LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT
AUDIOMARVELS® PREMIERE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL FOR 2023 - RECREATING THE HOLY GRAIL OF MISSING MOVIES WITH POCKET UNIVERSE PRODUCTIONS AND MONKEY BASKET ENTERTAINMENT, IN DOLBY ATMOS.
It all started when…
LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT is an audio movie event, at last reimagining what is often considered the Holy Grail of lost silent-era feature films, originally starring Lon Chaney. Originally released in 1927, the last known copy was thought lost in 1965.
48” Teaser Trailer for the Audio Movie remake of LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT
A UK-US collaboration between AUDIOMARVELS® and POCKET UNIVERSE PRODUCTIONS, in association with MONKEY BASKET ENTERTAINMENT, this audio movie event - mixed in DOLBY ATMOS - is based on the classic silent film by WALDEMAR YOUNG and TOD BROWNING, starring LON CHANEY, and adapted for audio by LANCE ROGER AXT and KENTON HALL, who also produce alongside co-director JACK BOWMAN.
LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT features an epic cast of some of the UK’s greatest audio voice talent, including ART MALIK (James Bond: The Living Daylights, James Cameron’s True Lies, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, 2023), BETH EYRE (Wooden Overcoats), and DAN STARKEY (Doctor Who’s notorious Strax).
Bringing the highest standards of 21st-century audio production to this lost visual classic, horror fans across the world can finally, for the first time in generations, experience LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT once more, and in the greatest cinema ever created - the imagination of the human mind.
To be released on the Fable & Folly network and with just 301 deluxe copies available on double gatefold Limited Edition Vinyl, Halloween 2023 will be the time and place that we can all return to… LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT.
Set in the 1920s, LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT is part murder mystery, part vampire thriller and part gothic ghost story as businessman Sir James Hamlin seeks to uncover the identities of the tenants living in the Balfour mansion, long neglected since the suicide of Roger Balfour five years earlier. But when all indications point to the tenants being vampires connected with that horrible night, family friend and Scotland Yard detective Edward Burke arrives to uncover the truth… which leads to a mystery of a very different kind…
Recreating LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT began in early February with conversations about how to potentially execute it in audio form, between producer Lance Roger Axt and Jack Bowman, as another collaboration between two of the days’ leading audio drama producers (titles include: The X Files, The Springheel Saga, Murder On The Orient Express, Titanium Rain, Expeditionary Force: Homefront, Circles, and the forthcoming Unsinkable and Shaman’s Tears).
By the end of February, Kenton Hall - a noted audio writer, director and producer in his own right (titles including Getting Better: The Fight For The NHS, Venna’s Planet and The Council) also onboarded the project, and scripting duties were undertaken between Axt and Hall; the first draft arriving 21st March 2023. Scripting was then completed before the WGA strike began on May 2nd, and production in July 2023.
(RE)Making LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT as an Audio Movie Event…
PRODUCTION FACTS:
Abi McLoughlin and Liis Mikk were brought on board having worked with Bowman as Production Coordinators on Moonbug’s Lellobee City Farm and Little Baby Bum; Hall - who script edited Lellobee - and Jack felt both should be included and as a result, Abi was cast as Miss Smithson, and Liis Mikk offered the chance to take her first Associate Producer role.
Casting began seven weeks before recording: the first person cast was David Bickerstaff for whom roles were specifically written after he requested to work with Jack a few months before. Last to be cast was Dan Starkey, who stepped in at 7.30pm the night before the last day of recording to replace an actor who unfortunately found themselves unable to make the sessions, to play Sir James Hamlin. Dan accepted the role after reading just the first scene, with his casting a suggestion from fellow cast member Abi McLoughlin.
Art Malik returned to work with Jack for a second time after their collaboration on Audible’s Murder On The Orient Express in 2017. Art praised Lance and Kenton’s script, especially congratulating them and Jack on offering him a project strong enough to get him away from his new-found hobby of building model train sets.
Beth Eyre is known to audio fans globally as the voice of Antigone in Wooden Overcoats and has worked with Jack numerous times, including on horror hit Circles, but LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT also features a rare voice performance from Wooden Overcoats showrunner, David K. Barnes. This was an idea proposed by Jack to the team; he felt making LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT and not involving David would be a missed opportunity. Karim Kronfli, who has worked with both Jack, Beth and David on multiple occasions, also appears on LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT.
On 24th and 25th July, LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT was recorded in the illustrious Studio 1 at the SoundHouse, London, where numerous notable productions have been recorded, including The X Files, Sandman, Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor Who seasons for Big Finish, and Unsinkable. Studio Manager Freddie Sledge noted that the production team were “the maddest we’ve had in here for a long time”. The producers have been assured this IS a compliment.
Axt was unable to attend the London recording personally being based in the US, so an iPhone/Zoom set-up was deployed and balanced on Bowman’s trademark hoodies to allow him to watch (this being his well-known production pink one he wears for luck on studio days, visible in the photos above). Axt stayed up late US time, to sit through most of the Day Two UK session.
Even though LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT is an independent, non-Equity union audio drama production recorded out of the UK, the producers still granted all cast members the right to not engage in any promotion of the project if they wished to show solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA strike in the US.
FULL CAST LIST:
Stepping into the shoes of Lon Chaney as Detective Edward Burke is none other than award-winning screen and theatre star ART MALIK, one of the UK’s best-loved and most respected actors with a rich and varied international career that spans over 30 years in the industry. He shot to fame playing an English public school-educated Indian in The Jewel in the Crown. His global profile rose with roles in Timothy Dalton’s dazzling debut as James Bond in The Living Daylights before working with James Cameron in True Lies opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger. LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT marks his second collaboration with producer Jack Bowman, the two having worked together on Audible’s Murder on the Orient Express.
DAN STARKEY as Sir James Hamlin, known for his recurring role of the Sontaran “Strax” opposite Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi in Doctor Who (2011-2014), as well as additional appearances as other Sontaran warriors opposite David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker;
BETH EYRE as Lucy Balfour, also Antigone in the hit comedy podcast Wooden Overcoats, as well as in The White Vault and as the mysterious Lexie in the lockdown horror hit, Circles (Evergreen Podcasts);
KENTON HALL as Hibbs and Fernsby, who has written, directed and starred in the independent film A Dozen Summers, as well as Les Miserables, Muppets Most Wanted and the audio sitcom The Council, which he also created and wrote;
DAVID BICKERSTAFF as Roger Balfour, a notable UK voice actor considered the heir to Jon Pertwee’s “Man of a Thousand Voices” title who also appeared in Lost At Christmas;
DAVID K. BARNES as Murphy, showrunner of Wooden Overcoats - invited by director Bowman to undertake a rare voice role for the writer/director;
With SARAH DORSETT as Doris, KARIM KRONFLI as Williams, ABI MCLOUGHLIN as Miss Smithson, and CLIFF CHAPMAN as Yates.
PRODUCTION CREW:
Sound Design and Dolby Atmos Mixing: Rory O'Shea.
Original music: Kenton Hall & Brett Richardson.
Production recorded at The Soundhouse, London.
The Studio Manager: Freddie Sledge, Studio Engineering: Wilfredo Acosta.
Associate Producer: Liis Mikk.
Directors: Jack Bowman & Kenton Hall.
Publicity: Mar Garcia, TBM Horror Digital Marketing, and Lys Fulda, The Sphinx Group.
Podcast Network: Fable & Folly, Sean Howard
Vinyl Distribution: Monkey Basket Entertainment
Binaural and Dolby Atmos Audio Movie Distribution: Bandcamp
Producers: Lance Roger Axt for Pocket Universe Productions, Jack Bowman for AudioMarvels® & Kenton Hall for Monkey Basket Entertainment.
A VIRAL CAMPAIGN… DO YOU WANT TO PLAY A GAME?
“Call To Action” cards, along with Teaser posters were created to reveal the title in an online campaign involving an internet-based “treasure hunt” for horror fans. Led by TBM Marketing, this attracted 87,000 unique users, and involved notable horror influencer ReAnimateHer. This led to the title being revealed to the horror community on 6th September 2023.
Wanting a "fan first" detective treasure hunt-style reveal, the production team played with the idea of the of the hashtag #WhatIsTheTitle. Imagine our surprise when they not only found that the domain www.whatisthetitle.com was readily available but cost a mere $6 to purchase!
This project marks the producers’ first collective foray into using Dolby Atmos - currently pitching itself as the new gold standard of audio drama sound quality. The Atmos design has, to date, only been used on selected Audible and Wondery + titles, with LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT being one of the first indie productions to use this as of late 2023.
RETURNING LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT TO THE WORLD:
A podcast version, released in standard stereo and broken into episodic format, is available on Fable & Folly from Halloween 2023.
A limited edition vinyl edition (limited to 301 copies), along with online exclusive Binaural and Dolby Atmos digital download Audio Movie formats, are available to purchase from 31st October 2023.