UK financiers add development fund

Piccadilly Pictures, the UK financier that backed We Need to Talk About Kevin and Coriolanus, has unveiled a new development fund to sit alongside its $25m finance fund – and have already backed projects from BBC Films and Charles Dance.

Piccadilly’s Christopher Figg and Robert Whitehouse currently have a handful of projects benefitting from their SEIS-qualifying development fund and are looking to add more.

The first projects include a feature version of Alice Thomas Ellis’s novel The Inn at the Edge of the World, which is being co-executive produced by Charles Dance and is aiming for a late 2014 shoot; and BBC Films co-development Gypsy Boy, which is being produced by Dee Koppang.

“Some of the projects we’re seeing are too good for us to say we don’t produce anymore so we’ve made the decision to get involved in development again,” former Alliance Atlantis International MD Whitehouse told ScreenDaily.

“The fund will be available for projects that need further drafts,” explained Figg, whose credits also include Hellraiser and Trainspotting. “We tend not to develop things from scratch so the fund is to be a bridge for scripts between pre-production and shoot.”

Piccadilly, which provides backing against tax credits, pre-sales, and unsold rights, is aiming to invest up to $25m in 12 projects in the $1m-$15m range through its primary finance fund over the next 12 months.

The company has recently invested in low-budget UK gangster films including Top Dog and Reign of the General.

Figg and Whitehouse, who have worked together for a decade, told ScreenDaily they are also looking to build the company’s TV investments.