Two young film graduates are recording a documentary about Julian ‘Windows’ Andrews, the world’s most revered player of a rather old online fantasy role-playing game called Wizard’s Way. The game is not so much a way of life for Windows, and his loyal bathroom-dwelling sidekick, Barry Tubbulb – it IS life. But when the game is unexpectedly shut down everyone’s life has to change…
WIZARD’S WAY will screen on Friday 25thJanuary at the BFI Southbank as winner of the LOCO LONDON Discovery Award 2013. It will then be released theatrically and online in Spring 2013. There is a playable video game and a ‘save wizard’s way’ online campaign with interactive website which will be launched in conjunction with the film.
Filmed on a budget of £400 on a secondhand video camera and a boom pole made from an Argos lamp , WIZARD’S WAY, is the debut feature of Metal Man – a collective of three published authors, Socrates Adams-Florou (writer of the novel ‘Everything’s Fine’), Chris Killen (the novel ‘The Bird Room’ ) and Joe Stretch (author of ‘Friction’, ‘Wildlife’ and ‘The Adult’). Shot in their home city of Manchester the three not only wrote and directed, but also starred in the film – Chris & Joe as the budding filmmakers, Socrates as Barry. They then persuaded their friend Kristian Scott to play ‘Windows’ and for reasons still unclear to the filmmakers Sadie Frost makes an unexpected, but excellent cameo appearance. It is produced by Lloyd Stanton, who in turn persuaded Oscar-winning editor Chris Dickens (Slumdog Millionaire), to finish the editing as a favour.