St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold

Last updated

St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold
St trinians.jpg
British release poster
Directed by Oliver Parker
Barnaby Thompson
Screenplay byPiers Ashworth
Nick Moorcroft
Based on St Trinian's
by Ronald Searle
Produced byOliver Parker
Barnaby Thompson
Starring Rupert Everett
Colin Firth
David Tennant
Talulah Riley
Jodie Whittaker
Juno Temple
Tamsin Egerton
Toby Jones
Celia Imrie
Gemma Arterton
CinematographyDavid Higgs
Edited byEmma E. Hickox
Music by Charlie Mole
Production
companies
Distributed by Entertainment Film Distributors
Release date
  • 18 December 2009 (2009-12-18)
Running time
106 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office£7,088,097 [1]

St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold is a 2009 British adventure comedy film directed by Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson, both of whom directed the previous film in the series. [2] It is the seventh in a long running series of films based on the works of cartoonist Ronald Searle, and the second film produced since the franchise was rebooted in 2007.

Contents

A sequel, St Trinian's 3: Battle of the Sexes, had been in development since 2009, but was never produced.

Plot

One night, the girls of St. Trinian's catch Celia, a member of the eco sect, retrieving an old ring from the school's Fritton Archives. Celia explains that an unknown man telephoned her to retrieve it for him in exchange for £20,000. Seeking to get more, Annabelle Fritton, the new head girl, demands £100,000 from the man when he calls back, only for him to refuse and threaten the girls for their greed. When the school's power is cut, the girls ask their headmistress, Camilla Fritton, about why the ring might be so valuable.

Camilla recognises the ring as one of two created by a pirate ancestor of hers in 1589, which when brought together can lead the way to a buried treasure hidden somewhere in the world. Shortly after learning this, the school is besieged by masked men led by Sir Piers Pomfrey, a man of flawless reputation and a descendant of the man that was robbed by Camilla's pirate ancestor, who steals the ring with the intention of finding the treasure.

Seeking to stop him, the girls search for the second ring and find a clue left by another ancestor who located the first and left it in the archives. After a difficult time deciphering a clue they left, the girls find it to be hidden within a boys' school, leaving a group to infiltrate it in disguise and recover it. Seeking to recover the first, the girls learn that Piers is the leader of a secret society known as AD1, a masculinist brotherhood, and that Camilla's old flame and former head of education, Geoffrey Thwaites, knows about him and the society.

After tracking him down at a pub, Camilla convinces him to help them, whereupon she puts him through a course to help him overcome his need for drink, and assigns him to work undercover at AD1's hideout, with Annabelle calling in the former head girl Kelly, now an M.I.7 agent, to assist in the recovery of the ring. Despite the girls not finding it in the vault, Geoffrey spots it being worn by Piers and manages to steal it from him, returning it back to St. Trinian's.

Finding that the two rings bear longitude and latitude coordinates respectively on them, the girls find that the treasure is buried under the Globe Theatre. After organising a flash mob to keep AD1 from pursuing them, after Piers learns they recovered the first ring, Camilla, Geoffrey, the school's bursar, Annabelle and a small group of the girls make it to the theatre, and while the girls head underneath the building, Camilla and Geoffrey pose as actors they knocked out to avoid raising an alarm.

Although the girls make it to the treasure's location within a secret room, they discover a chest within containing nothing more than a note from Pirate Fritton, who gave up being a pirate to write plays under the name of William Shakespeare, and that the treasure was the final play he wrote intended to reveal that "he" was a woman. Piers, managing to track them down, holds them at gunpoint and steals the play from them, revealing that his ancestors knew this fact and that he had always intended to find the play and destroy it. The girls watch as he flees the scene on his private boat.

Seeking to stop him, the girls take control of the reconstruction of the Golden Hind and sail it down the Thames, whereupon they attack Pier's boat, with Camilla recovering the play's script from him. The girls soon return to St. Trinian's for a wild party to celebrate their success, while Piers is exposed for being a sexist after AD1 is revealed to the media.

Cast

Talulah Riley during filming in August 2009 TalulahRileyAug09.jpg
Talulah Riley during filming in August 2009

Production

Principal photography started in July 2009, at Ealing Studios and on location in various places in London, including the Globe Theatre and on (and in) the River Thames. The 'Old Boys School' was filmed at Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey and the boys choir was the Guildford Cathedral Choir. [3] On 16 August 2009, hundreds of extras, along with the main characters, filmed a mass dance scene in the style of a flash mob at London's Liverpool Street Station.

The manor house used as the girls school is Knebworth House in Hertfordshire.

Release

It was announced at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival that St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold was to be released on 18 December 2009. [4]

Box office

It opened at #2 in the United Kingdom, just behind James Cameron's 3D sci fi epic Avatar , with debut week end box office figures of £1,586,832. [5] As of 10 February 2010, the film has grossed a total of £7,019,714 in the United Kingdom, considerably lower than the first instalment's £12,280,529. It became the fourth biggest film of the Christmas season of 2009: ahead were Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel , Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes , and Avatar.

Critical reception

The film received overwhelmingly negative reviews. It holds a 14% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 21 reviews, with an average score of 3.55/10. [6]

Home media

The region 2 DVD of the film was released on 24 May 2010. [7] A region 1 DVD release occurred on 23 March 2011.

Proposed sequel

In December 2009, it was announced that a third film was in development, St Trinian's 3: Battle of the Sexes.[ citation needed ]. However, the film never went into production.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Trinian's School</span> British gag cartoon comic strip series

St Trinian's is a British gag cartoon comic strip series, created and drawn by Ronald Searle from 1946 until 1952. The cartoons all centre on a boarding school for girls, where the teachers are sadists and the girls are juvenile delinquents. The series was Searle's most famous work and inspired a popular series of comedy films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Harding</span> English singer, model, and actress (1981–2021)

Sarah Harding was an English singer, model and actress. Her professional career began in 2002 when she successfully auditioned for the ITV reality series Popstars: The Rivals, during which Harding won a place in the girl group Girls Aloud. The group achieved twenty consecutive top ten singles in the UK, six albums that were certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), two of which went to number one in the UK, and accumulated a total of five BRIT Award nominations. In 2009, Girls Aloud won "Best Single" with their song "The Promise".

<i>The Belles of St. Trinians</i> 1954 British comedy film by Frank Launder

The Belles of St Trinian's is a 1954 British comedy film, directed by Frank Launder, co-written by Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and starring Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell, George Cole, Hermione Baddeley. Inspired by British cartoonist Ronald Searle's St Trinian's School comic strips, the film focuses on the lives of the students and teachers of the fictional school, dealing with attempts to shut them down while their headmistress faces issues with financial troubles, which culminates in the students thwarting a scheme involving a racehorse.

<i>Blue Murder at St Trinians</i> 1957 British film

Blue Murder at St Trinian's is a 1957 British comedy film, directed by Frank Launder, co-written by Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and starring Terry-Thomas, George Cole, Joyce Grenfell, Lionel Jeffries and Richard Wattis; the film also includes a brief cameo of Alastair Sim, reprising his lead role in the 1954 film, The Belles of St. Trinian's. Inspired by the St Trinian's School comic strips by British cartoonist Ronald Searle, the film is the second entry in the St. Trinian's film series, with its plot seeing the students of the fictional school making plans to secure a place on a European tour, all while subsequently aiding a criminal who is secretly seeking to escape the country with stolen jewels.

Henry Cuthbert Edwards aka Flash Harry is a fictional character from the St. Trinian's series of films who first appears in the 1954 The Belles of St Trinian's and who may also be a spiv. The term refers to "an ostentatious, loudly-dressed, and usually ill-mannered man". The best-known portrayer is George Cole in the 1950s–1960s films.

Tamsin Olivia Egerton-Dick is an English actress known for her roles as Chelsea Parker in the 2007 film St Trinian's, Holly Goodfellow in the 2005 film Keeping Mum and Guinevere in the 2011 television series Camelot, one of three different roles she played in TV series connected with Arthurian legends.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Talulah Riley</span> English actress (born 1985)

Talulah Jane Riley-Milburn is an English actress. She has appeared in films, including Pride & Prejudice (2005), St Trinian's (2007) and its sequel St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (2009), The Boat That Rocked (2009), and Inception (2010). She has also appeared on the HBO science fiction western series Westworld (2016–2018) and the FX biographical miniseries Pistol (2022).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Alban, Wood Street</span> Former church in London

St Alban's was a church in Wood Street, City of London. It was dedicated to Saint Alban. Of medieval origin, it was rebuilt in 1634, destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and rebuilt, this time to a Gothic design by Sir Christopher Wren. It was severely damaged by bombing during the Second World War and the ruins cleared, leaving only the tower.

Montserrat Lombard is an English actress known for playing Sharon 'Shaz' Granger in the BBC drama series Ashes to Ashes.

<i>St Trinians</i> (film) 2007 British comedy film

St Trinian's is a 2007 British comedy film and the sixth in a long-running series of British films based on the works of cartoonist Ronald Searle and set in St Trinian's School. The first five films form a series, starting with The Belles of St. Trinian's in 1954, with sequels in 1957, 1960, 1966 and a reboot in 1980. The release of 2007, 27 years after the last entry, and 53 years after the first film, is a rebooting of the franchise, rather than a direct sequel, with certain plot elements borrowed from the first film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Moorcroft</span> English screenwriter

Nick Moorcroft is a British screenwriter, film producer, director and theatrical producer.

"Theme to St Trinian's" is a promotional single recorded by British all-female pop group Girls Aloud for the album St. Trinian's: The Soundtrack (2007), released to promote the film of the same name. The song was written by the film's score composer Charlie Mole and Ali Thompson, while Girls Aloud's recurring collaborators Xenomania provided production.

Angus Barnett is an English actor known for his role of Mullroy in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and the British ITV series Dead Man Weds (2005). He was born and brought up in Ruddington, Nottinghamshire and attended West Bridgford Comprehensive School. He trained as an actor at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

<i>St. Trinians 2: The Legend of Frittons Gold</i> (soundtrack) 2009 soundtrack album by Various Artists

St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold is a soundtrack album to the 2009 film St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold. It was released on December 14, 2009, via Polydor Records. It features eight songs produced by Xenomania: five by the Banned of St Trinian's and three by Girls Aloud member Sarah Harding.

Cloe Isabella Mackie and Holly Elizabeth Mackie are British twin actresses, best known for playing Tania and Tara, respectively, in the 2007 and 2009 St Trinian's films.

<i>Bad Day</i> (film) 2010 film

Bad Day is an independent British film starring Claire Goose, Donna Air, Sarah Harding, Anthony Ofoegbu and Robbie Gee. It is the latest feature film from director Ian David Diaz, whose past films include The Killing Zone, Dead Room and Fallen Angels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabriella Wilde</span> British actress and model (born 1989)

Gabriella Zanna Vanessa Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, known professionally as Gabriella Wilde or Gabriella Calthorpe, is an English actress and model.

Barnaby David Waterhouse Thompson is a British film director and producer. He is best known for producing Wayne's World, Spice World, Kevin & Perry Go Large and An Ideal Husband, as well as co-directing the St Trinians films. He founded Fragile Films and ran the iconic Ealing Studios for fourteen years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clara Paget</span> British actress and model

Lady Clara Elizabeth Iris Paget is a British actress and model known for her roles in films St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold and Fast & Furious 6, and her role as Anne Bonny in the television series Black Sails.

References

  1. "UK Box Office: 12 – 14 March 2010". UK Film Council. Archived from the original on 27 January 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  2. Balls, David (25 May 2009). "Harding 'to star in St Trinian's sequel'". Digital Spy . Retrieved 7 July 2009.
  3. "Sarah Harding Addicts: Guildford Cathedral Choir performs in new St. Trinian's film". Sarahhardingaddicts.blogspot.com. 27 July 2009. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  4. Parfitt, Orlando (19 May 2008). "Cannes 2008: St. Trinian's Girls Return". IGN . Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  5. "'Avatar' soars to UK box office top spot – Movies News". Digital Spy. 22 December 2009. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  6. St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold at Rotten Tomatoes
  7. "St Trinians".