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DUNE CANDYMAN Nia DaCosta evokes the bogeyman
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DEV PATEL REBECCA HALL FOREST WHITAKER JULIA STILES GAEL GARCÍA BERNAL JUDE LAW
“IT’S INTENSE AND BRUTAL” Jamie Lee Curtis
What’s your favourite movie Michael / mask? Tell us @totalfilm #TFmaskedmike
GROUP EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JANE CROWTHER (JC) jane.crowther@futurenet.com
WELCOME TO
@totalfilm_jane Michael Emerson / Henriea’s in Flesh And Fantasy DEPUTY EDITOR MATT MAYTUM (MM) ma.maytum@futurenet.com @mamaytum Mike Hat, Chris Hemsworth’s dog in Ghostbusters/ The Mask of Lokiin The Mask REVIEWS EDITOR MATTHEW LEYLAND (ML) mahew.leyland@futurenet.com @totalfilm_mal Like Mike / The Cher movie NEWS EDITOR JORDAN FARLEY (JF) jordan.farley@futurenet.com @jordanfarley Magic Mike / Guy Fawkes in V For Vendea PRODUCTION EDITOR ERLINGUR EINARSSON (EE) erlingur.einarsson@futurenet.com @ErlingurEinars Mike Wazowski / Scarecrow’s in Batman Begins ART EDITOR MIKE BRENNAN mike.brennan@futurenet.com @mike_brennan01 Magic Mike / Reagan mask in Point Break FILM GROUP
Editor (SFX) Darren Sco Art Editor Jonathan Coates Deputy Editor Ian Berriman Production EditorEd Rickes
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EditoratLarge Jamie Graham (JG) Michael Corleone / Leatherface Art studio Catherine Kirkpatrick Prepress and cover manipulation Gary Stuckey Hollywood Correspondent Adam Tanswell (AT) Contributing Editors Kevin Harley (KH), James Moram (JM), Neil Smith (NS), Josh Winning (JW) Contributors Musanna Ahmed (MA), Tara Benne (TB), Simon Bland (SB), Paul Bradshaw (PB), Alex Clement (AC), Tom Dawson (TD), Ma Glasby (MG), Simon Kinnear (SK), Leila Latif (LL), Ann Lee (AL), Ma Looker (MLo), Ashanti Omkar (AO), Chris Schilling (CS), Josh Slater-Williams (JS-W), Kate Stables (KS), Paul Tanter (PT), Anton van Beek (AvB), Amy West (AW) Entertainment Editor, Gamesradar+ Jack Shepherd (JS) Mike Ehrmantraut / Zorro’s mask jack.shepherd@futurenet.com Photography Alamy, Gey, Rex, Trunk Archive Thanks to Nick Chen, Rhian Drinkwater (Production)
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fter the horror of the last 18 months, it’s time for a bit of, well, horror. Now that we can get together for communal scares at the cinema we’re heralding the return of an iconic bogeyman: Michael Myers in Halloween Kills. We talked to the whole team bringing Laurie Strode’s next fight to the pictures and delved into the career of the man who started it all off, the godfather of horror himself, John Carpenter. If that weren’t enough gore for you, we’re also tracking the rebirth of Candyman (seriously, do you actually dare say it enough times in the mirror? I don’t!) plus we’re taking our first look at Dune, travelling to the alt-universe with Marvel and chatting careers with Gael García Bernal, Rebecca Hall and Dev Patel. I know we’re still trying to enjoy summer, but based on this little lot I think it’s time to start counting down to autumn…
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MATT MAYTUM
JORDAN FARLEY
JACK SHEPHERD
Was great fun Zooming with Dev Patel: I’m just hoping he calls back soon to show me the picture of his ferret co-star he promised to share
Had a bucket-list chat with John Carpenter and bonded over our shared love of videogames (he’s currently playing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Fallout 76)
Vin Diesel was two hours late for my Fast 9 chat, but made up for it by wishing my brother “a big happy birthday, bro” – cos as we all know, it’s all about family
DEPUTY EDITOR
NEWS EDITOR
ONLINE EDITOR
Chief Executive Zillah Byng-Maddick Non-executive Chairman Richard Huntingford Chief Financial Officer Rachel Addison Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244
AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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Contents #314
04
THIS ISSUE
TEASERS
34 HALLOWEEN KILLS The Shape of things to come... TF gets the full story on the stabby sequel. 46 JOHN CARPENTER Celebrating the Master of Horror, composer extraordinaire, cult hero… Just don’t tell him that. 58 CANDYMAN Don’t read this feature five times into the mirror (just because that’d be weird). 62 REMINISCENCE Lisa Joy and Hugh Jackman recollect, recall, and reflect on the making of their sci-noir. 68 GAEL GARCÍA BERNAL Want to feel Old? Amores Perros turned 20 last year… GGB holds back the years. 72 WHAT IF...? Marvel’s mission to outbonkers itself continues with the animated mix-up. 78 REBECCA HALL The Brit star faces her fears in The Night House ahead of her directorial debut. 82 THE NEST Jude Law and Carrie Coon on playing unhappy families in a horror-tinged drama.
9 GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE Karen Gillan’s explosive new actioner. 13 THE DUKE Jim Broadbent gets his Thomas Crown on. 14 DUNE Denis Villeneuve on his lifetime passion project. 20 DON’T BREATHE 2 The Blind Man returns for a sequel shocker. 25 BETWEEN TAKES Julia Stiles talks on-set naps and weird wrap parties. 30 IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN TO A FILM JOURNALIST Our Jamie on the perils of being short-sighted and a professional film-watcher. 33 FOREST WHITAKER The screen legend on Respect, Rogue One and Robin Williams.
EVERY ISSUE 3 EDITOR’S LETTER What we’ve been up to. 6 DIALOGUE In the postbag… 86 TOTAL FILM INTERVIEW Dev Patel deserves a knighthood.
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
AUGUST 2021
TOTAL FILM BUFF 120 IS IT BOLLOCKS? Just how scientifically sound is Sound Of Metal? 121 10 OF THE BEST Glasses! Please read as far as you can from the top. 126 RICHARD DONNER Paying tribute to the late Superman director. 130 60-SECOND SCREENPLAY A Quiet Place Part II, but at a lower volume.
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9 58 62
34
IF LOOKS COULD KILL We take a peek behind Michael Myers’ mask, and the making of the upcoming Halloween Kills.
‘THERE’S AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF KILLING IN THIS MOVIE’ 72 86
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SCREEN 96 BLACK WIDOW At long, long, long last, it’s game on for Romanoff. 98 CODA Sundance-conquering tale of a Child Of Deaf Adults. 99 LIMBO Not a new dance flick but an ace refugee com-dram. 100 STILLWATER Does Ma Damon’s latest venture run deep? 101 THE SPARKS BROTHERS Would say more about the duo but this page ain’t big enough for the both of ’em. 102 NIGHT OF THE KINGS They’ve really done a bangup job on this prison movie. 103 RIDERS OF JUSTICE One more Mikkelsen pun and we’ll get very... cross. 104 ZOLA Twier-inspired saga of beginnings and trendings. 105 FEAR STREET 1-3 Three and a bit centuries of storytelling in one review! 108 BRINGING UP BABY You can really spot the difference in this 4K Blu. 110 WELLINGTON PARANORMAL Jemaine Clement: what he does when not doing What We Do In The Shadows. 111 TED LASSO S2 It’s all kicking off again for coach Jason Sudeikis. 112 HEELS Arrow man Stephen Amell is fighting with his family. 116 GAMES PREVIEW Titles we’re Rabbid about. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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Dia ue Mail, rants,theoriesetc.
EMAIL totalfilm@futurenet.com WRITE Total Film, 1-10 Praed Mews, London W2 1QY (postal addresses will be used for the sole purpose of sending out prizes) gamesradar.com/totalfilm twier.com/totalfilm facebook.com/totalfilm Drop us a line totalfilm@futurenet.com
TF’S CINEMATIC AGONY UNCLE HAS YOUR BACK. 06
DEAR WINGMAN
Where does the term ‘MacGuffin’ come from?! I first heard of it while reading reviews of Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker and now it’s everywhere. I assumed it was a word for employees of fast-food establishments who keep trumping. GARY STALLONE, FAREHAM
WINGMAN SAYS...
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
★
I’ve been pondering a subject that I don’t think has received, even in your hallowed mag, due consideration: who is cinema’s greatest wrestlerturned-actor? Dwayne Johnson, maybe? Dave Bautista? John Cena? No. It’s as clear as two submissions or a knockout that none of those could hold a figure-four leg-lock to the incomparable Brian Glover (or as he was known in his wrestling prime, Leon Arras from Paris). Who could forget his roles in An American Werewolf In London, Alien3 or as the iconic PE teacher in Kes? (“Charlton today, lad… Denis Law’s in t’wash.”) DAVEY W, LEEDS Debate over, as far as we’re concerned, especially if you add to the list Glover’s ’80s TV-ad voiceovers. Could wrestler-turned-Expendable Stone Cold Steve Austin explain how “Tetley’s 2,000 perforations let flavour flood out” with the same tea-cosy
warmth? Davey and everyone with a letter printed here will receive a copy of taut thriller Alone, out now on Blu-ray and digital via Signature Entertainment. Didn’t send an address? Email it! Or it’ll be homeless Alone!
REACH FOR THE SKY
G
reat you gave a nod to rental service Cinema Paradiso [see TF313]. I’ve had endless discs from them, including Bette Davis’ first film. Kudos also to Sky Premiere. They programme many films that have never had publicity from TF or anywhere else, because of the never-ending obsession with comicbook movies. Some of the gems I’ve
PASSED OVER? Which recent overlooked gem is your favourite? Get in touch, even if you’ve never/rarely/ sometimes/always written us before.
REFLECTIVE INTEREST CURVE™
THRILLED ENTERTAINED FLIPPIN’ ECK! BAD TIMES… 0 WEEK
Set visit IRL!
Film festival IRL! Needle-pushing Bored of ‘push’; debate of phrase ‘moving the needle’ ‘pushing the needle’ now where it’s at
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DEADLINE
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Y T T E G ,LA S R E V I NU , M U L Y S A E H T ,T NEMNIAT R E T N E ERUTANGIS
No, it’s nothing to do with letting off a Spicy Veggie One. And the word actually predates Episode IX by several decades, even though that film did break some kind of MacRecord with its wayfinders, GPS daggers and convenient spare lightsabers. Scripter Angus MacPhail (Went The Day Well?, Whisky Galore!) reportedly coined the term before Alfred Hitchcock made it go viral. A MacGuffin is typically something - or some thing - that drives the plot, motivates the characters but is less of a deal for viewers (wayfinder shmayfinder). Although there are exceptions; in Birds Of Prey, we were every bit as keen as Harley Quinn to get our paws on that filthy-looking but ohso-perfect egg sandwich.
STAR LETTER
OFFICE SPACED
Chatter ‘gems’ overheard in the Total Film office this month…
there stil be space for * “WicelSpaced Offi when we’re spaced apart in the office?” reading even spoiler* “Notreviews free for Boss Baby 2. Gotta go in stone-cold.”
Shark Attack, for a grand total of nine abroad, I rarely venture more than a few metres into any water where there’s bonces á la Bruce. Surely time for Spielberg to cash in on this hit factory a risk of sharks. I’m terrified of them, by renaming his little film One-Headed thanks to movies like Jaws. So your Shark Attack. Luke: glad you enjoyed/ feature ‘Fin-Tastic Beasts’ [TF313] was endured the piece; try starting with a piece I read through closed fingers. something family-friendly, like Shark It was, however, fully enjoyable and Tale. On second thoughts, that’s a film A number of those titles have appeared reminded me of films I’ve not seen in you should watch not through closed in TF - not least Never Rarely Sometimes a long time, or at all. Now if I could fingers, but a closed TV cabinet. Always, which featured in our Top 20 of just muster up the courage to 2020 [see TF306] and yes, deserves to watch them… be praised to the, um, skies. Can Bette LUKE RUSSELL, WAKEFIELD have her disc back now? ome of the best news I’ve read recently in Really enjoyed the sharkmovies feature; I’ve been Total Film is that one of obsessed with ‘fins and my favourite directors, Jeff irstly, as an NHS worker, I have • VIDEOS • REVIEWS to thank you for continuing to teeth’ films since seeing Nichols, will be helming a • TRAILERS • NEWS print issues; they are a blessing on a Jaws 2 in the cinema. But I Quiet Place spin-off. hard day! Issue 312 was incredible, from feel you missed out on some Now the question is, what part will his (and the article on UK film locations to the B-movie classics like Bait, The Reef, my) favourite actor Michael brilliant interview with Rose Byrne. Dark Tide, Ice Sharks, House Shark, Ghost Shannon be playing? Also, I was shocked to find I’m not the Shark, Exorcist Shark, Jurassic Shark and only one who loves good-bad horrors KEN MEYER JR., Shark Shock, the last of which had the like House Of Wax, Darkness Falls, and greatest-ever tagline: ‘No More Mr. SANTA ANA that someone out there also likes The Nice Shark’. And who could forget the Fountain. I just got a tattoo of Call Me 2/3/5/6-Headed Shark Attack series… No confirmation I’ve just realised I’ve wasted my life. By Your Name (to join the three Donnie yet of Mr. Darko, one Scream and one Trick ’r Treat PHIL SLOAN, BEXLEY Michael’s tattoos). Got me wondering, do many involvement, but others tattoo their favourite films? Wasted your life? By watching if the casting movies? You’re barking up the OWEN DAVIES, VIA EMAIL gods make it wrong magazine, sorry. For anyone happen, maybe questioning the absence of a 4-Headed he’ll play someone Firstly, thank you for being an NHS Shark Attack from Phil’s list... there’s worker and for all the hard days you fairly intense and and your colleagues have endured. no such film; but a fish with four a bit scary. And tall. Excellent question: readers, please noggins does feature in 5-Headed We’re just guessing. share your blockbuster body art, with pics (if located in non-naughty areas). Our Wingman’s always fancied tattoos of such faves as Inglourious Basterds or Pet Sematary, but is worried the titles will end * Brilliant value – HALF PRICE up mistakenly spelled correctly. * Exclusive subscriber covers and content * Stay in the know on all things film * Delivered to your door y wife laughs at me because Visit www.magazinesdirect.co.uk/TFSUB50 whenever we go on holiday discovered are The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, The Night Clerk, Spontaneous, The Roads Not Taken, Don’t Let Go and especially The Broken Hearts Gallery. K. WESTON, BALHAM
INK PIECE
F
HAVE MIKE UP YOUR SAY gamesradar.com/ S
HEAD COUNT To be fair, anynumber-headed shark attacks sound plenty scary to us… FAN FAVE Who’s your favourite director-regular actor pairing? The Shannon/Nichols combo takes some beating… (below)
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COMING ATTRACTIONS This year’s sharpest sci-fi blockbuster p14 Alleyes on this breathlesssequel p20
The film shot on an active volcano p23 A thriller best watchedon a laptop p29
EDITED BY JORDAN FARLEY
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EXCLUSIVE
Shake, rattle and roll GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE I Karen Gillan is a gun on the run in Navot Papushado’s neon-lit love letter to action cinema’s greatest hits…
I
t’s an assassin movie. It’s a film noir. It’s a squad movie. It’s JeanPierre Melville becoming Jacques Demy. It’s Jackie Chan, Looney Tunes and Roger Rabbit…” laughs director Navot Papushado, wearing all of his influences as proudly as possible. “We wanted to show a little bit of everything.”
LANACOIDUTS
If Gunpowder Milkshake were a real drink, it would taste like a dozen different flavours all at once – a zingy mix of hitwoman action and motherdaughter drama poured into one big stylish Slurpee – and it’s certainly the only film you’re likely to see this year about a gang of gun-toting librarians with a two-minute slow-motion hammer fight in it.
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“There were a lot of offers flowing around after I made Big Bad Wolves”, says Papushado, director of the Israeli comedy horror that Quentin Tarantino named his favourite film of 2013. “But at the end of day, I wanted to do something that was mine. As soon as I started working on Gunpowder Milkshake it felt like the next evolutionary step for me. It’s just
everything that I’ve always been interested in doing.” Pitched as an assassin movie with a dozen different genre twists, Gunpowder Milkshake stars Karen Gillan as Sam, a professional hitwoman who’s forced to go rogue after she rescues an eight-year-old girl (Chloe Coleman) from a gangland shootout. Seeking help from her hired-gun mum (Lena Headey), Sam sides with a secret sisterhood of underground assassins posing as librarians – with Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh and Carla Gugino joining forces to help Sam take on Paul Giamatti’s mob.
RENTAL KILL Karen Gillan’s Sam is the right person in the wrong place.
AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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“It started with this idea of this professional assassin stumbling into a kidnap thriller,” explains Papushado. “But there’s this mother and daughter story running in the background, and that grows to involve another generation, and then we have this old crew, the librarians, this family, all these genre-blending elements exploding into each other.” For Papushado, who was impressed by Gillan in Guardians Of The Galaxy and Doctor Who, casting was easy – needing someone who could keep the film’s different emotional plates spinning whilst still looking comfortable dual-wielding a couple of automatic handguns. “First of all, she’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met,” says Papushado. “But then she also has this intense sense of danger. That was what I wanted for Sam – to the young girl she’s a surrogate mom; to her own mother she’s still a kid; to Paul Giamatti’s character she’s a rebellious teenager. I didn’t want to do a movie where the hero is just one thing. I don’t want to see another assassin who’s too cool for everything.” Knowing that his story needed to be driven by an all-girl hit-squad, Papushado assembled his dream cast for “the librarians”, happy to let Headey, Bassett, Yeoh and Gugino help evolve their own characters. “These women not only helped shape the script, but the entire movie became their own,” admits Papushado. “I mean, entire action scenes were actually changed because of input from our cast. Mainly because they were all just so good at what they did that we were able to keep pushing the envelope. Once we got Angela Bassett kicking ass, we put hammers in her hands. Michelle Yeoh came in and elevated this whole idea for this Mary Poppins trick we had… I don’t want to spoil anything…” Tasked with wielding hammers, knives, planks of wood, revolvers and giant car-mounted miniguns, the cast trained with the Papushado’s stunt team to master the art of fighting dirty, becoming a crack squad of professional
assassins over the film’s three-month shoot in Berlin. “The biggest challenge, and the most rewarding one, was one continuous shot that rolls for like two and a half minutes, all in slow-mo”, remembers Papushado. “Everyone needed to hit their mark. There was nowhere to hide. If the punch doesn’t hit, you’ll notice, so the only way to do it was for everyone to actually be as good as they look like they are.” Splashing the film with neon colours in striking wide angles, Papushado wanted a film that felt retro and modern at the same time, always trying to balance style and substance. “I didn’t want to see Karen running around on high heels dressed in leather. We looked back to the whole technicolour era – Vertigo was in the back of our minds – but we wanted to give it a junkier edge that felt contemporary. I want this movie to kick ass but it still has to wash our eyes.” Referencing everything from Steven Spielberg and Hong Kong cinema to the “holy trinity” of Alfred Hitchcock, Sergio Leone and Akira Kurosawa, Papushado was passionate about carving out a new notch in the action pantheon that “goes all the way from Buster Keaton to Jackie Chan”. Even ensuring Haim Frank Ilfman’s score found a niche somewhere between Bernard Herrmann, Italian westerns and Universal monster movies, Papushado made sure every beat and bullet of Gunpowder Milkshake felt like a film fan’s dream – something he could hardly believe himself while he was making it. “There was one day a week before we started shooting when I went to see a movie,” he laughs. “During the trailers I saw a preview for a big action film and I realised, ‘Oh shit, I’m doing one of these!’ I really had to pinch myself. It was a humbling experience, but we just had so much fun making it. The whole thing was exhilarating, which is exactly what I was hoping for!” PB
‘I DON’T WANT TO SEE ANOTHER ASSASSIN WHO’S TOO COOL FOR EVERYTHING’ NAVOT PAPUSHADO
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
BAD BOOKS Sam goes rogue after rescuing Emily (Chloe Coleman, middle); Sam is helped by Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett and Carla Gugino’s killer librarians (above).
ETA| 17 SEPTEMBER / GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE OPENS IN CINEMAS AND ON SKY CINEMA IN TWO MONTHS. T WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
MILK MOUSTACHE Paul Giamatti and Karen Gillan star as a mobster and the assassin who dares to go up against him. (opposite top) FAMILY VALUES Lena Headey joins the fun as Sam’s mother, Scarlet (left).
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AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
HOT RIGHT NOW
Channing Tatum IS PUMPED FOR A COMEBACK…
I
promise you I would not look like this,” said Channing Tatum recently, “unless I had to be naked in most of my movies, mostly.” After four years of animation voicework and time spent (possibly) bench-pressing buses, Tatum will be reminding us just what he looks like on-screen soon, clothed or otherwise.
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ETA| 2022 /DOG AND LOST CITY OF D RELEASE NEXTYEAR. PUSSYISLAND’S RELEASE DATEIS TBC. TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
KCOTSRETTUHS
First up, Jump Street’s endearing jock-in-residence jumps to co-directing (alongside Reid Carolin) with the incoming Dog, where he also plays an Army Ranger paired with a Belgian Malinois on a road trip to a funeral. For jungle-set romance-adventure Lost City Of D, he plays the cover model for the books by Sandra Bullock’s novelist. Afterwards, he will star in Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut, the thriller Pussy Island, as a tech mogul with secrets. And, surely, sick abs. Tatum has always been game to use what he’s got, whether that means indulging, ribbing or anatomising his hyper-masculinity. After breakthroughs in A Guide To Recognising Your Saints and Step Up, he proved as much by transforming a potential PR pile-up into a next-level hit. When news broke of his time as a stripper, his response was Magic Mike, a film that flaunted his masculinity and held it up for analysis. Besides an inevitable appearance in hot Roman wear (The Eagle), he’s played anything from troubled wrestlers (Foxcatcher) to romantic leads (The Vow), handling his man-bod and more with a winning lightness and quizzicality. Far from the dim bulb of 21/22 Jump Street, he has made smart director choices, including Steven Soderbergh and – with The Hateful Eight – Quentin Tarantino. His wry self-awareness even helped him emerge unscathed from Jupiter Ascending, space-rollers and all; he also wrote a children’s book last year. His endearing co-lead in Logan Lucky and underused role in Kingsman: The Golden Circle were his last onfilm appearances, before voice gigs (Smallfoot, The Lego Movie 2, America: The Motion Picture) and “injuries, life shit” (his words) swallowed up his time. A return is due, then, and he seems up for the long haul. “Gonna be a fun next 10-year run,” he posted on Instagram. Naked or not, we’re here for it. KH
EXCLUSIVE
GOYA GOYA GONE THE DUKE I Roger Michell’s Ealing-esque
Y
true storypaints a pretty picture…
ou know what?” muses Roger Michell (Notting Hill). “I’ve yet to meet anyone who remembers that story.” The subject of Michell’s new film The Duke, the story in question concerns Kempton Bunton, a 60-year-old Newcastle taxi driver and family man who, in 1961, allegedly evaded security at the National Gallery and stole Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington, the only time the venerable London art institution has ever been raided.
EHTAP
While Bunton’s story has since slipped through the cracks of pop culture, at the time it was big news – with Goya’s missing painting appearing in James Bond movie Dr. No a year later, glimpsed in the titular villain’s lair. “It must have absolutely captured the public imagination,” says Michell. It should be added that Bunton is no master criminal but wanted to ransom the artwork and use the money for “the greater good”, caring for the elderly. “He’s a rascal, but it’s very hard to dislike Kempton,” says Michell. “He’s such a wonderful, rambunctious fellow. You’d call him an activist now, wouldn’t you? I think he’d campaign for anything,
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Kempton. He was a professional campaigner. He preferred campaigning to doing the washing up or helping around the house or going to work! I think he’s a classic Alf Garnett/ Tony Hancock archetype.” With Jim Broadbent perfectly cast as Kempton, Michell went for the less-obvious Dame Helen Mirren to play his wife Dorothy – a good, honest, working-class cleaning lady. “I wasn’t familiar with her work not wearing a crown of some description. So, yeah, it was great to start prepping with her and to discover how totally she was going for this part. She
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SCENE STEALER Jim Broadbent stands trial as real-life taxi driver and alleged art thief Kempton Bunton.
wasn’t going to pull her punches. And I think she absolutely loved not being number one on the call sheet.” Michell also took great delight in constructing a film inspired by the Ealing Comedies of old. “It has the same tonality as Ealing Comedies. It’s about a small man speaking truth to power. It’s about the pomposity of the establishment. Right will win out in the end.” It also comes equipped with the sort of gentle humour found in movies like Whisky Galore! and The Lavender Hill Mob. “It ain’t Fleabag,” he says. Recreating the era came at a cost, however. For key scenes, Michell chose to synch Broadbent into archive footage, via nifty CGI. Rather this than “a naff shot with three period vehicles on a street that you’ve managed to close for two hours, with loads of awful CGI backings,” he grimaces. “That’s what I absolutely dreaded and that seems to be a hallmark of British period films! I thought, ‘I’ve got to find a solution to this, which is perky, witty and tonally correct.’” Kempton, you’d think, would approve. JM ETA| 3 SEPTEMBER / THE DUKE OPENS IN TWO MONTHS. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
EXCLUSIVE
Knives Out
DUNE I Denis Villeneuve and a fighting-fit Timothée Chalametbring Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi classic backto the screen.
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hen Denis Villeneuve’s long-awaited adaptation of Frank Herbert’s genre-defining opus Dune was delayed by the best part of a year last October, the Quebecer director behind modern masterpieces Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 was in two minds. “Frankly, the pandemic was a curse,” says Villeneuve, who found remote editing particularly troublesome. “But a good way to see it is that we had more time to finish the movie exactly the way I wanted it to be. We’ve been finished since maybe March. Definitely, it was good for the movie.”
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SORB RENRAW
Those extra months may have made all the difference, but for Villeneuve they were a drop in the ocean. After all, he’s dreamt about bringing Dune to the screen for 40 years. Falling “deeply in love” with Herbert’s epic, ecologically conscious far-future saga about feuding families on the hostile desert planet of Arrakis while a self-confessed “nerd” in his early teens, as the decades went by, the idea of adapting Dune was never far from Villeneuve’s thoughts. “When people were asking me [what I’d love to make], it was always Dune,” the director tells Teasers over Zoom. “It was really something that I kept in the back of my mind of what would be my ultimate dream.” When the opportunity to finally make Dune arose in late 2016, Villeneuve had some conditions: it would need to be shot on location in Wadi Rum, Jordan – the only place on Earth that could conceivably double for the mesmeric, endless desert of Arrakis; the expansive story would need to be told over two films to do it justice; and there was only one choice for Paul Atreides. “We said, ‘It’s Timothée [Chalamet].’ We didn’t have a Plan B,”
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Villeneuve notes. “Honestly, if he had said no, I don’t know what I would have done. There would be no Dune, maybe.” Villeneuve was confident that Chalamet had the charisma and “deep intelligence” to convincingly take his childhood hero from the young heir of House Atreides to the future Kwisatz Haderach. But Paul is also a skilled combatant, who uses his wits and speed to go toe-to-toe with fierce fighters, as seen in our exclusive image in which Paul squares off against the Fremen Jamis (Babs Olusanmokun), crysknife in hand. “Of course, [Paul] has all of those techniques that make him a very dangerous fighter, but it doesn’t rely on external muscles,” Villeneuve explains, before a pause, and a smile. “How can I say it? I was like Paul. I looked like Timothée when I was 16 years old. So maybe it’s like vengeance [laughs]. I created my hero. He looks like what I used to look like, and he’s kicking the ass of the big guys, you know? It’s like Revenge Of The Nerds.” JF ETA| 17 SEPTEMBER/ DUNE OPENS IN CINEMAS LATER THIS YEAR.
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AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
Film quotes pose as questions. Film stars tryto cope.
IN THE CROSSHAIRS THIS MONTH BRETT GOLDSTEIN Are you talkin’ to me? It looks like it, doesn’t it? For Ted Lasso, I spoke to an old football captain, and he said, “Part of my job was to scare people.” One day, a new, young player on the other team came up to him and said, “I’ve just got to say, this is such an honour, playing with you. I’m a huge fan.” And he turned to him and said, “Are you talking to me? Who the fuck are you? I don’t fucking know you.” And he said, “That was how I had to do it.” And I thought, ‘What a lovely story.’
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‘IN MY NEXT LIFE, I’LL COME BACK AS A POO TO MAKE UP FOR HOW LUCKY I’VE BEEN IN THIS LIFE’ So what are you afraid of? Burning to death in a fire. I wouldn’t mind drowning because I love water.
Do you have the slightest idea of what a moral and ethical principle is? I guess I do, but then – I think most bad people also think they do. So who is to say? We also talk about how it’s like a feeling you get in your gut – right and wrong. But I’m always like, “Yeah, but is that indigestion? So what is anything? I mean you’ve sent me into an existential panic with that question, to be honest.
If I say to you, “Don’t think about elephants” – what do you think about? Elephants having sex. Really full-on, gross sex. That’s the question, right? And good luck to them, I’d say. They’re having a lovely time in my head. I don’t know why you put that thought there, but you did.
What’s normal anyways? I dread normal. Arguably, nothing is normal, and no one is normal. What I fear is arguing over who’s going to empty the dishwasher. That’s the ultimate dread.
Do you like what you do for a living, these things that you see? I love it. I truly love it. I think it’s insane that I get to do it, and I would do it for free. Please don’t tell Apple I said that. Am I supposed to be the little girl? “I’d like you to be!” I realise it sounds dodgy out of context, so thanks for that. Maybe watch the show, and then realise I’m not being dodgy. JF ETA | 23 JULY / TED LASSO STREAMS WEEKLY ON APPLE TV+.
Brett Goldstein stars as Roy Kent in Ted Lasso.
Is life always this hard, or is it just when you’re a kid? SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
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Why don’t you tell me the story of your life? I think the story of my life is like most people’s. It’s almost the trajectory of the Toy Storyfilms – 1, 2, 3and 4. You’re born. You learn that you’re not special. You learn that people leave. You learn that people die. And then you find peace by running off with Bo Peep.
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You ever have that feeling where you’re not sure if you’re awake or still dreaming? Yes. Look, David Lynch is my hero, and I think it’s like the line in Twin Peaks: The Return: “We are like the dreamer who dreams and lives inside the dream. But who is the dreamer?” I think that tells you everything you need to know. I could talk about [TP: TR] all day. I think about TwinPeaksand TwinPeaks: The Return once a day, and I have since TwinPeaks was first on. My brain space is 90 per cent dust, 10 per cent TwinPeaks– always. If you could change anything in your life, anything at all, what would it be? There was a programme, FlashForward, which ran for 24 episodes, and then was cancelled. I regret watching it because it was all, “What does it mean?” and then they cancelled it before you found out what it meant. I wasted 24 hours of my life watching it, over a year. Genuinely, that’s my only regret. I wish I hadn’t watched FlashForward. Not that it was bad. It just never answered anything.
Do you feel lucky, punk? Here’s how lucky I feel: I think karma is a thing, and I don’t think I’m a particularly good person, so in my last life, I must have been very fucking saintly. It’s slightly worried me that in my next life, I’ll come back as a poo to make up for how lucky I’ve been in this life. Do you have an ‘off’ switch? I do not have an ‘off’ switch, and that is a problem. My brain is always at a million miles an hour. The only thing that does switch me off is to get me in the sea. Get me in the sea, and then I’m like, “I’m happy. That’s it.” Maybe I was a little mermaid in the last life.
KCOTSRETTUHS ,ELPPA
YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?
In my experience, it’s harder when you’re a kid. I was a real, miserable, “old man” kid. I was like a 60-year-old inside. The older I get, the happier I am, actually. I’m like Benjamin Button. I was born a very cynical man, and I’ve got older and older, and more like, “Oh, it’s alright.”
EXCLUSIVE
Safe House HERSELF I Heartfelt Irish drama about
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rebuilding after abuse
hen director Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!, The Iron Lady) first became involved with Irish drama Herself, she was puzzled why the producers were discussing who to cast in the lead role of traumatised yet resilient young mother Sandra. “I just said, ‘What are you guys thinking about?’ It’s got to be Clare [Dunne].” Lloyd and Dunne had collaborated before, and once the Dublin-born actress had shown the filmmaker her original screenplay for Herself, Lloyd was swiftly impressed.
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“I was immediately struck by her instinctive sense of what a movie could be in relationship to words and images,” recalls Lloyd. “She had created a character in Sandra who was not a victim, and the script had a momentum and an energy and a brio and a fearlessness about the relationship between dark and night… It felt as though Clare was speaking not just to those of us who feel lucky enough to feel safe in our homes, but to those women who were actually facing domestic abuse.” Given that Lloyd’s debut feature – the all-star musical Mamma Mia! – grossed over $600m worldwide, shooting the modestly budgeted Herself in five weeks on locations across Dublin must have presented a very different set of challenges. “Well, I’d been looking to do a low-budget film for a long time,” she explains. “The point is there is never
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enough time on a film set whether you have four months or four weeks. There’s never enough money and it’s never the right weather. By cutting away lots of technical options on Herself, I found I could concentrate on the essentials and work with a greater simplicity.” Herself was completed before Covid-19 closed cinemas across the world, and in looking ahead to the film’s much delayed UK release this September, Lloyd believes its themes may now be even more resonant. “We’ve all become more conscious of how cases of domestic violence have escalated during lockdowns. And we’ve become much more conscious of who we are in relation to the community in which we are living.” TD ETA| 10 SEPTEMBER / HERSELF OPENS IN CINEMAS LATER THIS YEAR.
BETTER TIMES Clare Dunne’s Sandra seeks safety from harrowing domestic abuse (above); with daughter Molly (Molly McCann, below).
CLARE DUNNE
What was the inspiration for the script? One of my dear friends in Dublin, a single mother with three children, found herself about to be made homeless and so she had to go into temporary accommodation for several months. She was so determined and hard-working, and I was so angry on her behalf that she was made to feel worthless. I had the idea of a woman finding a bit of land and building her own house, with a community forming around her. Was it difficult to balance the upsetting scenes in the screenplay with the more uplifting moments? We were trying to avoid a Disney-style film, but we didn’t want for the audience to wallow in misery either. I always wanted to show Sandra’s grit and determination to get out of a tough situation. She’s the opposite of a traditional victim. What was particularly challenging about playing the lead character Sandra yourself? There was the physical challenge because Sandra is so active, she’s driving, cleaning, walking, playing with her kids, and helping build the house. There was also a lot of pressure in the scene where she is violently attacked by her partner. I found that emotionally draining. TD AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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SOUNDBYTES Quotable dialogue fromthis month’s movies – and theirstars
“They’re gonna have togenerate an essay that proves that was an influence.”
Steven Soderbergh doesn’t quite believe the Russos’ claim that Out Of Sight informed Avengers: Infinity War.
1.1
million The Greatest Showman’s
record-breaking UK digital download copy sales.
“IF CHRISTIAN SLATER FROM 1989 WALKED INTO THE ROOM, AND I HAD NEVER HEARD HIS NAME BEFORE, AND HAD TO GUESS WHAT IT WAS JUST FROM WHAT HE LOOKED LIKE, I WOULD GUESS ‘CHRISTIAN SLATER’.” Chris Evans makes a good point.
£270,700 The sale price of Indy’s fedora from The Temple
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Of Doom at a recent Prop Store auction.
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“A VERY CHASTE KISS WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE.” Helen Mirren wants Dom Toretto and Queenie Shaw to take their relationship to the next level.
GREENER PASTURES Gerard Butler’s unexpectedly ace disaster movie Greenland is getting a sequel titled Greenland: Migration. Filming starts next year.
“I’m flexible and agile, but I’m lazy… I couldn’t even go around the room once.” Salma Hayek auditioned for Trinity in The Matrix, but failed the physical.
GOOD THING BAD THING NED BEATTY RIP Deliverance and Superman: The Movie star Ned Beatty has died at 83. Beatty was Oscar-nominated for his unforgettable performance in Network.
“[THE TEXT] WAS LIKE, ‘DAVE, I WANNA WRESTLE YOU.’” Never text Dave Bautista on sleeping pills, as Chris Pratt learned to his cost.
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EXCLUSIVE
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SILENT SINNER DON’T BREATHE 2 I The Blind Man isback for
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an already controversial sequel…
ede Álvarez’s brutal shocker Don’t Breathe skilfully flipped the script on the home invasion nightmare back in 2016, daring its audience to root for the robbers as they uncovered tragic and sinister truths about the far-from-helpless, visually impaired guy they were trying to steal from.
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things that’ll make him escape it temporarily, but he is. He’s a shadow character, not so much the protagonist. There’s so much more to the story.” “It just makes everything unpredictable,” director Sayagues adds. “If it’s clear who the good guys and bad guys are, you know who’s gonna make it, right?” Motivations and morals may be up in the air but when it comes to
Norman’s adversaries, one thing’s for certain: these aren’t scared-todeath punks this time around, they’re “mean motherfuckers,” says Álvarez. And they’re aware of Norman’s dark past, too. “We’re ’80s kids, and this has a lot of testosterone-heavy, homoerotic action in it. Just a bunch of dudes fighting other dudes,” he smiles. “It’s a bit of a love letter to the movies we grew up with.” While the original was a claustrophobic affair, with the majority of the film taking place in one location, the sequel swaps Norman’s rundown Detroit abode for the sprawling country. Filming out in the sticks, in the midst of the pandemic, Sayagues and his crew were left to their own devices, as anyone who wasn’t needed on set – Álvarez included – couldn’t just pop by, and the freedom allowed them to push boundaries in Don’t Breathe 2’s more violent sequences. “When we make movies together, I’m the one who brings some sense of control and tries to make it more mainstream,” Álvarez laughs. “Rodo brings the madness. In Evil Dead, the girl cutting her tongue was Rodo’s idea, he just goes further. This one gets pretty crazy.” We don’t need to see it to believe it. AW ETA| 13 AUGUST/DON’T BREATHE 2 OPENS NEXT MONTH. SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
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Its final scene hinted at another showdown between surviving burglar Rocky (Jane Levy) and The Blind Man/ Norman Nordstrom (Stephen Lang). Don’t Breathe 2, however, focuses solely on the latter, positioning him as the protector of an 11-year-old girl (Madelyn Grace) who’s been targeted by a group of thugs – a decision that hasn’t gone down smoothly with all genre fans given the character’s history of kidnapping, murder and sexual assault. But producer Álvarez – who hands over directing duties to co-writer Rodo Sayagues – isn’t afraid of backlash. “We like to fuck with people,” Álvarez admits, noting the reaction to the film’s first teaser. “We want to show that things are not black and white. People are concerned he’s an antihero? Shows like Game Of Thrones drive you mad with empathy for bad people. He’s more of an anti-villain. He may think he’s not, or do some
NIGHT VISION Stephen Lang returns as The Blind Man (above); tackling a new set of home invaders (below).
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THE NEXT BIG THING
EMILIA JONES IS ON SONG…
I
love a challenge,” says Emilia Jones. “I welcome pressure.” Just as well. The 19-year-old Brit (Locke & Key) had to learn American Sign Language, trawler fishing and public singing for Sundance smash CODA, in which she plays Ruby, a would-be songstress with Deaf parents. At least being the daughter of The Snowman cherub Aled Jones might help, right? Your director Sian Heder said you found the singing daunting. Your dad never pushed you into taking lessons? No! My parents were the least pushy parents you’ll ever meet. There was none of that. We are a very musical family. We’re always listening to music… but I was like Ruby; I didn’t have the confidence for singing and I think CODA gave it to me. I think my dad was happy about that!
Deaf characters in a positive light? Yes. A strong example of representation done right is in CODA. Deaf actors play Deaf characters who are fully realised and not defined solely by being Deaf. And I think that is rare to see on screen. I think that’s another thing that drew me to this project. Sian wanted everything to be as authentic as possible.
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You did bit-part roles for Paolo Do you feel films like Sound Of Metal, A Sorrentino (Youth) and Ben Wheatley Quiet Place and now CODA are showing (High-Rise). What did you learn?
My goodness… I feel like I learned so much being around incredible people and being in different places and working with different people and hearing different stories. I’m constantly learning on the job. And I think those films really helped me grow. You’ve been shooting Seasons 2 and 3 of Locke & Key backto-back. How’s that been? I feel like at this point in time, we just are our characters when we arrive on set. You kind of don’t have to think about it; you don’t have to think, ‘How would I feel at this moment?’ You just know. JM ETA| 13 AUGUST / CODA IS AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON APPLE TV+ FROM NEXT MONTH. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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CAN WE TALK ABOUT...?
PHASE 4’S LACK OF FOCUS
The MCU feels rudderless right now. Maybe that’s a good thing?
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ollowing Avengers: Endgame – the culmination of 11 years and 22 films’ worth of interconnected storytelling – was always going to be a tricky business. With the Infinity Saga, Marvel Studios achieved what no other film franchise has in history: crafting a cohesive, constantly expanding big-screen universe that always felt purposeful. So why does Phase 4 still feel aimless? It started well with WandaVision, a series with something meaningful to say about grief, that served as a smart love letter to sitcoms, and established Wanda Maximoff as the Scarlet Witch – a character so immensely powerful in the comics she can rewrite reality with merely a word, something that will no doubt come into play in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. But with The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, Black Widow and Loki, the cracks have started to show.
There’s no longer a sense that the ride we’re locked into is moving inexorably forward, always building to something grander. Part of the excitement of seeing a Marvel movie over the last decade was the propulsion – the promise that each entry was a piece in a bigger puzzle. The importance of Samuel L. Jackson’s ‘Avengers Initiative’ cameo in Iron Man cannot be overstated in keeping everyone’s gaze firmly focused on the next Marvel fix.
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
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‘THE MCU HAS ALWAYS BEEN AN EXPERIMENT IN STORYTELLING’
Phase 4, however, with its prequels (Black Widow), pocket dimensions (Loki) and character pieces (TF&TWS) still feels like it’s going nowhere. Part of the reason is just how unwieldy the MCU has become. In the next four to five years, Marvel will release 12 films and 12 TV series – more than Phases 1 through 3 combined. It’s no surprise their laserlike focus has become more diffuse. Who knows when or if we’ll see an Avengers-like team-up again. But is this (whisper it) a good thing? It’s hard to imagine even mighty Marvel pulling off the Endgame trick twice, while freeing filmmakers to tell stories that don’t have to tie into a bigger whole in a major way can only open up more creative avenues. It may even make those ‘it’s all connected’ moments more impactful if they come along less frequently. The MCU has always been an experiment in cinematic storytelling; it’s only right the experimentation continues. JF
EXCLUSIVE
Mr. Lava Lava WENDY I Beasts Of The Southern Wild director
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Benh Zeitlin has been filming on a volcano…
ur approach was: ‘We’re gonna look for Peter until we find Peter,’ and when we found him, he was a five-year-old boy in a Rasta camp in Antigua, and he wasn’t ready to be in a film.” Beasts Of The Southern Wild director Benh Zeitlin is explaining why it took eight years to deliver his follow-up, Wendy: a wild reimagining of Peter Pan, shot on an active volcano.
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J.M. Barrie’s story had been an obsession for Zeitlin and his cowriter sister, Eliza, ever since they were kids. “We spent our childhood waiting for Peter Pan to show up, and he never came. So we made the decision that if we ever had the chance as adults, we would find him.” The runaway success of Beasts made the project a possibility, while the star of that earlier film gave them the secret to refreshing the Edwardian material. “The character of Wendy was very much inspired by Quvenzhané Wallis,” says Zeitlin. In the film, Wendy is played by Louisiana-born newcomer Devin France. “I’d watched [Wallis] grow up, and saw the way she took on challenges. She was an incredibly strong person whose strength came from kindness, and those qualities unlocked Wendy.”
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Zeitlin excised the undercurrent of misogyny and colonialism of earlier iterations, but that was only the beginning of his innovations: he also wanted to cast non-professional actors, add a resonant backstory for Captain Hook, and find an impossibly demanding location.
KIDDING AROUND The young cast of Wendy find themselves in plenty of peril (above); young Yashua Mack plays Peter (below).
So, why an active volcano? “That was one of the first things we decided! We were taking the unattainable elements of this story and making them tangible – for the Fountain of Youth, a volcano’s destructiveness and fertility felt right. But also, when human civilisations encounter eruptions, they freeze. As well as evoking the joy and loudness of Peter, we wanted to explore the tragedy when you fail to grow, and become stuck in time.” Peter himself is played by Yashua Mack, discovered three years into the project, when he was just five. “I walked into that camp and there was a kid flying through the trees – he was literally three storeys up, in a tree,” says Zeitlin. “We hadn’t seen anyone who used his natural environment as his playground in that way.” Mack passed his audition – but then had to learn to read and swim. “Normally you’d say, ‘Well, that’s not going to work,’ but we had an incredible opportunity to make a film in a different way, allowing the adventure to dictate the timeline. Lots of things went wrong, but just in the context of the chaos we intentionally invited. “What we realised is that, when you grow up, you get to live the things you dreamt about doing as a kid.” RB ETA| 13 AUGUST / WENDY OPENS IN CINEMAS NEXT MONTH. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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EXCLUSIVE
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RIOT GIRLS OUR LADIES I Feisty and free-spirited ’90s
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teens run amok in Edinburgh.
omeone tweeted that it’s like Derry Girls meets Superbad,” says writerdirector Michael Caton-Jones of his latest film. “I’ve never actually watched Derry Girls, but I presume that’s quite accurate.” Set in Scotland in 1996, Our Ladies charts 24 hours in the lives of five riotous, working-class teenage Catholic school friends from the Highlands: Orla (Tallulah Greive), Finnoula (Abigail Lawrie), Kylah (Marli Siu), Manda (Sally Messham) and Chell (Rona Morison).
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Acquiring the screen rights in the ’90s, Caton-Jones related greatly to the book’s milieu: “In Scotland, women are fairly strong-willed and not necessarily wallflowers. I’m generalising, but the Scottish psyche’s more about being out there and honest about things. My sister and her pals were just like that. I was
terrified of them but thought they were wonderful. This book captured their spirit and I thought I’d be as good as anybody else to have a go at it.” Despite a catchy ‘American Graffiti meets The Commitments’ pitch and proven successes (Rob Roy, Scandal, Doc Hollywood), Caton-Jones struggled to get British funding. Whenever it almost happened, there had to be compromises, such as making them English boardingschool students. He says producers of the superficially similar Derry Girls also once tried to get the rights from him. Sony in America eventually backed the film, and Caton-Jones thinks it’s vital that working-class stories like it get a chance to be made with studio money and not exclusively through independent channels: “You can’t have a full industry or culture unless it has aspects of everything. This is about people who don’t get their stories told, unless through a middle-class lens. “I meet many nice middle-class actors and people in the business,” he continues, “but the way I came into it just isn’t there any more, to the detriment. If you look at the ’60s, there were people from all strata of society working in the film business. And you made much better films for that. If all you’ve got is The Crown, we’re fucked.” JS-W ETA| 27 AUGUST / OUR LADIES OPENS NEXT MONTH. SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
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Alongside a posher classmate, Kay (Eve Austin), they travel to Edinburgh for a choir competition, where partying, drinking and hook-ups seize their attention more than winning. “It’s not for young people alone, it’s for anybody who was young,” says the Scottish filmmaker. With bawdy humour and hopefully starmaking performances, Our Ladies also intelligently explores social inequality, grief and coming out as gay, all while avoiding moralising concerning the girls’ more mean-spirited antics: “A guiding principle was that we shouldn’t judge what they do. Let the audience take out what they wish.” The film is based on Alan Warner’s 1998 novel The Sopranos, previously adapted as otherwise unrelated stage musical Our Ladies Of Perpetual Succour.
LADIES OF LEISURE The young and talented cast take in the sights (above); director Caton-Jones on set (below).
BETWEEN TAKES
JULIA STILES
The God Committee and Bourne star talks naps and rainy shoots in the jungle. setting and we’d reconvene at the hotel for drinks. It was really magical.
What’s the first thing you do when you get to set? I usually put my stuff in my dressing room or trailer. I tend to work a lot of early mornings so coffee is essential. You say hi to people along the way, then you go into the hair and makeup chair and start that whole process.
What’s been your worst on-set experience? I actually don’t remember the title of the movie. We filmed in Colombia, which I really loved, but we were filming in the middle of the night. There was pouring rain [in the] jungle. Being on set was challenging. We had to wait the rain out, sitting around all night long to see if the director was going to say we could go home. It was frustrating because it was like: ‘Obviously, this rain is not going to stop so just let us go home and go to sleep.’
What do you take with you on set? A script. Sometimes I bring snacks and pack a lunch for myself, just because I never know what’s going to be available. Headphones and some sort of device. It depends. If I think I’m going to have a lot of downtime, I’ll bring my iPad. If not, I’ll bring just my phone. I bring a book, but I never usually read on set because it makes me tired. Do you have any on-set superstitions? No, I don’t. That’s so funny because I am kind of a superstitious person. I guess there’s sort of a running joke of not mentioning the name of The Scottish Play. Do you prefer a hot or cold lunch? Cold. I try to eat lighter because if I have too big a lunch, it makes me lethargic. Do you ever sleep on set? I’m a really good napper. I’m very good at short naps, longer naps. I often nap at lunchtime. I feel bad because it’s anti-social. But at the same time, I can’t really survive the afternoon without it.
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Stiles stars as Dr. Jordan Taylor in The God Committee.
What’s been your most embarrassing moment on set? On The God Committee, we were doing these scenes around a conference table and we had to shoot 10 pages of dialogue over the course of two days. The camera would go around, pick off every actor and give them their close-up. I was the last person to go. I kept thinking to myself: ‘Oh, when the camera gets to me, I must know these lines like the back of my hand.’ But then, sure enough, I was forgetting my lines and messing up. I mean, it didn’t matter. We could go again. But it just felt like: ‘We’ve been doing these scenes for two days. How come when you point the camera on me, all of a sudden I’m nervous?’ AL ETA | 19 JULY /THE GOD COMMITTEE IS OUT NOW ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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What’s been your best-ever on-set experience? I loved working on Riviera. There’s something about travelling with the people you’re working with. It makes you a tighter-knit group because you’re not going home to your everyday lives and we were all exploring these countries together. Venice, in particular, was really lovely because you have to travel everywhere by boat. The start of our workday would be a sunrise boat commute. Then you’d be taking that boat home at night when the sun was
‘THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT TRAVELLING WITH THE PEOPLE YOU’RE WORKING WITH’
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Most memorable wrap party? The weirdest was the wrap party for Hustlers at the Playboy Club in New York. They opened it up to the public at a certain point and then we were corralled into this viewing area. I think my days of clubbing are over. I was like: ‘Is this OK?’ I got a little feminist-y about it, where I was like: ‘I should lighten up and this is fun with all the girls walking around in their bunny outfits, but is it weird? I don’t know.’
EXCLUSIVE
Howl Play MISHA AND THE WOLVES I Digging up
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the truth behind a wild Holocaust story.
am Hobkinson has a recommendation for anyone interested in watching his latest film, Misha And The Wolves: “Go into it knowing as little as possible.” He’s not wrong. The scarcely believable true story of Misha Defonseca has twists, turns and shock reveals to rival the most intricately plotted Hollywood thrillers, so please, read no further if you want to go in completely cold.
MLIF CILBUPER
Still around? Then you’ll need to know that in the mid ’90s Defonseca, a Belgian woman orphaned by the Nazis as a child, stood in front of her synagogue and regaled her neighbours with a truly extraordinary story. At the age of six, Misha walked across Europe by herself to escape persecution, and was taken in by a pack of wolves, who protected her as their own. Her story became a bestselling book in Europe, and was even adapted into a French film in 2007. But Misha’s tale wasn’t entirely true – a fact we learn early on. At this point, the film becomes an “exploration of how and why we believe the things we are told” - a pertinent theme in a post-truth world. “What fascinates me about Misha’s story is that a woman telling a story about her experience of the Holocaust
made it very difficult to question it,” Hobkinson claims. “It almost wasn’t the story that got believed; it was her.” Through the tropes of historical documentaries, dramatic recreations, interviews with the charismatic characters who circled Misha, and more experimental techniques that reveal the artifice behind it all, Hobkinson’s
AMONG WOLVES Misha Defonseca is the subject and star of this twisty doc.
aim was to “put the audience through the same experience that those close to Misha went through… trap them in the same moral maze.” Much like The Imposter, or Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell, which Hobkinson cites as an inspiration, Misha And The Wolves is a documentary that uses narrative storytelling devices, like holding information back from the audience, for maximum impact. “Now, the lines are becoming more and more blurred between the two, in a very healthy way, I think,” Hobkinson notes. The film also dedicates significant time to the real Holocaust survivors who uncovered Misha’s deception. “Evelyne Haendel, who had been a hidden child during the war in Belgium, she had a very interesting, reflective perspective,” says Hobkinson. “Here’s somebody who clearly had every right to be incredibly offended by what Misha had done. But she was analytical and interested in Misha’s motivations and character.” Haendel sadly died earlier this year, but did live to see the film, in which she has an unexpected starring role. “She was the first person we showed it to. I was terrified!” Hobkinson recalls. “We sent the film to her, and she got back to us and said how much she enjoyed it. That meant a lot to me.” JF ETA| 3 SEPTEMBER / MISHA AND THE WOLVES OPENS THIS SUMMER.
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MY MOVIE LIFE
SHORT CUTS
The films that make LineOf Duty creator Jed Mercurioshout “Mother of God!”
The latest happenings in movieland…
TOWERING ACHIEVEMENT With the red well and truly expunged from her ledger following the release of Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson is stepping outside the MCU for her next project – an adaptation of Twilight Zone-themed Disney Parks ride Tower Of Terror. Johansson is on board to produce, and possibly star.
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MOVABLE BEAST Announced last month, the next mainline Transformers film, Rise Of The Beasts, will feature Maximals, Predacons and Terrorcons from the popular Beast Wars spin-off, including Ron Perlman’s Optimus Primal. Creed II’s Steven Caple Jr. is on directing duties, with Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback leading the cast. THE WHITE STUFF Disney has revealed the next classic ’toon to get the live-action remake treatment: Snow White. The Amazing Spider-Man’s Marc Webb is on board to direct, while Rachel Zegler – soon to be seen in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, as well as Shazam 2 – will play the dwarf-loving Disney Princess. DRAW A BLANC Filming is now under way on the first of two Knives Out sequels in Greece. Alongside Daniel Craig’s returning Southern sleuth Benoit Blanc, the ridiculously star-studded cast includes Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Ethan Hawke, Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe and Jessica Yu Li Henwick.
It’s actually BAMBI. I think it must have been when I still lived in Lancashire, because I was very young. There were a lot of kids, and quite a lot of mums. I wonder if it was a trip some mums had organised, or maybe through my nursery or infant school. But I remember lots of us. I must have been about four or five, because I remember lots of us bawling our eyes out when bad things happened. [laughs] And I remember my mum joking with the other mums: “Look, we’ve completely traumatised the kids.”
THE FILM THAT MADE ME WANT TO BE A WRITER
THE FILM I LOVE THAT EVERYONE HATES
The first film I remember as being my favourite was JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS. I remember that being the film that, by the time I reached the age of 12 or 13, I’d seen more times than any other. There was something about that as a movie, the very simple thing that I guess now we call the hero’s journey, that really fired up my imagination. I never, ever thought I would be a writer. I was always a fan, but the idea it would ever become a career was something that came as a huge surprise to me.
I’m going for the remake of SOLARIS. I saw it cited in a list of films that had an ‘F’ Cinemascore, if that fits the description. It felt very plausible. It [creates] a timeless near future where you buy into the constructed reality. The events on the space station had the right mix of being intriguing and disturbing. I thought the disjointed reality of the space station actually made the flashbacks work really well, both in terms of his recollection but also his experiences in the present – of hallucination.
MY FAVOURITE CRIME MOVIE
THE LAST FILM I MY DESERT SAW AT THE CINEMA ISLAND MOVIE
My favourite crime movies are The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. My favourite that features law enforcement is THE DEPARTED. I found the tension and the jeopardy in The Departed really compelling; the fact that the characters were all in danger, and you didn’t know what was going to happen next. It had that plausibility about it. It didn’t feel like it was overblown. When you have cops versus cops, you understand the stakes are very high, and things can become very hairy for the characters. So I thought it really delivered on that.
I’m not a frequent cinemagoer lately. In my twenties, I went to the cinema so much. I remember watching Mike Bassett: England Manager during the day, me and one other guy in the whole cinema, laughing. Actually, the last thing I went to see was INTERSTELLAR. It’s just because I really like watching stuff on my own TV! Even watching something like Nomadland on the TV – I didn’t hanker after the cinema experience. I’m quite content to watch things at home. I guess I’ve become a bit of a couch potato.
I think there’d be something quite interesting about watching JAWS on a desert island! My son, who’s 17 now, has the same view. Every now and then, I’ll catch him watching it, because it happens to be on Sky Movies, and for whatever reason, he’s put it on. I can’t walk past. I’ll end up sitting down. Even though I know where we are in the movie roughly, it doesn’t spoil it. I can still just sit and get absorbed in it again. JF ETA| 5 AUGUST / SLEEPER IS PUBLISHED NEXT MONTH BY SCRIBNER. SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
E TAGSNOI L ,Y M A L A ,R E N B I R C S
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THE FIRST FILM I EVER SAW
EXCLUSIVE
SCREEN SAVER PROFILE I Time to update with Timur
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Bekmambetov’s innovative laptop thriller…
ccording to Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted), there couldn’t be a better time to watch Profile, with lockdowns leaving everyone chained to their laptops. Or as he puts it: “A time when everyone from the terrorists to your government wants a piece of your digital exposure.” The film was made in 2018 – perhaps arriving before its time, as it certainly feels very of the moment.
LASREVINU
Adopting the method Bekmambetov pioneered in 2014’s Unfriended – with the camera never cutting away from a computer screen – it’s an adap of French journalist Anna Erelle’s book In The Skin Of A Jihadist. Posing as a young girl to investigate ISIS recruitment of vulnerable teens, Erelle’s actions led to a fatwa being issued against her. Even now, she’s forced to live under police protection. “She shared with me the original recordings,” says the director. “It was so impactful, I wanted to recreate her story.” Relocating it to London, he cast Northern Irish actress Valene Kane as Amy Whittaker, a freelancer who sets up a fake Facebook account, claiming to be a recent Islam convert. She gets Shazad Latif’s ISIS soldier Bilel, who wants her to come to Syria and be his wife, to bite. With Amy’s online interactions with Bilel played out in real-time, the action was filmed simultaneously – one team
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in London filming Kane, another in Cyprus with Latif. “Of course we can shoot separately, but then you will lose the reality,” he says. “The reality is the most important thing in this.” The taut back-and-forth, as Bilel senses Amy may not be all she seems, propels Profile towards an intense conclusion. Remarkably, in all of Bekmambetov’s dealings with Erelle (a pseudonym), he never found out her real name, so serious is the the situation. “It was a moral choice for her, to be brave, to release [the videos]. And she decided to release them because she understood we cannot live in fear.” Is he worried about his safety? “I’m filmmaker, I’m not a politician,” he shrugs. “I’m just telling the stories. And this is a real story.” JM ETA| 6 AUGUST/ PROFILE OPENS NEXT MONTH.
BLACK FLAG Valene Kane’s Amy goes to extreme lengths in her research, as ISIS soldier Bilel (Shazad Latif) tries to recruit her.
VALENE KANE
How did you feel when Bekmambetov approached you with Profile? Incredibly attracted to it. I wanted to work with someone like Timur, and it was an improvised project which I’m always drawn to. I like to work like that. [But I was worried] that it was going to be just me, and my face, on a screen for 90 minutes! I didn’t know how compelling it was gonna be! How was the shoot? It was quite lonely. Shazad [Latif] and I had two intense weeks of rehearsing, and then went our separate ways. So it was quite isolating because it was just me at a desktop the whole time. No interaction with a human – there wasn’t that camaraderie, finish shooting for the day and have a drink. I fucking hated technology by the end! I was like, “I’m out!” What conclusions did you draw about girls recruited into ISIS? The more I researched it, the more I realised it’s this universal subject – a fanaticism that all young girls experience, whether it’s with Madonna, One Direction, or whatever. The internet is a way of them finding solace in something. And what’s difficult is that this recruitment process is manipulative, preying on young minds. JM AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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F
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ifteen years ago, I was a member of the YMCA gym on Tottenham Court Road, and regularly used the swimming pool. To do so, I had to fumble my shortsighted way out of the changing room and up a curved flight of stairs, before lowering myself carefully into the pool, ready to swim straight at people coming in the opposite direction. One evening, I made the stumbling walk up the perilous stairs and lowered myself into the pool, vaguely aware, deep down, that the muffled, echoey sounds had a different tenor to normal. I’d no sooner pushed off to start my first length when a voice called out, “Excuse me!” I had a sinking feeling it was aimed at me but couldn’t see where it came from, so I continued. Four more strokes and it came again, louder this time: “EXCUSE ME!” I carried on, reaching the halfway point of my length before it positively boomed: “EXCUSE ME, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!” I stopped swimming and stood up, my chin barely above the waterline. “Are you talking to me?” I nervously enquired of the disembodied voice, like Truman addressing Christof in The Truman Show. “YES, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” came the resounding reply. “THIS IS THE CANOE CLUB.”
BIT OF A BLUR
I share this story to demonstrate just how short-sighted I am. Of course, it doesn’t, for the most part, have any impact on my profession – I wear glasses, job done. But occasionally,
It Shouldn’t Happen To A Film Journalist
EditoratLarge JAMIE GRAHAM lifts the lid on filmjournalism THIS MONTH SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS.
SIGHT FOR SORE EYES
The first – and possibly the last – time we can compare Jamie to Hugh Grant. very occasionally, my chronic myopia causes problems. The first film-related instance was when I was a teenager on a blind date to see Tim Burton’s Batman. Embarrassed that I wore glasses with lenses as thick as the bottoms of coke-bottles – being a teen in the ’80s was a cruel time – I turned up without them, meaning, for me, it really was a blind date. The film was effectively a radio play, and I had to return to the cinema the following night, with mates, to put images to sounds. To make matters worse, the date went badly and I never saw her
All of the above, however, pales in comparison to the time I stepped on my glasses. The optician told me it would take a working week for a new pair to arrive, and we were on deadline at the mag, so there was no way I could take the time off to just lie in bed staring at the haze where the ceiling should be. You know that scene in Notting Hill where Hugh Grant loses his specs and wears goggles to the cinema? Well, by this time I’d invested in some prescription googles to avoid a repeat of the canoe club incident, so I really did do that, only taken to the nth degree – I wore them for a week in the office, and to a couple of evening screenings, and on the Tube so I could get home safely. And likewise a few years later when I lost my glasses, only by this time I had a pair of prescription sunglasses, so I wore those to screenings instead. They made even the sunniest romcom look darker than The Godfather: Part II, and me look like a dickhead poser, striding into a gloomy cinema in Ray-Bans. Talk about making a spectacle of yourself. Jamie will return next issue… For more misadventures, follow: @jamie_graham9 on Twitter. YMALA
‘I TURNED UP WITHOUT MY GLASSES, MEANING, FOR ME, IT REALLY WAS A BLIND DATE’ TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
again. Not that I’d seen her that night either, you understand. My first job-centric disaster arrived a couple of months into my first gig as a film journalist on Flicks, a freebie magazine you could then find in cinemas. The MD decided I should visit the printers in Leeds to experience the thrill of seeing 800,000 copies roll off the belts. The morning of the trip, I lost my glasses, but didn’t dare cancel on the MD. So I travelled 170 miles to witness blurs, splotches and fuzz, returning to London none the wiser.
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WORLD CINEMA SPOTLIGHT
YOU’VE BEEN FRAMED THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN I Tunisia’s
I
first Oscar nominee will giveyou an artattack…
was fed up with classic profiles of artists in cinema,” explains Kaouther Ben Hania to Teasers, sitting beachside at the Venice Film Festival. “They are marginalised, tormented, sometimes alcoholic, sometimes misunderstood. Always struggling with their demons!” Instead, the Tunisian filmmaker wanted to show the reality of the contemporary art world, showcasing a wealthy and celebrated art entrepreneur like a Damien Hirst or Jeff Koons.
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
“It’s shocking and it’s intellectually exciting… to think about all the hidden aspects of this single man exhibited in a museum. What does it mean?” In exchange for a third of the sale price, Steiner allowed that his back be skinned after his death, so the owner could finally claim and frame this
unique artwork. While this sounds like the makings of a creepy slasher movie, Ben Hania takes the film in other directions, exploring issues of status. “The movie is about freedom,” she says. “You don’t have a choice when you are a refugee. When you don’t have much of a choice, what does it mean to be free or seek freedom?” Also inspired by the “crazy process” of getting her residency permit to live in France, Ben Hania recalls the frustrations around being unable to travel to England when her first feature, 2017’s Beauty And The Dogs, played at the London Film Festival. “I was angry because I’m not born in the right place, to travel as I want. I see all my colleagues in France were born in the right place – they can do it easily. I was telling myself, ‘What’s the difference? Why?’” These days, you can imagine she’s getting the red-carpet treatment wherever she goes. Aside from the Oscar nod, the movie collected two awards in Venice, including the Orizzonti Prize for Best Actor for Mahayni. So what about a US remake? It feels exactly the sort of glossy tale ripe for a Hollywood touch-up. “Nobody asked me,” she winks, “but I have this feeling.” Watch this space. JM ETA| 24 SEPTEMBER/THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN OPENS IN TWO MONTHS. SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
NOIT UBIR TSID OHOS OIDUTS
The Man Who Sold His Skin – which became the first Tunisian movie ever to be nominated for an Oscar earlier this year – does exactly this. Jeffrey Godefroi (Flemish actor Koen De Bouw) is a suave and sophisticated artist who finds his masterpiece when he meets refugee Sam Ali (Syrian-born newcomer Yahya Mahayni). He conceives of a provocative idea: turning Ali into a work of art by tattooing his back with a Schengen visa, the legal requirement to enter Europe. This is no fantasy. In 2006, Belgian artist Wim Delvoye struck a deal with one Tim Steiner, a former tattoo-parlour owner from Zurich, to ink his back. “It was a very different tattoo, a very different context,” says Ben Hania, who saw the exhibition after Steiner agreed to become a living artwork.
SKIN DEEP Yahya Mahayni’s refugee Sam Ali unveils himself as a living artwork.
Forest Whitaker will star as father C.L. in the upcoming Aretha Franklin biopic Respect.
I love Jim [Jarmusch]. Him and I met at a video sound place. We decided we’d work together. A year later, he called and said he found something. Then we just talked for hours on end. He went off and wrote this thing. That was an amazing experience, to create a character with the filmmaker in that way. You worked with Robin Williams on Good Morning, Vietnam. What’s your favourite memory of him? Robin was somebody who, when he heard a lot of stimulus, would get it translated right away into comedy. You’d be on a bus with him. Somebody would be saying one thing, somebody would say another thing. By the time we got off, he’d be telling the story to the next group including all the things we just went through. He was a brilliant man and a kind soul. What was your highlight of working on Rogue One? I’m a big fan of sci-fi. So to be there and seeing these characters come to life, it’s fun. There’s a magic to the room you’re in, to the equipment, to the hologram you’re supposed to be looking at.
THE HERO
Forest Whitaker The Oscar winner on Marvel, meditating,
You won an Oscar playing Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King Of Scotland. What was it like portraying someone so terrifying? He was a guy who liked to play the accordion, you know? He liked to party. He was exhilarating. I played other characters that were more emotionally difficult for me to carry around. He was somebody who expressed himself. It wasn’t a painful journey, just a full one.
E
and Robin Williams…
ver since making his big-screen debut in Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Forest Whitaker has proved himself to be one of Hollywood’s most wildly eclectic actors. Whether it’s starring in independent films (The Crying Game, Ghost Dog) or epic blockbusters (Rogue One, Black Panther), the Oscar winner is a quietly commanding presence. Next up is Respect, a musical biopic about the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.
SOIDUTS YRUTNEC HT02 ,4 LENNAHC ,LASREVINU
What appealed to you about playing C.L. Franklin, Aretha Franklin’s father? He’s a complicated guy; overbearing, charismatic and intolerant. Loving of his daughter, but controlling of her as well. He went on a journey of allowing people to be who they really are. I was excited about the opportunity.
you still look back on it fondly? I do! Neil Jordan is a really talented filmmaker. It was a great experience. It also let people know a little bit more about my craft, that I could play this character. People thought I was British at that time. They were like: “God, this guy has a great American accent!”
What research did you do for the role? I read books about him. I learned his sermons. I listened to his style of preaching. I talked to preachers about delivery. Then I stored myself up with all the emotional stories the character needed in order to be portrayed properly.
What did you enjoy the most about starring in Ghost Dog? I meditated a lot when I was working on that part. That was something I enjoyed.
The Crying Game was one of the most talked-about films of the ’90s. Do
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DEEP CUTS (top to bottom) As Ghost Dog in Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai (1999), playing Idi Amin in The Last King Of Scotland (2006), and as C.L. Franklin in Respect.
‘I’M A BIG FAN OF SCI-FI. SO SEEING THESE CHARACTERS COME TO LIFE, IT’S FUN’
It must have been pretty special working on Black Panther… It was exciting. I was doing the waterfall scene and we were initiating the next king. It was really empowering to see everybody singing. I was really happy to see Ryan [Coogler] directing a film of that magnitude. My company had produced his first film, Fruitvale Station. The last film you directed was First Daughter in 2004. Do you have any plans to return to directing? I’ve been thinking about directing lately, a lot. There’s a couple of things I had developed before that I was wondering if I’m going to step into. I think we’ll see me directing in the next year or two. AL
ETA | 10 SEPTEMBER / RESPECT OPENS IN CINEMAS THIS SUMMER. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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Michael Myers is back for blood in Halloween Kills, but this time Haddonfield is taking the fight to The Shape. Ahead of the savage middle chapter in the new fright night trilogy, Total Film speaks to the film’s director David Gordon Green and star Jamie Lee Curtis about tapping into real-life fears, and sticking the knife in the big screen’s ultimate boogeyman. WORDS JORDAN FARLEY
COVER STORY
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FIRE WALK WITH ME Michael escapes from Laurie’s home. His rescuers aren’t as lucky. TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
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HALLOWEEN KILLS
all a film Halloween Kills and you’d better deliver. Over 43 years, four separate timelines and 10 blood-soaked rampages, masked maniac Michael Myers has slaughtered over 120 unsuspecting residents of Haddonfield, Illinois on the spookiest night of the year, utilising everything from a trusty chef’s knife to an especially pointy tripod in his single minded pursuit of Laurie Strode. Myers, then, is no slouch when it comes to butchering the innocent, but his body count is set to skyrocket when Kills hits screens later this year. “It’s intense and brutal. Just brutal,” says Jamie Lee Curtis of the follow-up to Halloween (2018), itself a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s original, trailblazing slasher. “There’s an incredible amount of killing in this movie,” adds Danny McBride, the film’s co-writer. “It’s so bloody. It’s wild. David [Gordon Green] just went for it. This is such a vicious sequel. It’s relentless.” Green completed work on Halloween Kills in July 2020, right around the time the decision was made to push the film back by 12 months to avoid a “compromised theatrical experience”. He hasn’t watched it since; both to resist any temptation to tweak things here and there and “cause trouble for everyone”, and also so he has a second opportunity to watch it fresh, with an audience. “That’s why you make horror movies,” says Green who, along with McBride, is currently in production on the second season of HBO series The
MICHAEL’S 10 MOST HAUNTING KILLS...
10 OSCAR
HALLOWEEN, 2018
Oscar walks Allyson home to ensure her safety. But what about his? Michael plunges his trusty knife before impaling his prey’s head on a spiky gate. GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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COVER STORY
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Righteous Gemstones. “You make them for the crowds. You make it for those reactions. You make it for that community which is just so loving. It’s exhilarating as a filmmaker to be a part of that connection.” No moment proved more exhilarating for Team Halloween than the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2018, not least because success was far from a sure thing. By that point it had been nine years since Michael Myers last terrorised Haddonfield in Rob Zombie’s Halloween II – a film that has its advocates, but is generally considered a gruelling low point for the series. In the years that followed, long-serving producer Malek Akkad, the son of legendary Halloween producer Moustapha Akkad, had plenty of opportunities to bring The Shape back to screens; there was only one problem. “They were crazy, crazy, bad, bad ideas,” Akkad remarks. “Some of the pitches that I’ve heard, oh my God! I waited it out for seven years. I wasn’t going to make a piece of junk like they wanted me to.” Once Akkad “got out from the previous studio” in 2016 and teamed up with Universal, the stars quickly aligned. Within months John
9 JOHN STRODE
HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS, 1995
Laura’s abusive uncle is stabbed by Michael, and then has his head thrust into a fuse box for good measure. Electrifying. TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jason Blum and David Gordon Green had all signed on to make a new Halloween that would serve as an authentic sequel to Carpenter’s ’78 slasher. The signs were certainly promising but no one, least of all the film’s creative team, knew if audiences would embrace their vision. “When we screened for the very first time at TIFF I was so fucking nervous,” McBride recalls. “I didn’t eat for like a week before that. The franchise means so much to me, and I know how much it means to fans. We really just didn’t want to disappoint people.” As the film played, and each crushed skull, snapped neck and knowing nod to Halloweens past was greeted with gleeful approval by the vocal TIFF audience, nerves turned to excitement. “Going up on that stage after it was done, and seeing how much fun everyone had had – it was overwhelming,” says McBride. “I turned to David and was like, ‘I don’t really see how anything in our careers will be more fulfilling than what we’ve just experienced.’” It was a moment that marked the latest milestone in a 25-year journey for McBride and Green. The pair first met in college and bonded over a shared love of cinema after realising they owned many
8 LAURIE STRODE
HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION, 2002 Terrible film, good death, as Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is stabbed repeatedly and hung from a rooftop. Curtis would resurrect Laurie in Halloween (2018).
7 ANNIE
HALLOWEEN, 1978
The first of (adult) Michael’s kills in Carpenter’s original comes 55 minutes in, as Annie, sitting in her car, is strangled from behind, then knifed.
6 PARAMEDIC
HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS, 1988
5 JIMMY HOWELL
Myers, presumed dead, sits up in an ambulance and sticks his thumb deep into a paramedic’s forehead. As you do.
HALLOWEEN H20: TWENTY YEARS LATER, 1998
Teenager Jimmy is stabbed with an ice skate. Inventive, but mostly places high on the list because he’s played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
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HALLOWEEN KILLS of the same VHS tapes, Halloween included. Standing on stage in Toronto brought everything full circle. “It was a fulfilment of our childhood dreams, in a lot of ways,” Green says plainly. “[Halloween] is a VHS cassette that I still have in my office as a reminder. It’s one of the films that inspired me. It’s right next to my copy of The Neverending Story – whatever that’s worth! But it’s so fun that, in that moment we could look over at each other, and close our eyes for a second, and be really thankful.” The reception out of Toronto, and subsequent box office haul of $255m worldwide – far and away a franchise best – practically guaranteed a sequel (or two). But Green and McBride had been dreaming bigger from the beginning. “When David and I first met, the conversation was that he and Danny had conceived of a trilogy,” Curtis recalls. “They understood that there was much more of this story to tell than just [Halloween] 2018.” Both agreed that their first Halloween needed to feel
conclusive in and of itself, and that committing to sequels which may never get made if the first film didn’t resonate would be hubristic at best, foolhardy at worst (as Universal learnt to their cost a year earlier with the ignominious collapse of the Dark Universe), but conversations often turned to the future, and how to avoid the pitfalls of the slasher sequel. “The sequel is almost always where it shits the bed,” McBride notes, not inaccurately. “Or the monster is over-explained, or something happens that makes it into a joke. We really wanted find a way to sidestep that.” Incorporating “a lot of ideas” developed for Halloween 2018, it was decided that Halloween Kills would pick up moments after the ending of the ending of the first film, with Michael still trapped in Laurie’s purpose-built cell as chez Strode burns around him. 1981’s Halloween II, scripted by Carpenter and Debra Hill, is similarly set on the same night as its predecessor, so Green naturally sought
OUR TOWN Anthony Michael Hall jokes with co-writer Danny McBride; Kyle Richards returns as Lindsey Wallace from the original Halloween; director David Gordon Green chats masks; the whole of Haddonfield takes the fight to Michael (left, top to bottom). NECKS PLEASE Cameron (Dylan Arnold) comes face to mask with Michael Myers (below).
Carpenter’s sage advice. “Sure enough, a lot of the obstacles that I was facing he laughed at, and said that they were talking about the same things in the early ’80s. He thought it was a funny thing to revisit a lot of the problems that they had, and trying to find creative ways out of them.” The solution that Green and McBride hit upon was to turn a series about the obsessive pursuit of a single woman by a madman in a mask, into an ensemble tale centred around the residents of Haddonfield, all of whom have suffered at Michael’s hands. As Green puts it, Kills is a much bigger story than “a man with a knife, in a house, victim by victim. It’s the plague of fear. As word hits Haddonfield of what’s out there, and some of it’s true and some of it’s not, it’s building the myth of this murderer. It’s the larger, pervasive spread of fear, and how that affects a community.”
‘SOME OF THE PITCHES I’VE HEARD, OH MY GOD!’ MALEK AKKAD
In 2018, with its themes of generational trauma inflicted on all three Strode women (or ‘Hallowomen’, as Curtis refers to them), Halloween resonated unexpectedly with the still-explosive #MeToo movement. Once again, Green and McBride have found that the themes they’re exploring within the confines of a mainstream horror movie are unexpectedly mirroring events beyond the screen. “Trauma was act one, if you will,” Curtis puts forward. “There was a confluence between the #MeToo movement and the Halloween 2018 movie with Laurie Strode representing 40 years of oppression, and her saying, ‘I am not taking it anymore.’ I think it was a genuine reason why the 2018 movie was so profoundly successful. “Now, David and Danny did not know that on January 6th, there would be a Capitol riot,” she continues. “David and Danny did not know that George Floyd was going to be killed, and it was going to stimulate large masses of people
4 DANIELS
3 OFFICER FRANCIS
Can’t match Carpenter’s suspense? Then go for intensity. Rob Zombie has a nurse played by Octavia Spencer (!) stabbed again and again and again. In close-up.
Killed off-screen, but made memorable because Michael hollows out the policeman’s decapitated skull like a jack-olantern, and pops a candle inside.
HALLOWEEN II, 2009
HALLOWEEN, 2018
2 KAREN
1 BOB AND LYNDA
This nurse at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital is relaxing in the hydrotherapy pool when Michael turns up the heat to boil her like a lobster.
Michael impales Bob against a wall then borrows his glasses and a white sheet to approach Lynda as a bespectacled ghost. The trickster strangles her. JG
HALLOWEEN II, 1981
HALLOWEEN, 1978
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taking to the street, and taking to acts of violence as a way to say, ‘We are doing this on our own. We do not trust you to do it for us.’ And that’s exactly what Halloween Kills is about – an entire town saying, ‘We are taking this on ourselves.’ It shows that David and Danny have a divining rod. They’re future thinkers. They have some idea of what’s happening in the world, and they’re distilling it through their writing.” Green and McBride can’t account for their precog powers (“I have no clue!” chuckles McBride), only that Laurie Strode, and her evolution as a character, has driven a lot of the major decisions in their Halloween trilogy. “Laurie is a voice of both insight and reason that is trying to give a volatile community some sense of purpose here. It’s less about vengeance and more about a calculated philosophy of how to process evil,” Green says, pointing out that “she’s not the main character of Halloween Kills, but she is the emotional core of it. I could always turn to her for help in voicing these questions of the themes of this movie.” With Laurie set to spend the majority of the film in Haddonfield Memorial TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
FAMILY TIME Judy Greer, Jamie Lee Curtis and Andi Matichak play three generations of Strode women (above right). I AM THE LAW Omar J. Dorsey returns as Sheriff Barker (above left and below).
Hospital fighting for her life after taking a knife to the gut in the first film, Kills opens up “opportunities when heroes can shine, and others can show their true colours and fall” according to Green. One of the characters who has already ascended to hero status is Laurie’s daughter, Karen, whose ‘gotcha’ moment at the film’s climax blew the roof off that Toronto screening. For Judy Greer, a supporting actor extraordinaire, it was a rare moment in the spotlight she won’t soon forget, and one that feeds directly into Karen’s mindset in Halloween Kills. “Imagine being me, sitting in that audience, seeing that for the first time! That’s a moment I hope I remember for the rest of my life,” says Greer with a burst of energy down the phone, adding that “she’s still in that moment [in Halloween Kills]. The adrenaline is still coursing through her veins. It’s not like Karen has a couple of months to be like, ‘I’m awesome. I’m a badass!’ David Gordon Green said to me, when we were shooting, ‘I want this to be like Mad Max where we’re just going. We’re going, going, going, going.’” While Karen comes to terms with her newfound
badassery, and mourns the death of her husband, her daughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) channels her anger into hunting down Michael. “When we met Allyson in 2018, she was a very relatable, lovely girl-next-door type of character,” Green says. “Allyson here, she is ignited. She is, in some ways, leading the charge, and is one of the more bloodthirsty of the group. Whereas Karen, who has dealt psychologically with her mother more intimately, is trying to resist those temptations.” In Halloween Kills, Michael Myers’ reign of terror extends to every corner of Haddonfield. As Curtis explains, “The great device that David and Danny came up with is: trauma didn’t just affect Laurie Strode; trauma has concentric circles. Anybody who had a near-miss with Michael Myers is traumatised.” This allowed Green and McBride to explore Haddonfield and its inhabitants to a greater extent than ever before, bringing characters who may have had near misses with Michael Myers in their first film to the forefront, and checking in on some familiar faces from the original Halloween. “I was revisiting the original film, and just wondered about who was up to what in the world,” Green recalls. “I was SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
HALLOWEEN KILLS JAMIE LEE CURTIS
HADDONFIELD’S RESIDENT SURVIVOR SPEAKS Laurie barely makes it out of Halloween 2018 alive, how is she holding up in Kills? Laurie has been mortally wounded. She’s really hurt. And it’s not like a ‘movie’ hurt. It’s a real ER coding moment. She’s been stabbed in the abdomen. You can’t put a Band-Aid on it and go, “You’ll be fine!” [laughs] She shows up at a hospital, dying. Dy-ing. Bleeding out on the green. So the whole town takes centre stage, and then Laurie has to try to survive, because the only person that’s going to get Michael is Laurie. Did spending so much time in Haddonfield Memorial Hospital bring back memories of Halloween II? It’s initially similar to Halloween II in that it’s the same night – the movie picks up with us in the back of the pickup truck. They both take place in a hospital. So of course, the traumatic feelings of 1981 come flooding back. Rick Rosenthal came in to direct Halloween II, and did a terrific job. So I have memories of it, but this is very different. It seemed like a bit of Dr Loomis had crept into Laurie in the last film… I think I’ve swallowed him whole! Her understanding of the severity.. I think we see it at the end of 2018. You know, she’s not fucking around. There’s one ending here. There’s only one ending. Has this new trilogy given you a different appreciation of Laurie? Yes. To date she’s been very singular of purpose. The trauma that we saw in 2018, shows what in fact trauma does to somebody – it constricts their life to a single purpose, which is survival. Laurie Strode has been constricted by the trauma she suffered in 1978. And the rest of her life is a prison of that trauma, until you are set free. There’s not a lot of colours to her. Hopefully in Halloween Ends we will get to see some colour. You’ve long credited Debra Hill with giving Laurie an authentic voice in the original Halloween. What do you think she would have made of this new trilogy? Debra created Laurie Strode. John is a talented man, but he’s a dude. Debra gave a voice to all of the female characters, predominantly, of course, Laurie. And so her presence continues – as, by the way, does Moustapha Akkad, Irwin Yablans, Dean Cundey, all of those people who originated this work. So, of course, I think Debra would be the number one cheerleader for this. Absolutely the number one cheerleader, because she loved it. She loved life. She was a spectacular human being. JF
thinking, ‘Charles Cyphers is a retired actor, but what would Sheriff Brackett be doing right now? And could I somehow sweet talk him into joining us again?’” Alongside Cyphers, both Nancy Stephens, who played nurse Marion Chambers, and Kyle Richards, one of the two children Laurie found herself looking after on the night he came home, will reprise their roles in Kills. As for returning characters from Halloween 2018: “There’s a couple that is going off to a Halloween party dressed up like a doctor and nurse, who narrowly escape death when Michael’s going door to door. They really made an impact on me, because I thought about them having been so close to an encounter with him, and could we bring them face to face with Michael in a way
really interesting level of conflict that happens early on. It’s very intense, and really ramps up.” Doyle was previously played by Paul Rudd in 1995’s The Curse Of Michael Myers, one of the actor’s earliest roles. Green, who previously worked with Rudd on Prince Avalanche, even approached the Ant-Man actor to reprise his role in Kills. Scheduling prohibited what Green calls a “novelty” idea, but Rudd did pass a message along to his successor. “A couple of weeks into production David called me and said he had just spoken to Paul Rudd,” Hall recounts. “I admire Paul’s work a lot, so he gave me his blessing on the film, which was a nice of him to do. But my take [on the character] is quite separate.”
‘THAT’S A MOMENT I HOPE I REMEMBER FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE’ JUDY GREER
that they might not be so lucky to escape this time? That part of the puzzle that was really fun for me.” Another key returning character, though not played by original actor Brian Andrews, is Tommy Doyle – the second of Laurie’s young wards on that fateful evening in 1978. “It’s plugging into so much history. To play Tommy Doyle was really a thrill,” says Anthony Michael Hall who, armed with a baseball bat, buzzcut and determination to take Michael down, looks significantly more intimidating than he did during his Breakfast Club years. “One thing which was interesting, is that threat of ‘you can’t kill the boogeyman’ – I think that starts with Tommy Doyle. There’s a
BACK AGAIN Michael Myers is once again brought to life by Nick Castle and James Jude Courtney.
Despite Doyle’s comeback, the much-maligned Cult of Thorn won’t be making an unwelcome return in Halloween Kills. On the contrary, Green and McBride have been determined to avoid any explanation of Michael Myers, supernatural or otherwise, from the start. “You don’t want to reveal too much,” Green says. “I don’t want to know Michael’s psychological backstory. I feel like the mystery is best left unsaid. I don’t want to see too much of him. I want to be very specific about how he’s lit. The mystique of Michael, I’ll say, is extremely important to preserving what’s scary about him.” One of the biggest challenges for Green in working on Halloween is
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controlling Michael’s image – a task easier said than done, as some of the goofier depictions of the character in the past have proved. “My obsessive impulse is to be very protective of how we see The Shape. So less is more – and, yeah, I don’t always win those battles, but I’m always fighting them!” One of Green’s recent battles was over the film’s trailer, which appears to give away a significant amount of the film’s kills and plot beats. “There’s a fuck-load of spoilers, huh?” Green sighs. “That was… yeah. That was a long journey!” Spoiler or not, the trailer does tease what’s set to be a major moment in Halloween Kills – Karen removing Michael’s mask. “I was so excited! I thought it was really cool,” Greer says of first hitting Karen’s big moment in the
humour, with irreverent skits featuring Bánh mì sandwiches and potty-mouthed pre-teens serving as “tension breakers” between the film’s frights. Halloween Kills won’t do away with the chuckles entirely, but the shifting tone means that the gags, naturally, won’t be as prevalent this time around. “The second chapter gets dark and aggressive. We’ll see if [audiences] are able to take that shift!” Green remarks. “Personally, I feel like it’s respectful to those characters to let them have an outlet for their outrage, rather than to try to soften it with more comfortable invitations to the frustrations and tragedies of their evening.” In a similar vein, John Carpenter’s score – an inarguable highlight of Halloween 2018 – will go beyond the
‘IT’S REALLY FUN TO THINK ABOUT HOW YOU CAN SHOW DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES’ DAVID GORDON GREEN
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(kick-ass) nostalgia of the first film’s score, and explore new sonic spaces for the series. “This film has some different tones that we’re exploring, and he very generously gave us the musical escort to those tones,” Green says. “There’s some really vibrant new tracks. To me, the soundtrack is even better than the last one.” With everyone but the marketing department’s work on Halloween Kills long finished, attention has now turned to trilogy capper Halloween Ends. Green and McBride already know exactly where they’re taking Strode and co. for one simple reason – the script was written a year ago. “We wrote Halloween Kills and Halloween
Ends at the same time,” McBride confirms. “We wrote them both so that we had a clear vision of where everything is going, and we weren’t just doing a greatest hits each time, but that it was going to be a journey. I really do feel like each of these films is completely distinct and unique, and they all connect to each other in a way that I don’t feel is repetitive – but it just makes for an epic, bigger story. Which I thought was exciting.” Initially planned for late 2020, filming on Halloween Ends is now unlikely to start until the new year. And while the pandemic played havoc with Kills’ release plans, the SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
SERUTCIP LASREVINU
script. “With this type of story [you’ve got] to keep challenging the premise, otherwise it’s another 40 years where we’re running from this guy. You have to keep making the stakes higher.” It’s also a moment that’s consciously calling back to the climax of the original Halloween, where Laurie briefly manages to wrestle Michael’s mask off his head. “It’s digging deeper into these little moments of Carpenter’s film,” Green explains. “It’s something that we know startled Michael. He scrambles to put it back on out of some insecurity, or whatever it is. That disguise is his superpower, so if you need to bait him, and try to move this mythical creature, I thought that that felt like a very provocative device to re-use.” One device utilised to somewhat divisive effect in Halloween 2018 was
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additional year will only be to the betterment of the upcoming threequel. “The script has evolved a little bit [since last year],” Green says. “We had the opportunity to wake up with a new idea, meditate on it for a year, and see how that’s evolved in a really good way.” The year hiatus will also feed into the structure of the film, which will jump forward “a few years” following the events of Halloween Kills. “We’re able to use the authentic time clock between Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, so that’s interesting. There will be a bit more of a linear time that acknowledges the reality of our years between the productions. It allows us to imagine what these characters’ lives have been like
ALL GROWN UP Anthony Michael Hall (opposite) is the fourth actor to take on the role of Tommy Doyle, after Brian Andrews, Danny Ray and Paul Rudd.
after having processed these events over a few years.” Producer Malek Akkad hints that “the last one is going to be way more contained” than Halloween or Halloween Kills, something Green reiterates while pointing out that, as a filmmaker generally, he has an aversion to making the same type of film twice – a fact that extends each film in his Halloween trilogy. “I get engaged by doing something different. If I was just going to be repetitive, I would hand the reins off to someone else. When you have that opportunity within an established franchise, it’s really fun to think about how you can show different tones and perspectives and evolve.”
As for Jamie Lee Curtis, one of the few people to have read the script for Halloween Ends, after 43 years and counting she’s preparing to potentially, maybe, probably say goodbye to Laurie Strode. “I would say, given what I know about the next movie, I think it will be the last time that I will play her,” Curtis reveals. “And I’m not saying something like, ‘Oh, because I die!’ It’s nothing to do with that. I’m talking about emotionally what they have constructed. I think it will be a spectacular way to end this trilogy.” Sounds like Michael Myers is about to make another killing. HALLOWEEN KILLS OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 15 OCTOBER 2021. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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On the eve of Halloween Kills, Total Film meets the man behind Michael Myers, R.J. MacReady and most of your favourite ’80s movies to discuss his tumultuous career, and how he’s happier than ever making music… WORDS JORDAN FARLEY ILLUSTRATION CHRIS MALBON
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FINAL GIRL With Jamie Lee Curtis on the set of Halloween.
capacity he still enjoys – as the maestro behind its nostalgic, menacing score, alongside his son Cody and godson Daniel Davies. “We tried some different sounds this time. We let the movie guide us,” he says. “And it’s great fun. I’m very, very proud of this score – and the movie. This is what horror films should be.” In a different life, Carpenter may have followed in the footsteps of his father and become a music professor himself, but a viewing of Forbidden Planet in 1956 set him down a different path. “It was mind-blowing to me,” he recalls. “Everything about it, especially because it had an electronic soundtrack. It was like I just got dosed with LSD. I thought, ‘Wow, I have to do this.’” At the USC School of Cinematic Arts he “learned how to do the plumbing” and started work on what would become his first feature film SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
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ang out on Film Twitter long enough and you’ll eventually stumble across someone posing this chin-scratcher: ‘Which director is responsible for the longest, unbroken run of classic movies?’ There are cases to be made for plenty of filmmakers: Coppola, Kurosawa, Nolan, Villeneuve; but few hold a pumpkin-encased candle to John Carpenter. Between 1976’s Assault On Precinct 13 and 1988’s They Live, Carpenter made 12 films, most of which are considered alltimers today, even if they were rarely recognised as such by contemporary audiences and critics. Carpenter was prolific, and then some. A multi, multi, multi-hyphenate, he habitually directed, wrote, produced and composed the music for his features. He was 28 years old when he penned the screenplay for Precinct 13 in eight days, and just 30 when he changed horror forever with Halloween. He was a wunderkind to make Damien Chazelle look like a late starter. Today he’d be inundated with rich contracts to helm blockbuster franchise fare, or treated with the auteur reverence of a Tarantino. In 1982, after The Thing bombed, he was dumped as the director of Firestarter. If Carpenter wasn’t sufficiently celebrated in his heyday, there’s no danger of that anymore. During an hour-long chat in late June, Total Film freely throws around words like ‘masterpiece’ and ‘magnum opus’ – praise he accepts graciously, but not all that comfortably. Following a string of flops in the ’90s, Carpenter fell out of love with movie making. His relationship to his work is complicated to say the least. “You know, I’m not the biggest fan of talking about [my films],” Carpenter says over the phone from his home in LA. “But let’s do it.” If there’s one project Carpenter is buzzed to talk about today, it’s Halloween Kills. The belated sequel to Halloween (2018) sees Carpenter return as both composer and executive producer. David Gordon Green, the new trilogy’s director, values Carpenter’s input above almost anyone else, telling TF: “It’s not like a committee of faceless studio executives giving you notes, it’s the genius that created the franchise! It makes you look good.” Carpenter, rather modestly, sees his role as EP a different way: “Everybody comments when the movie’s done. So I do the same as everyone else. It’s tedious, but that’s the way it goes.” He may not be prepared to pat his own back, but Carpenter will enthusiastically heap praise on others: Green is a “spectacular director!”, and Halloween Kills “a slasher movie times 10!” It’s a film he’s thrilled to be associated with, especially because he no longer has to “suffer under the pressure of directing” and can work on the film in a
CELEBRATION
SPACE MAN Carpenter’s first feature film, Dark Star, was begun at college (below). KURT IS KING Kurt Russell starred in TV movie Elvis (bottom), their first work together. 49
– sci-fi comedy Dark Star. Shot in pieces over four years for a grand total of $60,000, Carpenter considers Dark Star a “student film made into a feature film”, though few student films are now regarded as cult classics. Carpenter followed up Dark Star with the Rio Bravo-inspired Assault On Precinct 13 in 1976. Other than a brouhaha with the MPAA, who took issue with the still-shocking scene in which Frank Doubleday’s Warlord guns down a young girl in cold blood, Carpenter remembers the film – his first shot to a schedule in just 20 days – as extraordinarily hard work: “I had no idea how tough it was going to be. But I got to use Panavision widescreen, which I loved.” The next 12 years would prove the most fruitful, and demanding, of Carpenter’s career for a simple, but surprising reason. “Once I started [making GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
movies], I was afraid I wasn’t going to get to do it again,” he concedes. “My whole goal in life was to be a professional movie director, and make a living at it. So when a movie came along, or two movies, I’d say yes. I worked like a dog.” In 1978 Carpenter shot both Halloween and Elvis – a three-hour TV movie with over 100 locations and speaking parts. “I was so tired. But I just couldn’t say no. Especially when you’re young and starting out, you can’t say no.” Despite the pressure to come, Carpenter remembers Halloween as the most fun he ever had directing. “That was a blast. We were just a bunch of kids making a movie. Nothing has been like it ever since. It’s always been pain!” Halloween would go on to be a phenomenon, yet it was anything but a success from where Carpenter was standing. “I AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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thought I’d made a bomb in Halloween. Seriously, I did,” he asserts. “Initially, it was a regional release. And it got a bunch of bad reviews. Some of them I took to heart: ‘Carpenter does not do well with actors.’ Ugh, my God.” It was only after the film was released in New York that word of mouth picked up. “But at the time I did not know, so I was still taking jobs right and left.” On the heels of Halloween, The Fog became one of Carpenter’s few undisputed box-office hits, but it was nearly a wreck, with Carpenter deeply unsatisfied with his first cut of the film. “I was too heavy-handed in some areas. I had fucked it up, to be honest with you. And I realised, ‘I can’t let this out this way. I have to do better.’ So we did.” As for the notoriously naff 2005 remake: “I was delighted, because I didn’t have to do anything and I got paid again – that was just wonderful!” Carpenter’s defining collaborator during the ’80s was a former Disney kid called Kurt Russell. The pair became “fast friends on the basis of professionalism” during the making of Elvis and would reunite on Escape From New York which, with a budget of $6m, was Carpenter’s most ambitious project at the time. Working with Ernest Borgnine and western icon Lee Van Cleef thrilled Carpenter, while Escape From LA remains his only sequel as a director. Does Snake Plissken hold a special place in his heart? “He’s a character that Kurt is passionately fond of. He convinced me to do the sequel. There’s probably a third or maybe even fourth story about Snake. I don’t know if we’ll ever make it, but I think that he deserves it.” The Thing – or rather the reception to The Thing – would prove a turning point in Carpenter’s career. Shooting on location in Alaska, and with Rob Bottin’s demanding special effects, could have been a disaster, but Universal were “very supportive” having gone through a similar experience with Jaws – a film that turned out OK for all involved. Where the studio did have major problems was with the film’s nihilistic ending. “We actually came up with the final lines up there on location,” Carpenter recalls. “Universal, once they saw what we’d done, said, ‘Can’t you be triumphant here?’ I had a lot of pressure to change it.” What cut the deepest about The Thing’s commercial failure is that the film was exactly the movie Carpenter envisioned, no compromises. “It was hated by everybody when it came out because it was so dark. It’s the end of everything. I mean, come on!” While it wasn’t the end of Carpenter’s career, it certainly felt that way for a while. “I was fired off of Firestarter because of The Thing. They kicked my butt to the pavement. So I was looking for a job, and I did Christine.” A year later Carpenter would be back in Hollywood’s good graces after helming Starman – a film outside his wheelhouse, but one he found mainstream success with. “It was an opportunity to do a romance. It’s amazing that it came along. Jeff was incredible to work with.” Bridges was Oscar-nominated for his performance, and Starman’s success allowed Carpenter to get another leftfield project off the ground: Big Trouble In Little China. “I loved kung fu movies right from the first one I saw – Five Fingers Of Death. Oh my God, it was just a joy.” Shooting Big Trouble… was similarly joyous for Carpenter, but the same can’t be said for working with 20th Century Fox, causing Carpenter to step away from major studio moviemaking. “On Big Trouble… I was working with the head of a studio TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
SNAKE EYES Star Kurt Russell was a repeated collaborator of Carpenter’s during the 1980s (above and below). KILLER WHEELS After being removed from Firestarter, Carpenter took on another Stephen King adaptation, Christine (right).
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CELEBRATION who was an intentionally cruel human being. I just didn’t want to deal with that any more.” Carpenter temporarily found a home at independent production company Alive Films, who offered him a simple deal: a thrifty $3m budget in return for complete creative control. Prince Of Darkness was the first project to result – a Quatermass-inspired collision of science and biblical horror. Darkness was swiftly followed by They Live – a “primal scream against Reaganomics” that has become increasingly relevant over the years, something that amuses Carpenter because “It has a big fight in the middle that has nothing to do with anything!” Imagery from They Live has been utilised in anti-capitalist protest art, but in recent years Carpenter has found himself stamping out incorrect readings of his work. “The right wing is trying to adopt that movie for its own. They think that the aliens are Jewish. For fuck’s sake – come on, you idiots!” In retrospect They Live was the end of an era. It would take four years for his next film – Memoirs Of An Invisible Man – to reach screens, and the films that followed largely failed to capture the creative spirit of his ’80s heyday. He eventually burned out following 2001’s Ghosts Of Mars (“I
LIKE MOTHER… With Janet Leigh during the making of The Fog (above left). DOING TIME Looking in on Ice Cube’s Desolation Williams in Ghosts Of Mars (above, top). HOSPITAL BLUES Directing Amber Heard in his last film to date, The Ward (above).
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‘IT WAS HATED BY EVERYBODY WHEN IT CAME OUT BECAUSE IT WAS SO DARK. IT’S THE END OF EVERYTHING. I MEAN, COME ON!’ don’t like getting up in the morning. I’d rather sleep in.”), and wouldn’t direct a feature film again until 2010’s The Ward. What was it that tempted him back? “The pressure. Just pressure,” he admits. “And I got to work with some really talented young ladies.” Things changed drastically for Carpenter in 2015, after he survived a “pretty serious illness”. In the years since he’s focused on the things that make him happy: namely videogames and music. Earlier this year, he put out his fourth studio album, Lost Themes III, and in addition to his work on the new Halloween trilogy, Carpenter says he’s agreed to score another movie later this year. Could he be tempted back behind a camera? “Yes, I’m working on it. I’m always thinking about it. I’m always looking out for a project that would be great. I would do it, sure, but the conditions have to be right. There has to be enough money, and there has to be enough time.” He even has an idea, and he’s only halfjoking: “Kurt’s Santa Claus now – I want to try to get him to play an evil Santa Claus! I think he’d be great.” As for Halloween, with the final film in David Gordon Green’s trilogy due out in 2022, is Carpenter ready to leave Haddonfield behind for good? “I’d like to caution you that if Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends make money, I don’t know that you really have seen the end [laughs]. Maybe of my involvement! Maybe they will say, ‘We want a fresh approach. Let’s get this bum out of here!’ Whatever… See, I’ve changed my whole feel later in life. I embrace everything. Everything is wonderful.” HALLOWEEN KILLS OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 15 OCTOBER. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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JOHN CARPENTER
SHOW Doing a JC top 10 was impossible. So here’s 12… WORDS JAMIE GRAHAM
DARK STAR 1974
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★★★★ Bored travellers on the eponymous spacecraft bicker, bomb unstable planets and fend off a beachball alien in this bluecollar, stoner riposte to the solemnity of Kubrick’s 2001. Carpenter and co-writer Dan O’Bannon padded out their USC graduation short to make it feature length.
THE FOG 1980
★★★★ A campfire tale of shipwrecked spectres wreaking vengeance on a coastal town, The Fog’s eerie atmosphere is punctuated by highly effective, gory set-pieces. Make-up maestro Rob Bottin plays lead ghost Blake – he’d soon deliver The Thing’s ground-shattering effects.
CHRISTINE 1983
★★★★★ Fired from Firestarter when The Thing flopped, Carpenter instead got behind the wheel of another Stephen King vehicle. Superbly directed and with a killer soundtrack, this story of teen alienation, friendship and obsessive first love is finally becoming recognised as a classic.
PRINCE OF DARKNESS 1987
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HALLOWEEN 1978
★★★★★ Cons and cops in an abandoned LA police station find themselves besieged by gang members in Carpenter’s super-suspenseful riff on Hawks’ Rio Bravo. The shooting of a little girl holding an ice-cream cone just gets more shocking with each passing year.
★★★★★ “It’s Halloween, everyone’s entitled to one good scare,” the sheriff tells our teen hero Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), but this seminal slasher – no blood, all suspense – never lets up. Michael Myers became an icon; JC’s menacing, propulsive score became a ringtone.
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK 1981
THE THING 1982
★★★★ Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken breaks into a walled-off Manhattan to rescue Donald Pleasence’s POTUS from the delinquents that rule the derelict streets. It was Russell’s idea to belatedly return to the character for the dud 1996 sequel, Escape From LA.
★★★★★ A flop on release – the tone was too sombre, the grisly shapeshifting FX was too spectacular – Carpenter’s adaptation of John W. Campbell’s Antarctica-set tale of alien terror Who Goes There? is now rightly considered his masterpiece. We’re not fucking kidding you.
STARMAN 1984
BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA 1986
★★★★ The Thing, nasty and gnarly, was mauled by cuddly E.T. at the box office, so Carpenter returned to the genre with a rather more friendly alien – he looks like Jeff Bridges and falls in love with Karen Allen’s widow. An oft-overlooked gem that even got an Oscar nod (a nomination for Bridges).
THEY LIVE 1988
★★★★ Roddy Piper’s construction worker discovers that shady aliens rule the world, controlling the underclasses with subliminal advertising. This satire of Reagan’s America ain’t subtle but it kicks ass as Carpenter pays tribute to the ’50s sci-fi movies of his youth. We’re all out of bubble gum…
★★★★ Another JC movie that proved ahead of its time, this collides the Hollywood action movie with Hong Kong sword and sorcery pics, and deliciously pokes fun at Kurt Russell’s meathead hero as he battles against monsters, magicians and martial artists.
IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS 1994
★★★★ After hints of Lovecraftian terror in The Fog and The Thing, Carpenter here goes all out, as Sam Neill’s insurance investigator probes the disappearance of Jürgen Prochnow’s horror author with monstrous results. Vampires (1997) has moments, but this is the last hurrah. SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
YMALA
★★★★ A triumphant return to indie filmmaking after various tussles with studios, Prince Of Darkness was inspired by Dario Argento’s bonkers Inferno. “I went nuts,” Carpenter said of his blending theoretical physics and theology in a dread-drenched chiller set in an abandoned church.
ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 1976
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The foremost DIY punk-synth pioneer of pulp cinema, John Carpenter has composed influential scores for most of his movies. He picked the right man for the jobs… WORDS KEVIN HARLEY
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however. Over the decades, Carpenter has sired some of genre cinema’s most sinuous earworms, clipped compositions carrying each film’s DNA in every pulsing note or sepulchral throb. His finest music equips utilitarian principles with atmosphere and texture, range and swagger, bound tight by mood and melody.
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Y TTEG ,YMALA
s a musician, John Carpenter has never been one to blow his own trumpet. Asked about his influence on later composers, he’ll claim ignorance. He describes himself as “sort of a bum in music” or even “a second-rate bum.” “I have minimal chops,” he says of his talents. Few composers have reaped such maximal results from such minimal means,
Strong roots and resourcefulness are among his core attributes. Carpenter’s scoring influences range from westerns (Dimitri Tiomkin’s Rio Bravo) to newfrontier “electronic tonalities” (Bebe and Louis Barron’s Forbidden Planet), with Bernard Herrmann, Tangerine Dream, Ennio Morricone, Goblin and Elmer Bernstein in between. The son of a music professor, Carpenter also played in his own rock band, learning how well-targeted instincts can trounce virtuosity in music. Scored by himself on crude synthesisers, his early DIY works major in tension and tone. Assault On Precinct 13’s score is deep and dubby, with an insistent rattle beneath its reverberant synths adding suspense. For Halloween, off-beat timings and on-point influences (Suspiria, Jaws) converge in a sonic correlative for persistent dread. The Fog’s pianos show an evolved capacity for hovering restraint; Escape From New York tethers rock rhythms to synth pulses with taut control. Doubters argue that Carpenter lacks symphonic scope, though he packs an instinctive understanding of how to harness
CELEBRATION
EVIL The day HE was home… WORDS JAMIE GRAHAM
John Carpenter performs during a ‘Release The Bats’ Halloween show at the Troxy on 31 October 2016.
ack in 2010, when John Carpenter released The Ward – his 17th and, to date, final movie – Total Film visited the legendary director’s Hollywood pad for a chat. Here, Editor-at-Large Jamie Graham takes us on a tour… Just as Halloween’s bogeyman Michael Myers wrought terror on the sleepy town of Haddonfield, Illinois, so Carpenter, master of menace, occupies a white clapperboard house behind a white picket fence on a leafy suburban street. You’d never guess that the iconic filmmaker behind such classics as Assault On Precinct 13, The Fog and The Thing would reside in such nondescript surroundings, but then it’s the neighbours of serial killers who are always the most surprised. The clue is a small sign on the gate – Beware the occupant – and once inside, the owner’s affection for the horror genre
becomes clear: posters for his movies adorn the front room, and the shelves of his back office display 10-inch models of Dracula, Frankenstein’s creature and the Mummy. Aptly, the famous monsters often find themselves wreathed in mist. No, Carpenter hasn’t kept the machines that pumped out smothering clouds of fog for his 1980 classic, but he gives them a run for their money by sparking up a Winston every 15 minutes and exhaling thick plumes of smoke. Of course, it turned out that Carpenter is just the nicest, sanest guy you ever could meet – just as David Cronenberg is coolly articulate, and Wes Craven and George Romero were gentle, intelligent souls. “I got you something to eat,” he said as we took our places on either side of his desk, and placed down, of all things, a cheeseboard. And no, the knife that came with it was not Michael’s 17-inch blade.
pace, space and melodic precision for impact. Likewise, if received opinion tells you Carpenter peaked early, ignore it. Scores such as They Live and Big Trouble In Little China apply his (pork) chops to sometimes swaggering, sometimes mock-macho ends. Christine purrs with menace and momentum; Prince Of Darkness throbs demonically; Ghosts Of Mars rocks. Meanwhile, Carpenter has shown collaborative smarts, utilising members of Anthrax, The Kinks and The Cars – among others – effectively. Recent team-ups with his son Cody and godson Daniel Davies show how well his music holds up outside movies. Music for imaginary films, his three Lost Themes albums host mini synthwave symphonies of uneasy insistence, testaments to his economical aesthetic and expansive influence. Composers from Oneohtrix Point Never (Uncut Gems) to Portishead’s Geoff Barrow (Annihilation) owe him, as do Drive, It Follows, Stranger Things… Never one to burden a point with extraneous effort, Carpenter hardly needs to toot his trumpet. There are plenty of people to do it for him. GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
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David Gordon Green
Prano Bailey-Bond
Neil Marsha
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Justin Benson
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FAN CLUB
R o b S a vage
Cult directors and collaborators celebrate the Master of Horror
Da n n y M
Alice Lowe
Peter Strickland
c Br i de Jamie Lee Curtis
Axelle Caro
Edgar Wright
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JUSTIN BENSON
DAVID GORDON GREEN
PRANO BAILEY-BOND
Obviously Carpenter’s The Thing is one of the greatest films of all time. I think very few people would dispute this. Masterful dramatics aside, the technical work is still unmatched. I’m not sure those effects could even be duplicated, given the production differences of today. But beyond the obvious, if you look at They Live, Prince Of Darkness and In The Mouth Of Madness, these films are so bold in concept. Sadly, we may never see genre movies like this punk made at that scale ever again.
One of the things that I’ve become very familiar with for Halloween 3, is Christine. So there’s a lot of Christine, and a lot of The Fog in Halloween 3. If you had asked me this three years ago, I would not have said those two movies. But my appreciation for those after repeat viewings, and with a deeper understanding of those movies – I would say that those two films really appeal to me now, enough so that I started recognising their influence on our third Halloween film.
My first John Carpenter experience was Dark Star, when I must have been about eight or nine years old. I discovered it on my parents’ VHS shelf, taped off the telly, and it was like a portal to another universe. I’m pretty sure that film played a part in shaping my weird sense of humour, and was definitely an early education in creating atmosphere. Carpenter has the most boundless imagination – the worlds he builds in his films are a gift to us all. He is an icon and I bow to him.
THE ENDLESS, SYNCHRONIC
CENSOR
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E G AV A S B O R R I D / M O C . M A R G AT S N I ,Y T T E G
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HALLOWEEN (2018), HALLOWEEN KILLS
CELEBRATION AXELLE CAROLYN
THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR, CREEPSHOW
John Carpenter’s movies have been part of my life for so long, I can’t remember when they first entered my consciousness. As a child, ads for the Halloween sequels made me look into the holiday, which at the time, growing up in Belgium, was unknown to me, but would soon become a lifelong obsession. His was the first filmmaker voice I truly became aware of, not for his style, but for the rebellious, independent streak which suffuses his work regardless of subject matter. The first filmmaker analysis book I ever read was a French study of his work;
I wanted to understand the process, and how one could be so versatile, yet so consistently true to oneself. To say that his movies had an impact on my life would be an understatement. While I was shooting my new feature The Manor alongside powerhouse producer Sandy King (don’t get me started — I couldn’t sing Sandy’s praises enough!), John surprised us by visiting the set on Halloween. I’m not sure he realises how much that sweet gesture meant to the crew, and to me. I can only hope that a little bit of what I learned from his work, of staying true to your vision and to who you truly are, has made its way onto the screen.
NEIL MARSHALL
DOG SOLDIERS, THE DESCENT
I’ve been lucky enough to meet John Carpenter on a number of occasions. The first time he took me for steak at legendary Hollywood haunt Musso & Franks, which was pretty damn cool. But the most memorable incident was shortly after the release of Doomsday. Now opinions on Doomsday differ, but for me it was intended as a loving tribute to all the great ’80s classics I grew up with, including but certainly not limited to, Escape From New York. Now, several critics had accused me of ripping off Carpenter, so I was interested to know what Carpenter himself thought about it. His was the only opinion that mattered to me. We arranged to have lunch at the Hamburger Hamlet, and I popped the question… What did he think of Doomsday? Well, after a very long, very deliberate pause, which he milked for all the suspense he could, being a master of that kind of thing, he told me… he loved the movie! He was honoured, not offended. This was all I needed to hear. I breathed a large sigh of relief and burgers were consumed.
EDGAR WRIGHT
SHAUN OF THE DEAD, LAST NIGHT IN SOHO
John Carpenter deserves praising to the heavens as a true master, not only because of his extraordinary talents, but because he’s one of the most modest directors I’ve ever met. Anytime I’ve engaged with him about any of his game-changing genre classics, he’s quick to dismiss them and clearly will only rewatch them if he REALLY has to. The only two times I’ve had the pleasure of chatting to him were both amusing (to me at least). I first ran into him at a near-empty Virgin Megastore on Sunset Boulevard, where rather than let me tell him what a big fan I was of his work, he wanted to talk about the Blu-ray I was about to buy – The Beatles’ Help! Any attempt I made to tell him what he meant to me was politely deflected. Then last year, I did manage to interview him for Fangoria about the 40th anniversary of his low-key classic The Fog (one of my favourite horror movies), where I managed to praise him to the extent that he GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
DANNY MCBRIDE
HALLOWEEN (2018), HALLOWEEN KILLS
It would be weird for me to not say that Halloween is my favourite [laughs]. I love Halloween. I think if there’s a close tie to Halloween, for me it’s The Thing. That’s always been one of my favourite films ever. Kurt Russell is so awesome in that movie. The moment that’s always scared the shit out of me and that I love is when the guys are tied up, and they’re trying to test to see who has the Thing in them. That moment is so awesome. The dog that’s infected with The Thing as well – that horrified me as a child. It was so cool and distinct. It’s just such a great movie.
ROB SAVAGE HOST
JAMIE LEE CURTIS
HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN KILLS
Halloween is my favourite John Carpenter film. Next question? [laughs] said “Can I go now?” and I replied, “No, I love to make you squirm!” So, knowing he’ll likely never read this, I can say whole-heartedly, John Carpenter is a genius. By combining the brilliant visual storytelling of his idols such as Howard Hawks with the then-borderline exploitation material of the ’70s horror scene, he made B-movies into A films. Assault On Precinct 13, Halloween and The Fog are all masterclasses in how to make your low-budget film look classy, never waste a frame or a line, be inventive and have a killer soundtrack too. They are so artfully and beautifully made. Carpenter transcended his genre so explosively that it changed the way audiences and critics thought of independent cinema. Later classics like Escape From New York, The Thing, Christine, Starman and Big Trouble In Little China were so ahead of their time that we are all still ripping them off now. So if you want to be a filmmaker and don’t know how to make wine out of water, study the lessons of JC, he really is a messiah for us all.
When I think of Cinema, I think of John Carpenter. Some directors make films, some make movies, and a rare few make CINEMA – and of those few, only one is going to show you a severed head sprouting legs. Carpenter is an imagemaker, a creator of iconic moments that take up permanent residence in your brain like a parasitic alien invader. His run of films, from Assault On Precinct 13 to They Live, is peerless, and he’s the only one of his filmmaking generation to never disappear up his own arse. That he may never make another film is criminal and that he is not venerated alongside Spielberg, Coppola, Scorsese et al. is unforgivably snobbish. I’d take a new Carpenter movie over any of them.
PETER STRICKLAND
BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, IN FABRIC
I grew up covertly tuning in to John Carpenter’s films late at night on television with the lights off and the volume down, which felt like the perfect way to enter his uncanny worlds.
ALICE LOWE
PREVENGE
John Carpenter just seems to be someone who invented their own tone. Not just one tone either but a whole synthesiser. When I think of the pure dread generated by what you DON’T see in Halloween, vs. what you DO see in The Thing, it makes me think that this is someone who is the master of emotion. It’s not about what you see in the films, but the way they make you feel. Plus the display of sheer imagination coupled with restraint, means iconic moments. I think a human head with spider legs will never leave me as a concept! AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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CANDYMAN
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PRODUCER JORDAN PEELE AND DIRECTOR NIA DACOSTA HAVE ETCHED A NEW CHAPTER IN THE TERRIFYING LEGEND OF CANDYMAN. TOTAL FILM FINDS OUT HOW THE FILM USES BLOOD AND BRAINS TO EXPLORE THE BLACK EXPERIENCE… WORDS JAMIE GRAHAM epeat this name to yourself: Nia DaCosta. It’s one you’ll come to know, and not only because, in August 2020, she signed up to direct Captain Marvel sequel The Marvels. No, it’s the reason she landed that blockbuster gig in the first place that will cause her name to be repeated again and again over the next few months. That reason is Candyman, DaCosta’s striking new take on Bernard Rose’s iconic 1992 horror movie, which is in turn based on Clive Barker’s short story The Forbidden in his landmark Books Of Blood collection. For DaCosta, whose only previous feature credit is Crossing The Line (aka Little Woods), a moody crime drama starring Tessa Thompson and Lily James, landing the Candyman gig is a dream (nightmare?) come true. GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
“I was always into horror films,” she tells Total Film with a shiver of delight. “Even when I was a kid. Freddy Krueger movies, Jason movies. I used to watch Tales Of The Crypt in the dark by myself. I think they’re a cool way to look at who we are. And it’s fun being scared.” As for Candyman starring Tony Todd as the hook-handed, gravelvoiced killer who crosses from myth into Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project to slay and slay again, DaCosta first knew of him, fittingly enough, through whispers rather than the film itself. “I was in Harlem, in the fifth or sixth grade,” she recalls. “I just remember Candyman being a part of life. Like legend, lore. We didn’t dare say his name in the mirror [Todd’s bogeyman is summoned by repeating “Candyman” five times into AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
MAKING OF a looking glass]. For me, Candyman felt so real. It felt like he could totally exist in the projects by my house.”
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A fourth Candyman film (let’s not pause to ponder 1995’s Candyman: Farewell To The Flesh or 1999’s Candyman: Day Of The Dead – DaCosta’s movie wisely doesn’t) has been whispered of since Freddy Vs. Jason scared up decent boxoffice takings in 2003. In 2004, for a terrifying moment, it seemed that Candyman Vs. Leprechaun was on the cards, though Todd thankfully refused to have his legendary killer join hands (or rather, hook and talons) with such a risible franchise. Then there was talk of a $25m budget for a new Candyman boasting Barker’s involvement, only for the buzz to die away. In September 2018, the possibility of Candyman materialising once more suddenly became very real, with the announcement that Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions had secured the rights. The director of Get Out and Us released a statement: “The original was a landmark film for Black representation in the horror genre. Alongside Night Of The Living Dead, Candyman was a major inspiration for me as filmmaker. We are honoured to bring the next chapter in the Candyman canon to life.” And Todd himself said, “I’d rather have him do it, someone with intelligence who’s going to be thoughtful and dig into the whole racial makeup of who Candyman is and why he existed in the first place.” Peele immediately demonstrated that intelligence by hiring DaCosta. Like Rose, she’s a stylist, but dazzling visuals are only a part of the package. “I want to make sure we do not fall into the tropes of modern horror,” she tells TF. “People’s expectations are going to be Blumhouse [lo-fi, insidious chills], but it’s definitely a lot more inventive and takes more risks.” She also brings a fresh perspective – one that Peele, as producer, encouraged. “We have very different aesthetics, very different tastes, so we negotiated on how to collaborate,” DaCosta explains. “How do I as a filmmaker maintain my vision when I’m working under another filmmaker? But he was just very supportive.” Good job TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
A CHICAGO STORY DaCosta and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II on location in Chicago (above). MYTH UPDATE The story of Candyman’s creation gets a richer detail (below right).
too, because the pressure grew and grew as she worked with Peele and Win Rosenfeld on the script for two years, even moving to Chicago to soak up the vibe and scout locations. “Initially, I was just excited and thought, ‘Who cares? I’m just going to make the best version of the movie’. A lot of that was because I’m a huge nerd, so I was like, ‘You know what, I get it, so I’m totally going to do it the way I want to do it, because I know there’s not going to be a better one.’ But eventually it did weigh down on me. The expectations of the fans. And there are also expectations around Jordan – what kind of movie is he going to make, and what cultural impact is it going to have? So I was like, ‘Oh wow.’”
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
The first thing to get right is your casting. For her two leads, DaCosta opted for “powerhouse actors” Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman,
Watchmen) and Teyonah Parris (Chi-Raq, WandaVision). They play boyfriend and girlfriend Anthony McCoy and Brianna Cartwright, he an artist experiencing a block, she an arts curator. Moving into a gorgeous flat in the now-gentrified Cabrini-Green, it’s not long until they learn of the legend of Candyman. Though the origin story presented in Rose’s original film – the son of a slave is punished for falling in love with a white woman, his hand hacked off and the stump dipped in honey so that bees might sting him to death – is here added to considerably. “There’s an element of surprise to Jordan’s work,” notes AbdulMateen, who read for Get Out and landed a supporting role in Us. He’s now a star, with roles lined up in The Matrix 4 and Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa. “Jordan takes advantage of our expectations. And he has a very sharp perspective on the world, and a desire to challenge the audience with fresh ideas.”
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CANDYMAN much of what we talked about was violence. Especially racial violence. The violence still looks the same, but it’s also very different. There’s still modern lynching, but gentrification is an act of modern violence. And there are micro-aggressions when you’re working as a Black artist in a white industry, which is what our main character is doing.” Does she relate to Anthony’s situation? “Oh, for sure. Even on this movie, all the execs who worked on the film were white, except for Jordan. There were Black creatives, but in terms of producers and executives, they were almost exclusively white.” “Is this monster motivated by the same things?” asks Abdul-Mateen, pointing out that Candyman’s hunting ground of Cabrini-Green is all but unrecognisable these days, his prey a different flavour. It’s an interesting question, for while some things remain the same,
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A fan of the original Candyman from boyhood, Abdul-Mateen recalls how, for him, the personal and the political were one and the same. “I remember Michael Myers and Freddy and Jason. Those characters were in the suburbs. They were out in the woods or in a neighbourhood that didn’t look like mine. Sure, it was a threat, but it was a threat that came from the television. Once you go to CabriniGreen and talk about a bogeyman who lives in the projects, then that brings the threat into my community, my home, my own bathroom. Immediately the danger or the excitement becomes relatable and palpable.” Parris was similarly shaken up by Rose’s classic, and remembers how she’d stand in front of the mirror with her brothers repeating “Candyman”… but never getting beyond a fourth utterance. To star in this spiritual sequel (no spoilers here as to why it qualifies as such; though given away in interviews, it might be better to go in cold) was a no-brainer. Largely because it’s got brains. “I think Candyman is political in the same vein that Jordan’s other films have had something very stark to say on the state of the world, the GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
state of our community,” she says. “The stories I want to be a part of, it’s very important to me that they have something to say. I view myself as a socially aware person. Obviously I’m a Black woman, so you can’t help but see it in that lens – ‘OK, this is a Black woman’s story, and what does it say about Black people? Is it opening up the narrative that we are not a monolith, that we are very different and nuanced and have many different experiences?’ That always goes into me choosing what it is I lend my voice to. I am very proud of the work: Chi-Raq, If Beale Street Could Talk, Dear White People. It gives people the space to talk about things that may be uncomfortable.”
WHAT’S THE BUZZ?
The original film, as Peele mentioned, was a landmark of Black representation in horror, but this version will take it further. In Rose’s film, race was a theme; here it is the film. “One hundred per cent,” nods DaCosta. “I think looking at the way that Candyman was created [in the original film], in an act of violence by a white lynch mob, murdered, tortured, mutilated…” She takes a breath. “So
FRAMING IT DaCosta sets up a shot with star Teyonah Parris (top left). CLEANING UP Anthony (AbdulMateen) and William (Colman Domingo) share stories at the dry-cleaners (above).
NIA DACOSTA
others change, just as this Candyman respects the original while fearlessly doing its own thing. Perhaps some of the Friday night crowd will be scared off by DaCosta and Peele using the Candyman hook to discuss such sombre, complex issues, but many of the best horror movies sift through entrails to make readings of the human condition and trace patterns of socio-political ills. “As an artist, you should comment and lift things up for exploration,” insists Parris. Candyman the film does that as surely as Candyman the character lifts up teenagers on his hook, their guts hitting the floor with a satisfying splat. Perhaps the Friday night crowd will find plenty to love after all. “I’d get to set and be like, ‘Oh, crap, I’m making a Candyman movie!” laughs DaCosta. “It’s so cool.” CANDYMAN OPENS ON 27 AUGUST. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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TECH HUGH JACKMAN PLAYS A PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR OF THE MIND IN REMINISCENCE, A BIG-BUDGET SCI-FI FROM THE CREATOR OF WESTWORLD THAT TAKES ITS CUES FROM BOGART AS MUCH AS BLOCKBUSTERS. JACKMAN AND WRITER/DIRECTOR LISA JOY TELL TOTAL FILM ABOUT A NEAR-FUTURE THRILLER THAT COULD BE OUT OF THE PAST… WORDS MATT MAYTUM
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it had even passed,” she continues. “It made me start thinking about memory, and how all of us have this relationship to memory, and these moments in our life that we wish we could go back to. And the conceit of Reminiscence is: well, what if we could?” Inspired by a neuroscience class where she learned about patients reexperiencing very vivid and evocative memories during surgery, Joy leant into the sci-fi aspect of Reminiscence to imagine, “What if there was a isa Joy, co-creator of TV’s Westworld, is, um, reminiscing about the origins of the technology that allowed us to return to our memories, and experience idea for Reminiscence, her debut feature as a writer/director. Given that the film’s them fully, as if for the first time?” This is where Hugh Jackman – also a high-concept sci-fi noir thriller, it’s chatting with TF and Joy in June 2021 – surprising to learn that it has its roots comes in. He stars as Nick Bannister, in Joy’s grandfather’s modest house in Huddersfield (Joy is “half-British”). The “who is basically a private investigator house was named Suki Lynn. When her of the mind” according to Joy. “I wanted grandfather passed away, Joy helped sort to play with the bones of an almost kind of noir-thriller,” Joy says. “[Nick]’s through his paperwork and discovered a faded photograph of a beautiful young an old veteran who used to use this technology for interrogating runners woman called… you guessed it. at the border, because the film takes “I realised that it must have been someone that he met in his own youth,” place in Miami where the waters have risen, and Miami is half-sunken.” she tells Total Film, “and something The plot proper kicks into gear about the nature of their connection was special enough to him that 50 years later, when Nick and his right-hand woman across the world, he still had this house Watts (Westworld alumna Thandiwe Newton) are visited by Mae (Rebecca named after her. It started making me Ferguson). “He unlocks [a simple] think about memory at this crossroads memory for her,” explains Joy. “But it’s moment of my life, and the moments that mean so much to us in our life. It’s just the beginning of what turns into never the thing that you think it will be. this torrid love affair that ultimately, when she disappears, leads Bannister’s It’s always these quiet moments and interactions with people that you love.” character on this really dark odyssey into some really unseemly parts of Joy felt the same pangs in the Miami, and Mae’s past, in order to unexpected moments she shared with kind of find out where she went.” her daughter when she was a baby: On what drew him into this story, sleep-deprived cuddles, the touch of a hand, a stroke of her hair. “It was like Jackman says, “I like to be taken away. I love to go to a new kind of I was nostalgic for a moment before
SUITS YOU Hugh Jackman stars as private eye Nick Bannister (above).
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SORB RENRAW
world, a very cinematic world. But I want to think, and I want things to really ruminate on afterwards, and be entertained – all of that.” Joy pitched the film to him in his COLD CLIMATE New York home before he read the With director Lisa script. “I was so taken in – first of all Joy and co-star by her clarity of vision and passion,” Rebecca Ferguson, as client Mae (below). he says. “You get a sense as an actor immediately if you’re in the hands of someone you can trust. You just do. And then once I started hearing about this world, and the underworld, that because of the [extreme] heat in the daytime in the future [we see] the stark sunlight with these underworld characters… I just loved the way she was playing with cinematic genres and tropes that we think we know, and then subverting them all along the way.” Despite the genre mix, Jackman saw it speaking to where we are right now. “I love that on one level, you could call it an action-thriller,” he continues. “It’s sort of sci-fi in some way. It’s set in the near future. But it really makes you think about the present day, not only about memory but about how we see those people that we think we know in our lives - how we are really
REMINISCENCE
landscape. “And to be honest, I don’t think that this could have happened without Hugh and I having this mindmeld, and seeing the same thing.” Leaning into the noir tradition for inspiration, Jackman drew on some of the titans of the genre. “We talked quite a lot about Bogart for me, and certainly for the character,” he says. “It was such “I feel like I was stalking Hugh in a a lovely excuse, actually – I rewatched way that I think is uncharacteristically Casablanca. But To Have Or Have Not was determined for somebody who wants to get a movie made,” continues Joy. “I one I hadn’t seen. Lisa and I talked a lot needed a leading man who could do a lot about the notions of masculinity, and of incredible action. And the way I wanted where that breaks down. For Bannister, also, playing in to film the action was all practical. So some ways what appears I needed somebody who I knew was to be a fairly classic really physically gifted in that way. But Bogart-type character, beyond that kind of physicality and charisma, it really is a character piece… and then getting that subverted as he I always think that Hugh is a character becomes more and actor miscast in a leading man’s body, more obsessed, and because he can just do anything.” more unravelled as It also helps having a megastar on the film goes on...” board when you’re trying to secure Joy’s influences funding for a The Kind Of Film They include Vertigo Don’t Make Any More™. The film was (“because it sold on the open market at the Berlin was really film festival. “It’s either a real indie about the sort or a blockbuster franchise superhero of blindness of movie,” says Joy of the current unreliable narrators of our own life!” Twenty pages into the script, Jackman knew he was doing it. “I don’t know how good my poker face was,” he jokes to Joy. “I’m not known for a good poker face. I’m sure that was shit.”
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the hero in pursuing someone” and Out Of The Past (“because of its fascinating noir bones, which I was trying to play with but also really subvert and modernise”), as well as looking to a number of foreign films. “The idea [is] that the world is becoming more global and international… so I took a lot of influences from places in Asia that I’d been to. My mom is Chinese, so the idea of night markets, to life on water, and life outside of major cities – and also, I do like action. So there’s one fight that’s a little nod to director Park’s Oldboy. That was fun!” In fact, the noir influences appear to far outweigh the science-fiction influences, perhaps surprising given that Joy is the co-creator and a writer/ director/producer on Westworld, one of TV’s big recent sci-fi success stories. “I love sci-fi as a way of world-building,” she says. “But I don’t as much enjoy sci-fi that I find emotionally distancing or unrealistic. For me, sci-fi is best when you have a conceit, but you understand the emotional resonance of that conceit and that metaphor. And when you start watching the film, you can just forget that it’s a sci-fi universe, and relate to it on a really visceral level.” That warm approach to a concept that could have been treated icily cool on screen extended to the casting of the main female roles. When it came to casting Jackman’s The Greatest Showman co-star (and Mission: Impossible regular) Rebecca Ferguson as Mae, AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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MAKING OF Joy explains, “I needed a brilliant actor who could play a complex character with layer after layer of reveals. Mae initially presents as a quintessential femme fatale. But the movie endeavours to deconstruct and peer beneath the veneer of that trope to reveal the beating heart of a complex figure. I knew Rebecca had the versatility to play all the different facets of Mae’s character.” And Joy describes Thandiwe Newton’s Watts as “a war veteran who is Bannister’s longtime friend and colleague. Though she has her own
drowning, I’m watching him, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, how do I know if he’s really drowning?’” recalls Joy. “The core on my list of goals was: ‘Do not kill Hugh Jackman!’ That was like number one. But it’s a testament to [Hugh’s] performance that several times I wondered if I’d actually broken the rule!” The commitment to shooting practically also led Joy to realise the holographic ‘Reminiscence machine’ in reality. “We had really, really complex in-camera stuff that had never been done before,” explains Jackman of
demons, Watts has an unwavering strength, grit, and compassion. Plus, she kicks a lot of ass.” Keeping Reminiscence grounded in that uncharacteristic warmth and tactility extends to the lighting and sets. “The film’s an examination of the hazy line between lust and love,” says Joy. “I wanted the imagery to be as sensual and tactile as possible - in everything from the colour palette to the design of the world.” It also extends to the analogue tech, and practical action…
tech that bring memories back to life. “That is all done in-camera.” “I just knew that I wanted it to feel warm and real and believable,” adds Joy. “In order to do that, I figured, ‘What better way to make it feel like those things than to actually make this technology?’ That involved creating a real-life, 3D hologram that the actors can interact with while performing… and it’s a hologram of an entire other scene where other actors are within it.” Huge-scale filmmaking runs in Joy’s family: her husband and Westworld co-creator is Jonathan ‘Jonah’ Nolan (who worked on the screenplays of The Dark Knight and Interstellar, among others) and Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas are her brother-in-law and sister-in-law. While the trailer for Reminiscence certainly carries a Nolanesque vibe, Joy didn’t find herself needing to reach out to her husband or in-laws for any advice. “Jonah says that the best thing that he can do to support me when I’m on set is to stay far, far away,” laughs Joy, before becoming more reflective. “Far more than any individual advice on things to do, he’s in complete support. And also the willingness not to support me with words but to actually just be there and help me with the family. It was such a beautiful gift that he gave me.” Jackman is also firmly of the opinion that Joy needs no assistance. “Having the confidence going in that your director has got everything mapped out, but is also totally free enough for you to say, ‘Hey, what about this?’ – it’s normally
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Having appeared as Wolverine in no fewer than nine X-Men movies, Jackman has never been a slouch when it comes to on-screen stuntwork. “A lot of the time, I’ve had claws on my hand, but still I’ve done quite a lot of action,” he grins. “So quite often, I’ll find myself in a rehearsal going, ‘Oh, OK, right. Are we doing that?’ And then I say, ‘Yeah, got it.’” Much of the action in Reminiscence, particularly the film’s underwater sequences, wasn’t quite so easy for the former Logan to get his adamantium claws into. “Right from the start, from the underwater stuff to the way it all transpired, this all felt very new to me,” explains Jackman. “And also the challenge of doing long takes. You know, we looked at Oldboy. We looked at a bunch of stuff. ‘How do we make this feel fresh and new and visceral?’ That’s always challenging, and it doesn’t get easier as you get older!” It was daunting for the director, too. “Because he’s also acting like he’s TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
THANKS FOR THE… Jackman’s character helps people to see inside their memories (below and opposite).
something you find from someone who’s made 15 films, not their first,” he says. Perhaps part of the reason for Joy’s confidence is that she’s lived with the story for so long, having written the spec script during her first pregnancy (her daughter is now of school age and she also has a son). For a film about memory, reflection and a world gone to seed, will it hit differently as the world slowly emerges from an unprecedented pandemic? “I think Lisa’s really hitting on many things that are bubbling
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REMINISCENCE TWISTFive alt-noirs ANDthat hitCLOUT big…
BLADE RUNNER 1982
Rain, paranoia and a private dick (Harrison Ford) conducting an investigation full of murk and mystery… but set in an eye-saucering neon-lit futurescape while examining the dangers of AI. Ridley Scott’s towering masterpiece just beats out James Cameron’s The Terminator as our favourite example of ‘tech noir’.
ANGEL HEART 1987
Hard-boiled ’tec Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is hired by suave Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) to head to New Orleans in search of a missing singer. The twists and turns lead straight to hell in this striking blend of noir and horror. The same year, Kathryn Bigelow gave us another classic horror-noir, Near Dark.
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around pre-pandemic, like when I read it,” considers Jackman. “Certainly the idea of: we’re living in a world where the richer are richer, and the poorer have got poorer, and the gap is ever-widening. I think that during the pandemic, with Black Lives Matter, and many upheavals that have happened, people have had a chance to really look at how we’re living, how we’re sharing the planet, and how we’re getting on.” He pauses. “In many ways, I think the film will resonate in a deeper way. And I think in a very entertaining way, through this sort of action-thriller, what Lisa is also doing is making us really look at the world we’re living in now through the lens of this near-future sci-fi.” “One can’t help but be influenced by the world that you’re living in, especially when dealing with world-building of this sort, and a bit of sci-fi and futurism,” adds Joy. “That kind of inequality of power, it forms a sort of backdrop to this whole story that unfolds. And
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unfortunately, the backdrop is very relevant to our world.” But more than that even, the way the pandemic has provided the impetus to think about what’s really important to us in terms of relationships, after a year isolated from some of the people who are most important to us. “I think that sense of cherishing those relationships that mean a lot to us are really at the core of [Reminiscence],” concludes Joy. “It’s something that people can really relate to now. There are certain moments that we each have in our lives that are glimmers of light amidst darkness. If we are lucky enough to recognise those moments when they occur, and to hold onto them afterwards, those are the moments that define a life, that make it worth living, and then make you live more fully when you realise that you’re within one…” REMINISCENCE OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 18 AUGUST.
Rian Johnson’s directorial debut is a neo-noir set in a Californian high school, as loner student Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) gets gum on his shoe after his ex-girlfriend turns up dead in a tunnel. Johnson has a hoot riffing on noir tropes, and would go on to do a similar thing to Agatha Christie in Knives Out.
MINORITY REPORT 2002
Bogey’s film noirs were great and all that, but what they really needed was a jetpack… Set in 4, Spielberg’s take on Philip K. Dick’s 6 short story sees Tom Cruise arresting people for crimes they’ve not yet committed… until he is himself accused. Uber-critic Roger Ebert hailed it as the film of the year.
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Paul Thomas Anderson delivers a great stoner-noir in the tradition of Altman’s The Long Goodbye and the Coens’ The Big Lebowski, with Joaquin Phoenix’s PI searching for his ex through a fug of confusion, neurosis and marijuana smoke. What he finds is that America is lost. Talk about harshing your mellow. JG AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
SPOTLIGHT GAEL GARCÍA BERNAL returns to Hollywood for M. Night Shyamalan’s high-concept thriller Old, in which his character starts to age rapidly. It’s got him thinking about his two decades as a globally celebrated actor, and how he’s always done it his way…
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to trigger an existential crisis, then… “In the mythology of this film… everything goes so quickly. It’s like, ‘What’s happening?!’ The characters don’t understand what’s going on. I don’t want to say more because I’ll spoil it.” He laughs. “But in life, you can appreciate ageing. I love getting old; getting older is the best thing that can happen to anyone!” Easy to say, perhaps, given that the 42-year-old actor appears to bathe daily in the fountain of youth. Looking at his unlined face today, it’s difficult to compute that it’s been 20 years since his breakout role in Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También, a coming-of-age drama in which García Bernal and Diego Luna got pulses racing as lusty teenagers on a road trip with an older woman. “I don’t know how 20 years passed since we made that movie,” he says, shaking his head in disbelief. “Very pivotal things happened in that movie that actually changed my life. The first film I did was [Alejandro González Iñárritu’s
TSUGUA / EVA R G RAH NITSUA
alking to García Bernal over Zoom is a surreal experience, and not only because there are three cameras offering different angles of his face against a black backdrop, making our conversation feel like an experimental art film. He has an otherworldly presence, with bright green eyes peering out of a striking face that’s barely changed since he was a teenager. In fact, so captivating are his features, it takes several minutes to register that his hair is dyed blond. García Bernal is settling down with Total Film to talk Old, the new M. Night Shyamalan film about a family stuck on a beach that makes them rapidly age. “They put us in these incredible prosthetics that transformed us completely,” he says, explaining how M. Night’s latest taps into a societal fear of ageing. “We’re all faced with the concept of ageing,” he continues. “Whenever we go out, we see ads for antiageing creams. But for actors it’s more amped up.” Seeing himself up on screen as an old man must have been enough
SPOTLIGHT jagged crime thriller] Amores Perros, but then immediately I did Y Tu Mamá También, and that one was like the second leg of a football match. I could finally understand the score.” García Bernal’s character in Y Tu Mamá También is forever changed by his journey, and the film had a similar effect on him. “Alfonso was incredibly generous and invited us into the making of the film,” he explains. “I understood the back and front of a film set and that was transcendental because now I dedicate my life to making films. Y Tu Mamá También is perhaps the film university I never had.” Following further global acclaim for Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries and Pedro Almodóvar’s Bad Education, García Bernal then proved himself in English-language films, first with a bone-chilling turn as an amoral man hell-bent on revenge in The King, and then teaming back up with Iñárritu for the Academy Award-winning Babel. García Bernal was soon in hot demand in Hollywood. But unlike his Latin-American movie-star peers Benicio Del Toro, Pedro Pascal or Salma Hayek, he never relocated to Los Angeles or had much interest in succeeding on Hollywood’s terms. He has instead worked both in Spanish and English-language films and sustained an extraordinary reputation with persistently leftfield choices. The New York Times recently ranked him as the 25th greatest actor of the 21st century.
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it all boils down to the director,” he says. “The story can be fascinating, but if the director doesn’t have a point of view that sparks my interest, then it doesn’t matter. With Jim Jarmusch, he approached me and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do whatever,’ without even knowing what the film was.” It’s no surprise, then, that García Bernal chose to collaborate with M. Night Shyamalan, a writer-director who is known for taking big swings that sometimes miss, but sometimes land with an almighty thwack to create such unforgettable movies as The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Split. That kind of fearless approach appeals to García Bernal. “Something that is not bold, and that is not experimental in cinema, I really believe it’s a waste of time,”
NOCI ,ÉHTAP ,GNISAELER MUMITPO ,LASREVINU
hile he is equally compelling in both languages, he feels a big distinction. ”I don’t have the same flexibility in English and I cannot do the same amount of accents.” Indeed, for Spanish-language audiences he is famed for his chameleonic skill with accents. He took on a perfect Argentinian lilt to play the young Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries, and a strong Chilean twang as an ad-man trying to keep Pinochet in power in Pablo Larraín’s No. But García Bernal is aware of the potential of speaking in your second language. “I sometimes don’t speak English well, [whereas] in Spanish, I would not be able to not speak well,” he says. “In English, I am able to make grammatic mistakes and get away with it. So that’s fun.” This was something he toyed with to delightful effect in the Amazon series Mozart In The Jungle. In it, he played Rodrigo, a wunderkind conductor, and the show riffed on the public perception of him as a slightly eccentric creative genius. “It’s like working with another musical scale, with another instrument,” he grins, explaining that he was able to mine the frequent linguistic miscommunications for laughs. García Bernal’s filmography is filled with extraordinary performances in powerful films, often with auteur directors like Michel Gondry (The Science Of Sleep), Werner Herzog (Salt And Fire), Fernando Meirelles (Blindness), Jim Jarmusch (The Limits Of Control) and Elia Suleiman (It Must Be Heaven). There are also a couple of quickly forgotten schmaltzy rom-coms and one wonderful Pixar blockbuster, Coco, where he voiced Héctor in both the English and Spanish-language versions. He’s a prolific producer of film, documentary and television, and has been unabashed with his political interests, championing the work and activism of the younger generation. There has also been talk for years of Jonás Cuarón’s ‘Zorro’ reboot with him as the eponymous hero, but he is tight-lipped on its progress. But García Bernal has mostly avoided the pitfalls of Hollywood simply by choosing films that he was personally excited by. “In a very elemental way,
GAEL GARCÍA BERNAL
LANGUAGE BARRIERS García Bernal as Santiago in 2006’s star-studded Babel (above far-left). IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE García Bernal broke out as Julio Y Tu Mamá También in 2001 (above, second from left). ON THE ROAD As Che Guevara along with Rodrigo De la Serna’s Alberto Granado in 2004’s The Motorcycle Diaries (above, second from right). CRASH COURSE One of García Bernal’s earliest successes was in 2000’s Amores Perros (above). COMING OF AGE García Bernal with his onscreen children in Old (left).
he shrugs. “I prefer the carnival in that sense. You know? Let’s just go to the carnival and not make this film.” Details about Old have been thin on the ground – few filmmakers can shroud their sets in a fog of mystery quite like Shyamalan – but we do know that it’s loosely based on Sandcastle, a 2013 graphic novel by Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters. In the adaptation, Bernal is married to Phantom Thread’s Vicky Krieps, and together with their two young children, they visit a picturesque beach peopled by an assortment of characters played by the likes of Aaron Pierre, Ken Leung and Rufus Sewell. Before you can say “Twilight Zone in the noon sun”, something on the beach causes them all to begin rapidly GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
ageing, with the young children turning into teenagers, the adults into the elderly, and the elderly into skeletons. Not ideal, given that no one appears to be able to leave… García Bernal seems not only to have enjoyed been directed by Shyamalan, but to have found Old something of a learning experience too, much as he did Y Tu Mamá También all those years ago. “Actors experience different film sets with different directors, and that gives you a lot of tools to play around with,” he points out. “I think that’s why films that are directed by actors are always interesting.” García Bernal has directed shorts, TV episodes and two features in Deficit and Chicuarotes, so he is unsurprisingly keen to ponder the actors who have made exemplary directors. “Clint Eastwood!” he offers with a radiant smile. “Acting in spaghetti westerns, he learned the construction of the action and suspense or western iconography that would later be in his films. And look at Chaplin…” But back to Old. There is only so much García Bernal can say – with every Shyamalan film, doing interviews is akin to tiptoeing on eggshells – but surely he can at least tell us about shooting in the Dominican Republic at the height of the pandemic? He nods. “We were able to be without shoes for three months at the beach, with the same comfortable costume, and because we were in a bubble, we were able to take the masks off. That was very nice.” Not that the production was one big holiday. “It was
‘I’VE BEEN ABLE TO WORK IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD AND ON PROJECTS THAT DON’T NECESSARILY OBEY A TYPICAL JOURNEY OF A PERSON THAT WANTS TO BE FAMOUS OR WORK IN FILM.’
hurricane season and we shot in 35 millimetres, which led to complications… but limitations are a source of creativity!” In Old, García Bernal’s young co-stars, Aaron Pierre, Thomasin McKenzie, Alex Wolff and Eliza Scanlan are all already sought after, and are now navigating big decisions just as he did 20 years ago. Any advice? “They were the ones who could advise me! They’re so mature and such good actors. It was nice to have fun with them and goof around. I guess that compensated for the hours spent in make-up.” He reflects, serious for a second. “My journey has been very free,” he begins. “I’ve been able to work in different parts of the world and on projects that don’t necessarily obey a typical journey of a person that wants to be famous or work in film. I want young actors to know you don’t have to follow a set line to have a career. Sometimes the line is drawn for actors from the English language. But in my case I can reinvent myself all the time.” García Bernal looks back over the past decades with few regrets, and looks forward to his upcoming projects, including HBO’s post-apocalyptic mini-series Station 11, with warm optimism. “I’m obviously very grateful and lucky to have these opportunities,” he smiles. “And it’s been my own way of making it, you know?” OLD OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 23 JULY. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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TOTAL FILM GETS THEINSIDE STORY ON WHAT IF…?, MARVEL’S AMBITIOUS NEWANIMATED SERIES WHICH IS SET TOMIX-UP THE UNIVERSE WITH NEWTWISTS ON ITS BIGGEST CHARACTERS. WORDS PAUL BRADSHAW
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hat if Peggy Carter took the Super Soldier Serum instead of Steve Rogers? What if T’Challa became Star-Lord? What if… zombies? If you’ve got at least one other superhero fan in your life, the chances are you’ve already had some of the same late-night, long-drive conversations that went on behind the scenes of What If…?, Marvel Studios’ latest foray into animation and one of the most ambitious new deep cuts in the MCU – an all-star anthology series that deliberately messes up the multiverse just for the fun of it. “I remember when we were first talking about doing Avengers Assemble,” Marvel’s vice-president of production and development, Brad Winderbaum, tells Total Film. “I heard Kevin [Feige] talk about the strange alchemy of mashing characters together that don’t seem to belong in the same story – this idea of asking how those personality types interact, and how they challenge each other and force each other to grow. One night I just started texting Kevin after a drive home and we just started going back and forth about What If…?. By the next day, we were talking about these bespoke individual character studies, these Twilight Zone episodes that take a story you know and tweak one little detail to watch the ripple effect.” With 13 volumes of What If…? comic books to fall back on for story ideas (featuring storylines such as, ‘What if Iron Man had been a traitor?’, ‘What if Wolverine became the Punisher?’, ‘What if The Fantastic Four were Soviets?’), Winderbaum decided to start again from scratch and use the concept as a new opportunity to delve more deeply into the MCU. But before he could do any of that, he had to build a whole new animation studio from the ground up... TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
“Marvel has a thing where they never tell you what you’re meeting about until you’re in the conference room and after you’ve signed the NDA,” laughs A.C. Bradley, invited in for a meeting after her work writing for Guillermo del Toro’s Trollhunters: Tales Of Arcadia and 3Below. “So I was sitting there and they went, ‘We want to do a cartoon.’ That’s cute, I thought…” Asked to pitch ideas for different What If…? scenarios, Bradley accidentally ended up spoiling several major plot points for movies that hadn’t even been announced yet – a blunder that wound up getting her the job. “The next day I had a call and they said, ‘If you can guess what we’re doing in the big MCU, you can definitely handle the weird MCU.’ And that was back in October 2018.” For Bradley, who was used to working with a small team at an established animation studio at DreamWorks, it was a steep learning curve – not least because she kept on guessing far too much about the things she wasn’t supposed to know about yet. “My first week, I wanted to do Jane Foster Thor and I was told no,” she remembers. “I went into a whole feminist rant of why these characters are important and why they’re necessary and why a woman needs to be able to wield the hammer and then they were like, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna do it in live-action…’ I also pitched old-man Steve and Professor Hulk… this was before they let me see Endgame!” Also struggling to adapt to Marvel’s famously bottomless budget, Bradley started out trying to keep her scripts as simple as possible – still stuck in the mindset of worrying about how it was all going to be animated. “Early on I was very politely taken aside by my line producer,” she laughs. “He just
WHAT IF. .?
CLOSE WATCH The Watcher’s god-like presence looms over What If…? (above). SWAN SONG Chadwick Boseman came in to voice T’Challa only weeks before his tragic death (below).
said, ‘Marvel doesn’t want you to be in a box. They don’t want these stories to be constrained by budget. Go nuts. They’ll figure out the bill later…’” Freed from the usual production constraints and actively encouraged to “go weird and have fun”, Bradley and her writing team came up with over 30 different ideas – eventually whittled down by Feige to comprise a debut season that spanned all Phases, most major superheroes and at least a dozen different tones across a set of selfcontained episodes that each imagines a new alternate timeline branching off from a single changed moment. “It was incredibly liberating,” says Winderbaum. “Storytelling in the MCU means you’re part of a shared tapestry. We’re all playing with the same toys. But with this there’s a lot more opportunity because you’re no longer concerned about what comes next. You can blow it open, you can ruin things, ruin the universe, you can kill beloved characters, and you can challenge people in unexpected ways.” All of which means we’re getting a zombie Captain America. Pitched as
which is where three of our movies all kind of happened in the same period of time. So we imagined Nick Fury running around dealing with all these events that then lead to the Avengers movie, and we spin that out in this murder-mystery style…” Stressing that the ‘what if?’ isn’t half as important as the ‘then what?’, Bradley’s main challenge for each episode was to make sure the story was driving a deeper understanding of the characters – not just having fun with zombies and murder mysteries, but giving more room for the heroes and villains of the MCU to express a different side of themselves. The newly imagined realities of What If…? might be made up, but the people in them live on in the main multiverse – loading the show with a sense of responsibility that isn’t lost on anyone. “I’ve always loved Tony Stark,” says Bradley. “I saw the first Iron Man movie when I was 22, and I had a hangover. I saw it at The Arclight in Hollywood with a buddy of mine, and after the movie we walked down to In-N-Out Burger and I was like, ‘This is what I
a dark comedy horror in the middle of a reimagined version of The Winter Soldier, the MCU’s first step towards acknowledging the Marvel Zombies comic series is just one episode among many that pushes the MCU into completely new territory. “Our episodes are either darker or lighter than a traditional Marvel movie, and we also have a couple of straightup tragedies,” teases Bradley. “We have an episode that’s like a political thriller. We’ve got a dark Doctor Strange episode that’s like a tragic love story. One of them is just me wanting to goof off and relive my favourite movies as a kid. Can’t Hardly Wait was a touchstone… I can’t imagine any other point in my career when I’m going to get to write one of those National Lampoon crazy party movies…” “Then we have a great Agatha Christie episode,” chips in Winderbaum, everyone eager to talk about their favourite moment and all finding it impossible to pick just one. “It takes place in this obscure point of detail that only hardcore fans know called ‘Fury’s Big Week’,
want to write.’ This was the stuff that I’d been trying to figure out. It’s Die Hard meets Wes Anderson, with all this character work put into it. So when we knew we’re going to do an Iron Man episode I was like, ‘That’s mine. I’m writing that one’. For me, the most interesting parts of the character is his love of Pepper. He’s not a James Bond lothario. He has this relationship with Pepper and she always comes across as a woman of agency, of her own power. I always love the fact that the driving force behind Tony is this need to fix everything, but it’s also her. That episode is very close to my heart.” As protective of her characters as Bradley was, it helped that she was able to lean on practically every original actor in the MCU coming back to voice their roles. “We tried to respect the fact that these guys and women knew their characters better than we did,” she grins, reeling off a list of her favourite experiences in the recording booth working with Hayley Atwell (“I will follow that woman into war”), Samuel L. Jackson (“I got to feed Natasha’s lines to him. That’s one of those things
‘I ALSO PITCHED OLD-MANSTEVEAND PROFESSOR HULK… THIS WAS BEFOREA.C.THEYBRADLEY LETME SEE ENDGAME!’
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that you didn’t even know to put on your bucket list…”) and Cobie Smulders (“Frickin’ delightful”), as well as joking with Karen Gillan about Nebula’s new alt-reality head of hair. Poignantly, the series will also mark the last released performance of Chadwick Boseman, who returned to voice T’Challa just weeks before his death in 2020. “To imagine that he would devote any of that time to us… I think it’s incredibly humbling,” says Winderbaum, going on to talk about the weight of an episode that starts off seeing T’Challa kidnapped by the Ravagers instead of Peter Quill, before building to a story about “how one person can influence an entire society, an entire culture. How just being there changes the DNA of a place.” New to the MCU line-up is Jeffrey Wright as Uatu, aka The Watcher – a god-like narrator who bookends each episode with a perspective Bradley compares to the 2015 viral video of a rat dragging a slice of pizza down a set of subway steps. “At no point did any of us want to take that rat home and make it our pet,” she laughs. “We were just kind of like, ‘Look at that little sucker
animator Bryan Andrews as the series director, What If…? rounded out its creative team with someone who really understood action – as well as adding another die-hard fan who was all too eager to start geeking out over getting the keys to the whole MCU. “On Samurai Jack and Primal, there was never a script, we were writing it as we were drawing it. But this is Marvel…” laughs Andrews. “We basically approached each episode like a movie. We were able to use a lot of little tricks – whether that’s playing with focal depth, or lensing, or atmosphere – adding all these things to try to make it feel so much more than just a painted cell on a flat background.” Capturing the bombast of Captain Carter riding the Hydra Stomper into a crowd of Nazis as well as the nuances of Doctor Strange’s personal tragedy, the real challenge for Andrews’ team came when they had to match moments from the movies – as well as in animating the subtle characteristics of actors that audiences have been living with on screen for decades. “It was all challenging,” laughs Meinerding. “The idea of not only
go. Good job, you!’ And that’s the way The Watcher views humanity.” While Bradley looked to the original films and cast for inspiration, Marvel’s creative director, Ryan Meinerding, was developing ambitious visual ideas for the show’s design – drawing on J.C. Leyendecker illustrations, Norman Rockwell paintings and American travel posters of the ’40s and ’50s. “We were looking at how to make the characters stylised and interesting without making them look like every other superhero cartoon that’s ever existed,” says Meinerding, explaining how he wanted to draw from his own iconic design work across two decades at Marvel as well as actively pushing away from it. “We weren’t just making big jaws and broad shoulders, we were trying to create monumental figures, almost like sculpture. It’s not pushing proportions to the point where we’re getting really thin ankles or huge hands either, we’re trying to keep our characters feeling like people, but elevated people… like superheroes!” Hiring veteran Marvel artist and long-time Genndy Tartakovsky
translating existing characters into animation, but also twisting them, and taking these bigger swings on each episode. Just the volume of characters is also challenging. Then we have all the genre bending and going in and out of the films. The notion of what it takes to make that world feel as comprehensive and as real as the MCU means you’re baking 10 years’ worth of creation into one season of an animated series. It was a lot!” Throwing away enough great ideas for a second season before she even started on the first, the potential for Bradley to keep on mining different areas of the MCU is practically limitless – as long as Marvel is happy to keep on having the same geeky conversations as its audience. “I love these characters more than anything,” smiles Bradley. “My favourite thing is stepping behind them and seeing what makes them tick. We were allowed to go in so many directions to do that, but, y’know, anything can happen in a multiverse…”
‘WE WEREN’T JUST MAKING BIG JAWS AND BROAD SHOULDERS, WE WERE TRYING TOCREATE MONUMENTAL FIGURES’ RYANMEINERDING
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WHAT IF…? SEASON 1 IS AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON DISNEY+ FROM 11 AUGUST.
WHAT IF. .? DESIGNING THE MCU
Ryan Meinerding, head of visual development at Marvel Studios,on what it takes to keep the MCU looking its best.
CAPTAIN CARTER One of the stories in What If…? puts Peggy Carter in Steve Rogers’ place (le) DARK TURNS What If…? puts wellknown MCU characters in new situations (below)
You’ve driven the design on almost every Marvel movie since Iron Man. How challenging is it to make so many varied films all look like they belong in the same universe? Everything we do is challenging, because we’re always pushing the bar. I love these characters, and my job is just to find the thing about them that other people will love and try to translate that into a visual that fits the story and the director’s vision. The truth is though, Kevin [Feige] is always our true north. Did you enjoy turning Captain America into a zombie for What If…? I did! I designed Cap’s costume, Cap’s helmet and Cap’s shield for the films, so to translate all that into an animated zombie world has just been super fun and compelling for me. I used to do animated stuff before I started working at Marvel so being able to play in that sandbox is just amazing. Twenty-three years in, what’s the best part of the job? I like being able to push things in new directions. Every time I start a new project I’m super-excited about the idea of exploring an entirely new world or a new multiverse. The real fun is just in going on that ride with characters that you love. PB
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REBECCA HALL has had a very good year – professionally and personally – despite lockdown. As she stars in psychological horror The Night House, she tells Total Film about reckoning with her own past, realising a long-awaited dream, and haunted bread… WORDS JANE CROWTHER PORTRAIT MOLLY CRANNA
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’m working towards ‘proud’…” muses Rebecca Hall down the line from her home in New York. She pauses, her switch in attitude almost perceptible through the static. “No, I am proud – immensely proud,” she determines. “I’m not working towards it, I am. I’m also mostly surprised. I do look back and it’s a bit shocking that we managed to get through everything we did.” The prolific actor is reflecting on the last couple of years, in which she had her first child, made her first horror and wrote and directed her first film. Add to that the lockdown that stalled the film industry and Hall still managing to star in one of 2021’s biggest blockbusters that proved audiences still wanted cinemas; bowing her debut film to great acclaim at virtual Sundance earlier this year; and seeing her latest movie actually make it to the big screen this summer, and – well, yes, she should be pleased with herself. Perhaps it’s the British disinclination for showing off that’s tempering her self-celebration – with her precise English diction, her lineage from her directing-legend father, Sir Peter Hall and description of the Covid crisis as “everything going tits up”, Hall is very much a UK success story. But she’s also always walked with her feet in two worlds. She grew up with dual UK/US citizenship thanks to her mother, opera singer Maria Ewing. With an innate ear for an American accent and a stacked CV glittering with blockbusters and iconic directors, the 39-year-old also moves in Hollywood circles, now residing in the States with her actor husband, Morgan Spector, and their toddler daughter. Duality is something that works well for her – she can comfortably portray strong and sensual as well as weak and anxious, and her choice of work shows an appetite for exploration, having worked on projects and genres as diverse as Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Town, Christine, Please Give, The BFG, and Godzilla Vs. Kong. Though, she says with disarming honesty, not everything she’s done has been work to shout about. “Acting’s funny,” she laughs. “You sign up to something you think is going to be great, and then often you see the thing, and it’s so far away from the thing you imagined. It can be quite bruising, you know?”
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SPOTLIGHT Frank, eloquent and self-aware, Hall seems to have reached a ‘no BS’ stage of life and during our chat is open about the place she’s got to with unpicking her own racial background, her creative needs and her ambitions. “I’ve had a better hit rate than a lot of people with this,” she admits of her career so far. “There’s a lot of films that I’m very proud of as an actor, and the film in general. There’s tonnes of films that I’ve been in that I think are really good. I suppose I just wanted a bit more of something, which was really about getting behind the camera.”
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earing three hats while making her latest film was the way to get to a decades-long dream of getting behind the camera to direct. In The Night House, she stars as a woman who’s just lost her husband to suicide and suspects the bumps in the night in the home he built might be supernatural, and Hall (who’s in pretty much every scene) found herself prepping for her directorial debut, Passing, while juggling the demands of carrying a film and being a new mother to an eight-month-old. “It was a particularly crazy year of my life. I had a baby. I had six months off, and then shot Godzilla Vs. Kong, and then I shot Tales From The Loop, and then I shot The Night House, and then I shot Passing, all before my baby turned one, which was kind of insane,” she admits. “There’s a hilarious photograph of me that my husband took, and I’m nursing my baby and also storyboarding Passing on a break from The Night House. You really have to turn yourself up to make sure that you’re carrying the whole thing, and delivering it, and landing all the beats as much as possible. It’s literally doing all the heavy lifting. On a film like Godzilla Vs. Kong, the monsters are doing the heavy lifting. You’re just standing on the sidelines, cheering!” Attracted to the project for its “bold exploration of grief” and the opportunity for genre to address ideas indirectly with metaphor, Hall hopes that a film she describes as a “damn good scare in a house in the woods” will also promote conversation around pre-existing ideas and notions about onscreen violence towards women. “She doesn’t get out of the house,” she says of her character, “and she doesn’t run away screaming, she runs into it. Which is such an unusual idea and inversion of this trope.” Her next film out of the gate, is far more personal. Based on the 1929 Harlem renaissance novella by Nella Larsen, Passing tells the story of two Black friends who live very different lives when one them chooses to pass as white. Hall read the book at a key point in her life and wrote a screenplay adaptation almost immediately, but it took her a decade to get the project to the point of shooting. “I spent a lot of time in America as a child, and with that came a sort of different reckoning with racism in this country, because I don’t think you can spend any time in this country without seeing it, and looking at it, and thinking about it,” she explains. “The book came to me at a point of my life where I was done not talking about my African-American heritage, and I was trying to understand it, because it had honestly been quite obscured from me. I began to understand that what my grandfather must have done was white-passing when he married my grandmother. But I didn’t have a full understanding of that concept. “In my twenties, if there were conversations going on about anything like this, I would start to say, ‘It’s my belief
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NEW DIRECTION Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson star in Hall’s first directorial feature, Passing (right). OLD HAUNT Hall stars in horror-thriller The Night House (below).
REBECCA HALL that my grandfather was Black. I don’t know what that makes me. I don’t know why I’m grappling with all of that, but this is my reality.’ And somebody handed me this book and I was gut-punched by it. Not just because of the personal connection I had, and the context I was able to acquire from reading this work of fiction, but also because I was just blown away by the level of nuance and ambiguity and complexity in this tiny, slim novella. I thought that was so modern, and so fresh, and so provocative – in the best possible way.”
T MONSTER SUCCESS Hall with Alexander Skarsgård and Kaylee Hottle in Godzilla Vs. Kong (above).
hough Hall had long wanted to direct, she shied away from it even with a father and half-brother (Edward Hall) as helmers. “If anything, I think it was a little bit overdetermined in my family that I would be an actor. That narrative started very young, and I would do it, and my parents were proud of me. Theatre is the thing in my family, because that was my father’s love and his brilliance. But from when I was very little, I was like, ‘I think cinema might be my thing. I think I want to make movies.’ But it’s an intimidating thing to step into, and do – for all the reasons that it’s intimidating for a woman to do it, but also because of who my father was. It took me a long time to get the confidence. I talked myself out of it again and again. ‘Put the script in the drawer, Rebecca. You’ll get to it later.’”
‘It was a particularly crazy year of my life. I had a baby. I had six months off, and then shot Godzilla Vs. Kong, and then I shot Tales From The Loop, and then I shot The Night House, and then I shot Passing, all before my baby turned one’
EARLY MAGIC Hall entered a lot of people’s radar for her performance in So what was the catalyst for actually going ahead and The Prestige (below). making a black & white, 4:3 ratio arthouse film? An ambitious movie she chastised herself for as “arrogant”. She laughs. “A combination of having a baby, and growing up, and maybe not being as fulfilled with acting as I had wanted to be, made me realise that actually directing is an act of arrogance, and you might as well just get on with it.” Passing was shortlisted for Sundance 2021’s Grand Jury Prize and will be seen on Netflix later this year, while lockdown saw her and her spouse create a segment for upcoming star-studded anthology movie With/In, informed by the hobbies people took up during their time indoors. “It ended up being actually brilliant and very, very funny, and very silly – so it’s about a haunted sourdough starter called Mother!” Though Hall feels directing is her true calling, she’s intent on keeping duality going in her work, too. “I am fulfilled by acting. I’m never going to give it up. I love it, and it is a part of me,” she insists. And with the great box-office numbers on Godzilla Vs. Kong, we may next be seeing er back in that world. “That was tremendous good fun. Will we see my character back? I don’t know. You tell me. No one’s called me, which is a troubling sign, you know?” She pauses before adding a little British underplaying. “But I heard it did well…” THE NIGHT HOUSE OPENS ON 20 AUGUST.PASSING WILL DEBUT ON NETFLIX LATER THIS YEAR. GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
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The Nest is Sean Durkin’s first film since Martha Marcy May Marlene and it’s well worth the decade-long wait. The director and stars Jude Law and Carrie Coon tell Total Film about a family’s fracturing in the shadow of the Overlook Hotel…
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he Shining is the single most important viewing of my life,” says Sean Durkin, the director of cult thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene and the equally disturbing Channel 4 miniseries about a town shooting, Southcliffe. We’re discussing Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece because Durkin’s long-awaited sophomore movie, The Nest – a riveting drama about a family moving from New York to a rambling mansion in Surrey, England – is haunted by the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel. “I was 12,” continues Durkin. “I’d just moved to New York, and I went to a friend’s house. His older brother had a VHS of The Shining. We watched it, and it was the first time I knew I wanted to make films – just subconsciously understanding direction and atmosphere. I felt like I had lived in some pretty
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tense atmospheres, and I think it was my first time seeing a film that expressed tense atmosphere, and an uncanny…” He smiles sheepishly. “I felt quite connected to the whole thing.” Durkin was born in Canada, spent his childhood in Surrey, and moved to New York when he was 11. When he returned to the UK to shoot Southcliffe in Kent, he was surprised by just how much it felt like home – and he wanted to make a movie to explore that feeling. It took five years to write and develop, but The Nest is worth the wait, emerging as a subtle, slow-burn, painstakingly detailed examination of a marriage and a family coming apart at the seams. Set in 1986, the time of the ‘Big Bang’, when the deregulation of financial markets made London the money capital of the world, The Nest sees commodities broker Rory
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(Jude Law) uproot his wife, Allison (Carrie Coon), and two children, Sam (Oona Roche) and Ben (Charlie Shotwell), so that he might pursue an opportunity in London. Rory is obsessed with status, and immediately secures a ramshackle mansion in Surrey that he can’t afford, and sets about investing in a second pad in Mayfair. Rory wants what’s best for his family, but his incessant drive for more puts them in danger. OK, so he’s not exactly Jack Torrance chasing after his loved ones with an axe, but his toxicity devastates nonetheless. “In truth, I didn’t really like Rory,” says Jude Law over Zoom. “I really liked the director, and I really liked the story, and I liked the dynamic between the husband and the wife and the children. But Rory… My worry was, on the page, he’s obnoxious. And then I recognised that actually, it was a AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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challenge, to try and seduce…” He trails off, and nods when it’s suggested to him that he’s at his best when he’s allowed to layer his nuclear charm over a core of vulnerability and darkness. “The family are not idiots, especially the wife. Allison is a formidable character. She would have been foolish to stay with a guy who was an idiot, who was mean. So the challenge was to bring a gloss to this guy, and a panache that made you understand why they were together, and why she would suffer him.” “Allison’s one of the most complicated women I’ve ever read,” says Carrie Coon, who turned heads in The Leftovers and David Fincher’s Gone Girl, and now delivers a performance to establish herself as one of the best actors on the planet. And that’s no hyperbole. “Sean’s writing is so specific, and the characters are so finely wrought. And it was just a marriage that looked familiar to me. It felt like the most real examination of marriage I had read. It was a nuanced look at the subtle compromises we make, whether spoken or unspoken. And what happens when those unspoken agreements have to be renegotiated.” “I think it’s important to point out that, at his heart, Rory’s a good man,” stresses Law. “You know, it’s that strange and rather sad journey that some people go on – they think to save their family, they have to go further away from their family. For Rory to keep feeding the dream, it’s like he’s literally separating himself from them.”
Marriage Story
The Nest is the kind of thorny adult drama that was a staple of ’70s cinema but now gravitates to TV. Witnessing the minutiae of a marriage examined with such painstakingly patience in a feature rather than a series is rare these days, and that’s just one of Durkin’s concerns. Also under the microscope is how the Big Bang of 1986 fed into the financial crisis of 2008 and how we are all still dealing with the results, and how Allison, hitherto content to let Rory be the traditional man of the TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
house, must wrest power to save the family. Again, this theme of female empowerment chimes perfectly with the current wave of feminism. “The way he layered all that into a domestic drama was nothing short of brilliant,” says Law. “In a way, it’s like saying, ‘Let’s go back to when all this being ‘now’ started. Let’s look at the seed. Let’s look at the root of it.’” Coon shares his enthusiasm. “At the beginning, we see a woman who’s very grounded, and she’s married to a dreamer,” she says. “She’s a very good teacher – focused, authoritative, kind. She’s doing something she really loves to do. And then when they move, all of that is just swept out from under her. She’s put into this society which is arguably more stratified and more focused on status than a traditional American…” She sighs. “Suddenly she’s forced into this more traditional role of a wife – not the breadwinner, not ‘co’, not ‘partner’. And that was not the contract she made with her husband.” “I’m fascinated by characters with duality,” says Durkin of the complexity on show. Both Rory and Allison have their own values, but where do those values meet, and what happens when values evolve? In fact, are those values even their own to begin with? “It’s like: where has that come from?” Durkin says. “Is that dream even Rory’s? Is it just a response to his mother, to show her he’s not in the place he came from?” Status, naturally, plays a major part – for many people, it’s not who they are but who they’re perceived to be that matters most. It must be something that Law and Coon know all about, being actors in Hollywood. “Look, I know the film industry very well, and you’re right to say that there are similarities to the way people operate,” nods Law. “But I think it’s probably the same whether you’re selling property or selling cars or selling shampoo. The
HIGH ROLLER Allison (Carrie Coon) and Rory (Jude Law) move to the UK from the States (above, above left). CLOSE KNIT Coon and Law in their roles (below).
THE NEST
NEST BIG THING Director Sean Durkin prepares for a shot with Coon and Law (above right).
Coon says, matter of fact. “We’re always talking about: ‘What reason this story is so effective is that a lot of the themes are are these written and unwritten contracts of our marriage?’” familiar to most people, whether it’s the themes of how a family operate, or the themes of how we operate as individuals in the workplace, and what games we take part in.” Coon all but rolls up her sleeves for this one. “The reality But let’s finish as we began, by shining a light on The Nest’s is that I’m at the top of the B-list,” she starts with a hearty similarities with Kubrick’s iconic horror opus. The homage, laugh, “and if I’m really lucky, a great filmmaker like Sean like everything else in Durkin’s film, is subtle, but the hints Durkin will see my work and want to work with me. And of genre bring a lot to the drama, adding yet more tension maybe, someday, one of those parts will break through, and to a movie full of it. I’ll be at the bottom of the A-list” – another big laugh – “and “I’m generally interested in playing with genre in nonmaybe I’ll have an opportunity to work on the 10 film roles that genre movies, because I think fear is this very beautiful and come out for women in major motion pictures a year.” intense human feeling, and film is the only art form that really She’s not obsessed with captures it,” says Durkin. “I’m how many people follow her making a drama, and the drama on Instagram, then? “I think happens to be set in a place that’s really sad. I do put a lot of that’s terrifying. You know, it’s stock into the fact I come from a 750-year-old house that is the Midwest, and my people scarier in real life than it is in are working-class people. They the movie. You step into these are sort of that quintessential places, and they’re alive. They CARRIE COON Midwestern attitude which you make noises all day. The doors see in Fargo – stoicism, hard work, you don’t brag, you don’t open in the morning, and then not in the afternoon. The house tell anyone, you handle your problems quietly. I’m very close to breathes. The atmosphere is thick. You feel that much history. my family. And I married a man from Oklahoma. And because “So that’s one part of it. And then the other part is just… we’re both in the industry, we know what the pitfalls are. I’m I always try to follow the psychological state of the character. just grateful I have a partner who has had some success, and For Martha…, I researched the experience of women who escape knows how actually empty it is.” from a cult, and the natural state of that is a psychological Coon’s husband is actor, screenwriter and playwright Tracy thriller – so I followed that. And here, you know, Allison and Letts, recipient of two Tony awards and the Pulitzer Prize for the kids’ journey of being uprooted and put in this place that Drama. He’s seen The Nest and liked it a great deal. And no, it is someone else’s dream… it isolates them and changes the didn’t make for awkward couples viewing despite chiselling family. And just being alone in that house at night, and not deep into the cracks of a marriage. knowing if and when Rory is going to walk through the door – “Probably because my husband and I both had complicated it puts you on edge. So it felt like a haunting.” Spectres and a relationship histories before we met, and because we’re both in splintering family? Be frayed. Be very frayed. JG an industry where we meet very attractive, charismatic people all the time, we have these conversations really regularly,” THE NEST OPENS ON 27 AUGUST.=
Heeere’s Rory
‘Allison’s one of the most complicated women I’ve ever read. Sean’s writing is so specific, and the characters are so finely wrought. And it was just a marriage that looked familiar to me.’
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INTERVIEW INTERVIEW MATT MAYTUM PORTRAITS JAY L. CLENDENIN
I NEVER THOUGHT I COULD CUT THE MUSTARD, PROFESSIONALLY. I KIND OF STUMBLED INTO THE INDUSTRY…
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Dev Patel hastaken everymanlikeability to new extremes since breaking out with Skins and Slumdog Millionaire. Now he’s moving into unexpected hero territory, in upcoming Arthurian epic The Green Knight and his action-packed directorialdebut MonkeyMan. Total Film meets the British actor who still can’t shake the impostor syndrome… SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
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ev Patel is so innately friendly that he’s entirely unruffled when Total Film’s tech issues delay the start of our Zoom chat, even though he’s currently working frantically in post-production on his upcoming directorial debut. Connecting from the kitchen of an Airbnb – he’s based in Adelaide, where he’s editing Monkey Man – Patel looks relaxed in a grey patterned jumper, and jokes about the unignorably large pile of sweet potatoes on the counter behind him. “When you’re in the edit room, all the days kind of blur into one,” he laughs. “I haven’t seen daylight in months.” For a man with an Oscar nomination, a Bafta win, and the names of several of today’s most interesting filmmakers on his CV (Danny Boyle, Aaron Sorkin, Michael Winterbottom), 31-year-old Patel is as self deprecating as they come. “I’ve done a lot of walking in audition rooms, and sometimes failing spectacularly,” he smiles. One audition he definitely didn’t fail was for the lead role in David Lowery’s The
PHONE A FRIEND? The award-winning Slumdog Millionaire was Patel’s first feature film.
Green Knight, an epic, artful take on a medieval poem. His Sir Gawain, nephew of Arthur and knight of the Round Table, decapitates the monstrous title character, who then promises to return the favour “one year hence”. Patel found himself connecting unexpectedly with the headstrong Gawain. “As an actor, you’re always thinking about the films you make, and your legacy and ambition, and at what cost,” he ponders, running a hand through his trademark wild locks. “The sacrifice of not being around your family, and being so myopic in your drive to achieve something and gain whatever that is, that box office or that award or that role, whatever it is. I was reading this medieval story, and being able to place my journey in this industry in Hollywood, with all of its trappings… essentially, you know, being successful and trying to maintain your integrity, and to do it but still try to be a good person.” Patel’s career started humbly, with an open audition for the first season of Skins (at his mum’s behest), with no formal training or experience. Best Picture winner Slumdog Millionaire was his first feature, and he’s since been seen in the likes of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, TV’s The Newsroom, Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie, real-life tearjerker Lion and real-life gutchurner Hotel Mumbai. He also played the lead in Armando Iannucci’s delightful, mould-breaking The Personal History Of David Copperfield. As well as recently shooting the (Coviddelayed) The Green Knight with Lowery (The Old Man & The Gun, Pete’s Dragon), Patel
has been filming his directorial debut, Monkey Man, which has been described as ‘John Wick in Mumbai’ (he’s also starring in it). “It was an insane process to direct your first movie in a pandemic, and have that schizophrenic process of being an actor, all bloody in the make-up, and direct it,” he says. “It was a process of brute force and sheer will to get that movie made.” Time now to reflect on the journey that got him here… How did David Lowery pitch The Green Knight to you? I actually read the script before anything. I was really enthralled by it, to be honest. I’d never read anything quite like it. It was lyrical. It had this brutality, because it was set in this kind of medieval time. “Enthralling” is the right word, because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Like looking at a good piece of art in a museum or something, I kept drawing parallels to it in my everyday life. It just made think about where I was in my life, and my career, at that time. And that was what got me really captured by it. And David was out talking to a whole load of young actors for the role. I was shooting David Copperfield at the time. We got on a Zoom together, and it was this really amazing conversation. He is the most gentle, kind and curious individual. We just got along like a house on fire. Had you ever previously thought about doing a big fantasy epic in that vein? I didn’t think I would ever fit in that world. So to get the opportunity to wear the armour and sit on top of a horse… I never saw it materialising. So I feel really lucky that David looked past me being, you know, an Asian guy, and was just like, “In this world, it doesn’t matter who sits on top of that horse. I’m looking for an energy. I’m looking for someone I can be on this journey with.” When I read it, I was just super-excited that he’d even sit down and talk to me about this. No blond hair, blueeyed… you know, the normal knight that you’d expect.
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How would you describe the tone of the film? The tone of the film is one of the hardest things… [pause] It’s got elements of horror, and touches of magical realism. It’s a kind of journey film, about a young man’s journey to face his destiny. David, when we had our first conversation, he said this phrase which really just caught me, which was: “It’s a young man’s journey to integrity.” That
FIGHTING FANTASY Patel stars as King Arthur’s nephew Gawain in The Green Knight. was like, “I want to go on that journey. I want to know what that feels like.” How would you describe Gawain? I’d say at the start of the film, he’s quite headstrong and cheeky. He’s King Arthur’s young nephew, so he’s got this entitlement. He’s spoilt, essentially. He’s sitting in this great hall, surrounded by these knights at this round table. He doesn’t have much to offer. He doesn’t have a story of his own, his own legend or myth, to really earn his place at that table. You watch this young man be stripped of everything, and he’s kind of put through this trial by nature in a way. What I really liked about the script was that it’s an incredibly physical journey – I could tell immediately that I was going to be put in these environments where I was going to be tasting the mud and the chill of the wind – and also, it’s quite an internal
journey, because he doesn’t have a lot of human interactions throughout his journey. There’s a talking fox. It’s actually kind of like A Space Odyssey when I read it. It’s a journey into one’s self, which is quite amazing. Were there a lot of practical effects involved? Yeah. We went to extreme lengths for some of the imagery that you see. It was worth it, because when you watch it, it’s like – you’re just drenched in nature and all its glory. Most of it was pretty practical, apart from the fox. Though we did have a ferret on set which sometimes stood in for the fox. I loved this ferret. I marvel at these, you know, Marvel actors, and how they’re surrounded by all this green screen and the tennis balls and whatnot. I didn’t have to stretch my imagination that far, to be honest.
IT WAS AN INSANE PROCESS TO DIRECT YOUR FIRST MOVIE IN A PANDEMIC
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Thinking about your legacy, what criteria do you use to choose roles? As much as I hate to admit it, fear is one of the biggest dictators… It’s the force that pushes me to do something, and it also steers me away from a lot of things. It’s this weird alchemy. Right now, I feel lucky that I’m at a stage in my career, and that the industry is at a point where the doors are really wide open for actors like myself – you know, actors of colour – to go in and really tell their stories, and also be invited into worlds we never would have dreamed of being a part of. And that is really exciting. And filmmakers like David Lowery or Armando Iannucci [The Personal History Of David Copperfield], they just look at you as a person, rather than the colour of your skin. And that’s what was amazing. It was just having this conversation… I was almost more hung up on it than David was. For me, the way I perform – maybe because I’ve not gone to a drama school or had a great mastery of technique yet, I don’t know – I put my body through it, whatever the films are. So it’s like: what AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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am I willing to do, to go on the journey for? I’ve just directed my own film [Monkey Man], and on that, I broke my hand, I broke my toe… It was a very physical experience. Every time I go to India, I’m doing these films, and I’m walking barefoot through the slums, and I’m getting some kind of crazy parasite infection or something. You kind of think about, “Are you willing to give your body to this?” And I know it sounds kind of a bit heavy: “Alright, it’s just a movie, mate. Chill out.” But a lot of the times, it’s just if I really think the story is saying something. If I’m thinking of legacy or whatever, what would you be proud leaving the world with?
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Did you ever feel like not having formal training put you at a disadvantage? I’m like, “God, I wish I had the technical prowess of X, Y or Z, whoever it is, and had that kind of formal training.” Just being on the set of The Green Knight and watching… like, Alicia [Vikander] is such an incredible actress, and Joel Edgerton. They have this kind of precision and beautiful voice modulation. Alicia’s incredible. She’s kind of playing two roles. I was like, “Wow. I couldn’t do that.” As much as I try, I’m like me. [laughs]I can’t get away from me. I don’t know if that’s my strength or my weakness, or if that will become my limiting factor. You just kind of break open your chest, and try to let the camera inside. It’s kind of a cathartic experience when it works.
process of extreme learning with everything I do. And that’s why I look up to these directors that I work with so much. That’s a big part of choosing a project. Who are the makers involved? Because my process is really a process of sheer submission. I completely offer myself up, and I’m putty. I’m like, “Mould me.” So the good ones like Garth [Davis] and David, you come out of those experiences, no matter how long or tough they are, feeling incredibly nourished as a human. Slumdog Millionaire was your first feature. Was its success hard to take in? How do you look back on that time? I feel blessed. Because, again, you do this audition. Danny Boyle’s daughter sees you [in Skins]. And the next minute, you’re in India, and you’re shooting this film. And then the film kind of went silent for a while. And now, to my understanding, it had been dropped by the studio. And luckily, Fox Searchlight picked it up. It was a film that could have potentially easily gone straight to VOD at the time. And then, I remember they were like, “Can you come to Toronto?” But I didn’t know anything about film festivals. I just went there in my River Island school shoes and suit, and embarrassed everyone on the red carpet. But I remember going to the Q&As… You’re kind of spoiled, because everyone’s on their feet for like five minutes. Everyone’s crying. And I’m like, “Oh, this is what it’s like for every movie. Wow! This movie thing’s amazing. Everyone’s crying and clapping!” There was this energy in the cinemas after this movie like I’d never felt before. And now you look back on it, and you’re like, “Wow, how lucky were you to experience that on your first outing.” I also felt a lot of my usual imposter syndrome vibes. I’m still in my boxroom in Rayners Lane, so I’m getting on a flight and sitting in business class. I was afraid to even ask for anything because part of me was still like, “Wait, are they going to charge me for this, or what?” And then you’re on this red carpet with these incredibly talented, gorgeous individuals. And you’re like, “What the hell am I doing here?” and all of that kind of played in. I don’t think I’ve quite shaken that, to be honest.
IT WAS SUCH A BIGGER MACHINE THAN I WAS USED TO, I FELT A BIT ADRIFT
You’ve talked in the past about your mum pushing you to the Skins audition: was acting something you wanted to try? I was pretty hyperactive. I probably had undiagnosed ADHD. But in school I was doing anything physical, and especially in the drama class – it was where I could really express myself, and I was getting the biggest laughs. And I felt alive. So she noticed that. But, growing up in Rayners Lane, you think you’re going to have grow up at some point, and focus on something more tangible and real. I’m just lucky that I have my mum, who had this sixth sense on this day to drag me to this casting. Skins manifested from that, which was amazing. And from that, Slumdog – it was kind of this weird snowball from there. But yeah, I never thought I could cut the mustard professionally. I didn’t know how to enter the industry. So I kind of stumbled into it, luckily, in a weird way. So it’s been a TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
FIVE STAR TURNS SKINS (TV) 2007-8
Patel’s career kicked off with the era-defining teen series: he played goofy Anwar, alongside Nicholas Hoult. “It had a rawness to it, which I could really feel,” says Patel. “I felt like I was surrounded by my mates in school.”
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE 2008
Danny Boyle’s phenomenon propelled Patel onto the global stage as an Indian Chaiwala whose life experiences help him win Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? “I was hungry after Skins to prove that I could do more,” he says.
LION 2016
“[Garth Davis] was just a really beautiful teacher, and really brought out the soul in me,” says Patel of the true story of an Indian boy separated from his family and taken to Australia (later finding them via Google Earth).
THE WEDDING GUEST 2018
The closest thing Patel has had to a Bond audition, he broods as a gun-toting pro hired to kidnap a woman from her arranged marriage. Things don’t go to plan as the two develop feelings in Michael Winterbottom’s thriller.
THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD 2019
Armando Iannucci’s Dickens adap is both fresh and faithful. “Being part of a period piece with that much quickfire energy and physical humour was great,” Patel says. MM
Was it hard to know what to do next after that exploded? After it, it kind of went a bit oddly silent. It SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
DEV PATEL was an interesting process. I was dating Freida [Pinto] at the time. She’s incredible in the film, and really had this wonderful, upwards trajectory in terms of work. And I was kind of like the plus-one on all these amazing [experiences]. And I was like this gangly, Indian dude. At that time in the industry, there wasn’t real substance for us, and thank God I went and auditioned for this role, on Marigold Hotel, and he was written as a much older guy. I was like, “God, I really want to be a part of this.” I sent in a tape, and then I went and did an audition with… at that time, George C. Wolfe was the director, and Graham Broadbent [producer]. George really loved what I was doing. And then he had to do something else, and then there was that horrible moment where they were like, “You haven’t lost a role but you’ve got to go in and read again with a new director.” It was John Madden, and he was incredible. That was cool.
DEV PATEL IN NUMBERS
25 $378m Acting credits to his name.
2
Did you soak up a lot of lessons from the more seasoned cast members on the Marigold films? Yeah. They’re just so in their skin. That was what was amazing just being around these actors. It was like being on holiday. You’re in these amazing, old palaces converted to hotels in the middle of Rajasthan in India. You’d wake up in the morning, and you’d see Richard Gere doing yoga on his balcony, and a peacock would run by, and you’d follow it, and your gaze would land on Judi and Maggie literally having tea on their balcony. And you’re just like, “This is crazy.”
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Bafta nominations, including a Supporting Actor win for Lion.
2 Episodes of Skins Patel starred in.
4E ,T N E M N I A T R E T NE ,Y N O S , 4 M L I F , É H T A P
You didn’t have the best experience on Avatar: The Last Airbender. Did that put you off bigger blockbuster material? Yeah. After Slumdog, I didn’t really get anything. When that came around, it was a total no-brainer on the page. You know, may he rest in peace, Andrew Lesnie, the DoP of Lord Of The Rings. You’ve got M. Night [Shyamalan] and Frank Marshall and all these big names. I’m a big martial arts fan, so I was like, “Oh, wow.” I was probably miscast, and the film didn’t hit the mark. It was a really hard process for me because… It was such a bigger machine than what I was used to from Skins, that I felt a bit adrift at sea. I could see that the studio was worried that I wasn’t really performing well. It was quite a torturous experience in that sense where you know you’ve maybe possibly been miscast in something, and you’re not right for it, and I didn’t have any confidence, and I didn’t know how to apply what I now know are my good tools
Box-office take of Patel’s highest-grossing film, Slumdog Millionaire.
Best Picture nominees Patel has starred in: Lion and Slumdog Millionaire (which won).
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as a performer, and the truth I can bring to a part. And it kind of showed. It made me realise that I want to be involved in films where you can really feel connected to the material; it’s more tangible, and you can sit with the filmmaker and have a conversation. I need mentorship. I need teaching, and someone that can guide me through the process of a movie. That’s what I found later on in my career with other filmmakers, and that’s what’s made me improve. You learn a lot from it in a way, from films like that. But for me, there was a lot of trauma [surrounding] that whole experience.
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With everything you’ve learned since then, do you think you could now go into a big-scale comic-book movie or a Star Wars movie? I remember… I don’t know if you’re allowed to talk about it, because you sign an NDA. But yeah, I think everyone did. Everyone auditioned for Star Wars. I remember, I think I was doing Marigold 2, and I sent them an iPhone video from my trailer in India. The next minute, I got a call-back, and I was there, and that was fascinating. I mean, look, I’m not opposed to it. Those movies are a real spectacle when done right. I guess if I fit in these worlds… I don’t know. The alchemy hasn’t been right for me, personally yet. These journeys with people like David, and stuff like that, have really been the most nourishing. I don’t want to shit on those movies, because there are some incredible performers that manage to go off and win Oscars, and then go and do a big Marvel movie. And there are films like Black Panther that culturally changed the paradigm in massive ways. I liked the first Captain America. I thought that was amazing, the action in that. And so it’s just finding the right one. It’s being invited along, and also finding the right one. The ones that I have been offered, which I can’t talk about, haven’t quite worked for me. On that scale, Bond is another one your name is always thrown about for… I don’t know why that is. I guess that I should take it as a compliment. But I feel like hasn’t every young British actor been associated with Bond at some point, I’m sure? The Wedding Guest probably added to that – any time a British actor is posing with guns, that always gets them on the Bond radar… Yeah. That was just an opportunity to go and play with Michael Winterbottom, and that was fun. But, yeah, I don’t know. I don’t pay much attention to that. SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
DEV PATEL You’ve done a couple of films based on real scenarios, like Lion and Hotel Mumbai. Do you approach those roles differently? Hotel Mumbai was an amazing experience. My character in Hotel Mumbai was an amalgam of some characters. I wanted to make him a Sikh, and wear this turban, and kind of talk about that prejudice in that film. But, with Lion, I remember, I just didn’t work for eight months. I turned everything down. I just applied myself to the accent, and put on a lot of weight, and had to grow my hair out, and all of that. That’s what I did – I just worked on it, day in and day out. It really paid off. How did your upcoming directorial debut Monkey Man come about? I grew up watching Bruce Lee films and action cinema, and I became obsessed very early on with Korean revenge films – you know, the obvious, like Oldboy, but there’s films like Man From Nowhere or I Saw The Devil or A Bittersweet Life: Korean revenge film staples that are just incredible to watch. They’ve got a cool guy in a black suit, just inflicting the most amazing, gory violence and revenge and whatever. They have this kind of pathos. And they hit in a different way to your usual Hollywood fare. I just didn’t feel like I fit into a lot of those worlds [of big studio films], so I just started trying to write a script on the side, and chisel away at my own character that I felt I wanted to make. I’m more of an everyman action hero, in a way. An unlikely hero. An underdog. It’s not based on it, but it’s inspired by threads of an old Indian mythology about this Indian god called Hanuman, interlaced into a more modern story. Because as a child, my granddad would tell me all these stories of this half-man, half-monkey. He’d kind of look like Superman to me. If you look at early drawings of Hanuman
NOT THE NICE GUY Playing kidnapper Jay in Michael Winterbottom’s The Wedding Guest.
flying in the sky with a cape, his chest open, it’s very much like Superman iconography. That all just kind of came out in this film. And it’s taken a long time. I’ve been doing it on the fly for like eight to 10 years. Finally we got it to the point where we got it off the ground, and then Covid hit, and I was in India. And it was really just… It was insane.
Y T TEG YB RUO TNOC/NINEDNELC .L YAJ ,YNOS
“He’s the nicest gentleman. He’s the friendliest guy you can imagine. I knew that he would be able to get the character where he needed to be in the darkest of moments, and, at the same time, be so enduringly likeable that the audience would root for him no matter what.” David Lowery
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Looking ahead, do you see directing as a big part of your future? Ask me that question when the movie comes out [laughs]. Then you’ll know your answer. I don’t know. I loved the process, I really did. I think under the environment that I was in, to be able to pull off what we did, I’m quite proud of the team. I really love sitting down with actors, and I can really feel their plight, and I love getting into the design of stuff, and composition, and shots. I really enjoyed it, actually. I didn’t realise how much it’s in me – that I’m actually quite a visual person. That’s how I learn the most. So hopefully the film feels like that. Yeah, I would love to, but who knows?
Did you find yourself drawing on lessons from any particular directors that you’ve worked with? Yeah. I’m going to mess this up, but Danny Boyle said something about being really good at having a plan and then being able to just totally throw that plan out the window when you get to set. That was what I had to do on a daily basis on this film. The ridiculousness of it, looking back, was quite funny. And in a way, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m excited about the film. I’m THE GREEN KNIGHT OPENS IN CINEMAS ON deep in an edit, so it’s kind of hard to 6 AUGUST.
I’M MORE OF AN EVERYMAN ACTION HERO, IN A WAY
DEV PATEL FAN CLUB
talk about it. You have this love/hate relationship when you’re editing a movie. You’re looking at all the footage, and you’re thinking that it’s all wrong. Hopefully next time I do it, it’s a lot less manic, let’s just say that. And not a pandemic.
“Dev is just joy. He just exudes joy, and he’s really fun. But he’s also a really, really good actor and very smart.” Nicole Kidman
“When I watched him in Lion and I was struck by the stillness and strength of his performance – that’s the point where I literally nudged my wife and just said, ‘He’s our David Copperfield!’ Even the Dickens family, after they’d seen it, had told me they can’t imagine anyone else as the character.” Armando Iannucci
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past mastery A BACKSTORY THAT KEEPS MOVING FORWARD… BLACK WIDOW
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(Somersault, Lore) brings to the table: intimate character moments 12A foregrounded in a film that’s still largely a non-stop action ride. THE BOURNE When the story picks up 21 years LEGACY 2012 OUT NOW CINEMAS, DISNEY+ Scar-Jo’s S.H.I.E.L.D. later, Natasha is giving the slip to pal Jeremy Renner General Ross (William Hurt) and goes on a Bourneheading to a safe house in Norway, his standalone movie for Scarlett Johansson’s super-skilled but inspired spin-off mission with where a trusted fixer (O-T Fagbenle) not superpowered Avenger feels like it’s been a long time coming Rachel Weisz. has set her up with essentials. Of - and not just because it’s been mooted since her MCU debut all BERLIN course, it doesn’t take long for Natasha the way back in 2010’s Iron Man 2. SYNDROME 2017 to be sent on the run again, and into Cate Shortland the orbit of Florence Pugh’s Yelena As if the wait hadn’t been protracted often trades on. Instead, it’s a breather, cranks up the tension in this Belova, another Widow with whom enough already, the pandemic has seen a chance to put the spotlight on a claustro-thriller Natasha shares an intensely personal character who’s never quite been centre about a woman Black Widow’s release postponed by connection. Their resolve to destroy more than a year until now, as it arrives stage, and dig into her chequered past. taken hostage fighting for freedom. the Black Widow programme and its both in cinemas and on Disney+ (with overseer, Dreykov (Ray Winstone), a Premier Access price tag). For a film RED SPARROW sends them on a globe-trotting mission that’s kicking off Phase 4, Black Widow It kicks off with a prologue set in 1995. 2018 Jennifer Lawrence in to reunite with parental figures Melina is an atypical franchise instalment. In Ohio, a seemingly perfect family is the Russian doubleVostokoff (Rachel Weisz) and Alexei By necessity, it’s a prequel, Natasha happily playing outside. It’s only when agent ballerina film Shostakov (David Harbour). Melina’s Romanoff’s arc having definitively that pipped Black dad returns home – from a day at the Widow to the post. an OG Widow, and Alexei is Russia’s ended in Endgame. Mostly set in the office so rough they have to evacuate answer to Captain America (in his own time between Captain America: Civil the house – that it becomes clear all is mind, at least), the Red Guardian. War and Avengers: Infinity War, the film not what it seems. It’s an immensely The Marvel movies have often doesn’t have the propulsive whateffective opener, demonstrating the found success by grafting comic-book happens-next momentum the MCU key strength director Cate Shortland
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CURTAIN DOOM
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Their no-claims discount is going to take a hit aer this crash…
characters on to recognisable film templates, and Black Widow cribs from the Bourne films. That imprint is most noticeable in an early fight scene in a Budapest apartment, in which curtains and a tea towel become potential murder weapons. It’s also visible in the car chases, locations and the title hero: a super-skilled assassin still troubled by half-remembered past misdeeds. There are also references (direct and indirect)
Harbour are particularly welcome additions to Marvel’s ever-expanding and increasingly lived-in universe. Pugh’s fierce, funny Yelena is a character you’ll definitely want to follow through the franchise going forward, and Harbour is a blast as the heavily tattooed super-soldier seeking Cap levels of fame. He walks off with the film’s biggest laughs, even if he does have to shoulder the Marvel
‘YELENA IS A CHARACTER YOU’LL DEFINITELY WANT TO FOLLOW’ to Bond. Bringing the comic-book flavour to Black Widow is Dreykov’s acolyte Taskmaster: a skull-helmeted mystery villain whose key skill is being able to impersonate any opponent’s fighting style to use it against them.
TECH-ING LIBERTIES
Despite a two-hour-plus runtime, Black Widow never drags. Pugh and GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
burden of never not wisecracking, even when it seems indelicate. On some levels, Black Widow refreshes as a ‘smaller-scale’ Marvel movie (don’t worry, there are still prison breaks, armoured vehicle chases and aerial skirmishes aplenty) and it has
HANGING ON Rachel Weisz plays Melina (above le), while Johansson adds to Natasha’s action CV (above).
a lot of fun pointing to Natasha’s lack of superpowers (“I doubt the god from space has to take an ibuprofen after a fight,” Yelena quips at one point). But its status as a more ‘grounded’ MCU entry does raise eyebrows in places. Exhibit A: Natasha emerging practically unscathed from a particularly crunching fall from a high building. And some of the story’s more ludicrous tech (including Dreykov’s method of self-protection) and OTT flourishes don’t sit entirely comfortably with the Bourne aesthetic and grim allusions to human trafficking and forced hysterectomies. Black Widow is also content to have its cake and blast it to smithereens when it comes to the violence. While Johansson and Pugh wrestle convincingly with the immoral nature of the missions they’ve been forced to carry out in the past, they’re also more than happy to take out swathes of goons with bazookas and ignore considerable collateral damage when the mood strikes. Ultimately, though, Black Widow succeeds in injecting vital emotion into Natasha’s backstory. Watching Johansson add these extra shades to her character while still kicking plenty of ass is the delight we’ve long known it would be, and Pugh proves just as capable; together they’re electric. If ever proof were needed that Natasha could easily carry her own movie, here it arrives fully formed. Better late than never. Matt Maytum AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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warming signs DEAF-CULTURE DRAMA IS ALL-ROUND WINNER…
It was an unusual prom outfit, but she managed to pull it off.
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OUT 13 AUGUST APPLE TV+ howered with awards at this year’s Sundance Festival, this bawdy, heart-warming coming-of-age tale about a gutsy US teen torn between her Deaf family and her musical dreams is a certified crowdpleaser.
As a ‘Child Of Deaf Adults’, Ruby (Emilia Jones) pinballs between high school and the failing family fishing business which needs her to deal with the hearing world. Director Sian Heder puts some welcome blue-collar grit into her adaptation of cosy French hit La Famille Belier, showing how ‘bullshit quotas’ and rapacious fish dealers threaten the family livelihood. Things get a bit Glee-ful, however, when Ruby falls for choir duet partner Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) and struggles to cram in tutoring for the college singing scholarship she’s long wanted. Still, the movie scores big with
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espite (croco)dire US reviews, director Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts Of The Southern Wild follow-up isn’t an entirely lost cause. Riffing on Peter Pan, Zeitlin relocates the Darlings to a Louisiana diner and Neverland to a wild island, where eternal youth awaits – with caveats. Zeitlin embraces youth’s wildness to a fault: the wayward plot lacks focus. But his DIY emphasis on rough-hewn texture and sensation results in a film of fitful feeling, ushered towards a sneakily moving climax by his and Dan Romer’s ecstatic score. Kevin Harley TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
its fond, hilarious portrait of Ruby’s sweary, sex-mad family, whose theatrical sign language is a joy to watch. Cunningly dropping out the sound in crowded bars, and during Ruby’s big concert, the film dunks us into their frustration and bafflement at her new passion. Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur are great as Ruby’s tough yet tender parents (Kotsur, touching Jones’ throat to ‘hear’ her sing, is delightful). But it’s Jones’ movie (her voice the only clue that she’s Aled Jones’ daughter), her performance propelled by Ruby’s sweet, stubborn energy and soulful tunes. Kate Stables
THE FOREVER PURGE 15 FILM
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he fifth and supposedly final film in the action-horror franchise sees a group of marauders continue to “purge and purify” after time is up, with their slaying of immigrants taken up by racists across the country, and the National Guard then hitting the streets. Its satire of right-wing nationalism isn’t subtle, but after last year’s events, it’s timely (especially as this was originally due to release in July 2020). Josh Lucas leads the cast as a Texas cowpoke who learns to appreciate his Mexican workers. Jamie Graham
EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF TBC FILM
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echnically a Making Of-style documentary, this festival award-winner offers a deeply personal study of an estranged father and son reuniting. As filmmaker Jorge Thielen Armand returns to Venezuela to cast his non-acting dad in a film about his life (La Fortaleza), director Mo Scarpelli (Armand’s life partner) captures off-camera struggles with alcoholism and a constantly shifting power dynamic between the two men. The result unearths layers of vulnerability and fragility in complex, challenging and moving fashion. Matt Looker SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
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ohnny Depp headlines this true-life drama about the mercury poisoning of coastal communities in ’70s Japan – what became known as ‘Minamata disease’, after the city where it originated. Depp, who plays W. Eugene Smith, the maverick Life magazine photographer who documented the horrors caused by chemical company Chisso Corporation, is a bit of an odd fit here. But as in Todd Haynes’ Dark Waters, director Andrew Levitas spotlights this awful crime of corporate negligence with laudable determination. James Mottram
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ecommended viewing for anyone galvanised by Netflix’s recent Disclosure doc, Flavio Alves’ drama tells the fictional story of Tina, a Mexican trans woman living as an undocumented immigrant in New York City. In a positive step for representation, trans actors fill all of the trans roles here, with newcomer Carlie Guevara in the lead. If it sometimes struggles to escape the limitations of its low budget and occasionally flat staging, it remains an empathetic and ultimately moving work that sensitively spotlights the struggles and persecution of a marginalised community. Matt Maytum
OUT NOW DVD, BD, Digital HD ike recent horrors Sator and Relic, Bryan Bertino’s lean chiller deepens jump scares with themes of grief and guilt, throwing in some creepy goats for good measure. As estranged siblings (Marin Ireland, Michael Abbott Jr.) arrive at their remote family farm, their father’s pending demise stirs demons. Metaphors for filial trauma, or worse? Wickedly, Bertino (The Strangers) accommodates both options while maintaining a controlled air of suffocating dread: even if the one-track plot runs thin, its clammy grip never loosens. Kevin Harley
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ost films about migrants and refugees are hard-hitting, heartbreaking dramas, as you’d expect. But occasionally something different comes along. Last year it was Remi Weekes’ imaginative horror movie His House, and now it’s the excellent Limbo, a poetic, deadpan comedy by Scottish writer/director Ben Sharrock. Filmed on Uist in the Outer Hebrides, it follows a number of refugees from Syria and elsewhere as they await official word on whether they can stay in the UK. They wait and wait, with nothing to do and winter setting in; and all the while they’re eyed with suspicion by the island’s locals. “I got my eyes on you, so don’t blow up stuff or rape anyone, like”, a teen warns Omar (a charming Amir El-Masry) before giving him a lift into town. Filmed in a boxy 4:3 ratio, in long, static takes, there’s something of Swedish auteur Roy Andersson (Songs GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
From The Second Floor) to the minimalist shooting style and low-key absurdism. Meanwhile, the warm characterisation, strong sense of place and beguiling intimacy recall Bill Forsyth (Local Hero, Gregory’s Girl). There’s pain in our protagonists’ plights – Omar regularly calls his mother and father to hear how they’re faring in Istanbul, while his older brother remains in Syria to fight Assad – but the pathos jostles with constant chuckles, just as the landscapes are abrasively beautiful. A delightful film that marks Sharrock out as a real talent. Jamie Graham
Omar discovers the only phone box in Scotland still working. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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father for justice MATT DAMON CROSSES OCEANS, MAKES WAVES… STILLWATER TBC FILM
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FRANTIC 1988 Harrison Ford’s American in Paris hunts for his manda Knox doesn’t have a story credit on Tom McCarthy’s latest. kidnapped wife. But it is clear from the off that her conviction, imprisonment and THE SECRET IN later exoneration for the murder of fellow student Meredith Kercher THEIR EYES 2009 A historic murder sowed the seeds for this brooding drama about an Oklahoma makes ripples in construction worker (Matt Damon) determined to prise his daughter (Abigail the present in this Argentinian Breslin) from the Marseille prison she has spent the last five years in for Oscar-winner. ostensibly killing her girlfriend. THE FACE OF AN ANGEL 2015 Hinchey make sure that Damon’s Damon’s Bill Baker isn’t rich, has The Amanda no connections and can’t speak French. blue-collar hero carries some Trumpian Knox case also baggage on his cross-Atlantic journey. inspired Michael But he is tenacious, dogged and good Winterboom’s It’s certainly hard not to think with his fists, attributes that not only true-crime critique. persuade actor Virginie (Camille Cottin) of The Donald as this obsessive to take up his cause but also help him track down a mystery man who might hold the key to his daughter’s liberty. Spotlight director McCarthy skilfully cranks up the tension as Damon – beefier and craggier than he was in his Jason Bourne heyday – entangles both Virginie and her own daughter Maya (a scene-stealing Lilou Siauvaud) in his Taken-esque quest. Yet he also finds time for politics: co-writers Thomas Bidegain, Noé Debré and Marcus OUT 6 AUGUST CINEMAS
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
Bill was starting to think he’d been given the wrong directions to B&Q. dad tramples roughshod over local sensibilities, takes the law into his own hands and seriously contemplates pinning the murder on a blameless immigrant. This, however, is merely a precursor to the kinder and wiser Bill we see gradually emerge – a corrective, clearly, to the erstwhile president’s divisive MAGA rhetoric. Yet no sooner has Bill earned a place in Virginie’s home and heart with his Maya-minding skills and bathroomfixing abilities (Basin Bourne?) than a gigantic coincidence occurs that puts Stillwater firmly back on to a thriller footing. The machinations that follow stretch the plot’s credibility to breaking point, testing the tolerance in a way that could prompt derisive sniggers from less forgiving viewers. Fortunately, Damon’s sturdy presence just about holds it together, while Breslin shows some impressive dramatic chops as the daughter who is too aware of his failings to see him as her saviour. By the end, though, the still waters McCarthy seeks to navigate don’t run deep so much as dry – a consequence, you suspect, of trying to cram too many genres into one star vehicle. Neil Smith SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
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OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL HD oasting a 77-minute “onetake action-film sequence”, this homage to legendary Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi is a tiring slog for both audience and protagonist. With the story quickly set - Musashi (Tak Sakaguchi) has killed the leader of the Yoshioka clan; they retaliate with a 400-fighter ambush the single-take scrap gets underway. Don’t expect slick choreography, though; this is all about endurance. While no doubt an impressive technical achievement, it’s one for genre die-hards only. Matt Looker
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esearch scientist Alma (Maren Eggert, terrific) volunteers to spend three weeks living with Tom (Dan Stevens), a humanoid robot designed FILM to be her perfect partner. Rebuffing his OUT 13 AUGUST CINEMAS romantic overtures, Alma predictably thaws towards Tom, while recognising espite his instantly recognisable style, Dutch artist this as his algorithms adjusting to her M.C. Escher remains remarkably little-known next to his contemporaries. Robin Lutz’s documentary redresses the desires. Writer/director Maria Schrader balance with enviable access to Escher’s letters and sketches. floats complex questions about love, The artist’s words are delivered with characteristic panache humanity and our relationship with technology, but never allows them by Stephen Fry, while the pictures are brought ingeniously to weigh down this playfully incisive, to life using animation. Whether explaining the maths often hilarious romcom, with Stevens behind those seemingly impossible visions or bemoaning delivering a superb performance the crass commercialisation of his work, the doc confirms entirely in German. Chris Schilling Escher to be as singular as his creations. Simon Kinnear
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epic mael LONG PLAYER HITS THE WRIGHT NOTES…
Ron and Russell Mael have all the Wright stuff.
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our favourite band’s favourite band” is how Edgar Wright describes legendary pop/rock duo Sparks, celebrating brothers Ron and Russell Mael, where musical icons – from Beck and Björk to Flea and Franz Ferdinand – wax lyrical about Sparks’ overlooked influence.
While there’s plenty here that fans may be learning for the first time, it’s a doc that doubles as an accessible intro to a band you may never have heard of. Wright digs into precisely why that is, chronicling their journey from starting as Halfnelson in 1968 to their upcoming collaboration with Leos Carax on his Adam Driver-starring musical Annette. With the participation of an extremely game Ron and Russell, Wright gently pokes at the trad music-doc format. Animated interludes are deployed where archive footage is unavailable, while GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
the talking-head credits constantly amuse (Mike Myers, for example, is simply labelled ‘Canadian’). Clocking in at a slightly baggy 141 mins, the film gives a full picture of Sparks as artists, but as people they remain mysteries. That’s likely intentional; part of Sparks’ appeal, the brothers believe, is that fans know precious little about who they are beyond the music. And there’s no question that the songs speak for themselves. Whether you’re a devotee or newbie, Wright’s doc is guaranteed to, ahem, spark joy. Jordan Farley AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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captive audience A STORY FIT FOR ROYALTY…
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OUT 23 JULY CINEMAS, DIGITAL HD riter/director Philippe Lacôte’s unconventional but utterly compelling drama transports us to La MACA, the Ivory Coast’s most notorious prison. Lacôte paints a unique picture: one that fuses his childhood experiences of visiting his mum in the prison - with its open, inmate-run halls and tradition of communal storytelling - with a tightly wound, power-structure-centred plot and a dollop of make-believe.
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On his first night within its imposing walls, pickpocket Roman (Bakary Koné) is forced by the prison’s dying ‘Dangôro’ (inmate king) Barbe Noire (Steve Tientcheu), to regale his fellow prisoners with a story that’ll captivate them till dawn, lest he be killed. He quickly realises he must up the narrative stakes to keep his audience hooked – and a power-hungry gang at bay – so starts to spin his tale into a heightened fantasy of kings, queens and epic tragedies. The way Lacôte effortlessly weaves Roman’s visually splendiferous saga
“...so in the end, J.R.’s death was really just a dream that Pamela had.”
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familiar premise is re-energised in this intense kidnapping horror, in which a stranger abducts two 12-yearold friends, Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey), dragging them to a house in the American backwoods. First-time writers/directors David Charbonier and Justin Powell maintain a breakneck pace, while the child’s-eye perspective puts a novel spin on the cat-and-mouse set-up. But the creativity is compromised by some blatant Shining steals - there’s even a shot-for-shot imitation of the axe scene. Musanna Ahmed
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
around the gritty central setting is as arresting as the richly nuanced characters. Through its inhabitants, the prison becomes a writhing organism. Roman’s story is interjected with singing, dancing and additional embellishment by his listeners. There are also food breaks and the occasional murder, creating a vibrant atmosphere of tangible believability, as its tales within a tale twist and fold with frequency. Shame that the final act is rushed; otherwise, Night Of The Kings is a regal experience. Erlingur Einarsson
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ddie Izzard co-wrote and stars in this old-fashioned, eve-ofWW2 thriller centred on an English finishing school attended by daughters of high-ranking Nazi officials. Izzard is an undercover agent posing as a teacher who’s forced on the run in Hitchcockian fashion when he’s accused of murder. The pace is too gentle to ever quicken the pulse, but the conceit fascinates (the story is based around a real school in Bexhill-on-Sea) and there’s solid support from Jim Broadbent as a helpful bus driver. James Mottram
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et in 1989, Justin Simien’s (Dear White People) horrorcom has more than just killer follicles on its mind as it examines Black culture (and the appropriation thereof) during the rise of hip-hop into the mainstream. To boost her prospects of promotion, music-TV worker Anna (Elle Lorraine) gets a weave… which has a murderous life of its own. The braiding of tongue-in-cheek, OTT visuals and deadly serious themes won’t be to everyone’s taste and there are distinct echoes of 2007 Japanese flick Exte: Hair Extensions. But it’s engaging and entertaining, with hairraising moments. Jamie Graham SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
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id-19th-century upstate New York: farmer’s wife Abigail (Katherine Waterston) is drawn to new neighbour Tallie (Vanessa Kirby); the two become inseparable as friendship and more blossoms beneath the permafrost of their daily lives. Director Mona Fastvold (co-writer of Vox Lux) delivers a slow-burning but ultimately rewarding drama of the heart, where the authentic depiction of 1850s drudgery is well balanced by the leads’ warmth. The obvious comparison is Brokeback Mountain, but World forges its own path. James Mottram
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ombie movies teach us that humans remain their own worst enemy in an apocalypse. This ambitious indie sci-fi drama suggests much the same applies when emigrating to Mars. A refugee family from Earth - sturdily portrayed by Jonny Lee Miller, Sofia Boutella and The Florida Project’s Brooklynn Prince - live peacefully on the Red Planet until they find themselves threatened by violent outsiders. After a strong take-off, it eventually, erm, settles for monotonous meandering. Still, firsttime feature director Wyatt Rockefeller has an eyesnagging flair for (off-)world building. Musanna Ahmed
revenge zest DON’T GET EVEN… GET MADS.
ob clichés abound in director/ co-writer Jimmy Giannopoulos’ feature debut, in which a young man’s (Shiloh Fernandez) attempts to carry the titular dessert to a commemoration of his father’s murky death are complicated by rival gangsters, dirty cops and his mum’s treacherous baking. Clunkily narrated by Ewan McGregor’s benevolent priest, the Scorsese-ish action builds to an operatic orgy of violence as inevitable as the cast, a GoodFellas-Sopranos ensemble headed by Lorraine Bracco. Neil Smith
“I know sweetie, I’m tired of seeing people make puns about my name en mads too.”
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ntertaining and eccentric in equal measure, this offbeat Danish thriller from writer/director Anders Thomas Jensen (Men & Chicken) serves its revenge narrative ice-cold with an authentically Scandinavian side order of existential enquiry.
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When probability professor Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) survives a train crash that kills a high-profile snitch, he is convinced it can’t have been an accident because “the numbers never lie”. Together with soldier Markus (Mads Mikkelsen), whose wife died in the wreckage, and nerds Lennart (Lars Brygmann) and Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro), the unlikely foursome go after the biker gang they believe is responsible. “You get the info,” instructs the slaphappy, quasi-psychopathic Markus. “I’ll handle the rest.” And handle it he does, kicking all kinds of ass while Otto and friends look on in fascinated horror. GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
What follows plays like a bizarre Taken riff with X-Files odd bods The Lone Gunmen. Between Markus’ outbursts of violence and remorse, Otto and co start to help him and his daughter Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg) process their grief, with amusing, surprisingly moving results. Jensen finds time to ruminate on the cosmic nature of cause and effect, exploring our need to make sense of tragedy by imposing patterns on the random cruelties of the universe. It may sound heavy, but with great characters, big laughs and lots of twists, it’s a darkly witty delight. Matt Glasby AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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stripping yarn REAL-LIFE ROAD FLICK WORKS A TWEET…
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Keough and Paige face up to each other in the wild Zola.
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irst-time director Maya DaRin’s slow-burner focuses on Justino (Regis Myrupu), an indigenous Brazilian man living in the city of Manaus dealing with both the everyday drudgery of his job and casual discrimination. When his daughter (Rosa Peixoto) prepares to leave for medical school, Justino develops a fever and becomes obsessed by a strange animal roaming the nearby rainforest. Da-Rin seamlessly switches from gritty drama to magical realism and asks arrestingly big questions about family, community and the heavy cost of modernity. Leila Latif
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
ost of what follows is true,’ proclaims this ultra-playful, raunchy and violent stripper saga at its outset, famously spun from an outrageous, rollicking, larger-than-real-life 2015 Twitter thread that gripped the US.
But this slippery road trip delights in keeping you guessing, as canny waitress Zola (Taylour Paige) is enticed into a Florida lap-dancing jaunt with flakey new friend Stefani (Riley Keough). Along for the ride is Stefani’s short-fused ‘roommate’ X (Colman Domingo), who prefers pimping to pole work; Zola’s ingenuity must keep her alive in what becomes a blackly comic whirlwind of sex work and turf wars. Director Janicza Bravo’s neon-soaked, rap-fuelled, quick-cut snapshot style makes the trip’s twisty chaos a blast, giving it a Spring Breakers-meets-Pulp Fiction mix of menace and goons-with-
guns laughs. But even as the story barrels through its pulse-pounding capers, Paige’s whip-smart performance, full of fear and fury, never lets you forget the terror of sex trafficking, or her determination not to be its victim. Alongside her, Keough’s jiggling agent of chaos Stefani juggles truth, betrayal and panting men, including dimwitted boyfriend Derrek (Nicholas Braun), whose doofus slapstick sweetens the film’s cynicism. Sometimes too tricky for its own good, Zola eventually runs out of road, reducing its Florida-noir suspense to lurid shocks. But at its best, it’s the wildest of rides. Kate Stables
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOY IN THE WORLD TBC FILM
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hatever happened to shy Swedish 16-year-old Björn Andrésen? Luchino Visconti cast the young actor as the personification of absolute beauty in 1971’s Death In Venice. Five decades on, Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri’s melancholic documentary picks up the story. Moving between Stockholm, Venice, Tokyo, Paris and Budapest, it’s a sensitive exploration of the long-term psychological toil on a person that can result from overnight stardom at such a formative age. Tom Dawson
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imur Bekmambetov (Wanted) turns French journalist Anna Erelle’s book In The Skin Of A Jihadist into a propulsive thriller. Unfolding entirely on a laptop screen (á la 2014’s Unfriended), the story revolves around Amy (Valene Kane), a freelance reporter investigating extremist recruitment by posing as a recent Muslim convert on Facebook. Soon, she finds herself talking to Syria-based ISIS fighter Bilel (Shazad Latif) in an increasingly dangerous game. Tense, taut and smartly realised, this Profile is a contemporary, edgy story that never lags or crashes. James Mottram SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
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ess a sequel to 2002’s Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron than a feature-length re-do of the TV series (Spirit Riding Free) it inspired, this Black Beauty-style story of a girl and her mustang initially seems as out of place on the big screen as its transplanted heroine feels in her new frontier surroundings. Still, as plucky Lucky (Instant Family’s Isabela Merced) sets out to thwart Walton Goggins’ gang of nefarious rustlers, the film gradually musters a rambunctious charm, bolstered by Jake Gyllenhaal and Julianne Moore’s starry vocal cameos. Neil Smith
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choes of An American Werewolf In London and Dracula raise expectations overly high for writer/director Chris Baugh’s indie vampire riff, a fitfully shocking but slow, awkward mish-mash of horror-comedy and father-son drama (Nigel O’Neill and Jack Rowan lead the cast). A cairn sits near rural Irish pub the Stoker (ahem); when its rocks are disturbed, something nasty emerges to terrorise the tipsy locals… eventually. Draggy pacing and deadened oneliners dilute the tension and wit, though if you want blood you’ve certainly got it: bleeding eyeballs and weaponised lower legs provide playfully gory pleasures. Kevin Harley
kill bill A STINE-TINGLING TRILOGY OF TERROR…
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ased on one of Germany’s biggest kids’ books (Gerdt von Bassewitz’s Little Peter’s Journey To The Moon), this charming but ultimately forgettable tooner tells the story of Pete, who sets off to the moon to rescue his little sister Anne from the dastardly Moon Man. The animation and creature design are impressive, particularly in some of the more surreal moments, but there’s something a little familiar and predictable about it all. There’s a good chance that tiny viewers will be enraptured, but it may not crater lot of interest among accompanying grown-ups. Leila Latif
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oosebumps aside, author R.L. Stine’s most famous series is Fear Street. Aimed at teenagers, each book offers a new story set in the fictional town of Shadyside, Ohio, with more than 80m copies shifted since the publication of the first novel, The New Girl, in 1989.
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But where there have been adaptations of Stephen King’s laundry list, we’ve waited 32 years for a Fear Street movie… and like buses, now three come along at once. Fear Street Part 1: 1994 is set – duh – in 1994, as a gang of teens led by Deena (Kiana Madeira) and her ex Sam (Olivia Scott Welch) band together to take on a masked killer (among other menaces). Part 2: 1978 offers more stalk ‘n’ slash in the kind of summer camp where Jason Voorhees likes to ki-ki-kill, with Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink making a likeable Final Girl as Ziggy. And Part 3: 1666 travels back in time three-andGAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
a-half centuries to see what became of teenager Sarah Fier (Madeira again) – the key to why Shadyside has notched up a higher body count than Midsomer. Peppily directed by Leigh Janiak (2014’s Honeymoon), the movies pay tribute to Wes Craven’s Scream, the slasher films of the late ’70s and ’80s and, er, Terrence Malick’s The New World (2005), respectively. They’re fun, surprisingly gory and a tad repetitive (especially 1978), with the standout, by some distance, being 1994 – vibrant, intense, and boasting a suitably killer ’90s soundtrack (Cypress Hill, Soundgarden, Garbage...). Jamie Graham
No less shocking than the killer is Sadie’s treatment of those classic Nike Tailwinds. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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festival winner LOST WEEKENDS FINALLY REDISCOVERED…
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ong-neglected history sings out loudly to today in this rapturous concert movie. In 1969, the same summer as the much-raked-over Woodstock, 300,000-plus people attended the free Harlem Cultural Festival over six weekends. Archived for 50 years, the footage is here reassembled by crate-digging director Ahmir-Khalib ‘Questlove’ Thompson (of The Roots) as a timely snapshot of Black expression, framed within its historical contexts for maximum depth and punch.
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Performers recall the joy of witnessing “a sea of Black people”, there to enjoy a mouth-watering line-up of artists honouring Black music’s roots - soul, gospel, R&B, jazz, funk. As a concert movie, it rules. Alongside B.B. King, Mavis Staples, Mahalia Jackson and others, a young Stevie Wonder seems fit to burst with fresh-blossoming talent. Attacking the piano and making every word count, Nina Simone commands attention. And the electrifying surge for Sly Stone
Summer Of Soul is a cinematic festival of Black music.
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anish director Jeanette Nordahl’s auspicious feature debut follows 17-year-old Ida (Sandra Guldberg Kampp) who, after her mother dies in a car crash, goes to live with her aunt Bodil (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and three grown-up sons. At first the family seems slightly dysfunctional; turns out that’s only the half of it… Low-key lighting enhances the sense of foreboding in a movie driven by mood and character rather than plot. Some scenes will leave you reading between the lines; others particularly the climactic ones - will leave you shaken. Alex Clement
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
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raises goosebumps, particularly for gig-starved Covid-era viewers. Yet Summer is more than mere gig nostalgia. Commentators uphold the need for music that unifies in choppy times, fleshed out by Questlove with reference to Nixon, Martin Luther King, heroin and more. And modern viewers anatomise the festival’s seismic impact. “The power of music is to tell our own stories,” says Lin-Manuel Miranda. Profound and stirring, this is one story that needed retelling. Kevin Harley
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his tense tale of a grieving widow (Jules Wilcox) fleeing a psycho (Marc Menchaca) doesn’t bring anything new to the survival-thriller genre. Instead, director John Hyams skillfully sets about stripping the story (a remake of the 2011 Swedish film Gone) down to its most basic elements, transforming this deadly game of cat-and-mouse into something even more primal. Extras find the director discussing ‘minimalist’ moviemaking and how he shot around Wilcox’s broken foot following an on-location accident. Anton van Beek
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exican provocateur Michel Franco (Chronic) kicks the one per cent in the nuts in this stylish dystopian drama, which begins with a posh wedding being overrun as the result of a violent city-wide coup targeting the rich and the powerful. Bride-to-be Marianne (Naian González Norvind) is caught up in the chaos, which soon reveals revolutionary protestors to be just as brutal and ruthless as the oppressive regime they’re overthrowing. Some are going to blanch at the bloodshed – Franco doesn’t flinch here – but this is breathless filmmaking with a political kick. James Mottram SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
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harply observed and grimly funny, writer/director Piotr Domalewski’s tragicomic film finds all the hard edges in Polish teenager Olka’s (Zofia Stafiej) dash to Ireland to collect the body of the labourer father she barely knew. Smart and full of empathy for the stresses on the ‘Euro-orphans’ and their emigrant worker parents, the film’s grey, miserablist Dublin forms a heartless obstacle course for its sulkily tenacious heroine. First-timer Stafiej’s gloriously surly powerhouse performance, equal parts fierce and fearful, makes it well worth a watch. Kate Stables
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ctor/director Mark Webber plays a heightened version of himself alongside his real-life wife (Teresa Palmer) and young son in this poetic meditation on loss and grief, in which the gruelling minutiae of his alter-ego’s slow submission to cancer is juxtaposed with a fantasy alt-world populated by a collection of witches, monsters and angels. How affecting you find the end result will depend to a large extent on your tolerance for Gilliam-esque flights of fancy, not to mention little tykes who babble incessantly. The craggy Welsh locations do look great, though. Neil Smith
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inding himself in a dodgy restaurant’s back room full of dubious characters, hapless nerd Joel (Evan Marsh) asks: “What is this, some kind of support group for serial killers?” It certainly is, and the joy of Cody Calahan’s aptly named horror-comedy is how keenly it understands – and subversively undercuts – genre expectations, as the baddies, led by Ari Millen’s supremely oily Bob, fight back. The cast are great throughout, the gore is plentiful and well executed, and Calahan pulls off some tricksy postmodern moves with panache. Matt Glasby
rawing inspiration from scripter Dana Idisis’ own family, this gentle yet perceptive Israeli road movie focuses on a devoted fatherson relationship. Separated from his wife, middle-aged Aharon (Shai Avivi) has given up his career to look after his autistic young-adult son Uri (Noam Imber), but the prospect of the latter being placed in residential accommodation scares both men equally. Hewing close to its principal characters as they travel through Israel, it’s a wellperformed illustration of how less can indeed be more. Tom Dawson
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irector Stephen Maxwell Johnson heads to the imposing wilderness of Arnhem Land in northern Australia for this considered Outback western. Simon Baker (The Mentalist) stars as Travis, a former WW1 sniper turned bounty hunter who’s recruited to quell an escalating guerrilla war led by Sean Mununggurr’s Aboriginal rebel. While it’s not quite as compelling as the recent Sweet Country, with some portrayals verging on caricature, Johnson captures the ensuing violence effectively, and treats the indigenous storyline with real sensitivity. James Mottram
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etween its lashings of sex and soapy twists, Ventura Durall’s Spanish psychodrama lacks a story strong enough to sustain interest. Offerings of atonement provide a thematic through line as Violeta (Anna Alarcón), a tightly wound therapist and mother, finds herself revisiting traumatic past heartbreaks when an ex-lover suddenly reappears in her life. Alarcón’s focused portrait of pinched emotion aside, Durall’s emphasis on unresolved feelings too often lapses into melodramatic vagaries. When someone shouts, “I don’t get it, Violeta,” it’s hard not to concur. Kevin Harley AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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spot on THE COMEDY THAT NEVER GROWS OLD…
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oward Hawks’ hilarious battle-of-the-sexes opens with prissy palaeontologist David Huxley (Cary Grant) just a day away from completing the Brontosaurus skeleton he’s been putting together for years and marrying his controlling fiancée. What he doesn’t count on, however, is an encounter with “flutter-brained vixen” Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn), who turns David’s world upside-down by embroiling him in a plan to deal with the tame leopard (the titular Baby) she’s saddled with.
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Golden Age Hollywood legends would always hunt in packs.
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ne of the quintessential ‘women’s pictures’ from Golden Age Hollywood, this Freudian melodrama sees Bette Davis on magnificent form as bullied ‘ugly duckling’ Charlotte. With the aid of a kindly psychiatrist (Claude Rains) and a sartorial makeover, Charlotte thrillingly blossoms into a poised, independent woman. So much to savour in this big-screen reissue: Max Steiner’s splendid score, the pitch-perfect supporting cast, the subversive questioning of gender relations, and Davis uttering one of the most memorable closing lines in cinema history. Tom Dawson
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
One unexpected benefit of this particular Blu-ray edition is the opportunity it provides to appreciate the technical trickery used to bring the film’s human and feline stars together on the silver screen. Not only through the blistering clarity of the new 4K restoration, but also in the celebration of FX pioneer Linwood Dunn, which sits among the typically excellent array of extras Criterion has assembled for this unmissable release. Anton van Beek
Unlike Hawks and Grant’s subsequent screwball masterpiece His Girl Friday (1940), there’s no real depth or dramatic underpinning to Bringing Up Baby. Heck, it doesn’t even bother including a single ‘normal’ character to anchor its cast of screwballs to. Instead, this deliciously chaotic comedy has no greater aspiration than making you laugh. A lot. And thanks to the fast-talking, charismatic double act of Grant and Hepburn, as well as Hawks’ unfussy direction, it succeeds brilliantly.
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lenn Close?” Dame Maggie Smith was once quoted as saying. “That’s not an actress, it’s an address!” There’s no doubt, though, that this nerve-jangling erotic thriller helped put Close firmly on the map, even if it was her on-screen dad Robert Loggia who got the Oscar nod at the time. Scripted by Basic Instinct’s Joe Eszterhas, Richard Marquand’s “Did he do it?” asks her and us whether or not boyish Jeff Bridges could really be guilty of knifing his wife. John Barry’s baleful score is a classy bonus. Neil Smith
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1975 OUT 26 JULY BD EXTRAS: Documentaries, Featurees, Essay
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he centrepiece of revered Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky’s career, Mirror is his most personal, perplexing film. Taking place in the mind of an unseen protagonist, it’s a collage of memories and dreams, where colour cuts to monochrome and back, and the same actors play multiple characters. While undeniably complex and challenging, its melancholy mood is also surprisingly affecting, enhanced by the sheer bravura of Tarkovsky’s tracking shots and his tactile images of wind, rain and fire. Essential extra: career doc A Cinema Prayer, by the director’s son Andrey. Simon Kinnear SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
BLU & VOD DVD RAY
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1929 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Prologue, Video essays, Featuree, Short, Stills, Booklet
1990 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Booklet, Commentaries, Featurees, Art cards
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ctress Gilda Gray may head the cast of this dazzling British silent drama, but ChineseAmerican Anna May Wong owns it with her electrifying portrayal of a lowly scullery girl transformed into a glamorous cabaret dancer. The other star is director E.A. Dupont, whose constantly moving camera brings a restless energy and frantic modernity to the film. This stunning Blu-ray restoration is joined by new analytical extras and a clunky ‘talkie’ prologue that was attached to the US cinema release. Anton van Beek
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’m an emotional leper. I don’t feel anything,” states angry young man Joe Beckett (Alfred Lynch) in this curious mix of existential kitchen-sink drama and crime thriller. An early effort from Michael Winner, this occasionally awkward, but never unsatisfying, adaptation of Laura Del Rio’s novel The Furnished Room is bolstered by moments of Joseph Losey-esque directorial flair and wit that suggest there was more to Winner’s cinematic tastes than the ugly violence and crude humour that typified his later, better-known work. Anton van Beek
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1979 OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL HD EXTRAS Commentary, Featuree
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ehind its handsome façade, Bob Clark’s Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper flick hides an appealing streak of eccentricity. Heading a fearsomely accomplished cast, Christopher Plummer plays the ‘prince of detectives’ as a twinkly, ageing matinee idol who’s forever teasing James Mason’s crotchety Dr. Watson. Though the pace lags in places, the fog-shrouded pursuit scenes befit the director of 1974’s prototype slasher Black Christmas. Critic Kim Newman shares an erudite chat-track with crime-fiction ace Barry Forshaw. Matt Glasby
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efore Hardy and Hardy, Spandau Ballet’s Kemp and Kemp (Gary and Martin) portrayed Ronnie and Reggie Kray in this crime biodrama. Much more than a rundown of their crimes, The Krays delves into their upbringing and psychology, anchored by a sublime Billie Whitelaw as the matriarchal Violet Kray. The Kemps are full of verve too, and though some of the period scenesetting veers towards Piranha Brotherslevel parody, this still has true moments of gold. Varied extras highlight the real Krays’ shadow looming over production. Erlingur Einarsson
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hirty-four years before Girls came Claudia Weill’s Girlfriends, about Susan (a delightful Melanie Mayron) and Anne (Anita Skinner), two roommates navigating work and love in New York. Anne, a wannabe poet, marries Martin (Bob Balaban) and becomes pregnant; Susan dates Eric (Christopher Guest), snogs her married Rabbi (Eli Wallach) and dreams of a gallery showing while photographing bar mitzvahs. Comprising wry cringe-com vignettes, this touchstone feminist indie has influenced endless films and TV shows in the decades since. A treat. Jamie Graham
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1992 OUT 23 AUGUST BD EXTRAS Featurees, Essay
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ne of the ’90s’ finest crime thrillers, Bill Duke’s tale of a cop (Laurence Fishburne) who goes undercover as a dealer to bring down a West Coast drug cartel ripples with raw energy and poetic verve. Electric performances from the trio of Fishburne, Charles Martin Smith (as his DEA recruiter) and Jeff Goldblum (as a hair-trigger crooked lawyer) linger, but the stylish noir-drenched atmosphere, politically resonant script and masterful Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg title track (which is contextualised and celebrated in Criterion’s scholarly extras) are what take it to the next level. James Mottram AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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It takes a lot to unsele Officers Minogue and O’Leary…
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maw and order MEET THE COPS STEPPING OUT FROM WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS..
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There are numerous differences between the two shows… is the size of the budget one of them? JEMAINE CLEMENT (WRITER/ EXEC PRODUCER): Yeah, Wellington Paranormal probably costs about a fifth of the per-episode budget of What We Do In The Shadows TV show. But people think their way around it. And what I like that comes out of that is the degree of collaboration between different departments. We’ll sometimes get the VFX people into the writers’ room, which we wouldn’t have in an American show. The departments talk to each other more, which I think is quite good. I enjoy it.
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
WELLINGTON PARANORMAL S1 IS OUT NOW ON DVD/BD/DIGITAL HD. S2 AND S3 ARE AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER.
AIDEM RELZZAD
The pilot compares the characters to The X-Files’ Mulder and Scully… are you paying homage to them? MIKE MINOGUE (OFFICER KYLE MINOGUE): I think that’s just a general vibe that we give out free, to be honest with you. I’ve certainly got the looks of
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What are the series’ main influences? JC: Wellington Paranormal definitely wouldn’t exist without The X-Files. But THE X-FILES the show is a mixture. There’s a lot of 1993-2018 police TV shows in New Zealand. In Things geing fact, when the first season played on David Duchovny. It’s why I get a lot of strange? Starting TV here, it was after three reality police leading-man roles and Karen gets a lot to worry? This could be a case for shows. So going into a fourth would of Gillian Anderson’s stuff. [laughs] you-know-who. sometimes confuse people: ‘On the last show the cops were just talking to A lot of the show’s charm comes from WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS: the cops’ laid-back response to the INTERVIEWS WITH someone about drunk driving, and now they’re being chased by a ghost?!’ supernatural… is that the Kiwi way? SOME VAMPIRES 2005 KAREN O’LEARY (OFFICER The short that got Any favourite creatures that O’LEARY): Yeah, the Kiwis have the ball rolling. show up in Season 2? an understated ‘Let’s get this thing WHAT WE DO IN done’ approach to life, and maybe JC: A definite one of mine is Taniwha [a THE SHADOWS that comes through in our humour a water monster], a Maori native legend. 2014 O’Leary and little bit as well. We never go too big, Minogue’s cops because it might be embarrassing, show has become a hit make their debut as The and that would be terrible. with all ages. Do you hear that the officers called from people who watch? to chez vampire. KO’L: Oh yeah. When I go to drop my son off at school, all the kids at school talk to me about the show, but then also their parents do as well. And they do watch together, which is nice! Tara Bennett
V’s What We Do In The Shadows isn’t the only spin-off from the 2014 vampire mock-doc of the same name. Another Taika Watiti/ Jemaine Clement brainchild, Wellington Paranormal follows the POV not of the creatures of the night, but the cops going after them…
MAKING OF
different league THE GAME PLAN FOR S2 OF AWARDS MAGNET TED LASSO…
AWARDS, SCHWARDS
One of the best TV debuts of 2020, Ted Lasso follows the eponymous American football coach (played by Jason Sudeikis, who also exec produces), who’s hired to bolster the fortunes of English footy team AFC Richmond. S1 scooped an armful of awards, but heightened expectations for S2 haven’t affected story plans, says co-creator/ writer Brendan Hunt (who also plays Coach Beard). “We were able to just keep making the show and just write the story we wanted to write, and that’s for the best,” he says. “The first season we wrote without anyone blowing smoke up our asses and that seemed to work out all right!” [laughs]
MENTAL HEALTH NOTES
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With Beard as his BFF/assistant coach and a new support circle in London, Ted should be riding high, right? Maybe not; there’s unfinished emotional business on the pitch, reveals Hunt. “Without giving a lot away, Ted is clearly going through some mentalhealth issues that he’s not addressing,” he explains. “In S1, we had a very big episode [‘Make Rebecca Great Again’]
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about that. It would be irresponsible SEE THIS not to continue to explore that, so that IF YOU was one thing we knew we wanted to LIKED… do this season, as a very high priority.” SCRUBS 2001-10 Sweet sitcom from Lasso producer Bill Lawrence. As teased in the trailer, Richmond will PARKS AND get a taste of what looks like Lasso’s RECREATION evil doppelgänger, dubbed ‘Led Tasso’ 2009-15 Knope is by Coach Beard. Hunt says the persona Leslie s positivity serves two functions this season. One Pawnee’ poster woman in a is simply a tactic that Ted employs in town full of oddballs. his “infinite Rolodex of motivational THE GOOD PLACE options” to get his players focused. 2016-20 Wildly different But secondly, Hunt says it’s also a but this callback to the original 2013 Premier concept, aerlife-com’s got League promos that introduced the that Lasso heart. Lasso character. “In the first Ted Lasso commercials, he was that browbeating, obnoxious, intolerant, ugly American, which we rightly decided was not rich enough to draw a series from,” Hunt says. “But it was still awfully fun to be able to go back to that for a few yucks this season.”
BETTER OFF LED?
PSYCHOLOGIST WARFARE
With no football club or adversary able to rattle Lasso’s cool, Hunt
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says they needed someone who could shake up Ted’s comfort zone. Step forward sports psychologist Dr. Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles). “The team starts the season with eight draws, which we know is Ted’s least favorite result. So the decision is made to bring in a sports psychologist, which is a new kind of foil for Ted,” Hunt reveals. “Getting into the players’ heads and finding out what makes them tick, and telling them what they need to be their best, that’s Ted’s thing. So, Ted will have to navigate that Venn diagram with the good doctor when she arrives.”
BEARD TIMES
But what of the enigmatic nature of Beard’s non-coaching life, as teased in S1? Hunt laughs and offers, “The writers’ room really loves imagining things that happen in Beard’s life that we can never actually show because they’re all far too elaborate, and/or explicit. But we will continue to at least drop breadcrumbs as to what else Beard is up to...” Tara Bennett TED LASSO S2 IS AVAILABLE ON APPLE TV+ ON 23 JULY. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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bro wrestling STEPHEN AMELL GETS READY FOR A FAMILY RUMBLE IN HEELS…
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t was pitched to me as a wrestling show,” says Stephen Amell, talking up his new series, Heels. “But it became clear, immediately reading the pilot, that it’s really going to be about the interpersonal relationships.” The Arrow star is spot-on. Created by Michael Waldron (the mad genius behind Marvel series Loki), Heels is a Georgia-set drama of sibling rivalry, as two brothers go at each other in the ring - and outside it. Running his late father’s wrestling business in the fictional town of Duffy, Amell’s character is “wily veteran” Jack Spade, older brother to Ace Spade, the “young hotshot who hasn’t scuffed his boots yet”, as the actor puts it. “I always say it’s like a mixture of Friday Night Lights and The Wrestler,” adds Alexander Ludwig, who plays Ace. But while Darren Aronofsky’s movie saw Mickey Rourke’s fading pro desperate for one last shot at the big time, Heels has a much wider scope. “We’ve got people at different stages of their career,” explains Amell, name-checking some of the key personnel in the Spade Bros’ Duffy Wrestling League (or DWL). “We’ve got Crystal, who just wants to be a part TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
of it. Then we’ve got Diego - a veteran who’s happy with his spot. There’s Rooster, who’s yearning for more. Apocalypse, who’s been there, hit rock bottom, come back up again. And Big Jim, the one who’s wanting to move on.” He flashes a toothy grin. “It’s a nice stable.”
CLOSE TO THE EDGE
In ring-speak, ‘heels’ means ‘villains’, those who wrestle against the ‘faces’, who are the heroes the crowd loves to cheer for. While the outcome of this staged spectacle may often be scripted, the physical toll is very real. “The amount of abuse these people put themselves through on a regular basis is insane,” says Ludwig. “They’re just
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using and abusing their bodies with no backing, no medical help or anything… speaking from experience, after five minutes in that ring, I’m gassed. I can’t THE WRESTLER 2008 imagine doing that for 40 minutes.” Mickey Rourke gets Luckily, Ludwig is good friends one last shot in Darren Aronofsky’s with Adam Copeland – the Canadian ring drama. WWE star known as Edge – after they worked together on the show Vikings. GLOW 2017-19 Big dreams and “He’s somebody I would always call bigger hair, as the because he’s a Hall Of Fame wrestler. Gorgeous Ladies I would call him about simple things. Of Wrestling hit Like, ‘Hey, do I have to shave my the canvas. armpits? Or is that a choice?’ As well YOU CANNOT as more intense things.” All the KILL DAVID ARQUETTE 2020 details, big or small, were vital. “It was Doc following the so important to us that we really did Scream star as he aempts to fulfil his right by the wrestling community.” pro-wrestling dreams. As part of their prep, Ludwig and Amell initially trained with Chavo Guerrero Jr. “He comes from a massive wrestling family,” says Ludwig. “They’ve been wrestling their whole life in LA.” When the production finally got up and running in Atlanta, there were others to speak SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
TV Reaction to the new Total Film cover was predictably enthusiastic.
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DRESS TO THRILL The brothers Spade get ready for action (above le). ALL IN THE FAMILY Ludwig’s Ace with young Thomas Spade, played by Roxton Garcia While the stunt team do a bang-up job (above). in the show, the actors had more than FEELING COCKY their fair share of ring-time. “Everyone Allen Maldonado plays the ambitious got a couple of nicks here and there,” Robbins says Amell. “But I overshot a move on Rooster my first day of shooting wrestling stuff, (above right). where I landed upright in the corner of the ring. And I suffered a compression fracture in my T10 and L1 vertebrae.” Fortunately, it sounds scarier than it was. “I didn’t work for about three,
to – including former MMA fighter and pro-wrestler Phil Brooks, better known as CM Punk. “[He] ended up being in a couple of episodes of the show,” notes Amell, “and was always around to bounce stuff off.”
RING IT ON
T R E B L O C L L E R T N A U Q ,Y A L P Z R A T S
‘AFTER FIVE MINUTES IN THAT RING, I’M GASSED’ ALEXANDER LUDWIG
four days,” adds the actor, who was back in the ring before too long. It’s plain to see just how much the Heels cast and crew love the sport. Creator Michael Waldron “is a giant wrestling fan”, says Amell, while Peter Segal – who directed six of the first season’s eight episodes, with Jessica Lowrey helming the other two – has worked with former wrestlers Dave Bautista (on My Spy) and Stone Cold Steve Austin (The Longest Yard). “I’ve been really fortunate to have a
lifelong passion come alive on screen,” adds Amell, who started watching wrestling on TV when he was a kid. With a brilliant female contingent too – Alison Luff as Staci, Jack’s wife; Kelli Berglund as wannabe wrestler/Ace’s girlfriend Crystal; Mary McCormack as Jack’s no-nonsense business partner Willie - Heels has the potential to run and run, much like aforementioned five-season American football drama Friday Night Lights. It’s clearly caught the imagination of Ludwig, who jumped at playing the superbly named Ace Spade. “This character is such an absolute brilliant mess,” he laughs. “He’s trying to crawl out from under the shadow of his father’s death, dealing with the family dynamics. All I can ever do is do stuff I would be proud of and I would watch and be a fan of. And I’d watch the shit out of this show!” James Mottram HEELS IS AVAILABLE ON STARZPLAY FROM 15 AUGUST. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
PLAYMOBIL BACK TO THE FUTURE TOYS/COLLECTIBLES OUT NOW
There’s more than one iconic mode of transport in the BTTF saga, as Playmobil reminds us with two new sets. Marty’s Pick-Up Truck looks fresh from a twocoat wax by 1985 leisurewear Biff, who’s included alongside Marty and Jennifer. The Hoverboard Chase set, meanwhile, comes with Griff, Marty and Doc in their 2015 threads and lots of futurey bits and pieces, including a Mr. Fusion Reactor (DeLorean sold separately). Float on over to playmobil.co.uk.
POP! FUNKOS COLLECTIBLES OUT NOW
Family flicks are where it’s at this month in vinyl figurines. From Space Jam: A New Legacy we have the Tune Squad, headed up by LeBron James (standing or slam-dunking) and including Coach Daffy, Lola Bunny and Sylvester/Tweety (not sure the latter’s making it out of that box alive…). There’s also their nemeses, the Goon Squad - superpowered sports folks who nonetheless would likely be Jungle Cruise-ing for a bruising from The Rock’s Frank. Steam over to funkoeurope.com.
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EXTRAS LEGO INFINITY GAUNTLET COLLECTIBLE OUT NOW
Thanos had it easy, gathering only six little gems; here, you’ve got to bring together 590 pieces. Well worth it, though, as you can see; popular culture’s deadliest glove (quiet, Freddy) has been rebuilt with some of Lego’s blingiest bricks. It’s meant for display but not static: movable fingers mean you can make it do The Snap (among other less savoury gestures). Lego.com will put a smile on your face.
THE OFFICE TALKING BUTTON DESK TOY OUT NOW
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The UK and US versions of The Office may have deviated in many ways, but they both had their classic staplerencased-in-jelly moment, recreated here as a talking-button toy. Give it a push to cycle through 16 choice phrases from the US show. This prankbased blob of merch also comes with a 32-page trivia book. There’s probably some “that’s what she said” gag to be made about looking up firebox.com, but we’re far too mature for such crudity.
LABYRINTH TAROT DECK AND GUIDEBOOK COLLECTIBLE OUT NOW
OGEL , XOBERIF ,OKNUF , LIBOMYALP ,NATIT
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Celebrate the 35th anniversary of Jim Henson’s flop-turned-cult fave with this gift-friendly box containing 78 tarot-card takes on characters from Sir Didymus (The Chariot) to those chatty knockers (Temperance). You also get a book by Tarot expert Minerva Siegel explaining each card and how to read it. We see in your future a baby with the power, the power of voodoo… no, hang on, it’s a visit to Titanbooks.com. ML AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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he final reveal of industry hypeman Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest was a reappearance of the much-anticipated collaboration between Game Of Thrones scribe George R.R. Martin and Dark Souls/Bloodborne creator Hidetaka Miyazaki. Its precise combat and challenging boss battles are classic Miyazaki, but the action takes place across a series of sprawling, seamlessly connected domains which you’ll navigate on horseback. Playing as an exiled warrior, you’ll need to overthrow six demigods to regain your place in this artfully decaying world.
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play on THE PICK OF THE GAMES FROM THIS SUMMER’S SHOWCASES… MARVEL’S GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY OUT 26 OCT | PC, PS4/5, XBOX ONE/SERIES
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trailer full of saturated colours, constant bickering and ’80s needle drops suggests Eidos Montreal has recaptured the MCU tone better than Telltale’s previous episodic adventures. Taking control of Star-Lord, you’ll get to command the other Guardians in combat, selecting moves on the fly to produce spectacular combination BATTLEFIELD 2042 attacks, while Pat Benatar, Kiss and Iron Maiden blast OUT NOW | XBOX ONE/SERIES out from your Walkman. Outside of battle you’ll have the casting vote in arguments, and make narrative-shaping f Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich decisions. Mass Effect with better gags? Count us in. co-directed a futuristic military blockbuster it’d look something like this just-out release. This is action on an operatic scale: matches now support 128 players on new-gen devices, its shootouts are more explosive than ever, while immense dust storms and dynamic tornadoes only add to the destructive chaos. Alongside the returning Conquest and Breakthrough modes, Hazard Zone promises to up the stakes even further, though solo soldiers will be disappointed to note the single-player campaign is MIA.
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METROID DREAD
OUT 8 OCT | NINTENDO SWITCH/DS
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s the wait continues for Metroid Prime 4, which still sounds some way off yet, fans of bounty hunter Samus Aran can content themselves with this side-scrolling adventure from MercurySteam, developer of 2017’s Samus Returns. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because the idea has been floating around for more than 15 years: the title was announced in 2005 before being shelved. That classic Metroid formula is intact, but comes with a pulse-spiking surprise: Samus will be stalked throughout by a nigh-indestructible robot pursuer. SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
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layground Games’ rambunctious car festival reaches Mexico, providing Microsoft with its first ‘wow’ moment of the new console generation. From its colourful towns to leafy jungles, ruins to volcanos, the setting is rendered in staggeringly meticulous detail and hosts an overwhelming range of activities. The Eliminator offers an inventive motorsport twist on the ubiquitous battle royale, while there are piñata-popping team events and 10-pin bowling minigames besides. Best of all, it’s out in November, offering a tropical escape REDFALL OUT SUMMER 2022 | PC XBOX SERIES just as the nights are drawing in.
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arlier this year, sci-fi action game Narita Boy proved you can still do remarkable things with pixel art. If anything, this dystopian cyberpunk adventure goes one better, combining expressive sprite animation with modern lighting tricks to visually dazzling effect. Though its story touches upon some wellworn themes (you play as an AI keen to escape its human host), its setpieces should more than compensate for any narrative familiarity, as developer Sad Cat Studios blends tense platforming sequences with crunchy close-quarters brawls.
t says much for the growing reputation of Dishonored creator Arkane that its latest game was chosen as the big surprise to close out Microsoft’s showcase. Set in the Massachusetts town of the title, this co-op shooter pits teams of up to four players against a horde of vampires, who’ve left the place shrouded in a permanent night. With a pleasingly diverse roster of slayers and a selection of powerful supernatural weapons and abilities, it looks well up to the studio’s exceptionally high standards.
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MARIO + RABBIDS: SPARK OF HOPE OUT 2022 | SWITCH
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: HEART OF CHERNOBYL OUT 28 APRIL 2022 | PC XBOX SERIES
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et in the exclusion zone around the abandoned nuclear power plant, the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. remains one of the most ambitious and influential games of its time. More survival horror than shooter, it pitched players into a perilous irradiated wasteland prowled by terrifying mutants. Fourteen years on, its sequel has somehow escaped development hell, and as in the original, you’ll be forced to keep your wits about you at all times. Fitting, then, that it should demand plenty from your PC, too – only those with high-end rigs need apply. GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
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brief teaser for a Breath Of The Wild sequel was the highlight of Nintendo’s offerings, but it’s still more than a year away from launch. In the meantime, we have this lively followup to one of Switch’s most pleasant surprises, a dynamic strategy game in which the Minion-like Rabbids gave the Mushroom Kingdom’s finest a healthy shot of chaotic energy. This follow up introduces new characters and fresh tactical options courtesy of the Sparks – Luma-Rabbid hybrids with elemental powers.
rom British studio Jumpship and former Playdead co-founder Dino Patti, this post-apocalyptic adventure initially resembles the Bafta-winning Inside. This time, however, you’re guiding a young family away from an otherworldly threat, which is responsible for the familiar scenes of empty highways with jackknifed lorries and abandoned cars. Its striking debut trailer is a gripping, self-contained piece of visual storytelling in its own right, while Patti’s involvement bodes well for what should be a tense, atmospheric treat. Chris Schilling
AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
BOOKS three more
High Republics, random thoughts, rampages...
MUTHA: STUFF + THINGS Vincent D’Onofrio spews (his word) a series of prose poems on subjects big (taking the knee) and small (cookies), interspersed with beardy close-ups. Revealing, rambling and – in the animalthoughts section, whimsically funny (“I’m a frog. Mind your own business”). 118
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: A NOVEL BOOK
of Charles Manson. Cliff gets so much backstory you wonder if QT might one day shoot a prequel about his WW2 exploits. But the main beneficiaries are Rick and child co-star Trudi Frazer, whose sparring provides the story’s unexpectedly emotional spine. QUENTIN TARANTINO | ORION It’s fun, if wildly uneven, because Tarantino can’t resist showing off. The rust Quentin Tarantino. Finally from their big-screen cousins. And here, occasional experiment sticks, like the chapters written from the perspective of Tarantino delights in making his book bringing his flair and wit to the same, but different. Those expecting the characters in Rick’s pilot, Lancer. Yet a novel, QT has opted not to DK SUPERHERO pen an original too often the prose devolves into nerdy, a carbon copy will be particularly but to revisit his 2019 BOOKS rambling digressions into the deepest blindsided that the film’s iconic climax film, fleshing out the lives of faded corners of Tarantino’s cinephilia. Even is confined to a one-page recap. star Rick Dalton and his stunt double Two characterbefore Quentin inserts his own stepfather Instead, Tarantino favours Cliff Booth in 1969 Hollywood. based A-Zs. The as a character, it’s the most indulgent This is Tarantino’s loving homage to material he had to excise from the all-encompassing DC thing he’s ever done, and that’s Comics Encyclopedia novelisations, that maligned subgenre of film. There’s a bit more from Roman (new edish) can seem pulp fiction where tie-ins often diverge Polanski and Sharon Tate; a lot more saying something. Simon Kinnear dauntingly dense, but dispenses vital clarity on 80 years of infinite continuities. The kid-friendlier Marvel Monsters is a feast of scientific folly, vicarious carnage and IN THE HEIGHTS: SLEEPER: BOOK 1 funky names (Glob, MONDO: THE ART Goom, Old Lace). GRAPHIC NOVEL OF SOUNDTRACKS FINDING HOME BOOK BOOK JED MERCURIO, PRASANNA VARIOUS | TITAN LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, QUIARA ALEGRIA PUWANARAJAH | SCRIBNER HUDES & JEREMY MCCARTER | HEADLINE irst known for posters, Mondo riting with actor Puwanarajah, evolved into a record label for he colourism row that greeted Line Of Duty creator Mercurio STAR WARS: THE soundtrack cultists, draping its LPs in the release of the film version of moves smoothly to his sideline with RISING STORM cover art to covet. This niche but nice Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical casts a clichéd but crisply executed sci-fi book showcases this artwork lovingly. an inevitable shadow over this lovingly comic. Climate wars and conspiracies Cavan Scott grabs Prime entries range from Prince Of assembled chronicle of its journey from provide the backdrop as enhanced the High Republic Darkness’ seductive gloop-green LP to stage to screen. Still, there’s plenty of marshal DS-5 – “weird space cowboy,” baton in a Light Of in a hard-boiled nutshell – unites Dead Ringers’ designs – cool, forensic. authentic emotion in its sumptuously The Jedi follow-up that slows the pace, Elsewhere, Batman Returns’ wintry illustrated pages, even if its second with a sharp-talking geologist to worms further under beauty and Fight Club’s lurid pink sleeve half – like the film’s – feels curiously investigate murder on Titan. Featuring characters’ skins embody Mondo’s bespoke thinking; aimless. Fans will lap up the annotated space-noir art by Coke Navarro, the and duly delivers and Ratatouille’s colour-splashed vinyl lyrics, best read while listening to the result plays like an Eastwood oater a juicy cliffhanger. looks good enough to eat. Kevin Harley show’s original soundtrack. Neil Smith retold by Alfred Bester. Kevin Harley
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BUFF CINEMA CELEBRATED AND DEBATED. BOOSTING YOUR MOVIE GENIUS TO SUPERHERO LEVELS…
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SOUND CHECK A SPECTACULAR TOP 10 BOX-OFFICE BLACK HOLE
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SOMETHING TO SCREAM 4 ALTMAN’S FINEST FEELING ANIMATED
130 KING RICHARD SHANK HOLIDAY SILENT SUFFERING AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
FILM BUFF
INVESTIGATION
IS IT BOLLOCKS?
Film Buffinvestigates the facts behind outlandish movie plots. THIS MONTH SOUND OF METAL
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In this awards winner, Riz Ahmed’s drummer loses his hearing very suddenly. Can you become deaf so quickly? FRANKI OLIVER, AUDIOLOGY SPECIALIST AT THE ROYAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR DEAF PEOPLE RNIBORGUK
VERDICT NOT BOLLOCKS Want us to investigate if a movie scenario is bollocks? Ask us at totalfilm@futurenet.com TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
THE BIGGEST MOVIES… CONTAINING MUSIC ACTS
01 CARS 2006$462M 02 (TERMINATOR) GENISYS [SIC] 2015$440.6M 03 (BOB) MARLEY & ME 2008$255.7M 04 THE (ARIANA) GRAND(E) BUDAPEST HOTEL 2014 $172.9M 05 (THE) QUEEN 2006 $123.4M 06 (AIRPORT) 1975 1974$103M 07 KILLERS 2010 $98.2M 08 DRILLBIT TAYLOR (SWIFT) 2008$49.4M 09 WEEK(E)ND AT BERNIE’S 1989$30.2M 10 (SLIDING) DOORS 1998 $11.8M
ON LOCATION
REEL SPOTS BEHIND THE CAMERA
2021 2018 WHAT? Before they became trapped in a TV world of her imagination, Wanda and Vision courted in Auld Reekie – before she got tossed through a window by Midnight and Glaive. WHERE? Laila’s, 63 Cockburn St, Edinburgh EH1 1BS GO? Laila’s offers Middle-Eastern grub; more appetising than the deep-fried kebab offered in the faux signage put up for the movie. Thanks to Matthew Leyland. Snapped yourself at a film location? Send us the details at totalfilm@futurenet.com SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
O G I T R E V ,TNUOM A R AP ,Y E N S I D
Yes, it is possible for someone to lose their hearing suddenly, as Ruben did. Sudden hearing loss is one that occurs within 72 hours, can happen overnight and often occurs in only one ear. There are a few different causes of sudden hearing loss, certain viruses being one, but for many the cause remains unknown. While sudden hearing loss is something everyone should be aware of, it’s relatively uncommon. For most people, hearing loss comes on gradually and may not be noticeable at first. For most people with permanent hearing loss, hearing aids are the only viable treatment option, but there are also temporary causes of hearing loss such as infection or wax build-up, which can be managed by your GP. In fact, some cases of sudden hearing loss do respond to treatment and some people can make a full recovery if they seek help as soon as they notice the signs. This isn’t explained in Sound Of Metal and was an aspect of the film that audiologists were disappointed by. If you notice a sudden change to your hearing, you need to seek urgent treatment straight away. Cochlear implants are excellent tools that allow some people with severe hearing loss to access sound and improve the clarity of speech. However, implants do not restore hearing, and what was good about Sound Of Metal was that it showed Ruben’s difficulty perceiving the sound from his cochlear implant for the first time – it’s far from being crystal clear.
ALTERNATIVE BOX OFFICE
BOOSTING YOUR MOVIE GENIUS TO GOD-LIKE PROPORTIONS
10 OF THE BEST
GLASSES IN MOVIES Making spectacles of themselves…
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UP
Mark Kermode-lookalike Carl Fredricksen glowers through his heavy-framed, rectangular spectacles, so signature they come with the cosplay kit, along with the brown suit, black bowtie and bottle-cap pin. Now if only we could get a collar to hear our dog talk…
SUPERMAN
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Henry Cavill wears thickrimmed frames in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Tom Welling sports wayfarers in Smallville. Dean Cain goes horn-rimmed in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman. But Christopher Reeve’s tortoiseshell frames in Superman get our vote.
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BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S
Marilyn Monroe turned down the role of Truman Capote’s stylish socialite Holly Golightly. Instead, Audrey Hepburn personified ’60s chic, helped in no small part by her oversized Oliver Goldsmith Manhattan shades – perfect for hiding emotions and hangovers.
LOVE STORY
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SOIDU TS Y R U T N E C HT 02 , S M LIF E S U O H R E W OP ,V TI ,TNU O M A R A P ,S O R B REN RAW ,Y E N S I D
Back in the early ’70s, love meant never having to say you’re sorry, and Love Story meant thousands of women dressed for winter in a plaid skirt and plaid scarf, with a middle parting to ensure their thick, black, preppy glasses were beautifully framed.
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CHRISTINE
Our put-upon hero Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) wears thick plastic frames with thicker lenses to indicate he’s a nerd, and they’re held together with tape after bully Buddy (William Ostrander) steps on them. Naturally, they’re ditched as he becomes cool.
02
MALCOLM X
Invented in 1947, browline glasses accounted for half of all specs sold in the US in the 1950s, with Malcolm X, Lyndon B. Johnson and KFC founder Colonel Sanders among their most famous models. Hipsters brought them back into fashion in the 2010s.
LOLITA
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Never mind that the heartshaped sunglasses worn by Sue Lyon’s titular protagonist are only a feature of publicity photos and the soundtrack’s album cover (in Stanley’s Kubrick’s movie, she wears cat’s-eye sunglasses). They are, in a word, iconic.
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HARRY POTTER
Everyone’s favourite boy wizard might be an orphan who lives under the stairs, but Daniel Radcliffe models 18kt eyeglasses from Savile Row. These roundrim specs are constructed by hand, made from 18kt rolled gold, and finished in either 18kt gold or rhodium plating.
THE IPCRESS FILE
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Michael Caine is short-sighted in real life but rarely wore glasses in movies when he was a heartthrob. Unsophisticated spy Harry Palmer is a notable exception, with his Curry & Paxton spectacles favouring bumbling bureaucracy over Bond-alike adventure.
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THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
While we also adore the reading glasses worn by Meryl Streep’s fashionista Miranda Priestly – especially when she casts a withering glare over their lowered frames – it’s her oval shades that most wow. They’re Dakota 8094s, darling. JG AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
FILM BUFF
BACKGROUND ARTISTRY Celebrating the extras and bit parters stealing scenes…
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK 8 WHO Belloq fly SPECIAL SKILLS As Nazi relic hunter Belloq bellows at Indiana Jones in the desert, this part-building insect lands on his face and steals focus from the treasureseeking baddie by wandering straight into his gob mid-shout. Belloq is so diabolical he eats that fly extra without even blinking... though actor Paul Freeman maintains his winged co-star actually flew off. 122
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Stars eat their words…
J.J. ABRAMS ON STAR WARS
NOVEMBER 2015 “I didn’t want to enter into making a movie where we didn’t really own our story. I feel like I’ve done that a couple of times in my career. That’s not to say I’m not proud of my work, but the fact is I remember starting to shoot Super 8 and Star Trek Into Darkness and feeling like I hadn’t really solved some fundamental story problems.” MAY 2021 “I feel like what I’ve learned as a lesson… that there’s nothing more important than knowing where you’re going.”
THIS MONTH FOUR-QUADRANT PICTURE A movie that appeals to the four
quadrants of audience: male and female, older and younger. The holy grail of blockbuster success.
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
EVENT HORIZON
In 1997, director Paul W.S. Anderson visited the outer limits of space hell. If only the studio knew whathe would bring back… Why it was a good idea (on paper) A haunted house in space? Well, it worked for Alien. With its then-hot young director fresh off Mortal Kombat, peak ’90s cast and heavy-metal twist on sci-fi horror, Event Horizon lured us in nicely. What went wrong? Titanic clipped an iceberg. Event Horizon hit a frosty studio. When James Cameron’s epic was nudged back from its July 1997 release date, Anderson’s shocker was brought forward for Paramount’s big summer slot. But this was no Star Trek. Rejecting the alien terror of writer Philip Eisner’s script, Anderson envisioned a ship that had been to hell and come back… changed. His ideas echoed Bosch and Brueghel, Hellraiser and The Shining. On a viciously tight schedule, Anderson shot scenes of intestine-spilling horror at weekends. When Paramount execs saw Anderson’s 130-minute rough cut, outrage ensued: the sincetrimmed “orgy of destruction” set-piece spoiled a few lunches. Ordered to chop-chop, Anderson cut too far. Accelerated post-
production left his film more scarred than Sam Neill’s thirdact face, with rushed marketing compounding the damage. Redeeming feature Aided by Joseph Bennett’s “technomedieval” production designs, Anderson invoked a cool mood of entombed dread. Michael Kamen/ Orbital’s electro-symphonic score hammers your head emphatically, while Neill gives Dr. Weir his Damien Thorn-grade all. What happened next? Mostly slammed on release, Event Horizon sank faster than Cameron’s titular ship. Home-ents releases brought reappraisals, though the trimmed footage – some found in a salt mine – is reportedly too damaged for a director’s cut. Should it be remade? A TV series has been mooted, with Amazon Studios and EP Adam Wingard guarding the heavy-metal doors. Where that gateway will lead remains unknown, but the original is neither too sacred nor too reviled to revisit. Eyes wide open. KH
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NUMBER OF AWARDS
TF STAR RATING
★★★
29
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE
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S O R B REN RAW , SOIDU TS Y R U T N E C HT 02 ,Y T T EG , Y M A L A
PLAIN TALKING Learn the movie lingo.
FLOP CULTURE
BOOSTING YOUR MOVIE GENIUS TO GOD-LIKE PROPORTIONS Hay Courtney, look behind you…
IS IT JUST ME…
A
OR IS SCREAM 4 THE FRANCHISE’S BEST?
ll right, don’t everybody, ahem, scream at once. Clearly, Wes Craven’s 1996 slasher send-up is a masterpiece that challenged and changed the rules of the horror movie. But 25 years on, the Scream film I go back to most often isn’t the original. It’s the reboot. For me, the tagline – ‘New decade, new rules’ – sums up exactly why Scream 4 remains both eminently rewatchable and more relevant than ever. Released in 2011, the film reunites the survivors of the original Scream trilogy (Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette) and introduces a hip new cast of Ghostface fodder (Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin). “Less of a shriekquel, more of a
asks Josh Winning
screamake,” it delivers the expected self-referential movie chat, creepy phone calls and gore (this was posttorture porn, but pre-iPhone ubiquity). But most tantalising of all is its central conceit that, in a reboot, the rules have changed and reversals are the new standard. That means cops die, the ‘climactic’ set-piece takes place in the middle of the movie, and the film opens with two Russian-doll-style fake-outs in which we’re actually watching Stab 6 and 7. Even being gay won’t save you, as Erik Knudsen’s Robbie discovers. And when it comes to the identity of the killer? All bets are off. In fact, Scream 4 drags “everybody’s a suspect” to its natural conclusion with a killer you never see coming. A decade on, the big reveal is even more chillingly
SORB RENR AW ,TNEMNI ATRETNE
LAST TIME IS THE LAST JUSTIN BOY SCOUT THE BEST BRUCE WILLIS FILM? MARTIN and most underrated action
DAMIEN KIRKBY Just you. Die Hard and Die Hard 2 were far superior. In fairness though, The Last Boy Scout is an excellent film, so I respect the logic behind your conclusion.
GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
“You hit them with a surfboard, you say, ‘Surf’s up, pal!’” Love this film! DARRYL FINER I think it’s one of the best
movies ever made – and that Shane Black script! DARREN RIDER I agree, back from a time when a Willis movie was something
OFFICE-OMETER THE TF STAFF VERDICT IS IN!
IT’S IT’S NOT JUST YOU JUST YOU
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relevant. “I don’t need friends. I need fans,” the unmasked killer howls. Anybody who’s ever worried about their Insta following will understand. Beyond that, Scream 4 is jampacked with hot takes and fresh spins. Gale is ferocious going rogue; the debate about what it means to be a victim adds depth; and Campbell’s final line is badass. The cherry on top? That’d be Panettiere’s breathless, off-the-cuff listing of horror-movie remakes – 14 in total. With a new Scream in cinemas next year, reuniting the survivors with yet another hip young cast, it’s not the original film that directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett need to beat, it’s Scream 4… or is it just me? Share your reaction at www.gamesradar. com/totalfilm or on Facebook and Twitter.
to get excited about. I watch this film on a regular basis. PETE LE DEZMA It’s certainly his bestlooking film. Tony Scott was a terrific director. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
FILM BUFF
CLASSIC SCENE
SHORT CUTS Blue confession… 124
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While his child’s life lies in the balance, Bruce Davison’s Howard reunites with estranged father Paul (Jack Lemmon) in the hospital cafe... In this pivotal monologue, director Robert Altman’s free-jazz riff on Raymond Carver’s stories emerges as a reflection on life’s crossroads, where every branching road lays character bare.
Howard prepares cereal distractedly… Newcomers (Julianne Moore) and vets (Lemmon) alike clamoured to work with Altman, among them Davison, who’d wanted to do so for 25 years. “It almost feels like coming home,” says the actor, comparing Altman’s style to “lifting the lid off of roofs and looking in”.
“I thought, this has got to really hold on its own or it doesn’t work,” said Altman. The director resisted over-styling the scene, trusting Lemmon to carry it. As the camera closes in, Paul unpacks a tawdry story of marital infidelity, its memory etched in every line on his face.
AT THE CROSSROADS
DREAM JOB
CUTS DEEP
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Paul tries to justify the affair with his wife’s sister that broke his family... “Sexuality has a big, big meaning in all of these lives,” said Altman of Carver’s characters. Lemmon’s virtuoso delivery variably suggests desire recalled, determined unrepentance and underlying guilt, with the costs of his mistake subtly implied.
As Paul struggles to reclaim moral ground with his son, Lemmon suggests his desperation fearlessly. The Apartment veteran compared Altman to “the captain of the ship”, the kind of leader actors take risks for. “You will do your very level best [for him],” said Lemmon, “because you trust the man.”
With Paul’s quasi-confession hanging, Howard is called away. Throughout Short Cuts, Altman leaves gaps for viewers to fill: “It might be a whole new way of allowing the audience a sense of participation.” By resisting the consolations of plot, his intimate epic brims with artful life, unresolved and unforgettable. Kevin Harley
LUST HURTS
FINAL CUT
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S E RU T A E F ENI L ENIF
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
TRUST EXERCISE
BOOSTING YOUR MOVIE GENIUS TO GOD-LIKE PROPORTIONS
INSTANT EXPERT
CHUCK JONES Fine Tuner… B
SILENT WITNESS
orn in 1912, Charles Martin ‘Chuck’ Jones was a keen cinemagoer from a young age and absorbed the ability to tell stories purely through physical performances from the silent stars of the silver screen: “Silent pictures were a great school. I didn’t know I was being schooled, but I learned all these things… If it was good enough for Chaplin and Keaton, it was good enough for me, that’s for sure.”
THE LITTLE THINGS
PROLIFIC TALENT
DELAYED GRATIFICATION
DISCIPLINED DESIGN
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s his style evolved, the relative simplicity of Jones’ character models allowed for smaller, subtler movements and a greater focus on the characters’ eyes, the element most responsible for making them feel alive. Through this he could not only make audiences laugh, but also shed a tear or two on occasion. As Steven Spielberg says, “Chuck’s facial expressions were the best in the business, because he was a minimalist.” 125
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graduate of the Chouinard Art Institute, in 1938 Jones directed his first cartoon for Leon Schlesinger Productions, creators of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts. By 1962 he’d helmed more than 200 of them, putting his unique stamp on some of the animation studio’s biggest stars, including Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, as well as creating Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Marvin the Martian and Pepé Le Pew.
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he vital factor in all comedy or drama is, what are your disciplines?” stated Jones. In his work there are clear rules governing characters’ worlds and the techniques that bring them to life, no matter how outlandish the setup. “I don’t want something that’s realistic,” he said. “I want something that’s believable.”
hy are Jones’ cartoons still so funny? It’s all about the timing. Not only was Jones brilliant at delivering laughs through quick-fire gags and simple facial expressions, but he also mastered the art of holding back the punchline for as long as possible. Even though you know exactly what’s coming, Jones doesn’t deliver until the last possible second, the prolonged anticipation making it that much funnier. Anton van Beek
KEY MOVIES
MGM ,S O R B REN RAW ,Y T T E G ,E C N A R F E T R A
ONE FROGGY EVENING
1955 One man’s hilarious descent into singing-frog-inspired madness; rightly dubbed “the Citizen Kane of animated shorts” by Steven Spielberg. GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILM
WHAT’S OPERA, DOC? 1957 Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd hit all the right notes in this pitch-perfect parody of Wagner’s all-time classic Der Ring Des Nibelungen.
THE DOT AND THE LINE 1965 Narrated by Robert Morley, this award-winning short somehow makes a love story among geometric shapes both compelling and amusing.
HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS!
1966 More than 30 years before Ron Howard, Jones crafted the definitive screen adap of Dr. Seuss’ fab festive fantasy. AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
FILM BUFF
1930-2021
RICHARD DONNER
A
man known for magical blockbusters and mastering the suspension of disbelief paid tribute to filmmaker Richard Donner after he died in early July after decades of movie-making. “Dick had such a powerful command of his movies, and was so gifted across so many genres,” wrote his friend and collaborator Steven Spielberg. “Being in his circle was akin to hanging out with your favourite coach, smartest professor, fiercest motivator, most endearing friend, staunchest ally, and – of course – the greatest Goonie of all. He was all kid. All heart. All the time. I can’t believe he’s gone, but his husky, hearty laugh will stay with me always.”
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Total Film can attest to that laugh and friendly persona, having attended a 25th-anniversary Goonies reunion in 2010 on the Warner Bros studio backlot and seen the warm, fatherly way Donner still interacted with his now-grown cast. They discussed the incessant tricks they’d played on their patient director during filming while he smiled fondly. A ringmaster of big budget, often-difficult blockbusters, Donner wasn’t about to be fazed by a bunch of cheeky kids – though he admits a lack of cast discipline made his job a challenge as well as a gift. Born Richard Schwartzberg in April 1930, the New York native initially had his eye on acting but switched to helming on the advice of his friend, Marty Ritt. He honed his craft on TV shows like Gilligan’s Island, Perry Mason and The Twilight Zone, made his feature debut on 1961’s X-15, but found fame with 1976’s The Omen before moving on to 1978’s Superman (and a then-whopping $1m paycheck) where he exceeded audience and studio expectations of a superhero movie, essentially inventing the genre. He locked horns with execs over the budget and time taken to creating convincing flying effects for the Man of Steel and was rewarded by soaring box-office
TOTAL FILM | AUGUST 2021
returns. He famously walked away from the sequel after disagreements with producers, but much of his work was still evident in the resulting Richard Lester-directed film – and a Donner director’s cut was released in 2006. In 1985, he made Ladyhawke, where he met his wife, Lauren Shuler (a dynamic duo personally and professionally, they later created The Donners Company and produced superhero smashes Deadpool, The Wolverine and the X-Men films), and beloved family film The Goonies, which cemented his reputation for being able to capture rambunctious magic onscreen. In 1987, Donner perfected the buddy movie with Lethal Weapon, and the following year, he updated the Christmasmovie formula with Scrooged. He then showed legs in feature-film reboots of existing properties with Maverick (1994). He was planning to close the Lethal Weapon franchise, signing up to direct a final re-team, but passed away from an undisclosed cause at the age of 91. Asked how he’d like to be remembered in a recent interview, Donner was typically modest: “As a good guy who lived a long life and had a good time and always had that lady behind him pushing him.” JC
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BOOSTING YOUR MOVIE GENIUS TO GOD-LIKE PROPORTIONS
EASY
1. Adam Sandler starred in which celebrationthemed comedy-horror in 2020? 2. “Now I have another reason to hate Christmas,” is a line from which classic ’80s creature feature? 3. Fill in the missing word: “You yell __, we’ve got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.” 4. Which festive frightener was remade in 2006 and again in 2019? 5. True or false? Tim Burton directed The Nightmare Before Christmas.
MEDIUM
1. Which of these is a made-up title? a) Beaster Parade b) Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! c) Easter Casket.
THE TF BRAIN HOLIDAY-THEMED HORRORS Test your knowledge of dates to dismember…
2. What costume does Sgt. Howie don during the May Day parade in The Wicker Man? 3. Which Back To The Future star features in 1986’s April Fool’s Day? 4. Which 2018 sequel carries the sub-title Haunted Halloween? 5. Who plays Michael Myers in Rob Zombie’s Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009)?
HARD
1. Which annual event links Home Sweet Home (1981), Blood Rage (1987) and Kristy (2014)? 2. Which 2009 remake was the first R-rated movie released in RealD 3D? 3. ‘Father’s Day’ is a segment from which anthology movie? 4. Brit horror The Children (2008) is set around which big date in the calendar? 5. What sort of mask does the stalkerkiller in Valentine (2001) wear? ksam dipuC A .5 raeY weN .4 wohspeerC .3 enitnelaV ydoolB yM .2 gnivigsknahT .1 DRAH enaM relyT .5 2 spmubesooG .4 nosliW .F samohT .3 looF ehT/hcnuP .2 edaraP retsaeB )a .1 MUIDEM kcileS yrneH saw ti - eslaF .5 samtsirhC kcalB .4 )swaJ( ’krahS‘ .3 snilmerG .2 neewollaH eibuH .1 YSAE SREWSNA
DOUBLE TAKE
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE There are0 tofind…
…SREWSNA EHT ROF EGAP TXEN EHT EES
LANACOIDUTS ,SORB RENRAW
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AUGUST 2021 | TOTAL FILM
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SPOILER ALERT! TF SAVES YOU THE COST OF A MOVIE EVERY MONTH. THIS ISSUE: A QUIET PLACE PART II FADE IN:
INT. SOUNDPROOF VAULT CILLIAN reveals himself. He is now alone, but has EXT. BASEBALL FIELD – DAY 1 lucked out with an abandoned warehouse JOHN KRASINSKI and CILLIAN MURPHY watch containing a soundproof vault. their kids play baseball until a meteor crashes and stops everyone in their tracks. Suddenly, alien EMILY BLUNT monsters start killing everyone. Can we stay here?
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JOHN KRASINSKI Looks like I’m spending my 10 minutes of screentime being an awesome hero. Thanks scriptwriter, whoever you are! EMILY BLUNT OK, let’s stop this thrilling action now and return to the grim dystopia that audiences have been craving for the past year.
MILLICENT SIMMONDS No way! That radio was playing Bobby Darin. BOBBY DARIN. There must be some strangers out there.
They run. NOAH gets his leg caught in a bear trap and screams in agony. An alien arrives, but MILLICENT kills it with her hearing-aid feedback. CILLIAN MURPHY So the aliens really hate that one particular noise then? That’s… handy.
They go to the dock and are ambushed by some strangers who have rapidly turned into feral degenerates. Eventually aliens come and kill all the bad people.
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AN ISSUE
EXT. ISLAND CILLIAN and MILLICENT arrive on the island and discover a whole community kept completely safe. Then an alien monster turns up in a boat and starts killing them all. MILLICENT SIMMONDS Quick! To the radio station! I can use my limited knowledge of handheld radios to somehow broadcast my hearing-aid feedback across the airwaves! She does, allowing her to kill the alien monster. NOAH and EMILY are also able to kill their alien monster through the power of radio. MILLICENT SIMMONDS So in the third film we’ll just hook the hearing aid up to the internet or something? EMILY BLUNT Sure, but it might just be easier to take the aliens on with Super Soakers... FIN NEXT ISSUE: FAST & FURIOUS 9
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EMILY BLUNT Sigh. I should keep you constantly sedated too.
CILLIAN MURPHY You have to come back.
EMILY BLUNT Shhh! The aliens will hear you! Run! It’s the only way to make sure we won’t get hurt!
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MILLICENT offers NOAH a radio as an anaesthetic. He tunes it slightly and it plays ‘Beyond The Sea’ by Bobby Darin.
EXT. FOOTPATH MILLICENT leaves to find the island. EMILY begs CILLIAN to bring her back. He refuses just long enough to give her a convenient head start.
MILLICENT SIMMONDS Let’s take a long trek to search for somewhere safe… oh, here’s a place.
NEXT ISSUE
Meanwhile EMILY leaves to get supplies, trusting NOAH to stay safe. He immediately makes lots of noise and attracts an alien monster.
CILLIAN MURPHY There’s a radio station on a nearby island, but it probably isn’t anything to do with that.
EMILY BLUNT Now I have an oxygen tank to keep my baby sedated forever, which takes care of that subplot.
CILLIAN MURPHY Yes. And yet somehow they successfully defeated humanity on a planet that’s 70 per cent covered in the stuff…
CILLIAN MURPHY Um… no. But I’ll bandage your son’s leg after it got massacred in my bear trap. Fair?
NOAH JUPE Music! Where is it coming from? What do you think it means?
INT. FAMILY HOME – DAY 474 EMILY BLUNT leaves her destroyed house from the first film with her daughter MILLICENT SIMMONDS, eldest son NOAH JUPE and her newborn boy.
MILLICENT SIMMONDS Look, the aliens seem scared of water!