Farmers Weekly has come up with a novel way of encouraging its readers to embrace multimedia – by reshooting the Hollywood epic Gladiator in a cattle market in Kent.
Its Welcome to Wellywood campaign offers a prize package of £600 for the reader who comes up with the best home-made spoof of a Hollywood film.
Game for a laugh staffers Tim Relf and James Andrew have got the ball rolling with their take on Gladiator – Cultivator.
In a come-on to readers, Farmers Weekly says: ‘You could be James Bond in a farm yard, Kate Winslet ‘flying’ on the front of a stationary tractor, Dirty Dancing in a barn or posing with your friends, Reservoir Dogs-style, at an event or show.
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‘It might be a clip from an action or adventure film. Your favourite romantic comedy. A gangster film. A war epic. A love story. Any scene from any film is eligible just as long as your version has an agricultural slant.”
Relf told Press Gazette, who as well as being Farmers’ Weekly community editor is also a published novelist, told Press Gazette: ‘Our research shows us that, in additional to news, business and technical information, Farmers Weekly readers also want some fun content, so this is a chance to deliver that.
‘As anyone who watches the clip will see, the two of us are definitely ‘enthusiastic’ rather than talented when it comes to acting – but hopefully us entering into the spirit of it and having a go will encourage readers to take part.
“The job of a journalist is varied and multi-stranded these days – but I certainly never expected it to involve dressing up as Commodus in a livestock market in Kent.”
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