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Good Arrows
August 2008Irvine Welsh's TV Directorial Debut
Good friends of ZANI, Irvine Welsh & Dean Cavanagh are about to start filming Good Arrows, the first film from their production company Jawbone. Irvine Welsh has been a busy lad lately: his new novel Crime has hit the shelves running and he's about to start work on a prequel to Trainspotting set in the early 1980's. Good Arrows sees Cavanagh and Welsh collaborating again after having made the BAFTA nominated Dose for BBC3 and the critically acclaimed Wedding Belles for CHANNEL 4. Wedding Belles caused quite a stir after the News Of The World called for it to be banned. ZANI want to know if we can expect any controversy from Good Arrows?Dean Cavanagh says "We're giving ZANI the heads up on this one before the mainstream press get hold of it because we're both big fans of the magazine. Anyway, basically Good Arrows is a mockumentary about a darts player who loses his edge and finds relief in Jenkem (Jenkem is a notorious drug that involves fermenting human feces in a bottle and they getting high off of the gases) so we probably will get some flak from the usual suspects in the tabloids. ITV4 want to screen it and we're simultaneously bringing it out on DVD. We've set up this little company with director Phil John and actor Jonathon Owen and are keen to do quite a few of these small scale mockumentary style films. The script obviously always comes first with us and we've managed to turn in a really funny and edgy one."
Welsh will be directing and is savoring the prospect: "It's a very tight, funny script and it'll be a bit of a learning curve. We've got a chance to make something without interference from the suits, which is what attracted us."
Good Arrows tells the story of Andy "The Arrows" Samson and his slide into depression after an heart attack spooks him so much he loses his dart throwing skills. Welsh is excited about the cast that Cavanagh has assembled with Co-Producers Rhian William and Joanne Podmore: "Jonathon Owen plays Andy Samson and his wife, Big Sheila, is being played by Ella Smith who's currently getting rave reviews in the Neil La Bute play Fat Pig. Brian Hibberd plays Alwyn, Andy's mentor, and we've got some great young actors from South Wales involved. It's going to be a labour of love but it will definitely be worth it."
ZANI wanders why we do not see more of Welsh and Cavanagh's work on TV: "We've done loads of TV development but it's like trying to jog through quicksand. It's a nightmare trying to get anything made nowadays. This one is different in that Dave Fewings at ITV4 has let us do what we want without arbitrarily breaking our balls." says Cavanagh
If Good Arrows is only half as scabrous and funny as Wedding Belles we are in for a treat. There was a much discussed rumour on the IMDB forums that Wedding Belles was to be made into a TV series. Will it ever see the light of day? Cavanagh groans: "We did a couple of scripts for CHANNEL 4 but they didn't want to do the series. We're definitely going to get the girls together again but not with CHANNEL 4 obviously."
Info Wars
Matteo Sedazzari/ZANI
