EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of the European Film Market, Bankside Films has revealed multiple pre-sales on BAFTA nominee Kirk Jones’ Tourette’s drama I Swear, which is currently in post production.
Bankside will be showing a promo to buyers in Berlin and above is a first-look image of the film starring Robert Aramayo (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power), BAFTA nominee Maxine Peake (The Theory of Everything), Shirley Henderson (Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy), and veteran Scottish actor and Cannes Best Actor Award winner Peter Mullan (The Magdalene Sisters).
Pic has sold to Australia / New Zealand (Transmission), Benelux (Imagine Film Distribution), Germany (Wild Bunch), Greece (Neo Films), Israel (Lev Cinema), Middle East (Front Row), Spain (SelectaVision), Switzerland (Praesens) and UK & Ireland (Studiocanal).
Based on the life story of notable Tourette’s Syndrome campaigner, John Davidson, the producers worked closely with the Tourette’s community, casting individuals who live with Tourette’s, and collaborated with a Tourette’s charity.
The film charts John Davidson’s troubled teens and early adulthood, stemming from his diagnosis at 15 of Tourette’s, which was a little known and entirely misunderstood condition in 1980s Britain. Targeted as insane by his peers, Davidson lives with a condition few have ever witnessed, as he attempts to live a ‘normal’ life against the odds.
Pic is produced by Kirk Jones, Georgia Bayliff and Piers Tempest. Cindy Jones and John Davidson serve as executive producers. Bankside Films handle worldwide sales.
Jones’ first film was Waking Ned Devine, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. His other credits include Universal’s Nanny McPhee, written by and starring Emma Thompson, Everybody’s Fine starring Robert De Niro, Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, What to Expect When You’re Expecting with Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Rock and Anna Kendrick, and Universal’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. I Swear marks his first directorial effort in eight years.
