Cyberpunk cult writer and director, Richard Stanley (Hardware, Dust Devil), is to direct the upcoming film, Steel Donkeys. The script was also written by Stanley, for the new company Steel Mill Films, based in Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing’s Wolverhampton venue. All exterior scenes will be shot at Bloodstock festival, UK, with other recording taking place at K.K.’s Steel Mill. Find out more below
Bloodstock Open Air festival founder Adam Gregory said of the film:
“We are delighted to be working with Steel Mill Films and with Richard Stanley on this fantastic project which will showcase Bloodstock to an international audience on the big screen.”
The film centres around three young, small-time crooks tasked with stealing a precious artefact of great power from a mysterious rock star at a huge music festival. The botched heist takes an apocalyptic turn as the three teenagers unwittingly unleash a malignant Afro-Caribbean entity, imprisoned for eons within the artifact that proceeds to party like a demon, wreaking havoc on the bank holiday revellers and threatening to bring the world as we know it to an end. As the night of high octane weirdness escalates out of control, the teenagers find their only hope is to recruit a team of unlikely heroes to battle the demon and restore balance to the universe.
Steel Donkeys will film at the UK’s premier heavy metal festival Bloodstock Open Air, taking place this August 7th – 10th at Catton Park in Derbyshire, with the rest of the production shooting at K.K.’s Steel Mill in Wolverhampton. Legendary martial artist Cynthia Rothrock (‘China O’Brien’) will be joining a cast of celestial warriors drawn from the world of rock and heavy metal.
Director Richard Stanley said,
“The stars have aligned to conjure this dream into manifestation, a perfect storm of metal, martial arts and cosmic horror, precision calibrated to burn its way into the brains of a whole new generation of metal fans. It makes me hugely happy to be back in the UK and to be returning to my cultural roots with this supernaturally charged psychedelic hand grenade, freely inspired by a real-life misadventure from my younger years. Given the current state of the nation, I firmly believe ‘Steel Donkeys’ is exactly what Britain both needs and deserves.”
The film will be produced for Steel Mill Films by Andrew Prendergast and Phill Cates. Andrew Prendergast commented “It is a pleasure to be working with the legend that is Richard Stanley to create a work of wild imagination that will appeal to cult and mainstream fans around the world.” Phil Cates added “The Midlands has such a wealth of music and film talent and Steel Mill Films has been established to build upon that talent and create an infrastructure which can promote that through our venue and through our film productions.”
Production begins August 7th at Bloodstock Festival for festival scenes for the film with principal photography starting at K.K.’s Steel Mill on October 1st 2025.