Right here

And check out the teaser poster. Tell us what you think.

Was enourmous fun at the Edinburgh Film Fest this weekend. Video here, including VITO IN A VERY SILLY WIG

We have a weird social tendency for top-trump lists. Whether it be fastest motor cards, meanest dinosaurs, being ranked out in the card games we played in junior school, greatest pop anthems of all time in bad Channel 4 chart programmes, or FHM’s annual sexiest women issue, we like our lists.

Sometimes, when compiled with sufficient perspective, from the distance of a decade, these lists can be interesting ways of looking back at the most influential trends and shapers of a period or movement. When thrown together in the moment, however, they should be given limited credence.

Especially when one finds oneself and ones friends in them, which at the moment, in both London and Paris, the ranks of slingshot seem to team with top-trumpers….

To start, this week’s Observer pulls together the ‘Kings and Queens of Paris’ and there above the fold is the lovely Céline Sciamma, director of the achingly tender and awkward and sexy coming of age teen movie Water Lilies, the film we acquired at Cannes earlier this year, and which had its UK premier last night at the London Film Festival. Having spent an evening eating frites and listening to jazz with Celine, I can attest that she is in fact a queen amongst french-women.
Rather less notably, two week ago Variety, in its indelible wisdom, chose Thomas and I as two of top thirty “London Entertainers“. Combine these two stories Slingshot finds itself in the strange position of top-trumping on both sides of the English Channel. Quel strange!

Just to prove, though, that you shouldn’t believe everything you read, Sky News is amongst many sources getting excited that Simon Pegg is staring in Faintheart. A piece of casting so brilliant, that somehow we managed to do it without letting ourselves know. Simon, you just had to ask!

Sorry its been so quiet on the slingblog these past few weeks and months. There’s been a lot going on in the real world. In no particular order:

- We’ve been locking picture on FRENCH FILM; which we are really delighted with. Its turned into a hugely romantic, very funny but still very intelligent movie. A tribute to the talents of writer and director and our wonderful cast and crew. The website will be going live over the next month and then there will be chances to catch previews and get involved in the run up to the pictures UK release, which should be in Q1 next year.

- We’re in prep on FAINTHEART which starts shooting in 4 short weeks. In addition to all the excitement and business in the film itself (Vikings! Romans! an Owl called Odin! A P.E. teacher called Gary!) is the excitement of the experimentation that we get to do with MySpace in really involving all of you out there in the film-making process. MySpace is calling it “the world’s first user generated film”, I think a more accurate description would be a mixture between open-process and open-source. The trick is working out which bits can be open source (e.g. choosing the bad, cutting multiple trailers) and which need the controlling minds of the film-makers but can be open process to observers. Its a careful balance and I think we will learn much from the process

- we’ve also got our first DVD release going on, and if you are a fan of Gypsy music and charismatic front-men, run do not work to the PIED PIPER OF HUTZOVINIA website and check out this wonderful tale of Eugene Hutz, lead singer of Punk-Gypsy sensation GOGOL BORDELLO, and also check out in glimering newness our DVD store, yes we are an e-talier now. Gosh.

Amidst all of that, we continue to be on the look out for fresh new projects and will shortly be announcing our 2008 slate, or rather I should say, our joint slate with the BBC (see below announcement our our co-dev, co-finance deal with them); and also are fundraising like busy bees to support the expansion of our distribution business.

On a personal note, it has been no less busy - I’ve also moved house (and now even own a new bed) and sadly, have parted ways from the lovely Kate; so am now sling-single ;-(.

So amidst all that I hope you will forgive me for not being too active on the blog. The real world has kind of taken over. But here I am, back with you, where I belong on the blogosphere. Soon you will forget I was ever away, and be wishing for me to leave you alone again…