The Big Pitch :: Hey there, We're excited to announce the first 2 cast who have beamed up to the mothership: Nick Mohammed will play David Gomez-Goldman and Arnab Chandra will play his colleague 'Arnab' (to read more about their characters in the film, please scrol... View page for full story

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The Brightness

It’s December 20th 2012 and according to the ancient Mayans the world is about to end. And in Britain the apocalypse seems nigh: every foreign athlete, dignitary and tourist claimed Asylum after the Olympics; all meat has been banned following cow flu and the leaders of the 12 world religions have gone missing in Scotland. When our hero, eternal optimist David Gomez Goldman, is summoned to a high security Asylum centre little does he know that he will become the world's only hope of survival.

Exciting Casting News!

Posted 21/11/2008 at 12:23 by Gary | View all posts

Hey there,

We're excited to announce the first 2 cast who have beamed up to the mothership: Nick Mohammed will play David Gomez-Goldman and Arnab Chandra will play his colleague 'Arnab' (to read more about their characters in the film, please scroll down to the bottom of our page). Both are from the original cast of "Splitting Cells", the comedy horror I made for the BBC last year which inspired 'The Brightness' and the 2 parts were created specifically for them so I'm delighted they'll be coming back to play, only this time as the movie's central double act.

Both were outstanding improvisers on "Splitting Cells" which is again vital as the full cast and I will, were we to win this competition, spend the first 4 weeks improvising the existing script. I've always wanted to be the mike leigh of comedy horror as I've found the process of devising with writer-performers brings a more authentic, idiosyncratic, visionary voice to the characters.

Both Nick and Arnab have also made names for themselves on the stand-up circuit (Arnab's currently supporting Simon Amstell on his national tour) and in numerous roles on television. They both also come from a rich mix of cultural heritages which is vital for The Brightness as the only people who survive the apocalyptic ending are those without white skins (sorry to give away the ending but there's a twist don't you worry).

On a separate note, 2 years ago I made a conscious decision to stop reading newspapers and watching the news on television. Almost instantly my optimism, faith and joy in life returned. It appears the sole purpose of news reports is to engender fear, hopelessness and helplessness in the mass populaces of the world in order to make them easier to control and more likely to consume. Last night I picked up a copy of the Independent for the first time in 25 months. Over 2 hours I read 53 articles designed solely to terrify or depress me.

It seems the artificial light of tv news has replaced the campfire our ancestors sat round to share news on the day's events.

Which got me thinking that if you imagine every national newspaper is a person sitting round a campfire telling the stories in its pages then you'd pretty soon be thinking 'what the fuck am I doing listening to these whinging, depressing bastards - I'm outta here!'

And that is why The Brightness is partly about how Television News will eventually lead to our civilization's annihilation.

Look out for further casting announcements in the next week.

Love,

Gary

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