Rabbit causes a buzz in film world

That's the remarkable recipe for the new "mockumentary" Rabbit Fever, which is set to become the unlikeliest British film smash of the year when it is released on Friday.

Among the stars appearing in the film are Emily Mortimer, Sienna Guillory, Tom Conti, Germaine Greer, Lisa B, Stefanie Powers, William Boyd and Richard Branson.

In the picture, which was filmed across the capital, the stars deliver their verdict on the Rampant Rabbit either as themselves or as fictional characters.

Stephen Raphael, writer and producer of Rabbit Fever, got the idea for the film when he overheard some female gossip at the dinner table.

He said: "It all started in early 2004 when I went to a dinner party and there were a group of women there who had a bit to drink and started to talk about the Rampant Rabbit.

"I was amused and surprised by this. But then a friend told me he knew about this girl in his office who was always coming in late because of it and I thought, 'I have to write a film about women's addiction to the Rampant Rabbit'."

After recruiting first-time director Ian Denyer, Raphael then raised funds for the film by persuading 25 friends, ranging from writers to financiers, to stump up the cash.

He added: "Just so that there was never any doubt in anyone's mind, we brought a Rabbit vibrator along to the investors' meeting and plonked it in the middle of the table. The Rabbit disappeared and I never got it back."

Perhaps Raphael's most inspired move was hiring the well-connected Dixie Chassay as casting director. Chassay is the former girfriend of James Blunt, the subject of his number one smash You're Beautiful, and the daughter of Groucho Club founder Tchaik Chassay.

Raphael says: "Dixie was amazing. Ninety-nine per cent of the stars in the film we got through her."

These included her actor boyfriend Tom Hollander, who plays a marketing executive cashing in on the sex toy's popularity, and Evening Standard writer Toby Young as a Labour MP who faces calls for the Rabbit to be banned.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Frederic Raphael - Stephen's father - also appears as a sleazy Hollywood producer.

Raphael Jnr said: "It's truly an independent film. Our production office was my parents' flat in Chelsea. Not receiving any money from the Government or the Lottery meant I had total control of the film. If you can do it this way, you don't want anyone else on board."

www.rabbitfeverthemovie.com