Five Feature Fund For Commercial Independent Films

Blackwater Pictures, the British indie production company behind the buzzy biopic about the life of veteran Snooker player Jimmy White, has set up what they describe as a “multi-million-pound” fund to support commercially-minded independent British films.

The fund is being managed in collaboration with BAFTA-nominated producer Tiernan Hanby (The Karman Line, Summit Fever, Heavyweight) of Pin Sharp Pictures and Simon Marriott of development & production company Shout Loud Creative (T.I.M, Daddy’s Head, Heavyweight). Money for the fund was raised through private equity and personal funds. 

The slate currently includes Antecedent, the directorial feature debut of Dan Bronzite. He is best known for his supernatural horror Long Time Dead produced for Working Title Films/Universal and the horror feature Do or Die for Michael Kuhn’s Qwerty Films.

Blackwater Pictures is right now in production on White, a biopic about the chaotic life of championship snooker player Jimmy White, starring Ray Winstone and Aneurin Barnard and co-produced with Michael Wiggs and Winstone. We first broke news of the pic in March. Barnard — best known for his breakout in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk but also has credits such as The Goldfinch and the BBC’s popular 2016 War & Peace adaptation — will play White in the pic. 

Recent Blackwater Pictures projects include ‘Heavyweight’ a boxing film written and directed by Christopher Anthony, in collaboration with Silver Milk Productions led by Jordan Bolger (Peaky Blinders, The Woman King) & Nicholas Pinnock (Top Boy, Marcella, For Life) and Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter Franchise, Operation Mincemeat). The company is also behind Members Club, a comedy horror it produced alongside Gav Mukerji from filmmaker Marc Coleman.

The company has said it plans to unveil three highly anticipated sales trailers at Cannes and AFM 2024.