Principalphotography started on September 5 on feature Starter for Ten, producedby Tom Hanks' Playtone in association with Sam Mendes' Neal Street Productionsfor HBO Films. The film is produced in association with the BBC.

Shootingwill continue in Greater London, Bristol, and Clacton through the end ofOctober. The budget is described as being "under $10m."

TomVaughan, whose credits include ITV's Cold Feet, is making his featurefilm debut as director, working with a screenplay by David Nicholls adaptedfrom his 2003 novel of the same name.

Hanksand Gary Goetzman are producing for Playtone with Pippa Harris for Neal Street;Mendes and Playtone's Steven Shareshian are executive producing with NathalieMarciano and Michelle Chydzik.

Picturehouse, the new distribution outfit formed byHBO and New Line, will distribute in the US. No theatrical timeline has been set for Starter for Ten, and theproducers said they wouldn't select a UK distributor until the film iscompleted.

Setin 1985, Starter for Ten is about a working-class man who studies at aposh university and tries to find romance through appearing on a TV quiz show.The cast includes James McAvoy (Channel 4's Shameless, the forthcoming TheLast King Of Scotland and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe),Alice Eve (Stage Beauty), and film newcomer Rebecca Hall.

Keycrew members include cinematographer Ashley Rowe (Alfie, Calendar Girls),editor Jon Harris (The Descent, Layer Cake), and production designerSarah Greenwood (Pride and Prejudice).

Nicholls'television credits include Cold Feet and Rescue Me and he alsowrote the teleplay for the BBC's forthcoming Much Ado About Nothing; hepreviously co-wrote the script for the 1999 film Simpatico. Earlier thisyear, Playtone also nabbed the rights to Nicholls' second novel, TheUnderstudy, which is now in development with Universal Studios.

NealStreet, which was formerly known as Scamp Film and Theatre, is inpost-production on Mendes' Gulf War drama Jarhead, starring Jamie Foxxand Jake Gyllenhaal, due out November 4 in the US and January 13 in the UK.