Genre: Unromantic Comedy 
Written and Directed by Billie Piper
Produced by Vaughan Sivell for Western Edge Pictures

UK Distribution: Republic Film Distribution & Spirit Entertainment
Foreign Sales: Kaleidoscope Film Distribution

Status: Premiered at Venice Critics’ Week and London Film Festival. Released in the UK theatrically and on VOD in May 2021.

Starring Billie Piper, Leo Bill, Kerry Fox, Toby Woolf and David Thewlis

Synopsis: Mandy is a modern woman in a crisis. Raising a son in the midst of a female revolution, mining the pain of her parents’ separation and professionally writing about a love that no longer exists, she falls upon a troubled man, Pete, who’s searching for a sense of worth, belonging and ‘restored’ male identity.

RARE BEASTS is a pitch-black comedy and is Billie Piper’s Directorial Debut. The film premiered In Competition at Venice Critics’ Week 2019 before screening at the London Film Festival and in competition at Gothenburg and SXSW.

The Guardian / Peter Bradshaw – Masterful Billie Piper rips up the romcom rulebook ****

The film is supported by Ffilm Cymru Wales and produced in association with 42MP, Fields Park Media Partners, Moffen Media and Warrior Film Productions.

Co-Produced by Tom Wood, Casting by Shaheen Baig, Editing by Hazel Baillie, Cinematography by Patrick Meller, Production Design by Sarah Kane, Costume Design by Grace Snell, Make-up & Hair Design by Bethany Swan, and Music by Johnny Lloyd and Nathan Coen.

Executive Producers are Vaughan Sivell, Franki Goodwin, Mike Rattenbury, Will Kane for WEP, Paul Higgins for Fields Park, Jim Reeve and Robert Halmi for Moffen Media, Josh Varney and Ben Pugh for 42 and Billie Piper.

About the Filmmaker

Billie Piper is an award-winning British actress and household name. After a successful career as a chart-topping pop musician, Piper went on to play the Doctor's assistant Rose Tyler in the BBC's reinvention of Doctor Who in 2005. She followed up her success by starring as the lead in The Secret Diary of a Call Girl, a hit TV series which she also supported as Executive Producer. 

Her other work includes appearances in TV adaptations of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Most recently, Piper won outstanding critical acclaim for her role in Garcia Lorca's Yerma, the coveted Olivier Award for Best Actress, and making history as the only actress to have won all six of the available Best Actress awards for a single performance. Rare Beasts is her Directorial Debut.