Thriller Jackdaw showcases North East as location

Jackdaw is the story of army veteran Jack Dawson who returns home

A hotly-anticipated action thriller shot against a backdrop of dramatic landscapes around Hartlepool and the Tees Valley will have its UK premiere in Stockton this month.

Jackdaw is the debut of County Durham filmmaker Jamie Childs, who has returned to his roots to write and direct a story close to his North East heart.

“I know that this landscape is massively unused and the potential to basically be used these kind of films," he said

"We’ve had kitchen sink dramas and things, stuff like that, shot here but what we haven’t had is much stuff with a heightened style, like with a Hollywood cinema style.

"From the skills that I have learned over the years, I knew that I could do that here and prove that you could do that here, and that was important for me."

Jackdaw is the story of army veteran Jack Dawson who returns home to look after his brother after his mother dies.

He takes on a job which he thinks will be straightforward but instead it turns into an adrenalin-fuelled nightmare after he is double-crossed and his brother is kidnapped.

The film stars Oliver Jackson-Cohen from The Invisible Man and The Haunting of Hill House, alongside Jenna Coleman, from Victoria and Doctor Who, and This is England and The Gallows Pole actor Thomas Turgoose.

Jamie Childs describes the North East as having "a certain energy"

While the film has action at its heart, Childs also wanted his film to have "a bit of heart and humour" to it and be rooted in North East humour and traditions.

"That is something that you might truly only understand if you are from the region, but it translates as well," he said

"There is a certain energy up here, there is a Viking energy and Jackdaw very much has that," he said.

"And that is something I grew up in. All these characters, although fictionalised, are kind of based on people I have come across over the years.

"They have been inspired by scenarios I have been in myself and I wanted to try and fictionalise that, steal all the best bits of North East culture that have made me who I am and try and put all that in to a fun action thriller narrative that could be enjoyed by people who aren’t from here but will hopefully get the vibe."

Childs is best known for his work on TV fantasy drama shows Willow, The Sandman and His Dark Materials, as well as on Doctor Who and Vera.

Originally from Shotton Colliery and, despite often being away filming, he frequently comes back to the North East to see his family.

It was the view of the Hartlepool Headland from his house, which provided him with the inspiration for the storyline and which he described as an "amazing backdrop".

Jenna Coleman starts alongside Oliver Jackson-Cohen

"And I could see this whole coastline," he said.

"Seal Sands, which is all the oil refineries and stuff, is just so cinematic. You go there at night and it is just lit up like a Christmas tree.

"And a fact I keep telling people is that when Ridley Scott used to live up here when he was younger, that landscape inspired the view of Los Angeles in the first Bladerunner.

"Obviously he never shot there but I was like I could shoot that as a backdrop, as a free production value you know.

"By choosing those locations around that coastline, that I knew had this really cinematic value to them, you get all that for free essentially, so you are shooting sequences in front of that stuff, and the production value is incredible."

He hopes other filmmakers will be inspired to choose the North East as a location.

Jackdaw is the first to be part-financed by North East Screen Industries Partnership, which was set up to attract film and television projects to the region.

Childs said as well as the funding, they received a huge amount of logistical support, meaning the film went from being written to completed in about nine months, which he did not think would have been possible otherwise.

The film, from Vertigo Releasing, received £300,000 from the fund, which is run by North East Screen.

Jamie Childs said the coastline at Hartlepool is "cinematic"

It also used The Northern Studios in Hartlepool as its unit base.

It was the first production to use the newly-launched facility, said head of studios Nina Yoxall.

“They took over the entire building with prop stores, costume department, art department, camera tech, casting departments, so it was really lively and bustling 24/7," she said.

"It was fantastic."

She added: "We used a lot of North East crew, a lot of North East talent, on screen and behind the camera.

"It was wonderful that we could house that here and that’s what we want to do more of in the future."

The film has its UK premiere in Stockton on 24 January

Childs is also optimistic about using the North East as a location for his future work

He said: "What has worked really well for this film already, a testament to it, is the Americans have seen it, the producers I know, and they have basically said, can you do this again in that region?

"Can you close down a city or a town but go the next scale up? You know, get an American lead, fish out of water kind of story, so I am working on some stuff like that.

"So we could bring like a big nineties A-lister, some names I won’t mention, to the North East and set a story here with them.”

Jackdaw will have its UK premiere on 24 January and opens in UK cinemas on 26 January.

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