A comedy about a group of travelling Gillingham FC supporters is to be showcased at film festivals around the world.
The Shouting Men, which was shot mostly at locations throughout Kent, will this year be screened in Cannes, Berlin and Los Angeles with high hopes it will attract a major distributor.
Originally planned to be an ITV1 sitcom series, the comedy was turned into a film when director Matt Daniel-Baker received glowing reviews of the pilot episode’s script.
He said: “Football films always do well whether good or bad but even though I wrote the script, when we put it together we all found it really funny.
“You can’t ask for more than that because normally you know the film so well that you stop laughing at it after a while.
“I’m incredibly confident it will be successful. When you work with a low budget and there are no big stars or expensive special effects, you can’t hang your publicity on anything other than it being a great film.”
The Shouting Men, which features cameo appearances by England legends John Barnes and Peter Beardsley, is about a group of fans who travel to watch Gillingham play Premiership giants Newcastle United in the FA Cup.
However, their trip north goes pear-shaped when they abandon a wheelchair-bound accomplice who then complains about his treatment to the national press.
Filming for the comedy, which also features an appearance by Gills chairman Paul Scally, was completed at Newcastle’s St James’ Park at the end of last year.
Other locations included Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium home, the University of Greenwich at Chatham and the Inn on the Lake hotel in Gravesend.
Mr Daniel-Baker said: “We had a bit of a disaster when one of our cameras broke down and we had to reschedule the filming for later that day, but it actually turned out for the best because we ended up with about 200 extras and it looked a lot better.
“We’ve finished the edit now and all the footage is locked into place, so it’s just the music left to do. We’ve brought in a composer called Darren Loveday because we wanted to create an identity for the film rather than use existing tracks.
“The only exception with that is that we want to use the song Tom Hark, which Gillingham fans will know as the song that is played whenever their team scores a goal.
“Hopefully everything should be finished in about three or four weeks, ready for Cannes in May.”
The name of the film comes from the Latin words “domus clamantium” – meaning “home of the shouting men” – that once adorned the Gillingham club badge.
Former Lovejoy star Dudley Sutton and ex-EastEnder Craig Fairbrass are among those with starring roles.
POSTED: 16/03/2009 08:30:00
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