Entertainment Gab

Kill List, Sightseers, High-Rise and Free Fire director Ben Wheatley’s mysterious seventh feature, Happy New Year, Colin Burstead, which was shot under-the-radar in the UK at the beginning of the year, will be released in partnership with BBC Films, BBC Comedy and BBC Two, reports ScreenDaily.

Following its world premiere in Competition at the BFI London Film Festival in October, it will screen around the UK in a limited run of Q&A sessions with Wheatley and the cast before being broadcast on BBC Two over the Christmas holiday. The BBC’s SVoD service, BBC iPlayer, will then streaming the film for 12 months.

Colin Burstead centers around the titular man (played by Neil Maskell), who hires a lavish country manor for his extended family to celebrate New Year. Unfortunately for Colin, his position of power in the family is under serious threat from the arrival of his estranged brother David.

Produced by Andy Starke at Rook Films, the ensemble cast features Richard Glover, Peter Ferdinando, Neil Maskell, Mark Monero and Sam Riley along with Asim Chaudhry, Joe Cole, Charles Dance, Alexandra Maria Lara, Doon Mackichan, Sinead Matthews, Bill Paterson and Hayley Squires.

“Funny, acute and very human, it’s a film about families at their worst and best, and a perfect bit of alternative Christmas television,” said Rose Garnett, head of BBC Films.