Music festival film from Siblings & Inbetweeners producers
- Inbetweeners co-creator Iain Morris is directing a new comedy film
- The Festival stars Joe Thomas, Claudia O'Doherty and Hammed Animashaun
- It follows friends attending their first music festival
Joe Thomas is to star in a new film about a group of friends attending their first music festival.
The Inbetweeners star will rejoin the sitcom's co-creator, Iain Morris, who is directing feature comedy The Festival, due for release in Summer 2018 by distributors Entertainment Film.
Producers explain: "The Festival follows a group of students as they graduate and go to a music festival for the first time. It's a coming of age comedy that finds the gang falling in love with music and mud."
Thomas's co-stars are Claudia O'Doherty and Hammed Animashaun. The supporting cast is lead by Flight Of The Conchords' Jemaine Clement and The Inbetweeners alumna Hannah Tointon, with Emma Rigby, Kurt Yaeger and Chris Geere.
Morris's Inbetweeners co-creator Damon Beesley, with whom Joe Thomas recently worked on BBC Two comedy White Gold, is acting as executive producer. The movie is being made by the duo's new production company, Fudge Park, as the first title of a four-film deal with Film4 and Entertainment Film. The two companies previously worked with Morris and Beesley on the two smash-hit Inbetweeners films, released in 2011 and 2014.
The screenplay for the comedy is by Keith Akushie and Joe Parham, who previously wrote BBC Three sitcom Siblings, produced by Beesley and Morris's previous company, Bwark.
Filming on the feature is already well under-way, with the crew having briefly taken over the main stage at Leeds Festival on Saturday 26th August to shoot a number of crowd scenes.
Iain Morris says: "Joe and Keith's script was too funny to ignore. I'm delighted to be making this film with my Inbetweeners partners Film4 and Entertainment Film. It's great to be working with Joe, Claudia and Jemaine again. And I'm excited for the world to see Hammed's performance. Going to a music festival is a quintessential British rite of passage just like a lads' holiday or backpacking so it seemed like a natural fit for me to try and find the humour and fun in festivals."
Daniel Battsek, executive producer and Director of Film4 says: "Film4 are delighted to be working with Fudge Park and Entertainment Film again for the first time since the phenomenally successful Inbetweeners movies. Although The Festival is an original premise, we're confident Iain and the rest of the team will produce another very funny and very commercial feature film."
The other executive producers are Caroline Leddy and Rachel Springett. Claire Jones is producing.
The film is scheduled for release in Summer 2018.