SPOILER ALERT: Don't read this until you've watched First Press, we don't want to ruin the ending for you!

“First Press is the collective mindfart of five men; comedy trio “The Wogans” (Adam Gutteridge, Chris Lean and Justin Richards) alongside producing/directing team Jonathan Brooks & Mat Laroche. “The Wogans” and Jonathan Brooks first met several thousand years ago in an encounter not dissimilar to the events depicted in the 1986 movie Highlander. Try to imagine four immortal swordsmen battling each other across vast continents and many centuries. It wasn’t until the year 2009 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that they finally resolved to put down their ancient grievances and work together as a film making force. They made love together and gave birth to a Frenchman who they named Mat Laroche.

The idea for First Press came from Chris who - due to his natural propensity for mindless violence - put forward the idea of a gangster-style initiation that turns out to be something less sinister. This meant that Chris could have an outlet for his enormous and unending rage, without putting any actual humans in harm’s way (for a change).

Whilst researching for the film we discovered that there actually once existed a real life East Grinstead Flower Pressing Society, and subsequently Justin and Mat spent many months deep undercover in the town hoping to learn more about this dark and elusive association. The results of Justin’s investigation will form part of our next trilogy of films “A Quantum Leap Too Far”, “Barry Muffington” and “See You Later Steve Guttenberg” (Steve Guttenberg himself has described an early draft treatment of the latter project as “funny”).

First Press pays homage to a number of films and filmmakers: Reservoir Dogs, 44" Chest, as well as the films of Wes Anderson and David Lynch. It’s pretty amazing that the judging panel includes such talents as John Hurt (who was actually in 44” Chest) and Paul Greengrass. The fact they HAVE to watch our film at least once and also discuss it - even if only to say that they don’t like it - is very humbling. We can’t wait for the awards ceremony, partly to meet the fellow film makers, and partly because of the free booze.

Below is a scan of a letter of support we received from the actual East Grinstead Flower Pressing Society (defunct).”

Jon, Mat & The Wogans.

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