Producers Company Pictures and Stormdog Films, feature film financiers and distributors CinemaNX, and Film4, have today announced that they are jointly developing a feature film version of the E4 hit television series, SKINS. Scripted by SKINS writer Jack Thorne, working closely with SKINS creator Bryan Elsley, the film is scheduled to go into production later this year, and follows four hugely successful seasons on E4. The latest of these has just finished its run, with the highest ratings of any series so far.
Director of Company, Charlie Pattinson, believes that bringing a film version to the big screen is the obvious next step for SKINS – “given the huge amount of support from the ever expanding fan base of the series, we feel that we can go much further and produce yet another unique SKINS experience”, remarked Pattinson.
A number of familiar characters from the four series are expected to feature in the film, which will be directed by long time SKINS director Charles Martin. Shooting in Bristol and the Isle of Man later this year, the film is scheduled for a summer 2011 release. Company Pictures have a long history of working with both Film4 and CinemaNX individually but this project will be the first collaboration between all three parties.
“The sheer depth in quality that SKINS has delivered over the years makes it perfect for the big screen and we are delighted to be back in business with Company,” said chairman of CinemaNX, Steve Christian. Tessa Ross, Controller of Film4 and Channel 4 Drama, said: “It is very exciting to be migrating across from E4 to Film4 this extraordinarily talented team from SKINS, who have successfully grown such a wonderfully loyal audience over the course of the last four series.”