Kettering director's dreams come true as film up for prestigious award

A low-budget movie directed by a Kettering man has made it to the final of the National Film Awards.

Lucas and Albert will challenge blockbusters including Bafta-winning 1917 and Fighting with my Family for the title of 'Best Feature Film' at the prestigious event in London on March 20.

The film, which only went live on Amazon Prime on Saturday (February 22), is directed by Darren S. Cook, who lives in the Brambleside area of Kettering.

It's his first feature movie and when he found out it was nominated he thought it was a prank.

Darren, 49, said: "It's insane. Sam Mendes (the director of 1917) is one of my heroes and now I'm in the same category rubbing shoulders with the stars.

"When we got an email through telling us we were nominated we thought it was a really nasty prank.

"It's still not really sunk in and doesn't feel real."

Lucas and Albert follows two ageing henchmen, played by AG. Longhurst and James Osborne, who are hired to clean up a bank heist that’s gone wrong.

It stars some big TV names including John Altman, best known as Nasty Nick in Eastenders, and actress Kim Taylforth.

Darren and his crew spent three weeks shooting the movie in the Clacton-on-Sea area in 2018.

The film cost a modest £60,000 to produce - compared to title rival 1917's huge $100m budget.

Darren, who won the ‘cream of the crop’ award in 2010 at the Cannes Film Festival, described the film as “a double act with gonads”.

He added: "Now we have been nominated we have been told it's a career changer.

"If we win we will have distributors fighting to have the film."

Lucas and Albert is up against The Corrupted, Rabid, Scarborough, Astronaut, 1917, Sorry We Missed You and Fighting with my Family.

At the glamorous event Darren - who has more than 100 short films under his belt - will be rubbing shoulders with stars such as Keira Knightley, Dev Patel, Renee Zellweger, Taron Egerton, Olivia Colman, Ricky Gervais, Ralph Fiennes, Eddie Redmayne, Idris Elba, Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant and Pierce Brosnan, who are all nominated for awards.

He said: "When you start making films this is what you dream of."

Lucas and Albert was screened at a red carpet event at the Prince Charles Cinema in London's West End in September, which Darren described as an "emotional" evening.

He is trying to get a screening at the Derngate in Northampton and at the Savoy Cinema in Corby.

Darren is hoping to start pre-production of his next film 'Skorned' in the spring, a supernatural revenge thriller written by Neil Baker.

He then hopes to start shooting Babysitters - the play of which the idea of the Lucas and Albert film came from.