California Schemin’ (15)

Get rich or try lying.

James McAvoy’s directorial debut, starring Samuel Bottomley, Séamus McLean Ross, Lucy Halliday, Rebekah Murrell and James McAvoy. Based on the outrageous true story, CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’ follows two aspiring Scottish MCs who devise an audacious scheme to achieve their dream of a record deal, by posing as Californian hip hop artists. As fame beckons and the lies pile up, their friendship is put to the test.

In the late 1990s, Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd had their musical ambitions consistently ridiculed for having the ‘wrong’ accents, so they went for broke and reinvented themselves as Californian rappers. The duo re-recorded their own tracks with fake accents and turned up in London claiming to be an established duo on the Cali scene as well as childhood friends with Eminem. They quickly bagged themselves a record deal, a hefty sum in advances, and an appearance on MTV… until it all came crashing down.