Rhys Ifans (The King’s Man), Olivia Cooke (House of Dragon), Paapa Essiedu (The Lazarus Project), Mia McKenna-Bruce (How to Have Sex) and Antonia Thomas (The Good Doctor) have all joined new comedy-horror feature The Scurry from Eternal Beauty helmer Craig Roberts.
The project, which is penned by The Mash Report’s Tim Telling, follows two pest controllers who are called to an eco-café in a country park to investigate what begins as a routine vermin problem but as nightfall approaches an avalanche of deranged squirrels descend, wreaking revenge and mayhem on the staff and visitors in the park. With many fatalities, the survivors take shelter in the café as a freak storm takes out the power and communications leaving them isolated and under attack. An eclectic mix of survivors include pest controllers, a sulky teenager, hypocritical vegans, and a drug dealer – there is only an outside chance of survival.
Water & Power Productions, Cliff Edge Pictures and Circus Studios are producing the project while Zygi Kamasa’s True Brit Entertainment has boarded the project as a UK distributor and co-producer. Circus Studios will handle international sales on the title.
The project is budgeted at £10M ($12.7M) and is set to begin shooting at Dragon Studios in South Wales on April 2, which will make the project one of the first films to tap into the UK’s recently announced Independent Film Tax Credit, which will be upped to 40% as of April 1.
Producers are James Swarbrick for Water & Power and Adrian Bate for Cliff Edge. Executive producers are Tom Miller and Sam Myer for Water & Power, Roberts for Cliff Edge, Kamasa for True Brit, James Spring and James Scott for Circus Studios and Joe Simpson and Simon Williams for Ashland Hill.
“It’s great to be back in business with the legend that is Craig Roberts, from his visual flair and skill with the camera meant that the moment we read Tim’s incredible script there was only one man for the job,” said Swarbrick in a statement. “Craig brings a humour and wit to his work, which is ideally suited to a horrifying rodent apocalypse.”
Bate added: “You may want to think twice about sitting in your garden or visiting your local park after seeing this movie. Through Craig Roberts’ unique directorial prism and with our stellar cast, we’ll witness the forest sending in their fur clad foot soldiers to avenge their mistreatment. It’s time for nature to bite back.”
Kamasa added: “It’s rare to find a commercial, scary, and funny British genre film with such a terrific cast that the filmmakers want to build as a potential British franchise. Craig Roberts is enormously talented, and he and I share a love of legendary genre films like Shaun of the Dead or Gremlins. The ambition to make something similar is hugely exciting.”
Roberts quipped: “I’m really happy that somebody has employed me again.”
Scott concluded: “The Scurry has an internationally recognizable cast and a universally resonant story of local vermin rising up to take control – something that city dwellers the world over know hovers over us as a possibility at every moment. We’re confident that it will land with audiences globally and give people a newfound phobia.”
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