Coded Pictures began production this week on the suspense drama Junkhearts in London, with a cast headed by Eddie Marsan (Happy-Go-Lucky), Tom Sturridge (Pirate Radio), Romola Garai (Atonement), and newcomer Candese Reid.  The picture follows "a vulnerable ex-soldier haunted by his past, who finds himself manipulated by a young couple as they attempt to use his home as a drugs den."  This is director Tinge Krishnan's feature debut with a script from Simon Frank (The Dry Cleaner).  Hit the jump for the full press release.

Here's the official press release:

EDDIE MARSAN, TOM STURRIDGE AND ROMOLA GARAI JOIN "JUNKHEARTS" AS FILM CAMERAS ROLL IN LONDON

London: 1 June 2010 - Award winning actor Eddie Marsan (Happy-Go-Lucky; Vera Drake, Sherlock Holmes) is joined by talented cast members: Tom Sturridge (The Boat That Rocked, Vanity Fair, Being Julia), Romola Garai (Vanity Fair, Atonement, I Capture the Castle) and newcomer Candese Reid in director Tinge Krishnan's debut feature JUNKHEARTS for producer Karen Katz from Coded Pictures.  Principal photography began on Sunday 30 May in London on the 4 week shoot.  JUNKHEARTS is a suspense drama about a vulnerable ex-soldier haunted by his past, who finds himself manipulated by a young couple as they attempt to use his home as a drugs den.  The screenplay was written by Simon Frank who won a TAPS newcomer award for The Dry Cleaner.  Film financing for JUNKHEARTS comes from Hustle Productions.

Director Krishnan who won a BAFTA Short Film Award for Shadowscan said, "I am thrilled to be directing this urban contemporary story, full of intrigue and rich with complex characters.  At its centre JUNKHEARTS shows that no matter how bleak things can seem, we can still form relationships that lift and surprise us."

Karen Katz, producer of JUNKHEARTS said, "Simon Frank's gritty urban fairytale about consequence, guilt and redemption is equally provocative and compelling.  I am delighted to have such a strong British cast that have a mixture of experience and real screen vitality.  The final results on screen should be gripping."

Eddie Marsan was born and raised in East London.  He has been a Hollywood regular since 2002 when he starred in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York.  In 2008 he acted with Will Smith in Hancock and last year appeared in Guy Ritchie's big budget version of Sherlock Holmes.  Marsan's most memorable roles have been in Mike Leigh award winning dramas: Vera Drake (2004) opposite Imelda Staunton and Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) alongside Sally Hawkins.  He won the best supporting actor award at the BIFA's for both Mike Leigh performances.  Other roles of note have included the 1970's set TV series Red Riding (2009) for Channel 4, and the BBC's adaptation of Little Dorritt (2008).

Tom Sturridge began his career in Mira Nair's feature film Vanity Fair (2004) alongside Reese Witherspoon before starring in Being Julia with Annette Bening and Michael Gambon.  He played a leading role in Gregory J. Read's feature Like Minds alongside Toni Collette, before gaining further recognition last year in Working Title's The Boat That Rocked directed by Richard Curtis with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy and Gemma Arterton.  He will next be seen in Waiting for Forever (2010) a romantic feature co-starring Rachel Bilson.  Most recently, he played the lead role of William in Simon Stephens' acclaimed new play Punk Rock at the Lyric theatre in Hammersmith and the Manchester Royal Exchange.  He subsequently received Best Newcomer Theatre Awards from the Manchester Evening News (2009) and the Critics' Circle in 2010.  He was also nominated for the Milton Schulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and London Newcomer of the Year at the Whatsonstage Awards 2009.

Romola Garai has become one of the most sought after young British actors.  Most recently she starred as the lead in Stephen Poliakoff's Glorious 39 alongside Julie Christie, Jenny Agutter and Christopher Plummer.  She has previously been nominated for two BIFAs for Most Promising Newcomer and Best Supporting Actress.  Romola's other screen work includes: I Capture The Castle (2003); Vanity Fair (2004); BAFTA award winning Atonement (2007) alongside Keira Knightley and James McAvoy; Richard Eyre's The Other Man (2008) with Laura Linney and Liam Neeson.  Garai also received critical acclaim for her lead performance in the BBC series Emma (2009) based on the novel by Jane Austen.

On the stage she most recently played Masha in Filter's adaptation of Chekhov's classic Three Sisters.  She has also starred with Sir Ian McKellen in The Royal Shakespeare Company's King Lear and was nominated by the Evening Standard Theatre Awards as the Outstanding Newcomer in 2004 for her West End debut in Calico.

Candese Reid has emerged as a talented actress from the BAFTA winning Television Workshop in Nottingham run by Ian Smith who helped develop the acting talents of Jack O'Connell (Skins, Harry Brown, Eden Lake) Toby Kebbell (Dead Man's Shoes, Control, RocknRolla) and BAFTA and Academy Award(r) nominee Samantha Morton (In America, Control, Minority Report).  JUNKHEARTS is Reid's first feature film.

Coded Pictures was established by producer Karen Katz. The company has so far produced the short film The Mood (directed by Fredrik Bond, winner of the Soho Shorts Festival) and Moving To Mars (2009), a feature documentary charting the repatriation of two Karen refugee families from Burma who move to Sheffield as part of the UN Gateway programme.  Directed by award-winning filmmaker Mat Whitecross (The Road to Guantanamo); Moving To Mars opened the 2009 Sheffield Documentary Film Festival, before being screened on 'True Stories', the documentary strand of More4.  Coded Pictures is currently in development on several new documentaries and feature films including We Are Now Beginning Our Decent from acclaimed director Pawel Pawlikowski (My Summer of Love, Last Resort).