Mike Leigh to make movie of Peterloo massacre

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/apr/17/mike-leigh-to-make-movie-of-peterloo-massacre

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Nearly a year after the premiere of his biopic of JMW Turner, Mike Leigh has announced his intention to return to the 19th century for his next film. Peterloo, due to start shooting in 2017, is a drama about the infamous 1819 Manchester massacre, which killed an estimated 18 protesters and injured up to 700.

“There has never been a feature film about the Peterloo massacre,” said Leigh. “Apart from the universal political significance of this historic event, the story has a particular personal resonance for me, as a native of Manchester and Salford.”

The massacre occurred when government troops – including local yeomanry – charged a crowd of around 60,000 people gathered in St Peter’s Field in Manchester to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.

The rally was organised by the Manchester Patriotic Union, who commissioned radical orator Henry Hunt to speak. But he was arrested shortly before the rally begun, and cavalry drew their sabres to try to disperse the gathered crowds, leading to confusion and loss of life.

Christened Peterloo as a nod to the Battle of Waterloo, which occurred four years before, the massacre preceded further government crackdowns. But the outcry sparked was one of the key contributing factors to the establishment of the Manchester Guardian.

The movie will see Leigh reuniting with longtime collaborators such as cinematographer Dick Pope, producer Georgina Lowe and executive producer Gail Egan. Any further details on casting have not yet emerged.

The director, now 72, was born in Herfordshire but raised in Salford, where he remained until he won a scholarship to Rada in 1960. He is currently in rehearsals for an English National Opera production of The Pirates of Penzance. His 1999 biopic of Gilbert and Sullivan, Topsy-Turvy, was a first foray into period film-making, followed in 2004 by Vera Drake, which starred Imelda Staunton as a backstreet abortionist in 1950s London.

After another decade chronicling contemporary life, Mike Leigh went back to mid-1800s for Mr Turner, which won plaudits for its portrayal of the radical artist’s last 25 years. After taking the best actor prize for Timothy Spall at Cannes last May, the film went on to earn four Oscar nominations and more than £7m at the UK box office alone.

However, some felt the film was unfairly overlooked at the Baftas, where it failed to be recognised in any major categories. As well as snubs for the direction and acting, it wasn’t nominated for either best film or outstanding British film. Leigh was however awarded that year’s Bafta fellowship, however, and used his acceptance speech to address the controversy.

“Your taste is your prerogative,” he told Bafta voters. “Some people are expecting me to be rude this evening … you’re in for a disappointment.”

He then thanked everyone he had ever worked with as well as “the boneheads, philistines and skinflints” who had refused his requests for funding. His films had been better off without them, he said, before adding: “May you all rot in hell.”