This week independent filmmaker and screenwriter John Sayles returns to the big screen with his new film Honeydripper. 1950. Rural Alabama. Cotton harvest. It's a make-or-break weekend for the Honeydripper Lounge and its owner, piano player Tyrone "Pine Top" Purvis.Deep in debt to the liquor man, the chicken man, and the landlord, Tyrone is desperate to lure the young cotton pickers and local Army base recruits into his juke joint, away from Touissant's, the rival joint across the way.After laying off his regular talent, blues singer Bertha Mae, Tyrone announces to his sidekick Maceo that he has hired the famous electric guitar player, Guitar Sam, for a special one night only gig: pack 'em in and save the club.On the day of the show, the train arrives and Guitar Sam is no where to be found. Tyrone is forced to take drastic action.Like many of his previous projects Sayles wrote the screenplay as well as directing the picture.

Sayles got in to the movie industry by working with Roger Corman at New World Pictures earning his money penning scripts including Piranha in 1978 and Alligator in 1980.

He made his directorial debut in 1980 with his self funded drama The Return of the Secaucus 7 starring Bruce MacDonald and Maggie Renzi.

Sayles' debut deals with seven friends who were political activists in the 1960s. Reunited in their mid-30s for a weekend gathering, the friends reveal their struggles with love, art, money, political commitment, and everyday life.

Sayles made the film as an audition piece, not realizing that the film would become a hit in art houses.

The film launched Sayles' career as it was a bit critical hit and was greatly influential, launching a string of 'reunion' films including The Big Chill.

For the screenplay Sayles won Los Angeles Film Association for Best Screenplay and wads nominated for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen at the Writers Guild of America.

The film also won the Best Independent Film at the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards.

Throughout the late eighties and early nineties Sayles wrote and directed a string of critical hits including Matewan in 1987, Eight Men Out in 1988 and Passion Fish in 1992.

Mary McDonnell stars as May-Alice Culhane, a New York-based soap opera star who is paralysed in a road accident.

She returns to the Louisiana bayou where she grew up and becomes the patient from hell, discharging one caretaker after another.

Then along comes Chantelle (Alfre Woodard), a take-no-sass nurse with her own issues to deal with.

Together the women rediscover themselves and what it means to live within limitations.

Passion Fish was nominated for two Oscars including Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Sayles as well as Best Actress in a Leading Role for Mary McDonnell.

His recent projects include co-writing the box office hit The Spiderwick Chronicles, an adaptation of Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black's children's novels.

And director Steven Spielberg has commissioned Sayles to write the script for the forthcoming Jurassic Park IV.

Honey dripper is released 25th April

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw