Kinky Boots Film

[barney15c]

Anybody heard about the New film out "Kinky Boots" film that goes on release in October. Apparently its based on the Real Life "Kinky Boot Factory" in Northamptonshire that had to make High heel Fetish shoes to stay in business when the market for conventional footwear dropped. There was a program made called "Trouble at the Top" by the BBC a few years ago too. Basic plot line: "In Kinky Boots, lead character Charlie discovers that the market is, sadly, going out of the English shoe business and, on meeting a transvestite, discovers that kinky boots may be the way forward in his bid to rescue the family's ailing company." Wonder if it wll be any good - didnt recognise any of the cast.

[taliheels]

yes ive heard of the film a few weeks ago - and i remember watching the bbc programme aswell - very good it was too

[HeelD]

I grinned when I saw the trailer for this at the cinema the other week. Looks like a great film! Me and my girlfriend can't wait to see this.

[Fogane]

I saw an advert on TV for it just earlier, first I'd heard of it. I'm definately looking forward to watching it. The real story of the Kinky Boot Factory is a good one, the Trouble at the Top episode was great. I visited the shop last year and met The Kinky Boot Guy, Steve Pateman, a truely lovely bloke. He kindly gave me a discount as I was spending a bit at the time

[Shafted]

Sounds like a great movie, too bad it's not playing here in the US.

[Thighboots2]

Barney; Thanks for the tipoff. Downloaded the trailer and I can see this will be a very funny film. From the makers of Calendar Girls, so it will be good British humor. I expect it will cross the "pond", and it does make a change for us Brits to get something first TB2

[Dr. Shoe]

See if you can guess who made all the boots etc. for the film?

[Heelson]

I bet preview night is going to be a whole lot of fun ... click, click, click

[Heelson]

Now there's Rocky Horror AND Kinky Boots

[onyourtoes]

trailer

[Shafted]

trailer

Thanks, I'm downloading it now for later viewing.

[Dawn HH]

DARN!!! Msn-tv doesn't support that file and I can't open it. It sure does sound like a good movie. Sure hope that it does cross the pond sometime. Cheers--- Dawn HH

[Bubba136]

I can't open it either and I thought my computer would open just about every kind of film program. But, this I can't open.

[Dawn HH]

Bubba136:-) I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that couldn't open that file. So, I know that it is not just me having that problem. Cheers--- Dawn HH

[BobHH]

It's an Apple Quicktime format, I think. And I removed Quicktime from my computer this afternoon because I couldn't stop it from taking over everything shown through Internet Explorer, even though it wasn't supposed to.

[Thighboots2]

Yup, it is the Apple Quicktime format if you wish to see it. Wonderful thing - standards, there is just so many of them!! TB2

[Shafted]

Thanks, I'm downloading it now for later viewing.

Just had a chance to view this trailer. I want to see this movie, it looks like a real screech. Thanks onyourtoes.

[chris100575]

It does look promising! The trailer works perfectly with Linux, but then many things do. Chris

[Shafted]

Did some checking and it looks like they will be releasing it on this side of the pond. It has already recieved a PG-13 rating from the MPAA. Miramax regularly distributes films into the mainstream here. My boss at the movie theatre and myself as well as other friends plan to make a night of it when it gets here. Hmm, maybe I should wear my kinky boots to the show (the ones in my avatar.

[Dawn HH]

I still can't bring up the trailer...DRATS!!! Cheers--- Dawn HH

[rxrenesis]

Just watched the trailer. Mozilla had no problem with it. I hope it does cross the pond and of course I'd have to get some correct boots for the viewing. Most likely have to travel to NYC to see the movie though.

[barney15c]

See if you can guess who made all the boots etc. for the film?

Taking a wild stab in the dark here....

Steve Pateman's Divine (Of whom the film is based on) ?

Little Shoe Box?

BTW I hope this reaches the cult status of Rocky Horror - another reason to wear boots / high heels out in public

[Bubba136]

Ok, I switch to Mozella browser from my usual IE2 and finally watched the trailer. First impression is that the trailer is similar to the BBC television report that was done on this guy a couple of years ago. And, I also remember that this report was discussed at length here on this forum....to the point that one of our members visited the factory as a possible sitet for a visit on one of U.K.'s heel meets. If I also remember correctly, the person making the visit, reported back here on how his visit went. All that said, however, I can't wait to see the complete movie.

[Dawn HH]

I'm hopeful that I can catch the movie somewhere in my area if possible. I have never been able to see the Rocky Horror movie either. Cheers--- Dawn HH

[Dr. Shoe]

Little Shoe Box?

Bingo! Go to the top of the class!

[barney15c]

Here is a little background Story I found about the film on the Northamptontoday.com website.

Interesting Read

"No business like shoe business

Blockbuster movie The Full Monty made Sheffield famous for male strippers. Now Kinky Boots looks like making Northamptonshire famous for erotic footwear.

The county follows towns that have been immortalised in a new genre of films that showcases Britain's homegrown talent, stories and locations.

The producers behind 2003's Calendar Girls have turned their attention to the county and its traditional industry, that has been dying on its feet.

Kinky Boots – which recently premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival and to London's film critics – tells the story of a family-owned shoe factory that reinvents itself to save itself.

The new Brit-flick was filmed on location in Northampton, at shoemaker Tricker's & Co, in St Michael's Road, The Mounts, for four weeks at the end of last year.

Kinky Boots is based on the true story of Steve Pateman, who turned his family's ailing traditional shoe factory in Earls Barton into one of the country's leading erotic footwear suppliers.

Film production company Harbour Pictures bought the rights to the story in 2001 and has spent the last four years writing, planning, casting and shooting the movie, which is released in UK cinemas on October 7.

Kinky Boots is a very Northam-ptonshire film. Rather than just using the Tricker's factory and Northampton as a location, it is about the town, its people and the boot and shoe industry that has such a rich and long history here.

Tricker's, which is celebrating its 175th anniversary, was shut down for a month in December last year, during filming and half the workforce acted as extras.

As well as filming in the working factory, with actors using real equipment, the crew was shooting out and about in Northampton.

The area around All Saints and The Mounts are some of the places featured, while many people will recognise their streets, houses and alleyways.

Harbour Pictures producer Nick Barton said: "We liked the original idea after seeing a documentary about Steve Pateman and went up to the factory. It was really interesting; they were making men's and women's shoes and then we saw these red leather boots coming round the carousel.

"Northampton and five or six surrounding villages are the centre of men's shoe-making in Britain, so we always knew Kinky Boots would be centred here. But we didn't know whether we would film in Northampton because of problems of finding a factory.

"We looked at building our own shoe factory, but that was too expensive, or using an empty warehouse. But then we realised we'd have to fully equip it. In the end, we persuaded Tricker's to close down for four weeks."

Kinky Boots stars Joel Edgerton, who played Owen Lars in Star Wars, as shoe factory heir Charlie Price, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, from Love Actually, as transvestite Simon/Lola.

The film is the second from Harbour Pictures after Calendar Girls, which was based on the true story of Women's Institute members who shocked the WI by making a nude calendar.

Calendar Girls took more than £20 million at the UK box office and went on to take in excess of $30 million at American cinemas.

Kinky Boots has been touted as bigger than Calendar Girls.

Suzanne Mackie, another Harbour Pictures producer, said: "We started this in 1999, when we had just started the development for Calendar Girls. I was really conscious that we had two true stories, both British, both potentially parochial, charming and with a slick of British eccentricity. Kinky Boots could have stayed as exactly that, but it would not have reached the same international market.

"From the start, we knew it would need something more. We had the ambition that Kinky Boots would be more than Calendar Girls and had the potential to be a really special film. It is an intimate and raw story, like a lavish Baz Lurhmann fairytale, but, hopefully, also funny."

She added: "It's about two unlikely worlds that come together: Soho and slightly-conservative middle England."

Much is made of the contrast between the factories and terraces of provincial Northampton and cool, hedonistic Soho.

One scene throws up a contradiction that will baffle locals. It is set in a quaint, cobbled square boasting a Continental restaurant, with tables outside. A flower seller offers his wares and a Chronicle & Echo vendor is doing a roaring trade from his stall.

Simon, in his male clothing, struts up to Charlie and, with a flourish of arms, declares loudly: "Darling, I have found a little corner of Soho in Northampton!"

Townsfolk may wonder why they haven't come across this lovely plaza, but Suzanne Mackie laughed as she confessed: "That's Hoxton Square in London! We could not find a square in Northampton that we could use."

Never mind. Next month, Northampton will make it to the silver screen for the world to enjoy."

[barney15c]

Another Article in ICWales.com about actor Chiwetel Ejifor one of the actors in Kinky Boots who plays TV Lola

"New star 'Chewy' gets kinky

He’s the name to watch at the moment with no less than three big movies out in the next few weeks – but you still wouldn’t want to be in Chiwetel Ejiofor’s shoes right now.

For a start, they’re four inches high with a steel heel, bright, shiny leather and thigh length – to boot.

Not that the dashing young star has something he wants to tell us – off screen he does favour a more down to earth, masculine shoe. But on screen, in his latest role as Lola, a statuesque transvestite, he likes nothing more than donning a pair of rather fetching kinky boots.

And though he gives a towering performance, in the new film called Kinky Boots, opening on Friday October 7, it’s clear Chiwetel suffered for his art.

“Those boots were painful,” he says with a wince.

But that was just the start of it. The transformation from Chiwetel to Lola isn’t one the obliging star would like to repeat in a hurry.

“I was into wardrobe for the first hour and a half which was all tights and the layers and the hiding bits and pieces – the idea of which I found really interesting,” he laughs sheepishly.

“I also had to have my chest and body hair shaved, wear fake nails and face pulls which are basically bits of tape attached to a very strong thread that’s glued all around the edge of my face and then pulled to yank the face back.

“Then I was back for the wigs and the boots and the agony of the corsets and mind numbing pain of clip-on earrings,” he adds with a dramatic flourish.

So now he knows what it feels like to be a girl, it does beg the question why he would want to? After all, with his athletically muscular physique the 28-year-old star wouldn’t seem the obvious candidate to play a Soho drag queen.

“The opportunity to play a character like that is so rare,” he explains. “I thought the script was fun and interesting and the character really spoke to me - this conflicted person who’s also sweet and determined, as well as sassy and sexy.”

In fact, Chiwetel was so eager to get the part of Lola he even took his own wig to the audition and ended up bearing a striking resemblance to a top supermodel, apparently.

“The casting people told me I looked like Naomi Campbell – with a difference,” he laughs. “The first time I put on that wig I thought, ‘This is going to be a very enjoyable part’.”

Kinky Boots is based on the true story of a Northampton shoe manufacturer who saves the ailing family business by creating a brand new line of erotic boots for men, following a chance encounter with sassy cabaret star Lola (Chiwetel) in London.

The role meant that as well as donning his kinky boots Chiwetel also had to learn how to become a fully-fledged drag artist, something he quickly realised he had a flair for.

“I was itching to get to Soho,” he grins. “That’s where Lola comes alive and it’s her turf. It was a chance for me to let her loose. The only other time I’ve sung is in a musical, which was fantastic but my notes were a little flat. However with this I seemed to develop a strong cabaret style. The songs were great fun to record and sing along to.

“There’s a scene where I have to walk onto the stage in a club with all the extras who were transvestites and all in drag. It was just an amazing experience and the crowd erupted into applause when ’Lola’ walked on.”

It’s a testament to Chiwetel’s versatility that he makes for a very credible Lola. The busy actor is also opening in two other films which couldn’t be more different. Serenity, also opening on Friday October 7, is a sci-fi romp from writer Joss Whedon, who also penned Buffy The Vampire Slayer. In it Chiwetel plays The Operative, a space baddie. He plays another kind of villain in the revenge thriller, Four Brothers, which opens on Friday September 30.

“That’s the great thing about being an actor you get to play very different characters in very different circumstances,” says Chiwetel with some understatement.

Born in south London to Nigerian parents, Chiwetel has had something of a career spurt in the past couple of years. He made his big screen debut eight years ago in Stephen Spielberg’s Amistad. But it was his award-winning role in the 2002 movie Dirty Pretty Things that propelled him into the big league.

Since then top directors have clamoured to work with him, including Richard Curtis for Love Actually, Spike Lee for the recent She Hates Me and Woody Allen’s Melinda And Melinda.

“I feel very fortunate working with those specific film-makers,” he says.

“The size of a part is not a primary consideration for me. I just enjoy working with people that I want to work with on scripts that I like.”

The star, who now divides his time between London and LA, is also a highly respected stage actor, with acclaimed performances in Blue/Orange and Romeo And Juliet. Even though he’s now in big demand in Hollywood, he admits he’d love to tread the West End boards again.

“It’s always just a matter of time before I want to get back on stage,” he smiles. “I think that time is fast approaching.”

And who knows he might just decide to tread them in something a little more kinky, now that he’s learned to walk in high heels.

“I don’t want to be seen as a serious young actor,” he smiles. “I’m happy to have a go at anything. And I don’t want to cut corners. The whole point of doing Lola is that you want to completely invest your time and energy in the character, so when you’ve finished you feel you did as much and got as much out of it as you possibly could.”

It seems those boots were made for walking after all – with a slight wiggle maybe.

Real Name: Chiwetel Ejiofor (Chewy to his mates)

Birthdate: July 10, 1977

Significant Other: Single

Career High: His award-winning breakthrough role for the 2002 movie Dirty Pretty Things

Career Low: Fake nails, shaved body hair, tight corsets, tight wigs – just another day at the office for his role in Kinky Boots

Famous For: Those Kinky Boots

Words of Wisdom: On high heels: “It doesn’t make any sense. It’s designed to cause pain. But girls do look nice in them”

[barney15c]

And a less than enthusiastic review from thezreview.co.uk

From the poster and what I had already read about the plot, I was able to make certain assumptions before I saw “Kinky Boots,” the new British comedy from the producers of “Calendar Girls.” I had heard that the story was based – loosely, I imagine – on a real shoe factory in England which, when facing money problems, decided to start producing for a more niche market: transvestites. I assumed what I always assume about British comedies like this: there will be a romantic subplot; there will be a cast of colourful characters, probably including old women who have the dirtiest lines; there will be some story of sadness or loss; there will be moments of doubt, and, of course, there will be a happy ending. As there is a transvestite in the story, I also assumed that there would be a subplot about rejection and acceptance.

After seeing the movie, I discovered that, alas, I was absolutely right. But that the movie is formulaic is not the biggest problem; the real, and surprising, issue with “Kinky Boots” is that it isn’t very funny. At times it is sweet, at times amusing, but, if you’ll excuse my complete lack of objectivity, I only laughed out loud twice. When filmmakers limit themselves to a tired formula, they should try, somewhere along the line, to breathe a little freshness into it.

The movie tells the story of Charlie Price, who has recently inherited his father’s shoe company. On a visit to London, he bumps into Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a transvestite who performs at a Soho club, and when she complains about how women’s shoes are not ideally designed for carrying the weight of a man, Charlie sees this as the solution to his factory’s troubles, and goes immediately into the production of the ‘kinky boots,’ with the help of Lola, who acts as designer.

Charlie’s relationship with his fiancée, meanwhile, is becoming more strained, especially as she realises that their plans for a big house and expensive wedding may have to be scrapped. Indeed, Charlie seems closer to Lauren, a worker at the factory. Could there be something there? Surely not.

At times sweet, and with a few good musical numbers, “Kinky Boots” never-the-less suffers from, for one thing, a lack of risk-taking; it felt far too safe, for a movie about shoes for drag queens. The jokes aren’t very naughty (nor generally very funny), and the romance and acceptance subplots are so unoriginal they could have written themselves. “Calendar Girls” tells a similar story, but with better characters, funnier dialogue, and, frankly, better performances; the only one you will really remember from this movie is Ejiofor’s; he carries both joy and conviction in his role.

I feel somewhat torn about this movie; the little demon in my head is telling me that’s it’s too formulaic, and not funny enough, and ultimately pointless, since “Calendar Girls” is a better version of similar material. The little angel in my head, however, is telling me that the movie is innocent fun and sweet enough to recommend, for Ejiofor’s performance if nothing else. As it happens, I saw the movie just after “Thumbsucker,” a fresh, intelligent and at times very funny comedy, which showed up “Kinky Boots” for lacking in originality and for taking no risks, so I guess I’m going to listen to the little demon, who is telling me that as amusing as the movie is for about 45 minutes, you can have too much of a mediocre thing.

2 Stars out of 5

[barney15c]

One more from the Film telegraph which also shows a pair of the boots featured in the film.

The duo behind Calendar Girls is back with Kinky Boots, another very British comedy. They talk to David Gritten

'We've learned a very British way of making films," producer Nick Barton muses. "British films, that is, backed with American money."

Kinky Boots: 'we were often reminded we were making the film for Disney'

Barton and his producing partner Suzanne Mackie, who run Harbour Pictures, hit the jackpot two years ago with Calendar Girls. Now they're seeking to repeat the trick with a new film, Kinky Boots.

The two titles easily qualify for Barton's phrase "very British". Yet they have more in common than Britishness.

Both are comedies, based on true stories. Calendar Girls was the story of a group of Women's Institute members in Yorkshire, who posed nude for a calendar to raise funds for a leukaemia charity. Kinky Boots is about a failing Northamptonshire shoe factory owner who faces making his workforce redundant; he keeps his factory open by making high-heeled boots for drag artistes and transvestites.

It's starting to look like a Harbour Pictures brand: comic yet melancholic stories of British eccentricity, torn from the headlines, with a naughty-but-nice, laughter-through-tears quality.

"People will think we made Kinky Boots as a result of Calendar Girls, but we were developing the two together," says Barton. "With Kinky Boots, it took us four years to get everything right, especially the script, and a year to actually make it. But it's been around since 2000."

That was the year Barton and Mackie signed with Buena Vista, Disney's subsidiary in London. They agreed a "first-look deal" - a retainer to support the cost of developing film ideas, for which Buena Vista had first right of refusal. The deal was remarkable: although both have TV backgrounds (Barton in documentaries, Mackie in drama), neither had ever produced a feature film.

Calendar Girls did more than enough to vindicate the deal for Daniel Battsek, the Buena Vista executive who signed them. Now Barton and Mackie again find themselves handily placed: Battsek has just moved to New York to head up Miramax, the legendary Disney-owned company founded and until recently run by the flamboyant Weinstein brothers, Harvey and Bob.

Battsek sees Harbour Pictures as a lynch-pin of the new Miramax: Kinky Boots will be its first British release on his watch. "They have a very smart knack of finding projects like this," he says of Barton and Mackie. "They have their noses to the ground, and a fantastic eye for ideas that might have cinematic appeal."

With three film ideas now in development with Buena Vista and the doors of Miramax wide open, Barton and Mackie's position is hugely enviable. It's also deserved: they are two of the British film industry's nicer people, with none of the arrogance to be found in some quarters. Maybe it's because they came to it later in life: Barton is in his early sixties, while Mackie is 20 years younger.

Despite their ascendancy, however, they're feeling some pre-release trepidation about Kinky Boots. "Calendar Girls was charming and delightful," Mackie says. "And in Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, it had two stars. Kinky Boots might divide people. It's a complicated film."

It's also star-free. The shoe factory owner (named Charlie Price, but based on a real man, Steve Pateman) is played by little-known Australian actor, Joel Edgerton. The role of Lola, the (fictional) drag artiste who comes to Charlie's aid, went to Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things), in a variety of wigs, floaty dresses and, of course, high heels. He's a fine actor, but hardly a box-office draw.

The film also needed to skirt around a taste issue. In reality, the new lines of rubber, PVC or leather boots were not sold primarily to drag artistes, but to fetishists. Mackie concedes this is glossed over: "We soft-pedalled it. We were often reminded we were making the film for Disney."

Still, backed by a hefty marketing budget, Kinky Boots has a good chance of commercial success. And Barton and Mackie's stars will surely continue to rise. Their next film might be about the Fathers 4 Justice movement. "That's a serious issue," Barton says. "But then we've never said we'd be tied down to comedy - or any one kind of film."

Also a good story in the Daily Mirror about Steve Pateman (The original Kinky Boot Proprietor) I can t cut and paste this story unfortunately

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16196519&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=the-full-kinky--name_page.html

[Shafted]

Thanks barney 15c, I saving this material to read at my convienience.