We are delighted for our clients Tim John and Roger Spottiswode that ‘A Street Cat Named Bob’ has won Best British Film at this year’s 3rd annual National Film Awards UK. The National Film Academy’s annual awards celebrates the UK’s best films and talent both in front and behind the cameras, and this year’s event, hosted at Porchester Hall in London, was home to a plethora of stars of industry.

The award, voted for by audiences, was hotly contested, and ‘Bob’ beat off competition including ‘Our Kind Of Traitor’, directed by Susanna White and starring Damien Lewis and Alan Skaarsard, and ‘A United Kingdom’, directed by Amma Asante and starring Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo.

Directed by Roger, screenplay by Tim (and Maria Nation), and adapted from James Bowen’s international bestselling novel, ‘A Street Cat Named Bob’ is based on Bowen’s true life experiences on the streets. Produced by Adam Rolston at Shooting Script Films, and financed/exec produced by Prescience, the theatrical release was November 2016, and was greeted by warm reviews and strong box office. The film stars Luke Treadaway, Ruta Gedmintas, Joanne Froggatt, Anthony Head and Bob the Cat as himself. It is now available on DVD.

A film of James Bowen’s best-selling memoir A STREET CAT NAMED BOB scripted by Tim John (Dr Jekyll and Ms Hyde) and directed by Roger Spottiswoode (Tomorrow Never Dies, Turner and Hooch, Midnight Sun) will commence production in October.

A STREET CAT NAMED BOB tells the story of drop-out and busker, James Bowen, who was rescued from drug addiction by his relationship with the stray cat, Bob. James found the lame cat outside his sheltered accommodation and nursed it back to health, then took Bob busking with him. The book spent 76 weeks at the top of the Sunday Times bestseller list.

Adam Rolston is producing the film for Shooting Script Films, with Tim Smith and Paul Brett of Prescience (The King’s Speech, The Guard) on board as executive producers and financiers.

Luke Treadaway and Ruta Gedmintas will star in the lead roles. Luke recently won an Olivier Award for his performance in the stage version of The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night Time and has appeared in the films Clash of the Titans and Attack the Block. Ruta is known for FX series The Strain.

Tim John and Roger Spottiswoode are represented at Blake Friedmann by Conrad Williams.

For more information on the film, see these links:

The Guardian

Screen Daily

Variety