UK indie producer and audiobook publisher B7 Media has announced an exclusive deal with Datura Studios to co-produce and publish Ken Del Conte’s A GAME FOR GENTLEMEN.

A GAME FOR GENTLEMEN features the voices of Ken Del Conte (Batman, Charlie’s Angels, CHiPS), Misha Crosby (Holby City, American Horror Story and Green Rush) and Udana Power (Happy Days, Murder She Wrote) who plays Lady Strather. Based on an original story by Ken Del Conte, this enhanced audiobook is the first co-production between Misha Crosby’s Datura Studios and multi-award-winning UK audio drama producer, B7 Media. A GAME FOR GENTLEMEN will first debut as a serialised podcast and later released on all major audio streaming platforms, including Audible.

Datura Studios is a LA based indie headed up by former Holby City star Misha Crosby p.g.a., whose debut feature as a producer, Green Rush, inspired by a true story, was recently released on Digital and On Demand by Lionsgate.

Del Conte, a former halfback on the 1962 USC National championship American Football team, had a long career in Hollywood as an actor, director and producer. He stared in several Television shows including Batman, Bonanza, Charlie’s Angels, CHiPS, Cagney and Laceyand Falcon Crest.

Over the course of her long and noteworthy career, Udana starred on Broadway opposite Katharine Hepburn. Her perky characters became a staple of ’70s and ’90s television series as she stared in audience-favorites Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Hawaii Five-O, Knots Landing, and Murder, She Wrote among many others.

“A GAME FOR GENTLEMEN is a gripping tale of revenge and redemption and heralds an exciting new creative collaboration between B7 Media and Datura Studios,” says Andrew Mark Sewell, Managing Director of B7 Media. “When Misha first shared the rough recording mix I was immediately struck with the strength of the performances and immersive sound design. Misha and I have been looking for a project to collaborate on for a while and given our ever-expanding range of audiobook titles, A GAME FOR GENTLEMEN felt a natural fit.”

Producer, Misha Crosby picks up the story; “Ken (Del Conte) and I had come together when I edited his film Honey Jar in 2016. We continued to work together on various projects and it led us to uncover some wonderful stories that Ken had previously written. A GAME FOR GENTLEMEN had a little of everything, it was an epic tale that spanned over five decades and as many continents that followed a mastermind bank robber and the world’s finest detective.”

“Ken and I just started recording it, with no particular agenda in mind and it grew into something we’re both very proud of. Ken has a voice that has such an intimacy and richness, it just elevates the narration. On a personal level, performing in it has been a wonderful and liberating experience. It’s such a pure form of acting, just you and the microphone, no make-up or set, just twenty or so different characters that had been living inside of me that I got to breathe life into.”

Sadly, Ken Del Conte passed away last month after a long battle with cancer, but fortunately got to hear the final production and was overjoyed with the end result. “Ken’s passing has been a tragic loss on both a personal and a professional level,” says Crosby. “I’m so pleased that we got to finish this piece together and it’s a lovely and lasting testament to a wonderful artist and a great friend.”

B7 Media and Datura Studios are already looking at future productions to collaborate on. “I don’t think it’ll be the last one of these we do together,” declares Misha Crosby. “With the power of remote production that is becoming the new normal, Los Angeles to London isn’t very far away. At a time when the world’s upside down and Hollywood has come to a virtual standstill, a blockbuster experience can still be created with Audio Movies from start to finish without anyone leaving their home.”

“Robert Dougherty is determined to seek retribution after Steadly’s Bank robs his grandfather of his life savings on his deathbed – regardless of how long it takes. Left alone without any living relatives, the boy walks out of his school and flees by train to London with only a few articles of tattered clothing, his books, and a few shillings in his pocket.

Over the years, a combination of luck, talent and ingenuity align to make him solely capable of taking on what has become the largest banking institution in the world.

Gerrod Hopkins is Scotland Yard’s finest detective. When Steadly’s look to recruit someone to design impenetrable security systems, they want no-one else for the job. After a series of audacious robberies are reported around the globe, he and Dougherty face off in a high-stakes game that will take its players to their very limits.”

For more information about the A GAME FOR GENTLEMEN and to order the audiobook, click here.