Stuck

This Independent feature film is an adaptation of the critically acclaimed stage play - an irreverent and humorous attack on materialistic values - originally set in London in the 1980’s, it is now updated to the present day, with dramatic effect.

Reviews of the Original Stage Play -  "Outrageous and highly enjoyable satire on the filofax set… a zappy debut which marks Friend as a writer of some punch..." Time Out (Critic's Choice - Best Plays in London): "It makes you laugh, it makes you cry and it makes you search your soul..." Oracle - ITV & Channel 4: “Funny and perceptive... Rick Friend’s first play. On this evidence Friend should not wait too long before he writes his second..." Morning Star: "The characters are well drawn...The ear for the dialogue of today is acute..." The Guardian: "Humorous and sharp" City Limits: "Rick Friend has a nice line in comedy... The play, a sort of Pygmalion in reverse is a well-timed fable for our times..." The Stage and Television Today

The film currently in Pre-Production.

Stuck! Stuck! Stuck!

(Not to be confused with Stuck!) This Independent feature tells the story of the radical and controversial Stuckist art movement and the colourful life of Charles Thomson, its co-founder. Thomson had a turbulent marriage to artist and former stripper Stella Vine, who hit the headlines in 2004, when Charles Saatchi bought her painting of Princess Diana complete with blood dripping out of the mouth. Thomson coined the name Stuckism in response to a comment made by artist Tracey Emin to her then boyfriend, the movement’s other co-founder Billy Childish - “Your paintings are stuck, you are stuck! Stuck! Stuck! Stuck!”

Charles Thomson, who has been interviewed at length by Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight was the whistle-blower on the Tate's improper payment of £700,000 to Chris Ofili, one of the Tate's trustees, which led to the gallery being censured by the Charity Commission in July 2006. Thomson is  on board this project as a consultant.

Non Possumus

In 1985 in Swiss Cottage Library in London, Friend stumbled upon a newspaper article which deeply moved and inspired him.  He spent nearly 20 years researching and writing this epic script, and a novel. A controversial and true historical drama set in London and Rome in the mid 19th Century.

‘This is a powerful story. I believe Rick’s script will make a terrific film.’

Michael Doherty - Editor of acclaimed George A. Romero films ‘Land of the Dead’ (2005) & ‘Diary of the Dead” (2007)

Stuck

(From the Time Out Review). A packed Filofax and high finance dominate the existence of Tony, whose inner world is as repressed as his daily life is structured. That is until he meets ballsy, blonde Bella in a lift. Their brief but bilious encounter, in which our punk heroine breaks her Walkman, allows her to enter the yuppie world of Tony and his friends to expose their shallowness, materialism and unhappiness.

Implausible, outrageous and highly enjoyable, Rick Friend’s first full-length play – a social satire of ‘80s bright young things, is a riot of hilarious if unlikely incident. Astride Tony’s grey-suited knee, the black-eyed, leather-clad Bella engineers deals with world-famous financiers, while the play’s climax – a dinner party – has the sensible Sloane Claire all a-twitter with revelations of sexual repression as her boyfriend Trevor, an overgrown, overpaid ex-hippy drools at Bella’s every pearl of wisdom. This is a zappy debut, which marks Friend as a writer of some punch.

Time Out Critics’ Choice for Best Plays in London

Victory?

Friend’s controversial musical dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict. Friend has already directed Victory? as a workshop charity performance, in 2004, at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, with actors Juliette Caton, (leading actress in the Cameron Mackintosh musical Martin Guerre), Raza Jaffrey (leading actor of Bombay Dreams and BBC’s Spooks and Mistresses) and Bertie Carvel (leading actor in the Donmar’s Parade). The Musical Director was Andy Smith of We Will Rock You and The Lion King.

Victory? was produced by Production Friend, with producer Daniella Gonella of DG Productions.

Atlantis

Friend’s musical Atlantis has already been work-shopped at London’s National Theatre for director Bill Bryden, with leading actors Peter Straker (who collaborated with The Alan Parsons Project and on Freddie Mercury’s recording Barcelona) and Carol Nielsson star of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Song and Dance. The MD and musical arranger on this workshop was the late Anthony Bowles – arranger of the original Lloyd Webber musical Evita - and the producer - Jon Thoday of Avalon Productions known for Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned and Jerry Springer the Opera.