British film-maker and producer Gabriel Range has unveiled details of his new slate for production company Altered Image, which is also launching a £2m production and development fund.

Death Of A President director Gabriel Range has a number of narrative dramas in development for his production company Altered Image.

Range will direct My Friend The Mercenary, based on the best selling non-fiction book by James Brabazon about his experiences of being a young British journalist who went into the jungle to film the Liberian civil war, accompanied by South Africa’s most notorious mercenary.

Michael Thomas, who adapted The Devil’s Double, is writing the screenplay for the project which will be around the £5-8m budget range and is likely to be a South African co-production.

“Michael’s take on it is very much an exploration of what drives men to go out and prove their masculinity,” Range told Screen.

Another project on the slate is 37 Voices Of Farzad Ali, a feature based on the true story of a 23 year old Glaswegian Pakistani chip shop worker who defrauded a number of banks and airlines out of £230m

Patrick Harbinson is now writing the screenplay, with development funding from Film4. Range will direct the “modern day Robin Hood” feature, which will be set between Glasgow, London, Pakistan and Dubai and will shoot on a budget of around £2m.

Also in development is a contemporary noir “in the spirit of Double Indemnity” set in the aftermath of the economic crash in London, about a former con artist turned cleaner who is roped into a scam with a banker and his girlfriend. Costa Rica is based on an original script by British novelist Jake Arnott, with Amber Trentham developing the screenplay. Range is hoping to shoot on a budget of under £1m, with an ambitious cast.

Meanwhile Amber Trentham has co-written the script for Available Light with Tom Carty, who will make his directorial debut with the London set film about a man suffering from locked in syndrome who forms a bond with a brothel worker. The script was developed with MEDIA funding. Range, who will produce, describes the feature as a “tragic love story about two people who both have a disconnect with their bodies who find a connection in a dark setting.” The project is about to go out for casting.

Range will also produce Dick Kerr Ladies, the true story of a group of factory workers who form the first womens’ football team during the First World War, going on to play for a crowd of 100,000 at Preston North End’s stadium, before the FA decided to ban women from playing and the team were forced to head stateside. Written by Royal Court playwright Jane Brody, with development funding from MEDIA, the project is still at the first draft stage, with a director yet to be attached.

“All the projects on the slate have something in common - they all either have factual basis or they somehow subvert reality, which reflects my journalistic background and the people we work with,” explains Range, who has been developing the slate for the last five years together with development executive Angeli Macfarlane, associate producer Nina Schermer and research producers Tabby Cole and Susannah Price.

“We are aiming to make British films that can punch above their weight internationally,” adds Range.

Altered Image is also launching its own £2m development and production EIS fund, which will be 75% production,  25% development and is being put together by private equity financier Andrew Seys Llewellyn.  The initial £2m will rise when the new EIS tax rules come into play in 2012.

 

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