This week’s London Short features some superior clowning from Martin Freeman, star of The Hobbit and Sherlock. It’s a small but delightfully formed comedy that shows another side of the star and will also make you think detective noir and French mime were separated at birth.
Director Tim Bunn dreamt up the story in double quick time for the London 48 Hour Film competition, where filmmaking teams draw random elements out of a hat then try to turn them into something over two days. Bunn’s team drew silent film as a genre so the idea for a mime crime developed from there.
Bunn told Londonist: “We plucked the idea out of thin air and changed the main outline of the story quite late on too — you have to bluff your way through with these challenges. We’d worked with Martin before and he agreed to come along for the day; he is a wonderful gentleman. We didn’t want to ram it down people’s throats that we’d got him so decided we wanted to cover his face. Some people don’t even recognise it’s him until the end credits.
The film was directed by Bunn and co-written by Joseph Patrick, Tim Woodall, Jackie Thompson. The film also stars Daniel Caren and Jennifer Rhonwen alongside Freeman. The film was shot around Teddington and Twickenham. There's also a cool behind the scenes video here.
Want to be featured? If you have a London-themed short film that you’d like us to consider for this series, send an email with the subject “London Shorts” to Stu Black and Ioanna Karavela via our email: [email protected]
To see other London Shorts click here.
