“Avatar 2: The Way of Water” star Jamie Flatters looks unrecognizable in stills from his upcoming indie feature “Black Dog,” revealed here exclusively by Variety.
Shedding his blue CG ensemble, Flatters, who plays Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington’s eldest Na’avi son in James Cameron’s billion-dollar smash, reverts to type in “Black Dog” as a London teenager taking a road trip up North.
Flatters co-wrote the British indie feature with his friend George Jaques (“The Serpent Queen”), who will also direct. “Black Dog” represents both Flatters and Jaques’ feature screenwriting debut.
Joining Flatters on screen is Ruby Stokes (“Lockwood & Co”), Nicholas Pinnock (“For Life”), Paul Kaye (“After Life”), Amrita Acharia (“Game of Thrones”), Hattie Morahan (“Enola Holmes”) and Keenan Munn-Francis making his film debut.
Flatters and Munn-Francis will play the leads in this two-hander about a pair of teenagers, Sam and Nathan, who find themselves on a roadtrip across the U.K. while they deal with grief, love, sexuality and friendship. Sam is searching for his mother in the North East of England while Nathan has run away from his foster family and is trying to find his sister, who he thinks live in Scotland.
“After a chance encounter, Sam agrees to give Nathan a ride North in his mom’s car and as their impromptu adventure together takes an unexpected turn, the boys begin to open up and learn they have far more in common than they first thought,” reads the synopsis.
“We found our school experiences extremely formative,” Flatters has previously said of working on the film with Jaques, whom he met as a teenager kicking around London. “He came from private school, I came from a state [public] school. And the divide was interesting because it was extremely felt between our social groups. So the logline for ‘Black Dog’ is: two boys meet by chance on a London street after one of them’s been mugged. And that night, they both realise that they need to escape London and leave it for good. But on the road up to Scotland, they re-experience the traumas they were running away from. So you look at that push and pull between different social structures.”
Jaques will produce through Athenaeum Productions alongside 27 Ten Productions’ Ken Petrie. Ian Sharp and Flatters will also produce.
“Shakespeare in Love” and “The Father” producer David Parfitt is exec producing (through Trademark Films) alongside Independent, who are also repping global sales. “Black Dog” will make its market debut at EFM this week.
“We knew from the first time we met George that he was a force of filmmaking nature,” said Independent Entertainment’s Sarah Lebutsch, managing director for International Sales. “True to form, he has assembled an extraordinary team both in front of and behind the camera, to help bring his and Jamie’s beautiful, touching story to life. Independent Entertainment are passionate about championing emerging British filmmakers, and we can’t wait to share George’s debut with the world.”
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