Pump Up The Volume is about to hit the water in The Boat That Rocked. We get wind of this Pirate Radio drama thanks to the professionals at Variety:
Kenneth Branagh, Rhys Ifans and January Jones have climbed aboard “The Boat That Rocked,” a Working Title production for Universal that Richard Curtis wrote and will direct. Branagh and Ifans play deejays for a pirate radio show in England during the 1970s. Jones, best known for her starring turn as repressed housewife Betty Draper in “Mad Men,” plays an American woman who visits the deejays on the boat and falls for her boyfriend’s pal (Ifans).
Everyone and their sister can have a means to broadcast with the internet age upon us. But before such conveniences existed, people broke the law in order to put what they loved out there for other fans to enjoy. People used ingenuity to set up small radio broadcasting stations in order to reach a small group of people in an isolated area. These freedom fighters and champions of free speech were the robin hood of the airwaves.
A pirate radio station on a boat is delightfully appropriate. I assume the water would be as good a place as any in which to broadcast, and when you are able to move the boat to different areas along the coast – you have a traveling radio program! This sounds like a cool idea for a film and I will certainly keep tabs on this one. Filming for this project begins March 3rd in London and we will be sure to keep you up to speed.
