this up or patch that up.

“The film work is always quite varied. Pirates was more about creating the characters because it was Disney, but Alexander was full-blown gore and we were in the desert so the make-up was sweating off.

“What was funny about Blade 2 was you felt like a vampire yourself because they shot so much of it in the night.”

For details visit www.makeupsfx.com

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2011/07/22/scousers-in-hollywood-liverpool-s-emmy-winning-make-up-and-prosthetics-expert-on-contributing-to-major-hollywood-movies-100252-29099375/2/#ixzz1SqftbKHr

Liverpool becomes home to spooky CBBC vampire drama Young Dracula

Vampires - they are spooky, they are mysterious, they suck your blood. They have been spotted across Liverpool and have their lair in the Margaret Beavan School, West Derby.

Young Dracula, the successful children's programme for CBBC, has moved production from Wales to Liverpool.

Locations such as Marleys Tile Factory, Delamere Forest and Croxteth Hall have all been featured.

Jobs were created for more than 50 people in the north-west on the show.

The series has been commissioned for a third series after production stopped in 2008.

'Gothic atmosphere'

The series follows the Dracula family; Vladimir, his father Count Dracula, and older sister Ingrid. Having lived in Transylvania, they move to Stokely, a small town in Britain, after various incidents involving angry peasant mobs.

The 13 episode series finds the Dracula family keeping a low profile, deciding to "hide in plain sight" by buying a school, all the while being pursued by slayers and radical vampires.

Vlad's father is determined that he fulfil his destiny to lead the vampire race, but this is threatened by the Count's own tendency to create drama and mayhem on a daily basis.

Cast of Young Dracula Young Dracula was nominated for Best Children's Drama at the 2008 BAFTA awards

Local locations have been transformed. The Heritage Market has become the slayers' headquarters, and the Margaret Beavan School has become the vampires' lair.

Producer Lis Steele said: "Filming Young Dracula in Liverpool has been an incredibly fulfilling and rewarding experience.

"We were very lucky to find the Margaret Beavan School, which provided a wonderful gothic atmosphere for our main location - the school at the centre of the series - as well as the attic home for our Dracula family.

"As well as providing the central location, the school was also the main production base providing work spaces for our design, costume and make-up departments.

"Liverpool City Council was extremely helpful in making available to us a whole host of supplementary locations which provided additional interesting and spooky backdrops."

Gerran Howell, who plays Vlad, explained the current fascination with vampires: "At the moment vampires are very cool and dangerous, there's a lot of romanticising about vampires. It's been really helped with the Twilight films. They're more popular than they have ever been."

As well as creating jobs locally on the production, security and facility providers were also based in Liverpool

The programme will be aired on CBBC in autumn 2011.

I'm sure this has been mentioned somewhere on the forum, but just in case, Of Time and the City is on at midnight. BBC2.

It's on now... beautiful and very moving.

Cheers Bordo.

Press Release 18/8/11

The North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University is pleased to announce ‘Liverpool on Film’, a part of its programme to make this fascinating collection available to the public of the North West region. Supported by Vision+ Media, the NWFA will present a public screening of films from its collection at FACT

The screening will take place on Monday 5th of September at 2.00pm.

Following on from previous ‘sell-out’ screenings of material over the last few years; we present an opportunity to see a further selection of films from the archive, many of which are being screened for the first time in decades, and another chance to see a few firm favourites on the big screen as they were originally intended. Films to be shown will feature life in and around Liverpool from the earliest days of film-making in 1897 through to the 1980’s.
The programme will include the classic Lumiere Brothers views of the city and the river in 1897, an early wartime newsreel of recruiting in Anfield in 1915, and ‘A Day in Liverpool’ an in-depth look at daily life around the City in 1929. Some of the City’s first slum clearances and new housing projects are seen in ‘Homes for Workers’ and in ‘Who Cares’ made in 1969 the social care provided by the Corporation is explained. Join in the festivities with the residents of Old Swan in their 1976 Superswan community Festival, and take a look at how the new Merseyside County Council promoted the area in ‘The Pool of Life’ from 1980.

The Archive’s Service Manager Marion Hewitt said “This is a great opportunity for the people of Liverpool to enjoy an afternoon with a difference, and take a look back at life in their city in the past century”.

Vision and Media’s Head of Audience Development, Deborah Parker said "The North West Film Archive is one of the UK's finest moving image archives. Vision+Media are delighted to support ‘Liverpool on Film’, enabling local communities to reconnect with their region's past".

The afternoon’s show will be presented by the Archive’s Collections Assistant Geoff Senior. For further information, interview, and footage contact Geoff Senior on 0161 247 3097.

Tickets are £5 and £4 for concessions and can be obtained from the box office on 0871 902 5737 or on the day. The venue seats a maximum of 250.





Additional information

The North West Film Archive has been based at Manchester Metropolitan University since 1977 and is the publicly recognised home for moving images about life in the North West of England.

The North West Film Archive is located at Minshull House 47-49 Chorlton St Manchester M1 3EU. Tel. 0161 247 3097 Fax. 0161 247 3098

Vision+Media works on behalf of the digital and creative industries in the North West to help grow a world-class digital and creative economy. We provide strategic leadership, help to build businesses, develop skills and talent and also support culturally and creatively significant activity.
Find out more at www.visionandmedia.co.uk
Follow us on twitter: @VisionandMedia
Please contact Simon Alexander Head of Marketing
Tel 0161 281 4335

FACT is located at 88 Wood Street Liverpool L1 4DQ

Still images from several of the titles to be screened can be supplied for use on request, and moving image clips can be made available to broadcasters in advance.










North West FILM ARCHIVE
Saving our region’s
filmed heritage

Minshull House
47-49 Chorlton Street
Manchester
M1 3EU

Telephone
0161 247 3097

Facsimile
0161 247 3098

Minicom
0161 247 6536

e-mail n.w.filmarchive@mmu.ac.uk
URL http://www.nwfa.mmu.ac.uk
__

Service Manager
Marion Hewitt


Patron
Lord Puttnam of Queensgate CBE

Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono attend premiere of Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison film

SIR Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono were among the stars at the premiere of Martin Scorsese’s new film about George Harrison.

The Oscar-winning director traces the late Beatle’s life from his musical beginnings in Liverpool through his career as a musician, philanthropist and filmmaker.

George Harrison: Living In The Material World premiered at the BFI in London – attended by Olivia Harrison, Barbara Bach and Ringo Starr among many others.

While the stars lined up on the red carpet in London, FACT in Liverpool gave ordinary members of the public a chance to see the movie before its general release later this week.

The film weaves together interviews with Harrison and his friends with material never seen before.

Scorsese, known for films like Taxi Driver and Goodfellas, has previously made documentaries about Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones.

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2011/10/03/paul-mccartney-and-yoko-ono-attend-premiere-of-martin-scorsese-s-george-harrison-film-100252-29527091/#ixzz1Ziq8KGZk

Filming takes place for new BBC drama series Savage in Liverpool

Actor Warren Brown at the filming of the Police drama Savage being filmed in a cafe on Castle Street Liverpool....

FILMING for major new BBC drama series Savage took place in Liverpool city centre.

Savage, a four-part series due to be screened next year, stars Liverpool-born Hollywood actor Stephen Graham, and Luther’s Warren Brown. Liverpool screenwriter Stephen Butchard’s police drama also features Michael Angelis, Mark Womack, Christine Tremarco, and Nowhere Boy actress Kerrie Hayes.

Stephen Graham is currently appearing on the big screen in John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Warrington-born Warren, who played evil teenager Andy Holt in Hollyoaks, as well as DS Justin Ripley in Luther, is taking on the role of a young Liverpool response cop.

When his best friend is murdered, the impact of his brutal death throws his whole life and career into turmoil.

He starts to question everything he believes in and the difference between right and wrong and he finds himself increasingly wanting revenge.

The makers promise a “thrilling joyride through urban Liverpool”.

Read More http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2011/10/12/filming-takes-place-for-new-bbc-drama-series-savage-in-liverpool-92534-29579977/#ixzz1aZo1lAyv

Savage! Follow DI Savage's savage work hunting savages on the savage streets of savage Liverpool.

Thanks BBC.

Liverpool film and TV production set for 'record year'

Liverpool is set for a "record breaking year" for film and TV production in the city, a report has said.

There has been a 22% increase in filming on location in Liverpool between April and September 2011.

There were 253 productions in 2010/11, generating £16m for the local economy, a report to the council's Culture and Tourism Select Committee said.

Captain America: The First Avenger and the John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy were among the movies shot in the city.

Filming of a new BBC police drama Savage, set in Liverpool, planned for late 2011, along with the children's drama Young Dracula and Nickelodeon's House of Anubis has raised production levels in the city.

The report said that "With more production planned in 2012 early indications show that 2011/12 could be a record breaking year for TV production in Liverpool."

Liverpool was also the base for the world media launch of Jaguar Land Rover's new Evoque car.

Wendy Simon, cabinet member for culture and tourism for Labour-controlled Liverpool City Council said: "Each week there is filming taking place across the city - whether it's for a children's TV programme, an advert, a documentary or a Hollywood blockbuster.

"Liverpool offers a fantastic range of locations, and the excellent reputation and can-do attitude of our Film Office attracts more and more filming requests every day.

"The city's stature within the industry goes from strength to strength, and Liverpool is undoubtedly one of the UK's most film friendly locations."

Liverpool Film Office was set up by the council in 1989 to promote the city to filmmakers and facilitate productions.

The council estimates £100m of investment has been brought in to the city over the last 10 years.

Hollywood star Stephen Graham films Dave Kirby movie in his home town of Liverpool

HOLLYWOOD actor Stephen Graham returned to Liverpool to film a new role set in his home town.

He was taking a break from filming American TV series Boardwalk Empire in which he plays Al Capone.

Stephen, 37, joined fellow Kirkby-born actor Andrew Schofield for The Last Ferry, which was written by Liverpool writer Dave Kirby.


Looks a tad rough, Al Capone takes on the North Face Ninjas

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French documentary of Liverpool music scene circa 1992 that for a week follows around a few Liverpool musicians of the time like Ian McCulloch (Echo & the Bunnymen), Michael Head (Pale Fountains&Shack), Edgar Jones (The Stairs) and a few other Liverpool figures.

There's a bit after the seven minute mark where a lad is dancing in the car park outside of Cream,I was stood behind him that night watching,it's too dark too see much though.:)

I remember that beefburger van! :)

THE debate over whether Adolf Hitler spent nearly six months in Liverpool as a young man will be re-ignited tonight in a new television documentary.

Actor Paul McGann will be shown returning to his home city and visiting the sites associated with Hitler’s supposed time in Liverpool.

He will also be seen interviewing former Liverpool Daily Post and Echo editor Mike Unger – who is convinced Hitler did live in the city – and historian Professor Frank McDonough, who is equally sure the story is a myth.

Supporters believe the 23-year-old Hitler was in Liverpool from November 1912 to May 1913 in a bid to beat being conscripted into the Austrian army.

It is said he stayed with his older half-brother Alois and sister-in-law Bridget, who lived in a rented flat at 102 Upper Stanhope Street, Toxteth,

It is claimed Adolf enjoyed a pint at Peter Kavanagh’s pub in Toxteth and even took a job at the Adelphi hotel.

The discovery that Hitler may have lived in the city was first made in 1973 by Mr Unger, who found it in a wartime memoir written by Hitler’s sister-in-law Bridget Dowling.

In the documentary, Mr Unger – who recently published a book called The Hitlers Of Liverpool – said of Adolf’s supposed stay: “It was a great story and still is a great story



Read More http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2011/11/28/new-bbc-documentary-on-hitler-in-liverpool-to-be-screened-tonight-92534-29852209/#ixzz1f0BJidy2

Be watching that and desperate scousewives at 10pm even though it will be shit.

First impression... Got some nice shots of Liverpool in it, and seems to be filmed in nice areas, but I can't understand all the people! Some characters I can but some have really strong accents and speak so quickly!

Be watching that and desperate scousewives at 10pm even though it will be shit.


Missed it but saw the trailer. Not too sure how offensive it is really. Doesn't it simply portray a fact? Saw some woman in rollers and pyjamas in Tescos today! :)

You're right Medi all "scousers" are no-class scum and that includes you, your family and your friends. Good job this programme is out there to make sure the rest of the country knows that people from Liverpool are trash and so can have a good old laugh about them.

The show is filth. Try to think for once.

You're right Medi all "scousers" are no-class scum and that includes you, your family and your friends. Good job this programme is out there to make sure the rest of the country knows that people from Liverpool are trash and so can have a good old laugh about them.

The show is filth. Try to think for once.

Perhaps you are getting paranoid, my point was that there are some people who are like that, so it portrays an aspect of reality.

And I don't find the term Scouser offensive

Bread was worse tho! How on earth Carla Lane has a mention in the new museum is beyond me?!:)

Perhaps you are getting paranoid, my point was that there are some people who are like that, so it portrays an aspect of reality.

I'm off to pitch Disgusting Queggs! to MTV. Lifting the lid on gay life. It will follow a gang of gays who all go around bumming kindergarten children. After all, it portrays an aspect of reality.

I'm off to pitch Disgusting Queggs! to MTV. Lifting the lid on gay life. It will follow a gang of gays who all go around bumming kindergarten children. After all, it portrays an aspect of reality.


I'm sorry but that's just bizarre. If you feel this is so offensive don't watch it, for goodness sake. I don't think a lot of people in the rest of the country take it thast seriously.

Anyway what's with the big cob on? No OJ to squabble with?

It's crusty cobs for me. Soft barms are for girls.

Told ya Bread was shite

Wow!!! Hate crime springs to mind. I've seen the show and it's not great but doesn't give a bad impression on Liverpool. It's just extremely bad acting.

Filming boom at National Museums Liverpool properties

HISTORIC venues belonging to National Museums Liverpool (NML) have had more exposure on the screen in 2011 than ever before.

Film and television crews from as far afield as China, Japan, and Iran have been on location at an NML site this year, along with numerous British programme and documentary-makers.

Although the number of film crews has remained broadly constant, they have stayed longer in 2011 and given venues such as the Walker Art Gallery, Merseyside Maritime Museum, and the International Slavery Museum greater exposure, both at home and abroad.

Most recently, viewers of E4’s Desperate Scousewives saw one of the girls, Elissa Corrigan, in the drawing room at historic Sudley House in Mossley Hill, modelling a crinoline dress made in Liverpool from synthetic hair, which weighed 15 stone.

But this represented just the tip of the iceberg.

Over the course of the year, BBC Two stayed a full weekend at the Walker filming segments of Show Me the Monet, which was screened over 10 weekday nights in the spring.

Tim Wonnacott of Bargain Hunt spent a full day in the Walker filming four links for shows screened in the summer while Liverpool actor Paul McGann made his first documentary at the gallery for a regional show called Hidden Paintings, looking at World War II war artist Albert Richards.

In September the Walker was also used for scenes from Kelly & Victor, based on the book by Niall Griffiths, which will be screened in cinemas in 2012. The Walker ‘played’ itself as the two main characters discussed artworks. Over at the Merseyside Maritime Museum, the pilot boat Edmund Gardner doubled as the Titanic in child singer Hollie Steel’s music video Children of the Titanic. It also featured the museum’s Titanic exhibits.

Central China TV visited the Maritime Museum’s archives for a documentary about Sun Yat Sen, known as “the father of the Chinese republic”, who once sailed into Liverpool. The National Geographic Society Channel, meanwhile, filmed at the International Slavery Museum for a sugar documentary.

The filming activity does not include the many news crews who covered the opening of the Museum of Liverpool earlier this year, and diverse news-related items from the Laconia sinking to the cruise liner campaign.

Future highlights include a new C4 programme presented by Richard Bacon called Hidden Talents an episode of which was filmed at the Walker.

NML spokesman Stephen Guy said: “The number of requests we receive from film and TV crews shows the continued interest in our fabulous collections and museum settings.

“We encourage film crews because they bring our venues to new audiences.”

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2011/12/27/filming-boom-at-national-museums-liverpool-properties-100252-30015127/#ixzz1hpY74h1X

New movie trilogy to be shot in Liverpool city centre

MERSEYSIDE actor Mark Moraghan today revealed he will star in and direct a new Liverpool-made feature film.

A Mersey cast and crew have already started work on the planned movie trilogy both set and filmed in the city.

The feature film Lilith: The Last Temptation of Adam will also star Emmerdale’s hunky vet Matt Milburn.

The love story, written by Everton-born novelist and screenwriter Tom Stevens, starts in the Garden of Eden and ends in the present day.

Mark, who co-directed The Stepdad film, plays Dr John Sutton of the ESP Paranormal Research Institute in Rodney Street.

The former Holby City star said: “I am very keen on the project and the chance to direct and act on film again.

“Lilith has a Liverpool heartbeat so it is a wonderful opportunity. And the city photographs so well it was a must for me.”

Writer Tom, who now lives in Prenton, said: “The movie and its two sequels will showcase today’s Liverpool, its talent and its rich history as no other film has done before.

“The promotional film is almost ready and we’re pitching it to distributors and investors for funding to make the movie.”

Co-creator is singer Maggie Reilly who is best known for her work with composer Mike Oldfield.

Tom, 54, said: “I approached Maggie about another book but we suspended the other project and it is full steam ahead on Lilith.

“Maggie and her song-writing partner Stuart MacKillop, from Liverpool, have completed the entire soundtrack for the movie.

“Maggie’s record company will be approaching a big name to star in the film.”

The first movie instalment is planned to go into production late 2012 but a trailer has already been shot. As part of this Green Chapel Films filmed a dramatic scene atop St John’s Beacon.

Meanwhile, Matt Milburn, 31, said his character Maximilian Vonhesse – the longest living human – will witness each century, including the siege of Liverpool in the Civil War.

The ex-Hollyoaks star, who appears alongside leading lady Freya Lund, said: “It’s a dream role. The initial set up is in Eden and the 16th century is where it starts taking shape.

“The movie is an eternal love story, set against the backdrop of the supernatural. The trilogy will touch ground that hasn’t really been touched before. I’m looking forward to it coming into fruition soon. It is planned as a trilogy so it could be really good.”

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2011/12/28/new-movie-trilogy-to-be-shot-in-liverpool-city-centre-100252-30020127/#ixzz1hpYMgZbX

I watched Captain America on Christmas day. The shots of the Liverpool docks as Brooklyn look great. There's quite a long action sequence filmed at/in the Stanley dock and it looks fantastic with the statue of liberty super imposed in the background.

The film itself is bollocks, but harmless bollocks.

I watched an awful science fiction film - called 'Revenger's Tragedy' (2003) - based in a futuristic version of Liverpool in the year 2011, following the aftermath of a natural disaster which has destroyed the southern half of Great Britain. The city is a dystopia in which society is collapsing and where vendettas and the crude exercise of power are the norm.

As I've already said, it was awful. But it was interesting to see a dystopian science fiction film set in Liverpool, rather than the usual setting of London.

Ah, the one with Eddie Izzard and Christopher Ecclestone? Yeah it was pap, particularly the crappy fake "back of the car" scenes with the awful blue screen backgrounds and the constant chumbawumba soundtrack. Still, it was interesting in the way it used the city.

The Liverpool team behind Irish TV hit Hardy Bucks talks about the show’s success and plans for its future

HAVE you heard the one about the Scouser, the adopted Scouser and the Yorkshireman who created an Internet sensation and then took a nation’s TV by storm? No? Well all that could be about to change.

Because Martin Maloney, Mike Cockayne and Chris Tordoff – the trio behind Irish telly hit Hardy Bucks – have their eyes on the big time.

And with interest from US TV giant Fox, a feature film in the pipeline and a nomination at next month’s IFTAs (Ireland’s equivalent of the BAFTAs) that could be just around the corner.

Exciting times for a show that started life as three mates ‘just messing about’.

Co-writer and producer Mike, who runs Liverpool-based Integral Productions, explains: “Martin is my brother-in-law, and he and Chris had made a little video with some characters they’d come up with, just messing about really.

“We spent a weekend and shot a 40-minute pilot which we put on YouTube, and it was very successful.”

That’s something of an understatement.

The early incarnation of Hardy Bucks was entered in an RTE (Ireland’s national TV channel) competition to find new talent, entitled Storyland.

It made the shortlist of 10 who were all given a sum of money to go away and make a seven minute episode for people to view online and vote for their favourite, with the entry with the lowest votes being knocked out each week.

Hardy Bucks won every round and romped away with the contest.

“It was crazy,” recalls Martin. “It was a landslide.”

With so much public interest – Hardy Bucks has had six million hits on YouTube – RTE decided to give the boys their own TV series, and the original went out in 2010.

Viewing figures were high and on the back of that the trio were asked to write a Christmas special and a second series.

But the genesis of Hardy Bucks – the nickname for a ‘boyo’ around town (“it’s like a warm-hearted scally I’d say” volunteers Martin) – can be found in a small Irish west coast town more than a decade ago.

Wirral-born Martin takes up what he calls ‘the old saga’: “My eldest sister Patricia was doing acting at LIPA, and another sister Leisa was doing acting as well. So we came from quite a dramatic family. My dad is a real character, and I used to do impressions of my dad and relatives.

“We moved to Ireland when I was a week away from turning 13. It was a really big change and I noticed there were a lot of strange idiosyncrasies and cultural differences, and the people in the town of Swinford, where we moved to, had a lot of strange mannerisms and certain words that would describe things.”

Two years later, 11-year-old Chris arrived from Leeds and the pair forged a close bond, growing up on a diet of Alan Partridge, Father Ted and Brass Eye.

Martin moved to Sweden for two years, and it was when he returned that he and Chris, along with a group of friends, started to create the characters which populate the popular TV mockumentary comedy.

“It’s kind of a cross between The Trailer Park Boys (a Canadian series), Father Ted and its own brand of madness,” explains 45-year-old Mike.

“It’s five guys, slackers from the west coast of Ireland, in their early 20s, and their interests are cars, women, drinking, smoking a bit of weed, not working, trying to make some money.

“Standard fare for young lads except the funny thing is they’re in this little tiny west coast Irish town where nothing ever happens.

“Well, for a place where nothing really happens, a lot does!”

Chris plays a small-time drug dealer called The Viper, who is never seen without a pair of sunglasses, while Martin is Eddie Durkan, a character he describes as “a mixture of my dad and some schoolfriends”.

The 28-year-old adds: “Eddie is a late-20s agricultural individual who tries to find the easy way out of a lot of situations. Usually that shortcut ends up going the long way round.”

The rest of the cast is made up of friends and folk from the small County Mayo town of Swinford, where Martin and Chris grew up and which doubles as the show’s fictional ‘Castletown’.

Mike says: “What’s amazing about the people from the west of Ireland they just have this ability to a) act brilliantly, and b) be funny.

“I think there’s something about the Irish and the Liverpudlian thing anyway, there’s a big crossover there in humour and their ability to perform.”

Such is the popularity of the show in Ireland that, rather as Ballykissangel devotees flocked to Avoca in the late 1990s, Hardy Bucks fans make pilgrimages to Swinford, while Hardy Bucks’ actors are regularly mobbed.

Martin laughs: “I’m hounded! But you’re never lonely.

“You get people recreating fights in the bowling alley, and there are lots of copycats who come to town, which is flattering.

“When you have that kind of effect on people you know you’re in the right ballpark.”

The show has also had an effect on TV executives on both sides of the Atlantic, with a third series in the pipeline in Ireland and interest from Fox and Shine Media (which brought The Office to America) in the US.

And thanks to the Internet, Hardy Bucks also has fans from New Zealand to Cambodia.

Now Mike, Martin and Chris are preparing to write a film version, to be shot this summer and involving a nod to Euro 2012.

And in the meantime there’s the IFTAs with a high-profile awards ceremony in Dublin on February 11.

Hardy Bucks is nominated in the ‘best entertainment programme’ category, and ironically its competition includes another Internet-phenomenon-turned-TV hit Mrs Brown’s Boys.

Other nominees for gongs at the event include Michael Fassbender, Brendan Gleeson and Chris O’Dowd.

“We’ve no expectations at all,” says Mike. “It’s great just to be nominated and recognised.”

Martin adds: “It would be nice to win an actual, tangible object. But we might have to take an angle grinder and split it three ways!”

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-entertainment/echo-entertainment//2012/01/27/the-liverpool-team-behind-irish-tv-hit-hardy-bucks-talks-about-the-show-s-success-and-plans-for-its-future-100252-30208413/2/#ixzz1kfrByiB1

“Not that long ago. In a Suburb not that far way…”

“I Have a Bad Feeling About This” Is a quirky, up beat, buddy-comedy/Sci Fi Adventure. The story follows the exploits of Andy and Sam. Two Star Wars obsessed slackers in their early twenties, living in the suburbs of Liverpool.


http://www.badfeelingfilm.com/

Gabriel Byrne spotted filming TV drama Coup in Liverpool

IRISH actor Gabriel Byrne was spotted in Liverpool filming a new conspiracy drama.

The In Treatment star, who is renowned for roles in Miller’s Crossing and The Usual Suspects, was seen in Faulkner Square, on Saturday, shooting a scene for new Channel 4 political thriller, Coup.

Byrne takes the role of British politician Tom Dawkins, who finds himself taking on the establishment after a massive industrial accident in Teesside, in the north-east of England.

Liverpool photographer Steve Simpson used his long lens camera to capture the New York-based Golden Globe winner.

He said: “I was going past in my car and I saw a film crew in the centre of Faulkner Square.

“Gabriel Byrne was sitting on a bench in the centre of the gardens. He was with another actor and they were chatting. They were both dressed in smart suits.

“This was about midday and there lots of production people there.

“Hardly anyone knew that filming was going on there, or that Gabriel Byrne was there.”

Byrne’s character, who is a lifelong believer in transparency, finds himself taking on big business and vested interests as he battles to uncover the truth and achieve justice for the victims.

In the drama, he endures damaging revelations about his personal life and he struggles to keep his party onside and the electorate behind him.

The new thriller, which also stars Garrow’s Law actor Rupert Graves, is being produced by Company Pictures and Newscope Films, and will be Byrne’s first return to British television after more than 20 years.

The four-part series was written by Robert Jones and is based on the novel, a Very British Coup, by former British MP Chris Mullins.

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2012/03/12/tv-drama-coup-filmed-in-liverpool-100252-30511084/#ixzz1otySQYhB

Good to know that our local daily can't spell Falkner.

Kirkby actor Stephen Graham on filming Blood and supporting Clapperbaord UK

BOARDWALK Empire star Stephen Graham today spoke about returning home to shoot new thriller Blood.

The Kirkby actor has been sharing an apartment with Hollywood star Paul Bettany while they film in Wirral and Liverpool city centre.

He said working with The Da Vinci Code star and actor Brian Cox was like “being picked for a special five-a-side team.”

Stephen, who has made a name for himself in the States playing Al Capone in Boardwalk Empire, has two weeks left shooting in Merseyside. He will then spend the summer in New York for the HBO series.

He said: “I went from pretending to be a pirate in Hawaii [for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, with Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz] to filming in a freezing cold, downbeat house and helping the camera fellas move a camera dolly [for Best Laid Plans]. I’m very blessed to have these different jobs.

"It keeps my feet on the ground. My auntie Vera would give me a slap if I didn’t!

“It’s always lovely to come home. And to come home and work is amazing. It’s been lovely because my wife Hannah and the kids [Grace and Alfie] have come to stay every weekend.

“Blood is going fantastically well. It’s one of those jobs where I don’t want to jinx it but it feels like we’re making something special.

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/in-the-mix/2012/03/20/kirkby-actor-stephen-graham-on-filming-blood-and-supporting-clapperbaord-uk-100252-30576540/#ixzz1pg3owCAP

Filming 'Blood' in Birkenhead town hall and Hamilton Square long piece on Radio 5 live today.

Liverpool-made daytime drama Secrets and Words gets city premiere

STARS of a new learning daytime drama turned out for its premiere in Liverpool.

Guests watched two 45 minute episodes from the BBC One series, Secrets And Words, which will be aired next week.

Hundreds attended the event, which took place at The Isla Gladstone Conservatory in Anfield last night.

Two of the five films, which are made by the Liverpool-based LA Productions, shown were Love Letters, starring Tony Maudsley, and A Study In Time.

The screening was followed by a question and answer session.

Executive producer Colin McKeown said: “This series was joyous to do.

“It had a special dimension as it had to be stories that left a message.”

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2012/03/23/liverpool-made-daytime-drama-secrets-and-words-gets-city-premiere-100252-30606368/#ixzz1pwnOIK10

Filming for The Secret Of Crickley Hall starring Suranne Jones takes place in Liverpool

A CHILLING drama starring Suranne Jones will be shot in Liverpool this weekend.

Filming will take place tomorrow for the BBC One adaptation of James Herbert’s novel, The Secret of Crickley Hall.

The city’s Falkner Street will double up as a London street, which will be seen during and after a wartime air raid.

As well as vehicles including a fire engine and ambulance, debris will be placed in the road and on the pavement to create the illusion of bomb damaged buildings.
Click here to find out more!

The story, which is set in 1943, is about a family who move to Crickley Hall to start a new life after their son goes missing.

But they quickly discover the building is haunted and events there begin to terrorise them.

Suranne, who plays mum Eve, will be joined by Miranda actor Tom Ellis and Douglas Henshall, who starred in Primeval.

The actress, who is best known for playing Karen McDonald in Coronation Street, called the storyline a “classic haunted house spine-chiller”.

The three-part drama will be scripted and directed by Joe Ahearne, who has worked on dramas including Doctor Who.

Cllr Wendy Simon, cabinet member for culture, said: “Film and TV companies love coming to Liverpool, not only because of the wide range of locations we can offer, but also because we make it so easy for them to film. The industry is worth more than £10m a year to the region’s economy and helps sustain many jobs.”

Filming will take place on Falkner Street between Hope Street and Sugnall Street. Closures will be in place today and tomorrow.

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2012/03/24/filming-for-the-secret-of-crickley-hall-starring-suranne-jones-takes-place-in-liverpool-100252-30612601/#ixzz1q2DfQtHs

Acting couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly ditch Hollywood glam for a day at Ainsdale dunes

WHEN you’re a major Hollywood power couple, the world’s your oyster for entertainment options.

But it seems actor Paul Bettany, his American actress wife Jennifer Connelly and their three children prefer the simpler pleasures in life.

Paul, who has starred in a string of big screen hits including Iron Man, The Tourist and The Da Vinci Code, has been in Liverpool and Wirral for the past few weeks filming Blood with Stephen Graham, Mark Strong and Brian Cox.

And He’s Just Not That Into You star Jennifer brought their two sons and daughter for a flying visit.
Click here to find out more!

Instead of seeking out glam venues, though, the pair could be found enjoying the great outdoors ... at Ainsdale sand dunes!

Paul tells Insider: “The best thing we did during their stay was probably going to the sand dunes on the way to Southport. We live in New York, so the kids had never seen anything like it, they were surfing down the dunes and they loved it.”

Oscar winner Jennifer and the children – Kai, Stellan and Agnes – have been busy taking in some local sights, too, while Paul is on set.

Our source reports: “Jennifer was spotted on her own Beatles magical mystery tour as she and her family visited some Beatles haunts. They took a trip to The Cavern and Cavern Walks, where she also got a photo with the famous Fab Four statue, and the souvenir shop for a huge shopping spree of Beatles goodies.

“She was heard telling a fellow tourist: ‘We are all such big fans of The Beatles, the kids even know how to play all the songs on their guitars, so to be able to visit here is amazing’.”

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-entertainment/echo-entertainment/2012/03/29/acting-couple-paul-bettany-and-jennifer-connelly-ditch-hollywood-glam-for-a-day-at-ainsdale-dunes-100252-30648129/#ixzz1qVbB0Rvb

Liverpool-made House of Anubis gets third series

THE Liverpool-made teen drama mystery House of Anubis will return for a third series.

Childwall-based co-producer Lime Pictures, whose credits include Hollyoaks and The Only Way Is Essex, today confirmed the news.

Another series was commissioned by Nickelodeon after proving a ratings hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

House of Anubis follows a group of students who uncover and solve hidden mysteries at an English boarding school while dealing with the highs and lows of their teenage years.

The first season of House of Anubis, which was filmed in Liverpool in July 2010, launched in the US in January last year.

It was later screened in the UK and Australia and was shown to millions on Nickelodeon channels around the world in 2011.

The second season, which was shot in Speke, is currently showing on Nickelodeon UK.

A spokeswoman for Lime Pictures told the ECHO: “Series three will resume production later this year.”

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/in-the-mix/2012/05/02/liverpool-made-house-of-anubis-gets-third-series-100252-30880447/#ixzz1tjBqNiey

Hollywood actor Alan Cumming unearths Liverpool secrets for new Sky show

HE’S probably best known for his role in The Good Wife, and he was one of the notable Brit pack to break America. But now Emmy-nominated actor Alan Cumming has turned his attentions to snooping around Liverpool.

Alan has been tasked by Sky Atlantic to meander around the UK, rooting out little hidden gems for its new eight-part series City Secrets due to be screened in the summer.

And as part of his quest, he’s been in Liverpool, wandering off the usual tourist trail to explore a more unusual and interesting side to the city.

Along the way the Scottish-born Hollywood star crossed paths with a few well-known local names who offered their views on what gives us our unique character and appeal.

Alan, who’s appeared in films such as X-Men and Spy Kids, seemed to be making the most of his two days here as he was spotted on a Shiverpool tour and visiting the Liver Building, Town Hall and Philharmonic pub.

There, the actor was more than impressed with the famous toilets, Tweeting a pic of himself with a highly decorative loo background.

He also headed over to the party launch of the inaugural Liverpool Art Show at Camp and Furnace where he chatted to one of the organisers, photographer Matt Ford.

Matt tells Insider: “Sky originally got in touch with Lucy from dot-art about another event we had, and she suggested the Art Show. It was very last minute, though, we literally found out the day before they were coming to film.

“Alan interviewed me and Lucy and walked around the gallery, discussing the artwork which is about Liverpool and why it’s such a great creative space.

“He was lovely, and he seemed really interested in what we were doing.”

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-entertainment/echo-entertainment/2012/05/10/hollywood-actor-alan-cumming-unearths-liverpool-secrets-for-new-sky-show-100252-30935610/#ixzz1uUg9bmqc

New CBBC drama Stepping Up produced by Colin McKeown filmed in Liverpool

A CHILDREN’S drama series about pupils going to high school was filmed in Liverpool.

The five episodes of BBC drama Stepping Up all focus on children experiencing the transition from primary school.

Each of the 28-minute stand-alone dramas, which were penned by five different writers, were made by Liverpool’s LA Productions.

Colin McKeown, executive producer for LA Productions, said: “The episodes are themed around the new challenges children face. It was a real challenge in a transmitting sense. We started shooting five weeks ago and we have to get it ready to be transmitted in September.

“There were lots of challenges. It was the first children’s series for us. “Children have a shorter attention span so all scenes had to tell the story quickly and move on.

“We had limited hours with the children so we had to get things done quickly and there were different directing techniques to apply.

“It has been very rewarding.”

The stories tap into childhood themes of reinvention, transition and friendship with one episode set in Liverpool.

Home Games, written by Shaun Duggan from Norris Green, is about Jack whose dad supports Liverpool and his step-dad who supports Everton.

Shooting for the series took place on Merseyside including the Liverpool FC museum, Liverpool South Parkway station and Southport station.

The commission was part of CBBC’s 10th birthday celebrations.

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/in-the-mix/2012/05/14/new-cbbc-drama-stepping-up-produced-by-colin-mckeown-filmed-in-liverpool-100252-30967939/#ixzz1urZc5CMo

Two BBC dramas coming up:

"Accused (series 2)" - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00wpvmg (Jimmy McGovern, Stephen Graham, John Bishop... starts next Tuesday, 14 Aug)

"Good Cop" - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00wmbw0 (set in Liverpool, looks well shot, showing this autumn sometime)

From the Echo -

New Jack Ryan movie starring Keira Knightly to be filmed in Liverpool

HOLLYWOOD superstars Keira Knightley and Kenneth Branagh could be on their way to Liverpool city centre to film a new Jack Ryan blockbuster.

Crews from a feature film with the provisional title Jack Ryan – based on the Tom Clancy spy novels – will be filming in Dale Street, Exchange Street, Castle Street and surrounding roads between 8pm and 6am on September 17-20.

The movie will see Star Trek actor Chris Pine reprise the role of CIA agent Ryan – previously played on the big screen by Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford – in the Paramount Pictures production, which is thought to be the first in a trilogy.

Actress Knightley, known for her roles in the Pirates Of The Caribbean films and Pride And Prejudice, will play his love interest Cathy Ryan.

Kevin Costner is also set for a role in the film, which Branagh will both direct and star in as the plot’s villain.

It is not know which of the movie’s superstars will be filming in Liverpool.

Article continues here - http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2012/08/28/new-jack-ryan-movie-starring-keira-knightly-to-be-filmed-in-liverpool-100252-31709590/

Great news, it's part of a trilogy too so hopefully they'll be back. :)

Two BBC dramas coming up:

"Accused (series 2)" - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00wpvmg (Jimmy McGovern, Stephen Graham, John Bishop... starts next Tuesday, 14 Aug)

"Good Cop" - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00wmbw0 (set in Liverpool, looks well shot, showing this autumn sometime)

Heard an interview with one of the cast from Good Cop on Radio 5 yesterday. Stephen Graham plays a nasty nasty villain. I enjoy watching him act but I hope he doesn't typecast himself. Then again, if he's getting the work why should he be arsed?

I saw the trailer for Accused and there are a couple of really poor cod Scouse accents in there.

Heard an interview with one of the cast from Good Cop on Radio 5 yesterday. Stephen Graham plays a nasty nasty villain. I enjoy watching him act but I hope he doesn't typecast himself. Then again, if he's getting the work why should he be arsed?

I saw the trailer for Accused and there are a couple of really poor cod Scouse accents in there.

Check out Parade's End on Friday nights - he's not typecast in that - unless he always plays refined Edinburgh literary types!

He's a cracking actor I think. Very versatile.

Heard an interview with one of the cast from Good Cop on Radio 5 yesterday. Stephen Graham plays a nasty nasty villain. I enjoy watching him act but I hope he doesn't typecast himself. Then again, if he's getting the work why should he be arsed?

I saw the trailer for Accused and there are a couple of really poor cod Scouse accents in there.

My missus watched that and thought it was really good. I caught bits n pieces doing far more manly activity, but the star's accent 9the Irish guy from Misfits I believe) wasn't perfect, but he was quite compelling and even imperfect accents provide exposure if the rest of the nation can't tell the difference.

It wasn't clear which characters were even meant to be from Liverpool. It was set in the vague BBC Manchesterish northland that so many (and an increasing amount) of their dramas are set. Mum was Irish, dad was whatever the hell John Bishop's accent is meant to be. The bird did the general stage northern she used in Two Pints of Lager as did younger brother (played by a Liverpool lad ironically). People they encounted while not en famille seemed to sound a bit Manchester and it was filmed somewhere dreadful with hills and mills. Aston under Lyne? Never been there.

It was intended to be a generic backdrop I think. That younger brother didn't do much apart from cry from the bit I saw.

I saw some of that and thought it was rubbish. John Bishop has a broken up forced accent, ha I once read in the Guardian how he "got out" of Liverpool, when he was living in Widnes by the way by going to some FE college in Manchester:lol:

I'm not saying his accent is too thick, if you listen to someone like Jamie Carragher who has a harsh Liverpool accent, you still hear a softness borne out by the fact that he speaks naturally, Bishop on the other hand has adopted his accent.

Bishop didn't have that much choice about leaving Liverpool at the time. He was six after all.

I saw the Bish in Liverpool ONE a year or two ago, while he was doing that multi-night residency at the arena. I skulked by him for a bit to find out if I could overhear him speaking with his normal voice and find out what on earth it is. Bugger said nowt and feeling self-conscious that he or his companions would wonder what I was up to, I slunk off.

I agree that Bishop's accent is forced. He has never chosen to live in Liverpool.

He was born here though and lived here for his first 6 years, which pretty much qualifies him. Living in the city has little to do with your accent. I've lived here for much longer than him but sound the same as i did the day I arrived.

Didn't John Bishop move to Winsford - which was a bit of a scouse dumping ground and then move to Runcorn?

Not like Cilla, Tarby et al who made their money and buggered off as quickly as they could.

FILMING in Liverpool is at an all time high, raking in an estimated £19m for the city’s economy during the last 12 months alone.

A total of 227 films, TV programmes and adverts were shot here during 2011/12.

And Liverpool Film Office, whose job it is to attract film-makers to the city, today revealed there is already a 40% increase in the first quarter of this year compared to 2011.

The city has also benefited indirectly from the London Olympics, with productions which were due to shoot in the Capital relocating from the Thames to the Mersey.

Liverpool Film Office manager Lyn Saunders says: “Over recent years there’s been a shift in the attitudes of producers and directors in terms of Liverpool, and now there’s the real sense film executives are confident they can get what they need when we film in the city.

“This year we can also put some of the demand down to the Olympics – filming is limited in London and we’ve reaped the benefits of this, with many companies approaching us as an alternative location.

“It’s a really exciting, and busy, time for the team and it’s fantastic to be able to showcase Liverpool and make sure it’s a real favourite with filmmakers across the world.”

The ECHO revealed last week that the Sir Kenneth Branagh-helmed Jack Ryan movie, starring Keira Knightley, Chris Pine and Kevin Costner, is set to spend several days shooting in the city centre this month.

The project, with a cast and crew of around 500, is one of two Hollywood blockbusters set to film in Liverpool this autumn, alongside what is being billed at the moment simply as a “leading BBC drama with an outstanding cast”.

Meanwhile one of the highlights of the BBC’s autumn schedule, primetime drama Good Cop, which was shot on location in the city, Wirral and on Crosby beach, saw its first episode screened last Thursday.

The show was penned by Liverpool screenwriter Stephen Butchard and stars Liverpool’s Steven Graham, Mark Womack, Michael Angelis, Kerrie Hayes and Kevin Harvey alongside Warrington-born former Hollyoaker Warren Brown in the lead role.

Producer Rebecca Hodgson says: “We had a brilliant time filming in Liverpool. It was a journey of discovery. The director was from London, the production designer was from Glasgow while I and the director of photography live in Manchester.

“We started exploring the city on foot and around every corner we found something new to excite us – the bombed out church, the Georgian squares, the 60s and 70s office blocks, the Manhattan-style skyline from Wirral.

“We gradually fell in love with the city and that gradual exploration is mirrored by the four episodes.

“We start by glimpsing the city in episode one and by episode four the action starts at the Anglican cathedral and we’re running all over Liverpool. I don't want to recommend it too highly or everyone else will start filming there!”

Channel 4 meanwhile has been in the city since April shooting Utopia, which stars James Fox, Geraldine James, Simon McBurney and The Thick of It’s Paul Higgins.

The flagship conspiracy thriller is set in London but is being filmed in its entirety in Liverpool over six months.

Utopia producer Bekki Wray-Rogers echoed the Good Cop team: “Liverpool is an incredible city to film in. We’ve found nearly 100 different locations all of which look amazing.

“The architecture within the city, the dock areas and the surrounding countryside have combined to give us an incredible backdrop for our series.

“No other city in the UK could have provided us with such a palette to work with.

“And Liverpool is served well by its film office. Unique within the UK as part of the city council not only do they understand filming but also the intricacies of the needs of the city.

“From this position they’re able to help us navigate the regulations and oil the wheels that often make filming so difficult. We’ll definitely be coming back.”

Homegrown TV shows such as LA Productions’ Moving On, popular series like Location, Location, Location and Come Dine With Me, Saturday night ratings winner the X Factor, and adverts like Walkers Crisps also helped to boost the number of filming days from 733 in 2010/11 to a record 894 in 2011/12.

The city’s cabinet member for culture and tourism Wendy Simon adds: “The calibre of productions being filmed here is at an all time high, and companies appear to be spending much more time in the city.”

What was filmed in Liverpool?

Good Cop: four-part police drama

Young Dracula: a CBBC production filmed at the disused Margaret Beavan school in West Derby, and Croxteth Hall for external shots.

House of Anubis: Follows a group of teenagers living together in a boarding house during secondary school. Filmed for Nickelodeon by Liverpool’s Lime Pictures with 116 days filming in the city.

Blood: A £5m feature starring Paul Bettany and Brian Cox which used Albert Dock as a location

The Secret of Crickley Hall: BBC drama of James Herbert’s chilling tale to be aired later this year which used Falkner Street and Blackburne House as its main locations

Moving On: The second series of the six-part drama filmed by LA Production. The third series starts production this month.

Blackout: TV drama starring Christopher Eccleston and Dervla Kirwan.

Stepping Up: Five stand-alone dramas for CBBC, filmed by LA Productions and themed around the new challenges children face when moving into a new and sometimes overwhelming environment.

PLUS

Big Fat Gypsy Wedding Special; Location, Location, Location; Come Dine With Me; Don’t tell the Bride; Casualty; Walkers crisps advert; Sainsbury’s Christmas advert; X Factor; Hillsborough documentary; Desperate Scousewives; Flog It!; Gok’s Clothes RoadShow

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/in-the-mix/2012/09/05/liverpool-becomes-merseywood-as-hundreds-of-films-tv-shows-and-adverts-bring-19m-to-city-100252-31768135/2/#ixzz25bWDtdzQ

Kenneth Branagh and Chris Pine bring Liverpool's Strand to standstill with dramatic car chase filming

THE HOLLYWOOD touch transformed parts of Liverpool last night as Kenneth Branagh and Chris Pine began another night of film shoots for new blockbuster Jack Ryan.

The city was transformed into an international backdrop for the fast-paced spy movie Jack Ryan.

With New York Police Department cars and Russian shop frontage and street signs, the city took on a definite international feel.

Directed by Branagh and featuring Pride and Prejudice star Keira Knightley, the film will see Star Trek actor Chris Pine reprise the role of CIA agent Jack Ryan.

The role was previously played on the big screen by Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford.

Pine was seen taking directions from Branagh yesterday evening as the second night of filming got under way.

Knightley will play Cathy Ryan, Pine’s love interest, in the Paramount Pictures production thought to be the first in a trilogy.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star was spotted in the Liverpool on Monday, although the ECHO understands she is no longer in the city.

Kevin Costner is also set for a role in the film, alongside Branagh who will star as a villain.

Last night roads around the commercial district were shut down causing some diversions on city bus routes.

People gathered behind the cordons to catch a glimpse of the action.

The Strand was also closed in the early hours of this morning for more car chase scenes.

The character of Jack Ryan has hit the cinemas before in films The Hunt For Red October, Patriot Games, Clear And Present Danger and most recently in 2002 in The Sum Of All Fears. The latest offering has been written as a pre-quel and will show Ryan before he joined the CIA.

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Kenneth Branagh and Keira Knightley film new Tom Clancy Jack Ryan movie in Liverpool (GALLERY)

Film crew get ready for a night of filming in Water Street where foreign writing has been put on some buildings and cars with foreign number plates are seen.
Film crew get ready for a night of filming in Water Street where foreign writing has been put on some buildings and cars with foreign number plates are seen.

HOLLYWOOD stars Keira Knightley and Kenneth Branagh were in Liverpool city centre filming a new blockbuster, Jack Ryan.

Crews from a feature film with the provisional title Jack Ryan – based on the Tom Clancy spy novels – shut down the Commercial District as Branagh directed car chase scenes on Castle Street and Water Street.

The Strand was also closed from 2am and was believed to be the scene for street car chases.
The movie will see Star Trek actor Chris Pine reprise the role of CIA agent Ryan – previously played on the big screen by Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford – in the Paramount Pictures production, which is thought to be the first in a trilogy.

Crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of Knightley.Earlier, what was believed to be the Pride and Prejudice star was snapped embracing a colleague.

Filming will continue until Thursday.

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/in-the-mix/2012/09/18/kenneth-branagh-and-keira-knightley-film-new-tom-clancy-jack-ryan-movie-in-liverpool-100252-31855676/#ixzz26vcrszr4

Just been watching Good Cop on IPlayer. Have to say, the city looks great in it and the productions values are surprisingly high.

I love the strange routes people take to get to places as well. The magic of film...

Yeah I've been catching up with it myself and yes the city looks fantastic in it, I like the fact that they were in the marina, you don't normally see around there and the majority of the population doesn't know such a great area exists so close to our City Centre, I'm well pleased with it.

Filming starts in Liverpool for new TV drama Peaky Blinders starring Sam Neill, Helen McCrory and Cillian Murphy

A LIVERPOOL dockside was transported back to the early 20th century for a forthcoming television gangster saga.

The six-part drama series, called Peaky Blinders, has started shooting at the city’s Stanley Dock.

It boasts a cast including Inception actor Cillian Murphy, Jurassic Park star Sam Neill and Harry Potter actress Helen McCrory.

Camera crews, a horse and cart and a vintage car arrived on set this week as Liverpool held onto its claim as one of the UK’s most acclaimed filming locations.

The cast of the BBC drama also features The Tudors actress Annabelle Wallis, actor Iddo Goldberg, who appeared in Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, and Wild Bill star Charlie Creed-Miles.

Series creator Steven Knight said: “The story I want to tell is based on family legend and historical fact.

“It is a fiction woven into a factual landscape which is breathtakingly dramatic and cinematic but which for very English reasons has been consigned to historical text books.”

The story begins in 1919 in the slum neighbourhoods of post war Birmingham – a city where some scenes were also filmed.

It is set in the days after World War I when returning soldiers, revolutionaries and criminal gangs all fight for survival.

Guns smuggled home from the trenches find their way on to the streets and become lethal currency.

And as Churchill mobilises his special branch forces, illegal bookmakers make fortunes in speak-easy betting shops.

It centres on the fierce Shelby family, who are headed up by actor Damian Lewis’s wife Helen McCrory, who plays matriarch Aunt Polly Gray.

Named the Peaky Blinders for their practise of sewing razor blades into the peaks of their caps, they make their money from off track betting, protection and robbery.

Their boss Tommy Shelby, who is played by Cillian Murphy, is the most ruthless brother in the family.

But his leadership is put to the test when Belfast police chief Campbell, played by The Piano actor Sam Neill, is sent to clean up the city.

Annabelle Wallis, who also starred in the Snow White and the Huntsman, plays Grace Burgess who arrives with a mysterious past and a secret.

Ben Stephenson, controller BBC drama commissioning, said: “Building on BBC Two’s reputation for world-class drama Peaky Blinders is a phenomenally authored drama series shedding light on a piece of hidden British history.

“Authentic, bloody and utterly compelling, Peaky Blinders welcomes Steven Knight and Otto Bathurst and adds another boldly crafted drama to our roster of upcoming shows.”

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2012/10/24/filming-starts-in-liverpool-for-new-tv-drama-peaky-blinders-starring-sam-neill-helen-mccrory-and-cillian-murphy-100252-32090993/#ixzz2AQDdSkEh

Here's a novel idea, how about a film filmed in Liverpool actually being set in Liverpool? One that isn't about The Beatles, football or crime and policing... for a change.

Here's a novel idea, how about a film filmed in Liverpool actually being stet in Liverpool? One that isn't about The Beatles, football or crime and policing... for a change.


I know what you mean, we stand in for everywhere bar Liverpool.

I watched a bit of a film by Tim Burton and Johnny Depp the other day called Dark Shadows, that started off in Liverpool before moving onto America.

In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America.

Here's a novel idea, how about a film filmed in Liverpool actually being set in Liverpool? One that isn't about The Beatles, football or crime and policing... for a change.

To be honest, that doesn't leave much else, telly wise. They did that Moving On drama didn't they? That was all serious and feelings based.

Liverpool could carry off it's own period drama series well., set in Victorian times. There's also this little blighter, which looks daft but appealing.
http://www.indiegogo.com/badfeelingfilm

http://vimeo.com/37371098

I love the bbc/hbo series Rome from a few years back. I watch it over and over again. I would love there to be a similar one called LIVERPOOL set in the 19thC.

Moving on was made by a comapny based in Kirkdale. Not all the episodes were set in Liverpool but it was good. Daytime telly though.

What was the Liverpool film (the 'Beiruit without the Sunshine' one) about a band? Didn't they have to film most of it in Dublin because it looked like a shithole, thus a more realistic view of Liverpool than Liverpool itself?

Hit CBBC drama Young Dracula filmed at Liverpool Echo Arena and conference centre

LIVERPOOL’S Arena and Convention Centre was overrun by “vampires” as part of filming for a hit BBC drama.

Parts of the BT Convention Centre and ECHO Arena underwent a spooky transformation for Young Dracula.

It will appear in series four of the children’s comedy series due to air on the CBBC channel from today.

ACC’s loading bay doubled up as the Slayers lab and featured scenes starring Chair of the Slayers Guild, Mina Van Helsing, played by Joanne Knowles.

It also included her son, the Slayer, Jonno Van Helsing, who is played by actor Terry Haywood.

Filming featured feral ‘vampires’ being tackled by Vladimir Dracula, played by Gerran Howell, and his former tutor Bertrand, played by Cesare Taurasi, against the backdrop of The Wheel of Liverpool.

The venue, which is more used to welcoming conferences and concerts than blood sucking demons, was also used to portray the bases for the Slayers Guild and the Vampire High Council.

The story follows Young Dracula Vlad who is a reluctant, peace-loving, non-blood drinking vampire, much to his family’s disapproval.

Tim Banfield, commercial director at ACC Liverpool, said: “Over recent months, ACC Liverpool has featured on TV from The X Factor boot camp, which reached more than 16 million viewers over an entire weekend, to the Liebherr Men’s Table Tennis World Cup, which was televised globally. These programmes help to portray the city and our venue to a national and international audience.

“We are pleased the BBC was able to transform parts of our building, in particular lesser known areas such as one of our loading bays, for use in the show. It will be interesting to see the space used in this way when the programme airs.”

Cast and crew returned to Liverpool after filming in the city last year. Locations included the Margaret Beavan school on Ash Grove in West Derby, Stanley Dock and Croxteth Hall. The storyline surrounded the Count and his family who went on the run and took up residence in the 19th century school building.

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/in-the-mix/2012/10/29/hit-cbbc-drama-young-dracula-filmed-at-liverpool-echo-arena-and-conference-centre-100252-32119675/#ixzz2Ag0jZ2Yz

Does anyone know how filming in Liverpool compares with other cities and towns (excluding the capital)?

Here's a novel idea, how about a film filmed in Liverpool actually being set in Liverpool? One that isn't about The Beatles, football or crime and policing... for a change.

Did anyone see the play called 'Paradise Bound' at the Everyman in Capital of Culture year? It was a Liverpool based drama written by Jonathan Larkin. It was one of the best pieces of theatre I seen that year and would translate really well on TV.

I did hear a rumour that it was to be adapted to TV but I think it was just that, a rumour.

Liverpool FC's Champions League triumph in Istanbul set for the big screen

A SCREEN adaptation of a play about Liverpool FC’s epic Champions League triumph in 2005 has been filming in the city.

Only Fools and Horses star Paul Barber is among those who will feature in the film version of Nicky Allt’s One Night In Istanbul.

The Liverpool actor, who played Denzil in the much-loved TV series, is set to feature alongside ex-Eastender Samantha Womack and Waterloo Road stars Lucien Laviscount and Steven Waddington, according to industry reports.

James Marquand, son of Return Of The Jedi director Richard, is understood to be the film’s director.

Filming was taking place at Anfield over the weekend while several city locations are understood to feature, including Bar Bodega.

The play, which ran at the Empire, was catchlined “four Scousers, three Turks and a night full of fireworks”, and centred around fans Tommy and Gerry and their sons Jamie and Joseph, who travel to Istanbul to see Liverpool play AC Milan, and the comic and dramatic events which unfold.

Back in 2009, Austin Powers star Mike Myers was among the names tipped to star in a Hollywood film adaptation mooted at the time.

Read more: Liverpool Echo http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/in-the-mix/2012/11/12/liverpool-fc-s-champions-league-triumph-in-istanbul-set-for-the-big-screen-100252-32215167/#ixzz2C11oHJox

Film crews shoot latest Fast and Furious movie in Liverpool (GALLERY)

FILM crews and fast cars were in the city shooting scenes for the upcoming Fast and Furious 6.

The movie, which is due for release by Universal Studios next May, will star Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel, reprising his role as criminal Dominic Toretto.

Dale Street and the surrounding roads were closed off as a secondary film unit shot chase scenes and crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of the powerful cars.

In September, Kenneth Branagh was in the city filming spy thriller Jack Ryan. We have put a gallery of some other films filmed in Liverpool below.

Read more: Liverpool Echo http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/in-the-mix/2012/11/13/film-crews-shoot-latest-fast-and-furious-movie-in-liverpool-gallery-100252-32220825/#ixzz2C7CMNAr8

The Birkenhead Tunnel seems to be on the film crews radar now because of the willingness of our council to close it for filming which is great news, Harry Potter was recently filmed there.

Birkenhead tunnel to close at 7.30pm tonight for The Fast and the Furious 6 filming

THE Birkenhead Tunnel is set to close this evening for film crews to shoot scenes for the Fast and Furious 6.

The tunnel will close at 7.30pm and will reopen at 6.30am tomorrow (Wednesday).

Crowds gathered in the city centre last night as car chase scenes were filmed in Dale Street and the surrounding areas.

The movie, which is due for release by Universal Studios next May, will star Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Vin Diesel.

Not sure if this little Pathé film has been posted before, but it has a lot of shots that I´d never seen before. The first 4 minutes are terribly sad, though.
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/this-in-our-time-reel-2

Liverpool-made thriller Utopia set to air on Channel 4

LIVERPOOL has once again cemented its reputation as one of the UK’s most popular filming locations with Channel 4’s latest offering Utopia.

The new six-part drama series will see an all-star cast find themselves embroiled in a cult conspiracy theory turned real.

Dennis Kelly’s thriller, which begins at 10pm on Tuesday, was shot entirely in Liverpool from April to October last year.

Utopia producer Bekki Wray-Rogers said: “Liverpool is an incredible city to film in. The locations are stunning.

“We found nearly 100 different locations all of which look amazing. The architecture within the city, the dock areas and the surrounding countryside combined to give us an incredible backdrop for our series.

“No other city in the UK could have provided us with such a palette to work with.

“Liverpool is served well by its film office. Unique within the UK as part of the city council not only do they understand filming but also the intricacies of the needs of the city.

“From this position they were able to help us navigate the regulations and oil the wheels that often make filming so difficult.”

The team turned a former primary school in Anfield into a production base and hired Merseyside crew.

Liverpool’s Film Office revealed the budget for the drama was around £5m, of which a significant amount was spent locally.

Lynn Saunders, manager of the film office, said: “We had a bumper filming year in 2012 and it was fantastic to play host to huge dramas such as Utopia which filmed in the city for six months – a wonderful boost to the city’s economy.”

The series stars Fiona O’ Shaughnessy, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Paul Higgins, Alexandra Roach and James Fox.

Utopia centres around The Utopia Experiments, a graphic novel shrouded in mystery. When a small group find themselves in possession of a manuscript they are pursued by a murderous organisation.

Read more: Liverpool Echo http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/in-the-mix/2013/01/10/liverpool-made-thriller-utopia-set-to-air-on-channel-4-100252-32578489/#ixzz2Ha1NhUYN

Sue Johnston’s Lapland comedy returns for a full series with young Merseyside cast

CORRIE star Sue Johnston’s comedy Lapland returns for a full series next month featuring a stellar cast.

The Merseyside-based six part series will chart the lives of the Lewis family from Birkenhead.

It follows the success of the 90-minute special of the same name which aired to more than six million viewers during Christmas 2011.

Royle Family star Sue plays Eileen Lewis, the recently widowed matriarch of a close-knit and dysfunctional Liverpool family.

The BBC1 series, penned by Michael Wynne, features three generations including Eileen’s grandchildren Ethan, Melissa, Jack and Liam.

It stars Connor Dempsey, 12, from Kirkby, Georgia Doyle, 12, from Allerton, Ellis Murphy, eight, from West Derby and Adam Scotland, 12, from Liverpool.

Sylvie Gatrill from Allstars Casting runs drama classes for Connor, who plays Ethan and Georgia, who plays Melissa and said they landed their roles after a rigorous audition process.

She said: “Their dad Pete is played by Dean Andrews and mum Mandy is played by Julie Graham and Sue is their nan.

“The children worship her. She was fantastic with them and she allowed them to call her ‘Nana Sue’ because they are a family now.

“There was a scene in the Christmas special where Sue’s character let the children sleep in her bed and they were all fighting to be next to ‘Nana Sue’.

“The lovely thing about watching them is so much of their work was improvised. They are so skilled, you can’t tell they are acting.”

The 30-minute episodes were filmed in Liverpool, Birkenhead, Salford and Manchester – much closer than Norway and London for the Christmas special.

Sylvie said: “Connor goes to All Saints Centre for Learning and Georgia attends Calderstones School but when they were on set they had a tutor. They are both so dedicated to the profession.

“They have drama classes together so they know each other really well. It helped give them that extra spark when playing brother and sister.”

Read more: Liverpool Echo http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/in-the-mix/2013/01/10/sue-johnston-s-lapland-comedy-returns-for-a-full-series-with-young-merseyside-cast-100252-32578379/#ixzz2Hag8cSez

ECHO goes on set as Christina Noble movie filmed in Liverpool

FILMING is under way in Liverpool to tell the true story of a woman who overcame her horrific childhood in the slums to help others.

The movie is based on the life of Irish philanthropist Christina Noble who set up a foundation for underprivileged children in Vietnam and Mongolia.

Filmmakers have transformed the city into 1950s Dublin and 1960s Birmingham for the big screen.

Cast and crew spent January on set in Vietnam with producer and director Stephen Bradley at the helm.

They moved to Merseyside last month with locations including the famous Ogden’s tobacco factory in Boundary Lane, Southport town centre, New Ferry and the Queensway Tunnel, which doubled up as a train station.

Shooting will continue next week in Up Holland and Christina herself will join the team for the wrap.

The ECHO was given an exclusive behind-the-scenes look as filming for the feature – entitled Noble – continued in the city centre yesterday.

Producer Melanie Gore-Grimes, was among crew at The Magnet in Hardman Street, which was turned into a Birmingham dance bar.

Melanie told how Liverpool’s fantastic locations, facilities and striking architecture made it a dream for filmmakers.

She said: “What is amazing about Liverpool is it offers Dublin in the 50s and Birmingham in the 1960s.

“Liverpool has an amazing art department and all the extras we used were from Liverpool. The people are so welcoming and the locations are unspoilt, we’ve had to do very little with the locations.”

She said the story originated three years ago when Stephen Bradley and his wife Deirdre O’Kane, who plays the lead role, wanted to develop a project together.

She said: “Christina Noble is the most inspirational woman.

“Deirdre had been working on a few fundraising balls for the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation in Ireland so when she and Stephen decided to do a project she said Christina’s was the only story she wanted to tell.

“Stephen had to read the stories to see if he could be as passionate about telling Christina’s story and he was.

“Christina Noble has become a great friend of all of us and she will be here next week, which is amazing for the crew.

“It has been quite a tricky project and a tough story but Christina’s presence has helped us to tell it so we can open up the eyes of the world to her plight to help these children.”

Producers described Noble as “the inspirational true story of a woman who believes that it only takes one person to make a difference. And of how she is proved right”.

Irish actress Deirdre will appear opposite Downton Abbey star Brendan Coyle, Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham and Ruth Negga, who starred opposite Samuel L Jackson in the thriller The Samaritan.

It also features up-and-coming actress Sarah Greene as a teenage Christina.

Christina, now 68, has voiced her hopes the movie about her work will inspire a younger generation to become involved in humanitarian aid.

*More on this: Liverpool five-year-old Camille Byrne lands first film role (VIDEO)

Read more: Liverpool Echo http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2013/03/02/echo-goes-on-set-as-christina-noble-movie-filmed-in-liverpool-100252-32909026/#ixzz2MNsY20Mg

“Liverpool is an incredible city to film in. The locations are stunning. We have found nearly 100 different locations all of which look amazing. The architecture within the city, the dock areas and the surrounding countryside has combined to give us an incredible backdrop for our series. No other city in the UK could have provided us with such a palette to work with. Liverpool is served well by its Film Office. Unique within the UK as part of the city council not only do they understand filming but also the intricacies of the needs of the city. From this position they are able to help us navigate the regulations and oil the wheels that often make filming so difficult. We will definitely be coming back”.

Bekki Wray-Rogers, Producer, ‘Utopia’ by Kudos Film & TV for Channel 4

The Utopia account on Twitter confirmed a second series is being produced- hopefully it will also be filmed in Liverpool.