Noel Clarke’s star has continued to rise since his acceptance of the award at the 2009 BAFTAs, and his new film 4.3.2.1 had its premiere this week (pictures, trailers and review here).
There’s no doubting the ambition of the young filmmaker and as the dust settles on 4.3.2.1 eyes are turning to what Clarke has in store for the future. Unless PaRentHood is in the offing, the next film from Clarke may well be from another direction altogether.
Listeners to the Mayo and Kermode movie podcast may have heard in the interview with Clarke on yesterday’s edition that he is working on something a little different.
There are plans I’ve definitely got, I’ve mapped out a kids feature, I just haven’t written it out yet…and I have been talking a couple of times to one Mr. Serkis about his motion capture [company]
The performance capture studio Clarke is referring to is Andy Serkis’ new venture – a UK based motion capture studio which he was talking up in Cannes this month, and whose potential could be realised as he hopes to attract some of the biggest UK talent. The Imaginarium is a bold move for Serkis, whose work with Peter Jackson in particular evidences his familiarity with the technology. Recently he gave this quote to the BBC,
It aims to be an academy for training and educating young and aspiring filmmakers and independent films that this is an art form that isn’t just niche and applicable to the larger budget movies, it’s about seeing the creative possibilities of visual effects for the lower budget films,
Noel Clarke starred with Serkis in the Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, and when he gets around to writing the script, and presumably after his work with Damian Jones on the Olympics themed Fast Girls is done, we may well see an announcement that one of the first filmmakers to take advatnage of Serkis’s new studio is one of Britain’s most ambitious writer/directors.
