The Velvet Onion is excited to be able to confirm that Alice Lowe and Steve Oram are to make a feature film.

Some time ago, the duo hooked up with our very own Paul King to make a short pilot film called The Sightseers, in which Lowe & Oram played a pair of slightly deranged caravan-dwelling nerds with somewhat dubious social activities.  The pilot was available on YouTube for some time, before being pulled down last year.

The reason for this, is that cult tv and movie director Edgar Wright, best known as the director of Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz [the latter of which featured Alice] – had his sights set on The Sightseers, and began acting as their executive producer on a movie version of the project.  Movies, as we’re sure most of you realise, take a very long time to finalise and green-light, so this one has been quietly bubbling away for some time now – and now TVO can finally confirm the film is looking 99.9% likely to begin shooting very soon.

Speaking to IndieWire this weekend at the Empire Big Screen Event, its director Ben Wheatley confirmed he was signed on to the project, with filming due to begin in six weeks time.  Wheatley himself is no stranger to the realm of TVO – he directed big budget BBC3 sitcom The Wrong Door [featuring Matt Berry and Gareth Tunley], as well as writing a number of its sketches, and was a writer on Time Trumpet [which featured Matt Holness and Richard Ayoade].  He also directed the 2009 mockumentary Steve Coogan: The Inside Story featuring our very own Julia Davis!

The film is to be funded by Film4 and production company BigTalk – who have made all of Wright’s films including Joe Cornish’ recent hit Attack The Block, which he also executive-produced, so the signs are there to suggest this will be one of the must-see movies of 2012.  The original Sightseers pilot was a firm favourite of The Velvet Onion – indeed you may have seen us touting it around in our early days – and our love for Alice Lowe & Steve Oram knows no bounds: both are incredible performers and writers who deserve this project wholeheartedly.  We sincerely wish them, Ben Wheatley and the rest of the cast & crew the very best with the shoot, and hope to bring you more news from the realm of The Sightseers very soon…