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Subterranea
By
Jun 1, 2005, 15:31
SUBTERRANEA
INTRO
STORY OUTLINE
SETTING
CAST ATTACHED
TEAM
WRITER'S STATEMENT
INTRO
A dark exciting present day thriller set over a single night in London's Soho, which captures a hidden world. A world that only very few people know about. But it's there beneath our feet.
STORY OUTLINE
Beneath London�s Chinatown a network of sprawling subterranean alleys is home to the triad gangs and their nefarious businesses: gambling dens, brothels, drug dens and money laundering. It is a world known only to a few.
And from this world, a young girl, GLORIA, is running for her life�
CONN MCCABE is a young gambler fresh over from Ireland, keen to exploit his gambling talent at the popular Irish game �the toss�. Unfortunately it is a game that nobody plays in England.
He is introduced to DURY, a highly respected gambler and �businessman� who has connections with the Chinese world of Subterranea. Dury recognises something of himself in Conn, and agrees to help Conn make a name for himself in the shady world of Soho�s underground. However, Conn will have to start right at the bottom�
GLORIA is the daughter of CHEN LU CH�I, the feared leader of Hong Kong�s 13K � a triad organisation of immense power and international scale. He is in London with his daughter and chief henchman (YO-YO) to diffuse a potential war that could break out between the rival gangs of London�s Chinatown.
But SAMMY WOO, the son of ailing Triad Boss LEE WOO, sees the opportunity to claim his stake and grab power � he kidnaps Gloria, and tries to blackmail her into marrying him and uniting the two families under his leadership. However, Gloria escapes, and Sammy�s scheme now threatens the stability of all Chinatown�
When Gloria escapes, she turns to Dury for protection, knowing that his position as an independent within the partisan world of Chinatown would enable her to get back home. She doesn�t want to be returned to her father � she wants the videotape that Sammy was blackmailing her with. She wants her freedom.
When Conn is sent to collect Gloria from the safe house where Dury is keeping her, Gloria explains her predicament and gains Conn�s sympathy. Together they try to outwit the rival gangs who are on their tail, and their journey � set over just 24 hrs � takes many twists and turns as our two young heroes are drawn closer together, each falling for the other, until fate forces Gloria�s hand, while Conn�s sheer willpower brings the lovers to a thrilling climax that neither of them could have foreseen.
SETTING
Among the many entrepreneurial ideas developed by the Victorians, was the creation of an underground road network, connecting the basements of commercial enterprises.
The scheme was begun, though never completed. A series of subterranean roads were created that ran between Oxford Street and Piccadilly, directly underneath Chinatown.
The Triad gangs commandeered this unused, unfinished, subterranean world and so a world underground was created, beyond the reach of the law. It is a world no one dares to enter. A secret world of illegal Casinos, drug dens, vice parlours and international money laundering operations.
Above this underground world, sits Chinatown, all gaudy colours and rain-splashed neon. Then there is Soho by night, the chaos, the volatile mix of predators and victims, the wealthy and the homeless, the bland and the extreme.
CAST ATTACHED
Michael Gambon (Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire, Layer Cake, Sky Captain and The World Of Tomorrow, Sleepy Hollow, Being Julia, Gosford Park, Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban)
Rufus Sewell (Dark City, A Knight's Tale, The Illusionist, Tristan and Isolde, The Legend Of Zorro)
TEAM
Toby Tobias (Writer)
Toby Tobias has over twenty years experience in the film business; beginning in 1984 when he worked as a young actor on stage and screen in many productions from BBC series, feature films and commercials. His last acting job was a six month run in Alan Bennett's "Forty Years On" at the Queen's Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue.
In 1988 Toby trained as a Camera Assistant and quickly became a successful freelancer working on over 500 music videos and commercials in a wide variety of roles from video co-ordinator, vision mixer, cameraman, Asst. Director, editor and ultimately Director. In February 2000 he was 1st Assistant Director of the feature film "Mumbo Jumbo", an independent British/German co-production with a �1.4m budget. To Date Toby has Directed over 40 Commercials and Music Videos as well as two 30 min documentaries for LWT.
Throughout this time, Toby had been honing his writing skills. After writing several speculative scripts, Toby was commissioned by Wandering Star Media to adapt two Robert E. Howard stories for the cinema, including "Bran Mak Morn" (Currently with Working Title Films) and "Solomon Kane" (Metropolitan). Toby then worked on four drafts of Peter O'Donnel's "Modesty Blaise" for Wandering Star/Miramax.
Toby has also adapted a Colin Wilson Novel "Sex Diary of a Metaphysician" for Still Pool Films and is currently developing another script with Marcelo Anciano and Michael Marshall Smith for the Curtis Brown Production Company, Cuba Films.
Phil Hunt (Producer)
From a background of working as an advertising and music photographer, Phil is co-managing director of Head Gear Films, a production and gap financing feature film organization. 2007 saw the launch of Bankside Films, an international film sales agency, which Phil is also Co-Managing Director of and co-founded by Hilary Davis and Stephen Kelliher, formerly of Beyond Films. Davis takes the title of co-Managing Director and Kelliher that of Director of Sales & Marketing.
Phil began producing feature films in the mid 1990’s with FAST FOOD (Douglas Henshall and Emily Woof), sold internationally by Vine International Pictures and released in the UK early 2000 by Optimum Releasing. This was followed by CHUNKY MONKEY directed by Greg Cruttwell, (Alison Steadman and David Threlfall), It has been termed a punk ‘Abigail’s Party’ and ‘An Edward Hopper painting commissioned by Monty Python’. Head Gear’s first investment that Phil also produced was a Mexican UK political thriller RABBIT ON THE MOON directed by Jorge Ramirez Saurez, which played in competition at amongst others, the Berlin, AFI and Toulouse festivals. It has had 11 award nominations. International sales by Capitol Films.
Head Gear Films and Bankside Films now provides finance for other producers as well as producing and executive producing and international sales. Five films have been financed via Head Gear Films: THE ALL TOGETHER starring Martin Freeman, GHOSTS directed by Nick Broomfield (opening film in competition at San Sebastian), SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL directed by Roger Spottiswoode, HOW ABOUT YOU starring Vanessa Redgrave and Imelda Staunton and NORMAL directed by Carl Besai, starring Carrie-Anne Moss and Kevin Zegers.
WRITER'S STATEMENT
Having friends in low places can be a great benefit to a writer. When I first heard that beneath the streets of Chinatown there was an underground network of alleys where Triad drug dealers, brothels and money launderers operated in total secrecy, I knew that this was an ideal setting for a feature film.
The underground is like an ocean. It taps into the unconscious in such a way that the imagination can run riot. In the darkness, there is infinite possibility. When you tread water in the open sea, the mind can imagine a terrifying world of aquatic life beneath you. In the same way, the knowledge that there is a world beneath the streets, is like a trigger to the imagination. And like the saying goes, less (knowledge) is more (fear).
And so the environment became the trigger for the story.
After some initial, and somewhat dangerous research that led me into one of these illegal casinos, I had glimpsed enough of the reality of Subterranea. The world existed. But what was the story?
A stranger in a strange world seemed the best character to guide an audience through this hitherto unseen side of London. He needs to be a risk taker. A gambler, maybe. The hero of the story began to take form.
Clearly, the genre should be Noir. This is a dangerous and dark world of betrayal and lies. A world where the shadows run black like spilt ink and all light is harsh and unnatural. The chiaroscuro visual style of noir is the perfect marriage for the man-made environment of Subterranea.
And then there should be the femme fatal for our hero to become entangled with. The classic noir love story; one full of danger and deception.
Finally the theme of luck versus will � the struggle for the individual to take control of his fate, his fortune and his luck, to control his destiny through his own willpower, seemed the perfect fit for our �innocent� hero, this stranger in a strange and fatalistic world.
Of course the ending would have to be bitter-sweet.
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