Harry Potter star Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgard will star in Pillion, the debut feature of UK filmmaker Harry Lighton, produced by Element Pictures and shooting in the UK this summer.
Based on Adam Mars-Jones’ novel Box Hill, the film follows a romance between a shy young man and the handsome leader of a kinky, queer motorbike club.
Element Pictures’ Emma Norton, Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe will produce the film with Lee Groombridge.
Cornerstone Films is handling worldwide sales on the project, which it will launch at Cannes this month.
The film is backed by BBC Film, which developed the project, and the BFI. It will also receive production finance from UK distributor-exhibitor Picturehouse, marking the company’s first move into production finance. Picturehouse will handle UK distribution, with September Films – which has also provided finance – releasing the film in Benelux.
Executive producers are BBC Film’s Eva Yates, Picturehouse’s Clare Binns, September Films’ Pim Hermeling and Skarsgard.
“Harry is a filmmaker who is drawn to risk and fascinated by the potential to find surprising complexity in everyday life,” said Norton.
“Harry’s script is equally compelling and shocking as it is funny and entertaining - and one of the best we’ve read in years,” said a statement from Cornerstone’s Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder.
Lighton was named a Screen Star of Tomorrow as a writer-director in 2018. He has previously directed shorts including Wren Boys, which was longlisted for a Bifa in 2017 and nominated for a Bafta the following year. Melling played Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films, and has since appeared in Netflix hit The Queen’s Gambit.
Mars-Jones’ Box Hill won the 2019 Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize.
Additional reporting from Mona Tabbara.
No comments yet