An invitation to a dinner at Gee’s is hardly to be resisted, especially when it comes from a young lady as delightful as Vicky Jewson (above). She is the enterprising filmmaker who, aged just 18, decided she was going to direct a full-length feature for the screen, and proceeded to do just that.
The result was the romantic comedy Lady Godiva, which was released to acclaim at the beginning of 2008 and is now selling well as a DVD. Funds for the production, amounting to £1.2m, had largely been raised from pledges made during an earlier launch dinner at Gee’s.
We were back there last week for Vicky and producer Rupert Whitaker to pass around the begging bowl, metaphorically, for their next project. This is the action thriller (‘girl with a gun’ thriller, as it’s properly styled) Born of War, which has its background in the conflict in Afghanistan. Cannily, this is being aimed largely at a male audience aged between 18 and 25, who happen to account for 80 per cent of cinema goers. Feelers are already out for an A-list cast, with casting in the hands of Gail Stevens whose previous credits include Slumdog Millionaire, The Beach and Match Point.
Definitely expecting a role in the movie, she was telling me over the champagne before dinner last week, is Vicky’s 21-year-old actress sister Libby. It was she, red-blooded readers might remember, who got to perform a hat- trick of naked rides on horseback to publicise big sis’s last movie.
As it’s said in the industry, all this stripping was “for artistic reasons only”.
Will Born of War be making similar demands on her? Many hope so.
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