The Picasso Heist, Read by Felicity Jones

The Picasso Heist by James Patterson tells the story of rare masterpiece by Picasso which is about to go on auction, with the whole world watching. A bright art student called Halston Graham sees an opportunity to pull off the crime of the century and steal the painting. Will Halston’s brilliance be enough to outsmart her enemies?

Actor Felicity Jones narrates the audiobook of this novel, and thus we were briefed to produce a video teaser using the Hollywood actor.

We decided to create a Film Noir look and feel for the short film, using framing and lighting techniques used in classic Film Noir films. We played with the idea that Felicity's character Halston is talking to the Picasso painting in a blacked out gallery/vault.

In terms of the set design, we kept everything minimal, allowing the lighting and Felicity to do the work. This minimal approach suited the script but also worked within the constraints of budegt and time that we had with Felicity.

We actually think this style worked better than had we been on location as it allowed Felicity to perform the narration in a powerful way.

As well as the black and white Film Noir extract teaser, we also filmed a short Q&A with Felicity on the making of the audiobook and what attracted her to the project.

In addition to this, we also filmed her reading another extract from the book.

We would like to say a huge thank you to the team at Penguin Audio and the team at Proper Pablo for their support on the day of filming.

The Picasso Heist by James Patterson is available in print and audio now.