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Richard E. Grant, Jeremy Irvine and Sam Neill are set to join historical action drama The Guinea Pig Club, written by Mike Riddell. The Bank Job's Roger Donaldson is in final negotiations to direct. Mimi Steinbauer's Radiant Films International is handling worldwide rights, excluding Australia and New Zealand, and will launch sales on the project in Cannes next week. Tim Sanders, the New Zealand-based producer who has worked on Peter Jackson's The Frighteners and The Lord…...

Radiant Films International to launch sales in Cannes.

Richard E. Grant, Jeremy Irvine, and Sam Neill will star in the historical drama The Guinea Pig Club, which Radiant Films International will introduce to Cannes buyers.

Roger Donaldson is in final negotiations to direct the historical action drama written by Mike Riddell.

The Guinea Pig Club tells the true story of New Zealand surgeon Archie McIndoe who defied the British establishment at the height of the Second World War with his radical treamtment of Battle Of Britain pilots who suffered serious burns.

New Zealand-based Tim Sanders, who produced The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, is producing for Field Theory and industry veteran Penny Wolf serves as executive producer. Production is earmarked for an early 2018 shoot in New Zealand.

Radiant Films International will handle worldwide rights excluding Australia and New Zealand.

“The Guinea Pig Club is an uplifting and heroic story, coupled with moments...

Richard E. Grant, Jeremy Irvine and Sam Neill will star in historical action-drama The Guinea Pig Club.

Roger Donaldson (The Bank Job) will direct the film from a script by Mike Riddell (The Insatiable Moon).

Tim Sanders (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Whale Rider) is producing for Field Theory and film executive Penny Wolf is executive producer. The film is scheduled to shoot in New Zealand in early 2018.

Mimi Steinbauer's Radiant Films International will handle worldwide rights excluding Australia and New Zealand and will launch sales in Cannes.

The Guinea Pig Club tells the...

Roger Donaldson is attached to direct two projects, a feature doc and a feature, inspired by the lives of two famous Kiwis.

McLaren will profile Bruce McLaren, the Formula One champion who won the Us Grand Prix when he was 23, the youngest ever to do so.

The Guinea Pig Club will chronicle the story of renegade plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe, who revolutionised the treatment of burns victims during WW2.

The New Zealand Film Commission has offered conditional investment to both projects. Donaldson has already shot some footage for McLaren, using Nzfc development funds.

The Nzfc is also co-funding The Patriarch, just the second Kiwi feature from director Lee Tamahori, who broke through with Once Were Warriors in 1994.

Due to shoot on March 24, the drama is scripted by John Collee, based on Whale Rider author Witi Ihimaera's novel Bulibasha. The protagonist is the youngest son of a huge extended Maori family of shearers,...

A new project from the producer of Whale Rider, an adaptation of a Us book and a Chinese-Australian co-production are to be pitched in the UK after being selected by Melbourne’s 37º South Market.

The three films will be pitched at the UK’s Production Finance Market (Pfm) in October following a positive response at the seventh edition of 37º South, which runs as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival.

New Zealand producer Tim Sanders is to pitch The Guinea Pig Club at Pfm and received $1,850 (A$2,000) from sponsor Film Finances to help cover expenses.

After learning he would be heading to London for Pfm (Oct 16-17), Sanders told ScreenDaily: “It is the story of a Kiwi surgeon called Archie McIndoe who restored the bodies of badly injured fighter pilots in World War II and also gave them the will to live and hope for the future.

The producer of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring and Whale...

★★★☆☆ Apparently a huge hit with audiences back in its homeland of New Zealand, The Insatiable Moon (2010), was directed by Rosemary Riddell from a screenplay by her husband Mike Riddell, based on his own novel. It follows a set characters in the Ponsonby suburb of Auckland City, in particular the residents and supporters of a boarding house which is home to a variety of mentally unwell and otherwise homeless men.

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