Olivia Colman, Ophelia Lovibond, Peter Serafinowicz, Lawry Lewin & Brendan Patricks join Nick Frost in new Sky Atlantic HD comedy drama Mr Sloane
As part of Sky’s continuing investment in original content, Sky Atlantic HD today (12 April 2013) announces a further five cast members joining Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul) in MR SLOANE, an original new comedy created by Emmy® award-winning director and producer Robert B. Weide (Curb Your Enthusiasm).
Created by and starring some of the finest talent from both on and off screen, bittersweet romantic comedy MR SLOANE’s titular character, played by Nick Frost, is a buttoned-down 1960’s man in crisis.
RTS® Award winning and BAFTA® nominated actress Olivia Colman (Rev, Broadchurch) will play Mr Sloane’s estranged wife Janet. Regularly appearing to him in flashbacks and fantasies, Janet remains a significant ‘other’ in Mr Sloane’s life.
Exciting and fast rising young actress Ophelia Lovibond (No Strings Attached) joins the cast as Robin, a free-spirited young American and prospective new love interest for Mr Sloane, following a chance encounter in his local ironmongers.
BAFTA® nominated actor, writer and comedy king of Twitter Peter Serafinowicz (The Peter Serafinowicz Show) will play Ross, one of Mr Sloane’s three childhood friends whom he meets every night in his local. Lawry Lewin (Horrible Histories) will play Beans, Mr Sloane’s close friend who still lives at home with his mother and Brendan Patricks will play Reggie, the ladies’ man of the group.
MR SLOANE is the latest commission from Sky Atlantic HD following Sky’s commitment to increase its investment in original British content by 50% over the next three years. By 2014, Sky expects to invest £600 million a year in British programmes across its portfolio of channels. Sky Atlantic HD is to be a major part of that charge by commissioning bold, authored pieces with strong narrative stories.
MR SLOANE also forms part of the channel’s strategy to bring smart, distinctive and authored comedy exclusively to Sky customers following on the heels of double British Comedy Award winner Hunderby, Alan Partridge: Welcome To The Places Of My Life and Open Books with Martin Bryce, Common Ground, This Is Jinsy and Kathy Burke's Walking & Talking.
Commissioned by Sky’s Head of Comedy Lucy Lumsden, MR SLOANE is a co-production between Robert B. Weide’s Whyaduck Productions and multi-award winning UK production company Big Talk Productions. The six part series will be Executive Produced by Lucy Lumsden for Sky, Robert B. Weide for Whyaduck Productions and Kenton Allen, Nick Frost and Matthew Justice for Big Talk Productions. Clelia Mountford (A Young Doctor’s Notebook) will produce. Robert B. Weide will write and direct all six episodes, with Aschlin Ditta (The Catherine Tate Show) and Oliver Lansley (Whites) as co-writers on two episodes. Filming began earlier this month and will be shot in studio and on location in London for transmission on Sky Atlantic HD in 2014.
International distribution is being handled by BBC Worldwide.
For further information please contact
Megan MacLeod - Publicist, Sky Movies HD, Sky Atlantic HD
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Charlotte Jordan - PR Assistant, Sky
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Notes to editor
About Sky
Sky entertains and excites more than 10.4 million homes through the most comprehensive multichannel, multi-platform television service in the UK and Ireland. Sky continues to break new ground with its own portfolio of channels: Sky 1 combines its commitment to UK production with the best of the US; Sky Living pushes ahead with fresh and innovative entertainment formats; Sky Arts is the UK's only dedicated arts channel brand; Sky Atlantic is the home to HBO and other iconic drama and comedy, Sky Sports is still raising the bar in sports broadcasting; Sky News remains a pioneer in television news; and Sky Movies is leading the way in High Definition and on-demand.
Sky also works with dozens of other broadcasters on the satellite platform, as well as online and on mobile through the ground-breaking Sky Go service. Sky has also led the UK into the age of high definition television, launched Europe's first 3DTV channel, Sky 3D, and offers customer even more flexibility and choice through Sky Anytime+, its internet-delivered video on demand service. Since launching Sky Broadband and Sky Talk in 2006, the company has also been the UK's fastest-growing home communications provider.
Sky believes in making a wider contribution to the communities in which it operates, not least by increasing participation in, and access to, the arts, supporting grassroots sports, and taking positive action on the environment.
About Big Talk Productions
Big Talk Productions is one of the UK's leading film and television production companies. It has a fantastic slate of original TV comedy and drama, and a track record in developing talent such as Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright whose cult television series Spaced paved the way for Big Talk’s hit films Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Paul.
In recent years Big Talk has gone from strength to strength with a string of award winning productions from BAFTA-award winning Rev (BBC2), to RTS Best Comedy Performance winning Him & Her (BBC3). Meanwhile Friday Night Dinner (Channel 4), and Threesome (Comedy Central), have enjoyed two highly successful series, and Chickens (Sky 1), written by and starring Simon Bird, Joe Thomas & Jonny Sweet and The Job Lot (ITV1) starring Russell Tovey and Sarah Hadland, both have upcoming series.
Big Talk made its move into drama programming in 2012 with The Town (ITV1), written by Laurence Olivier-winning playwright Mike Bartlett, starring Andrew Scott and Martin Clunes, and smash-hit miniseries A Young Doctor’s Notebook (Sky Arts), which starred Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe. Upcoming dramas include Youngers (E4), about a group of 16 year-old kids in East London, and Our Men (BBC2) starring long-term collaborators Mitchell and Webb.
In film, Big Talk has made 21st century classics Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Also directed by Edgar Wright, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and Paul, while Joe Cornish’s directorial debut Attack the Block was released to fantastic reviews and awards. Sightseers, directed by Ben Wheatley, had its world premiere at Cannes and is now showing across the UK. Coming next are In Fear, Jeremy Lovering’s psychological thriller and Cuban Fury, a Salsa dancing rom-com starring Nick Frost, Rashida Jones, Chris O'Dowd and Ian McShane. The World’s End, the third collaboration between director Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, finished shooting December 2012 for release in 2013.
About Whyaduck Productions
Whyaduck Productions has been a leading producer of documentaries, feature films and TV programming for more than thirty years. Founded by Writer/Producer/Director Robert B. Weide, Whyaduck's output to-date has included comedy documentaries, The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell, The Great Standups, Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition, W.C. Fields Straight Up (which received an Emmy® Award for non-fiction special), and his acclaimed Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth, which was Oscar® nominated for feature documentary. Other feature films include Mother Night (with Nick Nolte, John Goodman, and Alan Arkin) and Woody Allen: A Documentary, an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival (Classics Division) in 2012. Whyaduck's HBO comedy special, Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm was the basis for the long-running HBO comedy series, produced and directed by Weide, which is currently televised all over the world. Weide’s work for Whyaduck has earned him three Emmy® awards (for producing, directing and editing, respectively), a Golden Globe® Award, and 2012’s prestigious DGA (Directors Guild of America) Award for comedy directing.
About Nick Frost
Nick Frost first came to prominence as the gun-mad character Mike Watt in Channel 4’s Spaced.Since then, Frost has become one of the U.K.’s most sought-after actors. He earned a nomination for Most Promising Newcomer by the British Independent Film Awards for his role in the cult zombie movie Shaun of the Dead, starring opposite Simon Pegg. Frost again starred with Pegg in the hugely successful hit comedy Hot Fuzz. Frost’s other film credits include Kinky Boots, Penelope, Wild Child and The Boat That Rocked.
Frost demonstrated his acting credentials in the BBC’s adaptation of Martin Amis’ best seller Money. Amis added his voice to the critical approval Frost garnered for the role. He has also appeared in the Channel 4 sitcom Black Books with Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey, and hosted the Channel 5 series Danger! 50,000 Zombies! and Danger! Incoming Attack! Frost was the lead role in Hyperdrive, a sci-fi comedy series for BBC Two, and starred in two seasons of Man Stroke Woman.
2011 saw the release of Paul, written by and starring Frost and Simon Pegg, which debuted at the top of the UK box office and went on to become an international box office smash. Following Paul Nick appeared as Ron in Joe Cornish’s Attack The Block. Nick also appeared as one-half of the Thompson Twins (again opposite Pegg) in Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s picture The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.
Last year, Frost lent his voice to the fourth installment of the Ice Age franchise, Ice Age: Continental Drift and also starred as Nion in Snow White and the Huntsman alongside Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron and Ian McShane.
Nick has recently finished filming Cuban Fury directed by James Griffiths, and written by Jon Brown. Nick served as an executive producer on the feature. Cuban Fury is based on an original idea from Frost about a shabby, down-on-his-luck man (played by Frost) who reignites his long-dormant passion for salsa dancing thanks to a new-found love for his gorgeous American boss (played by Rashida Jones). The movie also stars Chris O'Dowd and Olivia Colman. The film will be released later this year.
Nick has also completed shooting The World’s End opposite Simon Pegg, this film completes what Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright refer to as "The Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy" consisting of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End. Twenty years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hell bent on trying the drinking marathon again. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle is not just for their future, but for all of mankind’s. The World’s End will also star Martin Freeman, Rosamund Pike and Paddy Considine. Due for release later this year.
Nick’s next project will hear him lending his voice in The Boxtrolls, the 3D stop motion and CG hybrid animated adaptation of Alan Snow’s “Here Be Monsters.” Directed by Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable. Nick will feature alongside an impressive voice cast featuring Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Elle Fanning, Toni Collette, Jared Harris, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan and Simon Pegg. The Boxtrolls is due for release in October, 2014.
