Ever wondered what all those kids hanging around your local council block are really up to? Maybe they're not just drinkingFrosty Jacks and asking passers-by to buy them cigarettes. Maybe there's a really important reason they're zipping around the estate on microscooters, and perhaps they're carrying those flick-knives around for our safety?
[partner id="wireduk"]Maybe they're actually risking their own lives to save the world from alien invasion? Probably not, but that's the curious idea that Joe Cornish, one half of our favorite radio show -- 6music's Adam & Joe, has constructed into the script for his first feature film.
With the backing of Edgar Wright as executive producer, Cornish makes his writing and directorial debut with Attack the Block, a Shaun of the Dead-style tongue-in-cheek sci-fi adventure. He describes the film as homage to the likes of Gremlins and Tremors but with a nod to what would happen if aliens arrived in his own neighborhood in south London.
The result is a comic hoodies-versus-aliens action adventure featuring all your favorite council estate residents, from the baseball-capped gang leader and the mouthy teenage girls to the wannabe-gangster 9-year-olds and the trust-fund stoner on his way to a house party in Putney.
But despite the inclusion of every potential stereotype, and tackling an entirely improbable storyline, the film still feels fresh and real. Cornish chose unknowns for most of the main characters, with the film's best-known actor, Nick Frost, performing what is almost a bit part. With a vigorous score from Basement Jaxx and Steven Price, Attack the Block is what we would expect from one of the United Kingdom's best comedy talents; hilarious, and very very British, "blud".
You can see a trailer above. Attack the Block premieres May 11, 2011, in the United Kingdom.
(Attack the Block, a favorite at the South by Southwest film festival last month in Texas, has been picked up by Screen Gems for U.S. distribution. A U.S. release date has not yet been set.)
See Also:- Paul Is No Joke, But Wait Till You See *Attack the Block’*s Aliens
