Norfolk producer readies new projects

Rachel Dargavel’s Crybaby Pictures, a newly launched UK production outfit, arrives at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) (Jan 21-Feb 1) with its first feature Norfolk in the Tiger Competition.

Martin Radich’s tense father-son story is part of Creative England’s iFeatures programme, and is produced by Dargavel alongside Finlay Pretsell of SDI Productions. [Click here for Martin Radich interview]

Dargavel now has an active slate of projects in development for Crybaby, which is based in both London and Nottingham.

The projects include:

Only You,with The Bureau, which will mark the anticipated feature debut of writer-director Harry Wootliff. The film is now casting and finalising its finance.

The love story is about a couple who have a whirlwind romance, but cracks start to show in the relationship when they try to have a baby and can’t conceive. Dargavel says references for that film include Blue Valentine or Blue is the Warmest Colour.

Sleeping Dogs, written by Adam Dewar, a gangster tale set in London’s Isle of Dogs. The story follows a man who is released from prison after 40 years behind bars, seeking revenge on the people who actually committed the crime he was accused of. Steel Mill Pictures is also on board.

A Place To Bury Strangers, also with The Bureau and written by Al Mackay. The psychological thriller is set in the south of France, about a young English couple going to work on an organic farm, where they have romantic upheavals and murderous histories are uncovered.

Dargavel has previously worked on several films with Ken Marshall and Paul Andrew Williams’ Steel Mill Pictures, including co-producing Song For Marion and line producing Cherry Tree Lane.

With Tristan Goligher at The Bureau, she has also line produced Berlinale Competition title 45 Years, directed by Andrew Haigh.

“I’m still in cahoots with the guys at Steel Mill but I wanted somewhere to call my own,” Dargavel told ScreenDaily in Rotterdam.

“It made sense to me to produce my own slate of projects…it’s standing on my own two feet but also capitalizing on the relationships I have built over the years.”

Dargavel describes Crybaby as something of a collective, also including writers Al Mackay, Ed Hime and Adam Dewar, producer Anna Griffin, and script reader Kate O’Hara. “We all try to read everything and feed into each others’ projects,” she added.

Dargavel wants Crybaby to work on films that are audience-friendly while also having an artistic bent. She points to films like Martha Marcy May Marlene and Animal Kingdom as being in the same vein of “commercial films that tread an arthouse line…in the UK, it’s nice to have more films that have commercial interests but retain that Britishness.”