Westfield Films is basically a collaboration of people from around Manchester which includes a variety of people with different levels of experience – from students interested in filmmaking to professionals already established within the industry. Those involved include directors, writers, musicians, artists, skaters and sound engineers. The goal of the collaboration is to bring local talented people together to work on projects to improve their individual portfolios and gain valuable creative experience whilst also creating an innovative and impressive finished article. They’re always looking for new people to get involved, so if you feel like you fit the bill, feel free to email Kas. Unfortunately their website isn’t finished yet but once it is we’ll post a link to it.

Anyway, their latest project is called Prisoner 66 and is a short Star Wars fan film. I don’t think me or Jayou are really Star Wars geeks – I’m more of a Back To The Future guy, but Empire Strikes Back is pretty sweet – but the film sounds pretty cool, even without the Star Wars references.

Here’s a summary of the plot: the film is about a Jedi who is diagnosed with an unknown virus that has previously infected and violently killed over sixty Jedi in the past. The other Jedi and medical staff in the facility where he is being held are still none the wiser to the cause of the illness and prepare for his inevitable death. The film follows Prisoner 66’s struggle as the virus completely takes over his body and mind, killing him only for him to be reborn as a Sith. Now fuelled with evil intent we see Prisoner 66 break free from his restraints and attempt to escape the facility.

The film is heading into production within the next couple of weeks and is currently in the process of casting. There are already some notable people invovled in the behind the scenes team with Carl Whitley (Zombie Aid Charity) and lead make-up artist Alex Williams (Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie” and Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus”) the most impressive. As is the case with many up and coming collaboratives, Westfield films are looking for help funding the project, but as is befitting the nature of the collaborative venture they’ve set up a rewarding scheme enabling them to do this with a Sponsume account. This enables fans to donate money and also to receive exclusive rewards relating to the project. You can check out the Prisoner 66 Sponsume account here.

Prisoner 66 is due to be released sometime towards the end of this year. In the meantime, we’ll keep you updated with any other cool projects coming from Westfield Films.