Popular YouTube series Svengali is making the jump to the big screen.
The series follows real life rocker Jonathan Owen who plays a struggling British band manager trying to get his group a record deal.
“I was in a band myself in the mid 90s,” Owen told the BBC in 2009. “I knew the [rock] world. A manager of my band, whose name was Dixie, who I loved dearly, never seemed to have a bad day. I had the idea of basing the character after him.”
The movie, which begins filming in London next week, will feature Martin Freeman, of the BBC’s The Office, in the lead role.
“A friend of mine told me about Svengali after about the third episode,” Freeman said, according to tubefilter. “When he’d described it I was actually annoyed that I hadn’t been asked to do it. I went home, watched the lot, and knew I was right to be annoyed. It was charming, sussed, and very funny.”
The film will be directed by John Hardwick, who has directed music videos for Blur and the Arctic Monkeys. Freeman will be joined on screen with Vicky McClure, from This is England ‘86, and Michael Smiley, from Kill List.
