Well, it’s been a while. Plenty has been happening, much of which – inevitably, all the most exciting things – I have been unable to talk about. Until now.
One, at least I can shout about. And it’s a biggie. Way back I-don’t-know-when Felicity Evans and I pitched an idea, then called The Welcome, to Starchild Pictures – a story involving asylum seekers in the UK and a house with a bad reputation. It was commissioned, got a director on board (the hugely talented Remi Weekes), got written, and then attracted the attention of New Regency and BBC Films. They decided to join the party – and from that point on, things got a little crazy.
On the one hand, the project – now called His House – grew considerably in size. On the other, the buzz around it – and the desire of others to get involved – created some inexplicable friction with no less than the Weinstein’s, who slapped a $10m lawsuit on it. For a while things were stalled, but when the Weinstein’s started having bigger things to worry about than sole distribution of a modest budget horror with a social theme, the project was once again free to get underway. And by now, it had a cast that included Sope Dirisu, Wunmi Mosaku, Matt Smith and Javier Botet.
And now here we are. His House was finished in November 2019. It was selected for Sundance 2020 in December and will premiere there on 27 January.
At the time of writing, that’s just one week away. To say we are excited is an understatement. What the response will be, we don’t know – but I will, of course, keep you posted.
You can read about the crop of UK films at Sundance, including His House, here.
Read a little more about His House and other films showing at Sundance at the official Sundance website.
Toby Venables 