Telegraph | Arts | Confetti confessions
April 25, 2006

If you want to shoot a romantic comedy with no script - while at the the same time staging three spectacular themed weddings - you need some dedicated actors to pull it off. Rebecca Davies talks to the some of the cast of Confetti, who helped director Debbie Isitt do just that.

MARTIN FREEMAN

Martin Freeman shot to fame as Tim in The Office, but has since made his mark on film in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Love Actually. He has recently finished shooting for Anthony Minghella’s new film, Breaking and Entering and Simon Pegg’s Hot Fuzz. In Confetti he plays Matt, one half of a couple trying to win a competition for the most original wedding.

Did you feel you were taking a bit of a risk switching from a big-budget Hollywood film like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to an un-scripted, as-yet unfunded production by a little-known director?

When I first met Debbie I thought she was very nice in a completely barking-mad sort of way. But she showed me a couple of films she’d made and gave me a synopsis of what would happen in the film. She’s very driven and very passionate about what she does and I like working with people like that. And when she mentioned to me that I would be working with Jessica Stevenson, who I had never worked with before but had always admired, that helped to make my mind up.

How did you cope with the improvising?

I found it quite frightening. It was a bit of a shock to me. I thought I’d be quite good at it because I’d done bits of improvising around a script before, but it’s completely different when there’s nothing whatsoever to base your performance on. At times I felt that I wasn’t very good at it and I just had to get better as filming continued.

Did you like the fact that you could create and shape the plot?

I think at the time I didn’t really think of it in that way – if I had I would have seen it as too much responsibility and run off crying. It helped that we had a great cast and we all played off each other, which was really fun. It also helped that the film was shot as a documentary, so it was OK for people to stumble over their words and talk over each other, because that’s what happens in real life and the outcome of your actions is completely unpredictable.

Your wedding has a Hollywood musical theme. How easily did you pick up the song and dance routines?

I didn’t find the steps that easy to pick up but I loved doing it. I think most actors are show-offs and have at some point spent afternoon’s singing along to West Side Story. I’m big fan of musicals but I hadn’t been in one since drama school ten years ago. But I think I can still carry a tune.

Did you write any of the songs?

We wrote the first two lines of our vows but fortunately we had an amazing composer to do the rest for us, like adding the music.

You were working with some incredibly funny comic actors, was it difficult not to crack up?

Yes, in fact I think there are some scenes that didn’t make the final cut because I was laughing so much. But sometimes you just couldn’t help yourself. I think it was also good sometimes to diffuse the tension on set.

At one point you completely lose your temper with Alison Steadman, who plays your mother-in-law. Did the fact that you were under pressure as an actor help to make the scene more real?

When we started filming that scene we had absolutely no idea how it was going to end. So I just sat there and let the others wind me up until I couldn’t take it any more. Debbie had told me off for swearing too much so I’d been trying to keep it down to a minimum, but by the end of that scene it seemed there was nothing Matt could do but tell his mother-in-law to f**k off.

How much of yourself is in your character?

Debbie told me that my job was just to be normal and basically be myself. She wanted me and Jessica Stevenson to be the couple that the audience could most empathise with. I certainly wasn’t going to workshops to perfect ‘Matt’s’ walk. As far as I’m concerned, acting is just story-telling, and I think that to tell a story you don’t need to experience the reality of the part you’re playing in order to do it well. If you’re telling the story of Red Riding Hood to your baby you don’t have to go and be devoured by a wolf first. I think imagination is often over-looked when it comes to developing characters.

Would you like to play a role that is very different from yourself?

I wouldn’t mind, but that wouldn’t be my first consideration above the story and the script. I don’t mind playing the nice guy rather than the rapist or the murderer as long as there’s a good script. I wouldn’t do it just to prove I can be different. And I can see why people ask me to play roles that are a bit like me, because no-one can do me as well as I can.

You’ve just finished shooting for a part in Simon Pegg’s latest film Hot Fuzz. Do you play a nice guy in that?

No, actually. I was required to do a bit of mugging to the camera with Simon. It’s not a huge part but it is a bit meatier than my role as a zombie in Shaun of the Dead because I actually get to speak. I’ve taken Shaun of the Dead off my CV now because people would come up to me and tell me it was one of my best roles. That’s not really what you want to hear as an actor.

Were there any scenes that didn’t make the final cut of Confetti that you wish had?

There’s one in particular, in which I’m struggling to try on a pair of wedding shoes and Jason Watkins, who plays one of the camp wedding planners, comes up behind me and says: “Here, let me give you the horn”. I had to turn away from the camera at that point because I was laughing so much.

JESSICA STEVENSON

Jessica Stevenson, best-known for co-writing and starring in the hit sitcom Spaced with Simon Pegg, plays Sam, Matt's fiancée. Her other film appearances include Shaun of the Dead and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

How did you become involved in Confetti?

The director, Debbie Isitt got in touch with me through my agent and won me over with her wit and confidence. Though when I agreed to do it, all she knew was that she wanted to make a documentary-style film about a wedding and that it would be completely improvised. It wasn’t until several years later, when Martin Freeman came on board, that we got the funding and finally managed to make the film.

Did you find the improvisation daunting?

I think actors often improvise in character in a scripted film, so it’s not that unusual. But it did make it really exciting to come to work because you never knew what was going to happen. For example, at one point Martin’s character Matt storms out of the house after a row with Sam’s mother and for a while I really wasn’t sure how Sam, aka me, was going to win him back before the wedding.

How did you develop the idea for your character?

Debbie was very keen for us all the formulate a character, to live and breathe as that character in whatever situation they find themselves and to react honestly to whatever is going on around them, and that’s what I tried to do with Sam. It wasn’t just about coming up with funny lines.

Was she based on anyone?

Sam’s situation is an amalgamation of both Debbie’s and mine. All families have their dysfunctions and I certainly drew on those in order to create what we thought was a generic girl. There’s a lot of room for drama and conflict when you start to look at issues such as marital breakdown and other problems that families face. I also used to secretly watch people on the tube and take mental note of any character traits that might come in handy.

One of the couples in the film has a naturist wedding. Were you quite relieved that you weren’t cast in that role?

I probably wouldn’t have minded because I think it was a great opportunity for some fantastic comic performances. But I don’t think anyone could have played it better than Robert Webb and Olivia Colman did in the end. After a while you even start to forget that they’re nude, you just enjoy the comedy of it.

Did you have fun dressing up for your musical-themed wedding?

Yes, it was amazing. The dress I got to wear was exactly how you would imagine your wedding dress to be as a little girl. It’s not at all what I wore for my wedding in real life. Before that, the closest I’d ever got was sneaking into Laura Ashley as a teenager to try on all the puffy meringue dresses. And I certainly never dreamed I would end up professing my vows from the top of a fifty-foot wedding cake.

Had you done much dancing before?

No, and I think that might have been obvious. In the film I’m described as being ‘physically dyslexic’ and it’s not that far from the truth. I found it really hard to keep the steps in my head. The dancers were getting a bit exasperated with me towards the end. But luckily we had a great choreographer.

Do you have any plans to lure Simon Pegg back from Hollywood to make a third series of Spaced?

I hope so. We’ve often talked about doing some kind of special. So maybe when he finishes filming Hot Fuzz I’ll grab him and see what we can come up with. We’ve got lots of ideas for it. We’d have to somehow incorporate the time lapse and Daisy and Tim’s advancing ages. They couldn’t be flat-sharing student-types for ever.

VINCENT FRANKLIN AND JASON WATKINS

Vincent Franklin and Jason Watkins play the camp wedding planners, Heron and Hough, who must help three couples create the most original wedding to win their dream home. Both have strong theatre backgrounds and their screen roles range from bit-parts in The Bill to working with Mike Leigh.

How much input did you have in the planning of the weddings?

JW A lot, though we did have a production crew who helped us out. We even did the choreography for the tennis couple’s wedding - personally I think ‘The Dance of the Ball Boys’ is the highlight of the film. We had to discuss everything with the couples and ask what they wanted. If they wanted Cliff Richard singing at their wedding, then we had to make it happen. Although in the end we had to settle for a lookie-likey who I thought was actually better than the real thing.

Did you know which couple was going to win the competition?

JW No. We shot three different endings and Debbie chose the one that worked best in the film as a whole. Though when the weddings were actually being staged, the actors who were playing the judges were told that they should just watch the weddings and judge. But in fact the winners that the judges voted for on the day didn’t end up being the winners in the final cut of the film.

VF There are still lots of things that we and the other actors don’t know about what everybody else was up to. All we know is what we’ve seen in the film. We were even encouraged not to talk to some of the other actors before filming so it would really be the first time that we met them once the camera started rolling, to keep it more spontaneous.

Did you have a favourite couple?

VF I didn’t, I wanted them all to win.

JW I started to develop one towards the end. Although they were horrible people, the tennis couple really wanted to win and that made our lives a lot easier. They came up to us knowing exactly what they wanted for their wedding and demanding it in no uncertain terms. I certainly didn’t want them to lose. Especially after Steve Mangan’s character says his girlfriend might not want him if they don’t win. God, I’m almost crying just thinking about it!

So you obviously find the film moving.

JW I think it is very moving because on the one hand the film is a satire on the wedding industry, because anything as absurd as worrying what colour your table cloth is deserves to be ridiculed. But on the other hand it is a deeply romantic film that highlights how crazy everyone is when they get married because love makes you do crazy things.

VF I think one of the great strengths of the film is that it can make you laugh one minute and cry the next.

Did you have to stay in character for most of the time that you were on set?

JW It would be a lie to say that we stayed in character for a whole day’s filming, but we did have to stay in character for a very long time, often with only a few minutes’ break. What made it particularly difficult was that you never knew when you were going to be able to stop acting because there was no-one there to tell you when the scene should end. You had to really drive the action to make things happen.

VF I certainly didn’t stay in character all the time, though I think some people did.

JW Steve Mangan was consistently horrible.

VF That’s not being in character, that’s just Steve [laughs].

Did you find the improvisation difficult?

VF Not really. They say that film acting is all about finding the right moment that is absolutely real and connects with the audience, and this way of working lends itself beautifully to that because it’s all about constructing scenarios whereby that can happen.

JW I think the trick to improvising is that it’s just as important to know when not to speak as when to blabber on, and to listen and not talk over each other. And also to know when it’s time to just leave.

Do you prefer working without a script?

JW I do because a lot of the time with scripted films you’re not asked to give very much of yourself. You just learn the lines, turn up and perform them like a lapdog. With an improvised film like this you really care about how it’s going to turn out. In some ways it’s a lot closer to theatre acting than traditional film acting.

VF Although it is sometimes incredibly fulfilling to be given wonderful lines to say, with this sort of work you are completely liberated.

JW It was almost like having a great big train set because we really got to create these weddings.

At one point in the film you [Jason] have to intervene when a fight breaks out on a tennis court. It looks quite real. Did you get hurt?

JW No, I’m a 15 stone ex-prop forward, but my glasses did get smashed in my pocket. It was a real fight, and Jesus, who plays the tennis coach, did get hurt while I was pinning him down. He had to have a couple of days off.

VF Well you did spearhead tackle him.

JW True, but as long as the scene ended up being funny that’s all that matters.

Confetti release date is May 5.

Not A Free Man
Confetti husband Martin Freeman talks weddings
Empire: Interviews And Events

Martin Freeman’s hitchhiked through the galaxy, played a porn stand-in in Love Actually and starred in some sitcom about an office that was apparently quite popular. Now starring as one of the husbands-to-be in Debbie Isitt’s improvised comedy Confetti, we talk to him about nudity, crazy people and Top of the Pops.

Firstly. I was very disappointed not to see you naked this time.

Sorry to disappoint you, I’m pleased I wasn’t.

Did you give any advice to Robert Webb on losing the clothing?

No, I was well away from that! Debbie didn’t want us talking to the other couples anyway, so Robert’s a big enough man to look after himself.

What was your take on the whole “staying in character for six weeks” thing?

(Laughs) Yeah well I didn’t, you know, there was a lot of appeasing to Debbie. She was being quite strict about not speaking to other people, but you know, I’m not a method actor.

Did your work on The Office help you with the improvisational approach to Confetti?

Not really, I mean no. It was way more scripted, in that it did have a script! I think doing the Office made me think, and doing other things so that I’m happy improvising around lines and happy improvising in a scene where it’s more of a structure. But doing this let me know that there is no structure, and actually there’s no lines, and it’s a different kettle of fish. It makes a massive difference, there being a script and there not being a script, and you can only really appreciate that once you’re trying to do it.

Apparently one of the first things you said to Debbie was you didn’t do improvisation.

Did I? Ah, I don’t know. I’m finding out all kinds of things. Jessica said I was a shit dancer, Debbie thinks I’m some sort of…I don’t know what’s going on. - The gloves are off now! The gloves are off! It’s war! It’s war! The first thing Debbie said to me was, “I’m a recovering alcoholic” and I said a lot of people don’t know that, they do now.

And you’re releasing a single, “Martin Freeman and the Confetti Cast”.

(Confused) This gets worse! What’s that?

I’ll show you the soundtrack later, but it’s “One Love”.

One Love, ah.

Well, it’s being released as a single…

Is it!?

Yes, with your name in the beginning of it. What do you think of that?

Well this is the Blockheads, it’s all right. It’s an endearing song, so…

Would you sing it on Top of the Pops?

No.

Not at all? Even if you go back to singing?

Go back to singing? (Laughs) Yes, that career was a lovely career while it lasted, but it just got too heavy. It just got too heavy. Long nights. Lonely days!

Feet back on the ground, the Confetti ensemble is quite good too.

Very good, yeah really good. I feel a bit left out because I’m not Channel 4.

What was it like working with everyone when you were given specific directions from Debbie not to interact with the rest of the cast?

It was great. I mean it was only very occasionally really where, for instance, we did get to do work with Meredith and Steve or Robert and Olivia, but I’ve always liked Jessica’s work, always loved Alison of course (Steadman, who plays Sam’s mum), everyone was really good in it. Vincent and Jason were just fantastic, the wedding planners, it was a real pleasure. You had to keep your game up because everyone is really good in it.

What do you think it is about weddings that drives people into weird behaviour?

Uh, I don’t know I mean the organising of it, l don’t envy at all and I don’t look forward to at all, but I think the actual wedding of itself is a really beautiful thing. I think whatever kind of wedding people have; I think it’s that public declaration of love that hits people where they live.

And in song.

Even more in song. You combine public declaration of love and a great big rousing tune, then you know, you’ve got hope.

On The Hoof
The Office star Martin Freeman had to wing his way through the dance scenes in new movie
By Siobhan Synnot
The Daily Record.co.uk
April 28, 2006

There's only one thing that terrifies The Office star Martin Freeman more than being nude on screen - and that's singing.

Comedy actor Martin has played several roles in which he's appeared stark naked, including the character of a bashful body double in rom-com Love Actually.

So when he was first pitched the idea of Confetti, an improvised comedy about three couples competing to win the most original wedding of the year, he half-expected to be playing the part of a groom in the buff.

However, it turned out he was to face an even worse ordeal.

Martin and Spaced star Jessica Stevens were told that their couple would get married in a high-kicking, tap dancing MGM musical style.

Martin winced: "It's improvised singing. It's not the world's great ambition to hear me sing, trust me. The world doesn't need that - it's got war. I'm hardly Aldershot's Sammy Davis."

He added: "I didn't find the dance-steps that easy to pick up either but, in the end, I loved doing it.

"I think most actors are show-offs and have at some point spent afternoons singing along to West Side Story.

"I'm big fan of musicals, but I hadn't been in one since drama school 10 years ago."

It took two years to edit down the 150 hours of material recorded for Confetti into a 100-minute film.

Every single word had been made up by Martin and the rest of the cast as they improvised their way through suggested scenes.

For the sharp-witted star, who has traded barbs with the likes of Jonathan Ross on live chat shows and never seems short of something to say, making up speeches on film proved harder than he'd thought.

He said: "Improvising was a bit of a shock to me. I thought I'd be quite good at it because I'd done bits of improvising around a script before, but it's completely different when there's no script at all to base your performance on.

"At times I felt that I wasn't very good at it, but it helped that the film was shot as a documentary, so it was okay for people to stumble over their words and talk over each other, because that's what happens in real life."

Not knowing what the other characters might say next kept him on his toes - but sometimes the gags brought shooting to a standstill as Martin and co-stars cracked up.

He said: "There's one scene that didn't make the film because I'm struggling to try on a pair of wedding shoes and Jason Watkins, who plays a very camp wedding planner, comes up behind me and says, 'Here, let me give you the horn'. I had to turn away from the camera because I was laughing so much."

Since shutting The Office door, Martin, who played the laid-back Tim, has hardly stopped working.

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's award-winning sitcom about the workforce at a Slough paper merchant's turned the actor into one of the hottest properties on television almost overnight.

His credits have included Love Actually and the lead role in Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. But he's determined to stay grounded and keep fame at arm's length.

Martin said: "It would be easy to get carried away thinking how big you are, but I'm sure the vast majority of people don't even know who I am - I'm not Robbie Williams.

"Even though people come up to me in the street and say things, they still don't know my name. In America they come up to me and say, 'You were in my favourite film'. And it turns out their favourite film is Love Actually. Or Ali G. And they tend to assume I have been unemployed since then. So I'm not about to be Tom Cruise."

He added: "I don't live for the idea of being a success in Hollywood. There are worse things, but I love London and I love being here."

Still, he has dipped his toe into Hollywood movies lately. In a few months he can be seen with Gwyneth Paltrow in a new rom-com written and directed by her brother Jake.

Martin plays a washed-up pop star who now writes advertising jingles, with Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg and Penelope Cruz in supporting roles.

The £50million The Good Night is a big step up from Slough - but it turns out Martin was hired because Gwynnie and Coldplay husband Chris Martin love The Office.

He said: "It was a really great thing to do and Gwyneth's excellent, she really is."

One reason why Martin doesn't see himself moving away from Britain is that he has his own family to think about.

He met long-term partner, actress Amanda Abbington, on the set of a Channel 4 drama Men Only and they've been together ever since.

Amanda played his ex-wife in BBC 2's sitcom The Robinsons and also appears alongside Martin in upcoming film The All Together.

He said: "It's really lovely working with her because not only do I obviously really love Amanda, I really respect her.

"I'm not the best actor in my house, and I know it."

The couple are busy off-screen too, after the pair became parents to a son on December 5.

Fiercely private about his personal life, Martin won't even reveal his son's name.

Yet he's now a familiar sight around north London with a flat cap hiding his dark blond hair, pushchair and small pet dachshund, Archie, trotting along beside them. Most dads will tell you that getting out the house with a baby sometimes takes longer than the walk itself - but Martin admits that he's still the highest-maintenance member of the family.

He said: "I really don't care about what is happening in fashion, but if I'm popping down to the corner shop it'll take me 20 minutes to get ready.

"I'll get the ironing board out and Amanda will be like, 'What are you doing? You're just going to the shop.""

But the face of M&S menswear defends himself: "I like ironing. It's quite therapeutic and I really can't stand creased clothes. I even like doing my girlfriend's ironing."

It all sounds very cosy in the Freeman household at the moment. The couple have always been homebirds, ignoring glitzy premieres and parties in favour of nights with the telly and a pizza.

If the pair do take a trip down the aisle for real, they had better take plenty of hankies.

Martin said: "I've not been to many weddings but not that long ago I was asked to do a reading at a wedding and I couldn't do it. It was really embarrassing.

"It was impossible for me to get through without breaking down.

"It took me about 20 minutes to do and in the end one of my brothers had to get up and put his arm around my shoulder for moral support before I could do it.

"I'm sure everyone thought I was just another luvvie, auditioning for a role."

Confetti is on general release on May 5.

Look out Tom - I'm on a mission!
By Graham Young
March 10, 2006

BIRMINGHAM-born film director Debbie Isitt will go head-to-head with Tom Cruise - after her eagerly-awaited new comedy Confetti was scheduled opposite Mission: Impossible III.

Her last movie Nasty Neighbours was given a five-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, only for it to be overshadowed by Billy Elliot on its UK debut.

With Confetti's planned May 5 release now set to clash with the previous day's launch of M:i:III, Debbie admitted the success of a film was often down to luck.

"Hopefully Confetti will be seen by many people as an alternative to what's going on in the world," she said. "It's a much happier subject than Nasty Neighbours!"

Debbie, a former pupil at Lords-wood Girls School, added: "I think Tom Cruise is a bit wooden myself - he's not my type!

"I don't think he could handle my improvisation - but making Confetti was definitely mission impossible for me. Our film is a wedding comedy versus an action film and hopefully everyone will be Mission: Impossibled out with the third one and prefer to come to see our film instead."

The cast of Confetti includes Martin Freeman (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/ The Office), Jessica Stevenson (Spaced), Stephen Mangan (Green Wing), Alison Steadman (Abigail's Party) and comedian Jimmy Carr.

The film follows three couples as they fight it out to win Confetti Magazine's competition for the 'Most Original Wedding of the Year'.

At stake is the most special day of their lives, a £500,000 dream house and a cover shoot with Confetti.

Debbie has spent months editing the film at her Coventry home with partner Nicky Ager.

The commercials editor also completed her 1999 Birmingham-made feature debut, Nasty Neighbours, with Nicky but the pair have never married despite having daughter, Sydney, who's seven next week.

Debbie, 40, said: "I can see the benefit of commitment and ritual and celebration, but the idea of conforming to normal practices in society is not something that has appealed to me.

"Making the film was almost like having my own wedding, so I thought I would live through it that way and not have to pay for it!"

She added: "The subject of weddings is always up for debate in regard to what it means in contemporary society."

Made through BBC Films with £250,000 worth of European funding channelled through Screen West Midlands, Confetti was filmed in London for six weeks in 2004 with the actors improvising the script in character.

Confetti will run to around 96 minutes and is expected to be given a 15 certificate.

After its UK debut, Fox Searchlight plan to release the movie worldwide.

Martin Freeman and Jessica Stevenson in Confetti

Telegraph | Arts | Make it fast, make it cheap, make it up
August 5, 2005

Improvised films are a booming business, reports David Gritten

Last autumn, British filmmaker Debbie Isitt gathered together a bunch of talented comic actors, including Martin Freeman, Alison Steadman, Jessica Stevenson and Jimmy Carr, and assigned each of them a character in a story called Confetti, about engaged couples entering a magazine competition for the most original wedding.

"I told them a bit about themselves, and who their friends and family were," Isitt recalls. At this point before a film, actors are normally shown a script. But there wasn't one - not a page. They had to improvise every word.

Isitt told them she would mostly stay out of the way, observing and following them like a documentary filmmaker: "They had to decide what to wear on their big day. They wrote their own vows. They knew there was a competition and a wedding date. The rest was obstacles set by me that their characters had to overcome."

After six weeks' shooting, Isitt had amassed 150 hours of film, to be edited down to 90 minutes. It's a risky approach to filmmaking, yet BBC Films had taken a chance and financed Confetti. The gamble paid off; a 20-minute section of the film was shown to potential buyers in Cannes, and Fox Searchlight, a 20th Century Fox subsidiary, snapped it up. It will debut at the Toronto Film Festival in September, and will later be seen in cinemas and on TV.

Films that are improvised to varying degrees are becoming what David Thompson, head of BBC Films, describes as a "mini-brand" for the corporation. "It's a very different kind of filmmaking," he says. "And we hope to energise the British film industry with it."

Movie joy for Debbie at Cannes Comedy film is snapped up
By Marion Mcmurray
icCoventry.co.uk
July 20, 2005

COVENTRY film director and scriptwriter Debbie Isitt is tasting Hollywood success at the Cannes Film Festival with her new movie Confetti.

The comedy stars top British talent including The Office and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy actor Martin Freeman, Fat Friends actress Alison Steadman, comedian Jimmy Carr and Jessica Stevenson, from Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

The film has been snapped up for global release following success at the Cannes Film Festival.

International film distributor Fox Searchlight Pictures secured the worldwide rights after viewing just 20 minutes of the film.

Confetti is part-funded by the regional film agency, Screen West Midlands, and follows the fortunes of three couples as they battle it out in a bridal magazine competition to find the most original wedding. It will appear in cinemas early next year.

Birmingham-born Debbie, who trained and now lives in Coventry, enjoyed stage success with her city theatre company Snarling Beasties and started making her own films six years ago.

Her first movie, Nasty Neighbours, starred Ricky Tomlinson and won awards at the Venice Film Festival. Debbie won a Bafta last year for her TV adaptation of The Illustrated Mum and said she was delighted at the success of Confetti at Cannes.

She said: "I had a fantastic cast of actor/comedians to work with, who improvised their way through the entire movie. It was fun to make and hopefully funny to watch.

"It is difficult to secure funding for British films at the best of times, let alone when there is no script and I could not have done it without the support I received from Screen West Midlands."

Screen West Midlands invested £250,000 in the film from its Film and Media Production Fund and the trip to Cannes was financed by UK Trade & Investment.

Fox Searchlight Pictures and BBC Films/Wasted Talent Celebrate with ``CONFETTI''; Worldwide Distribution Rights Acquired

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 25, 2005--Fox Searchlight Pictures President Peter Rice announced today that it has acquired worldwide rights to the BBC Films/Wasted Talent production CONFETTI, a sharp and affectionate comedy featuring an ensemble of UK comedic talents.

Written and directed by Debbie Isitt (NASTY NEIGHBOURS), CONFETTI follows three couples as they duke it out to win a bridal magazine contest for "Most Original Wedding of the Year." The talented cast -- which includes Martin Freeman (THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, LOVE ACTUALLY, "The Office"), Jessica Stevenson (SHAUN OF THE DEAD, SPACED, THE ROYLE FAMILY), Stephen Mangan (GREEN WING), Felicity Montagu (I'M ALAN PARTRIDGE), award-winning comedian Jimmy Carr in his first screen performance and Alison Steadman (TOPSY-TURVY, LIFE IS SWEET) -- was afforded total creative freedom within the confines of a carefully crafted story frame. To prepare, the cast took part in weeks of intense workshops where they began the process of developing and inhabiting their unique roles.

Said Fox Searchlight Pictures President Peter Rice: "From minute one, we were immediately enamored with CONFETTI's unique concept and witty execution. With CONFETTI we look forward to both working with BBC Films and Wasted Talent, and continuing the extraordinary success we have experienced with previous British comedies like THE FULL MONTY, WAKING NED DEVINE and BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM."

Said David Thompson, Head of BBC Films: "We're really delighted to have struck this deal with Fox Searchlight. This is the first fruit of our new focus on comedy films, and it is fantastic we've made such a strong start. It is great to see such wonderful comedy talent on the big screen. We felt we had something very special here and we are delighted to see that our instinct has been backed in this way -- there is nobody better than Fox Searchlight to bring British comedy talent to international audiences."

"We are delighted with the Fox Searchlight team's enthusiastic response to CONFETTI. There could be no better home for Wasted Talent's first feature," added Ian Flooks, Wasted Talent Chairman.

CONFETTI is produced by Wasted Talent's Ian Flooks and Ian Benson (THE WEEKEND, THE MISADVENTURES OF MARGARET). The film was co-financed by BBC Films, Wasted Talent and Screen West Midlands.

The deal was brokered by Fox Searchlight Executive Vice President Joseph De Marco and Senior Vice President of Acquisitions Tony Safford with Isabel Begg, Head of Business and Legal Affairs, and Jane Wright, Head of Rights and Commercial Affairs, from BBC Films.

The project will be shepherded at Fox Searchlight by Executive Vice President of Production Claudia Lewis.

Fox Searchlight Pictures is a filmmaker-oriented company that focuses on distinctive films helmed by world class auteurs and exciting newcomers. It has its own marketing and distribution operations, and its films are distributed internationally by Twentieth Century Fox. Fox Searchlight Pictures is a unit of Fox Filmed Entertainment, a unit of Fox Entertainment Group.

Contacts:

Fox Searchlight Pictures
Breena Camden, 310-369-4915