EXCLUSIVE: UK indie characteristic Fear Time, written by and starring Emma Paetz (Pennyworth) and produced by and co-starring Ben Aldridge (Fleabag) has wrapped shoot in London.
The micro-budget absurdist feminist thriller is a co-production between Penny4 and Paetz’s firm Thaddeus. Producers are Cambria Bailey-Jones, Heloise Lowenthal, Emma Paetz and Aldridge who’s making his producing debut.
The movie marks the filmmaking debut of British theatre director Tom Brennan (The Final of the Pelican Daughters). The workforce is submitting the film for 2025 festivals.
The official synopsis reads: “One thing horrible has occurred to Annette’s (Paetz) good friend, Vivian, and everybody’s determined to maneuver on from it. Everybody besides Annette. She is not going to ‘course of’. She is not going to forgive. She’s going to make an allegorical sci-fi movie – a mirrored image on girls’s lodging of male dominance – whether or not or not Vivian needs her to. The movie offers with the grief of a friendship pale, aliens as a metaphor for home abuse, the futility of artwork, and bleeding throughout intercourse…it’s roughly a comedy.”
Extra solid embody Stefanie Martini (The Gold) as Vivian; Afsaneh Dehrouyeh (Marriage) as Viv, Douggie McMeekin (Chernobyl) as Laurie and Willy Hudson (The Lengthy Name) as Willy. Cinematography comes from Rob O’Kelly.
Paetz and Aldridge beforehand starred collectively in HBO Max sequence Pennyworth, enjoying Martha and Thomas Wayne, respectively. Fleabag actor Aldridge can be coming off M. Evening Shyamalan’s Knock At The Cabin.
Author, producer and star Paetz mentioned: “I wrote Fear Time with the required delusion that it’d by no means be made, and I may subsequently be as trustworthy as I favored. Sadly, the fierce steerage and early help of Ben Aldridge, Tom Brennan and Cambria Bailey Jones minted the movie into existence. We introduced collectively a bunch that I’m extremely proud to have collaborated with – artists on the early phases of their careers who I’m sure will turn into the greats we glance again on in awe. In making Fear Time as an impartial microbudget, we felt free to discover cinematic tones and themes freed from comparability. Themes corresponding to male dominance in feminine relationships, bleeding throughout intercourse, worrying, self-loathing, extra worrying, and the sound {that a} black gap makes in area. I can’t wait to share our movie with the remainder of the world.”
Aldridge commented: “I’ve been wanting to provide for a while and I already knew how proficient an actor Emma was from working alongside her on HBOMax’s Pennyworth for 3 seasons! Fear Time is such a intelligent and subversive script. Emma’s writing is completely distinctive; cynical but tender, embarrassingly tragic and but shockingly humorous, razor sharp, twisted, awkward as hell and simply very, very bizarre. Amidst all that, she manages to land poignant conversations round topics we’re all nonetheless struggling to navigate and articulate, whereas concurrently entertaining us, scary us and creeping us out. It’s top-of-the-line issues I’ve learn, and I not solely jumped to be in it however felt passionately about becoming a member of the workforce to be part of producing it.”
Producer Bailey-Jones added: “It’s uncommon to learn a script and so instantly resonate with all the things about it, so when Tom despatched me Fear Time, I knew immediately this was one thing I, and Penny4, wanted to make. A feminist movie that’s unflinching, vibrant, nuanced and so darkly humorous was a present to obtain. Emma and I spoke at size in regards to the artistic workforce – we knew we would have liked to achieve out to filmmakers who understood the off-beat imaginative and prescient and our ethos for the movie, and we have been blown away by the calibre of workforce we assembled, each on and off display screen. The collaborative nature of the set is a part of what made Fear Time so particular.”
