To say that Thomas Hardiman has enjoyed a disparate set of experiences on his journey to making his debut feature Medusa Deluxe would be an understatement. After studying art at Chelsea College of Arts and Oxford’s Ruskin School of Art, he worked in the art department for children’s television, then joined UK production company EMU, serving as assistant to producer Mike Elliott on Daniel Wolfe’s Catch Me Daddy and assistant producer on Guy Myhill’s The Goob. He also helped develop actor Johnny Harris’s screenplay Jimmy The Hook, which became the feature Jawbone.
Hardiman’s own short films — Radical Hardcore (“a love story about the history of carpet-making”) and Pitch Black Panacea (inspired by his grandfather’s blindness) — showcase an artistic visual sensibility, and he has enjoyed a flourishing career shooting commercials and music promos, sometimes working under his alias Dear Mr Quistgaard.
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He describes Medusa Deluxe as an “anarchic comedy and murder mystery set in a competitive hairdressing competition”, noting that it features a true ensemble cast (“I’m a Nashville fan”) and no detective character solving the crime. The inspiration comes from Hardiman’s childhood growing up in Reading, spending long hours waiting for his mother in a hair salon, and his years cutting hair for fellow students while at Chelsea. “I got told to quit art school to become a hairdresser,” he laughs.
Filmed in Preston, Lancashire in late 2020 during the pandemic, Medusa Deluxe was developed with the BFI, backed by BFI and BBC Film, and is produced by EMU (Small Axe, Benediction). Notable department heads include casting director Gary Davy and director of photography Robbie Ryan. “It’s a story of a community that falls apart and then comes back together,” says Hardiman.
He acknowledges the apparent contradiction of his own career path. “I come from an art background. I am always looking at video art and slightly different ways of telling stories,” he says. “Then I happened to get a job at EMU, helping craft stories in a way that could get financing and get out to people. I’m always trying to put those two things together.”
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