AMC to premiere HandMade Films documentary
Details
Michelle Clancy
| 08 March 2019

AMC announced today that it will premiere An Accidental Studio, a documentary that charts the creation of the British film studio known as HandMade Films.

The show will debut 4 May at 9pm exclusively to BT customers in the U.K. Featuring never-before-seen interviews with key players, the documentary captures a moment in film history through the eyes of the filmmakers and actors as well as the man who started it all, former Beatle and music legend George Harrison.

The feature-length documentary is AMC UK’s first original production and will premiere in first window on all AMC channels internationally later this year.

Coming to the rescue of Life of Brian when the money fell out at the last minute, Harrison offered to fund the entire movie, mortgaging his house and his office to do so. As a Monty Python fan, he credited the Pythons’ humour for saving his sanity whilst he was a Beatle. Now it was his turn to pay them back. The film was a massive hit, so successful in fact that they decided to set up a company - HandMade Films.

HandMade went on to make a name in the British film scene by making and releasing maverick films that everyone else had rejected, including The Long Good Friday, Time Bandits, Mona Lisa, A Private Function and Withnail and I.

The documentary features unreleased archive interviews and footage with Harrison, new and exclusive interviews with Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Richard E. Grant and Neil Jordan, and unseen interviews with Bob Hoskins. Additional interviews in the film include Bruce Robinson, Ray Cooper, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, Cathy Tyson, Brenda Vaccaro, A Martinez, Richard Loncraine and Jonathan Lynn.

“HandMade Films created some of Britain’s most iconic films and gave a global platform to artists who continue to have a strong impact on popular culture today,” said executive producer Harold Gronenthal, EVP of Programming and Operations at AMC/SundanceTV Global. “This new documentary is AMC UK’s first original production, and we’re excited to partner with BT, Bill & Ben Productions, Propellor Films and DCD Rights to showcase the important legacy of HandMade Films with AMC’s audiences internationally."