The Stage

Big screen move for Old Rep hit Collision

Published Monday 7 August 2006 at 18:30 by Liz Thomas

Andy Serkis, Ashley Walters and Steven Mackintosh have been signed up to star in a film adaptation of Dominic Leyton’s acclaimed stage play Collision.

Entitled Sugarhouse Lane, it is being developed by new production and distribution company Slingshot and follows a disillusioned middle class City boy played by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star Mackintosh. Former So Solid Crew rapper Walters, best known for his roles in Bullet Boy and Stormbreaker, will star as a young, desperate crack addict, while Serkis, who made his name as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, appears as a psychotic criminal.

Arvind Ethan David, Slingshot chief executive and producer, said: “The energy and pace of this project make it a perfect fit with slingshot’s own ethos. In less than six months we have gone from our first meeting with the writer to the first day of principal photography - this is not something that happens very often in the British film industry.

“For Sugarhouse Lane to have managed it - and with a cast and crew as excellent and exciting as this - categorically proves that what matters is the strength of your belief, the integrity of your approach and the quality of the material; not the size of your budget. The talent and commitment of our collaborators on this project affirms our faith in the slingshot model, and fills us all with fire to make a really great film.”

The production has been adapted from Leyton’s play which debuted to rave reviews at the Old Rep Theatre in Birmingham. Directed by Gary Love and co-produced with Wolf Committee and Lunar Films, filming on the drama begins in east London later this month.

To access the production blog visit www.sugarhouselane.com