"Jennifer"

As part of the Channel Four 'Coming Up' series, Zoë is starring alongside Andrew Buchan in author Richard T Kelly's drama "Jennifer".

At first glance, the drama appeared to be about the Oscar Award-winning American actress Jennifer Jones (1919-2009), however as Richard confirms in his blog, the film Jennifer is not a Hollywood true story but an entirely fictional tale, set in present-day London.

He goes on to say:

One doesn’t want to spill too much about the plot; however it’s simple enough to reiterate that for me the titling of Jennifer was a sort of cinephile tip of the hat to William Dieterle’s Portrait of Jennie (1948) and to Jennifer Jones’ luminous performance therein. But really that amounts to nothing more than a little movie-lover’s in-joke – you’d never suppose the connection from watching the film, even if you know the Dieterle picture inside out.

'Coming Up' is the Channel 4 talent scheme where new writers and directors have the opportunity to make an original film with a guaranteed network broadcast - and this 30 minute teleplay written by Richard is to appear as part of it's fourth series (sometime) in 2010.

Richard T Kelly worked as the director of a theatre company and for the TV production department of the British Film Institute. From 1998 to 2001 he was a programme consultant and presenter of on-stage events at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. In 2000 he wrote and presented the Channel 4 documentary THE NAME OF THIS FILM IS DOGME 95. He is a regular contributor on film matters to newspapers, magazines, TV and radio, and has authored three acclaimed ‘oral history’ books on film and filmmakers, all published by Faber: ALAN CLARKE (1998), THE NAME OF THIS BOOK IS DOGME 95 (2000), and the authorised biography SEAN PENN: HIS LIFE AND TIMES (2004). Richard recently edited TEN BAD DATES WITH DE NIRO, published in October 2007. His debut novel, CRUSADERS, a story of crime, politics and religion set in his native Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was published by Faber to excellent reviews, and is currently under option to Ruby Films/Channel 4

[Webmaster's Note: We were surprised - and very pleased - that Mr Kelly noticed our news item about 'Jennifer' and we would like to thank him for taking the time to clarify the Jennifer Connection and to mention us in his blog.]