‘GOSFORD PARK’ TO OPEN LONDON FILM FESTIVAL

ROBERT Altman's ‘Gosford Park’, one of the first films to be made with Lottery support from the Film Council's Premiere Fund is attracting international attention as it opens the 45th Regus London Film Festival which will run from November 7 to the 22, 2001.
With an all-star British cast that reads like the who's who of contemporary British cinema including Kristin Scott Thomas, Ryan Phillippe, Michael Gambon, Jeremy Northam, Emily Watson, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Richard E Grant, Charles Dance, James Wilby, Derek Jacobi, Kelly Macdonald, Clive Owen, Stephen Fry, Alan Bates, Tom Hollander and Eileen Atkins the film is set to wow audiences at what will be its first public screening in the UK.
The Film Council's Premiere Fund was set up last year to invest Lottery money in a broad cross-section of films. The first Premiere Fund project, ‘Mike Bassett: England Manager’ starring Ricky Tomlinson was released in September and has been a major success at the UK box office having grossed close to £3.5 million. The Premiere Fund invested £1.2 million in the production and £850,000 in the marketing for the film.
Described by the director as "Rules of the Game meets Ten Little Indians", ‘Gosford Park’ was filmed entirely in the UK, and centres on a weekend shooting party at an aristocratic stately home. This glamorous 1930s murder-mystery is peppered with a rich assortment of characters above and below the stairs.
Head of the Premiere Fund Robert Jones said: "We were approached with the project at an early stage and immediately fell for the subtle and intricate screenplay. The prospect of such a document in the hands of Robert Altman, whose reputation for weaving stories with multiple characters is unrivalled, was a mouth watering one indeed. Premiere Fund is proud to have been involved in bringing Gosford Park to life."
The sell-out gala screening will take place at at the Odeon Leicester Square on 7 November. (CD)