With the sad news of his death yesterday aged 52, I was reminded of an interview I did in 2006 with the late Soundgarden and Audioslave singer Chris Cornell.
He was chosen to perform singingĀ duties on that year’s Bond film, Casino Royale, which also saw a new actor cast as the iconic spy.
You could not wish to meet a nicer and more urbane rock star and my initial scepticism about a former grunge singer performing duties on a Bond film were immediately wiped away.
After recently discovering a video of Donald Trump discussing Citizen Kane (1941), it reminded me of an encounter I had once with his ex-wife in the South of France.
It also reminded of a strange incident during the 2007 Cannes film festival, when a friendly PR girl rang me and asked if I wanted to interview someone in a villa amongst the hills above the famous French town.
Not being too busy that night, I agreed, thinking āwhy not?ā and was intrigued as to who this person might be. A director? Producer? Actor?
As the taxi stopped outside the villa, you could almost feel the wealth and decadence in the air: palm trees peeking over walls, lights shooting into the sky and the noisy gaggle of Eurotrash inside.
My PR contact was waiting at the gates with two burly security guards hovering around her. I asked who my interviewee was, and she told me: āIvana Trump. Donaldās ex-wifeā.
Ahā¦, yes. I vaguely remembered her. She and her (then) husband Donald were quite the celebrity couple throughout the 1980s, widely covered in gossip columns and magazines (including this interesting piece in Spy magazine).
Donald was even referenced cryptically in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) and Ivana (post-divorce) even made an appearance in The First Wives Club (1996), with the memorable line: āRemember girls: don’t get mad, get everything.ā
After being ushered inside the garden party, I was directed to a path where fellow journalists were gathered and minders made sure they never went near the real action of the party which was covered by a big tent. But I was still scrambling for questions to ask her as just 30 mins earlier I had been in a hotel bar drinking quite heavily.
Then, after a few minutes, she emerged with a handler whose role was unclear, and my short āinterviewā began (after a female showbiz hack asked who would play her in a movie.
(I come in around the 1 minute mark!):
Nothing revelatory for sure and truth be told, at the time I was not aware that Ivana was a regular showbiz fixture at Cannes (sometimes charitable, often for lines of retail items) and afterwards it remained in my audio archives. After all it was only 1 question and unrelated to film!
However, after seeing her ex-husband Donald wax lyrical on YouTube about Orson Wellesā astonishing film debut, it took me back to Cannes 2007 and how the themes of Citizen Kane endure: money, fame, power and then what?
Like Kane, Donald has amassed a fortune, gone through divorce and is currently running for political office. What lies ahead for this loud, ambitious man who is dominating the Republican primaries?
Caroll Spinney has been the voice of the iconic Sesame Street characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch for over 45 years and we recently spoke to him about his life and career.
Since the film premiered at Sundance in January, Manning has pleaded guilty and could face the death penalty, some Wikileaks supporters have taken issue with the film and Assange remains holed up in diplomatic limbo at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Added to this, another leak of seismic proportions rocked the US government in early June when a new whistle-blower named Edward Snowden released details of PRISM, a top-secret global spying program of unprecedented scope and size.
At the time of writing, Snowden is in diplomatic limbo at Moscow airport, but although some of the events and issues raised in the film are ongoing, there was much to chew on when I spoke with Gibney at the end of June.
Neighbouring Sounds is the first full length feature from Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho and explores life in a middle-class neighbourhood in Recife, Brazil.
With its fine acting, steady pace and distinctive visual style, it is one of the most impressive films to emerge from South America in years.
I spoke with him recently about the film and you can listen to that here:
Last year two filmmakers were chosen to each make a short film about an artist preparing to perform at Latitude 2011, with the aim of reflecting the diversity and inventiveness of the UK arts scene.
Caroline Bridges has made Knife Edge, which shows dance theatre company Lost Dog in action at the festival, whilst Sameer Patel has directed She Want Soul, a portrait of poet and writer Sabrina Mahfouz.
Both films screened last night at BAFTAās Run Run Shaw Theatre in London and will also feature in the line-up for Latitudeās Film & Music Arena in 2012, which is partly programmed in partnership with BAFTA.
I spoke with Catherine and Sameer about their experiences making the films and you can listen to the interviews by clicking below:
The film was produced by the Coen brothers and Thornton played the title character with Tony Cox playing his partner in crime.
It was a year after the US release and the film has since gone on to become something of a cult favourite as an alternative to traditional Christmas movies like It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street.
For some reason, this interview never aired on radio back in 2004 but you can now listen to it here:
Since the events of September 11th 2001, several films have come out about the events of that day.
I’ve had the opportunity over the last few years to interview people directly connected with what happened and some key films related to it.
The first major release to deal specifically with 9/11 was United 93 (2006), which dramatised the events surrounding United Airlines Flight 93, after it was hijacked during the attacks.
That year I spoke with Ben Sliney, the FAAĀ national operations manager – the man responsible for grounding all air traffic that day – who director Paul Greengrass hired in an advisory capacity before letting him play himself in the movie.
Later that summer I also spoke with Will Jimeno, the Port Authority Police officer who survived the World Trade Center attack and was buried under the rubble for a total of 13 hours, along with fellow officer John McLoughlin.
Their story was the basis for Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center (2006), which starred Nicolas Cage as McLoughlin and Michael Pena as Jimeno, and we spoke about the day, his long rehabilitation process and the movie.
Two years later James Marsh directed the documentary Man on Wire (2008) about Frenchman Philippe Petit, who conducted an illegal wire walk between the Twin Towers in August 1974.
I spoke with Philippe about his extraordinary act and the subsequent film, which went on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary.
Set in Britain during 140 AD, it tells the story of a young Roman officer (Channing Tatum) and his slave (Jamie Bell), who venture to the North of England in order to find the eagle standard of an ill-fated legion who disappeared several years before.
I recently spoke with him about its development, the historical accuracy of the piece, choosing Kevin MacDonald as director and the current state of the British film industry after the closure of the UK Film Council.
Both have also been incorrectly labelled as difficult, divisive films – 2001 was a major critical and financial success but because four prominent New York critics disliked it, was labelled as getting a ‘mixed’ response.
Malick’s latest film currently has outstanding critical scores on review aggregation sites like Metacritic (85), Rotten Tomatoes (85) and a very respectable IMDb rating of 7.9, despite some critics recycling the words ‘pretentious’ and ‘perfume ad’.
But after seeing Malick’s film I was immediately reminded of something Stanley Kubrick once said in a Playboy interview around the release of his sci-fi epic:
Playboy: If life is so purposeless, do you feel its worth living?
Kubrick: Yes, for those who manage somehow to cope with our mortality. The very meaninglessness of life forces a man to create his own meaning.
Children, of course, begin life with an untarnished sense of wonder, a capacity to experience total joy at something as simple as the greenness of a leaf; but as they grow older, the awareness of death and decay begins to impinge on their consciousness and subtly erode their joie de vivre (a keen enjoyment of living), their idealism – and their assumption of immortality.
Both because of and in spite of his awareness of the meaninglessness of life, he can forge a fresh sense of purpose and affirmation. He may not recapture the same pure sense of wonder he was born with, but he can shape something far more enduring and sustaining.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death – however mutable man may be able to make them – our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfilment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.
The film explores Fischer’s rapid rise to national fame and the political significance of his clash with Spassky, which attracted global media coverage as a wider Cold War confrontation between America and Russia.
It then delves into the later years of his life as he effectively retired at the peak of his career and became a wandering enigma, exiled from his own country, making controversial statements after 9/11, before eventually retreating to Iceland where he died in 2008.
Directed by Liz Garbus, it premiered at Sundance earlier this year and mixes rare archive footage and photos, along with interviews from those close to Fischer as well as figures such as Gary Kasparov and Henry Kissinger.
I recently spoke to Liz in London at the offices at Dogwoof, who are releasing the film in the UK, and you can listen to the interview by clicking below:
Don’t Look Now is an adaptation of the short story by Daphne du Maurier, and stars Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland as a married couple who travel to Venice only to haunted by the death of their recent daughter.
It recently topped Time Out’s list of the 100 best British films and remains a remarkably atmospheric drama with its brilliant editing, haunting visuals and great use of the wintry Italian locations.
The Man Who Fell To Earth is a cult adaptation of the Walter Tevis novel about a mysterious man (David Bowie) who seemingly arrives from another planet and builds a vast business empire before becoming a recluse.
An unusual and rewarding film, it has aged like a fine wine with an inventive approach to time and enduring exploration of the forces that shape modern society.
Both films are getting re-releases on Blu-ray and I recently spoke to Anthony about his work on what are now seminal films of the 1970s.
Directed by Charles Ferguson it explores the deeply troubling relationship between financial and political elites which triggered the current recession.
Opening with a startling prologue about how Icelandās economy was ruined, it sets up in microcosm the wider story of how, over a period of 30 years, successive governments have allowed large financial institutions to inflate an economic system until it eventually burst in the autumn of 2008.
I spoke with director Charles Ferguson and producer Audrey Marrs at the London Film Festvial last October and we discussed how they made the film and the issues it raises.
In the latest drama from director Alejandro GonzĆ”lez IƱƔrritu, an underworld fixer in Barcelona struggles to deal with his family’s future and his own mortality.
Uxbal (Javier Bardem) oversees an illegal underground operation involving immigrant workers, drugs and construction, whilst also trying to be a good man to his estranged wife (Maricel Ćlvarez) and his two children (Hanaa Bouchaib and Guillermo Estrella).
Notable for an outstanding lead performance from Bardem, the film powerfully explores the dark edges of a modern city and the lives of those who live in it.
It marks a break from IƱƔrritu’s triptych with screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel) and I recently spoke with the director in London about his latest work.
You can also download this interview as a podcast via iTunes by clicking here.
N.B. The title of the film refers to the orthographical spelling in Spanish of the English word beautiful as it would sound to native Spanish speakers.
Biutiful opens in the UK on Friday 28th January and is already in limited release in the US
Zwick’s previous films have included Glory (1989), Legends of the Fall (1994), The Siege (1998), The Last Samurai (2003), Blood Diamond (2006), and Defiance (2008).
Along with his producing partner Marshall Herskovitz, he also created the TV shows Thirtysomething and My So-Called Life.
I recently spoke with Ed in London about his latest film and you can listen to the interview here:
The American is a new suspense thriller about a mysterious American named Jack (George Clooney) who arrives in a small Italian town after problems with a job in Sweden.
Whilst waiting for orders, he befriends a local priest (Paolo Bonacelli) and falls for for a local prostitute named Clara (Violante Placido), whilst taking on a new assignment to construct a new rifle for a professional assassin (Thekla Reuten).
The directing and producing duo Hammer and Tongs (aka Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith) have a new DVD out which features their various music videos for artists such as Blur, R.E.M., Pulp and Vampire Weekend.
The collection also features various audio commentaries from band members featured in the collection, including Jarvis Cocker, Graham Coxon, Norman Cook and Ezra Koenig.
There are also various short films on the DVD that showcase their work from 1998 until 2009, including behind-the-scenes footage from the various videos and their two feature films so far, The Hitchhikerās Guide to the Galaxy (2005) and Son of Rambow (2008).
The tracklisting for the DVD is as follows:
Blur: “Coffee & TV”
Vampire Weekend: “A Punk”
Vampire Weekend: “Cousins”
Radiohead: “Nude”
R.E.M.: “Imitation of Life”
Pulp: “Help the Aged”
Pulp: “A Little Soul”
Supergrass: “Low C”
Supergrass: “Pumping on Your Stereo”
Bentley Rhythm Ace: “Bentley’s Gonna Sort You Out”
Bentley Rhythm Ace: “Theme From Gutbuster”
Badly Drawn Boy: “Disillusioned”
Badly Drawn Boy: “Spitting in the Wind”
Beck: “Lost Cause”
The Wannadies: “Little by Little”
The Wannadies: “Big Fan”
The Wannadies: “Hit”
Moloko: “Flipside”
Fatboy Slim: “Right Here Right Now”
Eels: “Cancer for the Cure”
Eels: “Last Stop This Town”
I spoke with Garth and Nick recently at their offices in North London and you can listen to the interview here:
One of the best documentaries of the year, it tells the story of McKinney and the tabloid feeding frenzy she was involved in back in the 1970s.
When it screened at this year’s London Film Festival the producer Mark Lipson hinted to the audience that Joyce was more than a little upset with how the film portrayed her.
It seemed there would be an ongoing rift until someone had the brilliant idea of reuniting Joyce and Morris on stage at the New York Documentary Festival last night.
The following video of their post-screening Q&A is priceless:
Notice how Joyce can’t stop talking, the look of bemused delight on Morris’ face and a hilarious climax provided by her dog.
There is also this video of McKinney after the screening:
I suspect that both with be included on the DVD extras.
As an aside, this website wasĀ one of many that received a comment threatening legal action against the London Film Festival, the filmmakers and anyone who didn’t take a basic description of the film down from their site.
Was Joyce doing blog searches and trying to ‘correct’ the image presented of her in the film?
Cyrus is the latest film from Jay and Mark Duplass, aĀ is a comedy-drama about a lonely divorcee (John C. Reilly) who finally meets the woman of his dreams (Marisa Tomei), only to discover that she has an over-protective son (Jonah Hill).
After breaking through on the US festival scene with low-budget films such as The Puffy Chair (2005) and Baghead (2008), the Duplass Brothers quickly became associated with the term ‘mumblecore‘.
It was a loose phrase used to describe a certain kind of US indie movie, often focusing on introspective twenty-somethings and shot on tiny budgets using documentary-style techniques.
Directors such as Andrew Bujalski,Ā Lynn Shelton, Aaron Katz and Joe Swanberg all had the label applied to their films, which stood out from the increasingly expensive indie scene of the early and mid-2000s.
Since then, the genre has arguably been absorbed into the mainstream with Greenberg – the Ben Stiller comedy featuring mumblecore regular Greta Gerwig – and now Cyrus, which sees the Duplass Brothers take their style of filmmaking to the division of a major studio (Fox Searchlight).
I recently spoke with Jay Duplass in London about the new film, what the term mumblecore means to him now and the transition from ultra-low budget indies to the studio system.
Although he worked for almost 40 years as a file clerk in a hospital, he turned the everyday struggles of his life in to a distinctive series of books, which started in 1976 and were illustrated by artists such as Robert Crumb, Gary Dumm, Greg Budgett and Mark Zingarelli.
Back in December 2003 I spoke with Harvey in London when the film adaptation of American Splendor was released in UK cinemas.
Critically acclaimed, it won a string of awards, including prizes at festivals such as Sundance and Cannes, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
We discussed various aspects of his life and career, including how started the comic book, the film adaptation, his feud in the late 1980s with David Letterman and the influences on his work.
Breathless (A Bout De Souffle) is being re-released in UK cinemas to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its original release.
One of the key films of the French New Wave, it is the story of Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a small-time criminal on the run, and Patricia Franchini (Jean Seberg), an American who sells the International Herald Tribune along the boulevards of Paris.
With its loose narrative, location shooting, improvised dialogue, jump cuts, deliberately mismatched shots and literary references, it remains a landmark film.
It gave French and European cinema a much needed shot of inspiration when it first came out in 1960, with audiences and critics responding to its energy and artistic verve.
Pierre Rissient was the assistant director on Breathless and for the past fifty years has been a key figure in the film world: a critic, publicist and consultant to film festivals, he has helped champion directors as diverse as Joseph Losey, Jules Dassin, Anthony Mann, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Zhang Yimou, Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, Werner Herzog, Jane Campion and Abbas Kiarostami.
I recently spoke to Pierre about the re-release of Breathless and you can listen to the interview here:
With a career that spanned the development of cinema, taking in silent film and the advent of Technicolor he workedĀ with luminaries such as Michael Powell, John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn.
Four Lions marks the feature film debut ofĀ Chris Morris as a director and it is the story of four suicide bombers in a Northern town struggling to plan an attack on the London marathon.
Omar (Riz Ahmed) is disillusioned with how Muslims are treated around the world and determined to lead some kind of attack on the West. His protege is Waj (Kayvan Novak) who isĀ enthralled by the thought of doing something exciting. Meanwhile Barry (Nigel Lindsay) is a white Islamic convert who has issues with Omar, whilst Faisal (Adeel Akhtar) tries to experiment by strapping bombs to crows.
After pioneering work in radio (On the Hour, Blue Jam) and TV (The Day Today, Brass Eye) Morris has always had a sharp, satirical eye for how controversial subjects have been presented to the wider public.
With this film he tackles the issue of contemporary religious extremism by focusing on the naive ineptitude he encountered through his research in to the subject.
In some ways this is a sister film to Armando Ianucci’s In the Loop – whereas that focused on the dark political comedy that lay behind the war on terror, this explores the farcical nature of terrorism on the front line.
I recently spoke with Riz Ahmed and Nigel Lindsay about the film, what it was like working with Morris and why it seems to have touched a nerve at the UK box office.
American: The Bill Hicks Story is a new documentary about the late comedian whose observations on politics, culture and society still resonate years after his untimely death in 1994.
Although he met with considerable acclaim on the comedy circuit, with an especially passionate following in the UK, Hicks’ stinging observations on issues such as US foreign policy, consumerism, religion, and abortion meant that he never really achieved the mainstream breakthrough of some of his contemporaries.
However, with the release of his work on albums such as Rant in E-Minor and Arizona Bay, he achieved a lasting posthumous success and a significant legacy as a truth-teller, which reached full circle when a second President Bush started another war in Iraq.
I recently spoke with Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas about Hicks, his impact as a comedian, how they tracked down a lot of the previously unseen footage and his appeal in the UK.
The third instalment in Romeroās ongoing zombie saga sees the living dead take over the world and only small pockets of human resistance survive. One group of survivors, a motley crew of scientists and soldiers, are holed up in a 14-mile long underground missile silo where tensions begin to erupt as the zombie hoards surround them.
The bleakest and goriest of Romeroās zombie films to date, Day Of The Dead has often been overshadowed by its more illustrious predecessors, but in recent years it has found greater appreciation, with Tom Savini‘s ground breaking make-up effects and the social commentary on Reagan’s America becoming more apparent.
This Blu-ray edition features a restored presentation of the film, a new hi-def soundtrack, four alternate sleeves, a double-sided poster, a 24-page collectorās booklet āFor Every Dawn There Is A Dayā, plus a very special collectorās comic ā āDay Of The Dead: Desertionā ā featuring a brand new āBubā storyline.
Two all-new documentaries were also commissioned for this release: In āJoe Of The Deadā (directed by Calum Waddell) Joe talks about his career in movies – from his early appearance in the little-seen Pittsburgh horror outing āEffectsā (which also featured Romero regulars Tom Savini and John Harrison) to his small parts in āDawn Of The Deadā and āKnightridersā and his work as Captain Rhodes in Day Of The Dead.
In āTravelogue of the Deadā (directed by Naomi Holwill), we join Pilato as he travels across Dublin, Edinburgh and Glasgow in October 2009 celebrating the 25th anniversary of Day Of The Dead and witness him meeting the fans, reciting his most famous lines from the movie – live and on stage – and drinking with the best of them.
Calum Waddell also penned the āFor Every Dawn There Is A Dayā collectorās booklet, which is an essay on the making of the movie that collects brand new interviews with Romero, Savini, editor Pasquale Buba, assistant director/composer John Harrison and actors Joe Pilato, Lori Cardille and Gary Steele.
I recently spoke to Joe about the film’s Blu-ray release and you can listen to the interview here:
It is the tale of a family who are forced to move from London to a house in Yorkshire after the father is imprisoned on a mysterious charge.
There the three children, Roberta (Jenny Agutter), Peter (Gary Warren) and Phyllis (Sally Thomsett), are entranced by the nearby railway and become friendly with the locals, such as the station porter (Bernard Cribbins) and the Old Gentleman (William Mervyn) who takes the 9:15 train.
Written and directed by Lionel Jeffries, it was a critical success on its initial release – receiving three BAFTA nominations – and has since become a much loved film through regular broadcasts on television.
It is getting re-released at UK cinemas this week on a newly remastered digital print and I spoke with Jenny Agutter recently about her role in the film and its enduring appeal.
Johnny Mad Dog is aĀ riveting and brutal examination of child soldiers in AfricaĀ which ranks amongst the best war films in recent memory.
Although nominally set in an unnamed African country, it was shot in Liberia – still recovering from a long civil war – and makes use of former child soldiers and documentary-style techniques to create a hellish recreation of a contemporary issue.
Up in the Air is a new film about a corporate downsizer named Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) whose job is to inform people that they no longer have theirs.
Employed by an Omaha based company, his life is spent flying around the US firing people in a smooth and efficient manner because bosses want to outsource this awkward process.
Free of human relationships, he has become attached to frequent flyer miles, a fellow air mile addict (Vera Farmiga) and the buzz of living out of a suitcase. But when his boss (Jason Bateman) partners him with a new recruit (Anna Kendrick) who advocates firing people via video-link, things begin to change.
Directed by Jason Reitman, it is a smart, funny and thoughtful adaptation of Walter Kimās 2001 novel that explores the current recession, relationships and travel.
I spoke with Anna Kendrick in London recently and we talked about her role and her experiences making it.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, it depicts the journey of a father (Viggo Mortensen) and son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) as they struggle to stay alive in an America which has descended into savagery after an unspecified environmental and social collapse.
Directed byĀ John Hillcoat, who made the gritty Australian western The Proposition (2005), it premiered at the Venice film festival last September and is eagerly awaited by many as the book won the Pulitzer prize for fiction, was endorsed by Oprah Winfrey and went on to become an unlikely bestseller.
Joe came toĀ prominence as a playwright withĀ Blue/Orange and later penned the screenplay for Enduring Love (2004) before being given the onerous task of translating the horrors and emotions of the novel into a film.
I spoke with him in London recently about the film and you can listen to the interview here:
Look out for the bit around the 9 minute mark when he discusses The Terminator and the original studio’s choice for the main role.
“The head of Orion, who were gonna release the film, called me up and said, ‘Are you sitting down? I’ve cast this movie’. I was at a party, and it’s, ‘are you sitting down? It’s O.J. Simpson for the Terminator!’
And I said, ‘This is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard,’ you know. I didn’t know O.J. Simpson, I had nothing against him personally. I didn’t know he was gonna go murder his wife later and become the real Terminator”
There are also some other web extra videos which didn’t make the broadcast edit.
He is also the Chief Executive Officer of Focus Features, the arthouse division of Universal Pictures which is one few remaining of its kind in Hollywood.
I spoke with James recently when Taking Woodstock screened at the London film festival last month and you can listen to the interview here:
Kubrick had taken flying lessons but by the mid sixties never flew again as he considered it “too dangerous”.
For his move to England he transported his possessions in 140 Boy Scout foot lockers.
He considered leaving the USA during the Cuban missile crisis and booked a boat trip to Australia with his family – but cancelled when he discovered he would have to share a bathroom with a neighbouring cabin.
Before moving to St Albans Kubrick lived in a large apartment on Central Park West.
2001 was shot at Elstree and during the filming Kubrick lived in a suite at the Dorchester Hotel.
Physics was the only course in high school in which he had gotten a decent grade.
Kubrick toyed with the idea of casting Jackie Mason (!) as the voice of HAL, although he may have been joking.
During one take of a scene when Keir Dullea (who played astronaut Dave Bowman) was talking to HAL he farted so loudly, it sounded like “a stupendous burst of machine gun fire”.
The interview was recorded on one of Kubrick’s tape recorders, upon which he did most of his screen writing.
When the film was first shown to the press and invited guests in New York Kubrick ran the projector himself and decided to cut around 17 minutes from this version.
According to Morris the project (entitledĀ TheMovie Movie)Ā was based on the idea of taking Donald Trump, Mikhail Gorbachev and others and putting them in the movies they most admire.
Adapted byĀ Peter Morgan and directedĀ Tom Hooper (best known for his TV miniseries work onĀ Longford andĀ John Adams) it is out this week on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK and gets its North American premiere at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival.
I spoke with Tom recently about the film and you can listen to the interview here:
Dave Gibbons is the illustrator of Watchmen, the landmark graphic novel written by Alan Moore, which was adapted for the big screen earlier this year by director Zack Snyder.
Set in an alternate-history 1985, the story follows a group of former vigilante superheroes as tensions heighten between the USA and Soviet Union, while an investigation of an apparent conspiracy against them uncovers something sinister.
Although Moore declined to be involved with the film, Dave was consulted on various aspects, visiting the set and seeing a rough cut.
He also produced the behind-the-scenes book ‘Watching the Watchmen‘ to tie in with the release back in March.
Now with the release of the film on DVD and Blu-ray he will be appearing this weekend at Comic-Con in San Diego, where there will be a screening of the ‘director’s cut’ (which won’t be available on DVD for a while), before flying back to London in order to curate a 3-D graffiti art installation on the Southbank next Tuesday (28th).
I spoke with him on the phone recently about the upcoming launch of the DVD, the legacy of the original 12-part graphic novel, the long journey to get it made into a film and the whole business with the squid.
Lance Daly is the director of Kisses, a new film about two young children named Kylie (Kelly O’Neill) and Dylan (Shane Curry) who run away together to Dublin for one night.
Over the last year it has screened to considerable acclaim at various festivals around the world and I spoke with him recently about the film.
