Writer/director Noel Clarke lines up new movie projects

British writer, actor and director Noel Clarke is working on a sequel to his 2008 teen crime drama Adulthood. And more projects are in the pipeline.

Clarke’s Unstoppable Ent company has signed a first-look deal with Icon to finance, sell and distribute his films, according to Variety. Clarke (34) is expected to be involved in two films a year – budgeted between £3 million and £6 million – under the agreement. Among the projects in development are Hood3 (which, it is being speculated, may continue the story of Clarke’s re-formed character Sam Peel from Kidulthood, to which Adulthood is a sequel); the previously announced 2012 Olympics sports film Fast Girls; and sci-fi noir Reign of Death. Clarke appeared in several series of Doctor Who as Mickey Smith – on/off boyfriend of Doctor’s companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), although he ended up marrying the next companion, Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) – and was due to appear as the same character in Who spin-off Torchwood (starring John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness), but had to cry off because of filming commitments. He also appeared in Rise of the Cybermen as his alter ego from a parallel universe, Ricky Smith, and in the Doctor Who audio series Dalek Empire: The Fearless, produced by Big Finish, in which he played Salus Kade. During his time on Doctor Who, Clarke appeared with both ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston and tenth Doctor David Tennant. He recently said that he doubted that he would be appearing opposite the eleventh Doctor Matt Smith, whose first episode, The Eleventh Hour, was screened to around 8 million British viewers on Saturday (it hits US screens on April 17). “I’m not interested in sitting back and being safe,” says Clarke of his new film projects. “We will actively try to break new ground with what we do out of the UK for our home-grown audience and for an increasingly important international one also.” Clarke’s heist movie, 4.3.2.1, which he directed, opens on June 2 and stars Emma Roberts, Tamsin Egerton, Ophelia Lovibond and Shanika Warren-Markland.