STEVE BARRON INTERVIEW

A key player in the development of the music video in the 80’s, Steve Barron directed some of that decades most iconic videos: A-ha’s ‘Take On Me’, Michael Jackson’ s ‘Billy Jean’, Dire Straits ‘Money for Nothing’ and countless others for the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Madonna, ZZ Top, David Bowie, Paul McCartney and Culture Club. His entry into feature filmmaking was on Ridley Scott’s first feature: “My parents were in the business, Mum was a production secretary and Dad was soundman. I was pretty crap at school so I looked to get out as soon as possible; when I left I got a job working as a tea boy at a camera hire company. I soon ended up working as a clapper loader on The Duellists, A Bridge Too Far and Superman I and II.” “I was pretty young in the business and learning fast, with music videos it was a case of ‘right place, right time’. The first one I shot was for The Jam and their song ‘Strange Town’… soon after I was shooting videos for Adam and the Ants, The Human League and Heaven 17.“ Barron worked solidly for the next ten years as one of Europe’s top music video directors. “I was asked to do a couple of David Bowie music videos for the movie Labyrinth. I met with Jim Henson and he showed me around the set, he was lovely man, just a total gent…he offered me the chance to direct a pilot for a new TV series he was developing called Storyteller. It was written by Anthony Minghella (The English Patient), who at the time was a BBC writer and it involved working with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop to create the creatures…which was a great experience”. It was Minghella who recommended Barron as a candidate to direct an adaptation of the underground comic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, already a popular children’s animated TV show. “I immediately jumped on it, thinking it was something extraordinary that I wanted to get involved with”. Barron spoke to Jim Henson, requesting the Creature Shop’s expertise: “he wasn’t too keen to get his creature shop involved, he thought the comic was pretty bloody“ but once persuaded of Barron’s intent to focus on humour and to take a lighter tone, Henson agreed to help, a major advantage as the animatronic Turtle suits were key to the films success. Similarly the fight choreography needed to work “we had a really great fight choreographer who was brought in from Hong Kong… and he got that it was a going to have a sense of humour to it… but some of it we definitely made in the cutting room”. Barron worked closely on balancing the dark tone and slapstick fights with his Editor Sally Menke, who would go on to be Quentin Tarantino’s editor of choice or as Barron quips “he nicked her and used her forever”...Menke was tragically killed last year). Once completed, the darker tone worried the producers: “they really thought it would put kids off, in their heads it was all going to be big, bright coloured foam and what they saw was very different to that”. Upon its release, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was nothing short of a phenomenon at the US Box Office becoming the most successful independent film ever made (until, ironically, Pulp Fiction knocked it from its perch). TMNT has gone on to etch itself into popular culture spawning two sequels, a CG animated feature in 2007 and recently its been announced that Michael Bay will produce a live action re-boot which Jonathan Liebesman (Battle Los Angeles) is slated to helm. Barron is philosophical about the longevity of the Turtle franchise: “these stories are not just nostalgia, they have ideas that strike a note with kids, they’re fun-loving, fascinating super heroes. I think it’s all about re-invention when it comes to kids, if its done right they’ll want to go along again for the ride”. JARROD WALKER

KON TIKI REVIEW

KON TIKI Directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg Written By Petter Skavlan and Allan Scott Stars: Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen It was an insane proposition: to drift on a raft from Peru in South America across the Pacific Ocean to Tahiti, in order to prove that ancient races populated Polynesia by travelling ocean currents. Thor Heyerdahl (Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen), a Norwegian Zoologist and Anthropologist, tries to sell this theory for many years but few in the mainstream academic accept its validity. Heyerdahl’s a driven individual and he decides to recruit some war buddies and academic associate’s and, in 1947, sets out from Peru on a raft constructed from rudimentary balsa wood and other materials that would’ve been available to the ancient peoples he’s following in the tracks of. They have no fall back plan, nothing but a radio as their saving grace should they need rescue. This tale is etched into Norwegian popular culture with Heyerdahl something of a national treasure but as a protagonist in this story; he is (by all reports, quite accurately) depicted as inscrutable and willing to sacrifice all to achieve a goal. The members of his rag tag crew are more relatable, many of them in it for the adventure and the life experience; one crew member Herman Watzinger (Anders Baasmo Christiansen) is a former Engineer and sometime refrigerator salesman and appears to be the only voice of reason in the face of Heyerdahl’s totalitarian obsession. As a story, Kon Tiki takes off at the mid-point, Co-Director’s Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg’s CG depictions of ocean creatures and wild storms as the men drift relentlessly are beautifully handled and the mounting dramatic intensity and high adventure make up for the perfunctory character introductions and odd plotting in the early stages. As a story of obsession and Heyerdahl’s inner life, it barely scratches the surface; as a boy’s own adventure and a salute to the crazy brave, it’s a terrific tale. JARROD WALKER

JEREMY THOMAS INTERVIEW

Born with a self-described ‘silver reel’ in his mouth, Jeremy Thomas started his career as a cutting room assistant on films such as The Harder They Come and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. His father Ralph Thomas directed more than forty films in the UK and his Uncle, Gerald Thomas, directed all the Carry On films. Eventually becoming an Editor for Ken Loach, Thomas produced his first film shortly afterwards: Philippe Mora’s Mad Dog Morgan, which was shot in Australia and was fraught with production issues thanks to its star Dennis Hopper and his predilection for heroic doses of drugs and alcohol. Thomas went on to produce some of the most lauded and iconic independent films of the past thirty years (Naked Lunch, Crash, Stealing Beauty, The Dreamers, The Great Rock’N’Roll Swindle, Sexy Beast) and he solidified his stature in the independent film world when he won the Best Picture Oscar in 1988 for producing Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor. In person, Jeremy Thomas cuts a decidedly relaxed air, clearly at ease with his filmic legacy. He prefaces some statements with off-hand comments like: “I’ve made a lot of great films…” and one’s first reaction might be to baulk, however with Thomas there’s no argument when presented with the evidence of his amazing back catalogue. He’s in Australia for the impending release of Kon Tiki, his film about Norwegian Anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl’s traversing of the Pacific Ocean in a raft in 1947 by drifting from Peru to Tahiti in order to prove that ancient peoples could – and did – use oceans like roads to reach far-flung destinations. It’s smashed box office records in its home country of Norway and it’s nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar at this years Academy Awards. It’s a story Thomas has tried getting on screen for more than 20 years: “ I had read the book when I was much younger, it’s such a magnificent boys own adventure, this raft and the men with their beards, it very much stayed with me. Funnily enough, it was Michael Douglas who clued me in to the fact that the publisher of Kon Tiki wanted to sell the film rights but he didn’t own them, so the publisher took me to the Canary Islands to meet Heyerdahl in person and to get his consent. I got to know him, gave him some of my films to watch and went back several times over the next few years… eventually he decided to give me the rights”. The efforts in securing those rights were just one fiery hoop to jump through however more hurdles soon presented themselves: “I couldn’t find the way to do it back then, the ocean, the creatures, the sea life, I couldn’t find a way to do it in a pre-digital world”. Several years would pass before Thomas recruited directors Joachim Rønning, and Espen Sandberg, whose commercial backgrounds benefitted the entrepreneurial Thomas’s desire to fashion an epic for a mere 15 million euros: “we found a way to do the CG effects and the digital work very cheaply in Norway and making it a Norwegian film helped with the funding”. Thomas is justifiably pleased with the end result, as a culmination of many years hard graft, it’s a gratifying outcome: “lately in my career I’ve been executive producing films I enjoy, much like with Takashi Miike (13 Assassins, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai)…but earlier in my career, such as with Nic Roeg and Bernardo (Bertolucci), I would follow those projects for their entire life, from inception…. Producing is a funny cliché really; it’s the ‘vulgarian’ you know? A Hollywood cliché that in reality is very different. It’s a special sort of job and I’m really very lucky to go to all these amazing places with so many interesting and fascinating people…. it’s the stuff that dreams are made of really. So when a project like Kon Tiki is successfully brought to the screen, grows legs and goes on to have a life of its own - its really very satisfying.” JARROD WALKER