Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) the London-based production company run by Mike Downey and Sam Taylor have pacted with director Ed Blum (Scenes of a Sexual Nature) on two of their upcoming projects, art heist movie FAKE! and comedy The Laughter Clinic which Blum’s Tin Pan Films will also co-produce.

Budgets for both films are in the region of $15 million.

"As a producer led company, we want to establish more solid relationships with directors rather than a one-off one-picture deals ," says F&ME managing director Mike Downey, "Even though our company chairman is the director Stephen Daldry, he is essentially also working in a producing capacity for the moment. We are also planning a follow up project with White Lightnin’ director, Dominic Murphy."

Blum’s first feature , Scenes of a Sexual Nature starred Ewan McGregor and Sophie Okenedo and is being distributed in the North America by THINK Film and worldwide by The Works.

First up later this year will be FAKE! Based on the biography of notorious art fake Elmyr de Hory written by the equally notorious hoax biographer Clifford Irving (Richard Gere played him the 2007 film The Hoax - based on Irving’s account of his made up bio of Hughes) the artists was also the subject of Orson Welles’ final film, F is for Fake.

"FAKE! is the true story of audacious con artistry and high stakes excess," says F&ME’s Samantha Taylor, "When Elmyr teams up in Miami with Fernand le Gros, a fast-talking charmer and borderline psychotic, a masterplan is hatched. It tracks Elmyr de Hory and his partners in crime from Paris to New York to Ibiza as this flamboyant Hungarian refugee dupes the art world into parting with hundreds of millions of dollars."

With a screenplay by Michael Kalesniko already in the bag, Blum has just begun a rewrite with Irving set to deliver at the end of June for packaging and production by the end of the year.

"The story of FAKE! is beyond the normal scope of the imagination, and for that reason it has to be based on a true story," says Blum "Elymr De Hory painted over £500m worth of fake post-impressionist art. Only a small fraction of that has ever been recovered. When you look at a Picasso or a Matisse in a museum, who knows whether it’s real.
Elymr could have made millions, instead he choose two business partners who were neurotic and sometimes downright dangerous. The FBI was after them, Interpol was after them, but in the end it was their greed and jealously which bought them down. One of the greatest heists ever committed by characters who were eccentric and fatally flawed, and all set against the beautiful background of Paris in the sixties. Perfect."

Blum has been collaborating on the idea of The Laughter Clinic with The Aristocrats director Paul Provenza and will write the screenplay over the next three months. Set in New York of the future and in a world in which laughter has been banned, this dystopian comedy features an array of stand up comics as comedy guerrillas intend up on bring the world back to normal - through laughter!

"I pitched a film idea to Mike Downey and Sam Taylor over a coffee, a month later I was in New York developing the script. It’s that spontaneity and professionalism which makes them such a joy to work with. They’ve now made over thirty films in five years, few British companies have that kind of track record, so to be attached to two projects they are producing is tremendously exciting. Quite simply they get films made."

"The Laughter Clinic is funny, it has to be with a title like that." Says Blum, "In a world where comedy has been banned, everything becomes comical. A dark, but very funny satire, the film is not just about the Bush’s years but what we can make of fun of, which is absolutely everything, and the people who can’t handle that. It’s also the story of one man falling in love and his long and arduous journey of learning to laugh while he’s having sex. If we can’t laugh at the strange world we have created then we are surely doomed."
F&ME are in Cannes with a slew of projects. Completed is animation film Quest for a Heart by Lee Hall ,starring Mackenzie Crook and Lisa Stansfield. World sales company will be annoiunced latere in the festival. Bathory the long-awaited film from Juraj Jakubisko which will premiere at Karlovy Vary is being sold by Sola Media and Proyecto Dos (aka Mirror Maze) fresh from it’s 125 print release in Spain by Disney and rave reviews is being sold by Coach 14.

Still in post production and awaiting their festival/market debut is Dominic Murphy’s White Lightnin’ a film made with the UKFC and Vice Films, with UK distribution by Momentum and world sales by Salt. The Turtle’s Song by multi Emmy winning Nick Stringer is headed for a December delivery with majors circling and Sola Media handling world sales. Buick Rivera by Goran Rusinovic is being handled by Bavaria and is scheduled for delivery in June.
More announcements during the festival.

For further information:

Please contact Film and Music Entertainment

Katy Moylan +447768686509
Richard Kattan +447810734604