Having conquered the world of mobile phones and set about doing the same with ultra-prime London property, Phones4u billionaire John Caudwell has seemingly embarked on another new career – as a filmmaker.
The magnate, who is busy shepherding his £2 billion uber-luxury development 1 Mayfair to completion in 2026, has unveiled a short film to promote the palatial 29-residence extravaganza, where prices start at £35 million and top out ‘at circa £200 million’.
As you might expect, this is no mere corporate video with digital mock-ups of the forthcoming apartments. Instead it’s a live-action film shot by a BAFTA-winning director, Paul McLean (whose 2020 short with Cynthia Nixon, Be a Lady They Said, was watched by millions online), with filming taking place in Caudwell’s own London home, Mayfair House, which was standing in for the 1 Mayfair development. The year-long project then culminated with a three-week shoot on set in New Delhi, where Jonathan Saxby found himself acting alongside a white stallion brought in for filming beside vast 180° screens showing the CGI interiors of 1 Mayfair.
Caudwell hopes the film, which is presented with specially composed music, will do justice to what he intends to be ‘the most prestigious and desirable residence on the planet’.
The film lasts a minute and four seconds. ‘Sometimes it seems a lot longer,’ Caudwell tells me. ‘It certainly seems a lot longer when I think of how much it cost me to produce.’
So what was the budget? ‘I’m not going to divulge that. But I could almost make a movie cheaper. If you look at all the time that went into it internally, all my time and everything, it’s almost priceless.’ However, he adds: ‘It is a price that is commensurate with the quality and the value of the building, is the best way of answering that question.’ The only disappointment, then, is that the film is solely available to be seen in the marketing suite for 1 Mayfair.
But has it given Caudwell a taste for filmmaking? ‘Well,’ he chuckles, ‘I made a movie some time ago. It was 100 Streets with Idris Elba. I was the main financier. It didn’t shoot the lights out. People keep trying to get me into the movie industry, but it’s a big gamble making any movie and I’m not really a gambler.’
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He adds: ‘There are more important things for me to spend my time on, and that’s probably mainly charity and some of these beautiful projects, like 1 Mayfair.’
[See also: First look inside the €70m+ French Riviera residence from John Caudwell]
