Alan Partridge: The Movie

[BillBrasky]

http://www.comedy.co.uk/news/story/0...preproduction/

Work to produce a long-awaited and even longer-rumoured Alan Partridge movie is finally under way, according to film magazine Empire.

Written by Steve Coogan, who has been best known as the struggling media personality since the early 1990s, alongside Armando Iannucci, filming will begin later this year for a 2013 release date.

Father Ted director Declan Lowney, who was also behind Coogan's 2002 comedy drama Cruise Of The Gods, will direct the film, which Iannucci will act as an executive producer on.

Iannucci told the magazine: "At the moment it's called 'The Alan Partridge Movie' but that's just a working title. [The script] is written [but] we're always rewriting, rewriting and rewriting."

No further details are available at this stage, but the film is likely to be produced by Coogan's own company, Baby Cow, of which Iannucci is Creative Director.

Neil and Rob Gibbons are also likely to be on board as co-writers, having collaborated with Iannucci and Coogan on the Foster's lager-sponsored hit web series Alan Partridge's Mid Morning Matters, a second run of which will launch in the autumn, and the best-selling spoof autobiography I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan. The first run of Mid Morning Matters will be broadcast on television by Sky Atlantic later in the year.

Meanwhile, Armando Iannucci is working in America on the HBO adaptation of The Thick Of It, entitled Veep, and Coogan has just finished filming another big screen title, The King Of Soho, in which he plays the lead role of porn and strip-club baron Paul Raymond.

Partridge first appeared on BBC Radio 4's On The Hour in 1991, whose principal writers also included Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. He was at the time ostensibly a sports reporter, and moved with the series when it transferred to television as The Day Today in 1994.

A particular hit from the series, Partridge was spun-off to his own spoof chat show, Knowing Me, Knowing You... With Alan Partridge, which itself spanned both television and radio in the mid-1990s, before transferring to sitcom in 1997 with BBC Two's hugely successful I'm Alan Partridge, running for two series to 2002.

[BillBrasky]

From Splitsider:

Info about the upcoming Alan Partridge movie is starting to emerge, and although it's a long way off, it's exciting that it's happening at all. It's set to start shooting in January with a release date of August 7, 2013 in the UK. It's not clear when it'll premiere in the States, but hopefully not long after that. It's being written by Peter Baynham, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Neil and Rob Gibbons and will be directed by Declan Lowney. Here's how Coogan describes the plot:

Alan is in Norwich. It's not “Alan goes to Hollywood”; it's not “Alan invaded by aliens” or anything like that. He's on North Norfolk Digital, which is taken over by a bigger media conglomerate and has its name changed to Shape. And that kicks everything off.

[c.Bacon]

I'm all in.

[mezmorized]

I'm all in.

Back of the net!

[Newt Floss]

Jurassic Park!

[mezmorized]

Cash back!

[Victor]

Kiss my face!

[BillBrasky]

Filming is finally underway for the long-awaited movie based on Steve Coogan's beloved character Alan Partridge. Chortle reports that production on the UK film, which has a working title of Alan Partridge: The Movie, has just begun and that some roads in England are being closed to shoot a big car chase scene. Writer Armando Iannucci told the press last year that the movie will follow Partridge's battle with a media conglomerate after they take over the digital radio station he works at and rebrand it "Shape." Set to reprise their roles are Felicity Montagu as Partridge's mousy personal assistant Lynn, Simon Greenall as heavily-accented handyman Michael, and Tim Key as Partridge's "Mid Morning Matters" sidekick. Sean Pertwee, Dustin Demri-Burns, Colm Meaney, Anna Maxwell Martin, Monica Dolan, Phil Cornwell, Nigel Lindsay, and Darren Boyd are also set to appear. There's no word on when the film will officially be released, but it's expected to hit theaters in the UK this summer.

[mezmorized]

Jackanackanory!

[mezmorized]

First pic from the movie!!!!!!!!!!!

[BillBrasky]

.

[JayX]

It's looking to be pretty great, and I don't get to say that about British comedy films very often! I think the quote from Splitsider last year might be a little bit optimistic about it getting a US release, is there an existing fanbase Stateside that would warrant a theatrical run? I guess having Coogan in the lead would at least be a recognisable face.