Articles: Island Film Talent

ISLAND TALENT FOLLOWS IN MINGELLA’S FOOTSTEPS

AN aspiring home-grown scriptwriter, Joshua Turner, 23, originally of Shanklin on the Isle of Wight has recently received some fantastic news, as his newest creation has been bought by a new independent British film company. Acting as lifelong home to the late Anthony Mingella, the Isle of Wight has long been associated with cinematic prestige, and undoubtedly inspired by the Oscar-winning Director (who in fact attended the same school, Sandown High) – Turner, who studied Drama and English at A level, going on to graduate with a first class degree in Film Production and Scriptwriting from Reading University, said that he had known that he wanted to be involved in the film making industry since he was a child – yet it was the first viewing of Mingella’s The English Patient when he was 15 that culminated in him actually starting to make it happen.

“I already loved the film, and watched it many times when I was younger, but it wasn’t until I received a VCR copy for Christmas when I was about sixteen that I realized it was written by Anthony Mingella, and particularly that he had lived on the island! This changed everything for me. Suddenly I had new found hope for what had, up until then, been very much a pipe dream.”

When Turner received the news via phone call, he was in fact working in his father’s café, where he had been working since graduation, whilst developing scripts on the side. “It was an amazing moment,” Turner said, speaking from his house in Newport. “We get a lot of locals in of course who had known for the past two years what I’d been waiting for. Everyone cheered when I finally told them, it was such an exciting moment for me.”

Even more exciting news for the Island comes with the particular film company’s involvement too, however. They have in fact granted Turner full artistic license in location and involvement in the script’s casting, and he hopes to use this to showcase as much Island talent as possible. The plot, set in a small seaside village in the 1970s tells the story of a young fisherman living with his elderly, disabled father – and focuses on the ups and downs of such a relationship, and the interference of his falling in love and wanting to live independently whilst trying to cope with his current situation. Turner says that it is very important to him that he is allowed to choose the setting for the film. “Being surrounded by beaches, my childhood memories helped immensely in my creation of the story. It would seem wrong to take the film anywhere away from the Island, it definitely must be set here. It’s too perfect.” Though the film will take a few years in development and planning before it can be released commercially, it already seems set to be a hit, with the locals at least.