EXCLUSIVE: Company reveals debut slate of comedy, horror projects.

Ben Bond

Fledgling UK production outfit Bad Owl Films has launched its debut slate, including two features made with India’s Cinestaan.

Ben Bond [pictured], whose credits include Killing Bono as a writer and the upcoming The Hungry as executive producer, will head up the company as creative director, alongside producer Iona Sweeney.

Former Screen Star of Tomorrow Andy Brunskill will provide consulting services.

Bond is the co-founder of commercials and TV production outfit Hoot Comedy, where Sweeney is head of broadcast. Going forward, they will continue in their positions at both companies.

Their new outfit Bad Owl Films will aim to produce between one and two feature films a year, focused on comedy and horror, with budgets in the £1-15m range.

Films on the company’s initial slate include: The Hungry, made in collaboration with Film London and Cinestaan, which is a retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy Titus Andronicus and stars Naseeruddin Shah; period horror The Longing, which is based on Joseph Conrad’s short story Falk, which is again being made in co-production with Cinestaan; the Creative England and BFI developed migrant feature The Drifters; and an untitled Berlin-set love story from writer Johanna Factor.

Titles on the company’s development slate include: an untitled romantic comedy from Adam Drake and Ben Rowse, the pair behind Edinburgh festival comedy show Goose; Premierland, an adaptation of Ned Beauman’s novel Boxer Beetle; Period comedy Big Man, about an 18th century showman who buys an African giant to exhibit as a freak; To Hell With Mbeke, a satirical comedy from Lilyhammer director Ole Endreson, and supernatural comedy Hellmouth Bassett, written by Hoot Comedy in-house writers Tom Woods and Aaron Gillies.

Ben Bond, creative director of Bad Owl Films, commented: “With Bad Owl Films we’re taking what we’ve learned in the digital space, both creatively and in social media, funding and distribution, to produce films for an international audience who crave new stories. Our ambition is to make great indie movies featuring strong narratives with a popular twist, and disrupt what cinema means for people from the ground up.”