Official Selection - Out of Competition 2009 / The Boat That Rocked / United Kingdom, Germany 2009
In 1966, in the country that gave us the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the broadcast of rock music is restricted to two hours a week. A band of incensed deejays, in order to spite the one official radio station, the BBC, decide to launch a pirate radio station. Their Radio Rock broadcasts for 24 hours a day from a boat floating in international waters in the North Sea – and more than half the British population is all ears. After his romantic comedy Love Actually successful British screenwriter Richard Curtis offers up another star-studded directorial delight.
It’s 1966 – British pop music’s finest era – and the only official radio station, the BBC, plays just two hours of rock’n’roll a week. A group of incensed disc jockeys decide to set up a pirate radio station so they can play their favourite music 24/7. And 25 million people – more than half the population of Britain – start tuning in to Radio Rock, broadcasting outside British territory from a boat floating on ethereal waves in the international waters of the North Sea… In serious breach of the law, the pirates are a thorn in the side of Minister Dormandy, who is bent on shutting them down. But will the fans of Radio Rock simply take this lying down? After his romantic comedy Love Actually, successful British screenwriter Richard Curtis offers up another star-studded directorial delight. This story of a band of irate deejays has certain autobiographical traits as well: Curtis used to listen to night-time pirate rock broadcasts as a boy.
129 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Richard Curtis
/ Screenplay Richard Curtis
/ Dir. of Photography Danny Cohen
/ Music Hans Zimmer
/ Editor Emma E. Hickox
/ Producer Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Hilary Bevan Jones
/ Production Working Title
/ Cast Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Sturridge, Chris O’Dowd, Rhys Darby, Katherine Parkinson, Talulah Riley
/ Contact Bontonfilm, a.s.
/ Distributor Bontonfilm, a.s.
www: www.theboatthatrocked.co.uk
Richard Curtis (b. 1956, New Zealand) grew up in the Philippines and in Sweden, finally settling in Great Britain. He studied at Oxford University (1978) and began working as a scriptwriter for the BBC. He has worked with comedian Rowan Atkinson (comedy series "Blackadder” and "Mr. Bean”). As one of Britain’s most successful screenwriters his filmography includes the sophisticated romantic comedies The Tall Guy (1989, dir. Mel Smith), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994, dir. Mike Newell – Oscar nomination), Notting Hill (1999, dir. Roger Michell), Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001, dir. Sharon Maguire) and its follow-up Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004, dir. Beeban Kidron). He won two Emmy awards (for production and screenplay) for his television tragicomedy The Girl in the Café (2005, dir. David Yates). In 2003 he debuted as a director with the romantic comedy based on his own script, Love Actually.
Bontonfilm, a.s.
Na Poříčí 1047/26, 110 00, Praha 1
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 257 415 111
E-mail: [email protected]
Aleš Danielis
Distributor
Marek Jeníček
Distributor, Producer
Petr Slavík
Distributor, PR & Marketing
Hilary Bevan Jones
Producer
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