Occasionally there is a quirky project involving Blake that catches my eye, and this summer could bring a couple of potentially interesting filmic gems (or, at least, intriguing oddities) that both take their inspiration from Blake's "Jerusalem". The first of these, and one to which I shall definitely return should it see the light of day, is a digital short starring Ray Winstone as William Blake. Directed by Ryan Andrews, Winstone was in Cardiff in May filming for the project. My (unfortunate) scepticism is that this is not the first time that Winstone has become involved in recording Blake's life: the 2007 Sam Taylor Wood biopic, for which Winstone was slated to write the script, never appeared - Billy Nuts the Poet losing out to John Lennon for her 2009 movie Nowhere Boy. Winstone would - in my opinion - make a decent, if somewhat idiosyncratic, Blake. Sexy Beast showed that he was more than capable of playing against type and there's not much danger of Jerusalem (Andrews's film) going all "nil by mouth". Indeed, rather than proving himself the notorious daddy, the piece will be set in period costume and - as Andrews was selected from a shortlist of winners for the entry and the scope of this project is much less ambitious than Wood's film, it may very well see a final release. The second project, more recently announced, alternates in my opinion between being bonkers and a marvellous idea (which is a territory I hugely enjoy exploring). Paul McDonahue from Salford is looking to film a no-budget picture, also called Jerusalem, over the coming weeks and, to keep down costs, has been recruiting via Facebook - from where I take his following description of the movie:

An AWOL army soldier, disillusioned with the war, england and the government, arrives in the english countryside after the train he is travelling home on breaks down. Stranded there, he journeys cross country to the next train station meeting various characters and facing many social issues along the way all the while being pursued by the mysterious policeman as he tries to make his way home through England's green and pleasant land.

Jerusalem, unsurprisingly, won't have any stars but McDonahue said in a recent interview with the Salford Star that he will be working with a number of experienced actors such as John May (who has appeared in a number of small budget films as well as Channel 5 and BBC programmes). This is the sort of project that would have been impossible to see a few years ago, but I'm sure it will make it online if the director's dedication to recruiting is anything to go by (one of my favourite posts to his group: "Hiya my names olivia ellis and my dream is to become an Actress if you need one let me know.") I'm unsure how much of McDonahue's desire to deliver a "hard-hitting" message to the government will strike its mark, but I admire his brio and determination. Reminds me of someone else in the first decades of the nineteenth century, struggling in obscurity in London producing an epic poem of the state of Albion which the more famous (and ultimately doomed) artist Thomas Griffiths Wainewright described half-affectionately, half-mockingly as "a tremendous piece of ordance, an eighty-eight pounder". Barely a dozen people read Jerusalem the Emanation of the Giant Albion during Blake's lifetime, but more remember him now than a fashionable artist whose only claim to fame in the twentieth century is that he was transported for forgery and poisoning - and that he knew William Blake.