EXCLUSIVE: Top Boy director Brady Hood is attached to direct UK feature The Clink about a young offender who gets the chance to work in a high-end prison restaurant.
Based on a real charity, the movie tells the story of Tesco – a seasoned young offender entering his first stretch in adult prison. Destined for a future in and out of prison, hope comes for Tesco when he gets the chance to work in a high-end prison restaurant that serves members of the paying public.
Script comes from Helen Greaves (Walking The Dogs) and producing is John Giwa-Amu (The Machine) of Good Gate Media. The Iron Lady producer Damian Jones of DJ Films and Alan Martin (Muscle) are on board as executive producers.
The $5-7M-budgeted project has been developed with financier Great Point Media who Giwa-Amu worked with on Berlinale winner The Party, interactive project The Complex and documentary Count Me In, recently sold by Embankment Films.
The team have been scouting locations in Wales, Yorkshire and the Midlands. Producers are in discussions with sales agents and studios. Heather Basten is casting director.
Rising Brit director Hood is currently directing Oscar winner Olivia Colman in Steven Knight’s FX and BBC mini-series Great Expectations. He previously directed four episodes of Netflix’s BAFTA-winning crime-drama series Top Boy.
Giwa-Amu commented: “Inspired by The Clink charity which consistently achieves incredible results lowering reoffending rates across the UK, the film is a funny, furious and heart-wrenching tale about a young man stripped of hope but who is redeemed through the power of food and love.”
Giwa-Amu’s Good Gate Media has just wrapped on feature Ten Dates, the sequel to interactive lockdown rom-com Five Dates, and last year produced drumming documentary Count Me In (featuring interviews with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, Pink Floyd, and Queen), which is on Netflix.
Hood is repped by Independent. Basten is repped by Curtis Brown.
