About

Film production company founded by Alan Entwistle to produce the feature-length movie 24weekers.

Alan Entwistle is a published author and former music journalist with Record Mirror. As a film-maker Alan has written and directed about a dozen short films, screened variously at Cannes, Edinburgh and on TV.

In 2005, Alan's wife, Karen, went into premature labour after developing an infection called Strep B. She gave birth to Jack 16 weeks too early on January 3rd 2005, in St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester.

When he was born, Alan and Karen were told that Jack only had a 40per cent chance of survival. He weighed just 1lb 6oz and was the size of a man’s hand.  Jack spent five months in Neo-natal Intensive Care, but the rollercoaster continued for 18 months and Jack was christened in the Summer of 2006.

Looking back over this experience, Alan began developing this unique true story into a movie, completing the feature length screenplay over the next 4 years.

“The question for me wasn't so much 'should I make this film' - but 'when'?"

In August 2011, Alan created a promotional trailer in one weekend at the cost of just £600. The trailer was then 'premiered' at one of the North West’s biggest cinemas, the Odeon, in Manchester’s Printworks, in October 2011.

As a result, 24weekers received media attention and, over the following four months, was featured in local medial, radio and on national television. (see website for details)

24weekers is the first feature-length film brought to you by Alan Entwistle.  

The film takes place in the heart of the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit of a typical English hospital.  A black comedy, the film will confront issues of mortality and sanity within this testing environment.  

The film is currently in pre-production and is listed on IMDb. Principal photography is set to commence in early 2013 and we plan to take the finished product to the Cannes Film Festival in late May 2013.

We are currently putting together a fantastic team of cast & crew for 24weekers.  We have a great casting director, Lee Mountjoy, on board and our cast is growing every day - everyone looking at the script wants to be involved!

You will be seeing many familiar faces from UK TV screens in 24weekers, such as our leading lady, Kate Coogan (Hollyoaks, The Royal, Emmerdale, Cold Feet and A Touch of Frost), Steve Huison (The Full Monty, Coronation Street, The Royal) and Amber Hodgkiss (Bedlam, Hollyoaks, Grange Hill); and a selection of some of the UK's great talents from the stage.

The production team features the talented Edward Rastelli-Lewis as the Line Producer; Dennis Morgan as Director of Photography; and James Helps as Production Designer.

In order to fund the making of the 24weekers, the team behind it, which Alan & Karen spearhead, have created a ‘crowd-funding’ campaign on the successful US-based Kickstarter website, which launched UK projects on 31st October 2012.  The 24weekers project was launched by the team at 10.00 am on 31st October and will run for just 42 days with a target budget of £94,000.  This figure has been specifically calculated to be the minimum required to cover the full production of the movie, and if the full target budget is not raised, 24weekers will not receive a penny…  

Anyone in the world can pledge any amount they would like (Min £1) towards the funding of the film and in return can select from a variety of rewards, ranging from a simple social media ‘shout out’, a copy of the new ebook ‘24weekers: The Story’, through to a non-speaking role in the film and dinner with the director and some of the cast!  There is even an opportunity for preemies to appear in the film itself.

Please take a look at the 24weekers Kickstarter project at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/24wmedia/24weekers-a-new-feature-film-by-alan-entwistle