Robert Boulter (Sean)

On screen, Robert Boulter has appeared The Long Firm opposite Derek Jacobi and will next be seen in the upcoming Daylight Robbery due for release in 2008. His credits on stage include Herons (Royal Court), the controversial Mercury Fur directed by John Tiffany and the award-winning Burn/Chatroom/Citizenship short plays (National Theatre). He most recently starred in a three-hander called How to Curse directed by Josie Rourke (Bush Theatre).

Sian Brecken (Lisa)

Donkey Punch is newcomer Sian’s first feature role. She has previously appeared on television in The Royal and on stage in productions of The Importance of Being Earnest, Mancub, Good Hands, Christine and The Recruiting Officer.

Tom Burke(Bluey)

Tom Burke’s film credits include roles in Dragonheart: A New Beginning, The Libertine, Anastezsi and I Want Candy. His upcoming films include Telstar due to be released in 2008. On television, Tom has appeared in Warriors, Number 13, Dracula, Bella and the Boys, Inspecter Linley and State of Play for the BBC and Casanova, POW and Dangerfield. Stage credits include lead in Don Juan Comes Back From The War and Romeo and Juliet and roles in Scenes from an Execution, The Cult, The Incarcerator, Macbeth  and The Monument.

Nichola Burley (Tammi)

Prior to her role in Donkey Punch, Nichola made her feature debut in 2005’s Love + Hate. On television, roles have included the TV Movie, Born Equal for the BBC, regular appearances in The Ghost Squad, Goldplated, and Shameless for Channel 4, as well as Drop Dead Gorgeous and the recently completed Till We Die a new comedy series for Hat Trick. Nichola’s recent theatre work includes BollyWood Jane (West Yorkshire playhouse) and Amadeus (Crucible Sheffield). 

Julian Morris (Josh)

Prior to appearing in Donkey Punch, Julian’s feature film credits include Cry Wolf, Whirly Girl and Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. His next feature role is in the upcoming Privileged. Julian’s television credits include appearances in Shark, Miss Marple, Young Arthur, Fish and The Knock. On stage Julian has appeared at The Royal Shakespeare Company in productions of Richard III and Macbeth.

Jay Taylor (Marcus)

Prior to his role in Donkey Punch, Jay Taylor appeared in The Rise of The Footsoldier. On television he will next be seen in The Fixer, other credits include Daphne, Holby City, Eastenders and Mr. Wroe’s Virgins. Theatrical roles include The Police and Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare’s Globe). During his time at RADA he was in over ten productions including Mothers and Sons, In the Jungle of the Cities, The Good Soldier and Twelfth Night.

Jaime Winstone (Kim)

Twenty one year old Jaime was first seen in the short film Love Letter. This was followed with a part in the award winning Bullet Boy and then the highly acclaimed Kidulthood. Jaime will soon be seen in Daddy’s Girl and has just finished working on Boogie Woogie (due out in 2008). On television, Jaime has taken the lead role in Phoo Action for the BBC, has appeared in a regular role in Goldplated as well as having appearances in Vincent and Totally Frank. She has just finished Phoo Action for BBC 4.

ABOUT THE CREW

David Bloom | Co-Writer

Angus Lamont | Producer

Angus Lamont has worked in the film and television industry since 1988. Prior to producing Donkey Punch for Warp X, Angus produced 2001’s Late Night Shopping which was nominated for the BAFTAS ‘Carl Foreman Award’, won three Scottish BAFTAS and won Best Actress (Kate Ashfield) at the British Independent Film Awards.

Previous credits include co-producing the BFI/CHANNEL 4 feature film Stella Does Tricks and The Planman (starring Robbie Coltrane) for ITV. Angus has also produced more that 25 short films and television dramas. These films include work by Damien O’Donnell (East Is East), Jim Gillespie (I Know What You Did Last Summer), Asif Kapadia (The Warrior) Menhaj Huda, (Kidulthood) and David McKenzie (Young Adam, Hallam Foe).

In January 2003 Angus Lamont formed his own company Crab Apple Films. He has a slate of projects in development with various financiers and broadcasters including Scottish Screen, the BBC, Film4, The UK Film Council, the ITV network and the MEDIA programme. He has attended many recognised high level industry training schemes including, EAVE, ARISTA, and ACE and was a participant in the UK Film Council’s inaugural Inside Pictures course in 2002.

Robin Gutch | Producer

Robin Gutch is Joint Managing Director of Warp X with Mark Herbert, a start-up digital ‘studio’ that makes low budget feature films with funding from UK Film Council, Film4, EM Media and Screen Yorkshire. Warp X is a low budget slate, which aims to introduce the next wave of cutting edge British filmmakers where seven feature films will be made over the next three years. The first two features, Donkey Punch, Complete History of My Sexual Failures are complete and the third, Hush, is currently in post-production.

Between 2003 and 2005 he was Head of Film and Drama for Blast Films.  Previously Robin was the founding Head of Film4 Lab, which was established as Film4’s main focus for new talent in film in 1999.  Before joining Film4, Robin was Commissioning Editor for Independent Film and Video at Channel 4. He had joined Channel 4 in 1994 as a Deputy Commissioning Editor, having worked at the BBC as a Producer and Director for the previous ten years. 

Mark Herbert | Producer

Mark Herbert is the joint MD of Warp X with Robin Gutch.  He received the Dunhill award at the London Film Festival in 2006 and was recently mentioned by the Observer as one of the Courvoisier future 500. Mark was also nominated by Variety magazine as one of “10 Producers to Watch”.

Mark has recently produced Warp X titles A Complete History of my Sexual Failures, Hush and Donkey Punch. In 2006 he produced This Is England directed by Shane Meadows, since its release in early 2007 it has gained many awards including the 'Best Film' at the British Independent Films Awards and the Special Jury Prize at the Rome Film Festival.

Mark’s first feature for Warp Films was Dead Man’s Shoes, the Shane Meadows’ film that opened to great reviews, which has been nominated for a record 8 British Independent Film Awards and won the Hitchcock D’or at the Dinard Festival. Before this, Mark won a BAFTA for ‘My Wrongs’, directed by Chris Morris as well as producing the critically acclaimed first series of ‘Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights’

Mark is currently developing various films with Shane Meadows, Lynne Ramsay’s next feature and will be announcing more projects in spring 2008.

Nanu Segal | Director of Photography

Winner of the Kodak/Bafta Cinematography Award in 2005, DOP Manu Segal’s feature credits include Shrooms, Song of Songs and A Way of Life. Work on short films include the BAFTA nominated The Most Beautiful Man In The World, the BIFA nominated Ex Memoria and Crow Stone, which picked up the ‘Best British Short’ at The Edinburgh Film Festival in 2001.

For television, Nanu has worked on the documentaries Missing, Lost for Words, Victim Support and Airport for the BBC and Siamese Survivors, A Brief History of Cuba in D Minor and One Plus One for Channel 4. Nanu has also worked extensively on music videos and on commercials on promos for bands including The Fratellis, Shed Seven and Spiller and for brands as diverse as Honda, Weetabix and Alka Seltza.

Kate Evans | Editor

Prior to Donkey Punch, Kate Evans edited Girl With a Pearl Earring, Creep, Wilderness and Persuasion. Television credits include Daddy’s Girl, The Stepford Wives, Waking the Dead, Buddha of Surburbia and My Night with Reg.

Barry Wasserman | 1st Assistant Director

Barry Wasserman’s feature credits include Hard Candy, Another Life, The Bridge, The Rolling Stones IMAX Tour and The Witches. For television, Barry has worked on The Storytellers, The Borrowers and Wokewell.  Having started his career working on music videos and on commercials, Barry has worked on promos for UNKLE, Madonna, The Avalanchers, Cher and Oasis and on campaigns for brands including Lexus, Nike, Sunday Times and Imperial Leather.

Sarah Ryan | Costume Designer

Sarah Ryan’s previous feature credits as costume designer include Downtime and, as costume supervisor, In Desert and Wilderness and Highlander 3. On television, Sarah has been the costume designer on Waterloo Rd, Bodies, No Angels Cops and Soldier, Soldier and, as costume supervisor, on programmes that include Clocking Off, Queer as Folk and Coronation Street.

About the companies

Warp X

Pioneering digital film studio Warp X is based in Sheffield, with offices in Nottingham and London and is allied to Warp Films and Warp Records. Warp X has a core team of five people: Mark Herbert and Robin Gutch are joint-MDs of the company, Barry Ryan is the Head of Production, Caroline Cooper Charles is the Head of Creative Development and Mary Burke is the Development Producer and In-house Producer.

Warp X intends to build on Warp Films’ reputation for combining creative originality with commercial success, with releases such as Shane Meadows’ This is England and Dead Man’s Shoes, Chris Cunningham’s Rubber Johnny, Scummy Man (the short film for the Arctic Monkeys) and Paddy Considine’s award-winning short Dog Altogether.
By harnessing cutting edge digital technology and low budget production methods Warp X is making high value movies that can reach cinema audiences across the world. These films are being managed and produced by Warp X for the Low Budget Feature Film Scheme set up by the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund and Film4 to revitalise the low-budget sector of the British film industry. Other key financial backers are EM Media and Screen Yorkshire. Optimum Releasing are closely involved in the development process, and will distribute the films theatrically and on DVD in the UK. Channel 4 will take UK television rights.
Warp X currently has five green-lit films:  A Complete History of Sexual Failures and Donkey Punch are due for release in 2008. Hush and All Tomorrow’s Parties (director: Jonathan Caouette) are both in post-production.  Bunny and the Bull (writer/director: Paul King) is due to shoot early in 2008.
Warp X is an initiative of UK Film Council, Film4, Screen Yorkshire, EM Media and Optimum Releasing
For further information visit www.WarpX.co.uk and info@WarpX.co.uk

UK Film Council

The UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund encourages unique ideas, innovative approaches and new voices investing £15 million over three years in films that connect with a range of audiences. The fund has an especially strong commitment to supporting work from the nations and regions and from black, Asian and other minority ethnic filmmakers.  The fund also encourages digital technology in the production, distribution and exhibition of films. 

To date the New Cinema Fund has supported films including: Sarah Gavron’s Brick Lane (Best Screenplay and Silver Hitchcock, Dinard), Shane Meadows’s This is England (Best Film, British Independent Film Awards); Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley (Palme d’Or, Cannes Film Festival); Andrea Arnold’s Red Road (Prix du Jury, Cannes Film Festival); Kevin Macdonald’s Touching the Void, (Best British Film BAFTA); Peter Mullan’s The Magdalene Sisters (Golden Lion Venice); Paul Greengrass’s Bloody Sunday (Golden Bear Berlin); Dan Reed’s Straightheads, Saul Dibb’s Bullet Boy; Adrian Shergold’s Pierrepoint, Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell’s Deep Water (Grierson Best Cinema Documentary); Nicolas Roeg’s Puffball; Peter Greenaway’s Nightwatching; and Michael Caton-Jones’s Shooting Dogs. 

Forthcoming films include Gerard Johnson’s Tony; Michael Winterbottom’s Genova; Dominic Murphy’s White Lightnin’; Duane Hopkins’s Better Things; Kenny Glenaan’s Summer; Mark Tonderai’s Hush; Noel Clarke’s Adulthood; Alexis dos Santos’s Unmade Beds; Chris Waitt’s A Complete History of my Sexual Failures; James Marsh’s Man on a Wire; and Olly Blackburn’s Donkey Punch.

The New Cinema Fund also invests in an ambitious programme of shorts schemes including Cinema Extreme, the Completion Fund and Low Budget Digital Shorts to encourage directors, producers and creative talent to explore new storytelling methods in the short film genre.  

In partnership with Film4, EM Media, Screen Yorkshire and Optimum Releasing, the New Cinema Fund also funds the Warp X studio offering filmmakers development support, production finance and theatrical distribution in the UK.

For further information visit www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk

Film4

Film4, headed by Tessa Ross, is Channel 4 Television’s feature film division. The company develops and co-finances film productions and is known for working with the most innovative talent in the UK, whether new or established.
 
Film4’s most recent releases include Sarah Gavron’s Brick Lane, Anand Tucker’s And When Did You Last See Your Father? David Mackenzie’s Hallam Foe which won the Golden Hitchcock at the Dinard Film Festival and a Silver Bear in Berlin.  Earlier in 2007 were Shane Meadows’ This is England - winner of Best Independent Film and Most Promising Newcomer for Thomas Turgoose at the 2006 BIFAs, Julien Temple’s Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, Lenny Abrahamson’s Garage whichwon the Prix Arts et Essai at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight in May and Ken Loach’s It’s a Free World which won the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival.
 
Film4 films soon to arrive on British screens include Mike Leigh’s Happy Go Lucky, Sharon Maguire’s Incendiary, Bob Weide’s How To Lose Friends and Alienate People, Fabrice de Welz’s Vinyan, Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges, and Duane Hopkins’ Better Things. Other films currently in production include Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, Vito Rocco’s Faintheart, Mark Tonderai’s Hush, Oliver Blackburn’s Donkey Punch, Alexis Dos Santos’ Unmade Beds, Gerald McMorrow’s Franklyn and Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire.
 
Channel 4’s involvement in British film dates back 25 years to its launch in 1982 when it established its own film commissioning department.  Film4 has built an enviable reputation for developing and financing the defining British films of the last quarter of a century – films like My Beautiful Launderette, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, East is East, Sexy Beast, Motorcycle Diaries, Touching the Void, Road to Guantanamo, This is England and The Last King of Scotland.  

For further information visit www.channel4.com/film

Screen Yorkshire

Screen Yorkshire is the regional screen agency, responsible for inspiring, promoting and supporting a successful and sustainable film, broadcast, games and interactive media sector in Yorkshire and Humber. In May 2006, Screen Yorkshire launched its four-year £10.2m Digital Media Content Programme, supported by Yorkshire Forward.
 
Screen Yorkshire’s Production Investment Fund supports projects across the whole range of digital media activity, including feature film, television, games and interactive media. To date, Screen Yorkshire has supported the production of 13 feature films - recent credits include, This Is England, The Cottage, Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution and Brideshead Revisited. Screen Yorkshire is committed to developing regional talent in all areas of media and supports low budget feature slate, Warp X in partnership with UK Film Council, Film4, Optimum Releasing and EM Media.

Screen Yorkshire also has a Business Investment Fund, distributes Lottery and Grant in Aid awards on behalf of the UK Film Council and runs a series of broadcast training schemes in partnership with Skillset.

For further information visit www.screenyorkshire.co.uk

EM Media

EM Media is the Regional Screen Agency for England’s East Midlands. From its Nottingham base the agency invests RIFE Lottery and Treasury Finance in film activity and European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) in the development, production, distribution, exhibition, prototyping and publishing of Film (long and short form), Television (corporate broadcast, internet TV), Games (for console, PC, hand held, mobile phone) and Interactive (internet, mobile phone and TV software).

EM Media is a partner in Warp X, the pioneering digital film studio established to revitalise low-budget British film-making, an initiative of UK Film Council, Film4, Screen Yorkshire, Optimum Releasing and EM Media.

EM Media has to date co-financed 18 feature films with ERDF finance. EM Media’s slate of films in production, forthcoming and current releases include: Unmade Beds (The Bureau 2008), Crack Willow (Perfume Films 2008), Summer (Sixteen Films 2007), Hush (Warp X 2007), Donkey Punch (Warp X 2007), A Complete History of My Sexual Failures (Warp X 2007), Mum and Dad (2AM Films 2007), Better Things (Third Films 2008), And When Did You Last See Your Father? (Number 9 Films 2007), Magicians (Intermedia Films 2007), Control (NorthSee 2007), This is England (Warp Films 2007). Other feature investments include Brothers of the Head (Potboiler Productions 2006), A Cock and Bull Story (Revolution Films 2006), Dead Man’s Shoes (Warp Films 2005), One For the Road (One for the Road Productions 2004), Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (Slate Films 2003) and Anita and Me (Starfield Productions 2002).

For further information visit www.em-media.org.uk

Optimum Releasing

Established in May 1999, Optimum Releasing, part of StudioCanal*, is now enjoying its eighth year in film and DVD distribution.
 
The company has established a reputation for an innovative approach to distribution and has enjoyed success with a varied mix of film titles across all genres.  A passion for film and commitment to creativity is central to all of Optimum's activity.
 
Optimum Home Entertainment, the company's stand alone DVD division, was established in 2004 and has released over 500 titles to date.  Optimum Releasing has also expanded its production ambitions with the establishment of Warp X with Warp Films, the Film Council and Film Four.
 
Recent and upcoming releases include Guillermo del Toro’s Bafta and Oscar winning fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth, Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream, Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah and Brian de Palma’s Redacted.
 
Optimum Releasing / StudioCanal and Lionsgate UK recently announced a joint venture to acquire Elevation Sales.  Operational in September, Elevation will handle the joint sales and distribution of home entertainment product for both Optimum Releasing and Lionsgate UK.
 
*On May 5th 2006 Optimum Releasing agreed a deal for StudioCanal to acquire Optimum Releasing including its theatrical and home entertainment distribution operations. StudioCanal is the film, production and sales distribution arm of French media group, Canal+.

For further information visit www.optimumreleasing.com

DO Productions

DO Productions was formed in 1990 by Marlow de Mardt and Brigid Olën and, in 1995, the company began producing independent productions. From its inception, the company has played an instrumental role in driving the development of the South African feature film industry, beginning from its base as a production service company and expanding into co-productions.

Production partners have included such companies as Capella, Nu Image, 20th Century Fox, NBC Studios, Traumwerk, Transparences, Tandem, Framewerk, Image et Compagnie, All Media Pictures Gmbh, Ferndale Films, Reason Pictures, Ziegler Films, Campos Creative Works Inc, Cologne Gemini Film Gmbh, Lisa Film, Wall to Wall Media, Darlow Smithson Productions, Wild Strawberries, Warp X and Enlightenment Productions. DO Productions has also received numerous film industry awards, most notably for Malunde (which competed in 19 film festivals around the world and received numerous nominations and awards) and And There in The Dust, winner of ten local and international awards.

DO Productions has recently completed co-productions namely Diamond Cut Diamond and Sumuru, both directed by Oscar nominee Darrel J Roodt and Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King a German, Italian, UK, South African co-production directed by Uli Edel.

for more information visit www.doproductions.com