Sally Phillips & Ronni Ancona making Italian road trip film
Sally Phillips and Ronni Ancona have lined up their next film, a road trip comedy starring former Pink Floyd bass player Guy Pratt.
Phillips and Ancona are producing The Monk, The Mermaid & Molise for their Captain Dolly production company, and co-star in the film alongside Raffaello Degruttola (Avenue 5) and Pratt, who plays a fictionalised version of himself.
According to film trade website Screen the film will shoot in Italy and the UK for release next year. It follows Guy, down on his luck, as he accepts an invitation to spend five days playing a series of bass clinics in a remote Italian region, Molise, run by a super fan, and must face up to decisions from his past.
Pratt is a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe with amusing anecdotal shows about his career, which has featured stints playing for artists as diverse as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, Whitesnake, Tears For Fears, All Saints and The Smiths.
He is also writing the music for the film, with contributions from some of his previous musical collaborators.
Leila Mousavi produces for Captain Dolly alongside Phillips and Ancona, with Rino Piccolo producing for Osna Productions and Marco Tempera producing for Play Entertainment.
Meanwhile, Phillips is continuing work on her directorial debut, Classic.
The Smack The Pony and I'm Alan Partridge star attended The London Classic Car Show last month, one of a number of classic motors exhibitions that she and writer-actor-producer Tony Pitts have visited in the last year, as they co-direct their first feature, which Phillips has described as "Best In Show with cars".
Starring Phillips, Ancona, Katherine Kelly (Bloods) and Pitts, who has written the screenplay, and whom Phillips has dubbed "the poet laureate of petrol", Classic is described as a darkly comic tale set in the backdrop of a classic car show on the hard washed North Yorkshire coast.
The feature is a co-production between Captain Dolly, Soho Talent and Make Me Films, with Ancona and Kelly producing alongside Nick Hamson and Chris Greenhill.