EXCLUSIVE: Newport State of Mind’s MJ Delaney will make her feature debut with adaptation of hit Edinburgh Fringe play.
The Iron Lady producer Damian Jones will be financing and producing the debut feature from the director of viral video hit Newport State of Mind.
Commercials director MJ Delaney made waves on the Internet in 2010 when more than 2 million people watched her clever spoof on Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ New York State of Mind, transplanted to Wales. Her short Ben And Lump was part of Channel 4’s Coming Up scheme.
Her new low-budget feature, When Women Wee, is adapted from Rachel Hirons’ Edinburgh Fringe 2011 hit play.
Jones says the film is about “all the rubbish talking” that goes on one night in a women’s bathroom in a British nightclub. “It’s all about friendship. It’s about two groups of interconnecting friends.”
James Cotton, a recent producing graduate of the NFTS, will also produce alongside Jones.
The film, budgeted at £100,000, will shoot in December; shooting space is being scouted now. It is out to cast.
“I’m very excited about it, it’s a nice change of pace,” Jones told Screen. Of Delaney, he said: “She’s very funny and clever. She’s really talented.”
Working with a lower budget means Jones is open to new models. “We’re looking at all sorts of ways of distributing it, both traditional and non-traditional.”
He is currently in production on Belle, Amma Asante’s period romance-drama about a mixed-race woman in 18th century London society.
Jones’ DJ Films also also has several projects in the pipeline as part of his first-look deal with Pathe.
Delaney is represented by United Agents.
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