17TH SEPTEMBER 2007

HIPPIE HIPPIE SHAKE STARTS PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Working Title Films and Universal Pictures announce that principal photography has commenced on Hippie Hippie Shake.

Directed by Beeban Kidron, the screenplay is adapted by Lee Hall and Bill Nicholson from Richard Neville's book 'Hippie Hippie Shake: The Dreams, The Trips, The Love-Ins, The Screw-Ups: The Sixties.'

The cast will be led by Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins), Sienna Miller (Alfie), Emma Booth (Clubland) and Max Minghella (Art School Confidential). Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Nicky Kentish Barnes are the producers.

Hippie Hippie Shake will take the audience on a psychedelic journey through London in the late '60s and early '70s. Murphy plays Richard Neville, the editor of the notorious satirical magazine Oz, and Miller plays his girlfriend, Louise. In an era of free love and flower power, the film follows their love story as Neville and his friends launch the magazine and find themselves fighting for both the magazine's survival and for the freedom of their generation.

Kidron first drew critical acclaim with her 1990 BAFTA Award-winning television drama for the BBC, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, based on the Jeanette Winterson novel. Her film credits include the highly successful Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Murder, Swept from the Sea, To Wong Foo, Hookers Hustlers Pimps and Their Johns, Used People, Antonia and Jane and Vroom. Most recently, she directed a documentary investigating the life and work of sculptor Antony Gormley.

Joining Kidron to create her vision is director of photography Michael Seresin (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), production designer John Paul Kelly (Enduring Love), Academy Award-winning makeup artist Christine Blundell (Topsy-Turvy), costume designer Verity Hawkes (Snatch) and editor Andrew Hulme (Lucky Number Slevin).

Working Title Films has been co-chaired by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner since 1992. Between them, the pair has produced more than 85 feature films, which have amassed more than $4 billion worldwide. The company's commercial and critical hits include The Interpreter; About a Boy; Notting Hill; Elizabeth; Fargo; Dead Man Walking; Bean; High Fidelity; Johnny English; Billy Elliot; Four Weddings and a Funeral; Bridget Jones's Diary; Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Love Actually; Shaun of the Dead; Pride & Prejudice; Nanny McPhee; United 93; Mr Bean's Holiday; Hot Fuzz; and the recently released Atonement. The company has also stepped into theatre production with the hugely popular Billy Elliot the Musical.