Need to know: Liverpool’s Hurricane Films is one of the UK’s most prolific companies based outside London. Since setting up shop in 2000, Roy Boulter and Sol Papadopoulos have produced three films by Terence Davies (Of Time And The City, Sunset Song and A Quiet Passion) and Cannes 2017 midnight selection A Prayer Before Dawn, as well as a biographical documentary on trade unionist Jack Jones. One unique approach is to lure TV writers — such as Nick Saltrese and Joe Ainsworth — to move into films. Hurricane has also created its own training placements programme in an effort to encourage more people from working-class backgrounds to enter the film business.
Key personnel: Roy Boulter, Sol Papadopoulos, co-founders; Ali Coulson, head of development.
Incoming: Carl Hunter’s Sometimes Always Never, starring Bill Nighy, had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. In development now, Adam Randall will direct Recovery written by Nick Saltrese and starring Tim Roth, while Gillies MacKinnon will direct The Last Bus written by Joe Ainsworth and starring Timothy Spall. Hurricane is also developing two scripts written by Boulter and another to be directed by Papadopoulos.
Sol Papadopoulos says: “The north west of England has a rich seam of great writing talent who mostly work in TV. We try to mine that by convincing them to take less money and write a feature. We are a boutique outfit driven by stories and scripts that make the hairs on the back of your neck tingle.”
Roy Boulter says: “Having successfully co-produced with companies from Luxembourg, Belgium, the US, France and Thailand, we are keen to continue to collaborate internationally, despite the disaster that is Brexit.”
Contact: sol@hurricanefilms.net, roy@hurricanefilms.net
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