Hollywood is pouring work offers on to a film writer and director – but she says she is turning most of them down.
A staggering 30 million people have seen Jessica Swale’s short film about actresses, Leading Lady Parts, which went viral online.
That film was her warm up for her acclaimed new feature length film Summerland, which is now helping lead UK cinemas’ reopening after their Covid lockdown.
Summerland, currently showing at Wokingham’s Everyman cinema, is the first feature-length film that Jessica, 37, has both written and directed. It is a UK film.
More films are in the pipeline – Jessica, from Winnersh, said that she gets offers from the UK and Hollywood.
“But the offers from Hollywood vary so much,” she said. “A lot of the time it’s requests to work on splashy franchises or very commercial ideas, which doesn’t interest me as I want to tell stories where I really get to flex my imaginative muscles.
“I’ve tended to turn them down as I am trying to be as selective as possible now.”
Summerland stars award-winner Gemma Arterton as Alice and is set during the Second World War. She takes in a London evacuee and bonds with him.
“I feel Summerland is a relevant story to tell right now as, at its heart, it’s all about hope after crisis and the possibility of life again,” Jessica said.
“And it’s also about appreciating members of our community who’ve never been the heroes before.
“That, in these Covid times, is vital. Our new heroes are no longer the powerful, but the kind – the nurses, key workers, shop assistants.”
An Olivier award winner, Jessica and her partner live in London but her Mum is still in Winnersh.
It’s those roots that are peppered throughout Summerland.
“And I am delighted that it’son in Wokingham,” Jessica said. “Particularly because there are a few little references to my childhood for the locals.
“The school is called ‘St Nicholas’ and the teacher ‘Mrs Bassett’. That may be just a little nod, and thank you, to a certain local school [Hurst primary] and the wonderful class three teacher.”
Naomi Bassett, teacher at St Nicholas Primary for 28 years and still living in Hurst, taught Jessica.
“I’m really touched to have an honourable mention in her film because of happy memories in my class and at the school. She always went the extra mile, there was something about her,” she said.
Jessica went on to Kendrick School, Reading and she is honorary patron of Wokingham Theatre where chairman Hedda Bird said: “We’ve watched in awe as her career flies higher. We love performing her plays and look forward to seeing Summerland.”
Jessica has written screenplays for her play Nell Gwynn; for Longbourn, the below stairs version of Pride and Prejudice and also for Jane Austen’s Persuasion. They’re all about to go into film production. She is also creating a television series based on her play Blue Stockings.
A Hollywood offer she did accept is her current project – Swan Lake for Universal Studios.
“I’m enjoying it a huge amount as it really requires a lot of imagination to retell the (essentially skeletal) story of the ballet as a fully fleshed out, exciting, modern fairy tale,” she said.
