Altitude spies Spooks film

Altitude Film Sales is to bring five market debuts to the American Film Market (AFM) next week, including spy-thriller Spooks: The Greater Good - a feature version of the BAFTA-winning BBC TV series that ran for 10 series from 2002 to 2011.

Bharat Nalluri, who was the originating director of the TV series (known as MI-5 in the US), will take the reins of the feature that will shoot in the first quarter of 2014.

The film opens when terrorist Adam Qasim escapes from MI5 custody during a routine handover and head of counterterrorism, Harry Pearce, is blamed.

When the disgraced Pearce disappears one night off a bridge into the Thames, his protégé Will Crombie is called in to help uncover what happened. With a devastating attack on London imminent, Will finds himself on the trail of a conspiracy that stretches from Vietnam to the Mediterranean.

Peter Firth, who played Harry in all 86 episodes of the TV series, will reprise his role with additional cast currently being locked in.

Producers are Jane Featherstone and Stephen Garrett for Kudos and Ollie Madden for Shine.

Spooks collaborators Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent have written the script.

Pulp documentary

Also new to Altitude’s slate are supernatural thriller The Last Word, from Red Blue & White director Simon Rumley; band documentary Pulp; found footage sci-fi mystery Hangar 10 from the producers Triangle; and The Call Up, Charles Barker’s Brit List sci-fi produced by former Working Title exec Matt Wilkinson and John Giwa-Amu.

Eric Gores, Peter Facinelli and Rob DeFranco from A7sle and Frank Mancuso Jr. of Boss Media produce The Last Word, a revenge story which is currently in production and set for a 2014 release.

The film’s lead Mike Doyle will next be seen in the Clint Eastwood adaptation of Jersey Boys as well as the recently wrapped You’re Not You beside Hilary Swank and Emmy Rossum.

Music doc Pulp about Jarvis Cocker’s famous Sheffield band of the same name is directed by Florian Habicht and produced by Alex Boden of Pistachio Pictures with Steve Milne on board as executive producer.

The documentary sees the band, which sold more than 10 million albums with hits such as Common People and Disco 2000, return to Sheffield to play one final concert in thanks to their most loyal fans. 

Soda Pictures will release in the UK, Hopscotch eOne will release in Australia/New Zealand.

Hangar 10 is written by Daniel Simpson and Adam Preston and directed by Simpson. Recently completed, the producers are Laurie Cook and Jason Newmark of Bigscope Films, Will Clarke for Altitude and Paul Higgins.

Winner of the 2011 Brit List, script The Call-Up tells the story of a group of online gamers invited to test out a state-of-the-art virtual reality simulation representing elite soldiers in a war zone.

The film, directed by commercials director Charles Barker, will be shot by Gary Shaw (Moon) while VFX is to be handled by Bait.

Mike Runagall, managing director of Altitude Film Sales, said each of the five feature are “from distinctive and dynamic film-making teams”.

He added: “These unique films have the right elements to reach significant international audiences and we look forward to unveiling early footage and further building on the positive buyer response that we have had this year.”

Will Clarke’s London-based Altitude yesterday launched UK distribution arm Altitude Film Distribution.