By Zak Ntim, Deadline | James Griffiths’s buzzy UK-shot and set comedy The Ballad Of Wallis Island received its first UK festival screening Friday evening in St Andrews, Scotland, as the opening film of the Sands International Film Festival.
The crowd-pleasing comedy arrives at Sands after its debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film follows Charles (Tim Key), an eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island and dreams of getting his favorite musicians, McGwyer Mortimer (Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan), back together. His fantasy turns into reality when the bandmates and former lovers accept his invitation to play a private show at his home on Wallis Island. Old tensions resurface as Charles tries desperately to salvage his dream gig.
Griffiths told the sold-out Sands crowd after the screening that the film was almost filmed in Scotland, but the production shifted over to Wales after Carey Mulligan signed on.
“When we first started working on the script, we thought we were going to shoot up here in Scotland, but Carey Mulligan became involved, and she was having a baby at the time,” Griffiths said.
“Her family is all from Wales, specifically the Pembrokeshire coast. So she asked if we would consider scouting that area and finding a location to shoot near her family so she could have the support.”
Griffiths said he agreed and began a long walking tour of the “entire Welsh coastal path” with his location scout.
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Read more on this fun movie here and how they found a beach:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/sands-international-film-festival-opens-with-raucous-homecoming-screening-of-carey-mulligan-comedy-the-ballad-of-wallis-island/
Related:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/carey-mulligan-on-the-ballad-of-wallis-island-songs-are-so-wonderful/
Photo: Ballad of Wallis Island
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