A modest British comedy drama, which was made with Scottish lottery money, shot largely in Glasgow and stars Scots actors Peter Mullan, Billy Boyd and Jamie Sives, looks set for worldwide success after concluding a lucrative American distribution deal.
On A Clear Day, a bittersweet drama about an unemployed shipyard worker who attempts to regain his self-respect by swimming the English Channel, was one of the big hits at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
A high profile world premiere sparked a fierce bidding war among rival buyers. A seven-figure deal has now been signed with Focus Features, the up-market arm of Universal Pictures, which distributed the recent hits Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and Lost In Translation.
Now distributors from all over the world are clamouring to see the film, which also stars Brenda Blethyn. It is being widely compared to The Full Monty, the Robert Carlyle comedy-drama about male strippers, which grossed about £150 million at cinemas worldwide in the late Nineties.
“We’re absolutely thrilled,” said producer Sarah Curtis, who was in the US last week for discussions with Focus. “We had only just finished the film when it was asked to the Sundance Film Festival. It’s got strong elements of comedy in it, but we literally had no idea how it was going to play that night in Salt Lake City in front of 2,500 people.
“There was a huge response at the end of the film. The response to Peter Mullan was absolutely fantastic.”
Mullan spent months training in a Glasgow pool to the play the role of Frank, who not only loses his job, but also has family problems and is haunted by past tragedy. After a chance remark by one of his mates, he decides to swim the Channel and begins training in secret.
“I always thought it was a very accessible, funny, moving script,” said Curtis, “but obviously to have all your instincts vindicated like that at one big screening is great.”
She said that it was a little early to proclaim the film a hit, but the American deal, which is worth more than $1 million, has prompted further international interest. There have already been offers for French and German rights.
That is good news for Scottish Screen and the Glasgow Film Office, which between them provided £230,000 towards the £4 million budget. Claire Chapman, head of production at Scottish Screen, said: “From the great success at Sundance and the flurry of activity that’s been generated, it looks like this film will give us a very healthy return.”
On A Clear Day was made by Mel Gibson’s company Icon Entertainment International, which has its own distribution operation in the UK and Australia, but the budget was pieced together from several sources and the project almost collapsed just before it was due to start shooting last year because of changes in the British tax rules.
Sally Caplan, president of Icon Film Distribution in the UK, said it was very difficult to sell a British film on the strength of a script. “Sundance proved what we suspected, that it plays pretty well to an audience. It’s a crowd-pleaser and it got them all crying and laughing.
“Since Sundance we’ve had distributors from all over the world saying, ‘When can we see it?’” She expected to conclude further deals at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The film will probably screen at the Edinburgh Film Festival in August and open in the UK in the autumn, though the release will be co-ordinated internationally.
Mike Goodrige, US editor of the trade paper Screen International, said Focus were confidant they had a hit on their hands. “They will market it in the way that worked for Waking Ned Devine and Calendar Girls and The Full Monty and Billy Elliot and other feelgood movies in America.”
Peter Mullan is not a big name in the US, though Brenda Blethyn and Billy Boyd are familiar faces. But Goodridge said that did not matter. “You are selling it as a concept. It’s overcoming the odds. It’s sweet and ethnic and English. It pushes all the right buttons.”
The only possible problem he foresaw was the Scottish accents. “I know that at Sundance some Americans found it difficult to understand what everyone was saying.”
But Sally Caplan thinks the film’s charm will prove universal. “Generally British films do quite well on their home territory, but they don’t travel. You get the odd Full Monty and the odd Waking Ned... If it’s a half Monty, I’ll be thrilled.”
