Former 'EastEnders' actor John Altman is starring in a new horror movie.
Former EastEnders star John Altman is starring in new horror film The Last Grail Hunter
The 72-year-old actor - famous for playing villain Nasty Nick Cotton in the BBC One soap opera on-and-off for three decades - is the lead character in 'The Last Grail Hunter' which was written and directed by ufologist and filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee.
Altman stars as Johnny Calvi, a failed grail hunter battling with alcoholism who makes one last attempt to find the Holy Grail - the cup that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper.
He visits various grail related places in London such as Notre Dame Church in Leicester Square, Temple Church and Watkins Books in Cecil Court - where he buys tarot cards. His pilgrimage takes him on a train into Hertfordshire where he steals a car and ends up in a trance in a remote Woodland. Here he finds an altar... and maybe the grail.
The film is set in the future where society has been rebuilt and controlled by a secret organisation called the Priory of Sion and The Last Grail Hunter is a popular game and Johnny Calvi is its hero. Could it be that Calvi is in fact being controlled by someone else and his quest is nothing more than a mission in a video game?
Mark has revealed the project is inspired by his love of late American filmmaker Roger Corman, who directed over 500 movies, many of which were low-budget features which gained a cult following, including 1960's 'The Little Shop of Horrors', 'The Intruder' released in 1962 and 1963's 'X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes'.
He said: "It's inspired by my love of B movies and sci-fi - the whole idea and plot came to me one night in a dream by Roger Corman - I woke up and wrote it all down. Two weeks later we had finished the film. I've known John for a long time and we've worked together doing music, I produced his debut album 'Never Too Late To Rock and Roll' and my band The Pocket Gods played a few live gigs with him.
"I know most people know him as Nick Cotton from 'EastEnders' but I loved him for playing George Harrison in 'The Birth of The Beatles'. He's a tremendously underrated actor and as this film has no dialogue I realised I needed an amazing actor to make it work. I spoke to John about the film and he loved the concept - it's basically like 'Mr Bean' meets 'The Exorcist' doing an episode of the 'Twilight Zone'.
"John and I both love the Peter Sellers film 'Being There' and it has that element to it - of nothing much happening but the time and space allow the mind to think.
"It's my first dramatic feature after producing and directing numerous UFO documentaries so I too learned a lot from John and also EE Martin the assistant director. We also had a lot of help from Raindance Film Festival and Elliot Cohen who was executive producer on the film and heralded me as the new Roger Corman which was nice!"
The movie is Altman’s latest foray into the horror genre following roles in 'Demons At Dawn' and 'Repentance' in recent years.
'The Last Grail Hunter' will be available to stream on Prime in 2025.
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