Scenes Of A Sexual Nature, made for less than £500,000 andstarring 17 of Britain's top actors including Ewan McGregor, Sophie Okonedo,Gina McKee, Eileen Atkins and Hugh Bonneville, is set to wrap next week onLondon's Hampstead Heath.

Director Edward Blum's feature debut, Scenes Of A Sexual Naturelinks seven stories and 14 principal actors and explores love during oneafternoon on the Heath. Privately financed through Blum's Tin Pan Films outfit,it started shooting less than six weeks after the script was finished in June.

Each actor has put in an average of two days over an 18-dayshoot which began on July 31; McGregor shot for three days, and the two mainlinks in the story, played by Eileen Atkins and Benjamin Whitrow, were on setfor four days.

Blum, whose short film The Last Post was BAFTA-nominatedin 1996, has since directed TV projects including UK TV's The Bill andseveral documentaries. He won The Big Pitch competition at Cannes this year forhis screenplay for Crimebusters but came back from the Croisette determinedto make his film this year: the script for Scenes Of A Sexual Nature was completed by the AschlinDitta at the end of June and went into production on July 31 in the grounds ofKenwood House and Hampstead Heath.

Blum is producing with Vadim Jean and Suran Goonatilake isexecutive producer.

Other actors included in Scenes Of A Sexual Nature include AndrewLincoln, Holly Aird, Douglas Hodge, Mark Strong, Polly Walker, Tom Hardy andAdrian Lester. "Hugh Bonneville said yes first, followed by Gina McKee, andwhen the other actors came on it was incredible," said Blum. "We pitched toseven or eight agents and the response was beyond our expectations. Within ashort period of time we were getting a phone call a day, and when when Ewancame in it was huge for us."

Scenes Of A Sexual Nature has no distributor or sales agentattached. "We raised the money independently and we have enough to see itthrough to a final cut," says Blum. "We'll wait until we finish it to show it."