Picturehouse, Film4 strike three-film distribution deal, including A Field in England

Picturehouse Entertainment, Film4 and 4DVD have struck a three-film UK distribution deal comprising Ben Wheatley’s anticipated Film4.0 English civil war horror A Field in England, Shane Meadows’ buzz documentary The Stone Roses: Made of Stone, which was formerly with Revolver, and Sophie Fiennes’ LFF documentary The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology.

Film4 and Picturehouse, who worked together on BAFTA-winner The Imposter, told Screen there could be “more to come” from the partnership going forward.

“This partnership makes sense,” said Film4’s head of commercial and brand strategy Sue Bruce Smith and Picturehouse’s director of programming and acquisitions Clare Binns. “These are the first three films in what we hope is a long journey.”

“We sat down after the success of The Imposter and talked about how we could work together”, explained Bruce Smith. “After the break-out success of The Inbetweeners Movie it was also clear that 4DVD, which has concentrated on TV series to date, wanted to get more involved in film distribution.”

Shane Meadows’ Stone Roses doc will be released in either May or June, A Field in England in the summer and A Pervert’s Guide to Ideology in autumn.

Warp-produced The Stone Roses: Made of Stone will comprise live footage from reunion gigs as well as never-seen-before archive footage. Mark Herbert produces for Warp Films, DoP is Ben Wheatley regular Laurie Rose and backers are Film4, Warp and Channel 4’s 4DVD.

Wheatley’s psychedelic English civil war film, about a group of deserters who fall prey to terrifying energies trapped inside a field, is co-written with regular collaborator Amy Jump, and stars Michael Smiley, Reece Shearsmith and Julian Barratt. Producers are Claire Jones and Andy Starke of Rook Films, with Anna Higgs as executive producer for Film4.

Fiennes’ LFF entry The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, her follow up to The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, sees Slavoj Žižek explore ideologies through his analysis of film.

The UK-Irish co-production between Pervert’s Guide Productions and Blinder Films was backed by Film4, the BFI, the Irish Film Board, and Rooks Nest Entertainment. Producers are James Wilson, Martin Rosenbaum, Blinder¹s Katie Holly and Fiennes.