Home-Video-Release - London Fields Arrives on Digital and Movies Anywhere February 12 and DVD March 12

By Mulder, 06 february 2019

Amber Heard, Jim Sturgess, Theo James, Cara Delevingne and Billy Bob Thornton Star in the Seductive and Suspenseful Thriller mber Heard leads an all-star cast in this dark, suspenseful thriller based on Martin Amis' best-selling novel. Clairvoyant femme fatale Nicola Six (Heard) has a premonition about her impending murder. Yet rather than try to save herself, she engages in the elaborate seduction of three men, one of whom she knows will be her murderer. One, an American author with a fatal illness (Billy Bob Thornton), decides her story will form the basis of his final novel. The tension builds to a feverish climax in this noir-tinted story of desire and self-destruction.

First published in 1989, Martin Amis’ London Fields, is set in 1999; it’s a slightly futuristic story that isn’t set now, but takes place in the not-too-distant future. The New York Times called London Fields "a virtuoso depiction of a wild and lustful society." Though nearly two decades old, London Fields remains one of the most acclaimed, honored, and controversial British novels of the 20th century. Like most of Amis’ work, London Fields depicts the excesses of Western civilization, creating a satiric acid-tinged view of a heedless, self-destructive society inhabited by equally heedless, self-destructive people—a world that teeters on the brink of collapse. Though classified as a “black comedy,” and laced with enough dark humor, sex, violence, and neo-noir plot twists to fill a shelf full of pulp-fiction page-turners, London Fields is also unmistakably a serious novel-of-ideas. Like all serious literature, London Fields exposes who we are, how we live, and where we are headed.

Like many literary novels, London Fields had a long and circuitous journey getting to the screen. Over the years many filmmaking teams saw the obvious appeal in its premise. After all, there’s something undeniably tantalizing about a murder mystery in which the murder hasn’t taken place yet, just as there is something suspenseful about a story in which every character—indeed, the entire society—has a rendezvous with death. However, there are other qualities to London Fields that resisted easy adaptation. For instance, there is the extreme darkness of the story—Sam is dying, Nicola will be murdered, and there is the looming threat of an earth shattering event — “The Crisis.” The metafictional aspect of Amis novel—meaning that it’s not simply a book about a man writing a book, it’s a book about a man writing a book about a man writing a book—makes London Fields the ultimate literary game, but again, made it hard to adapt for the screen. It is one of those beloved novels, like the defiantly non-realistic or “magic realist” works by such authors as Bulgakov, Nabokov, Garcia Marquez, or Terry Sothern, that seem destined to stay on the printed page. That is until Producer Chris Hanley took on the project. Hanley has experience adapting what others would call difficult projects and turning them into films. With the right collaborators, Hanley has boldly brought Amis’ London Fields to the screen.

There are challenges associated with adapting any novel into a film; however, London Fields with its subplots, intricacies, and metafictional aspect proved especially demanding. While Martin Amis’ ideas and dialogue have been faithfully preserved, the universe he created in London Fields has heretofore only existed in the imagination.
To bring the universe to life, Producer Chris Hanley entrusted the directorial reigns of London Fields to Mathew Cullen, a world renowned creator of some of the most widely-seen music videos in the last decade. A master at creating fully fleshed out worlds in four minutes or less, Cullen broke London Fields down into a series of stunning set pieces that bring Amis’ world to life in a vivid, visceral way.

London Fields showcases a mind-blowing blend of real locations and London landmarks along with elaborate studio sets and computer-generated vistas. Cullen creates a mélange of architectural styles—past, present, and future—in which art deco is juxtaposed with modern minimalism and posh penthouses and nightclubs are jarringly matched with crumbling council flats and backwater pubs. While Big Ben towers above the city, the sky above is a fiery red, as if the world is about to go up in flames. On the margins of the screen, we see hints of quasi-military activity implying that riots or a revolution are about to occur, which is consistent with the crisis Amis repeatedly mentions but does not name in London Fields. The clothing worn by the cast of London Fields was just as important as the setting in creating the right atmosphere. For that task, Cullen collaborated with costume designer Susie Coulthard. In London Fields, Jim Sturgess (Keith Talent) is the quintessence of sleaze, with slick-backed hair and a low-rent rock-n-roll wardrobe comprised of tight fitting skins and glitzy metallics. Conversely, Theo James (Guy Clinch) is the epitome of propriety and prosperity, sporting a wardrobe of bespoke suits, all of which look exactly the same or, for his at-home look, an Etro cashmere cardigan and custom slippers. Most impressive is Amber Heard’s incarnation of Nicola Six, the woman of many faces and as many personalities. Often attired in white (for her “virginal” persona) or black (for her “femme fatale” moments), there is always a pop of bright red, whether it be shoes, a rose, or lipstick.

Playing on the contrasting architectural styles of the settings, Heard is outfitted in a variety of couture garments, both vintage and straight-off-the runway. In addition to Versace, Heard’s wardrobe includes outfits by top-tier designers like Dolce and Gabbana, Dior, Burberry, and Stella McCartney. Arguably, Heard’s most memorable costume is from her death scene. Walking down a dark alley in the middle of the night, the sky overhead awash with fireworks, she wears a diaphanous white slip dress. As she approaches a car, driven by her killer, its headlights shine through her barely-there dress, making Heard look both voluptuous and vulnerable. It is the perfect dress for Nicola’s rendezvous with death.

London Fields DVD Disc Specification
Street Date: March 12, 2019
Screen Format: Widescreen 2.39:1
Audio:DVD English Dolby Digital 5.1
Total Run Time: 108 minutes
Rating: R
Closed Captioned: Yes

Synopsis :
Clairvoyant femme fatale Nicola Six has been living with a dark premonition of her impending death by murder. She begins a tangled love affair with three uniquely different men: one of whom she knows will be her murderer.

London Fields
Directed by Mathew Cullen
Produced by Chris Hanley, Jordan Gertner, Geyer Kosinski
Screenplay by Roberta Hanley, Martin Amis
Based on London Fields by Martin Amis
Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Amber Heard, Jim Sturgess, Theo James, Jason Isaacs, Cara Delevingne, Obi Abili, Jaimie Alexander
Music by Toydrum, Benson Taylor, Adam Barber
Cinematography : Guillermo Navarro
Edited by Douglas Crise, Joe Plenys, Jamie Trevill, St. John O'Rorke
Production company : Hero Entertainment, PicturePro LLC, Gap Financing, Muse Productions, Media Talent Group, Mirada Studios, Demarest Films, Lipsync Productions, Head Gear Films, Blazepoint Limited, Curiously Bright Entertainment, Periscope Entertainment, Arrival Entertainment, Vedette Finance, Living The Dream Films
Distributed by GVN Releasing
Release date : 20 September 2018 (Russia), 26 October 2018 (United States)
Running time : 118 minutes