LONDON — David Tennant, the star of BBC sci-fi series “Doctor Who,” and Sarah Harding, a singer with band Girls Aloud, have joined the cast of comedy “St. Trinian’s II: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold.”
The pic, which is being produced and directed by Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson, started lensing Tuesday in and around London and at Ealing Studios. Nick Moorcroft and Piers Ashworth penned the script.
The cast also includes Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Gemma Arterton, Talulah Riley, Jodie Whittaker, Juno Temple, Tamsin Egerton, Celia Imrie and Fenella Woolgar, all of whom appeared in the first pic in the contemporary franchise, “St Trinian’s.”
The cast of “St. Trinian’s II,” in which the pupils and staff of the anarchic girls’ school engage in a hunt for treasure and a battle against a women-hating secret society, also includes up-and-coming thesps Ella Smith, Zawe Ashton and Montserrat Lombard.
Pic is being produced by Fragile Film for Entertainment Film Distributors and Ealing Studios, with backing from the Aegis Film Fund and Prescience.
Nigel Green, Everett, James Spring, Paul Brett, Tim Smith and Chris Smith exec produce.
In May, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group acquired U.S. video and TV rights to the first pic in the franchise, which grossed $25 million in the U.K. for Entertainment Film Distributors. NeoClassics will distribute the film theatrically in the U.S. this summer.
The pics are based on Ronald Searle’s drawings, “The Girls of St Trinian’s,” which also inspired a series of laffers in the 1950s and 60s, which starred Alistair Sim, Joyce Grenfell, Sid James and George Cole.
