Writer Dominic Leyton first got the idea for his play Collison in 2001. “I knew the idea had legs as it wasn’t just a passing thought. It hit me as a physical sensation”. The script was written in ten days and five years later, in a warehouse in Bow, the play became the feature film: Sugarhouse due for release on August 24.
Producer Oliver Milburn and Dominic first met at school in 1986. In creative writing courses, Oliver remembers that Dom’s stories were always “…miles better than anything any of the rest of us wrote; they were always arresting, whilst often only relating the mundane and the ordinary.” In 2002, Oliver was involved in the early drafts of Collision, which in 2003 debuted in London at The Old Red Lion, winning critical acclaim, “Genuinely astonishing, not to be missed” (The Daily Telegraph).
The first development meeting was held at a pub in Kings Cross, followed by a further 3 years grappling with the transition from theatre to film, trying to find the balance between the wordiness of a theatre script and the requirements of film script. In early 2005 Oliver and Ben Dixon, an assistant director (Casino Royale, Da Vinci Code) started production company, Wolf Committee, which optioned Collision. Established producer Matthew Justice (Lunar Films) was brought on board. In early 2005 Matthew introduced Wolf Committee to director Gary Love and Arvind Ethan David, CEO and founder of slingshot, a newly launched all-digital film production and distribution company.
Slingshot’s mission is to offer filmmakers a freedom unheard of in conventional British filmmaking. By employing an innovative profit share model to secure top tier creative, technical and co-production talent, slingshot was able to slice through the culture of complicated financing deals that can add years to development.
Announcing the decision to back Sugarhouse, Arvind Ethan David, commented: “The energy and pace of this project make it a perfect fit with slingshot’s own ethos. In less than six months we went from our first meeting with the writer to the first day of principal photography – this is not something that happens very often in the British film industry. For Sugarhouse to have managed it – and with a cast and crew as excellent and exciting as this – categorically proves that what matters is the strength of your belief, the integrity of your approach and the quality of the material; not the size of your budget. The talent and commitment of our collaborators on this project affirms our faith in the slingshot model, and fills us all with fire to make a really great film”.
One of the first things slingshot did to drive the project towards green light was to include it in a week long residential development lab, in conjunction with The Performing Arts Labs (PAL). That week brought together the producers, writer and director of Sugarhouse with expert script consultant Roger Smith (Land and Freedom (1995), My Name is Joe (1998) and Royal Court Artistic Director Ian Rickson.
Sugarhouse is the first feature for actor & television director Gary Love, who says he wanted to make the film on his first reading of the script “It has all the things I love in a film; pace, emotion, fun, pain and then ultimate enlightenment. I’m intrigued by the world the characters inhabit and the odd couple relationship that develops. I was interested in their plight and felt urged to tell a story that I don’t think has been told in a London film for some time.
Director Gary Love commented; “Dominic draws the characters from a mix of his own experiences & people that he knows…crackhead D, uneducated but very bright; TOM, well educated, articulate, but driven by fury, and HOODWINK, terrifying and manipulative.”
As an actor himself, Oliver found it fascinating to be on the other side of the room during auditions. “Seeing the guys come in and nail their parts was incredibly exciting…we knew then that we had a real opportunity to create a truly original, powerful piece of cinema.”