Compact Pictures
Compact Pictures was established by John McKay, a longtime writer and director in film and TV, who has emerged in the last three years as a producer. His movies as director include Crush with Andie Macdowell and Imelda Staunton, Piccadilly Jim with Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney, and Not Another Happy Ending with Karen Gillan and Stanley Weber.
John’s TV slate includes single dramas A Waste of Shame with Rupert Graves and Tom Sturridge (RTS nomination, Best Single Drama), and his film on the love affair between David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton We'll Take Manhattan - which he wrote, directed and exec-produced - and won the Prix Europa for Best Drama; as well as the young adult TV film Katy, winner of Rocky and BAFTA awards 2018, and nominated for the Rose D’or and International Emmy 2020.
Following on from the success of producing BFI/SFTN short 1745, Morayo Akande’s powerful story of two black slave girls escaping into 18th century Scotland (BAFTA Scotland and BIFA nominations Best Short, AFRIFF and Underwire prizewinner Best Short), John has developed a diverse slate of feature films through Compact: including 9 Deaths, David Harrower’s follow-up to Una, a bloody contemporary gang saga about two warring crime families; Berwick Law, James Mavor’s slow-burning revenge drama, which has just attached Screen Star of Tomorrow Anna Blandford to direct; Breast, writer-director Lucy Campbell’s female-faced body horror, selected for the Torino Lab and about to sign a development deal with West End Pictures; and Love Song for Lavender Menace, James Ley’s sparkling adaptation of his award-winning play about the founding of Edinburgh’s first ever gay bookshop in 1981.
Television series in development include James Mavor’s Chosen, a thriller set between Canada and Estonia (in co-development with Reel One Entertainment of Canada), and David Solomons’ adaptation of his own bestselling YA book series My Brother Is A Superhero.