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Swansea-setting for film adaptation of Submarine

Filming will start on the movie-version of Joe Dunthorne's teenage-angst novel next month. Submarine, published by Hamish Hamilton in spring 2008, received considerable critical acclaim and was on the 2009 Wales Book of the Year Long List (click here for more information). It was also short-listed for the 2008 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize and long-listed for both the 2008 Desmond Elliott Prize and the 2008 Dylan Thomas Prize. So far, Submarine has been published in a further seven countries and translated into four languages. Joe is a Member of Academi and performed at Academi's 2008 Bay Lit Festival.

The novel is set in Swansea and follows 15 year old Oliver Tate in his journey to discover why most adults don't actually have the answers to most of life's questions. As Oliver provides a running commentary on his parents' marriage break-down, he also comically explores the lives of others including his first love interest Jordana, and Zoe, whose only real schoolfriend is the dinner lady. 

The film adaptation will star Newport-born and Port Talbot-raised Michael Sheen, who has appeared in a number of high-profile recent box-office hits including 'The Queen', 'Frost-Nixon' and 'The Damned United'. Actor Paddy Constantine will also appear, having previously starred in 'Hot Fuzz', 'The Bourne Ultimatum' and classically 'Dead Man's Shoes'.

Filming will start in September and continue in the area for six weeks. The Film Agency for Wales has invested £100,000 in the project. Richard Ayoade, who has directed bands like the Arctic Monkeys and starred as the character Moss in the hit television comedy 'The IT Crowd', is confirmed as writer-director, with Mark Herbert and Mary Burke of Warp Films, as well as Andy Stebbing (who has worked on 'Tropic Thunder', 'Dodgeball' and 'Starsky and Hutch') as producers. Various speaking and non-speaking roles for local young aspiring actors are currently under audition via the online casting website www.thecastingscene.com.
 
Joe, 27, has contributed creatively to the adaptation as script editor. Born and raised in Swansea, he graduated from the Creative Writing Prose MA at the University of East Anglia where he was awarded the Curtis Brown Prize. A novelist and poet, he has published mini-collections of his poetry in Reactions 5 (Pen and Inc Press, 2005) and Generation Txt (Penned in the Margins, 2006). Joe now lives in London.

To read more about Joe and Submarine the novel, click here to visit his Academi Writers of Wales entry.