In 2001 I co-founded Movision Entertainment Limited and was Managing Director until the end of February 2004. My partners in the company are James Simpson, Ian Steel (who built up Triton Showers, which he sold in 1987 for £27.5m and who was also my original partner in Pavilion Internet plc), chartered accountant Martin Pollins, Michael Cowan and Jason Piette, joint managing directors of Spice Factory, who have produced more than 30 films between them and were described in January last year, in Screen Finance, as the UK's most prolific producer, and venture capital company, Curzon Capital Limited. In the past three years Movision Entertainment has produced thirteen films on which I am an Executive Producer, with a combined budget of $300m:

Five Moons Square
Jericho Mansions
A Different Loyalty
Head In The Clouds
The Bridge Of San Luis Ray
The Statement
The Last Sign
Merchant Of Venice
Bailey's Billions
Guy X
River King
Perfect Creature

:: Five Moons Square
On 16 March 1978, Aldo Moro, five times elected Prime Minister of Italy, was kidnapped in Rome by Red Brigade terrorists, and his five bodyguards murdered. For 54 days the Red Brigade bargained for his life in exchange for the release of thirteen members of their gang on trial in Turin. Subsequent negotiations included the personal intervention of the Pope, President Jimmy Carter and UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim. Finally, after a phone call, Moro's body was discovered in the boot of a car in the centre of Rome.

Subsequent hampering of investigators in search of the truth has led to suspicions of a cover-up in a web of intrigue and speculation to rival that of the assassination of President Kennedy. Five Moons Square is a hard-hitting, fast-paced political thriller that begins with the investigating judge (Donald Sutherland) receiving a box, containing a reel of film showing the murder of Moro as well as important clues that might lead to the truth …

Starring: Donald Sutherland (Klute, Don't Look Now, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Shadow Conspiracy, The Assignment)
Stefania Rocca (Heaven, Talented Mr Ripley)
Giancarlo Giannini (Saving Grace, Fever Pitch, Hannibal)

Director: Renzo Martinelli (The Waterbaby, Kidnapping, Porzus, Vajont)

Anglo-Italian-German co-production.
Schedule: Filming started August 25 in Rome, Sienna and Germany.

:: Jericho Mansions
A janitor (James Caan) in an old, creaky US apartment block leads a hermit's life. Suffering memory loss, his past is a blank, and even day-to-day events don't get properly ordered in his mind. Tormented by the owner of the block (Genevieve Bujold) who loathes him and wants to fire him, his only friend is the “masseuse” on the third floor (Jennifer Tilly) who gets him to mind her child while she is busy servicing her customers.

When one of the inhabitants of the block is found murdered, all fingers of suspicion point to the janitor – to such an extent that soon he starts to believe it might really have been him. Only as events unfold does he begin to realise that somewhere in his past lies the key to the truth.

Starring: James Caan (The Godfather, Misery, Mickey Blue Eyes)
Jennifer Tilly (The Getaway, Bound, Monsters Inc – voice)
Genevieve Bujold (Tightrope, Dead Ringers)
Maribel Verdu (star of Miramax's international hit, Y Tu Mama Tambien)

Director: Alberto Sciamma (Killer Tongue, Anazapta)

Anglo-Canadian co-production with Milagro and Transfilm (the team behind Highlander and Grey Owl).
Schedule: Shooting from Oct 1st 2002 in New Brunswick, Canada.

:: A Different Loyalty
Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean were British diplomats who disappeared in 1951 and surfaced in Moscow in 1956. There was speculation that Harold "Kim"Philby, head of the Soviet section of the British Secret Intelligence Service, was the "third man" who alerted them before they could be arrested for espionage. A Different Loyalty, through the eyes of Philby's wife (Sharon Stone) depicts the events surrounding Philby's own defection. Formerly the wife of his best friend, Philby seduced and then married Eleanor. Then one night her life is shattered when Kim fails to turn up to a drinks party in Beirut and has seemingly vanished from the face of the earth …

Later when he makes contact from Moscow, and still desperately in love with him, she defies threats from the US government and risks all to go and visit him. He may now be a KGB general, but, to Eleanor, he has become a diminished man. A Different Loyalty is a gripping, powerful drama, part thriller, part love story, part impossible moral dilemma.

Starring: Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct, Casino, Sphere)
Rupert Everett (Another Country, My Best Friend's Wedding, Ideal Husband)

Director: Marek Kanievska (Another Country, Less Than Zero)

Anglo-Canadian co-production with Transfilm.
Schedule: Shooting in Canada, UK, Moscow and USA. January 2003.

:: Head in the Clouds
Set in 1930s England, the Spanish Civil War and the last days of the occupation of Paris, the story follows young Cambridge student, Guy Malyon whose world is changed forever by a passionate affair with a hedonistic photographer, Gilda Besse. Penelope Cruz plays Mia, a Spanish refugee, who shares their lives until events on the World stage threaten to separate them forever.

This epic story follows the unlikely couple across Europe, from the decadent Paris of the ‘30s to London's impoverished East End; from the killing fields of Spain's Civil War to occupied France… until finally a dangerous secret threatens to tear them apart.

Starring: Penelope Cruz (Vanilla Sky, Captains Corelli's Mandolin)
Charlize Theron (Winner of the 2004 Oscar for Best Actress for Monster)
Stuart Townsend (Shooting Fish, Trapped)

Director: John Duigan (The Parole Officer, Sirens)

Head in the Clouds is a classic romance which will appeal to audiences who enjoyed The English Patient and The End of the Affair.

:: The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Five people, on separate journeys for seemingly unconnected reasons, happen to be crossing the bridge at San Luis Rey at noon on the fateful day of July 20th 1714. The bridge breaks and all five fall to their deaths in the deep gorge below. Was it chance or the hand of God that brought these five together at that fatal time in that place? Or were they in some way responsible, themselves, for what happened?

Set in early 18th century Peru at the height of the Spanish Inquisition, this timeless story of delicately interwoven lives traverses worlds as diverse as the theatres, convents, brothels and docks of Lima, Peru to the sea-faring explorations, scientific institutions and courts of Madrid, Spain. What unfolds is that one woman's life touched all of them. Yet she survived.

Starring: Robert De Niro (Godfather trilogy, Casino)
Kathy Bates (About Schmidt, Misery)
Gabriel Byrne (Devil's Advocate, The Usual Suspects)
Harvey Keitel(Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs)

Director: Mary McGuckian (This is the Sea, Words Upon the Windowpane)

Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

:: The Statement
The Statement shines a light on some of the darkest corners of the religious and political establishment. Set in modern day France, it is the story of Pierre Brossard (Michael Caine) who, as a young man was a war criminal under the Vichy regime. Brossard has never been brought to trial and has lived a peaceful and anonymous life sheltered by right-wing elements within the Catholic Church. A new investigation into his crimes is launched and Brossard finds himself the target of hit men on the one hand and police investigators on the other. A wily old fox, he keeps outwitting his pursuers while desperately trying to figure out who they are.

Starring: Michael Caine (The Ipcress File, The Quiet American, The Cider House Rules, Get Carter)
Tilda Swinton (Vanilla Sky, Adaptation)
Jeremy Northam (The Singing Detective, Gosford Park)

Director: Norman Jewison (Rollerball, Thomas Crown Affair, Fiddler on the Roof, Moonstruck and The Hurricane)

Producer: Robert Lantos (Bruce Beresford's Black Robe, Atom Egoyan's Exotica, David Cronenberg's eXistenZ, Istvan Szabo's Sunshine)

Anglo-French-Canadian co-production.
From the novel written by Brian Moore The Statement.

:: The Last Sign
Kathleen, (Andie MacDowell) 37, is a pretty woman struggling with her own hurt and rebellion, and trying to heal her wounds after the untimely death of her alcoholic husband, Jeremy. Leaving her to bring up the children on her own.

But suddenly her life changes, strange, disturbing occurrences disrupt her safe haven. Telephone calls with no caller come every night just after midnight. Objects and photos oddly disappear. The figure 8 manifests itself repeatedly. The struggle has just begun …

Starring: Andie MacDowell (Greystoke, Green Card, Sex Lies and Videotape, Four Weddings and a Funeral)
Bruce Greenwood (Republic of Love, Double Jeopardy, Below, The Water Giant, The Core.)
Jacqueline Bisset (Airport, Murder on the Orient Express, Wild Orchid, Latter Days, New Year's Day)

Director: Douglas Law

Anglo-French-Canadian co-production.

:: Merchant Of Venice
A lavish authentic adaptation of Shakespeare's play in a UK/Italian co-production. Al Pacino stars in the role of Shylock in Movision's production of Merchant of Venice, with an A-list of British stars including Joseph Fiennes and Jeremy Irons. Filmed in Luxembourg and Venice, it is directed by Oscar-winning director Michael Radford.

Starring: Al Pacino (Godfather Trilogy, Scent of a Woman)
Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare In Love)
Jeremy Irons (Dead Ringers, Reversal of Fortune)

Director: Michael Radford (Oscar-winner for Il Postino)

:: Bailey's Billions
A billionairess leaves her fortune to her dog instead of her nephew. The nephew cannot inherit all the money until the dog dies. He has to try and kill the dog; his only problem is the dog can talk and he is smarter than he is.

Family comedy. Finished shooting on October 2003

Starring: Jennifer Tilly (Bound, The Getaway, Jericho Mansions)
Jon Lovitz (Scary Movie 2)
Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show)
Dean Cain (The New Adventures of Superman, television series Out of Time)

Director: David Devine (Beethoven Lives Upstairs)

:: River King
Supernatural murder mystery about a small town cop who is called in when a student drowns at an elite prep school. Even though the headmaster insists it was suicide, the detective suspects foul play when he finds clues seemingly left by the dead boy's spirit.

Starring: Edward Burns (Saving Private Ryan)
Jennifer Ehle (Pride and Prejudice)

Director: Nick Willing (Jason and the Argonauts, Photographing Fairies)

:: Guy X
Set in the Arctic circle, the comedy centers around two men who fall for the same woman. Based on the novel "No One Thinks of Greenland" by John Griesemer.

Starring: Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Black Hawk Down)
Natascha McElhone (The Truman Show, FeardotCom)
Jason Biggs (American Pie)

Director: Saul Metzstein (Late Night Shopping)

:: Perfect Creature
A fast-paced, scary film with awesome special effects that will be shot entirely in New Zealand, with the team from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The New Zealand Film Council is making its largest ever investment into this film.

Of significance are the pedigrees of our two co-producing partners - Tim Sanders produced the first Lord of the Rings and Whale Riders and Roc Media produced Bend It Like Beckham. To star Dougray Scott and Saffron Burrows.

To find out more about my novels, take a look in the books section of this site.

Representation:
Carole Blake, Blake Friedmann
carole@blakefriedmann.co.uk

[Read more: I. Biography and interests II. Career]