''Franklyn'' is a 2008 British science fantasy film written and directed by

Gerald McMorrow Gerald McMorrow (born 1970) is an English writer and filmmaker. Career McMorrow studied cinema in New York and began his career directing music videos for artists like Tom Jones and Catatonia. He later worked with advertising, directing televi ...

as his debut feature. Produced by

Jeremy Thomas Jeremy Jack Thomas, CBE (born 26 July 1949) is a British film producer, founder and chairman of Recorded Picture Company. He produced Bernardo Bertolucci's ''The Last Emperor'', which won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2006 he rec ...

, it stars

Ryan Phillippe Matthew Ryan Phillippe (; born September 10, 1974) is an American actor. After appearing as Billy Douglas on the soap opera ''One Life to Live'', he came to fame in the late 1990s with starring roles in films including ''I Know What You Did Las ...

Eva Green Eva Gaëlle Green (, ; born ) is a French actress and model. The daughter of actress Marlène Jobert, she began her career in theatre before making her film debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's '' The Dreamers'' (2003). She achieved international reco ...

and

Sam Riley Samuel Peter W. Riley (born 8 January 1980) is an English actor and singer.James Mottram: The only people for me are the mad ones. ''Independent on Sunday: The New Review'', 30 January 2011, pp 10–13 He is best known for his performance in t ...

. Shooting took place in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in the fourth quarter of 2007. ''Franklyn'' held its world premiere at the 52nd

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and sho ...

on 16 October 2008. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 27 February 2009.

Synopsis

Split between the parallel realities of contemporary London and the otherworldly metropolis of Meanwhile City, ''Franklyn'' follows the tales of four characters. Jonathan Preest (

) is a masked vigilante who will not rest until he finds his nemesis, "the Individual". Emilia (

) is a troubled young art student whose rebellion may turn out to be deadly. Milo (

) is a heartbroken thirty something yearning for the purity of first love. Peter (

Bernard Hill Bernard Hill (born 17 December 1944) is an English actor. He is well recognized for playing King Théoden in ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, Captain Edward Smith in ''Titanic'', and Luther Plunkitt, the Warden of San Quentin Prison in t ...

) is a man steeped in religion, searching desperately for his missing son amongst London's homeless.

Cast

as Jonathan Preest, a masked vigilante detective from Meanwhile City. Preest is the only atheist in town. * Luke Pettican as Young Jonathan Preest *

in a dual role as Emilia and Sally. Emilia is a beautiful but damaged student who films her would-be suicide attempts as installations for her art degree. Eva Green has compared her to real people, Sophie Calle and

Tracey Emin Tracey Karima Emin, CBE, RA (; born 3 July 1963) is a British artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and ...

and described Sally as "full of life, very witty, big sense of humor." *

as Milo, a young man who has just been jilted at the altar. Riley was cast based on his performance as

Ian Curtis Ian Kevin Curtis (15 July 1956 – 18 May 1980) was an English musician, singer, and songwriter. He was best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and lyricist of the post-punk band Joy Division, with whom he released the albums ''Unknown P ...

in the 2007 film ''

Control Control may refer to: Basic meanings Economics and business * Control (management), an element of management * Control, an element of management accounting * Comptroller (or controller), a senior financial officer in an organization * Controllin ...

''. *

as Peter Esser, a

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

church warden looking for his wayward son in

. * James Faulkner as Pastor Bone * Art Malik as Tarrant, the head of Meanwhile, City's Ministry * Susannah York as Margaret *

Richard Coyle Richard Coyle is an English actor. He portrayed lead role of Father Faustus Blackwood in Netflix series '' Chilling Adventures of Sabrina'', and Jeff Murdock in the sitcom ''Coupling''. Early and personal life Coyle was born in Sheffield, En ...

as Dan *

Kika Markham Erika S.L. "Kika" Markham (born 1940)''birth registered 4th quarter (Oct, Nov, Dec) 1940'' is an English actress. Early life Markham is a daughter of actor David Markham and writer Olive Dehn (1914–2007). She has three sisters: Petra, Sonia ...

as Naomi *

Vauxhall Jermaine Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known fo ...

as Leon * Stephen Walters as Wormsnakes/Wasnik

Production

Writer-director

wrote the original science fiction script ''Franklyn'' as his feature debut. It depicts a similar dystopia to his 2002 short ''Thespian X''. In October 2006, actor

Ewan McGregor Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British ...

was cast as the lead in the film, which was slated to begin production in summer 2007. However, McGregor broke his leg in a biking accident in February 2007 during the second series of ''

Long Way Round ''Long Way Round'' (''LWR'') is a British television series and book documenting the journey of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman from London to New York City on motorcycles. They travelled eastwards through Europe and Asia, flew to Alaska, ...

'' and was forced to leave the project.Reynolds, Simon
"Gerald McMorrow ('Franklyn')"
"Digital Spy", 27 February 2009. Actors

, and newcomer

were cast in ''Franklyn'' in September 2007. Phillippe was the last to be cast in what McMorrow termed a 'now or never' situation, saying of their first meeting: "You have preconceptions about people... You expect the bleach-blond Californian kid and what you got was an incredibly erudite, brought-up-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks Philadelphia actor. When I met him we did not stop talking all afternoon." McMorrow's visual inspiration for Meanwhile City came from the religious iconography he saw in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

shopping malls. He later explained: "The idea was that if you're going to have a capital city based on religion, you've got somewhere like

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and send somewhere like that three miles into the sky... Part of Preest's delirium and fantasies are based on the religion surrounding him and comics he read and films he saw. He sort of pieces together a jigsaw of his own delusions." Preest's mask was primarily influenced by Claude Rains' film of

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

The Invisible Man ''The Invisible Man'' is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. Originally serialized in '' Pearson's Weekly'' in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man to whom the title refers is Griffin, a scientist who has devo ...

''. Preest also bears a resemblance to the character Rorschach in ''

Watchmen ''Watchmen'' is an American comic book maxiseries by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987 before being collected in a single-vo ...

'', not only in terms of clothing but in terms of character. ''Franklyn'' had a budget of £6 million, of which £1 million was provided by the

UK Film Council The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee, owned by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and ...

through its Premiere Fund. Production began on 24 September 2007 in and around

, and was completed by December 2007. Major locations included an East End bar and

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

Naval College, where many of the CGI sequences were shot. McMorrow described his approach, "I used an atypical and off-kilter background, and told a story that wouldn't normally be told. The film was set around some tricky locations but we managed to shoot it." The film entered post-production by April 2008.

Reception

''Franklyn'' opened to mixed reviews, receiving a 57% Fresh rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. Rights to ''Franklyn'' were purchased from sales and financier HanWay Films by Contender Films for the United Kingdom, and Seville Pictures for Canada, with both distributors operating under their parent company Entertainment One. ''Franklyn'' premiered at the 52nd

on 16 October 2008. The film was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on 27 February 2009. Dave Calhoun of '' Time Out'' opined: "Produced by British industry veteran Jeremy Thomas, McMorrow’s admirable if not entirely coherent debut follows the lives of four people in and around London who are attempting to cope with various crises in their lives, from a relationship break-up and the search for a missing son to the psychological after-effects of military service. The film treads a fine line between realism and fantasy, occasionally dipping out of the world as we know it to visit a seductively strange vision of the capital that appears part-futuristic and part-medieval (and which gives the film its name). Riley follows ''

'' by leaning heavily on middle-distance stares and up-turned collars, while Green is a troubled art student with a good line in haute couture, and Philippe is a troubled ex-soldier. The main problem is that by the time this tricksy film finally plays its hand, many viewers may already have been lost at the wayside." Derek Elley of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' thought the premise better suited to a novella rather than a feature film, believing that ''Franklyn'' lacked an emotional payoff. Elley criticized the script for not developing the ideas it introduced and for lacking background on the characters. The critic also considered Phillippe and Riley to be poor casting in their roles, while Green could not present her dual roles dramatically. Jason Solomons of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' reviewed the film, "The visual style is impressive but the storylines are thin and the characters all extremely irritating." Fionnuala Halligan of '' Screen International'' weighed in: "It's unusual in the current film-making climate to see an independent director making such an ambitious debut as Gerald McMorrow's ''Franklyn''. He aims high, visually and conceptually, but a more experienced director would have trouble finding the right tone to pull this intricate plot off. Notices should be at least encouraging: McMorrow has pulled off a very handsome look on a limited budget."

References

External links

* * {{Amg title, 470952 2008 films 2000s crime drama films 2008 fantasy films 2000s science fiction action films 2000s science fiction drama films 2008 independent films 2000s vigilante films British crime drama films British fantasy films British science fiction action films British science fiction drama films British independent films British vigilante films British neo-noir films Films set in London Films shot in London Films produced by Jeremy Thomas Film4 Productions films Alternate timeline films Dystopian films 2008 drama films 2000s English-language films 2000s British films