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For his debut fiction feature Sweet Sue, UK filmmaker Leo Leigh began rehearsals without a script, adapting a process used by filmmakers including, rather famously, by his father, director Mike Leigh.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beats of the story are there, but it has no dialogue,\u201d says Leigh of his pre-rehearsal outline, \u201cso that it\u2019s open to interpretation when we come to rehearse it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Leigh is renowned for starting his films without a script and alternating between rehearsal and shooting in a process that can take up to six months. For his film, in mid-2021 Leo spent six weeks prior to production in a building in Tottenham, north London with as many of his cast and crew as possible, including cast, cinematographer Simona Susnea, and the costume and art departments.<\/p>\n
He then took \u201ceverything that\u2019s been improvised and we\u2019ve scripted in the room\u201d and compiles a \u201cconventional\u201d script, giving the actors three weeks before production to learn it.<\/p>\n
What has emerged is a drama about a woman back on the dating scene who embarks on a relationship with a man she meets at her brother\u2019s funeral, a mysterious biker with a flamboyant social media influencer son.<\/p>\n
Sweet Sue is making its world premiere in the Cinevision Competition at Germany\u2019s Filmfest Munchen today (June 27). Although he has followed his father into filmmaking, Leo says he doesn\u2019t discuss the industry side of the business with Mike but they do talk about cinema and filmmaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watch first cuts of his stuff and have an input and he had an input on this,\u201d says Leigh of Sweet Sue. But he suggests he has a wide circle of influence and Mike is credited with a simple \u201cThanks\u201d at the end of the film. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got so many friends that are filmmakers and we send each other scripts and cuts, He\u2019s just another one of them,\u201d says Leo. \u201cI like his films a lot. He doesn\u2019t compromise. He\u2019s a guy whose opinion and taste I really respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018SWEET SUE\u2019<\/p>\n
Leigh started his career in short documentaries after starting but not completing a course at The Surrey Institute of Art & Design in the early noughties. He made three projects for Vice Films\u2019 Rule Britannia series including 2009\u2019s Swansea Love Story, which was picked up by CNN.<\/p>\n
He started developing what became Sweet Sue in 2017 with BBC Film, after then-executive, now-director Eva Yates got in touch having liked his 2016 Bifa-nominated short Mother.<\/p>\n
That short had been made with Sally Campbell and Tim Nash\u2019s UK production company Somesuch and the company quickly came on board the feature. It reunited Leigh with the short\u2019s producer Scott O\u2019Donnell, who produced Aneil Karia\u2019s 2020 feature Surge, and Nash also as producer, with Campbell as executive producer.<\/p>\n
They brought on Andy Brunskill of SUMS Film & Media, whose credits include Lilting and Sweetheart, to pull together financing and join the hands-on production team.<\/p>\n
They secured backing from a slew of indie film executive producers including Oliver Ridge of Blood Moon Creative, who also worked on Joyland, Safitri Widagdo, whose credits include Sweetheart and Love, Sarah, Kathryn Moseley of US-based One Two Twenty Entertainment, who also worked on Joyland, along with films including The Card Counter, Piers Hunt of financier HH5, Pietro Greppi of Lunapark Pictures, which produced Flux Gourmet, and Reinhard Besser of Trigger Films.<\/p>\n
Talk don\u2019t act
\nWhen selecting his actors in early 2021 with casting director Lara Manwaring, Leigh required performers who felt comfortable with the improvisation-led style. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about the acting ability and more about the discussion, about that process,\u201d says the filmmaker. \u201cYou pick up on things that they say that give you confidence in the fact that they\u2019ll be able to deal with it. Some actors feel more comfortable with pre-written dialogue \u2013 that\u2019s fine, that\u2019s just another gig.\u201d<\/p>\n
He settled on Shameless actress Maggie O\u2019Neill for the title role, with Peaky Blinders\u2019 Tony Pitts as her leather-clad love interest. He says they saw 180 actors for the role of Anthony, the social-media-obsessed son, before picking out Harry Trevaldwyn, a 2022 Screen Star of Tomorrow, who was best known for his own social media skits that kept online audiences amused during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was never a moment where I thought \u2018this is a hurdle\u2019,\u201d says Leigh of working with the newcomer. \u201cIf somebody is as prepared and interested as he was, then when you come to shoot the film, you don\u2019t feel like you\u2019re giving notes to fix his performance; you\u2019ve giving notes to enhance it.\u201d<\/p>\n
HanWay Films boarded world sales in January 2022 after production wrapped the previous month; while Curzon acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights this year.<\/p>\n
Leigh has already reteamed with BBC Film, Somesuch and SUMS for his next feature, \u201ca dark tale about psychosis and counterculture\u201d set in 1969. He says the title is so good it can\u2019t be divulged yet. \u201cI just feel someone will steal it.\u201d<\/p>\n
View this article at Screen Daily<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leo Leigh talks \u2018Sweet Sue\u2019, improvising with the cast and the influence of his famous dad: For his debut fiction feature Sweet Sue, UK filmmaker Leo Leigh began rehearsals without a script, adapting a process used by filmmakers including, rather famously, by his father, director Mike Leigh. \u201cThe beats of the story are there, but
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