Starring Phoebe Dynevor as Clarice Cliff alongside Matthew Goode and directed by Claire McCarthy
Based on a true story
Sky today announces the start of production in England for The Colour Room, a Sky Original. The film is based on the rise to fame of legendary Stoke-on-Trent ceramic artist Clarice Cliff, played by Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) in the lead role, alongside Matthew Goode (The Imitation Game) as Colley Shorter.
Co-produced by Sky, Caspian Films and Creative England, the film will be directed by Claire McCarthy (Ophelia) and is written by Claire Peate, winner of BAFTA Rocliffe in 2016.
Phoebe Dynevor, plays Clarice Cliff, comments:
“I am so excited to be joining the cast of The Colour Room, especially in the role as one of the nations most celebrated artists, Clarice Cliff. It’s truly such an honour to take on such a remarkable character. The script is a beautifully written contemporary take on the 20th century, and I feel proud to be working with such a strong female team, both in front and behind the camera. I look forward to telling Clarice’s story and of course working with Matthew too.”
Additional cast confirmed includes Kerry Fox (Shallow Grave), David Morrissey (The Walking Dead), Darci Shaw (Judy) and Luke Norris (Poldark). The Colour Room will start production later this month in Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham and will be released in cinemas and on Sky Cinema later this year.
Sarah Wright, Director of Sky Cinema and Acquisitions at Sky UK & Ireland, comments:
“Clarice Cliff is one of the most iconic artists of the 20th Century – a female pioneer who quite literally broke the mould in the English pottery industry in the 1920s. I can’t wait to start this all-British production and bring her incredible true story to life, starring the fabulous Phoebe Dynevor with Matthew Goode and David Morrissey. This film will provide a fresh take on Clarice’s professional and personal life and it is apt – and I’m hugely proud that this film is written, directed and produced by an all-female team.”
The Colour Room follows the journey of a determined, working class woman, Clarice Cliff, as she breaks the glass ceiling and revolutionises the workplace in the 20th century. Clarice Cliff (Dynevor) is a vivacious young factory worker in the industrial British midlands of the 1920s. Her creativity and ambition drives her to move factory to factory, despite the financial impact on the household she shares with her widowed mother Ann (Fox) and youngest sister Dot (Shaw). Bursting at the seams with ideas for colours and shapes, Clarice takes more and more dangerous risks – but she manages to stay one step ahead of the workhouse and impress the eccentric factory owner Colley Shorter (Goode) on the way with her talent and innovation.
Apprenticed to renowned Art Designer Fred Ridgeway (Morrissey) and with support from Colley and other women in the factory, Clarice fights her way through to design the unprecedented Art Deco ‘Bizarre’ range. In the middle of the Great Depression, she ensures the factory’s survival and her future as one of the greatest Art Deco designers and a household name.
The film is produced by Thembisa Cochrane (The Harvesters) and Georgie Paget (Queens Of Syria) for Caspian Films, in association with Denaire Motion Picture Poetry and co-producer Neil Jones (Farming). The film is executive produced by Laura Grange for Sky, Paul Ashton for West Midlands Production Fund (Creative England) and David Gilbery, Charlie Dorfman, Marlon Vogelgesang for Media Finance Capital in association with On Sight.
Claire Peate, writer of The Colour Room and winner of BAFTA Rocliffe in 2016, adds:
“The story was inspired by a single image; a young factory worker leaving her grim, industrial reality behind her and stepping into the rainbow of the Colour Room – a world of joy and possibility. It was thanks to the script winning at BAFTA Rocliffe and being performed on stage that it was picked up, and I’m thrilled to now be working with Phoebe and Matthew in bringing The Colour Room to life.”
Sky Cinema is the home of Sky Original films, with brand new films launching every month alongside an unrivalled range of the latest cinema releases and on demand library.
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