DISTRESS CALL

Millie Bobby Brown slays in a dark fantasy…

Millie Bobby Brown must escape a dragon…

Once upon a time, damsels were always in distress. Star Wars, Shrek and a dozen Disney princesses pushed the fairy-tale clichés into parody, but for director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intacto, 28 Weeks Later), there’s still a long way to go. ‘A lot of those takes aren’t that serious,’ he says. ‘They’re animations or comedies or other things, but they aren’t real, scary, adventurous fantasy. I think it’s time to do something in the mainstream fantasy genre with the same take on the female hero.’

Tricked into a marriage that ends at the bottom of a pit, Princess Elodie (Millie Bobby Brown) finds herself stranded in a labyrinth of caves trying to escape a fire-breathing dragon. ‘Each step in the road, each cave, has to have a different personality,’ says Fresnadillo.

‘We were lucky when Millie liked the script. We needed somebody who was growing up in the journey of this movie – becoming a much more empowered woman alongside the character.’ Joining a strong royal ensemble in Robin Wright, Angela Bassett and Ray Winstone, Brown spends most of the film dodging fire and swinging swords in the company of Shohreh Aghdashloo’s scaly monster.

‘Shohreh plays the dragon in such a unique way it feels like we’ve hit the jackpot,’ says Fresnadillo. ‘It’s a new idea on dragons, a new take on the figure of a dragon – I think the audience is going to be really shocked.’

HOME WIN

Bill Nighy coaches a football team with real stakes.

When director Thea Sharrock (Me Before You) read the script for Frank Cottrell Boyce’s The Beautiful Game, she was bowled over. The story tells of a team of English players venturing to Rome to compete in the four-a-side Homeless World Cup. ‘I loved it as a football fan and as a film fan,’ she says. ‘It’s got so much heart and soul. Frank is a wonderful writer; he really gets into the heart of characters.’

Then she discovered that the Homeless World Cup was a real phenomenon, a tournament first held in 1999 to advocate for a global solution to homelessness. ‘I couldn’t believe the size of it, the scale of it,’ she says. ‘It’s changed so many people’s lives.’ Although inspired by many true stories, Cottrell Boyce’s script focuses on the fictionalised Vinny (Micheal Ward), a struggling delivery worker now sleeping in his car. When he’s spotted on the football pitch by kindly coach Mal (Bill Nighy), he’s convinced to join the team.

Casting Empire of Light star Ward was key, with the actor once holding dreams of being a professional footballer (like his best friend, Sheffield United star Rhian Brewster). Turns out the 26-year-old Ward can still play.

‘Micheal worked unbelievably hard,’ says Sharrock. ‘He did the David Beckham: he was first in, last out.’ But what if you’re not a fan of the beautiful game? ‘That’s one of the great things I love when people see it,’ she says. ‘They go, “I don’t even like football, and I love the movie!”’