Sometimes good ideas turn up out of the blue - or in this case, out of the ether.
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London-based Australian producer Nicky Bentham, founder of Neon Films, says, "Way back in 2013, I got an email from a chap called Christopher Bunton, saying he had this amazing story in his family that could possibly become a film - did I agree?"
There was a short paragraph outlining the tale, focusing on Bunton's grandfather Kempton and the only painting to be stolen from London's National Portrait Gallery, which happened in 1961.
"I thought, 'Wow, what an amazing story'," Bentham says.
"I'd never heard of it before and couldn't believe it to be true."
But a bit of research showed that it really had happened and Bentham - who had co-produced Moon, a film Bunton admired - was hooked. The resulting comedy-drama, The Duke, is now in Australian cinemas.
As the film opens, Kempton Bunton (played by Jim Broadbent) is on trial for the theft of Francisco Goya's Portrait of the Duke of Wellington (1812-14).
Kempton is a working-class Newcastle autodidact and aspiring writer who finds it hard to keep a job. His outspoken sense of social justice frequently gets him fired and his campaign for free TV licences for pensioners leads to a short prison stint.
His long-suffering wife Dorothy (Helen Mirren) supports the family as a cleaner.
When it's broadcast that Goya's painting was purchased by the National Gallery for £140,000, Kempton is outraged, feeling the money could have gone to help people. He travels to London, promising Dorothy it will be his final attempt to sell a script to the BBC and to raise attention to his TV licence campaign. Then the portrait of the Duke disappears from the gallery.
A lot happened - "There were hundreds of pages to wade through" - and it wasn't a simple matter to adapt the story for the screen, as well as obtain financing and all the other work that goes into mounting a film.
"It was really quite a process."
To tie all the story strands together and work them into a manageable screenplay, Kempton turned to playwright Richard Bean (One Man, Two Guvnors) and barrister turned writer Clive Coleman. Although changes were made and the timeline was condensed, the film adheres quite closely to the facts. But accuracy and clarity were only two of the considerations.
"We were going for tone, to be honest. There was a lot of comedy in this quite hilarious crackpot scheme and in Kempton himself," Bentham says.
She secured director Roger Michell (Notting Hill), Broadbent - whom she had in mind from the start, and Mirren.
The producer studied media arts and production at the University of Technology Sydney and moved to London in 2001. She started out as a production assistant.
"I made a lot of tea and worked my way up."
She was executive producer for the British Film Institute's short film scheme from 2012 to 2015. Other feature credits include The Silent Storm (2014).
Michell and Bentham saw the film receive acclaim at film festivals in Venice and the US. It was Michell's final feature before he died in 2021 aged 65.
Bentham has also recently produced a documentary, Who Killed the KLF?, about a music duo who deleted their entire catalogue and burned £1 million, and is hoping it will be released in Australia.
"I'm in contact with distributors there - I'm pretty sure it will."
The Duke is in cinemas now.