Wilton Pictures
Wilton Pictures has for 20 years been responsible for developing an extensive slate of feature films and documentaries in the UK, the US and the developing world. As well as working with some of the world's most distinguished professionals, the company also provides on-the-job training to historically disadvantaged individuals from across the globe – offering an opportunity to people who would normally have no direct “in” to the film and TV industry.
David Westhead
David Westhead is CEO of Wilton Pictures, the production company he established in 2003. One of the UK’s most experienced figures in film and television, David has worked as both actor and producer for over 35 years, with credits across Oscar, BAFTA, Emmy, and Golden Globe-winning productions.
His numerous credits include the Academy Award nominated Mrs Brown, BAFTA nominated Donovan Quick, Golden Globe winning Gideon’s Daughter, Emmy Award winning The Lost Prince, BAFTA Award winning The Lakes, Academy Award winning The Iron Lady as well as the multi-award winning drama The Bodyguard and the satire W1A, both for the BBC.
David has worked with some of the most established writers and directors in the industry including Dennis Potter, Tom Stoppard, Stephen Poliakoff, Richard Eyre, Jez Butterworth, Stephen Jeffreys, Paul Webb, John Madden, Gavin Millar, David Blair, Jed Mercurio, Jimmy McGovern and Arthur Miller.
He has produced and executive produced numerous award winning films and documentaries, including Great Son of Africa, An Ounce of Action, The Real McCoy, The Golden Boy, The White Room, You Are Me, Suicide Man, Nancy, Sid and Sergio, Mandela’s Children, If It’s Not Too Late, Who Cares, Mish & Graham and Dust to Dust.
David’s production of The Mysteries, a bi-lingual, bi-cultural play which toured globally, is still the largest theatre co-production between the UK and Portugal ever mounted. It later spawned a South African version, Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries, the multi-award winning show which played worldwide before arriving for an extended run at The Queen’s Theatre in London’s West End.
In 2010 he founded The Wembley To Soweto Foundation, a charity providing training in film and photography for historically disadvantaged young people from some of the world’s poorest communities. Over the past 15 years, the Foundation has run countless projects across the UK, South Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Brazil, Russia and the United States.
David has been a BAFTA voting member for over 25 years and is a Director and Trustee of various charities both in the UK and abroad. He is a published author both in his own right and as a contributor to anthologies on The Royal Court Theatre, Arthur Miller and the Royal National Theatre.
David is currently working with Academy Award nominee Stockard Channing on two projects - an ongoing theatrical soundscape version of Bertolt Brecht’s Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, and a global tour of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, which Stockard is directing.
In 2027 David is set to produce the feature documentary An Ounce of Action featuring Judi Dench, Christoph Waltz, David Harewood and Emily Watson.
David is a long-time mentor at The Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art and has taught degree level modules at universities throughout the UK. He has served as a juror at film festivals all over the world, including the British Film Institute where he has also been responsible for allocating film grants to young filmmakers.
David also serves as the Creative Consultant for Enriched Media Group, https://enriched.media, responsible for overseeing a slate of feature films and documentaries for global distribution.
Krapp's Last Tape
by Samuel Beckett
Academy Award nominee Stockard Channing directs David Westhead in Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece Krapp’s Last Tape. Touring globally until 2027.
Wembley to Soweto
The Wembley to Soweto Foundation is a registered charity, providing photographic training and life-skills to disadvantaged young people, enabling them to move their lives forward and, ultimately, make a positive contribution to the society in which they live.
The charity operates an inclusive programme to help young people with troubled backgrounds from all over the world, regardless of circumstance. To date it has supported young people affected by poverty, war, hardship, discrimination, trauma and disability. In 2018 the charity was presented with the prestigious “Most Inspirational Creative Project” Award by the UK Media Society.
Documentary
Wembley to Soweto, a 1 hour documentary made by Soweto-based Paperpush Films, won multiple awards including
- Best Film BFI Film Festival (WTP)
- Best TV Documentary at The Encounters Film Festival SA
- UK Media Society Most Inspirational Media Project
A feature documentary following a decade in the lives of 5 of our young learners is currently in post production: https://www.wembleytosoweto.com/documentary/
Great Son of Africa
Great Son of Africa is a political thriller, a courtroom and prison drama, and above all the story of a privileged white South African, Bram Fischer, a brilliant lawyer, whose conscience compelled him to dedicate his career to supporting and defending the ANC’s struggle for racial equality.
This culminated in his brilliant defence at the Rivonia trial which saved the lives of all nine defendants, including Nelson Mandela’s. But then fate and the apartheid regime exacted a terrible price from Bram - and he paid it unflinchingly. Great Son of Africa is about an individual’s courage, principle and common humanity transcending class and race. Finally, it’s a story about the transformative power of one human being’s love for another.
The film is being produced by David Westhead, Mick Southworth, Martin McCabe and Bob Bookman for Wilton Pictures, Enriched Media, Foundry Media, and Smarty Pants Ventures. The director is David Blair. Bram Fischer will be played by Hugh Bonneville and his wife, Molly, by Emily Watson.
Mandela’s Children
Nelson Mandela’s last ever filmed interview was also his most personal one. He spent five days telling his grandchildren and great-grandchildren his life story. His own family, in his own words. Each grandchild was allowed to ask three questions: about prison and the freedom struggle, and more about first girlfriends, dancing and the meaning of life. It has never been seen before. Until now.
- Genre
- Feature Documentary
- Director
- Kweku Mandela
- Writer
- Kemal Akhtar
- Producers
- 25/Films, Nelson’s Kids, Out of Africa Entertainment, New Black Films, Egoli Tossell Film, Wilton Pictures in association with Arri International and Media Services
- Co-producer
- Film House Germany
- Language
- English
Music Love Drugs War
The debut novel by Geraldine Quigley, Music Love Drugs War, is a tender and devastating coming-of-age story about friendship, innocence and war. It will be an authentic, multi-faceted and quietly humane film, with an uplifting, lump-in-the-throat finale.
The story takes place over one summer at a unique and pivotal moment in Irish and UK history. The location is Derry, Northern Ireland, 1981. The army is on the streets, prisoners are on hunger strike, protests and riots are a nightly occurrence. There is anger and tear gas in the air.
- Screenplay
- Gordon Anderson & Geraldine Quigley
- Directed
- Gordon Anderson
- Produced
- Ed Stobart and David Westhead for Alleycats TV, Wilton Pictures and Enriched Media
Fear and Misery of the Third Reich
by Bertolt Brecht
Two gripping radio adaptations of Bertolt Brecht’s prophetic plays, The Jewish Wife and The Informer. These timeless works, adapted from Brecht’s Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, shed light on the devastating rise of antisemitism and the pervasive atmosphere of fear in 1930s Nazi Germany.
The Productions
Stockard Channing and David Westhead lead these harrowing stories, directed by the acclaimed Frank Stirling and Jane Morgan. Their performances bring Brecht’s characters to life with an intensity and humanity that resonate deeply in today’s world.
The Jewish Wife
Judith, a Jewish woman married to a non-Jewish German, prepares to leave her husband as the shadow of Nazism looms large. This poignant and powerful narrative explores themes of identity, loyalty, and survival, reflecting on the personal cost of political persecution.
The Informer
Set in a modest middle-class home, this chilling play portrays a family living in terror of betrayal. Under Hitler’s regime, even their own son—a member of the Hitler Youth—and their maid, a devout Nazi, represent a constant threat. This tightly woven drama captures the fear and paranoia of a society under totalitarian control.
Real McCoy
50-minute documentary for the BBC charting two men, one black and one white, attempting the impossible: to set up a black-owned bus company in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Nancy, Sid & Sergio
Whilst God and the Devil are on a rock climbing weekend trying to call a truce, they discover Nancy slumped on a ledge at the bottom of a cliff and persuade her to join them on a day of adventure.
- Starring
- Charlie Cox, Johnny Harris, Emma Pierson
- Written and Directed by
- Craig Pickles
- Produced by
- Craig Pickles and Wilton Pictures
The Golden Boy
- Writer
- Robert Jones
- Director
- Craig Pickles
- Producer
- David Westhead
- Starring
- Philip Jackson, Michael Jibson
Rooted in the fire, famine and plague of a razed but still resonant London, The Golden Boy weaves past and present into a dark but hopeful narrative of fate, friendship and coincidence.
Dust to Dust
After the death of his wife, a widower finds comfort and connection through dance.
If It’s Not Too Late
Will has come to Spain to meet his father, Jimmy, whom he hasn’t seen for 15 years. He finds a different man to the one who left so long ago and it’s a reunion that leads to a very unexpected outcome.
- Written and Directed by
- Claudia Selby
- With
- Sam Baker Jones & David Westhead
- Produced by
- Claudia Selby and Nicolas Alcana
- Executive Producer
- David Westhead
Watch the film
(password: Palma2020)
The White Room
In a world obsessed with knowing the future, we find Alberto, a Colombian immigrant working as a massage therapist in the City of London. Mild-mannered, almost shy, he blends into the multi-ethnic city to which he has come to earn money to pay for his mother's operation back home.
The streets of London aren't paved with gold but with old chip wrappers, and Alberto has found himself trapped in a vicious circle. Staying in London beyond his plans, the fervently religious man becomes obsessed that God has a destiny marked out for him. Everywhere he begins to see signs - on the streets, in bars and most potently on the clients he massages.
When one day, a "third-way" politician, Jackie Jordan, visits the spa, Alberto sees a sign that will set him on the path to his ultimate destiny. Absorbing the Bible, Nostradamus, Palmistry and the Qur'an in its mythology, this is a taut, poignant East London based thriller with a supernatural twist.
- Written and Directed by
- James Erskine
- Produced by
- Victoria Gregory
- Executive Producer
- David Westhead
You Are Me
An elderly survivor of the Nazi Holocaust encounters a mute African war orphan who lives on a park bench in Alexandra Palace, London. This meeting leads to the eruption of traumatic memories of war for both characters as genocide collides across the generations and continents.
- Written and Directed by
- Peter Speyer
- Starring
- Nick Woodeson and Kedar Williams-Stirling
- Produced by
- AJ Riach and David Westhead
Suicide Man
A man, who has recently lost his wife to suicide, is drawn back to the scene of her death, where he meets other people contemplating suicide. His day takes a comic turn with a series of mishaps.
- Written and Directed by
- Craig Pickles
- With
- David Westhead, Michelle Fairley, Robert Pugh, Lee Ross, Jo McInnes, James Thornton, Lesley Manville, Andy Serkis, Ralph Ineson and Clare Cathcart
- Produced by
- David Westhead
Macibet
by William Shakespeare
Adapted by David Westhead and John Matshikiza
Set in today’s South Africa, a reimagining of the tragedy of Macbeth unfolds against a visceral backdrop of political corruption, betrayal, and violence. Using Shakespeare’s original text, the story follows General Macibet, a rising figure in the country’s power structure, who becomes ensnared by a prophecy promising him ultimate power. However, this “vaulting ambition” demands an irreversible descent into treachery and murder.
This socially realistic, contemporary thriller plays out amid a deeply fractured society, where wealth and poverty, privilege and deprivation are often separated by razor wire fences and towering security walls. Street protests, political murals, and the intermittent sound of gunfire establish an environment fraught with tension and imminent violence.
The fragile government is embroiled in bitter internal conflicts. The ruling party is torn between loyalty to the incumbent Premier and the ambitious opportunists waiting to seize power. Only one side can triumph. What will be the price of victory?
Kickback
Across Africa millions of boys dream of becoming football players. This is the story of two of them. Inspired by true accounts of the lost boys of Europe’s richest cities, Kickback reveals the dirtiest face of world soccer; the context for a moving and entertaining coming of age drama of hopes and dreams, loyalty and brotherhood. Award-winning filmmaker Victor Buhler (The Beautiful Game, Sirens, A Whole Lott More) makes his fiction feature directing debut from a script researched first-hand by acclaimed screenwriter Kate Gartside (The Challenger).
- Produced by
- Ian Prior and David Westhead
Awards
Wilton Pictures Awards include:
- Best Film BFI Film Festival (WTP)
- Best TV Documentary at The Encounters Film Festival SA
- UK Media Society Most Inspirational Creative Project
- Raindance Film Festival Best Short Nomination
- Best Film Venice Film Award
- Best Actor Venice Film Award
- Best Composer Nomination at Underwire Film Festival
- Best UK Short nomination Manchester Film Festival
- Best UK Short Film at London Independent Film Awards
- Best Narrative Short and Best Sound Design at Infinity Film Festival
- Best Short Nomination Raindance Film Festival
- Sunday Telegraph Actor of the Year: The Libertine, The Man of Mode and Mojo (Royal Court)