John Jencks

Source: The Electric Shadow Company

John Jencks

Principal photography is underway on location in Brighton on John Jencks’ UK ensemble comedy Promenade.

The UK feature is written by David Wigram, and produced by Apostasy producer Marcie MacLellan. The film is fully financed by Jencks’ The Electric Shadow Company, and produced in association with MacLellan’s company Frank and Lively. It is one of the first feature film productions to benefit from the new UK tax credit, with qualifying films able to receive tax relief of to 40%.

With a 50-strong cast, the film unites 12 different stories in a community of oddballs in a tatty old mansion on the south coast of England.

The cast includes Anna Chancellor, Roger Allam, Richard Katz, Doon Mackichan, Lily Loveless, Elsa Zylberstein and Rosie Day.

The production is the first UK feature film to make use throughout pre-production, production and post-production of Call It!, an application for cast and crew to report anonymously on workplace behaviour, and raise concerns regarding bullying, health and safety, working conditions and safeguarding. A wellbeing facilitator is also available to cast and crew throughout the shoot.

“Having spent seven years producing a superhero movie [Rupert Sanders’ The Crow], I wanted to direct a film that was the diametric opposite,” said Jencks, who described Promenade as “a community-led film with no single hero.”

UK filmmaker Jencks previously directed 2017 comedy The Hippopotamus, based on Stephen Fry’s novel; and has produced titles including 2019 shorts anthology The Uncertain Kingdom, as well as Lionsgate’s The Crow, starring Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs.