HEART OF DARKNESS

World’s first sand animated feature

PITCH

The novel Orson Welles had planned to shoot before CITIZEN KANE, and Francis Ford Coppola adapted into APOCALYPSE NOW…

SYNOPSIS

A young sailor named Marlow travels to the Congo to take up a position as riverboat captain for an ivory-trading company. His first task is to follow the Congo River in search of the mysterious Mr Kurtz, an agent of the company who has gone rogue. On his way he and his crew encounter widespread inefficiency and brutality in the company’s stations, but this is nothing compared to what they find at Kurtz’s station: deep in the wilderness he has become the ruler of his own brutal kingdom, exerting power of life and death over his native subjects.

VOICE CAST

James Norton (BAFTA nominee) – (LITTLE WOMEN, Hit TV series MCMAFIA and upcoming season 2, MR JONES (Berlinale 2019 in comp), HAMPSTEAD with Diane Keaton, and TV’s WAR & PEACE and GRANCHESTER.

Michael Sheen (BAFTA & Golden Globes nominee) (THE VOYAGE OF DOCTOR DOLITTLE, BRAD’S STATUS, PASSENGERS, NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, THE DAMNED UNITED, FROST/ NIXON, THE QUEEN) TV credits include the lead in US drama MASTERS OF SEX and GOOD OMENS.

Matthew Rhys (Emmy Award Winner & two-time Golden Globe nominee) (A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, MOWGLI THE REPORT, THE POST, BURNT, THE EDGE OF LOVE. TV credits include PERRY MASON, BROTHERS AND SISTERS and THE AMERICANS).

Dame Julie Walters (two-time Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe winner & six-time BAFTA winner) (THE SECRET GARDEN, THE QUEEN’S CORGI, MARY POPPINS RETURNS, WILD ROSE, MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN, PADDINGTON 2, BROOKLYN, PADDINGTON, MAMMA MIA, HARRY POTTER 1-8, EDUCATING RITA).

Bill Nighy (BAFTA winner)  (HEIDI: QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAIN, EMMA, HOPE GAP,  THE BOOKSHOP, MINAMATA, SOMETIMES ALWAYS NEVER, THEIR FINEST, THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM, THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST, LOVE ACTUALLY (BAFTA winner, Best Actor in a Supporting Role).

Andrew Scott (BAFTA winner) (1917, SWALLOWS & AMAZONS, SPECTRE, DENIAL, PRIDE, KING LEAR, HAMLET. TV credits include lead in RIPLEY, arch-villain Jim Moriarty in SHERLOCK (BAFTA winner, Best Actor in a Supporting Role), Paul McCartney in LENNON NAKED and the priest in FLEABAG.

Camille Cottin (César Award nominee) (GOLDA, HOUSE OF GUCCI, STILLWATER, CALL MY AGENT, LE MYSTERE HENRI PICK, CONNASSE PRINCESSE DES COEURS (César Award nominee, Most Promising Actress), ALLIED, LARGUÉES, PHOTO DE FAMILLE).

Merveille Lukeba (A UNITED KINGDOM. TV credits include double BAFTA-winning teen drama SKINS)

FILMMAKERS

Director, Producer: Gerald Conn (A COMET’S TALE – BAFTA Cymru, Best Animation)

Executive Producers: Michael Sheen, Wyndham Price, Simon Pennock, Thierry Wase-Bailey

Screenplay by: Mark Jenkins & Mary Kate O Flanagan
Based on the celebrated novel by Joseph Conrad

An Ireland, UK, Belgium co-production

STATUS

Voices recorded Oct 2019-Feb 2020, main sand animation starts Q3 2020

Making-of promo available including test scenes & proof of concept.

Critical appeal

Joseph Conrad’s masterpiece is as significant today as it has ever been…

• Its relevance echoes forever, fizzing with understanding us then and there, and here and now, written for us all to live with today, whenever ”today’’ will be. (The Telegraph)
• Heart of Darkness seems necessary, even inevitable, the product of dark historical energies, which continue to shape our contemporary world. (The Week)
• More than 100 years after its publication the novel still resonates…some of its contents, like the “the Inner Station”, “Mr Kurtz”, “The horror! The horror!”, are key parts of literary iconography. (The Independent)

It has been analyzed more than any other work of literature that is taught academically (according to literary critic Harold Bloom).

French philosopher Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe called it one of the greatest texts of Western literature.

Seldom can an author have achieved his aim for a novel more completely than Joseph Conrad with Heart of Darkness. Conrad once wrote how he hoped to instil enough power in the sombre theme of the book that it would “hang in the air and dwell on the ear after the last note had been struck”. Few could argue this is what he did. (The Independent)

Few things have had such a profound effect on me as my passage towards understanding this book. When I began to realise how many possibilities the book contains, and how beautifully Conrad brings out their meanings, I felt enlightenment. (The Guardian)

Not only is it a staple text on the syllabuses at schools and universities in English-speaking countries, it also appears on many curricula around the world (including India, Hong Kong, Czech Republic, Norway etc).

Supported by the UK Global Screen Fund – a DCMS fund administered by the BFI

CREDITS NOT CONTRACTUAL