Just 14 The Movie Pre Production Stage

Following a successful promotional trailer at the end of last year we are aiming to make the the Just 14 movie later this year and release early next year. Hopefully to coincide with Aston Villa's 150th anniversary celebrations in 2024. We are in constant contact with the club who are fully supporting the project.

Let me start by giving you some background on our incredible journey so far;

I’ll skip (oh, I'm Andy Dale writer of Just 14 book and a football nut) my first 45 years of being a Villa fan and go right to where my ‘Just 14’ story starts in 2015.

I'm a part time author (boring IT consultant by day). A book I wrote in 2015 'Just 14' is my biggest seller to date and has sold over 40,000 copies. It's a coming of age story based on a boy turning 14 in 1981 with the backdrop of his beloved Aston Villa's rollercoaster title winning season. When they amazingly used just 14 players.

Now in 2020 I was approached by a Birmingham based director to turn the book into a movie. The last 3 years have been quite mind blowing with the project quickly moving from a very low budget film to quite a major production. We have used an award-winning script writer and produced what we think is a great comedy script (with some tearjerkers in it). I describe it as ‘Fever Pitch’ meets ‘Gregory’s Girl’ with a hint of Adrian Mole.

We have had positive responses from key actors Brendan Gleesen, Kris Marshall, Adil Ray, Samuel Anderson, Helen George, Nigel Boyle. All of whom are Villa fans.

We have the full backing of Aston Villa football Club, all players from the 80/81 season, Creative Central, West Midlands mayor’s office and BBC Apprentice Hub.

As the website explains much about where the project is https://just14themovie.com.

Last summer we shot a promotional trailer for ‘Just 14’ which included cameo roles from 4 Villa 80’s legends. With a budget of around 20k (raised from crowdfunding) we worked with West Midland film company Mockingbird Films Co’. To produce a trailer. We are happy to let you have a private viewing of this. But as a taster, here is an extended scene from it.  

Click Here to watch 'Why Randy Follows the Villa' scene.

The premiere of the promotional trailer was at a Sports Bar in the West Midlands attended by around 200 people, including 15 former West Midland 80’s players and a dozen local sports reporters.

We are now looking to move forward to the Pre-Production stage where we are fine tuning script, securing cast, securing locations, writing contracts and marketing the project worldwide (attracting pre-sales). 

All of this work has costs involved so we are looking at this second round of crowdfunding to help us accelerate the move into full production. Ideally in September this year.    

To find out more about the project why not watch my interview on the brilliant Villa podcast UTVPodcast.

This is such an exciting project to get involved. A real film-good film with an 80's vibe. Your chance to be part of the next Fever Pitch or Bend It Like Beckham.