Joe Cornish’s ‘Attack the Block’ is Out of the Blocks with Jodie Whittaker

To those who thought making films with Star Wars figurines was a tad too infantile, today principle photography will begin on Joe Cornish’s alien invasion comedy feature film debut. The Adam & Joe Show creator who got his start by toying around, will re-team with Nick Frost on what is also being dubbed as an action adventure film, and the non-zombie flick lead and leader of a pack comes in the shape of Jodie Whittaker, whose body of work includes some feisty characters in Venus (the film that Peter O’Toole was nominated for at the Oscars – see pic below) and more recently, the horribly plain gangster film Perrier’s Bounty. Something tells me this will land where previous Wright/Frost films have ended up before – Focus Features or Relativity’s Rouge?

Attack the Block will see Whittaker take on the role of a trainee nurse Sam, who is walking alone through the dark streets of South London when a gang of youths surround her and rob her, but she is saved when something falls from the sky. A meteor impacts with a nearby parked car and Sam flees, just before the gang is attacked by a small alien creature that leaps from the wreckage. The gang chases the creature and kills it, dragging its ghoulish carcass to the top of the block, which they treat as their territory. But the adventure is not over. The alien attacks have only just begun…

Newcomers John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Franz Drameh, Leeon Jones and Simon Howard are also on board as is Luke Treadaway – a face that I could easily see cast in We Need To Talk About Kevin.

Nira Park and James Wilson are producing. The executive producers are Big Talk’s Matthew Justice, Film4’s Tessa Ross and Optimum Releasing’s Will Clarke and Jenny Borgars.