The Grendel Toots

Red Madrell

Paul Barber

Julian Seager

Julia Stringer

Who helped develop and fund the film's budget?

The concept was pitched and selected by Exeter Phoenix Digital Arts to be one of their bursary projects for 2013. During the summer, the filmmakers attended script development sessions there, where the concepts were worked on with other filmmakers on the scheme.

How did the filmmakers come up with the story?

The Grendel Toots began as something different, something small - a simple story about a kid that finds a trumpet on a rubbish tip. It morphed into a monster movie once the filmmakers decided to make a project with real production value and to create something with a more unusual concept. Drawing on influences as diverse as Hitchcock, Dickens and Mike Leigh, writer/director Liam OHara started developing the idea further. The intention with the story was to make something bold, entertaining and uplifting. We worked up a pitch document from a concept we had about kids finding a trumpet on a rubbish tip. In an effort to mix up genres and surprise people we just started throwing out 'what ifs' - as in 'what if an alien found the trumpet', that sort of thing. Grendel came out of need for something more mystical in the film - we were dealing with death and family drama and we felt that to balance that out, a fantastical character would work well. He has roots in old English myth as well, which contrasts nicely with the modern setting and the exploration of what has happened to our country.