Hollywood comes to Hungerford

Directed by and starring one of the town’s own sons, Drew Casson, the feature film is set in Hungerford and draws many of its stars and extras from the town.
The majority of this ‘found footage’ tale of alien invasion was filmed on location in the West Berkshire town.
Wildseed Studios produced the movie for a budget of only £20,000 and last week it received its world premiere at the SCI-FI-LONDON film festival, making Drew Casson the youngest director on record to have their movie shown at the BFI National Film Theatre.
Much of the audience at The Croft had supported the film by appearing as extras, providing locations for sets through to catering and rehearsal space. There were also the families and friends of the predominantly local cast members.
They were thanked by Drew Casson in a short speech before the movie and he made it clear they had made the film possible with their unwavering support.
Among the audience was another famous son of John O’Gaunt Community Technology College, Adam Brown, who plays the dwarf Ori in The Hobbit trilogy, who praised his fellow alumnus’ debut movie, not least the small budget, remarking that the budget for coffee on The Hobbit had probably been more.
Speaking after the screening Drew Casson said: “This has been an amazing week; at the National Film Theatre last week and in my home town today.
"This is my first feature film and I wanted to set it in my home town and many of the cast come from Hungerford and filming here was a great experience and we received nothing but support and encouragement and you only have to look at the long list of acknowledgements to see just how much backing we received, so it was important many of them could see it here tonight.
“Hungerford is being well received by critics and sci-fi bloggers so we are optimistic that it will be seen by a much bigger audience soon – and we’re already talking about the sequel.”
The film is currently being booked at film festivals across the UK and Europe over the summer and is already attracting enquiries from distributors, so could still be destined to appear in a cinema near you one day soon.