David Mackenzie's Scottish thriller "Young Adam," starring Ewan McGregor and produced by Thomas' Recorded Picture Co., stalled in pre-production last September, but now will start shooting March 14. New backers include the Film Council's Premiere Fund and Warner Bros., which has pre-bought U.K. rights.

More impressive yet, Thomas and his sales company HanWay are riding to the rescue of Mike Barker's historical drama "Cromwell and Fairfax."

The pic started shooting Jan. 20 but was suspended Feb. 11 when the original financier, IAC Films, couldn't hold the money together. With HanWay replacing IAC, cameras finally were due to roll again over the weekend.

Coin is coming from DZ Bank and private equity brokered by U.K. tax financier Visionview. Final details were being hammered out at the end of last week.

Pic, produced by Kevin Loader for Natural Nylon, stars Tim Roth as Oliver Cromwell, leader of the parliamentary forces in the English Civil War during the mid-17th-century, and Dougray Scott as his top general, Thomas Fairfax. Rupert Everett plays the doomed king Charles I.

Meanwhile, Thomas has been shuttling between Los Angeles and New York to set up the next Bernardo Bertolucci movie, "Paris '68," which is scheduled to shoot this summer.

All in all, with Ben Kingsley up for an Oscar for "Sexy Beast" and Phillip Noyce's critically acclaimed "Rabbit-Proof Fence" tipped for a Cannes slot, Thomas is on a roll. That's not just good for him, it's also good news for the British film industry.

HOPE FLOATS

Bloodied but unbowed by the "Cromwell and Fairfax" saga, IAC Films is pushing ahead with a planned flotation April 18 on London's Alternative Investment Market. The grave illness of the company's founder and chairman Guy Collins hasn't made things any easier, but he's now on the road to recovery from a life-saving operation, and hoping to be back at work within a couple of months.