King Cnut

When comedian Dave Griffiths first saw French Connection’s new logo FCUK, he thought it’d be funnier if instead it said CNUT!

Inspired by friends, other comedians, and his audience he starts producing and selling his CNUT t-shirts.

It wasn’t long though before French Connection found out about it.

Only thing is; they didn’t think it was funny.

Dave receives a ‘Cease & Desist’ letter demanding that he stops manufacturing and selling the CNUT t-shirts; as well as pay compensation for the t-shirts sold!

In the midst of the dispute, curious about who French Connection really were, Dave starts to learn about the retail giant.

And that’s when he sees it.

French Connection had taken the Ford logo and copied it, with FCUK in it instead!

Upset with French Connection’s double standards and hypocrisy, Dave contacts Ford and tells them about the infringement.

Soon enough, the t-shirt is withdrawn!

Since that day, Dave has already found countless other infringements by French Connection. From Pepsi, Durex and IBM to 20th Century Fox, AC/DC and Lego. And he has contacted every single company!

King Cnut tells the story of this epic battle!
We hear about all the court cases, see the actual infringements and on the way learn about a 1000 year old king and how he saved Dave and his CNUT tshirts!

  • Evandro Rosolen
    Director
  • Evandro Rosolen
    Writer
  • Evandro Rosolen
    Producer
  • Evandro Rosolen
    Editor
  • Adrian Williams
    Composer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 18 minutes 8 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 5, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    6,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Evandro Rosolen

On a rainy Wednesday night, in Brazil, when I was only 7, my father took me to see Return of the Jedi.

That changed everything!

I started devouring every film magazine and book I could get my hands on and by the age of 11 I started writing my first scripts and eventually playing with an old VHS camera.

Fast forward a few years and I find myself involved in 3D animation, trying to get a feature film off the ground.

With some interest from a couple of production companies in London, England, I get on a plane.

My lack of experience and the everyday difficulties of filmmaking prevented that film from happening but also led me to my first shorts, promos, web-series, and music and corporate videos.

Then, on another rainy night, I get to see ‘C U iN courT’, by comedian Dave Griffiths, about his epic decade long fight with retail giant French Connection, over their FCUK logo and his CNUT.

That changed everything!

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Wanting to support a friend, whose fiancé had started promoting comedy shows, I agreed to travel for almost two hours, on a cold and rainy October night, to a venue all the way across town.

Needless to say I wasn’t in the best mood when I got there...

But then comedian Dave Griffiths takes the stage and starts telling us the true story of his decade long battle against high street retail giant French Connection.

For the next 90 minutes I was completely absorbed by a story I thought was simply too good to be true.

How an everyday guy, with no money or means, took on a massive international corporation, with such ingenuity and humour, was beyond me.
​
For the next couple of days all I could think of was this story. Sometimes moving, sometimes outright funny, sometimes a bit weird, but always very original and entertaining...

So I called Dave!

After convincing him that I was the right person to take his story to the screen I began the long process of learning everything I could about it. Looking into all the detail. Finding all those involved. And putting this entire puzzle together, in a way that was informative and fun.

Much like Dave though, on his fight against French Connection, I also had huge hurdles to overcome, such as having no money to actually make the film, or having never made a film before!

King Cnut is the result of years of hard work, with loads of ingenuity and humour.

It’s the story of a filmmaker against the impossibilities of filmmaking.

And it’s the story of any of us who has once had dream and also the courage to turn it into a reality.