David Wickes Productions Blog and News

Farewell Twickers

So Twickenham Film Studios is to close.

This famous little studio will be sadly missed by all who worked there.

For almost 100 years “Twickers” was a pillar of our industry.

Home to countless British movies, including the Beatles films Help! and A Hard Day’s Night and more recently The Iron Lady, this bustling and friendly place holds many memories for me.

It was here that I made all of the Philip Marlowe films, the very first series of TV movies ever made for an American cable network.

It was here that Evening Standard film critic Alexander Walker and I interviewed Richard Lester (director of the Beatles films) along with Walter Shenson (American producer of the Peter Sellers movie The Mouse That Roared as well as the Beatles films) for our documentary series Moviemen.

It was here that Gerry Humphries, the legendary sound technician, and his assistant Robin O’Donahue, worked all night to fix a major sound problem on my movie Frankenstein so that we could get the film to Los Angeles in time for its premiere. We made it with just hours to spare.

It was here that my assistant Sue Davies (now Jacob) first joined The Wickes Company for a fortnight’s work experience — and stayed for 11 years. Also at Twickenham, Sue did her famous 4-year research marathon that led to our big American miniseries Jack The Ripper starring Sir Michael Caine.

I remember Sir John Gielgud being greeted in the canteen by that other knight of the theatre Sir Ralph Richardson with a loud “Ah, there you are, dear boy. Couldn’t see you under all that make up!”

I remember re-voicing one of the actors for The New Professionals in the ADR theatre and hearing the voice man say “What sort of accent is this actor supposed to have? He sounds like a Devonshire Brummie from Scotland on Thames.”

I remember being caught at the traffic lights every morning for a whole week, right behind John Cleese’s car, as we both arrived at 6 o’clock sharp and went our separate ways. I think John was working on A Fish Called Wanda.

And I’ll never forget queuing at the chippie across the street with famous faces to get some inner fuel for long night-shoots ahead.

RIP, dear old Twickers. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Cannes 2011

It had been a few years since we'd been to Cannes, so we decided to make the trip this year to talk to various film financiers about our two current film projects in development: Venus Rising and The Heroes of Mafeking. Both screenplays are period dramas, though very different in style and historical context.

The slight madness that is Le Festival du Film is quite fun. The scale of the film market is huge, although after a couple of days of navigation, it all becomes familiar with a villagey feel - a very glamorous village, that is.

The market is multi-faceted: a floating corporate hospitality fest; an opportunity to see a myriad films from obscure countries; a chance to catch the bigger films in competition; and surprisingly, a slightly nerdy convention peopled by delegates in summer rig with their 'we belong here' IDs on tape around their necks. Actually, we had those, too . . . it's the law.

Happily, we met some some excellent people whose addition to the mix will help to bring our projects to fruition. It was good to meet David's long time lawyer Nigel Palmer of Farrer & Co and have a noisy dinner at Le Petit Paris. Thanks, too, to our accountant Ivan Sopher and his wife Helen for inviting us to join them on the Coutts yacht. Very heaven, if a little sunburny, even at 6pm. We saw some familiar faces there and made a few new connections.

A poolside lunch at an impressive-looking villa with the representatives of the consortium which is raising finance for The Heroes of Mafeking was encouraging. They seemed to be making good progress with their funding set-up and had some exciting plans to integrate branding into the package to finance the film. And we had a few good meetings on the Carlton Terrace, in particular with Prescience Film Financing regarding Venus Rising. More names, more pack-drill, when we get past 'Go'.

The Movie Men

In 1970 David Wickes directed THE MOVIE MEN, a 6 part documentary series for Thames Television focusing on the directing styles of the era's outstanding film directors. These iconic directors were:

JOHN HUSTON (1906-1987) Movies include: The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), The Misfits (1961)

SIR DAVID LEAN (1908-1991) Movies include: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Ryan's Daughter (1970), A Passage to India (1984)

JOSEPH LOSEY (1909-1984) Movies include: The Servant (1963), Accident (1967), The Go-Between (1970)

JOHN SCHLESINGER (1926-2003) Movies include: Darling (1965), Far From the Madding Crowd (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Marathon Man (1976)

RICHARD LESTER (b 1932) Movies include: A Hard Day's Night (1964), Help (1965), The Three Muskateers (1973)

BRYAN FORBES (b1926) Movies include: Whistle Down the Wind (1961), The Stepford Wives (1975), International Velvet (1978)

Fronting the documentary was the charismatic film critic of the London Evening Standard, Alexander Walker. With his love of film and unparalleled knowledge of his subject, Walker's sharp critiques meant that he wasn't always in favour with filmmakers. This resulted in David Wickes conducting three of the interviews (LEAN, HUSTON & SCHLESINGER) as well as directing the documentary series as a whole.

Equipped with an Auricon camera and a Thames TV van, Wickes and Walker set off on a road trip to interview their subjects on location, at studios or at their homes.