A supporting role for Sting

Feb 4 2007 By Coreena Ford, The Sunday Sun

Sting's wife Trudie Styler reckons every little thing her hubby does is magic after he came to the rescue of her latest movie.

The award-winning film maker was in the process of making A Guide To Recognising Your Saints when the financial backers pulled out, leaving the project high and dry.

But rocker Sting, who was born in Wallsend, North Tyneside, and several other friends, stepped in to stump up the $2.4m -£1.2m - needed to ensure the show went on.

Despite being a low-budget movie in Hollywood terms, Saints attracted an all-star cast including Robert Downey Jnr, Dianne Wiest, Eric Roberts, Chazz Palminteri and Shia LaBeouf.

Based on a book by Dito Montiel, who is also the film's director and screenwriter, the story is a coming-of-age tale about a young boy growing up in Astoria, New York, during the 1980s.

His friends end up dead, on drugs or in prison, prompting him to conclude that he's been saved by saints.

Trudie loved the book so much she bought the film rights five years ago.

She said: "We lost our finance twice. To lose everything and turn away the 35 people who had been cast was tough.

"So when it was about to happen a third time, we got friends around us who didn't say no.

"Sting put money in and so did a very good colleague of ours called Bobby Sager and Charlie (Corwin), who had just come off The Squid and the Whale.

"It seemed like, for the first time, the whole thing had come off right."

Sting's judgment may pay off . . . the movie went on to receive two awards at the Sundance Film Festival, for best director and a special jury prize for the ensemble cast, and the jury prize at Venice Film Festival.

A bidding war has also broken out between distributors.