London-based production company Clover Fox Films has announced that Outlander’s Tim Downie has joined the cast for feature film All That Glitters, a young adult comedy-drama inspired by Shakespeare and how he might have written in the modern day. Pre-production for the film has started this week.

Tim Downie, (Outlander, Good Omens, Geek Girl, How To Date Billy Walsh) has joined the cast alongside Paul Ready (Motherland, Bring Them Down, The Terror, Utopia, A Gentleman in Moscow), Elliot Grihault (House of the Dragon, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) and Mark Lavery (Vikings, Foundation, Handsome Devil, Scary Tales of New York).

The supporting cast has also been announced, including Anya Preston in her breakout role as Cassie, Noah Manzoor (Silverpoint, East is East; National Theatre) in the role of Fred and James Craven (Geek Girl, How To Be A Person) in the role of Hugo.

All That Glitters is a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet in a UK school setting, populated with anxious teens and TikTok scrollers. Ryan (Grihault) is the lighting technician for his school’s play Romeo and Juliet, directed by his dad Philip (Downie), but struggles to keep his eye on the ball as he’s hopelessly in love with the play’s lead, Jasmine.

To Ryan’s surprise, one night, the ghost of Shakespeare himself (Ready) appears in his room and offers to teach him the role of Romeo so he can star alongside Jasmine in the play. But with Jasmine’s enigmatic friend Billy (Lavery) hanging around, his rival Romeo, Fred (Manzoor) and the school’s prodigy, Hugo (Craven) in the way, how will Ryan ever prove himself to Jasmine – and does he really need to?

With themes of first loves, feminism, drugs and tricky family values, the film explores the relevance of Shakespeare’s writing in the present day, introducing Shakespeare to young adults using modern language and context, with the bard himself as a mentor.

Peter Lavery, co-founder of Clover Fox Films, is the writer-director of All The Glitters¸ which is set to be his debut feature film. It is being produced by Clover Fox co-founder Joe Andrews and executive produced by Bandit Films’ Johnny Gogan.

Peter Lavery, writer-director of All That Glitters, says, “I’ve always wanted to bring Shakespeare back in fashion, and we’re incredibly proud to be working with an all-star cast who will do just that. This is a comedy-drama film which tackles dark but relatable themes, and allows young adults to connect with Shakespeare in a way which hasn’t been done before – created by a cast and crew that actually understands the age group. We couldn’t be more excited to begin production this week and see this fantastic cast bring these characters to life.”

Tim Downie, actor playing the role of Philip, adds, “Shakespeare has always been a great passion of mine, and in this film, Peter has written a wonderfully fun, uplifting love letter to the Bard that I can’t wait to get started on.”