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LONDON – Cult British comedian and U.K. TV stalwart Harry Hill is bringing his “madcap comedy world” to the big screen with The Harry Hill Movie.
Shooting on location in the U.K. for eight weeks from May 12, the comedian will be joined by a cast that reads like a who’s who of British comedy regulars, including Julie Walters (Billy Elliot), Simon Bird (The Inbetweeners Movie), Matt Lucas (Bridesmaids), Sheridan Smith (Quartet), Marc Wootton (Nativity), Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh) and Jim Broadbent (Bridget Jones’s Diary).
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Like most of Hill’s output, the movie project defies a conventional logline but its said to tell the story of a man pursued by a lunatic vet while on a road trip with a sick hamster. The protagonist also falls in love with an undersea “shell person” somewhere along the way.
Hill said it is “based on a true story,” and he promises an all-singing, all-dancing family entertainment movie “from the big collared loon” himself.
Producer Robert Jones (Run Fatboy, Run) added: “It is an honor indeed to be able to help Harry bring a story so close to his heart to the public at large, many of whom will personally identify with the events depicted.”
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The Harry Hill Movie is directed by Steve Bendelack (Mr Bean’s Holiday), from a script by Hill, Jon Foster and James Lamont (BAFTA-winning writers of TV’s The Amazing World of Gumball).
It will be produced by Lucky Features.
The production is bankrolled by U.K. indie distribution giant Entertainment Film Distributors who will also release the film in theaters in the U.K. and Ireland at the end of the year.
Hill has also been busy co-writing the X Factor musical for the U.K. stage with composer Steve Brown. Hill has said he and X Factor creator Simon Cowell discussed the stage adaptation as poking gentle fun of the hit global TV talent contest. X Factor – It’s Time To Face The Musical! is expected to premiere in the British capital’s West End in the spring of 2014.
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