The £3.5million film that brought the stars to Sunderland

Sunderland is at the centre of a plan to bring a mega film studio to the region.

The Echo is among the newspapers and news websites from around the North East who have come together to call on the Government to provide financial support for the Crown Works Studios plan. But the city is no stranger to welcoming big name actors and the year 2000 proved that.

The cameras rolled in Roker

The most star-studded film to be made in Sunderland - so far - was filmed on location in Roker and Seaburn in 2000.

Jimmy Spud was a £3.5million comedy which brought Billy Connolly, Rosie Rowell, Ian Glenn and David Bradley to the Sunderland seafront.

But in the centre of the frame as the cameras rolled on Roker Pier and at Seaburn funfair was 14-year-old Sean Landless, a young Wearside film star.

Picked from thousands for the title role

Sean, who was plucked from thousands of young hopefuls to land the title role, played an 11-year-old boy who was obsessed by the idea of becoming an angel and solving the mysteries of the cosmos.

The film was the second major feature to be shot in Sunderland in 2000, and the third movie to be filmed in the region in 12 months.

Before coming to Sunderland, Sean had been filming for four weeks in London.

The movie was on location in the North East for eight days, also visiting South Shields and Rosie Rowell’s birthplace of Byker where the story was based.

Rosie was no stranger to North East film settings either as she had Penshaw Monument for a backdrop during filming for a TV series in 1993.

Through the film’s North East production associates, International Media Productions, six local trainees joined the crew.

Among them were Stuart MacKenzie and Steven Sibley, from Sunderland, who were with Jimmy Sud while it was on location in the North East.

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