SON OF RAMBOW FILM

FILM INTERVIEW The Hitchhiker’s Guide To RamboHammer & Tongs On The Year’s Coolest Independent Sleeper

HE TEAM OF HAMMER & Tongs– AKA Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith-- are the minds behind not only one of my favorite music videos of all time (Blur’s “Coffee & TV”) and the underrated Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but also one of my favorite films of this year, Son of Rambow. I recently talked to the duo about how it compared to their experience on Hitchhiker’s Guide and why they chose John Rambo over the other action heroes of the ‘80s. BY MATT GOLDBERG T

Hitchhiker’s was a big-budget film, while this is more of an independent feature. What was the difference between the two in your per sonal experience? Nick Goldsmith: It’s a bit weird, really Part of the reason we got Hitchhiker’s is we said we could make it for half the money they thought it was going to cost, so we already had in-built restriction because we were trying to make something bigger than the money allowed. We were really lucky. We had a wonderful experi ence making Hitchhiker’s. When Disney gave us the go-ahead to make the film, they said, “Look, you guys seem to know what you’re talk ing about and seem to understand this project; go away, make it, and come back afterwards and bring us the final film,” It was like an im port. They were saying, “Look, we can’t do this ourselves here,” And all credit to them, it was a very brave move to make. So in a way, we had a sort of independent-way of actually making the film. They didn’t get involved in the edit. We pretty much got to make the films ourselves. As for how it differs from Son of Rambow, well, with Son of Rambow we had a lot less money, obviously. But we had the same problems of not having enough money, or “that didn’t work so we need another way of doing it.” So it was sort of the same. Garth Jennings: They both have their own slightly different rewards, being that Son of Rambow was something we generated ourselves whereas with Hitchhiker’s we came in and did the job. But they balance each other out be cause the experiences were so rich and fulfilling and just as important. You still feel that same sort of pressure on set and that same sort of elation. NG: I guess the great thing about a studio film is that you don’t… financing Son of Rambow was a nightmare. We had to get money from everywhere to do it, and it took ages! And it’s not guaranteed that anyone is going to pick it up for distribution. We were very lucky. Sundance went incredibly well and Paramount Vantage picked it up world-wide. But that doesn’t always happen. So from our experience of doing one studio and one independent…the studio pictures have a lot of bonuses, if they go well. You’re financed. You’ve got distribution. It’s all there. It’s all done. You can get on with making the film. But again, you hear nightmare stories of making studio films. We were lucky.

How did you come to choose First Blood as the flick the kids would use for the basis of their film? GJ: Well, it was based on my own experiences of having seen it when I was young. I thought it was so amazing and made my own little home movie with my friends; not exactly about Rambo, but a Rambo-esque kind of film. So you’ve got the problem of having that kind of epiphany, and the experience of having watched a certain film so that it’s very hard to see any thing else. And also, no other film had the same qualities that First Blood had, because that first Rambo movie is brilliant. It’s just one guy with a stick and a knife, and he takes on 200 men. He only kills one of them. That was by throwing a rock at a helicopter, and he fell out so it’s his own fault anyway. He’s being hunted and being resourceful, and that’s very, very different than those other movies where it’s like, “ How many bullets ya got?” We were bullish and naïve in many ways and we’re like, “We’ll just make it. We’ll do it and not worry about there being a back-up,” Because once you start thinking about Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme or even Schwarzenegger, they’re good…but it’s not the same thing. It didn’t mean the same thing to us, and it’s very hard to write it when you don’t believe it. So that’s what we did. Luckily, after a bit of negotiations, it’s come through.

I heard that when you first started on the film, no one was even thinking about doing a fourth Rambo film. GJ: (Laughs) It’s incredible! Eight years ago, when we first started talking about this idea, we said, “What about the probability of a new Rambo film?” “Nah, he’s not going to do any more!” But there he is!

And when you heard about Rambo 4, what was your reaction? NG: The initial way when we first heard it was a worry about how it would affect us. Before it was just the film from 20 years ago and we just had to clear licenses. Then it was like, “Uh oh. Are they worried that we’re going to try and profit off their name and ride on the back of the Rambo movies?” Which clearly we weren’t; it’s part of the reason we but a “w” on the end.” But then it was like, “Wow…they’re making another Rambo film… That’s amazing.”