Unknown Things

Synopsis

Based on a short story by the late Reginald Bretnor, Unknown Things is described as a tale of mystery, romance, antique mechanical objects and murder. Set in London, it stars Paul Rhys as an antique dealer whose obsessive infatuation with a married woman leads him on a quest for increasingly bizarre contraptions to satisfy her collector husband and thus remain close by her side.



"It's a fascinating and densely written piece with no violence or gunplay yet it is absolutely terrifying," claims first-time director Bruno Coppola. "It explores fear and a hidden power which means it doesn't conform to any formulas you often find in modern film-making."



Coppola had worked with co-producer Sarah Bradshaw for the BBC World Service and acquired the rights to Bretnor's work, thinking it might make an excellent low-budget feature. But the screenplay by Matthew Jansky attracted such interest that the project soon mushroomed.



"It caught the imagination of photographer Ken Westbury, who worked on some of the classic Dennis Potter pieces. I had never made a feature but once he came on board with his crew, people trusted him and we were able to secure an amazing cast. The initial rushes also created a wave of interest that brought in further financing."



Unknown Things has attracted the attention of a number of major distributors and is expected to make its debut on the festival circuit this autumn.

Details

Year

2000

Type of film

Features

Director

Bruno Coppola

Music

Peter Chase.

Dir

Bruno Coppola.

Prods

Bruno Coppola, Sarah Bradshaw.

Scr

Matthew Jansky,

DoP

Ken Westbury.

Prod des

Giovanni Guarino.

Ed

Tariq Anwar.

Main cast

Saskia Reeves, Paul Rhys, David Hayman, Elsa Zylberstein, Adam Henderson, Constantine Gregory.

Budget

Medium.

Funding

Pre-sales, deferrals.Sara Sugarman

Genre

Production status

Complete

Please let us know if we need to make any amendments to this Film entry mailing us directly at

Last updated 24th June 2005