A crowdfunding campaign for donations has been launched by director Simon Emmett in a bid to finish production on his film about the Lowestoft rockers The Darkness. The film covers the band’s comeback which came after the band struggled with personal problems, following their initial astounding success.
The English rockers formed in 2000. The band consists of Justin Hawkins (lead vocals, guitar), his brother Dan Hawkins (guitar, backing vocals), Frankie Poullain (bass, backing vocals) and Rufus Tiger Taylor (drums).
The band’s debut album, Permission to Land was released in 2003 and was certified quadruple platinum in the UK. The Darkness have won various awards thanks to their hits “I Believe in a thing called Love”, “Growing On Me” and “Love Is Only A Feeling”.
Emmett has documented the band’s crazy past and their future plans through 250 hours of footage. He has previously worked with other stars like Hellen Mirren, Ben Stiller, Matt Damon and Jay Z.
In a recent interview Emmett said the following: “I met Dan and Justin very briefly years ago through a mutual friend, their former stylist Lucy Manning, and they defied all expectations. Years later Lucy connected Justin and me and I then invited them all to a screening of another film I made about Barnet FC’s old stadium called Underhill.”
“We went out together afterwards and having suggested to them – partly jokingly – that we should make a film about them, the idea sort of took hold over the course of the night. I found them all to be funny, charismatic, interesting and thoughtful – every story and every line had to end in a joke.. More and more they just seemed like the obvious choice for a film.”
“It’s not like the typical story of any commercial mainstream band that would be so predictable,” adds Emmet. “Very few people at that point knew what The Darkness had been doing since they vanished, and how it really was to have such enormous success so quickly and then for it to stop so abruptly or what impact that has on someone. Their responses to that were all very different, and telling and have lead them to where they are today.”
“I don’t think it will be anything that anyone is expecting. I suppose it’s many men’s fantasy to be a rock star, but what is it really like, the good the bad and the ugly? Also, they have a second chance now with a new record label and their fifth album in the wings so I want to know what they really think about that. There’s a certain resilience that’s especially inspiring with everything they’ve been through and I want to explore what keeps them going, what keeps them motivated.”
Photo Credit: Ed Vill
