One gunman. Two lovers. One car. Five bullets.
One survivor.
A contained thriller based
on the incredible true story
of the infamous A6 Murder.
LOGLINE
When a headstrong office worker and her married lover are carjacked by an unstable gunman, they must endure a deadly claustrophobic joyride through 1960s London.
PITCH TRAILER
THE TRUE STORY OF THE A6 MURDER
Lovers Valerie and Mike were held up in their Morris Minor by a mysterious gunman one summer evening in 1961.
He robbed them and demanded to be taken to London. Increasingly frustrated by Valerie’s attempts to outwit him, tensions in the car escalated.
By a quiet layby at Deadman’s Hill, the gunman shot and killed Mike.
Valerie fought for her life but was shot repeatedly. She pretended to be dead while he reloaded, and then he shot her again.
Convinced she was dead, the gunman drove off. Valerie willed herself to survive in order to see him brought to justice.
Months later, paralysed, she was once again in the presence of her would-be killer, James Hanratty. But now she could get revenge.
CHARACTERS
VALERIE STORIE
“I am not a beautiful girl... I’m practical, capable, down-to-earth, and always in control of myself. I live in a house exactly like thousands of others, in the suburbs of London... I see myself as a perfectly unremarkable person.” - Valerie Storie
CASTING SUGGESTION:
Daisy Edgar-Jones
Valerie was resourceful, smart, and determined. She was also in love with a married man – Mike. At work, he was her boss. They shared a hobby, car rallying – he the driver, she the navigator. He was an intrinsic part of every aspect of her life. She wasn’t prepared for a life without him.
After Hanratty murdered her boyfriend, robbed them both, raped her and almost killed her, all she wanted – after ensuring justice was done – was to be left alone to go back to work, and back to her hobby. But she would be doing it alone for the first time.
She did not want to be thought of as a victim, or pitied. She rejected psychiatric treatment, dismissing it as a device used by those who would blame others for their misfortunes. She spoke publicly about her ordeal only two or three times, and when she was paid for an exclusive by a magazine, she donated the money to a local charity for disabled people.
The world deserves to know Valerie Storie, to know her bravery and what she survived.
She was just 22 when James Hanratty shot and paralysed her, and she shouldn’t have survived the night. Although she never walked again, she lived another 55 years.
She was a perfectly remarkable person.
“THE GUNMAN”
CASTING SUGGESTION:
William Attenborough
A teenage boy in a grown man’s body, James Hanratty had severe learning difficulties which were exacerbated by family childhood trauma.
He had a cocky, brash demeanour and longed to be a ‘proper Cockney villain’.
He took care with his appearance, always dressed smartly, and showed all the signs of a potential psychopath.
One moonlit night in August 1961, that potenial was unleashed.
MIKE GREGSTEN
CASTING SUGGESTION:
Ben Whishaw
Charming, softly-spoken and with boyish looks, Mike was a loving father to his two boys.
But his laissez-faire attitude towards money and marital vows had led him to sell his own car and borrow his Auntie’s Morris Minor in order to see his mistress, Valerie.
Mike was risk-averse, and his instinct when Hanratty pointed a gun into his car was to do exactly what he was told — unlike Valerie.
VIRTUAL PRODUCTION
80% of this film takes place inside a car.
The environment outside the car will be almost entirely VIRTUAL.
DEAD MAN’S HILL is the first indie film project in the world (probably) where the screenwriter also happens to be an experienced Virtual Production expert and real-time filmmaker, and the film was written specifically for this new approach.
But what does this mean?
VIRTUAL SETS — Created by an integrated Virtual Art Department (VAD), virtual sets can be re-dressed or fully changed over almost instantaneously.
FASTER SHOOT — With less crew required and less changeover times, we can shoot more pages per day.
CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT — No weather to worry about, and time can be effectively frozen so golden hour can last as long as we need it to.
IN-CAMERA & IN-EYE VFX — What the camera sees is what goes in the edit, the virtual elements completely integrated to the physical, and the cast see it too.
CONTINGENCY BUILT-IN — Should the need arise to replace the virtual elements in post, a green-screen alt and camera tracking data are supplied as standard for VFX.
SYNOPSIS
Valerie (22) and Mike (34) are having an affair. He has been promising to leave his wife for her, but hasn’t done so yet. In fact he just returned from a family holiday with his wife and their two sons.
With tension between them, Michael parks his 1955 Morris Minor in a secluded cornfield at sunset, a place he and Valerie have been before, so they can be alone to discuss their future…
Soon, there is a knock on the window. A shadowy gunman gets in the back seat. From here, we are trapped inside the car with Valerie and the unseen Gunman. Only when she gets out of the car will the camera go outside again.
It will be a while.
The Gunman is chatty at first, enjoying himself and the power he has. But after robbing them, he seems to have no plan.
Whip-smart Valerie impedes and frustrates his decisions, and asks him many questions. Michael is frightened, obedient.
He has them drive around for hours…
Eventually, they pull into a lay-by in a remote place called Deadman’s Hill, and a fleeting altercation results in Michael being shot in the head twice. He dies in the driver’s seat.
Valerie screams. He tells her repeatedly to be quiet, “I’m finking,” in his Cocknet accent. but she won’t be quiet.
After bickering with each other, the Gunman suddenly tells Valerie to kiss him. When she turns, she finally sees his face – a fleeting glimpse of his ice-blue eyes in the headlights of a passing car. He tells her to get in the back with him…
There, in the dark, he rapes her.
After making her remove Michael’s body from the car, the Gunman shoots her.
While he reloads the gun, she pretends to be dead. He shoots her again... and she still pretends to be dead!
Convinced she’s dead, the Gunman drives away in the Morris Minor.
Valerie says a tearful farewell to Mike, and prepares herself to die.
But she can’t die. Fuelled by the desire to not let the Gunman get away, she wills herself to cling on, to survive against all odds!
She is found the next morning.
Alive.
Months later, still in hospital recovering, the police bring a lineup of men to her, including their suspect. They stand in the hospital corridor while she is wheeled up and down the line.
Now she has the gun. If she can identify him, simply by pointing at him, he’ll likely be executed.
Valerie finally looks into his big, blue eyes again, and now he is the scared one.
She points at him.
Bang.
COMPS
BURIED
2010
Budget: $2m
Box Office: £21.3m
LOCKE
2013
Budget: $2m
Box Office: £5.1m
FALL
2022
Budget: $3m
Box Office: £21m
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
The A6 Murder has had me obsessed since I first came across it in early 2020. I discovered Valerie Storie lived just a few streets away. The cornfield where the events begin is on our dog walk. This film will be the result of my obsession.
The story of a plucky, incredibly brave young woman that survived the most harrowing ordeal to ensure her boyfriend’s murderer was brought to justice feels like it has almost been forgotten since it happened in 1961, but it is as relevant now as it was then. Valerie’s incredible bravery deserves to be immortalised.
DEAD MAN’S HILL is not just ‘based on true events’: it is true. I have taken only superficial artistic license, mostly with imagined dialogue, and the main source was Valerie’s unpublished court transcript, obtained from Bedford Archives.
The film’s adherence to the facts, and its respect for Valerie – and Mike – are of paramount importance to me. The film will not be graphic in showing the murder of Mike, or the rape of Valerie. Instead, the script is designed to be a gripping exercise in tension and suspense.
The unique selling point for this feature is that for more than half the film the camera will be inside the car with characters, with no external shots and no way out, trapping the audience in with Valerie as she is taken on a terror ride through a changing post-war London at gunpoint. I’d like to shoot the film in a 4:3 format, representative of movies of the time, but also to heighten the sense of claustrophobia with a tighter frame.
DEAD MAN’S HILL will be a Hitchcockian, noirish, pulse-pounding psychological horror-thriller with a unique setting and philosophical themes exploring determinism and free will.
WRITER / DIRECTOR
Martin is the writer/director of the award-winning short PRAZINBURK RIDGE, and currently VFX Art Director on a major movie project for Marvel Studios.
MARTIN X. BELL
An award-winning animator, he has over 15 years experience in CGI and VFX, with 20+ blockbuster movie credits, including:
