EXCLUSIVE: Industry vets Neil Zeiger and Martin Proctor have launched indie label Flickers Films with a slate of co-productions that includes a new drama from Ashes to Ashes screenwriter Ashley Pharoah and documentary filmmaker Ann Hawker’s first dramatic movie. The new banner will cover film and TV, and span scripted and docs.
Zeiger was Creative Director of scripted at Keeping Faith producer Nevision, developing and producing titles including Brian Cox directorial debut Glenrothan, which Protagonist is selling internationally. Proctor’s credits include The Day the Silence Died and Sam Shepard movie Blackthorn. Having worked together in theater and then at the BBC, the pair actually ran a prodco called Flickers back in the 1980s, which made projects including Liam Neeson movie Lamb and Adrian Dunbar TV drama Reasonable Force.
The new incarnation of Flickers is privately backed and has projects in the works with partners including ITV Studios-backed World Productions and producer-distributor APC. Ashley Pharoah-penned drama Charlie King is being developed with World, and Zeiger said it will be “a UK-based high-end thriller that is also procedural at its root.”
Elsewhere, dark comedy Bad Priest comes from filmmaker Jamie Patterson (Tucked) and will be a co-pro with APC. In film, there is An Austrian Holiday, which hails from documentary filmmaker Ann Hawker. It has been set up with Astria Films in the UK and WEP Films in Germany and the hope is to go into production in 2026.
In factual, the slate includes Bolivian prison doc Inside Out, which goes inside the walls of the notorious San Pedro prison, run by inmates. “We have about 200 hours of material, because it was made in collaboration with the prisoners,” Proctor said. “We’re going to go back 20 years on and we pick up with about half a dozen of these guys to see what’s happened to them, if they’ve managed to rehabilitate themselves, or whether they’re still inside.”
Proctor said the new indie is looking to work up films and TV that offer a different take. “There’s so much content, but we’re looking for things that have a fresh voice and a fresh perspective, something that gives you a feeling that you’ve been woken up to something that you hadn’t seen before.”
Zeiger added: “Flickers is a new company and it’s like a startup, but it reflects the same values that it did when we first started, which was working with emerging talent, different and diverse voices and showing different perspectives.”
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