Tom & Thomas
Last Update: 16 Sep 2003
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Tom & Thomas is a film about two children linked by a bond closer than friendship and stronger than family ties.

The film Tom & Thomas is set in London. Everyone is preparing for Christmas...
there is snow...there are exuberant shop windows filled with Christmas presents...
and sparkling Christmas trees.

Tom and Thomas are twins who were separated soon after they were born. So...they don't know each other. Or do they? It so happens that Tom has an imaginary friend - Thomas - with whom he talks and plays in his imagination. Thomas has an imaginary friend as well. He has called him Tom.

To celebrate their ninth birthday, the boys visit the impressive mirror maze in the Science Museum. There, the children come face to face with each other for the first time, their images reflected in the mirrors of the mirror maze over and over. They want to stay together forever...but this isn't easy.

Nobody is supposed to know where Tom is. After discovering that the children's home where he was staying was being used as the headquarters of a gang of child traders, he ran away. Still hunted by the child traders, he goes into hiding at Thomas's place, just after Thomas has solemnly promised his foster father never, ever to play with this imaginary friend Tom again! It's not the right moment, Thomas feels, to tell him that Tom is not imaginary at all, and really does exist. And so Tom takes Thomas's place at school - and at home - on a regular basis. This causes confusion, because Thomas is a decent, careful, polite boy...whereas Tom is not afraid of anyone - or anything - and has never been taught to watch his tongue.

But then, the child traders mistake Thomas for Tom - and they want to smuggle him out of the country by putting him inside the cargo compartment of an airplane! Tom, who has no intention of letting his brother down, hides inside the wheel bay.

A thrilling denouement follows...and only then do the others realize that Tom and Thomas are not imaginary friends at all...but real twins.

Location Notes:

Tom & Thomas was filmed in :

  • The Netherlands
    - Amsterdam
    - The Hague (The Passage, the Achterom, Maison de Bonneterie)
    - Rotterdam
    - Stork Island
  • UK (London) - Leadenhall Market (EC3)
  • Belgium (Gent).

Principal photography was from December 2000 until 20 July 2001.

 

 

 

 

 

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS:


Sean Bean ........... Paul Sheppard
Aaron Johnson ....... Tom
Aaron Johnson ....... Thomas
Inday Ba ............ Celia
Bill Stewart ........ Finch
Sean Harris ......... Kevin
Derek de Lint ....... Mr. Bancroft
Monique van de Ven .. Miss Tromp
Geraldine James......
 

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Produced by.......... First Floor Features (Amsterdam)
Producers............ Laurens Geels & Dick Maas
Written by........... Esmé Lammers
Directed by.......... Esmé Lammers
Assistant to the
 Director ........... Ruud van der Heyde
Production Design ... Jelier & Schaaf
Construction
 Supervisor ......... Kees Starink & Jorrit Kortenhorst
Post Production
 Supervisor ......... Hans van Helden
Line Producer ....... David Higginson
Special Effects ..... Hans Voors 
Editor .............. Bert Rijkelijkhuizen 
Stunt Coordinator ... Willem de Beukalaer
Costume Design ...... Linda Bogers
Key Makeup .......... Claudia Reymond
Director of 
 Photography ........ Marc Felperiaan  
Distributed by ...... Buena Vista International (Netherlands) BV
Rating ..............  
Release Date......... 24 January 2002
Running Time ........ 1 hour 55 min

Tom & Thomas premiered in Scheveningen at the Pathe-theater, 
Kurhausweg 2 at 16.00 pm on 20 January 2002. The premiere was
attended by Aaron Johnson, Sean Harris, Bill Stewart and 
Derek de Lint.

North American Premiere - Sprockets Film Festival (Toronto),
April 13, 14 and 20, 2002

UK Distributor Indigo will be exhibiting Tom & Thomas at MIPCOM,
the International Film and Programme Market for Film, Television,
Video, Cable and Satellite, 10 - 14 October 2003, at Cannes.


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