Principal photography has wrapped on The Origin, a palaeolithic horror that marks the feature debut of breakout talents, director Andrew Cumming and writer Ruth Greenberg.
The film was shot in an isolation bubble on location in the Scottish Highlands around Gairloch, Wester Ross. The ensemble cast includes Chuku Modu (Captain Marvel, Game of Thrones, The Good Doctor), Kit Young (Shadow and Bone), Iola Evans (The 100, PHEA), newcomer Safia Oakley-Green, Arno Lüning and child-actor Luna Mwezi (PLATZSPITTZBABY).
The movie is produced by Escape Plan’s Oliver Kassman (Saint Maud), executive produced by David Kaplan and Sam Intili on behalf of New York’s prestigious Animal Kingdom (It Follows, Short Term 12, The Dead Don't Die), in co-production with Scottish producer Wendy Griffin of Selkie Productions (Calibre, She Will, Phea), with financing from Screen Scotland and the BFI, awarding funds from the National Lottery.
Screen Scotland’s Executive Director Isabel Davis says: “It was so important to us to back Andrew Cumming on his first feature film. We’re hugely excited by his talent, the boldness of his vision, and for the whole extraordinary endeavour. We congratulate Andrew, Ruth, Oliver, Wendy and the team on pulling this off – an object lesson in human endurance and the indomitable spirit of filmmaking!”
Andrew Cumming comments: “I am so grateful to have had the incredible support of our esteemed EPs and financiers as we embarked on this ambitious and exciting adventure together. And I am awed by our utterly fearless cast and crew. They went above and beyond every day in extremely challenging conditions to ensure we could make the best film possible. I am indebted to all of them for life.”
Andrew Cumming was the David Lean scholarship graduate from the National Film and Television School in 2013. His graduation film, the supernatural thriller Radiance, was nominated for best film at the BAFTA Scotland New Talent Awards while his claustrophobic psychological drama Beneath won Best Student Film at the Courant 3D festival in France. He went on to directed Oakwood, a short drama exclusively for the BBC iPlayer. The same year, he shot Kai, a short funded by i-D and VICE magazines, which has been viewed over one million times on social media.
More recently, Andrew had been working in television, including as lead director on the second series of Clique (BBC/Pop). The Guardian heralded the return of, "One of the BBC’s most popular releases... which only gets more brooding in its second run", while Den Of Geek called it, "A vital watch... the best description of internet culture seen on television". Andrew is represented by Sarah Williams at Independent, London. The Origin is his feature debut.
Ruth is an award-winning, London-based screenwriter with a specialist interest in female protagonists and elevated genre. Ruth’s Indian-set Thriller, The Spark, was awarded the Tribeca Film Institute Filmmakers Fund and her post-apocalyptic British Western, The Competitors, topped the Brit List.
Since 2016, Ruth has developed projects with the BFI, BBC Films, Film4, Creative Scotland and Northern Ireland Screen. Ruth is currently in post as writer/director of the short film, Run, produced by Helen Gladders and Ivana MacKinnon and funded by Film4 and Film London. Ruth has a PhD in Screenwriting from UEA and is represented by Tanya Tillett at The Agency, London. The Origin is also her feature debut.