Leicester filmmaker Richard James returns with a follow up to his award-winning film Open Up with a new dark drama made by the team behind his first short.

Foul Play follows a woman named Peggy who investigates the suicide of her husband which draws her to an underground nightclub where she then meets a mysterious stranger. And here she uncovers some dark truths that challenges her view on the world.

Leicester director Richard James has a Masters Degrees in English and Television Scriptwriting and his previous work includes ‘Blow the Man Down’ which was winner of the Gub Neal Producers Script Lab.

Richard explains his feelings towards this exciting new project. "Even before 'Open Up' had been released I had been talking with (cinematographer) Rob Gurney about a possible follow up. Rob was keen to do a neo-noir short and we were both interested in having some live sound and music raising the technical bar”.

“I was also delighted that Lady Viper was free to reprise her role as Vampire Tereni and it was awesome to work with the brilliant Eve Harding as the mysterious Penny. It was also great to have singer-songwriter Mike Riley write and record an original song 'Vampires' for the film."

Alongside Richard, Rob Gurney returns also as producer and director of photography on the project. Based in Leicester as well, Rob is a freelance photographer and videographer and began his career producing a short music / poetry video to promote Carol Leeming MBE’s new book of poetry "The Declamations of Cool Eye".

“Due to the larger cast and crew, the production time was much longer than “Open Up” with principal photography taking place between June and November 2020” , explains Rob.

Joining the technical team is lead actress Eve Harding who made her first film aged 16, gained a BA (Hons) Film Production Degree and has since completed 5 short films of her own.

“Being familiar with Rob’s incredible ability to create the most beautifully crafted images and seeing that he was just as fun as he was professional, as soon as he offered me the role of ‘Peggy’, I couldn’t answer “YES!!” quick enough”, says Eve.

And along with Eve is model and actress Lady Viper who has entertained crowds with her high octane and mesmerising performances and dance shows.

Lady Viper goes on to add, “After the success of ‘Open Up’ and working with such a great cast, crew and team I was exhilarated to hear that a further film was being made in the same universe” as ‘Open Up’. And I was truly delighted to be approached by Rob Gurney and Richard James to see if I would like to once again play the role of Tereni Fairuz”.

In 2022, “Foul Play” was nominated for Best Music (song or score) at the 2022 Midlands Movies Awards for Mike Riley’s original composition “Vampires”

To find out more on the film and its release check out the link here.

We also have the recently released poster for the film (below) and the full short now available on our front page.