INTRO
CRIME THRILLER EXPOSÉ
A dark and cruel crime thriller, Clubland is set at the dawn of the Acid House scene in the UK. It explores the fickle frailty of prejudices of the time and lifts the lid on relationships between London’s criminal underbelly, big business, and the establishment.
Our young hero, Jake, of mixed heritage, is an ex-soldier – still in his twenties – enlisted to go undercover as a nightclub owner into a den of ruthless and murderous villains. Tasked to seek out who is behind the mass production of the illicit drug, Ecstasy. He struggles with his own identity, morality, and his very existence in a corrupt, cruel, and dark world. With the nostalgia of Godfather II and the hard-hitting realism of The Departed, the world that our protagonist Jake Winters is thrust into, takes no prisoners.
With his life constantly on the line, he grapples between a crooked establishment and vicious criminal underworld, shaped by international feuds born from the ashes of the British Empire. The script is threaded with historic socioracial undercurrents and populated with a myriad of memorable characters and scenes, woven into an original tale of blood, romance and death – yet all written from a real personal experience, often stranger than fiction.
Follow Jake as he leaves behind his tight-knit covert intelligence team, to go it alone undercover in London’s clubland. Danger is around every corner in this murky labyrinth of drug dealers, gang bosses, corrupt police officers, ruthless businessmen and greedy politicians.
IS CLUBLAND JUST ANOTHER GANGSTER MOVIE?
Chicago's acid house dance scene sparked the rave phenomenon in the UK. Clubland looks back to a time when working class kids across Britain reacted to the austerity of the day with the emergence of rave sub-culture that promised unity, a sense of solidarity and even freedom. All bore out on the dancefloors of nightclubs across the land, leaving an indelible mark on all who experienced it.
This is a movie driven by the countless voices that lived through the heady times of the Acid House scene, who organised mass gatherings without social media and mobile phones, when all we had was landlines, bits of paper we called flyers and word of mouth.
An entire generation was moved by the beat and as the scene spread from underground to mainstream, we witnessed the last great cultural uprising. Inevitably lawmakers and lawbreakers encircled us like sharks at shoals of fish and preyed upon the masses.
What ensues is a slice of history, hitherto untold.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
New york
International
screenplay
awards
Clubland hits New York with a quarter final place at the
NYC
International
Screenplay Awards.
Table Read - Manchester
7th November 2023
Brilliant table read by a great ensemble of actors who made it happen at very short notice. It was great to hear the rhythm and tempo of the scenes from diverse voices who brought the characters to life.
Thank you team Clubland.