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Tartan
Shorts 2003 - Wise Guys
Cast
biographies
Production
biographies
As
far back as he can remember, 11-year-old schoolboy William wanted
to be a gangster.
Desperate
to make some fast cash, and confronted with a tedious paper route,
William and his old brother Michael and friend Bobby wonder what
their wise guy American heroes would do under such trying circumstances.
They unexpectedly realise their dreams when they turn their jobs
delivering free newspapers into an illegal racket.
What
follows is their descent into a world where ice cream vans are heisted
and best friends shoot each other with airguns.
The
young friends' life change is swift but the question is will
it be permanent?
William's
only problem is keeping his ingenious scheme a secret, so that his
chain-smoking boss Pauline, who's as hard as her heavily lacquered
fingernails, never finds out he's dumping his newspapers.
However, soon
the paper scam is no longer enough and William and his co-conspirators
decide to diversify their operations, but it doesn't take
long before the cracks in the schoolboy con scheme start to appear.
An epic mob
film which centres on a rollercoaster rites of passage tale, Wise
Guys pays homage to gangster cinema and what it means to be 11-years-old
and have heroes.
William
is played by Anthony Marlin, Michael by Jamie Quinn, Bobby by Jonathan
Carlin and Pauline by Lorraine McIntosh.
Wise
Guys is a Hopscotch Films production for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland / Scottish
Screen.
Cast
biographies
Lorraine
McIntosh plays Pauline
Having
spent almost a decade touring and recording music, former Deacon
Blue singer Lorraine McIntosh decided to pursue a career in acting.
Lorraine
made her acting debut in Ken Loach's award-laden film My Name Is
Joe, starring alongside acclaimed actor and former Tartan Shorts
success story, Peter Mullan.
Other
TV roles include appearances in Taggart and Psychos.
Most
recently, Lorraine took up the role as local hell raiser Alice Henderson
in ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland's soap, River City.
Anthony
Martin plays William
By
the age of seven, Anthony Martin had made his solo stage debut.
During his time at the Coin Scougall Stage School in Airdrie, Anthony
performed in various theatrical roles before joining PACE in 2001.
Since
then he has played Fagan in Oliver, as well as appearing in the
´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland period drama, The Key.
In
addition to acting, Anthony is a talented comedian, impersonator
and a keen musician, playing both the piano and guitar.
His
skateboarding skills are also legendary.
Jamie
Quinn plays Michael
Jamie
is fast becoming one of Scotland's best known young actors. As well
as making regular appearances in ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland's acclaimed hit comedy
Still Game, Jamie has become a familiar face in TV advertisements.
Most
famously of all, Jamie appeared in the S1 Jobs ice-cream advert
where he and a friend torment an ice-cream van man for prices before
uttering the immortal line, "just a penny chew then mister."
Jamie's
theatre roles include The Artful Dodger in Oliver and the role of
Joe in Fame, both at The Kings Theatre, Glasgow. He also appeared
on stage at The Pavillion in a production of Peter Pan.
Jonathan
Carlin plays Bobby
Jonathan's
interest in the theatre began at the age of nine. A talented all-round
entertainer, Jonathan has performed with the Royal Scottish National
Orchestra and the Kirkintilloch Players in Glasgow.
The
young actor has also appeared on stage as The Artful Dodger in Oliver
for the Campsie Theatre Group as well as donning a dress to appear
on stage as an ugly sister in Cinderella and the Giant in Jack and
the Beanstalk.
Such
is Jonathan's dedication to acting, he continued his paper-round
during the production of Wise Guys, getting up at 6.00am every morning
to do his rounds before filming started.
Production
biographies
Simon
Stephenson– Writer
A
trained doctor of medicine, Wise Guys is Simon Stephenson's first
script, based on his own short story.
Simon
has won several awards for his writing including being short listed
for The Macallan / Scotland On Sunday short story competition.
His
next film project, the skewed romantic comedy, Except Me And My
Monkey, is currently in production and tells the tale of an amateur
ventriloquist and her unusual relationship with her cantankerous
puppet monkey.
Adrian
McDowall– Director
In
2000, Adrian won the BAFTA for Best Short Film for his graduation
production, Who's My Favourite Girl? which he wrote and directed.
Currently,
he is working on a number of feature projects including Except For
Me And My Monkey as well as the Des Dillon script for The Waiting
Game, a Hopscotch Films production.
A successful
commercials director, Adrian has received critical acclaim for his
short films and has had many of them screened in worldwide festivals
and broadcast on ´óÏó´«Ã½ and Channel 4.
John
Archer – Producer
John
Archer is the managing director of Hopscotch Films and Wise Guys
is his first drama production as producer.
Within
his Executive Producer role he has overseen documentaries by John
Boorman, Nagisa Oshima and Lindsay Anderson as well as award winning
series The Bigger Picture and Billy Connolly's World Tour Of Scotland.
He
is currently producing a series for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland which focuses on
the history of Scottish writing.
John
is also developing a slate of feature projects including The Waiting
Game and Except Me And My Monkey along with the Wise Guys production
team.
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