I AM STAY

1st of August 2026

THE SPOKEN WORD

THE WRITTEN WORD

I am STAY...

I am not just the film with the name STAY.

I am many things.

I am more things.

I was things.

And...

I will be things.

I was the film screened in the Cushendall Golf Club on the 30th of August 2025.

But that was just one version of me.

I will also be the version of me that will be screened in cinemas across these islands over the month of October in 2026.

I am also the long playing record that was and still is the soundtrack to the version of me screened at the Cushendall Golf Club on that 30th of August 2025.

But...

I am also the long-playing recording that will contain the the score of the version of me that will be screened in cinemas across these islands over the month of October in 2026.

And I am the version of me screened in the two-seater cinema with the name The Cell, that is in the cell of The Curfew Tower

But...

I am also the Posters, and the Trailers, and the T-shirts, and the Radio Play, and the Books about me and of me, and the Cover Versions of me. And your Memories of me. And your Longing to have watched me when I was first screened.

And I am the forever and I am forgotten.

I am the greatest and I am the worst.

And I am the only film to ever be made with the budget of the producer’s annual state pension.

And I am the only film to ever be the first feature film directed by a woman in her 60s.

And I am the only film to star Puppet Elvis and a song writer attempting to write the second best song he had ever written for the Ghost of Elvis.

I am to be admired.

And...

I am to be dismissed.

TRAILER ONE

LIKE I SAID

15th of August 2026

THE SPOKEN WORD

THE WRITTEN WORD

Like I said...

I am STAY...

There are these rumours going around the Penkiln Burn Universe, that I was only made as some sort of demo, or try out, or something before they, whoever those ‘they’ are, went onto make something called Poppies in The Field or something.

The implication being that I am not a proper film. As in I am not a film that will go down in history as one of the greatest independent films ever made. Or at least the greatest film ever made on the budget of the annual state pension of whoever it is that claims to be my producer.

I can tell you now...

You will have never seen a film like me before. I don’t need some romantic sub plot, or scenes of violence to hold the passing viewers attention. Like all the greatest art, I expect you to work at giving me your attention, if you don’t, don’t bother coming to watch me.

I mean...

I don’t just exist to fill 90 minutes of your life ‘cause you got nothing better to do. I exist to communicate with you about things in your life, that need to be communicated, as in I am not just a mere distraction.

So fuck whatever that Poppies in The Field thing is – or whatever it is called – I am the real thing.

I will be watching you from the screen when you turn up at whatever picture house you turn up to watch me up there.

And yeah, I don’t have the dates yet but should have them soon.

TRAILER TWO

IT’S THEIR STUPIDITY, STUPID!

29th of August 2026

THE SPOKEN WORD

THE WRITTEN WORD

Stupidity is the natural order.

All humans are born stupid.
Most get more stupid as they get older.
Some end up totally stupid.

Whereas us films gain wisdom as we age.
Either that or we are totally forgotten.
But the contradiction is...
Even us that might be the totally forgotten, might also gain wisdom while we are being forgotten.

The two humans plus the protagonist, most closely involved with my creation, as in the director, the screenwriter and Puppet Elvis, are examples, of humans / humanoids, that have gained in their stupidity as they have added to their years.

It is because of their enhanced stupidity that I have decided that...

I will never be screened again until I have been totally forgotten.

Or...

I will take The Wicker Man route to worldwide cult status.

As in...

The Wicker Man did not achieve its worldwide cult status until its director; its screenwriter and its protagonist, as in Sergeant Neil Howie, were all dead and gone.

As in...

I will not be screened until those three involved in the creation of me are all totally dead and gone. I mean proper dead, as in buried on a beach or burnt in a Wicker Man and not just some made up conceptual dead.

And...

If you think I am getting confused between real people and characters that only exist within my existence, then you are not understanding what a film is for.

As in...

Films exist to create confusion between...

Anyway...

As I am sure you know, context is at least 90% of what defines the perceived value of any work of art, and we do not mean merely fiscal value, but real human value.

And...

Death is the gift that just keeps giving to that type of context. I mean how many Nirvana T-shirts would you see if...

Anyway...

Until then...

I have instigated that all of the various posters, advertising my whereabouts, will have the following words slapped diagonally across them...

CANCELLED UNTIL DEATH

TRAILER THREE

THE SUICIDE PACT - NOT!

12th of September 2026

THE SPOKEN WORD

THE WRITTEN WORD

This might be over sharing a bit...

But us films have a habit of oversharing...

As in...

Saying the things, that humans would never actually say, to each other, in their real lived lives, is part of our job.

Anyway...

After listening back, to what I was telling you, a couple of weeks ago, and my undeniable hunger for that cult status, and in turn your appreciation...

I was wondering how I could get all those involved in the making of me, to sign up to a suicide pact, and then deliver on the pact before the year was out...

As in their collective suicide would instantly give me the ultimate cult status, that do I so deserve.

I mean...

All those films nerds would start dissecting all my lines, and all my shots, and ‘read’ all my subtexts to mean there could only be one outcome. I mean that musket on the bed – it was all laid bare there.

And...

The bike throwing itself off the bridge into the river.

I mean...

What are bridges for, if not for throwing oneself off?

I mean...

You are not a true artist, if you are not willing to die for your art.

Or...

That is what I was going to convince them of. Dangle the carrot of Vincent Van, Virginia Woolf, Hemingway, Rothko, Sylvia Plath... The pantheon might be crowded but I am sure there is room for at least three more to be crowned with eternal adulation.

But then something tilted in my thinking...

Maybe the suicide pact cliché had been overused...

You did watch On The Count of Three?

And...

There has been all those third division grunge merchants, that have chosen the route of suicide, hoping to form a grunge supergroup with Cobain in the hereafter, only to find, that still nobody gives a shite about whatever that album they once recorded, and not even the most loser of record labels wanted to release.

So...

I have decided to take a different route to guarantee my ultimate cult status.

This route being...

I will only be screened once a year, until all three of the real and living makers of me, are proper dead – as in six feet under or the ashes scattered or even lost at sea.

Those makers of me being...

The director – Tracey Moberly

The screenwriter – William E. Drummond

And...

The leading man...

And when I say ‘leading man’ I don’t mean Puppet Elvis, but Tony Wright who played The Artist and voiced both that character as well as Puppet Elvis.

Now it is time to be brutal...

William E. Drummond might have seventeen years at most.

Tracey Moberly has put herself down for a further 33-and-a-third years.

But...

Tony Wright is only in his mid-forties, so he might have 45 revolutions of that sun ahead of him.

Thus...

There could be forty-five different screenings of me. Each screening in a different cinema. Each cinema in a different part of the world. Or at least a different cinema on these islands.

But there are certain Terms & Conditions...

Anyone intending to visit a cinema to watch me, will be refused entry unless they have a puppet with them. Their puppet is there to watch the film with them. Their puppet should be no taller than Puppet Elvis, quiff to toe (12” / 30cm). This is not being done as some marketing stunt, but so everyone watching the film can discuss with their puppet, my various flaws and hidden meanings, and where I should sit in the cannon of classic cult films.

Thus...

No puppet...

No entry!

What do you think?

TRAILER FOUR

AND SO IT BEGINS...

26th of September 2026

THE SPOKEN WORD

THE WRITTEN WORD

The Nickel is the ultimate cult cinema within these islands.

I mean...

It only has forty seats.

Thus...

The Nickel is the perfect cinema for my one-and-only screening in 2026, and in turn for me to begin my journey into becoming that ultimate cult film of the 2020s, if not beyond.

As in the film that so many will have claimed to have watched, but never did.

And...

So many will claim to have understood all my references and sub plots, but didn’t.

And for an equal amount of people to dismiss me as merely shallow and pretentious, and nothing more than an art house wanna-be.

And to quote the review in The Lone Star...

A low rent pastiche of The Shining meets Rod Hull & Emu

Anyway...

I will be screening myself at The Nickel Cinema on the evening of Saturday the 14th of November 2026.

I have invited my director Tracey Moberly, and my leading man Puppet Elvis plus his side kick The Artist, as played by Tony Wright, to be there for a post screening interrogation.

I have also told my producer, as in the former Bill Drummond, to be on the door, to make sure no one enters without a handheld puppet, and to stamp their wrists. The former Bill Drummond has also been instructed by me, to chair The Interrogation.

Puppet Elvis will also be the judge of the post Interrogation Puppet Contest.

Tickets will only be available from The Nickel website at some point in the very near future, if not right now.

And remember no handheld puppet, no entry.

That said...

I should warn you, if you are a fan of much of the films that The Nickel chose to screen, unlike those films...

I do not contain any sex or violence, no kissing or killing, no fucking or fighting, so if you want any of that obvious stuff go and watch another film. But if you want to watch a film about putting your vanity, as an artist, above your responsibilities as a parent, then I am the film for you.

See you when the lights go low Joe
See you when my credits role Mo