Fortune Cookies, a heart-warming, cross-cultural family comedy, will be shot in the East Midlands and London in 2012. It will be accompanied by an educational scheme where young people will have a real impact on the production of a commercial movie whilst also aiming to increase their engagement with themes of Learning, Literacy and Livelihoods.

A quirky British comedy, Fortune Cookies centres around the heart of a Chinese family who are obsessed with Les Dennis’ TV gameshow Fame To Fortune. All except eldest daughter Susan Lee who would like to escape her eccentric, yet traditional family life for West End stage. As Mr Lee has been rather bad at paying his bills, the family are at risk of losing their beloved takeaway and livelihood to local loan sharks. When they get a chance to appear on Fame To Fortune to win enough money to easily cover their debts, they believe their problems are over until Susan reveals the show recording clashes with her stage debut. Family vs Ambition. Love vs Duty. Chekhov vs Chicken Feet?

The cast currently attached are Elaine Tan (Starter For Ten), David Yip (Chinese Detective), Pik Sen Lim (The Ruby In The Smoke), Ozzie Yue (Act of Grace) and Les Dennis (Ricky Gervais’ Extras) amongst others.

Company director Becky Adams will announce details of the social enterprise model, partner opportunities and details of the film itself at the launch. The Fortune Cookies model was inspired by the success of The Caterpillar and Fly, a short film made over 6 months where young people from Southfield School, Kettering, worked as Producers alongside Adams to produce a 35mm drama for film festival distribution. The social model for Caterpillar involving youth and education was born from Adams’ desire to add value to the production process itself. Adams states, “The students faced all the big challenges of film – children, animals, 35mm film – working alongside film industry professionals.”

With the support of our funders such as Carrier Media, Kodak and Deluxe, the production achieved dramatic results, changing the way Media is taught in the school and with many students now pursuing film production as a career. Adams states, “The value of working with young people in this way is clear and I believe film’s multi-disciplined nature means it can also be highly effective for non-film-related educational themes.”