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Preproduction Ken Russell is currently in pre production of an underground film project called Leomania. This is a true bizarre story in the 1930īs of the rector of Stiffkey known as the 'prostitutes padre'. David Bedford has already written an opera on the padre and there is a biography by Harold Davidson. Diana Laurie will play the lead, a reporter from the Skegness Sentinel newspaper. More details when available!! Thanks to Victoria Russell for the information.
Filming of Leomania started Hi Iain, Sorry I haven't got back to you for a while - but I have got some news to tell you regarding Leomania. Hellen got a letter from Ken a couple of weeks ago asking if she could get some of the Portsmouth crowd together to go to his house to do some filming. Six of us went to see him on last Sunday dressed in our best efforts of 30's gear armed with a picnic to be in a background scene. We all ended up being right at the front and in shot!! It was quite a surreal day!! The first scene was of the barrel containing the rector with Ken himself acting the part of Ring Master. A crowd gathers as the rector begins his philosophy and bursts into song, the crowd then begin dancing until a policeman comes along and requires the rector to move along. At this point the Ring Master invites the crowd to come along to the fair on Sunday and witness the rector preaching from a cage of lions. Diane was also there to help along with Ken's son and his Assistant Director. Apparently the film is to be released on the internet!!! That's all for now, will let you know if I hear more!! Andi and the Fox Den
Editing started Dear Ian, Sorry I haven't been in touch for a while. It's all been pretty hectic over here. We have pretty much finished shooting 'Leomania' - all bar a few inserts to be filmed now and editing commences straight away basically with Ken cutting the stuff on a system called 'Casablanca'. Good news. Melvyn Bragg heard about the project and has commissioned Ken to do a South Bank show on his foray into the underground film world. Hopefully to be screened in November it will include footage of 'Leomania' as well as clips from some of Ken's fave underground movies. There was a piece in the Evening Standard here in London about the shooting of 'Leomania' - quite funny. It can be found on the online Standard site which is called 'This is London'. Just put the name Ken Russell into their search engine and you should find the article OK here. I'll let you have any more news as I get it From Emma x
Editing and new title The film will not be called 'Leomania', at present it is called Lionīs Mouth. Ken is now editing the film and also prepping a project for Melvyn Bragg- a documentary on Volcano, the underground film festival. To air in November. Clips from the film will be shown. (Thanks to Victoria Russell for the information).
Filming completed Dear Ian Fisher, Best regards
Selecting takes Dear Ian I'm still in the process of selecting the hundreds of takes from dozens of scenes from the Lion's Mouth; we did so many takes of the scenes with Diana and Nipper that we found it difficult to select the best take (because they're all good in different ways). I select the takes with dad and he edits them; we share the choice in selections of takes. The props are old things we find in the stable and garage; we make things out of nothing in a sense; ex-objects, retired furniture, extinct rubbish: the usual lost objects of desire! Best Regards
Recovering Hi Iain, Got loads to tell you and will set about getting photos to you as soon as back in London (in Italy at moment...."RESTING"!!!!!!!!) Also there is more press coming up as lots of people are interested.
Editing completed Dear Ian, Ken has just finished editing The Lion's Mouth which now runs at 28 mins in length. We worked together two weeks ago setting up the last few vital shots which may prove to be the most evocative and beautiful: and they came by chance and surprise.
Best regards
Soundtrack Dear Ian, Ken and I are both working on the music sound tracks for The Lion's Mouth and are trying to work out what music would work best. Best regards
Distribution The film is nearing completion with work now on the soundtrack and some extra dialogue by Diana. The film might be released over Internet, but a problem will be the copyright clearance of the music in the film. Another option was via the Volcano independent film festival and a documentary by Ken, but Ken wasnīt impressed by the stuff he saw at the festival. There is the possibility of another documentary, possibly in three parts, which will include a cut down Lionīs Mouth. Thanks to Ken Russell for the information.
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