Deadline is exclusively reporting that Samuel Goldwyn Films has locked down North American rights to the British feel-good comedy, Bank Of Dave, starring Joel Fry (Our Flag Means Death), Rory Kinnear (Men), Jo Hartley (After Life) and Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton). The film featuring music and performances by English rock band Def Leppard is slated for release in theaters and on digital platforms later this year.
Telling the true story of how a working-class man and self-made millionaire fought to set up a community bank, Bank Of Dave follows Dave Fishwick (Kinnear), who sells vans in Burnley, Lancashire. Once the world’s most productive and profitable mill town, Burnley is now one of the most deprived and neglected towns in the UK. Dave, however, through a combination of hustle and hard work, has done well for himself - so well that in the wake of the last financial crisis, he started lending money at reduced rates to his customers and local businesses.
When some of those businesses start making money, they ask Dave to reinvest it for them. And this gives Dave an idea. Why not set up a tiny, local bank that uses local money to fund local enterprise? He will call it the Bank Of Dave. The elite London-based financial authorities, however, haven’t granted a new bank license for more than 150 years, and they’re not keen to grant one to a van salesman from Burnley. Dave therefore must enlist the help of London lawyer Hugh (Fry), junior doctor Alexandra (Dynevor) and some local rock legends (Def Leppard) to help fight for the good cause.
Read more at Deadline.
Def Leppard, who appear towards the end of the film, recently shared a behind the scenes vlog from their shoot, which can be viewed below.
Following their shoot, Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott spoke to Planet Rock about the band's involvement in the film.
"Bank Of Dave is kinda like the new Full Monty, the new Amongst Giants, the new Brassed Off," said Elliott. "It's one of those classic British low budget but really cool movies. A true story about a gentleman in Burnley, who was not having much joy with a bank, so he decided to start his own bank. It's only like 12 years ago that this happened and he's a bit of a Def Leppard fan."
He continued: "What they did is they kind of wrote us into the story and they've obviously enhanced the story somewhat because our part in the movie didn't really happen. One of his mates, the character of one of his friends knows me for 30 years and says, ‘I think I might be able to get Def Leppard to do a fundraiser for you.’ So, long story short, we do this fundraiser at Turf Moor (Burnley’s football stadium) to raise money so he can start this bank and help out all the locals that were getting no help from the banks."
Joe added: "We got to perform three songs in this movie. I don't know how many will survive or hit the cutting room floor, but you always over film so that they've got enough. We all really thought it was a cute thing."
