Criminal Audition marks the distinctive debut feature film from director Samuel Gridley and award-winning writer Luke Kaile, in a truly independent & surprising potboiler that boasts an eccentric, twisted and thoroughly British sense of humour. “Criminal Audition” is the result of years of work from the writer and director team and is a delectable taste of things to come from them in the future.
Muzzle the Pig & Mordue Pictures, in Association with NVIZ present a Blood & Tweed production: CRIMINAL AUDITION.
‘An ex-lawyer and his team run an underworld service, providing fake criminals to take on other people’s crimes. But a new dangerous client turns their world upside down as they face lies, deceit, and murder throughout one night.’
“Criminal Audition” began life as a one-act play in 2009, inspired by stories of doppelgängers going to prison in replacement of the true criminals in exchange for a cash payout. Luke Kaile, the original playwright, eventually began to contemplate expanding the concept into a feature film. In 2014, Samuel Gridley joined the project to direct, quickly becoming a co-writer and producer alongside Luke over the many years of development. Later, Luke and Samuel teamed up with Mordue Pictures’ Nathaniel Francis and Luke Morgue to finally deliver the film from page to screen.
The Filmmakers say;
“Criminal Audition was our film school, we made the film in our heads for the best part of a decade, we lived, breathed and slept Criminal Audition.
This was a no-frills filmmaking experience; our story is a tense claustrophobic, murderous thriller – and that’s not far cry from the production itself as we lived elbow to elbow in our single location, under Waterloo station, with no phone signal or natural light. We ate lunch on sets we weren’t using, made call sheets in our production office that also doubled up as the kitchen and make-up trailer. To say that our blood, sweat, and tears went into this film (literally at times) is not an understatement.
Luckily, we banded together with a terrific group of young, talented heads of department who truly are the industry stars of the future – This is our mission statement, to nurture talent alongside our growth of filmmakers. If Criminal Audition was our film school, we plan to keep learning on our many projects to come.
Throughout this process, we’ve always strived to deliver a film for the audience, to surprise, scare, and cause nervous laughter and we can’t wait to share it with the world.”
Out now in the UK on Amazon, iTunes, and more!