Rabbit Fever Watch the trailer for the Brit comedy, directed by Ian Denyer. (CONTAINS ADULT THEMES)

"Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were - Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter." These are the opening words of the first Rabbit story that was told to me. I was two-years-old when I learned that their father was put in a pie by Mr McGregor. Thirty-five years later, in early 2004, I attended a dinner party where a group of women told me a great many other Rabbit stories. This time the Rabbits were not called Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail or Peter. These were Rampant, Ravenous, Rocking, and Reckless – all varieties of the world's best-selling vibrator: the Rabbit. And each of the ladies at the table owned one.

I relayed this surprising (to me) news to my friend Matt Heiman. He was not surprised; one of the girls in his office had been late for work every day for five weeks – eventually admitting it was because her Rabbit habit made it well-nigh impossible for her to leave the house on time. Matt then said to me: "You should really write a film about the Rabbit." I laughed and fired back something encouraging like "I don't think so."

The next day though, I sat down and began the script which would eventually become the comedy Rabbit Fever. Matt's story of the girl in his office who could not stop using her Rabbit sparked the idea of a Rabbits Anonymous help group for recovering addicts and I built the story around the difficulties experienced by five such addicts. Six drafts later, I gave the finished script to BAFTA-winning documentary director Ian Denyer. He read it and – to my delight – enthusiastically came on board.

Now all we needed was some money. I sent the screenplay out to some of my oldest and best friends. They all said they'd back the film. Thanks to casting director Dixie Chassay, a fantastic ensemble cast was soon assembled including Julian Rhind-Tutt (of Green Wing fame), Lisa B, Stefanie Powers, Sienna Guillory, Tom Conti, Tom Hollander and John Standing. Danny Baker, Emily Mortimer, Germaine Greer and Sir Richard Branson agreed to make cameo appearances.

The script contained over 100 speaking parts and almost as many different locations.

Now we were faced with a huge logistical challenge: not only was our budget very small compared to most films but the script contained over 100 speaking parts and almost as many different locations. These had to be crammed into a six-week shooting schedule which included visits to Paris, Athens and Los Angeles. The fact that we accomplished everything is to the huge credit of the production team of Bona Orakwue and Marshall Leviten.

The results of everyone's hard work can be seen in cinemas from September 22. Rabbit Fever is a truly independent film: not only was it financed outside of the traditional sources of film finance but it is also being distributed independently. This has enabled us to manage and control the release in a way we could never have done with one of the larger distributors.

With any luck Rabbit Fever will give people as much pleasure as the toy which inspired it. Oh and in case you were wondering, the opening words of this modern-day Rabbit story are: "More vibrators are sold in Britain each year than washing machines and dryers combined." I wonder what Mr McGregor would make of that.

Stephen Raphael's Rabbit Fever is released in UK cinemas on Friday 22nd September 2006.

Stephen Raphael | Published 21 September 06

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