Sheffielders in a New York state of mind
FOUR old mates from Sheffield have re-united on a comedy series filmed in London and New York and released this week on the internet.
It has been made by Sheffield-born director Oliver Irving on the heels of his feature film debut earlier this year, How To Be, and tells the story of Tommy Delniros, a delusional cop whose inability to differentiate between his fantasy world of gritty, lawless 1970s New York and the present-day reality got him drummed out of the NYPD.
Joe Hastings, Sam Butterworth and Johnny White who have been friends from childhood all have roles in the film.
"Life Is Just A Game started as afilm we first made while I was at film school – on the side, for fun, during downtime and weekends," explained Irving, who grew up in Sharrow and went to High Storrs School.
"Because there is a long time between feature films, I wanted to do something fun (and more quickly) while I was developing my next feature. During the promotional tour of How To Be in the United States, the guys from the original Life Is Just A Game, (Mike Pearce, Johnny and Joe) were reunited, and so we started riffing on the idea of revisiting that fun film made at film school."
While the original was set in a non-specific Americana, he used New York City this time. "I am completely obsessed with the place – it is truly the greatest city on earth, and so completely entrenched in my psyche through movies.
Joe Hastings, who composed the score and plays a 60-something retired cop 'under layers of prosthetic makeup, recalled: "From about 12 years of age, Oliver and I would spend our weekday evenings and weekends filming projects, mainly horror-based – and when we weren't making films, we were watching them.
"It was great to be back working with my close friends – we seem to have a real energy together that comes from having known each other for years," he said. "
Sam Butterworth said: "I first joined Oliver and Joe's band – Cemetery Road – when I was 15. Soon after, we all worked on a comedy-horror film called Nuclear Zombie Overload which gave me a taste of acting and was great fun."
Five episodes of Life Is Just A Game can be viewed on www.lifeisjustagame.com
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Friday 25 May 2012
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