Sugarhouse Lane is an urban thriller starring Steven Mackintosh, Ashley Walters and Andy Serkis, currently filming in London’s East End. This is the story of how it came to be…

2001: Walking in the woods with a dog called Huckleberry, writer Dominic Leyton had an idea for a story: “I knew the idea had legs as it wasn’t just a passing thought. It hit me as a physical sensation”. He went home and started writing. Within 10 days he had a stage play, Collision. Five years later, in a warehouse in Bow, the idea is now a fully-fledged film: SUGARHOUSE LANE, due for release in March 2007.

Inspired by his actor father John Leyton (The Great Escape, Krakatoa, Colour me Kubrick)) who, when not acting, used to write screenplays in the family shed, Dominic penned his first screenplay at the age of 10: a violent Vietnam War drama, in which every second word was ‘fuck’. He abandoned writing it after 20 pages. (Unfortunately, nothing of it remains today!).

Producer Oliver Milburn and Dominic first met at school in 1986. In creative writing courses, Oliver remembers that Dom’s stories were always “…miles better than anything any of the rest of us wrote; they were always arresting, whilst often only relating the mundane and the ordinary.” Post school, (having reluctantly accepted that a career as the world’s fastest bowler was beyond his grasp) Dom continued writing, whilst Oliver pursued an acting career, with recent film credits including Me Without You, The Descent and Driving Lessons.

In 2002, Oliver was involved in the early drafts of Collision, which in 2003 debuted in London at The Old Red Lion, winning critical acclaim as being “genuinely astonishing, not to be missed”(The Daily Telegraph).

Having known Dominic since the age of 13, Oliver realised Dom’s work could be funny and hard hitting but it wasn’t until he and fellow SUGARHOUSE LANE producer Ben Dixon (also an Assistant Director: CASINO ROYALE, THE DA VINCI CODE, CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY) saw the effect of Collision on a theatre audience that they realized how important Dominic’s work could also be. They couldn’t help being impressed by the audiences’ frightened silences, cheers of delight and foot stomping encores. “We were both startled by the immediacy of Dom’s voice”.

The idea for the film was born.

The first development meeting was held at the now defunct Percy Arms in Kings Cross, followed by a further 3 years grappling with the transition from theatre to film, trying to find the balance between the inherent wordiness of theatre versus the requirements of film, all the while fantasizing about their ideal cast.

In early 2005 Oliver and Ben started production company, Wolf Committee, which optioned Collision. Established producer Matthew Justice (Lunar Films) was brought on board and with him came the much sought-after breakthrough. In early 2006 Matthew introduced Wolf Committee to director Gary Love and Arvind Ethan David, CEO and founder of slingshot, a newly launched all-digital film production and distribution company.

Slingshot’s mission is to offer filmmakers a freedom unheard of in conventional British filmmaking. SUGARHOUSE LANE is the first feature film project to benefit from the slingshot approach. By employing an innovative profit share model to secure top tier creative, technical and co-production talent slingshot was able to slice through the culture of complicated financing deals (that add years to development).

Announcing the decision to back SUGARHOUSE LANE, Arvind Ethan David, commented: “The energy and pace of this project make it a perfect fit with slingshot’s own ethos. In less than six months we have gone from our first meeting with the writer to the first day of principal photography – this is not something that happens very often in the British film industry. For SUGARHOUSE LANE to have managed it - and with a cast and crew as excellent and exciting as this - categorically proves that what matters is the strength of your belief, the integrity of your approach and the quality of the material; not the size of your budget. The talent and commitment of our collaborators on this project affirms our faith in the slingshot model, and fills us all with fire to make a really great film”.

One of the first things slingshot did to drive the project towards green light was to include it in a week long residential development lab, in conjunction with The Performing Arts Labs (PAL). That week brought together the producers, writer and director of SUGARHOUSE LANE with expert script consultant Roger Smith (LAND AND FREEDOM, MY NAME IS JOE) and Royal Court Artistic Director Ian Rickson.

Dominic considers the workshop as the major breakthrough “…the consultants not only suggested ways of making the piece more taught but also told us that we were right to trust the cinematic qualities of its social relevance…”

SUGARHOUSE LANE is the first feature for actor & television director Gary Love, who says he wanted to make the film on his first reading of the script “It has all the things I love in a film; pace, emotion, fun, pain and then ultimate enlightenment. I’m intrigued by the world the characters inhabit and the odd couple relationship that develops. I was interested in their plight and felt urged to tell a story that I don’t think has been told in a London film for some time.

SUGARHOUSE LANE is a pure actors’ piece. The characters are beautifully rounded with their needs and intentions clearly drawn out in Dominic’s superbly observed screenplay, which is one of the best carefully woven London yarns around.

“Dominic draws the characters from a mix of his own experiences & people that he knows…crackhead D, uneducated but very bright; TOM, well educated, articulate, but driven by fury, and HOODWINK, terrifying and manipulative.”

As an actor himself, Oliver found it fascinating to be on the other side of the room during auditions. “Seeing the guys come in and nail their parts was incredibly exciting…we knew then that we had a real opportunity to create a truly original, powerful piece of cinema.”