Ali G writer pens coma movie

Ali G's co-writer is working on a comedy movie about a rock star who emerges from a 20-year coma.

Film Four is producing Dan Mazer's El Bulto as part of a new £10million slate of new big-screen projects.

The plot revolves around hard-living Dave, who's "woken by his erection" after being in a drug-induced coma and has to piece together his past as an Eighties rock hero.

A Film Four spokesman said the film "exemplifies the FilmFour/Channel 4 strategy of nurturing highly successful comic talent."

Other projects on the slate include a movie version of Toby Young's autobiographical tale of the glamorous world of New York magazine publishing, How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, and an adaptation of the thriller He Kills Coppers

Speaking at the Cannes film festival, Film Four head Ross said: "It's fantastic to have kick-started these projects and to be working with such an exciting range of British directing, writing, production and performance talent.

"Our slate gives a strong sense of the kind of projects we want to invest in and the kind of talent we hope to be working with in the future. I feel extremely optimistic the contribution FilmFour can make to the British film industry in the years ahead."

Published: 20 May 2003