Fresh from defeating major Hollywood-backed productions at the National Film Awards, a Surrey-based production company is releasing a prequel to its acclaimed crime feature Lucas and Albert.

Scruffy Bear Media, working with Longhurst and Putt Productions, will release Tales of the Underworld on January 26. The film expands the dark criminal world first introduced in Lucas and Albert, which became a surprise indie hit at the 2021 National Film Awards, winning Best Film ahead of titles including Sam Mendes’s 1917 and Stephen Merchant’s Fighting With My Family.

Directed by multi-award-winning filmmaker Darren S. Cook and written by A.G. Longhurst, Lucas and Albert followed two ageing hitmen tasked with cleaning up a robbery gone wrong decades earlier.

Tales of the Underworld takes audiences back to events before the original film, bringing forward characters and storylines previously only hinted at. Told through the eyes of a journalist who digs too deep, the dark crime thriller exposes a ruthless criminal empire where missing men, police informants and shifting loyalties make survival a dangerous game. The cast includes Ian Burfield (Hijack, EastEnders), Oliver Cotton (The Dark Knight Rises, Killing Eve) and Michael McKell (Vera, Allied).

Cook, who founded Scruffy Bear Media with business partner Nicky Hagan, has more than 30 years’ industry experience and has received numerous accolades, including a Coup de Coeur award at Cannes. Hagan, born and raised in Woking, makes her feature film producing debut on Tales of the Underworld.

The film will premiere in Clacton-on-Sea, one of its main filming locations, with a London premiere and limited UK cinema run planned, including hopes for a screening at Woking’s Nova Cinema. Scruffy Bear Media is also developing several new feature projects and preparing Babysitters, the final instalment in the Lucas and Albert trilogy.