A Cumbrian producer is looking for backers to help make a short film which will be shot in the Lake District.
Michael Groom and his team are just £1,700 short of the funds needed to make The Merciless Beauty, a modern-day adaptation of the John Keats poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci. It’s a tale of love, infatuation and melancholic desire, in which an errant knight becomes obsessed with a mysterious beauty who ultimately lures him to his doom.
“Our version is a subtle re-telling, focusing on a 21st century return of the beauty and the farmhand she meets and ensnares,” said Michael, who was brought up in Cumbria and whose family live in Wigton.
The film will be shot in several locations around the Lake District, including Rydal cave, Crummock Water, and privately owned land. Michael hopes to start filming in December “to get the best wintry light”.
Michael, who has worked on mainstream films such as Prometheus, Clash of the Titans, and A Might Heart, has a budget of £5000 for this project. “We have already raised a significant amount, but we still need a further £1700 before we can get started,” he explained.
Michael says his approach to short film is to entertain and “transport the viewer to a different place and to hark back to the escapism of myth and wonderment”.
“That’s why this tale appeals so much. It takes the classic archetype of the beautiful female and spins a yarn that is representative of the very human-oriented mixed emotions of desire and love, ecstasy and melancholy, that two mutually attracted souls feel towards each other.”
He has launched an online appeal where backers can pledge any amount from £1 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1005171588/the-merciless-beauty
“We know some great locations and we are keen to share the result with film festivals around the world.”
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