Pinewood Develops First Ever Short Film

Pinewood Studios has announced the development of its first ever short film, as the facility seeks to increase its involvement in the British film industry.
Alpha : Omega is a short film about a century-long civil war based on gender, where the resource at stake isn’t land or wealth: it’s reproduction.
Production company Gobby and Specs are behind the project that producer, director and co-writer Chanya Button and writer Sian Robins-Grace are developing into a feature film realisation.
Pinewood's Chief Executive Ivan Dunleavy and Head of Apollo Productions Steve Norris at Pinewood Studios chose the project for support.
"Ivan Dunleavy and Steve Norris saw the great potential for this project to be the first steps towards these exciting emerging film-makers crafting a uniquely British Sci-Fi feature, and offered to support the film," a statement from Pinewood said.
Mr Norris commented: "Pinewood has been steadily building its involvement in British, independent film in the last couple of years and has already backed some really exciting projects with some of the best new talent working in the UK. Alpha : Omega is the first short film Pinewood has put money into and we're excited about the results. Chanya has worked hard to assemble some great partners and has produced a fantastic short sci-fi film that will certainly get people talking. We wish the team every success with their plans to turn this into a full length feature."
Other industry professionals and companies supporting the project include Technicolour, Panavision, DNeg, Oscar-winning Neil Corbould Special Effects (Gravity, War Horse, Gladiator), and Greg Powell (Stunt Co-Ordinator: Harry Potter, Children of Men, Skyfall).
A longer, feature length prequel, also called 'Alpha : Omega' is in production. It is is a political thriller with a sci-fi edge, set 50 years in the future. It follows the story of a pioneering female politician and her family, as she fights for a new fertility technology to be made available to the general public.
Pinewood revealed the story line last month: "After an announcement that she is to have a child via a controversial and heavily sanctioned technology – ectogenesis – Francesca Rosenbaum launches a campaign to move up the ranks of a stagnant coalition cabinet, and ascend to power. Tumult is incited amongst her political rivals, as well as within her family, as the very DNA of the family unit is unravelled. The film-makers have been inspired by the potential for a close relationship between Science and the Arts, and seek to ask the question: if women no longer needed to bear children, what effect would that have on the way families are comprised, on the workplace, on politics, and on the very fabric of our society?"
(CD)