Simon West, the UK filmmaker behind Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and The Expendables, is to direct A Paige Odyssey for nascent UK production company Scrapbook Pictures.
Scrapbook Pictures was set up by visual artist Stuart Birchall and producers Leila Mousavi and Seb Brown in February 2024 to focus on developing original, live action family films using physically-produced special effects, known as practical FX. This will be the company’s first feature.
A Paige Odyssey follows a grief-stricken father who becomes immersed in a children’s book written by his late wife, opening a door to the world of his wife’s imagination.
Practical FX, Birchall explained, involves uniting “traditional film crafts with modern technology to bring the story to life. We are striving for all action to be caught in-camera, which is ambitious”.
The fantasy world build will take 40 weeks and will start construction this spring, with the aim of shooting towards the end of 2025 in Manchester.
“I’m looking forward to bringing my experience of live action, practical FX and storytelling to a fantasy adventure with an original screenplay – and am particularly excited to be utilising miniatures and creature FX within this process,” said West.
Producing alongside Birchall, Mousavi and Brown will be actor and comedian Ronni Ancona. Tom Guida will serve as executive producer.
A Paige Odyssey will be co-produced by miniatures FX supervisor and owner of the Magic Camera Company, José Granell, whose credits include the Harry Potter franchise, Batgirl and Napoleon.
No comments yet