Three small time crooks, Tony, Simon and illustrious leader Jake, plot to kidnap some valuable laboratory mice for a £2 million ransom.
Jake's masterstroke is to hire a film crew to document their efforts. If the plan fails, he sells the film - nice little nest egg for when he gets out of prison.
Three small time film-makers, Vince, Richard and egocentric director Paul, think this could be their ticket to the big time.
Meanwhile, the intelligent laboratory mice are plotting their own escape...
Labrats will be released on DVD in 2010
The director wanted a retro, timeless feel to the soundtrack and an association with old school Ealing comedies, so he had me watching the original Lady Killers for inspiration, and used an Edmundo Ross tune as the temp track.
We settled on string quartet supported by latin percussion. Huw McGregor (cello) Chris Thompson (violin) and Mark Lansom (violin and a good impersonation of viola) provided some excellent performances to combine with my percussion and keyboard work. This was a my first serious venture into string orchestration and it was a most rewarding process working with those guys.
The film was taken to the Cannes Film Festival where, amongst other things, we managed to eat a meal made from dog food (no, really). Labrats was premiered in Cardiff, and a special viewing was held in Wrexham's Odeon cinema with the audience consisting of MP's, town councillors and other hangers-on (sorry, I mean 'special guests').
Gary Slaymaker - Wales's J. Ross said it was "one of the funniest films I've ever seen..." Slaymaker went on to produce a 30 minute TV programme based on the making of the film.