Carey Mulligan, Tom Basden & Tim Key To Star In Comedy ‘One For The Money’ For Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow & Bankside Films — Cannes Market

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman), Tom Basden (After Life) and Tim Key (Love Wedding Repeat) are set to star in comedy One For The Money, which Bankside Films is launching for world sales ahead of the Cannes market.

The film will chart the story of an eccentric lottery winner, Charles, who lives alone on a remote island but attempts to turn his dreams into reality by hiring his favourite musician, Herb McGwyer, to play an exclusive, private gig. Unbeknownst to Herb, Charles has also hired Herb’s ex-band mate and ex-girlfriend, Nell, with her new husband in tow, to perform the old favourites. As tempers flare and old tensions resurface, the stormy weather traps them all on the island and Charles desperately looks for a way to salvage his dream gig.

Pic is being produced by Steve Coogan and Sarah Monteith’s Baby Cow (Philomena), which is majority owned by BBC Studios. Baby Cow’s Head of Development Rupert Majendie is lead producer. Majendie recently produced festival hit Brian And Charles, which premiered at Sundance last year and was sold by Bankside to Focus worldwide.

Basden also scripts while James Griffiths (Cuban Fury) will direct. The film is due to shoot this summer.

The project has its roots in a short film the writers and James Griffiths made a decade ago, produced by Charlie Henderson for Moxie Pictures. The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island won best short at The Edinburgh Film Festival and was nominated for a BAFTA.

Since then, Basden has gone on to write episodes of Peep Show and Fresh Meat, before creating Plebs and Pandemonium and playing Ricky Gervais’ brother-in-law in After Life. Key won The Edinburgh Comedy Award for his mixture of poetry and stand-up and played Alan Partridge’s sidekick, Simon, for the past decade. Basden and Key have collaborated for fifteen years, writing a sketch show (BBC4’s Cowards), short films and acting in each other’s radio and TV projects. This will be the first feature they have made together.

Executive Producers are Sarah Monteith, CEO, and Laurence Brown for Baby Cow, and Stephen Kelliher and Sophie Green for Bankside Films.

Tim Key said: “Shooting the short with Tom and James was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done, and I’ve been in love with that film ever since. To get the chance to do it all again, and to go deeper is extremely exciting. And to have Carey Mulligan on the island with us is the icing on the cake.”

Tom Basden added: “This film is a real labour of love for us that we’ve been hoping to return to for years. The mixture of laugh out loud comedy and emotional resonance that made the short such a hit with audiences over the years (including Carey!) is such a special and rare thing and we’re so excited to reprise the characters we love so much and fulfil the promise of the original short film.”