UK PREMIERE ARRIVES IN LONDON ON MONDAY 4th JUNE 2018

HEADING TO DVD & DIGITAL HD AND SELECTED UK CINEMAS FROM FRIDAY 8th JUNE

Prepare for palpitating, edge-of-your-seat suspense as Salt Film Releasing presents psychological thriller and British feature, Welcome To Curiosity, arriving in selected UK cinemas and heading to DVD and Digital HD across the UK and Ireland from Friday 8th June.

With a stellar ensemble cast, the British indie film was shot in Cornwall and set in the fictional English town of Curiosity. It stars Richard Blackwood (Eastenders, Outside Bet, The Guvnors), Stephen Marcus (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), Amrita Acharia (Game of Thrones, The Good Karma Hospital), Cristian Solimeno (Rush, Love, Footballer’s Wives), Jack Ashton (Call the Midwife, Endeavour, Four Seasons) and Kacey Clarke (The Inbetweeners, Blood Orange).

Welcome To Curiosity explores four parallel storylines with the fates of five key characters unwittingly and sometimes fatally intertwined; a heist gone wrong, a serial killer on the rampage, a lunatic missing from the asylum, a vulnerable girl mixed up with a predatory man and a salesman with a vivid imagination. All with just one thing in common; an insatiable curiosity which may ultimately cost them their lives.

The story begins with the news that psychotic mass-murderer, Lee Hunting, has escaped from a psychatric unit. DS Binon is assigned to track the killer down and sets about a full scale man-hunt.

Arch-nemesis Fordy (Richard Blackwood) and Dexter (Cristian Solimeno) are commissioned by Dexter’s ex-father-in-law to carry out an armed robbery. Having pulled the heist off successfully, Fordy and his gang double-cross Dexter and a firefight ensues injuring Dexter’s right hand man, Al (Eke Chukwu). Dexter and Al escape with the £6 million haul and hide out on a rural farm, taking its owners Martine (Kacey Clarke) and her brother Thomas (Christopher Rithin) hostage. Events soon take a turn for the worse and the unlikely group go on the run as Dexter tries to flee the country.

Zoe (Amrita Acharia) is a young runaway who meets the dangerous and violent Sean (Jack Ashton) at a roadside cafe. The deadly duo embark upon a journey of lust and vengence with tragic consequences.

Elliott (Finn Corney) is young newspaper boy with an inquisitive mind. With the news of a serial killer on the loose in his rural village, Elliott becomes convinced the killer is local gardener, Stubbs (Brian Croucher) and sets out to investigate. But as the net closes in on the killer, will Elliott find out the truth and live to tell the tale?

Struggling beer salesman Tim (Gary Grant) is frustrated and disillusioned by life, which takes him on the road six days a week. He’s also deeply resentful of his boss. By chance, he picks up a hitchhiker who takes him on a wild and precarious journey through the seedier side of life. Events take a surreal and sinister turn for the worse and Tim soon realises his life is changed forever.

Directed by Ben Pickering (The Smoke), with screenplay by Darren Ripley (The Smoke, The Gatekeeper), Welcome To Curiosity is produced by Shooting Tiger Pictures and Taffy Boy Films. Cinematography is by Bruce Melhuish (The Glass Man, I Made This For You) with production design by Hannah Howell. Award-winning music composers, Luke Corradine and Stewart Dugdale are on board, producing a captivating original music score.

Director, Ben Pickering, said: “The film was originally written to be set in the rural United States but various reasons filming there was impractical for us. One of the challenges of bringing it to life on this side of the Atlantic was preserving that quirkiness. Rather than setting it in a town we all know, we created this fictional town of Curiosity where everything just isn’t quite right.”

“We considered shooting the film in Wales (where I grew up) and in secluded rural parts of Hertfordshire, even finding locations in both. And then one day while out with my kids, we stumbled across this vintage American diner called Mimi’s, parked up in an industrial estate near St Austell in Cornwall. It was so completely out of place, I took it as a sign.”

“So we moved the production down to Cornwall, using local cast and crew wherever we could and shipping in everything else. For a low-budget film seeking to punch above its weight, with aerial sequences and firefights, it was an enormous logistical challenge.”

Star, Richard Blackwood, who plays the villain Fordy, added: “We shot the movie before I started EastEnders and it’s coming out just after I’ve finished, which is great. As happens a lot with low-budget British movies, it can take a long time to hit the screens, there so much involved in making these things happen that people don’t see.”

“It’s the closest thing to Pulp Fiction because it’s an amalgamation of different stories intertwining.”

“My character Fordy is basically everyone’s nightmare. He’s borderline psychopathic and will take almost anyone out who gets in his way. But he does it with humour and a smile.”

Welcome To Curiosity hit the headlines in 2014 as the world’s first ever equity-based crowdfunded film through online investor platform, Seedrs.com. Many independently produced films have since gone on to use this equity-based model, which enables investors to own a stake in the film and its profits. Welcome To Curiosity was the first in the world to pioneer this route.

Before landing in the UK, Welcome To Curiosity will also be released in selected cinemas across North America on Friday 25 May. The UK premiere will take place in London’s Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square on Monday 4 June, attended by cast and crew who will participate in a Q&A following the screening.

-­‐ENDS-­‐

FILM INFO:

Running time: 94 mins approx.

BBFC Cert 15

Watch the trailer: http://www.vimeo.com/welcometocuriosity7

For more information, media interviews or images please contact:

Siobhan Connor at Connor PR on 07966 177025 or email siobhan@connorpr.com

Hayley Hamburg at Connor PR on 07799 714727 or email hayley@connorpr.com

Editors notes:

About Salt Film Releasing

Salt Film Releasing is an all rights UK distributor. Part of the Tiger Lane Group of companies (whose subsidiaries include Shooting Tiger Pictures and Taffy Boy Films), it was established in 2017 to fill a gap in the distribution market for low-budget (less than £500,000 budget) UK British films struggling to gain distribution. WELCOME TO CURIOSITY is Salt’s first UK release, hitting UK cinema screens, DVD shelves and VOD platforms in June 2018. It will be followed by 10-12 releases per year, drawn from the best of the 60% of British films made for under £500,000 each year but which struggle to secure distribution.

About Shooting Tiger Pictures

Shooting Tiger Pictures is a London-based film and television production company run by Welsh film producer-director Ben Pickering. It develops low-to-medium budget British films for the domestic and international market as well as television projects in collaboration with Taffy Boy Films and others. It also offers production services through its parent company Jericho Lane. Shooting Tiger’s first feature, WELCOME TO CURIOSITY, will be released in selected cinemas, on DVD and on VOD in the UK, US and Canada in June 2018.

About Taffy Boy Films

Taffy Boy Films is a Wales-based film and television production company. Headed by writer-director Darren Ripley (writer of UK features THE SMOKE and WELCOME TO CURIOSITY), it develops film and television projects often with a crime theme. Following the release of WELCOME TO CURIOSITY in June 2018 in the UK, US and Canada, it will shortly begin production of the comedy TAFF’S GOLD directed by Ripley and produced by Shooting Tiger Pictures’ Ben Pickering.

Welcome To Curiosity, Ben Pickering, Film, Connor PR, Connor PR and film PR, Connor PR and premiere PR, Richard Blackwood (Eastenders, Outside Bet, The Guvnors), Stephen Marcus (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), Amrita Acharia (Game of Thrones, The Good Karma Hospital), Cristian Solimeno (Rush, Love, Footballer’s Wives), Jack Ashton (Call the Midwife, Endeavour, Four Seasons) and Kacey Clarke (The Inbetweeners, Blood Orange).