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Mark Addy, known for “The Full Monty” and “Game of Thrones,” and “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’s” Yasmin Al-Khudhairi joined other cast members from upcoming British feature “First Christmas” in a live table read in London
recently. It was an unconventional move by the filmmakers to build industry momentum ahead of closing the film’s financing.
Held at St Paul’s Church in London’s Covent Garden on Oct. 1, the event attracted an audience of more than 100 guests and brought together a cast that also includes “Poldark’s” Eleanor Tomlinson, Ian McNeice (“Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls”), Sarita Choudhury (“And Just Like That…”), Dave Benson Philips, Dean-Charles Chapman (“Game of Thrones”), Samuel Anderson (“Amandaland”) and “Taskmaster” creator Alex Horne.
With independent film financing presenting continuing challenges for U.K. producers seeking to attract investment, secure distribution and get their projects greenlit, the team behind “First Christmas” adopted an innovative approach to showcasing the film’s commercial potential.
Rather than following the conventional route of waiting until financing is fully secured before assembling the cast for a reading, director Keith Kopp and producer Luke Allen brought the production to a live audience using the cast to demonstrate the strength of the material.
Other partners include U.S. producer Alyssa Roehrenbeck, who recently had two films premiere at SXSW. One of them, “Wishful Thinking,” starring Maya Hawke and Lewis Pullman, won the Grand Jury Prize and is scheduled for release through Sony Pictures Classics. Her other recent project, “A Simple Machine,” is receiving a limited U.S. theatrical release this autumn.
The event comes as the producers work toward securing the last tranche of financing and an international sales partner, with production planned to begin shooting in the coming months.
“First Christmas” is a darkly comic family drama centered on a widowed father who brings his estranged adult children and their families together for Christmas, only to find that unresolved grievances and family tensions are not easily put aside for the festive season.
Written by Laurence Guy, the film “draws on their shared experiences of grief and the often-uncomfortable humor that accompanies family loss,” according to a statement. The idea emerged following a screening of Kopp’s previous feature, “Translations,” which received a U.K. theatrical release and won awards at the Riverside Intl. Film Festival.
“There’s no shortage of good independent films trying to get made, but the challenge is finding ways to stand out and giving the right partners the confidence to come on board,” Allen said. “We felt that bringing the cast together and allowing people to experience the script in this way, rather than simply read about it, was a much better way to demonstrate what we’re building. We are asking people to invest in our creative vision, so there’s something very powerful about actually showing it to them in this way.”
Additional producers on “First Christmas” include actor Samuel Anderson and Jeremy Watson.
