A BUDDING movie production company is hoping to hit the big time with the first cinema screening of its latest short film.

Counterclockwise productions, based in Bolton, has already shown the 20 minute piece to film company representatives at a Manchester cinema.

Now the company is currently booking venues across the North West for screenings of the suspense thriller Bloodline, inviting staff from cable TV stations, film festivals and production companies to watch the short movie.

Made up of Farnworth brothers Chris, Dan and Matthew Austin and university friend Gary Walker, the quartet, who are all in their early twenties, hope to turn their idea into a feature-length movie to go on general release.

Bloodline centres around three friends in a car, trying desperately to flee a city. The audience is left wondering for some time why the trio are on the run, but it soon becomes apparent as the plot takes a sinister turn.

The production features Yorkshire actor Nathan Byrne and Jackie Knowles, from Lostock, who was recently named Best Supporting Female at the NODA North West Awards in Blackpool after a theatre performance at Farnworth Performing Arts Company. Members of the Counterclockwise team also feature in the film, which is in a similar vein to the Evil Dead horror series. They have spent the last six months producing the film on location in Farnworth, Stoneclough, and Haigh Hall country park near Wigan. It was made on a budget of just £300, but Chris, from Lichfield Close, Farnworth, is confident that the film will be a success.

Chris said: "For the amount we spent on the film, there is nothing else similar that could touch it. It's amazingly impressive in terms of computer effects.

"It does look like we had a much bigger budget, as we have spent months filming and editing in a slow process to get things just the way we want them.

"The finished product is almost a pilot for something bigger we would like to do, and we are confident it will happen."