A Street Cat Named Bob | |
---|---|
![]() British release poster | |
Directed by | Roger Spottiswoode |
Written by |
|
Based on | A Street Cat Named Bob and The World According to Bob by James Bowen |
Produced by | Adam Rolston |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Peter Wunstorf |
Edited by | Paul Tothill |
Music by | |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing International |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 103 minutes [1] |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | $8 million [2] |
Box office | $17.9 million [2] |
A Street Cat Named Bob is a 2016 British biographical drama film directed by Roger Spottiswoode and written by Tim John and Maria Nation. It is based on the book of the same name and The World According to Bob by James Bowen. The film stars Luke Treadaway, Ruta Gedmintas, Joanne Froggatt, Anthony Head, and Bob the Cat as himself. The film premiered in London on 3 November 2016, followed by a general release the next day. The title is a spoof of A Streetcar Named Desire .
The film won Best British Film at the UK National Film Awards on 29 March 2017. [3]
A Christmas-themed sequel, A Gift from Bob , was released to UK theatres in November 2020. The film was released posthumously, as Bob the cat died in June 2020.
James Bowen is a homeless man and former heroin addict, living on the streets of London and down to his last bits of change. After a life-threatening drug-related incident, his support worker Val gets him into a council flat and prescribes him methadone in an attempt to get him off the street. On his first night in his flat James discovers a cat rifling through his food. Assuming the cat had escaped from somewhere, James tries to return the cat to his real owners.
After letting him go, that same evening the cat returns to James's flat, this time with a purulent wound on his back leg. Worried, James consults his animal-loving but allergic neighbour, Betty. She informs James of a local charity vet where she volunteers, and names the cat Bob. Waiting on a queue at the vet, James misses a meeting with Val.
After the appointment, James has Bob neutered and sets him free. However, Bob keeps following James into town, eventually drawing more crowds of people, making James more wealthy, and he eventually decides to keep Bob. Bob becomes a tourist hotspot and James and Betty start to become romantically attached.
One night while returning home, James finds his old friend, Baz, unconscious on his flat estate, overdosed on heroin. Baz later dies in hospital, and James finds out that Betty cannot be around drug addicts, as her deceased brother had been one. On New Year's Eve, James makes an impromptu visit to his biological father, Jack, his stepmother, Hilary, and his lost sisters, Pris and Faith. After Bob destroys their living room, Hilary sends James and Bob out.
One day, while busking, James gets into an argument with a thug causing the crowd to get in a brawl with the man and James getting arrested for it. Although found innocent, he is prohibited from busking for six months. At the pharmacy where he is waiting to receive his methadone, Betty notices James; they argue and go their separate ways. Later, James visits the offices of The Big Issue to make some more money for him and Bob. He regains his popularity with tourists by selling The Big Issue.
After being accused of illegally selling magazines on another vendor's patch, James and Bob are banned for a whole month. After going back in business James gets into an argument with a rude woman trying to buy Bob off him, losing Bob in the scuffle. Bob does not return for a few days, leaving James devastated. After Bob returns, James feels he is ready to come off the methadone.
After a week of gruelling withdrawal symptoms, James awakes clean and healthy. He goes to visit Betty, who is in the middle of moving and living a life meant for her to live. James and Betty end on a good note. A journalist, Mary, requests to write a book about James and Bob after his Internet and media popularity, and James agrees.
James then fixes up his relationship with his father Jack, and his life turns around for the better. Later, at a book signing, James is celebrated by Val, his father, and a visiting Betty. James and Betty remain supportive friends as James and Bob continue on their journey together.
On 24 August 2015, it was announced that Roger Spottiswoode would direct a film based on the book A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen, while Tim John scripted the film. [4] Adam Rolston would produce the film through his Shooting Script Films. [4] The Exchange sold the film's international rights. [6] Maria Nation also wrote the script. [7]
Principal photography on the film began on 25 October 2015 in London, at Twickenham Film Studios and on location in Covent Garden. [5] Filming wrapped on 6 December 2015. [7] [8]
The world premiere of A Street Cat Named Bob took place at the Curzon Mayfair Cinema, London on 3 November 2016 and was attended by the Duchess of Cambridge. [9] The film opened to the public in the UK on 4 November and in the US on 18 November.
A Street Cat Named Bob grossed $82,703 in the United States and Canada and $17,852,881 in other countries for a worldwide total of nearly $18 million, against a production budget of $8 million. [2]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 77% based on 65 reviews, with an average score of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A Street Cat Named Bob uses a fact-based feelgood tale as the inspiration for an unapologetically heartwarming movie that should move all but the most cynical of viewers." [10] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 54 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [11]
Val Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, he found fame after appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! (1984) and Real Genius (1985), as well as the military action film Top Gun (1986) and the fantasy film Willow (1988). Kilmer gained acclaim for his portrayal of Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991). He was cast as a main character in films such as the western Tombstone (1993), and the crime dramas True Romance (1993) and Heat (1995). He portrayed Batman in Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever (1995), and continued to star in films such as The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), The Saint (1997), The Prince of Egypt (1998), Alexander (2004), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), and The Snowman (2017). In 2022, Kilmer reprised his role as Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick (2022).
Trainspotting is a 1996 British black comedy-drama film directed by Danny Boyle, and starring Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle and Kelly Macdonald in her film debut. Based on the 1993 novel of the same title by Irvine Welsh, the film was released in the United Kingdom on 23 February 1996.
Drugstore Cowboy is a 1989 American crime drama film directed by the American filmmaker Gus Van Sant. Written by Van Sant and Daniel Yost and based on an autobiographical novel by James Fogle, the film stars Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham and William S. Burroughs. It was Van Sant's second film as director.
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool".
Cat People is a 1942 American supernatural horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced for RKO by Val Lewton. The film tells the story of Irena Dubrovna, a newly married Serbian fashion illustrator obsessed with the idea that she is descended from an ancient tribe of Cat People who metamorphose into black panthers when aroused. When her husband begins to show interest in one of his coworkers, Irena begins to stalk her. The film stars Simone Simon as Irena, and features Kent Smith, Tom Conway, and Jane Randolph in supporting roles.
Cosh Boy is a 1953 British film noir based on an original play by Bruce Walker. It was directed by Lewis Gilbert and featured James Kenney and Joan Collins. It was made at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.
Joanne Froggatt is a British actress. From 2010 to 2015, she portrayed Anna Bates in the ITV period drama series Downton Abbey, for which she received three Emmy nominations and won the 2014 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. From 2017 to 2020, she starred as Laura Nielson in the ITV/Sundance drama series Liar.
Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street is a 1999 television documentary film directed by Steven Okazaki. Filmed from 1995 to 1998 in the Tenderloin, San Francisco, California, the documentary describes the lives of heroin addicts.
Val Matthew Emmich is an American writer, singer-songwriter, and actor. He has had roles on HBO's Vinyl, NBC's 30 Rock, Showtime's The Big C, and ABC's Ugly Betty. He is the author of The New York Times bestselling YA book Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel and the adult novel The Reminders.
David John Franco is an American actor and filmmaker. He began his career with small roles in films such as Superbad (2007) and Charlie St. Cloud (2010). Following a starring role in the ninth season of the comedy series Scrubs, Franco had his film breakthrough as a supporting role in the buddy comedy film 21 Jump Street (2012).
Ruta Gedmintas is a British actress known for her work on television, her credits include The Innocence Project (2006–2007), The Tudors (2007), Spooks: Code 9 (2008), The Borgias (2011), Lip Service (2010-2012), The Strain (2014–2017), and His Dark Materials (2019–2022).
Jack Charles, also known as Uncle Jack Charles, was an Australian stage and screen actor and activist, known for his advocacy for Aboriginal people. He was involved in establishing the first Indigenous theatre in Australia, co-founding Nindethana Theatre with Bob Maza in Melbourne in 1971. His film credits include the Australian film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978), among others, and more recently appeared in TV series Cleverman (2016) and Preppers (2021).
James Anthony Bowen is an English author based in London. His memoirs A Street Cat Named Bob, The World According to Bob and A Gift from Bob, written with Garry Jenkins, were international best-sellers. A film based on the first two books was released in 2016 and a sequel was released in 2020. Bowen now dedicates his time to helping numerous charities that involve homelessness, literacy and animal welfare.
A Good Marriage is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by Peter Askin and written by Stephen King, based on King's novella of the same name, from the 2010 collection Full Dark, No Stars. It stars Joan Allen, Anthony LaPaglia, Kristen Connolly and Stephen Lang.
Counterfeit Cat is an animated television series developed by Aardman Animations, Cristina Fiumara, and Ben Marsaud. The series is produced by Wildseed Kids, Tricon Kids & Family, and Aardman Animations, in association with Teletoon, with the participation of Disney XD, and with animation provided by Atomic Cartoons. The series follows the lives of a yellow Manx cat named Max and a blue alien named Gark as they live together in an apartment, along with her animal friends, aliens, humans and many more adventures.
Cleopatra Entertainment is the film division of long time Los Angeles–based indie label Cleopatra Records, most known for promoting dark and experimental music. Founded in 2015, the company has distributed, developed, and produced several films most of which have a strong horror and/or music component. The company has focused primarily on the home video market through partnerships with New York–based film distributor The Orchard as well as AMPED Music Distribution, and MVD Entertainment Group.
Gerald Kelley is an American children's book illustrator. He works in an elaborate style with water color and precise detail. Kelley is known for his work on James Bowen's Bob the Cat series and A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, a best-selling children's book written by Jill Twiss.
A Gift from Bob is a 2020 British Christmas biographical drama film directed by Charles Martin Smith and written by Garry Jenkins, based on the non-fiction books A Gift from Bob and The Little Book of Bob by James Bowen. It is a sequel to the 2016 film A Street Cat Named Bob, and stars Luke Treadaway, reprising his role as Bowen. Anna Wilson-Jones, Kristina Tonteri-Young, and Bob the Cat co-star. It was released in the United Kingdom by Lionsgate on 6 November 2020, and is the final film appearance of Bob, who died in an accident six months after filming was completed.