TWO best friends who hail from Bradford have enlisted the help of a Bantams legend to kickstart their immersive live cinema experience, TRUECINELIVE®.

Former Bradford City chairman, and current interim chief executive, Julian Rhodes is one of the main shareholders in the joint venture, conjured up by filmmakers Scott Elliott and Sid Sadowskyj.

Mr Elliott and Mr Sadowskyj, who hail from Baildon and Shipley respectively, met Mr Rhodes three years ago, and were immediately blown away.

Speaking to the Telegraph and Argus, Mr Elliott said: "Sid and I have sat with Oscar winners and people like Richard Branson, yet Julian is the most fascinating man we've ever met.

"He's a gracious man and has it in his heart to help people. He's obsessed with Bradford City and he told us he had to go back there and make a difference.

"We just wanted to be around the guy and he has repaid us by putting a large sum into TRUECINELIVE®.

"He and four others have invested £4m into our venture and we only need another million to make it a reality."

The events will see cast perform live action scenes to accompany a movie that will be screened to audiences of up to 20,000 people in a fusion of film production and live-action theatre.

Mr Elliott and Mr Sadowskyj were nominated in three separate categories at the 2019 National Film Awards for their semi-autobiographical film, Scott and Sid.

However, a bad experience has led them down a different path and Mr Elliott explained: "We had £5m raised to do another film when we took a call from Morocco.

"It turned out there were pirate copies of Scott and Sid being sold there, in China and all sorts of other countries where we hadn't licensed it.

"We were in Cannes last year and we talked to lots of film companies, who explained that piracy was a major issue in the industry.

"We didn't want to go through that again."

Speaking about their new venture, Mr Elliott said: "TRUECINELIVE® was only born late last year and we raised £3.5m alone in the eight weeks leading up to Christmas.

"We're actually embracing piracy to an extent and encouraging people to film and publicise the event."

Twenty-five stadiums have already signed up to host the venture, which Mr Elliott hopes can begin from the summer of 2020.

With their Bradford roots, the pair are hoping to see Valley Parade to play host for three nights. The first show is set to be Comet Line, a World War II epic.

Mr Elliott explained: "I've been into schools and young offender institutions and lots of the kids seem to expect everything to fall into their lap.

"We wanted this production to show what young people their age went through and sacrificed to allow us the incredible lives we live today.

"We spoke to hundreds of World War II experts when we were coming up with the idea and Roger Stanton MBE is an expert on escape lines, so he was vital to helping us develop the plot.

"It features young allied paratroopers who are trapped in a little town and the SS want them for information on the Comet Line so they can blow parts of it up.

"The show will feature, among other things, lifesize Spitfires made out of polystyrene. They'll look like real planes from five feet away but when you touch them, you'll feel how soft they are."

Mr Elliott and Mr Sadowskyj are sparing no expense when it comes to hiring the best production team.

The former enthused: "The guys doing it were behind Danny Boyle's 2012 Olympics set and our editor, Chris Gill worked with the same director on 28 Days Later."