Ben Charles Edwards
Ben Charles Edwards and Goldfinch new production company The Number 44 has revealed its first slate of productions due to be completed by the end of 2023 for web3 streaming platform for myco. Currently, The Number 44 is post-producing "The Wheels of Heaven", starring Mickey Rourke.
"All Cats are Black at Night", written by Nat Saunders & James Serafinowicz ("Sick Note" - Netflix) is one of the first titles. Candi is an influencer. Her life is spent creating picture-perfect posts about her life, her cute twin toddlers, her loving husband, and all the gifted merch that adorns their wonderful home. The reality behind this facade is quite different: her marriage is on the rocks, she has a difficult relationship with her teenage daughter, and she’s in a constant struggle to keep the likes coming in and her follower count rising, whilst her bitter rivals seem to be leaving her in her wake.
"I’ll Play Mother", directed by Brad Watson ("Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop"), is a twisted psychological horror about the relentless and unending paranoia of parenthood and the lengths people will go to create the family they believe they deserve.
"The Album", written and directed by Fitch/Baker, is a claustrophobic and chilling horror set in the 1970s, with a cast of four and a contained rural location. The story deals with themes of solitude, ego, creativity and jealousy, and explores what each of us can become if our darker sides aren’t kept in check.
"The Tangle", written by Libby Adam & Justin Robertson, and based on the best-selling novel by Justin Robertson, is a hallucinogenic journey into a universe both familiar and profoundly strange. A multi-episodic encounter with dark forces lurking in the woods and what occurs when humanity stumbles into the roots.
The Number 44 has also been greenlit to produce a 6-episode podcast from Libby Adam called "Hell Inc.", a dark comedy in which the underworld is in crisis mode. These productions are in addition to the "Ten Minutes of Terror" podcast series, previously announced with podcast production company Stak, to be released later this year. The team are also in development on "Jackie the Ripper", which the company optioned from Stak.
Co-founder Ben Charles Edwards said, “The Number 44 was Co-created by myself and Goldfinch as a standalone production company under the Goldfinch umbrella. We are dedicated to supporting original creators of modern and exciting genre stories that scrutinise human behaviour or pose a moral conundrum in their telling. The company takes its name from the fictional character in Mark Twain’s 'The Mysterious Stranger' with both touching on the ambiguity of good and evil." He adds, “Our carefully curated slate represents 18 months of solid development by the team and we are excited to bring these productions to life for a global audience in a way that is rarely done so in the UK.”
