A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of bumping into Steve Oram at Rich Fulcher‘s recent show at the Soho Theatre. We had a chat about the projects that he’s working on at the moment, then a few beers were sunk (well, it was nearly Christmas). The next day our recollection of the projects that Steve had mentioned was so extraordinary we assumed that the beers had got the better of us, and vowed to find out what he was really working on when we next spoke.

Today, comedy site Chortle has published the details of  Steve’s latest projects, and it would appear that they actually are as extraordinary as we’d remembered them. Are you ready?

Aaaaaaaah! (the number of a’s in the title is important) is a film in which there’s no spoken dialogue, but everyone communicates like monkeys. As the director of the film, Steve has promised “lots of inappropriate sex and violence.”

It will be a low-budget, self-financed venture, and stars Steve himself, Julian Barratt, Tom Meeten, Green Wing’s Julian Rhind-Tutt and Hannah Hoekstra, star of Hemel, the sexually explicit Dutch arthouse movie. Shooting for Aaaaaaaah! begins in April and will be produced by Sightseers‘ Andy Stark.

Oram and Meeten will play the part of marauding characters who encroach into hostile territory, while Barratt is “the ex-alpha male who’s been deposed and has been living in the garden.”

Steve is also developing another self-penned film, Sweet Shadow, which is about “a deluded dreamer from the Midlands who moves to London and finds it hard to fit in at this shit job he does…so he starts following people to make friends. He goes a bit wrong in the head. He has these fantasies.” There may also be a role for Julian in this film.

If that wasn’t quite enough, Steve will be joining the cast of the horror film, Altar, which has just begun shooting; and later this year he will appear alongside the awesome Olivia Colman in a one-off drama for BBC One.

We’re also delighted to learn that Oram and Meeten will be hosting more of their wonderful Club Fantastico comedy nights at the Soho Theatre in the Spring/Summer, with plans to perform a run of five nights with a different guest slot each night. Expect a few familiar TVO faces at those.

So, as you can see – there’s plenty of exciting (if slightly bonkers) Oram-based stuff happening! As and when we hear any more about these projects, we’ll be sure to let you know.

And the next time Steve tells us something that sounds beyond bizarre, we’ll believe him.

To read the original article in full, which includes additional information about the projects, head on over to Chortle.