“…It looks like it’s finally going to happen” News Posted by John Hoare on 14th August 2003, 00:00 MOVIE RUMBLINGS! Craig Charles has given an interview with Teletext’s TV Plus, revealing all kinds of juicy titbits – and another starting date for the production. It’s not usually G&T policy to cut and paste other site’s news articles; but Teletext seem to get rid of the stories on the site after a certain amount of time, so the full article is reproduced here: Craig’s Red Dwarf dream by Derek Robins Craig Charles is set to achieve his Red Dwarf dream this autumn when work begins on a long-awaited movie version of BBC2’s sci-fi comedy. The 39-year-old, who plays Dave Lister, says the £12m film is due to start shooting in Australia in October for four months with the regular cast. He tells TV Plus: “It’s been five years in the melting pot and it looks like it’s finally going to happen. The script is excellent and everyone is looking forward to making it.” Craig says there is huge anticipation for the forthcoming project: “The makers, Winchester Films, have already provisionally sold it to Australia, Britain and Japan and it should do well in America as it’s shown on US TV. “Money is still a stumbling block but I think BBC Worldwide is putting cash into it. The budget of £12m is massive for a non-Hollywood movie.” Craig will take his family to Australia for the four months it will take to make the film. He and wife Jackie will take kids Hannah Jo, five, and Nellie, five months, and he says: “Hannah Jo will go to school there, it’s important that my family are with me.” The film will reunite Craig with Red Dwarf regulars Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Danny John-Jules (Cat), and Robert Llewellyn (Kryten). The show is currently being repeated by BBC2. The actor is busier than ever, even though the BBC2 comedy ended after 11 years in 1999. Craig, who made eight series of the show, is also the host of the hugely popular Robot Wars which has just switched from BBC2 to five. He also has a guest role in BBC1 daytime soap Doctors this autumn and hosts satellite channel Bravo’s Ripley’s Believe It Or Not and Challenge TV’s Takeshi’s Castle. RECEIVED: 14/08/2003 13:36:03 Fantastic news, there. A few points: as usual, none of this is confirmed by GNP. So until it is, you know the score; it might be utter bollocks. However, both Craig and Teletext are reputable sources, so I would say we can probably take this article as giving the current state of play for the movie. This is the first time October has been mentioned as a starting date for the production; the last specific date we heard it was late September, so the schedule appears not to have slipped too much, despite fan fears. What with a time period for the cast being in Australia also being mentioned (four months), it would appear that most of the plans are now in place. The only slightly worrying thing in the report is Craig mentioning that “money is still a stumbling block” – interesting news about BBC Worldwide, though. Also: the assumption in the article that the TV series is over is slightly premature. Whilst we would guess that there will be no more TV adventures for the Dwarfers, Doug Naylor hasn’t yet ruled it out completely. Anyway, let’s hope nothing goes wrong, and the movie finally gets off the ground. Please? Ian’s Newsround will be on Saturday, along with a big revision for the DVD and Movie FAQ and the movie Rumour Tracker.
