Scarce

Sorry not to have posted for a while - I've been hard at work on City of Vice, a tiny but mightily well-formed 5-part period drama for Channel Four here in UK. I'm directing parts 3 and 4 - an hour each, great cast, cracking scripts by up-and-coming writers, great costumes and production design and all on the slimmest, thinnest, ropiest shoe-string. The stories all centre on Henry Fielding, the English novelist, who happened (in addition to his literary efforts) to be the uber-cop of 18th-century London... and his small band of cops-in-wigs, the Bow Street Runners. The Fielding brothers are played by Ian MacDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine for you Star Wars obsessives out there, and a  host of great credits besides), Iain Glen (another great British actor who famously partnered Nicole Kidman on stage in The Blue Room), Nigel Harman (does a brilliant turn as the gay lover of an 18th-century cop) and gary Lewis (dad in Billy Elliot - and a searing, intense performance in ep 4 for City of Vice) plus Rosa Hoskins (daughter of..) making a beautifully-judged debut as Gary's daughter. Otherwise there have been a good few scripts from USA, I've closed a deal for a new movie (currently casting) and am in negotiations on a couple (well, three) more... but can't give details at this point and showbiz being showbiz you're never quite sure what's round the next corner and what "next month" actually means...
So anyway I had coffee with the indomitable Julia Short today (you remember her?) and she tells me the Straightheads DVD is out before the end of Sept. There will be a good few extras, deleted scenes, comm by Danny, Gillian and me, B-roll of the shoot and some interview clips again with the three of us -  a great package and enough to keep the most dedicated of you busy for a couple of hours. Sony are releasing the DVD sometime AFTER the UK release, with different cover art and I don't yet know whether they will include the same extras, so watch this space. We've got no news of specifics from Sony at this point.
But I have to say I'm looking forward to Straightheads, or should I say Closure, entering American airspace, and the ensuing reactions...