--- The Best Man Movie ---

The Best Man started life as a verse monologue written by the poet and playwright Glyn Maxwell for his childhood friend, actor Danny Swanson.

After various incarnations on radio and on stage in Hertfordshire, a version directed by Jon Croker went up to the Smirnoff Underbelly at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2004.

Audience numbers were unusually high for Edinburgh and the play got some great reviews:

Glyn Maxwell's well-crafted monologue is highly effective in its combination of the superficial banter expected of a best man with an unexpected dark wit ...
[Danny Swanson's Bailey] holds the floor with uninhibited intoxication.'
- The Independent

Glyn Maxwell's poetic verse, a work of art in itself, when combined with Swanson's precise, passionate delivery comes to life in such a way that it sounds as natural to the ear as everyday dialogue
- The Scotsman

Poignant, haunting and mesmerising, The Best Man is artfully constructed and skillfully delivered, creating a striking depiction of a man tangled in his past
- Fest

After all of this, we were reluctant to put the play to rest and decided to have a go at adapting it into a screenplay. A few big changes were made (the original play involved a bomb!) and we had great fun scripting and casting the roles which had only ever existed in Bailey's descriptions.

The screenplay was created over the winter of 2004-05 and shooting began in Spring 2005.