The Trouble with Mr Doodle is directed by Academy Award nominated directors Jaimie D’Cruz (Exit Through the Gift Shop) and Ed Perkins (The Princess), and executive produced by double Academy Award winner Simon Chinn (Man on Wire, Searching for Sugar Man), and double Emmy Award winner Jonathan Chinn (LA 92, Whitney).
The film is the intimate and emotional story of what happened when, in 2019, Sam Cox, a 25-year-old British artist known as Mr Doodle, bought a six-bedroom mansion in the English countryside of Kent. After stripping it bare and painting it brilliant white, he spent more than two years covering every single inch of it in doodles.
In October 2022, Mr Doodle became the subject of global media attention when he unveiled his Doodle House to the world. The video Sam created to document his work in a three-minute-long stop-frame time lapse received over 70 million views in the first few days.
The world marvelled at what kind of mind could produce such an extraordinary work of living art and wondered how he did it.
Now we finally get to understand why.
Jaimie D’Cruz and Ed Perkins said: “The Trouble with Mr Doodle combines intimate access to Sam, his family and his friends, with unseen footage and personal archive documenting his evolution from a drawing-obsessed child into an internationally renowned art phenomenon. It’s an extraordinary story of what happens when obsession and talent meet opportunity and sheer, unstoppable willpower.”
Jonathan Ford, Managing Director, Abacus Media Rights commented: “Mr Doodle is a massive internet and pop culture phenomenon with millions of followers on every social platform throughout the world. We are sure that this fascinating film, created by leading creatives, will be extremely well received internationally.”
The Trouble with Mr Doodle is an independent documentary feature made by acme in association with Lightbox. The Directors are Jaimie D’Cruz (Exit Through the Gift Shop, Lawful Killing: Mark Duggan, The Last Pirates) and Ed Perkins (The Princess, Tell Me Who I Am, Black Sheep). The Editor is Andrew Hulme (The Imposter, Control, The American). Supervising Sound Editor is Andrew Stirk (The Imposter, The Princess, You Were Never Really Here, Love Lies Bleeding). Two-time Academy Award winner Simon Chinn (Man on Wire, Searching for Sugar Man, TINA) and Emmy Award winner Jonathan Chinn (American High, LA 92, Whitney) are the Executive Producers for Lightbox.
The Trouble with Mr Doodle has its UK premiere at Sheffield DocFest with screenings followed by a Q&A, on Fri 14 June 15:45 at The Light, and Sun 16 June 17:30 at The Showroom. Mr Doodle will also be creating The Doodle Dome, a 12ft-tall, 20ft-wide dome open to the public which will become a portal into the artist’s mind, from 12-16 June.
