Bard Entertainments was established in 1994 by Margaret Matheson to produce theatrical films and television drama for the international market.

Films

Bard’s latest production, SKIN, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008.  Directed by Anthony Fabian, and starring Sophie Okonedo, Sam Neill and Alice Krige, SKIN is based on the true story of Sandra Laing, a black child born in South Africa in the 1950s at the height of the apartheid era to a white Afrikaner couple. International sales are handled by The Little Film Company.

SLEEP FURIOUSLY, director Gideon Koppel’s first feature, premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2008 and was then presented in International Competition at Locarno International Film Festival where it won the Environment prize. SLEEP FURIOUSLY is a portrait of the remote valley of Trefeurig, near Aberystwyth in Wales and was filmed over a year from 2006 to 2007. Daniela Elstner of Doc&Film International is handling world sales and New Wave will release in the UK on 29th May 2009.

In 2006 Bard completed VAMPIRE DIARY, written by Phil O’Shea, directed by Mark James and Phil O’Shea and produced by Michael Riley and Margaret Matheson. World sales agent is Visual Factory with Peccadillo handling UK.

AMERICAN COUSINS, a Scots Italian comedy set in Glasgow starring Danny Nucci, Shirley Henderson, Gerald Lepkowski, Vincent Pastore and Dan Hedaya, written by Sergio Casci and directed by Don Coutts, was completed in December 2002.  World sales are handled by Icon International and Momentum have UK.

Also in 2002 Bard partnered with Third Rock to complete Duncan Roy’s AKA released in the UK in 2002 and selected for Sundance in 2003.  World sales agent is Portman Films.

REVENGERS TRAGEDY, adapted from the Jacobean play by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Alex Cox, was filmed on location in Liverpool in the summer of 2001, starring Christopher Eccleston, Eddie Izzard and Derek Jacobi. World sales are handled by Hanway and the film was released by Metro Tartan in the UK in February 2003.

KIN, written and directed by Elaine Proctor starring Isaiah Washington and Miranda Otto was filmed entirely on location in Namibia. It was released in the UK in 2002 and world sales are handled by Icon International.

In 1996 Margaret Matheson was Co-Executive Producer of EVE’S BAYOU written and directed by Kasi Lemmons starring Samuel L Jackson for Trimark (released in US in 1997 and in the UK in September 1998).  In 1997 she Executive Produced BABYMOTHER, a reggae musical released by Film Four in the UK in 1998 and Fineline in the US in March 2000.

The company's first feature, made in 1995, was the co-produced Oscar winning ANTONIA’S LINE produced by Hans de Weers, Antonino Lombardo and Judy Counihan and directed by Marleen Gorris.  Later that year Bard produced the BAFTA winning IT’S NOT UNUSUAL a theatrical short written and produced  by Asmaa Pirzada and directed by Kfir Yefet.

Films in Development

NOVA SCOTIA is a love story following one woman's experience of the Highland Clearances in Nineteenth Century Scotland, written by Stef Penney (winner of the Costa Book Award for THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES) to be directed by Hettie Macdonald and to star Romola Garai.

RAISE YOU A HUNDRED, a coming of age comedy set in Dunoon, the American base for Polaris, which sets the local Scots up against the occupying Yanks, written by Irvine Allan and John Maley for director, Irvine Allan.

Films as Executive Producer

Margaret Matheson is also acting as Executive Producer on:

THE PROPERTY, producer Claire Moorsom’s first feature to be directed by Justin Chadwick;

BARAFUNDLE BAY, written by Vaughan Sivell and to be directed by Hattie Dalton for producers Vaughan Sivell, Kelly Broad and Adam Robertson;

LORE, producer Paul Welsh of Edge City’s first feature based on the novella 'Lore' by Rachel Seiffert, written by Robin Mukherjee and to be directed by Cate Shortland;

THE SMELL OF APPLES, adapted from Mark Behr’s novel by Kfir Yefet who will also direct for producer Kate McCreery.

Television

Through 1997-98, Bard produced SPACE ISLAND ONE (26 x 1 hour episodes) for

B Sky B and Vox in Germany filmed entirely in the Isle of Man. 

Also in 1998, Margaret Executive Produced LOST FOR WORDS starring Thora Hird and Pete Postlethwaite, which won numerous awards including an International Emmy and both RTS and BAFTA awards in the UK.

Television in Development

WHIPPED, a comedy series from writer Harriet Smedley

DADDY COOL, a comedy drama by John Maley

COTSWOLD WILD WIFE PARK, a comedy drama by Tony Bicât

MARGARET MATHESON

2008Producer of SKIN directed by Anthony Fabian starring

                            Sophie Okonedo, Sam Neill and Alice Krige

2007Producer of SLEEP FURIOUSLY, a feature documentary directed           

by Gideon Koppel

2006           Executive Producer NINA’S HEAVENLY DELIGHTS written by

                            Andrea Gibb, directed by Pratibha Parmar

2006  Producer VAMPIRE DIARY written by Phil O’Shea, directed by

                            Mark James and Phil O’Shea

2003 - presentMember of London International Film School Board

2003-2005Vice Chair of Film for PACT

2002                    Executive Producer of AKA written and directed by Duncan Roy

2002                    Producer of AMERICAN COUSINS written by Sergio Casci,

                            directed by Don Coutts, starring Danny Nucci, Shirley Henderson, 

                            Gerald Lepkowski, Vincent Pastore and Dan Hedaya

2001Producer of REVENGERS TRAGEDY written by Frank

Cottrell Boyce, directed by Alex Cox starring Christopher Eccleston, Eddie Izzard and Derek Jacobi

1999-2000Producer of KIN, written and directed by Elaine Proctor,

                            starring Miranda Otto and Isaiah Washington

                                                                                                          

1997-98Producer of SPACE ISLAND ONE - 26 x 1 hour TV Series

1997Executive Producer of BABYMOTHER, written and directed by Julian Henriques (Formation Films for Film Four)

1996 - 1997Chair of Scottish Film Production Fund

1996Co-Executive Producer of EVE’S BAYOU, written and

                            directed by Kasi Lemmons, starring Samuel L Jackson

1995Executive Producer of ANTONIA’S LINE (Marleen      

                            Gorris) 1996 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film

1995IT’S NOT UNUSUAL (Asmaa Pirzada/Kfir Yefet)

1996 BAFTA Winner - Best Short Film

Channel 4/British Screen

1995Executive Producer of Screen One for BBC1

Productions include: 

PAT AND MARGARET (Victoria Wood/Gavin Miller)

MEAT (Danny Boyle/John Madden)

THE GREAT KANDINSKY (Terry Winsor)

DOGGING AROUND (Alan Plater/Desmond Davis)

MURDER IN MIND (Jenni Diski/Robert Bierman)

TWO GOLDEN BALLS (Maureen Chadwick/Anya Camilleri)

1994Formed Bard Entertainments Ltd

1993Producer of CARDIAC ARREST for Island World Productions / BBC1

1992- 1996Board of Scottish Film Council

Board of Scottish Film Production Fund

1992Fellow of Royal Television Society

1990 - 1993Chief Executive of Island World Productions Ltd

                            Productions  include: 

Feature: JUICE (Ernest Dickerson)

BBC 1 Series: BETWEEN THE LINES

BBC Screen One: WIDE EYED & LEGLESS      

                            (Jack Rosenthal/Richard Loncraine)

1989 - 1992Governor of National Film & Television School

1988 - 1996Board of London International Festival of Theatre

1985 - 1989Governor of British Film Institute

Chair of British Film Institute Production Board

1984 - 1989Director of Production for Zenith Productions Ltd 

                            Feature Films include:

THE HIT (Peter Prince/Stephen Frears)

INSIGNIFICANCE (Terry Johnson/Nick Roeg)

SID AND NANCY (Abbie Wool/Alex Cox)

PERSONAL SERVICES (David Leland/Terry Jones)

WISH YOU WERE HERE (David Leland)

THE DEAD (John Huston)

PRICK UP YOUR EARS (Alan Bennett/Stephen Frears)

Television productions include: 

INSPECTOR MORSE, THE PARADISE CLUB,

SHOOT TO KILL

1984Royal Television Society Silver Medal (for Outstanding

                            Creative Achievement behind the Camera)

1981 - 1984Controller of Drama for Central TV

Commissions include THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH

and AUF WIEDERSEHEN PET

Executive Producer of KENNEDY by Reg Gadney

(BAFTA Best Drama Series) starring Martin Sheen and Blair Brown

Producer of THE LELAND QUARTET:

MADE IN BRITAIN (Alan Clarke) (Prix Italia)

BIRTH OF A NATION (Mike Newell) (Prix Futura)

RHINO (Jane Howell)

FLYING INTO THE WIND (Ed Bennett)

1980 - 1981Producer: MUCK AND BRASS by Tom Clarke starring Mel Smith, directed by Marek Kanievska and Martin Campbell for Central TV 

                           

1977 - 1978Producer: BBC Play for Today Series.

Productions include:

SCUM (Roy Mnton/Alan Clarke)

STRONGER THAN THE SUN (Stephen Poliakoff/Michael Apted)

NINA (Jehane Markham/Alan Clarke)

OY VAY MARIA (Mary O’Malley/Richard Loncraine)

ABIGAIL’S PARTY (Mike Leigh)

NIPPER (Barrie Keefe/Brian Farnham)

DESTINY (David Edgar/Mike Newell)

THE AFTER DINNER JOKE (Caryl Churchill/Colin Bucksey)

SHOOTING THE CHANDELIER (David Mercer/Jane Howell)

                            THE  LEGION HALL BOMBING (Caryl Churchill/Roland Joffe)

WHO’S WHO (Mike Leigh)

1975Producer IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN TO A VET

                            (starring John Alderton and Colin Blakeley) for EMI

1973 - 1975London Representative of Talent Associates. 

(David Susskind’s US company.)

Associate Producer  CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA

(Alec Guinness and Genevieve Bujold)

1973Researcher/Reporter - Local News and Documentaries

Granada Television

1970 - 1973Story Editor of BBC Series:

ELIZABETH  R

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