Game of Thrones actor Tony Way, recently seen as Lenny in Ricky Gervais’ After Life (Netflix), the most watched British comedy two years running, will join Feel Good (Channel 4) star Sophie Thompson in wacky time-travel comedy The Unreason.

The film follows the unwitting exploits of real life best friends Ruth and Megan, who run a vintage shop in leafy Muswell Hill. After stumbling across a time machine, they embark on trips to the past, ‘borrowing’ items to sell in the present with no idea of the irreparable damage they’re causing to the fabric of the universe.

Sophie Thompson will play the film’s lead antagonist, the jail-keeper of the Unreason: a hellish dimension where people and objects from throughout time become lost. Thompson says: “The idea is so funny, strange and original!”

Thompson will be joined by Tony Way. Way plays an off-beat inventor working in obscurity in Muswell Hill’s underground scientific community, who comes to the aid of the time-travellers. Way says: “I am very excited to be onboard. The script is so odd (in all the right ways) and has a real sense of adventure. I can’t wait to start filming!”

Last year, Chris Reading wrote and directed the Twentieth Century Fox short  A L I E N: Containment to celebrate Alien’s 40th Anniversary. The short plays out like a one-act play of sci-fi horror, stars Gaia Weiss (Vikings), Theo Barklem Biggs (Kingsman: The Secret Service), Sharon Duncan Brewster (Dune 2021, Rogue One), and Adam Loxley (My Cousin Rachel) and currently has over 1 million views on YouTube. Reading is now set to direct The Unreason, co-writing with Ruth Syratt. Reading said about the project: “The Unreason has tones of Bill & Ted and What We Do In The Shadows. I want to capture enough of reality to allow all of the fantasy to hit home! We are trying to combine quaint British naturalism with a sci-fi spectacle. We want people to believe this stuff and we’ve got an amazing cast ready to help tell the story.”

The Unreason first made a name for itself as a short that gained momentum on the popular science fiction Youtube channel Dust, attracting many fans of the time travel genre with 50K views since March.

The Unreason feature will be produced by UK company Shakespeare Sisters who released coming-of-age film Soundtrack to Sixteen earlier this year. Producers Anna-Elizabeth and Hillary Shakespeare say “We love the absurd world that Chris has created, while at the same time being about real people, which makes it really original.” Filming is set to start in 2021.