Freefall Productions

 Doomsday (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from www.freefall-productions.com on 28/12/20) 2008 / UK / 108 minutes “Are you talking about people or pound notes?” Director: Neil Marshall / Screenplay: Neil Marshall / Director of Photography: Sam McCurdy / Music: Tyler Bates / Production: Steven Paul and Benedict Carver for Rogue Pictures / Cast: Rhona Mitra (Eden Sinclair), Bob Hoskins (Bill Nelson), Malcolm McDowell (Kane), Alexander Siddig (John Hatcher), David Patrick O’Hara (Michael Canaris), Craig Conway (Sol), Adrian Lester (Norton), Nora-Jane Noone (Read), Sean Pertwee (Dr. Talbot), Lee-Anne Liebenberg (Viper), Leslie Simpson (Carpenter), Chris Robson (Miller), Martin Compston (Joshua), Axelle Carolyn Marshall (Podium Marauder). Doomsday begins in Scotland in the then present day of 2008. A deadly virus has spread among the population, causing the rest of the UK to build a modern version of Hadrian’s Wall to keep the infected in. ...

Eastern Promises (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from www.freefall-productions.com on 28/12/20) 2007 / UK / 100 minutes “You belong in there, with nice people. Stay away from people like me.” Director: David Cronenberg / Screenplay: Steven Knight / Director of Photography: Peter Suschitzky / Music: Howard Shore / Production: Robert Lantos and Paul Webster for Scion Films / Cast: Viggo Mortensen (Nikolai), Vincent Cassel (Kirill), Naomi Watts (Anna), Armin Mueller-Stahl (Semyon), Donald Sumpter (Yuri), Josef Altin (Ekrem), Jerzy Skolimowski (Stepan), Sinead Cusack (Helen), Tamer Hassan (Chechen).  London, between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, 2006. Tatiana, an underage, undocumented Russian girl forced into prostitution and heroin addiction dies during childbirth but the baby survives. Anna (Naomi Watts), a half Russian midwife, finds a diary among the dead girl’s possessions. Although she can speak some Russian, Anna cannot read it so...

 Boarding Gate (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from freefall-productions.com on 02/11/20) 2007 / France / 106 minutes “I just came here to see what obsessed me so much. I can’t see it now- it’s gone.” Director: Olivier Assayas / Screenplay: Olivier Assayas / Director of Photography: Yorick Le Saux / Music: Various Artists / Production: Francois Margolin for Margo Films / Cast: Asia Argento (Sandra), Michael Madsen (Miles Rennberg), Kelly Lin (Sue Wang), Carl Ng (Lester Wang), Kim Gordon (Kay), Alex Descas (Andrew), Joanna Preiss (Lisa). Olivier Assayas’s Boarding Gate has the feel of a film you’ve started watching halfway through and somehow makes that a good thing. At the beginning, the audience is thrown straight into the lives of characters we haven’t been “Properly” introduced to in the midst of a plot that’s already been going on for a while. And while there are a few answers by the end for those paying attention, they aren’t rea...

Hot Fuzz (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from freefall-productions.com on 02/11/20) 2007 / UK / 121 minutes “Nasty way to go!” Director: Edgar Wright / Screenplay: Edgar Wright & Simon Pegg / Director of Photography: Jess Hall / Music: David Arnold / Production: Nira Park, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner for Working Title Films / Cast: Simon Pegg (Sergeant Nicholas Angel), Nick Frost (PC Danny Butterman), Jim Broadbent (Inspector Frank Butterman), Timothy Dalton (Simon Skinner), Bill Bailey (Sergeant Turner), Paul Freeman (Reverend Shooter), Stuart Wilson (Dr. Hatcher), Edward Woodward (Tom Weaver), Kenneth Cranham (James Reaper), Stephen Merchant (P.I. Staker), Rory McCann (Michael Armstrong), Lucy Punch (Eve Draper), David Bradley (Arthur Webley), Olivia Colman (PC Doris Thatcher), Karl Johnson (PC Bob Walker), Kevin Eldon (Sergeant Tony Fisher), Paddy Considine (DS Andy Wainwright), Rafe Spall (DC Andy Cartwright), David Threlfall (Mart...

Stander (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from freefall-productions.com on 02/11/20) 2003 / South Africa / 111 minutes “In case you have a short memory, this is a fucking robbery!” Director: Bronwen Hughes / Screenplay: Bima Stagg / Director of Photography: Jess Hall / Music: The Free Association / Production: Martin Katz, Chris Roland and Julia Verdin for Grosvenor Park Productions / Cast: Thomas Jane (Andre Stander), Dexter Fletcher (Lee McCall), David Patrick O’Hara (Allan Heyl), Deborah Kara Unger (Bekkie Stander), Ashley Taylor (Cor van Deventer), Marius Weyers (General Stander), Melanie Merle (Shar), Bonginkosi Mavimbela (Robert Mnguni). Like 24 Hour Party People, Bronwen Hughes’s exceptionally exhilarating but frustratingly underseen South African Crime masterpiece Stander is based on an incredible true story very specific to a time and place. And like 24HPP, the film’s most outlandish and unbelievable events are the ones that actual...

24 Hour Party People (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from freefall-productions.com on 02/11/20) 2002 / UK / 117 minutes “I’m trying to get this shower of cunts who masquerade as a band to play some fucking music, which seems to be the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do in my fucking life!” Director: Michael Winterbottom / Screenplay: Frank Cottrell Boyce / Director of Photography: Robby Muller / Music: Various Artists / Production: Andrew Eaton for Revolution Films / Cast: Steve Coogan (Tony Wilson), Lennie James (Alan Erasmus), Shirley Henderson (Lindsay), Paddy Considine (Rob Gretton), John Simm (Bernard Sumner), Danny Cunningham (Shaun Ryder), Ralf Little (Peter Hook), Andy Serkis (Martin Hannett), Peter Kay (Don Tonay), Sean Harris (Ian Curtis), Keith Allen (Roger Ames), Kieran O’Brien (Nathan), Rob Brydon (Ryan Letts), Simon Pegg (Journalist).   In grim, late ’70’s Manchester, Granada TV (regional ITV) presenter Tony Wilson...