 the ultimate post-pub movie that you and your mates come back from the pub having had a few sit down and watch it and it's just like it hits all the marks for that I don't even think he's specified as being SAS, he's some other unit that you never really told Sean said, what if I throw it away and say fetch? I was just like, I love it Something big Neil, how are you sir? I'm good I'm glad to be back in the UK Yes, yes, we were just saying weren't we, you're filming your new production, The Lair Yep Just from the little bit that I read Did I get it right, a female fighter pilot shot down in Afghanistan? Yes, there's a female RAF pilot shot down in Afghanistan I'm hooked up with some US soldiers out there and there's also some SAS guys who are in the neighborhood and end up having to do battle with this former Russian science experiment that's come back to life It's very much in the school, it's like a sister film, dog soldiers I suppose, or a brother film Soldiers and monsters, I'm just having a lot of fun with that Yeah, I bet, I wanted to ask you First off, should we just say a massive thank you to Mark Ryan, who's been a Absolutely, I was going to say it's brilliant of Mark to put us in touch Mark is a very very good friend, I was lucky enough to work with him first on Black Sales Having been a fan of his for years and years from who does wins to Robert Le Showwood So it's like to get to work with him on Black Sales and then we work together again A couple of years back on the reckoning as well Yes, my son just refers to Marcus Bumblebee I guess that's had a new generation though, but for us he'll always been Nazir Yes, yes of course And how is it for the new generation then that do many of them pick up on dog soldiers? Dog soldiers just seems to be like an eternally kind of loved movie I mean, I don't necessarily know that many of the new generation But it's constantly being asked about and constantly being, the big question being is like, is there going to be a dog Even 20 years later, is there going to be a dog soldiers sequel So the interest and love for the film and affection for the movie just seems to keep on going Which is lovely to have created something that people like so much Yes, exactly To have a film that becomes a cult classic just must be a writer and director's dream You know, I just kind of threw everything in for the kitchen sink when I was making it It was my first feature and I had a whole bunch of ideas and threw all sorts of things in there And a lot of them stuck and I always imagined it as being like I wanted it to be like the ultimate post-pub movie that you and your mates come back from the pub Having had a few sit down and watch it and it hits all the marks for that And I guess that still stands as long as people are still going to pubs on Friday night or whatever You and your mates want to sit down and watch a movie, that's the perfect movie for it Yes, the classic line in the whole film is Sean Pertwee who plays Wells, isn't it? Yeah And he goes to grab a weapon and it's a stick And he says to the werewolf, fetch I reckon that touched the funny bone of any squatty watching I think there was quite a lot of improvised stuff in it And I think that was one of the lines that Sean said What if I throw away and say fetch? I was just like, I love it, brilliant, let's do it There was a lot of that going on because Sean was so into his character and loved that character And got into the world of being a squatty and just so well And they all did, I mean by the end of the shoot I think they all would have fought and died for each other, they were so tight Yes, I bet Sean did another really great film a few years ago You probably might remember the name of it, but it was second Cornwall Blue Juice Blue Juice, that was right I'll be honest, it was so long ago, I can't quite remember the plot but I just remember it being Well, it's the Cornwall equivalent of Point Break The ultimate Cornwall surfing movie of which comes from a genre of one Yes, there was quite a lot of humour in it as well That's great, because of films like that and I wanted to work with Sean and dog soldiers I just thought he had such charisma Yes, and he's a Cornish boy, isn't he? I think he is originally, yeah I'm just going on the accent alone, it's funny I've spent quite a lot of time in Cornwall this summer And the Cornish do have a certain look to them Not just, I mean there is a big sort of surfer look thing going on down there But Sean reminds me so much of one of the guys I was in the Marines with It's just, yeah, it's almost a bit surreal Well, he's got a great face, it's kind of, it's very lived in, it's very weathered It's very full of character Yes, so when you brought the SAS bit into the forest there Which is the heart, or the Highlands, not the Highlands, but the woods in Scotland Yeah Which was filmed in Luxembourg, right? Yeah, we did do a couple of days filming in Scotland just for the bigger shots And just to help establish it Because Luxembourg was okay for forests and things like that But it doesn't really look like Scotland's side from that Is that a difficult thing to get over, or is it sort of in... Bear in mind, most people have probably never been to a Scottish forest So he wouldn't mind not True Well, it's full of pine forests and stuff like that Which Scotland also has a lot of But when it comes to mountains and things like that, there's nothing like that in Luxembourg So anything that had mountains in it, whatever, was Scotland, or the arios stuff was Scotland But yeah, you're just, I mean, so many of my films are like that That you shoot a few days, like somewhere really exotic, and then the rest is done somewhere, you know, pretty close to home I mean, Centurion's a good example, because we shot a week in Scotland But all the rest were shot in Surrey just outside London But you'd never know that to watch the movie That's another one of the all-time classic films, Centurion What was that? A Roman team of Romans trapped behind enemy lines in... A lot of the movies that I've done have come from very drunken conversations in pubs Dogs were just kind of originated round a table in a pub one day, I think And Centurion was the same, a friend of mine told me about this The legend of the Ninth Legion, about this Legion of Roman soldiers that marched into the misty Scottish mountains and vanished without a trace And that just immediately like piqued my interest And I was like, oh, okay, that's cool But also like, because where I grew up in Newcastle, right next to Hadrian's Wall You know, the Roman history is kind of a big part of my growing up So this notion of like a legion of Romans marching through the wall and up into Scotland and then never coming back was like Okay, this is really fascinating, even if it's not entirely true, because like the myths being disproved since then But it's that old saying was that, you know, when the legend becomes truth, print the legend The myth was way more interesting than the truth, so I went with that Yeah So going back in history then, did I get this right? Did the Romans met their sort of nemesis with taking on the tribes of Scotland and got their ass a bit kicked? They did They couldn't defeat the Picts in Scotland I mean, that's why they built Hadrian's Wall, which is a pretty excessive thing to do So it kind of makes you think that whatever was up there was pretty terrifying to them That they built this enormous wall right across the country to prevent them invading It's like, wow, they were really scared So that makes the Picts sound pretty terrifying Yes, plus I'm thinking from a military point of view, you've got these boys from the Mediterranean in their skirts Well, exactly And then there's suddenly in the Scottish climate Yeah, and cause the Picts, they fought battles mostly like Naked Which is like, that must be pretty hardcore in the House of Scotland in January as well Yes Going back to the SCS thing, I wondered if that was like a plot mechanism Because obviously when the boys go on exercise, well, when the military goes on exercise You're not carrying ammunition, are you? Not real proper ammunition No, no I had to take a few liberties with the phone to a point, but it was the idea that the I mean, I don't even think he's specified as being SAS He's some other unit that you never really told The Special Weapons Division And he's working for this group And they're off there to hunt werewolves They just use our soldiers, our heroes as bait You know, cannon fodder Yeah But that whole film was designed and I pitched it to everybody else That this isn't a werewolf movie with soldiers, this is a soldier movie with werewolves I wanted to make like an authentic depiction of squaddies as I'd seen in a movie You know, you see so many movies made about US soldiers, there was hardly any made about British soldiers And my granddad was in the army, my dad was in the army I probably would have ended up in the army myself had not gone the filmmaking route But I just felt that a lot of film has depicted soldiers, you know, not very authentically And I wanted to get across that humour, that camaraderie and the professionalism about them That kind of all rolls into one, as you well know And put them in a movie, it just happened to be about werewolves But that just made it all the more kind of outrageous Had any of the cast served in the military? No, they hadn't We did a little bit of training or whatever with them as best we could beforehand But yeah, none of them would actually serve as an archie There's not many actors have now It's not like the old days with David Niven and all that loss who served in World War II And then when it had careers afterwards But yeah, this generation of actors has rarely been in the military And Kevin McKinn must have been a great guy to get for the role He was, I mean it was kind of hot off the back of train spotting really But yeah, Kev was well up for it Fancy having to do something very, very different for train spotting And it's also quite a thing that with British actors, unlike American actors Who've all done cop shows and God knows what, so they've all handled firearms And things a lot of British actors haven't had the experience of handling firearms So that's real for them, a buzz for them But they all got really into it and we had some good training We had this foreign legion guy out in Luxembourg who went through their places before we shot the film And Kev McKinn actually during this training he cracked a rib But he was scared that we might replace him on the film So he didn't tell us about it until like a week into filming He was in agony but he kind of just pushed on through and then told us about it And we were like, well, get yourself sorted mate, we're not going to get rid of you But get yourself sorted He had a much better outcome than he did as Tommy, didn't he? He did, yeah He lived through this one Yeah, he was only going to dead but thankfully Yeah, did you, sorry, did you have military biases? How does that work? Well, so over in Luxembourg there was this guy who was ex-French foreign legion And he came and did some training for a few days And also like pretty much all of the crew had served in the military as well Because there's still like national service over, I don't know if there still is but there was then But in Luxembourg, so they'd all served in the military So they all were there to advise us if we were doing anything wildly wrong But also I had a pretty good idea myself about a lot of stuff So everybody just pitched in just to try and get it right Yes, it's some interesting because back in the day You're certainly back then, the SA80 was obviously a new weapon to the British Army I think well, it had been in about 12 years by the time I think the film was Yeah, it generally dislikes by everybody Yeah, so the bit where they swapped it for the MP5s or the armour lights or whatever was Made a lot of sense But also I think at that time, I don't think I'd seen the SA80 depicted in a movie I can't think of any, I mean I've seen it a few sense but at the time it was like Oh, this is kind of like a fresh weapon to see in a movie But I'd say all the people I talked to was like God, they hated it Everybody hated it, did you hate it? While we're on the subject, I think it's like this I think for some reason the British went for a British made or a Enfield I don't know if that's what part of Britain that is But I think they went for like a homemade weapon to I don't know if that's a financial thing that the money goes back into the country or whatever Obviously the American armour light or the M16 would have been the obvious choice Because it proved itself in Vietnam, obviously You hardly have to clean the thing and it floats and it's lightweight and it uses the 5.56 ammo But then having said that, the first time we held an SA80 in Royal Marines training Our instructor said, don't listen to these old sweats saying this is a load of shit It's actually a really good weapon, it's just got teething problems And it's a bit of an academic argument because the SLR which is an incredible weapon So accurate over distance but obviously fires the heavier ammunition And it's not getting close to combat or around rocks and stuff because it's so long But you can't take anything away from that either They're just different but in Afghanistan what they found was when you've got an enemy that's hyped up on adrenaline Or possibly substances, they'll just keep coming And the 5.56 didn't have enough stopping power So they went back to this, I shouldn't say a really nice looking weapon When you think what they're used for but somebody can put in the comments You know the weapon I'm thinking of, it was a shorter weapon than the SLR And it fired 7.62 I didn't know that Yeah, they started to issue it to the Special Forces Support Group And obviously the Special Forces themselves I don't think everybody got it Yeah, because the SLR was around for ages Yes, like it's saying I think there seemed to be a perception that the SA80 was somehow a sort of style of a content It was more of a design experiment than a functioning weapon But I guess it's been stuck with it so I guess it must have been proved Yeah, they don't even call it the SA80 It's marked so many, 1, 2, 3, 4, probably about mark 7 now And I think they've already dealt with a lot of the problems That's good Yeah, I think one of the issues, I don't know how it is now But you can only fire it right-handed Because the cocking lever is on the right side So if you were to have it on the other side It's going to come back and take half your face off Every time you fire around Right, yeah, of course But could you imagine if you were a left-handed person And that's how you naturally align And suddenly you've got to, it's a bit like throwing Trying to throw a rock with your left hand If you're right-handed, it just doesn't feel right No, of course We found that on the air actually One of our actors was left-handed But we weren't using SA80s But even then it's like just trying to gauge everything Most weapons are kind of fundamentally designed for right-hand So yeah, it's interesting So what's the, for people that maybe wouldn't know What's the reason that a film is shot on location Rather than in this case actually in Scotland? Money, pretty much At the end of the day it's like it's how much It costs to get a crew or whatever to a specific location At the time, with dog soldiers at the time It was quite expensive to shoot in Scotland And it was very cheap to shoot in Luxembourg And we actually got money from the Luxembourg Film Fund As an incentive to invite us to go there to shoot Whereas Scotland was not offering anything up to say Hey, what can we do to make it easy for you guys? It was like, this is it, it's full price here Whereas half price in Luxembourg So that is pretty much the only reason Not to go to the actual location The same with the lair Obviously there's reasons not to go to Afghanistan But we couldn't go to a desert country Because none of them were like easy or accessible Or cost appropriate for the film So Budapest offered us very good financial incentive To go there And we ended up filming in a whole bunch of quarries And places like that to try to make it look like Afghanistan And the end result is it kind of does So we got what we wanted out of it It would have been nice to go to Morocco or Jordan Or somewhere like that to film it But it was just too expensive Yes, do you know my buddy Marty Stalker by any chance? I don't know Marty's quite a successful producer And funny enough he's just been in Afghanistan Filming a documentary They had to go in there completely Under the radar Obviously being westerners And they just went in Just to film the fall of everything that's gone on But prior to that he made a short I think it was a short And it was centered on one soldier's PTSD And again I think they filmed that in a quarry Or somewhere You'd never know I think we managed That's the movies It's the magic of movies Whatever's in the frame What the audience sees That's what they take with them And they don't get to see what's outside the frame And quite often what's outside the frame Is completely different to what's inside So like you're filming within a quarry But surround you with green fields Or something like that But also the magic of visual effects And stuff these days What they can do Could pretty much do anything So anything's possible Yes Is it I'm guessing maybe not so much If all your actors are from the same country But I'm guessing there'd be Probably quite some Many visa issues Moving a crew Moving a crew There is What you need to do is You only bring in a select Bunch of people Like myself and the producers And maybe some of the cast Most of the crew you tend to source locally But with actors and things like that Depending on where they're coming from Visas can be a bit of an issue I tell you what's proved difficult now Is Brexit It used to be very, very simple For us to go over to Europe and make a movie Now we have to get all these visas And I have to acquire Because I was there for three months I had to get temporary citizenship In Hungary Like a residency in there So it's these annoying kind of paperwork And processes that you now have to go through Because of Brexit But other countries I guess it's probably the same as it ever was Anything non-European Do you still keep in touch with the cast Of dog soldiers I do Not all of them Some of them I've lost touch with over the years But I'm still in touch with Kevin He's out in LA shooting Grey's Anatomy By full time So quite a funny the way He's ended up in a hospital drama In LA Making his fortune out there But We're in We're in tentative talks at the moment For a potential dog soldiers sequel So It'll be nice if we get to do that together I've worked with Sean a few times since He was on the reckoning And I'm always up for working with Sean And some of the other guys I think Lez who played Terry He's in Australia now Darren Morfitz who played Spoon He's still in London Doing the odd bit here and there Yeah, I was trying to keep in touch With everyone that I worked with along the way Well If it's been a good experience And good relationships and friendships have formed Then absolutely Which for the most part Is exactly what's happened Throughout all my movies Yeah And Liam Cunningham He's been in a couple of your productions Isn't he? Liam Yeah Liam is an absolute legend And yeah I've worked with him On Saturian And Game of Thrones a few times So yeah Always a pleasure to work with him Who's the chap that His name slips my mind Great actor Played sick boy in Trainspotting Oh, Johnny Lee Miller Yes, of course Sorry, Johnny If you ever get to watch this Yes Despite my bad memory He is one of my sort of favourite Always I certainly loved him in Trainspotting But he's in LA as well, isn't he? He does some He's been doing A show out in LA or New York I think it might be in New York What's it called? It's like a modern day Sherlock Holmes Okay Yes There's certainly a If you can make it over there It seems a place that people Will stay For TV shows Things like that It can be It's kind of like The Golden Handcuffs as well Because it's It's great You get to do Nothing but that show For God knows how many Like ten years or something like that Make lots of money But It doesn't allow you To do anything else And I think that's Been a little bit of Kev's frustration You know This series has Made him a lot of money And It's a great success He's directing it now He's been on it for ten years But because Every time I've approached him To do something else When he hasn't been available Because of the The commitment to the TV series And I think that maybe That's a little bit frustrating How was the The writing process How did you The manuscript The dog soul just come about You wrote it yourself, right? Yeah I mean Writing is pain It's a slow, torturous process For sure It took six years To get dog soul just made From writing the first draft Of that script In 1996 To eventually filming it In 2001 So 1995 to In 2001 There's a long drawn out process I think we Wrote it about 18 times Before we shot it But Writing the first Version of the first Draft of a script Is It depends Sometimes it can be a joy Writing Centurion Was a real pleasure I kind of wrote it in about Three weeks Which Never happened Like I just couldn't wait To just Write this thing Dog soldiers I think the first draft Was pretty fast But it was just refining it Refining it Refining it When you have the story Very, very clear in your head It comes a lot easier And the characters as well And I find those kind of Characters like Centurion And like dog soldiers Quite easy to write for I like kind of Sort of colloquial British characters Just down the Worth It's the language I kind of know better Because You know, spent my life In the UK And sitting in Popes listening to people Things like that It comes more naturally Than Writing for say American characters Or people I know Less well Yes Just put a lot of F words in for British characters It's kind of it Like just creative swearing It's like It's like coming up with New ways to To offend people You don't know I think people People offend themselves These days don't they Very easily Very easily But like the English language Is great For coming up with New swears Like that What's your thoughts then on This must be a kind of From an artistic perspective A bit of a killer That when When say TV Gets a hit A hit series Yeah And they just Spin it out For another Another seven You know, another seven series Do you have any thoughts on that? Well having Working both the TV And film space That's sort of like From the TV space It's like What you want to happen You want your TV show to Last for many many seasons And You know And it's a great Creatively and narratively It's a great opportunity To tell A story in far Far greater depth To go into detail That you can't do in a Future film When you've got Seven hours or ten hours To tell a story As opposed to Two So as you're Creatively speaking That's great The frustrating side of it Is a film director Is that So many actors are now Migrating to television Because there's Good money Good work Great roles Actors Want to do Lots of TV drama Now Things like that And it's hard to find Them available To do Your movie I'm finding that Quite a lot actually A lot of the cast That you want to get Are all tied up For TV series And they're in You know Contracts That mean that They're doing it For five years Minimum Out of it Stuff like that So that's a little bit frustrating But If you're in the TV World It's like That's great That's exactly what you want But I would say With television It's like Especially these new You know The new streamers The Amazon The Netflix or whatever The beast needs Feeding That They need New content All the time If they want to Keep people watching They have to be Making TV Shows Or else They'll just Survive on repeats And reruns Whereas Movies on the other hand Do not need to be made It's nice To make them And the world would be A sad place without them But There's no They're not essential To a company's Functioning You know So We make them For love More than anything More than a necessity And I think That makes it A little bit different The reason I mention it Is say I mean Just off the top Made something Like Holby City Obviously You'd want to run For 20 years Because it's It's some It's Each episode Is a Mini drama In itself But I really Loved Vikings When it came out And also Breaking Bad I think is another example And The cinematography In the early Episodes Or series Was just Incredible As well as the plot And then you find By the time it's got to At the seventh series It It just felt like That they're just spinning out What plot twist Can we come up with now And it Ah Yeah Well some things Some shows Some shows don't know When to end And some shows do And You know I think the best The best ones are like Okay They know that they're gonna go You know Like four seasons Five seasons or whatever it is And they will tell their story And it'll have a beginning A middle and an end Something that Holby City Doesn't have an end It's It's like a soap It's designed to go On and on and on and on But like Breaking Bad Or such like You know It's designed to come full circle And have a beginning And an end And you know You can differentiate Between the two But I think what else Also is interesting is That TV is now caught up With films in terms of Production value And the way they look And the way they sound And you know The quality is there It used to be very very Different You know TV was not as good As quality as movies Now they are Everything's in HD We all have our Wide screen TVs And our surround sound Or whatever it is You know Our TV to look as good As the movies now And anything less will do And I find that kind of Very interesting Yeah So I hope it doesn't kill Cinema I think yeah Me too Absolutely I think it's always That television is always Threatened to do that But the experience I think as long as they don't Like I worry about these Day in date releases Where they release it In cinema On digital at the same time Because I think Fundamentally A lot of people are quite lazy And will think You know I just stay at home And watch it And go out to the cinema But what they're missing Is that experience Of seeing the film Not only on a bigger screen With better sound And such like But with an audience And it's a shared experience And that's That's the beauty of it It's like going to a Concert Or staying home And listening to A record Or you know Going to the theatre Like you have That experience With the audience And when it's good It's amazing It's like you feel The energy toward a film Or something like that Reactions to the film And that's what makes cinema Such a great medium Now And that's what we all strive For as filmmakers We want to give the audience That experience Especially if it's like A horror film Or a comedy Or something like that Where the audience Is really getting into it And you're going to hear them screaming And gasping And laughing And whatever it is That they're doing And now I think I'm going to gain My films to be Audience reaction films But Doug Soldiers Was very much an audience Reaction film So it was the dissent And that's what I'm doing now It's like I want I want to get those audible Gasp See screams And laughs And whatever Whoever goes to see the movie Because that Yeah Means they're enjoying it more I must be a bit anti-social Because When I go to the cinema I wouldn't be happier Than if I was on my own I think I do agree That there is a time And a place For like going to see a cinema Going to the cinema Watching them move on your own And you're really concentrating On the movie And it's a great experience And I've done that many times But it's also great With a crowd As long as that crowd Are like into the movie They're not on their bloody Telephones Or they're chatting amongst Themselves Then it becomes a nightmare And it's easy For that to happen But yeah I have my Sort of set routine At cinema And I love cinema I've always loved cinema My grand used to take us When we were really young Weekly to see a different Some of them Sort of matinees That used to come out You never heard of them But they were just such Great Such great films Yeah But when I go now And you've got the online Booking I always book the back row Because I don't want People behind me It's just like a comfort Thing I don't want to hear talking Behind me Or crisps And popcorn And stuff And I always Because now age is on my Side Or age is against me I book the The two seats down the aisle So there's no Not just there's No one in front of me But if I need to get up And use the toilet I can just run down The aisle And then run back up again I think everybody Has that movie strategy Where's the best place to sit And if I get there And someone else is Sat in my seat I have no hesitation Saying I'm sorry I'm normally quite Reserved and quite polite Believe it or not But in this case I'll say sorry You're in my seat No I think that's fair enough This is the thing of booking In advance And getting your tickets And your seat numbers Whatever you want You want to get that seat You want to get the best seat Yeah, I think Ricky Gervais is in a good position Isn't he? Because his TV dramas Or docu Comedies or whatever they're called He just does the two series Doesn't he? Because he doesn't want it to become Something that it He doesn't want it The You know what I'm trying to say Neil, don't you? Well, he Yeah, I mean Well, he's doing the third season of What's it called? Afterlife Okay He's doing a third season of that Because it's been such a huge success for him But I mean So far anyway He kind of like He goes in He does something really good And then just Ends it and leaves And does something else And doesn't drag it on forever You know, the office was The right length And then he got out And the mistake Was going back and doing A David Brent movie or whatever But you know Everybody makes mistakes I really quite like that Was it on the road? Life on the road or something I think so, yeah But it just I don't know It just wasn't the same It was like, you know You did that Let it go Yeah, yeah, okay There's always that temptation Isn't there to To try and just have one Just get a little bit more out of it Yeah, I suppose so I suppose so What have been your Can we talk favourite films now? Of course Well, okay, so No matter what else changes around it There is always a number one movie That is my favourite movie of all time And will always be My favourite movie of all time It's the movie that Inspired me to make movies And so that's Rages of the Lost Ark Yes But around that There'll be a whole bunch of other movies Like Well, I was You know, I grew up with Steven Spielberg In the 80s So like Close Encounters Jaws Raiders, ET All those movies like just You know They've ingrained themselves in my soul I think But around that I love movies like The Wild Bunch I love A Bridge Too Far I love Lawrence of Arabia I love Sheet You know That kind of things as well Seven Samurai Seven Samurai A classic Also another magnificent seven You know I love Kurosawa movies It's fantastic I love I love so many movies There's like Definitely an action person More than anything I love great action cinema So like the shoot out in Heat Is incredible Things like that There's one scene in Seven Samurai It's a bit at the beginning Where they're recruiting the warriors To go up to the village And protect the village And And he stands behind the door In the hut And he says, right When each one comes in Try and smack them over the head With his stick And we'll see They're Samurai skills And The first six come in And they're like They're all these ultimate ninjas And then the last guy comes in And he goes He goes Ow! Why did you do that? That's great First Blood Huge final First Blood I knew you'd have my back I love First Blood I think it's kind of sad What happened to the Rambo character Because First Blood is An incredible movie The rest of them were like They've gone downhill Like steadily as they've gone But The first one is just A really, really well made And a brilliant film Brilliant film, love it When I went to Canada I visited as many of the locations Are possibly good I do that If I'm in the area Where something I love Has been filmed Like I have to go and find the locations And things like that It's just to be a piece Of that movie There's a great Video on YouTube About Somebody that they went And they They found all the locations In First Blood All the main It's funny when you see them They And all that stuff Yeah, I know It's fascinating I think I've watched that one To see the cliffs And all that stuff Because I visited the town Where they shot it And it was kind of This wasn't long After the film was made And I was really disappointed To find the police station Didn't exist That they built it For the film And it's long gone now But all the rest of the buildings Are kind of there So, yeah Very, very cool movie It's still on It's awesome Of that movie as well Oh, it was so gritty It was just And also it was It was a real change, wasn't it Because normally I think When the producers First got the script A lot of them went Hang on what The guys like Usually We don't do that We do like hero movies Every, you know Yes And I think Yeah I'm glad that Because I've read the book as well And the book is pretty dark And I'm glad they didn't Kill them in the end Just for that film But, yeah I like all that kind of Gritty adventure Escapism stuff Yeah Films like that Deliverance And the edge All those kind of things Inspired My next movie Which was A Descent Which is People People out in the middle of nowhere And shit goes wrong But, yeah First blood, huge inspiration Have you seen a movie Called The Professionals You might have Talked my I'm not talking About Lewis Collins And CI5 So Made in the late 60s Home with Lee Marvin And Bert Lancaster Called The Professionals About a bunch of mercenaries Who go into Mexico To kidnap Claudia Cardinal And It's just one of the great Kind of Mercenary movies It's just awesome It's a really good Great dialogue And great action Stuff like that I think you might like it Yeah, I I've probably seen it Just my memory Isn't what it used to be The first blood's funny Because My poor son He's only six But he get I've forced all the 80s And 90s movies on to him Got to be done Well We I mean it was My birthday essay So we just watched Rocky 3 We've got The whole series And I don't know If it's appropriate for Six-Show To type on those So he does kind of You know Get the whole Fight thing I'm Banned From showing in first blood At this moment in time Which Okay You got to take a hit sometimes I think so But I think Once he gets to like 9, 10 That's the time To show it to him Yeah I mean that's kind of The age that Like Most of my A lot of my favourite Films I saw around Between like Boop Just that period of time I think first blood Was around then as well Things like that Raiders was definitely around Banned Yeah That's the time I remember showing him E.T. And I think the first time Around he I think he was too young I just It just didn't Didn't get it But We have watched it Subsequently And now When we watch it The other day We've had one of the Stunt riders Go Oh cool Yeah Robert Cardose He's a very wonderful gentleman And he was He brought up on a set With Steven Spielberg And His job was just to Take these bikes The Kuaharas Or Kuaharas Yeah Yeah This phenomenal BMX bike That the world had yet to Really see Or certainly in England We had And when he got on set Steven Spielberg Said yeah We've got this great stunt guy And the guy Like fell off his bike And Robert said to him That's like That's He's a stuntman But he's not a BMXer Arm of BMXer Jumped me to show you And So he He promptly jumped over Steven Spielberg's Porsche And He said Yeah I can get all the guys to come on board And do all the stunt work So Bob Harrow That was a very famous name From the BMX era Yeah He's in it And yeah We had Robert on the show the other day And It's It's a wee bit of a shame To me that Stuff like that to me It's just legend It's just You know When am I ever going to get to chat With the GT for crying out loud And they did the BMX scene Which is just Any 80s kid Favorite scene It's a very Yeah It's a very, very cool Very cool Yeah These are things that are like iconic Like he was one of the guys Kids on the BMX It's brilliant Yeah But I think I'm kind of on my own In my life sometimes Because Our audience doesn't seem to Pick up on it I don't know if that's an age thing Or Or what it is Have you ever seen it's all gone Pete Tom? I have not, no Is it Is it Paul K? He's quite a British actor Very funny Yeah Yeah Paul K He used to be Dennis Penness Yes On that Saturday night show Let me just check I've got his Yeah, yeah Dennis Penness Yeah, Paul K He plays this DJ in Ibiza That loses his hearing And then goes through the mill With the cocaine and stuff And then it's just Ah Probably because a lot of it mirrors my life It's um It's just It's so So It's just one of those films It's got so many one-liners in it I know of it Yeah, I know of it I just haven't checked it out But I'll check it out Sure He's there and he's deaf And he says It was almost great to hear that And the funny thing was Paul K If his interview is to be believed He'd never was into the rave scene Or anything He just said he was a hardcore drinker Back in the day And yet he plays this Ibiza DJ Just perfectly Or certainly the kind of caricature Of what we'd think Yes Oh cool No, I definitely do I like a good recommendation So I'll check it out Yeah, you know It's good But it's also that thing, isn't it That what is art to someone And what's enjoyable to one person Can just go over someone else's That's both the beauty And the pain of it That's what makes it great But it also makes it painful sometimes Because you were involved in Hellboy Well, that's the pain side Yeah That was Yeah Sorry, were you the producer in that? No, no, I directed it Sorry, director For my sins Yes That was just a mistake all around Really, it was just It was a terrible script And a terrible idea And I was lured in For all the wrong reasons Of a bit of cash But mainly because I hadn't made a feature film in like nine years And was so hungry to make another feature film That when this one presented itself I kind of jumped at the chance Without sort of stopping To notice just how bad the whole thing was And I don't know, kind of blustered My way through it But, you know, you can't polish it To it as they say Was it that bad? I've got this thing that I really like real life So I like stuff that could actually be real Give or take, you know A plot twist or whatever Yeah, well, it's not remotely like that It's completely fantastical There's nothing Grounded in it at all Marvel comic, was it? It's not Marvel But it's based on a series of graphic novels, you know Yeah, I could never get into that stuff Me neither You know, I jumped into Hellboy And prepped for the movie But as a kid I was never into comics Or anything like that It's like not my scene It was all movies for me, just movies Yeah, I was exactly the same I used to read adventure books Stuff that could actually be real So I don't really... My girlfriend loves all that So she grew up with Marvel And, you know, the adventures And all this sort of stuff I didn't really encounter that I think a lot of people So much of what I like was inspired by my dad And stuff like that Survival stuff, adventure stuff Outdoors stuff Retreat stuff, things like that Was what I kind of grew up on So physical and things like that Perfect The Revenant? Yeah Yeah, that was Leonardo DiCaprio, wasn't it? Yeah Yeah, have you got this thing? My girlfriend hates watching a film with me Because I am one of those people that goes Well, that wouldn't happen Because I'm an author I can see where they've stitched stuff together Yeah You know, do you see that? I tend not to... I'll think about these things But I'll tend to keep it to myself Watching a movie or whatever But, yeah, I try not to be That guy who's like, oh, that's just... No, no, that wouldn't happen But I'm thinking I try not to be But apparently I am Apparently I am Or I think, actually, to be honest It's not so much with films and stuff It's more... I've got to be careful I can't drop any names in here But there's certain survival programs Right That are so ridiculously fabricated And... I don't... You said you like survival yourself I've always read, you know, like the SAS Survival manual I think Lofty Wiseman Trying to get Lofty on the show For a while I've been chatting to him Loved all that sort of stuff And, yeah, I've got this thing That I don't like being lied to I don't mind if someone says, look, you know In a real situation You're probably never going to catch a rabbit Unless you're really, really lucky And your skills, you know You've lived in the nature of your whole life So for the purposes of exercise We've bought these ones from a pet shop Maybe a pet shop I don't mind... I like that sort of approach But I don't like this constant lie Into the kids This giving them this false idea Of what it is to be a man Or what it is to survive Yeah, and I think that's fair enough Because some of them make it look like Survival is kind of a walk in the park Like, oh, yeah, just go up Find this, eat this, find that, eat that Like, yeah, it's not that easy No, no So let's talk about the lair then How did this come about? Well, I just did a film called The Reckoning Weirdly, I shot it in 2019 And it deals with the plague And of course it came out in 2020 So we had no idea what was going to happen in 2020 But there was a film, we made a film about a plague And then off the back of that I wanted to make more of a... That was a horror film But it's kind of very gothic and slightly drama And more sort of esoteric And then I came off the back of that Wanting to make much more of a kind of old school Blood and guts, action, horror film Like dog soldiers, like the descent I guess I started out making And I had this idea of There's something going on in Afghanistan or whatever Because of the Russians and things like that So I had all these ideas brewing And it seemed like At the time, because I wrote it during Covid And lockdown and stuff like that Was like, is it a film that I could make under those circumstances Because I knew that certain films were getting made But it was helpful if it was like A small group of people, a few locations And maybe somewhere like hot and sunny To go out and work in So I was like, that's where the desert sort of setting came from And so, yeah, so I wrote the layer And got soldiers and explosions And guns and monsters and things like that Just a lot of fun To make a fun movie So I wrote that in 2020 And managed to get the monies together To shoot it this year It all came together very, very quickly And this is Charlotte Kirk I'm just looking at the other screen now So Charlotte is my co-creator And partner in crime And she's also the lead in the movie Because she was the lead in the reckoning as well And she's my muse Yeah, do you guys got some sort of synergy going on then? Oh, definitely Well, we're engaged from the start So we've definitely got some synergy going on Oh, bloody hope so, yeah But creatively She comes much more from a dramatic acting background And I come from sort of monster movies And directing and such like Meeting the middle somewhere A lot of the ideas that she throws into these things Is very left field for me But they make a lot of sense And it's very character-based sort of stuff So we meet in the middle And bounce ideas backwards and forwards And it works really, really well Yes, because it's hard, isn't it, to find Somebody that has your vision? Yes, it's very difficult But I think early on We could tell we were into the same kind of things And movies and things like that So she's a huge fan of John Carbon as the thing And Aliens and The Shining and stuff like that And it's like, okay, these are all some of my favorite movies as well And these are the kind of things that we're aspiring to So the layer we wanted to Make something akin to Aliens That would leave people as shell-shocked As that did when I first saw it When will it be released? We'll finish it right about January, February And then hopefully we'll be released late that year What are the biggest headaches then When you're on set or you're trying to Get something like this I mean, obviously it's different Whether you're producing or directing Or writing But can you give us a few ideas for those of us that have never The biggest problem is we're never having enough time We had 30 days to shoot it Sounds like a lot But when you try to do an action film And that's a lot Like a Marvel movie or something like that They'll still have like 200 days to shoot something like that Or more Even something like Rages of the Lost Ark Had 75 days to shoot it So we had 30 days Which to try and do something like that Is not easy when you need to get When you're dealing with a lot of action You're dealing with dangerous stuff such as stunts Explosives Firearms We were lucky enough to get to use blank firing weapons Which It's not that common for a low budget movie Like a lot of them nowadays It's like they use What are they called Replicar guns But they're like fire little ball bearings But they don't fire them in the film They just pull the trigger and click, click, click And afterwards they add in the sound effect And the muzzle flash But you can tell Because the actors aren't There's no kickback to it There's no recoil And the muzzle flash doesn't give off Any interactive lighting around them Whereas Using blank firing weapons The actors felt It allowed them to be more authentic In handling the weapons Because they're dangerous Whereas the plastic ones are not And just getting them to respect the weapons And respect How the handle them is just like I think this is really, really important And then the actual Interaction with the weapon when it's firing Or just makes it look more gritty And realistic And that's key to the kind of things That I want to do But yeah I mean we had a fairly Small cast, like 10 people total And some tricky locations Some very unpleasant locations But It's just time Just waiting to do as much as possible In the shortest amount of time And that's not always tricky And you can't shout and scream at people I'm not interested in doing that And nobody wants to work for somebody Who's going to shout and scream at them So it's just trying to Keep people excited and enthused And motivated and Keep them going Yes I can tell you another of my pet hates now It's not a pet hate It just Amazes me that Hollywood will spend Some amount of million dollars on a film And no one Has told the actor You don't shut your eyes when you fire When you fire a weapon It's Yeah somebody you've come across Oh definitely I think it's really Difficult for people who Have only had a couple of days practice Or whatever to get used to it I know Charlotte Blinks a few times when she was firing She didn't shut her eyes but she Blinked I know Mel Gibson is kind of famous for He can't not blink when he fires a weapon And I think a lot of actors do But yeah I think some were fine Some blinked Nobody was holding their eyes When they were firing We tried to keep it as realistic as we could Did you have to get Actors to play Local Afghans We did We actually found A couple of local guys Of Afghan origin to play Afghans some of the others are like Heavy disguise but For anybody who features You know we got Some authentic actors for the roles And Neil it's been absolutely Wonderful Anything you'd like to If you'd like to Promote or add Not at the moment I mean the layer isn't coming out Until next year so I mean People just look out for that that'd be great And yeah One last thing we should Talk about Do you do some episodes of Westworld I did an episode of Westworld Yes How was that It was the opportunity To do a western for one I never had a chance to do a western before I got to do some shootouts and things like that Which was great fun We got to work with Ed Harris which was great But mainly I got to work with Anthony Hopkins I got to direct Hopkins so it's just like Ah you know A legend so It was a blast I'm guessing you Saw the original Westworld film Movie Because my episode Was in season one of the TV Show but I'm afraid I have not watched The other two seasons Yes Just haven't go around to it Yeah this goes back to what I was saying earlier We I think we watched the first season Because I was obviously a big fan of the original Film with Yule Brinner And I don't know It did get to a point where it just got really technical And involved It was quite technical anyway But I couldn't see as a concept I couldn't really see how it could sustain itself As a story as to where it was going to go Into the wider world That the Westworld concept Would basically burn out in the first season Because they'd have to expand it And then you'd forget about the fact That it was Westworld Which was the whole point of the first place The other two seasons and see what it was like Hey I'm available If you I can always Squeeze in A shooting in my calendar mate If we Need any military advisors Or anything like that, I'd be good Well I've just landed my first Film role With The wonderful Martin Webster Who's just released A penitent Great Congratulations It's a lovely little film Shot on incredibly low budget But it's been winning awards So good on Martin He's just offered me I'm going to guess It's probably more of a cameo In his latest production Are you itching to get in front of the camera? Is that it? Neil, I'm one of these people That If I had a little role in the film I'd be so happy For the rest of my life It's funny Giving it a try and seeing Just try a bit of everything I don't really even care what it is I'm not out to I don't want to Be the next Brad Pitt or anything Although a lot of people will obviously Make that mistake It's just that When I was a little boy I just dreamed of things Like I dreamed of diving off the cliff At Acapulco When I saw the Elvis movie And then as an adult I'm in Acapulco I'm swimming across that lagoon Climbing up the cliff And I'm diving off Not from the top folks It's 42 meters high That's pretty high But it's silly little things like that I mean I've caught piranhas in the Amazon Because The books that I read when I was a Teenager You know I read about People catching piranhas in the Amazon And there's this fish and it can eat a horse Or something I mean obviously writing a book Is quite a nice thing To achieve And now I take My little thing every day Because I get to sweet to wonderful Talented people like yourself Neil So Just to have a little role in a film I don't care what it is I'll be very happy about that Alright I will keep that in mind for sure I'm sorry I wasn't putting the pressure on you But Martin has now offered me something So that's great My only thing is I haven't put something in the UK again I haven't shot in the UK for a long time So I'd like to do that There's a whole bunch of people I want to get In cameo roles and stuff I'll have to send you a copy of my memoir Eating Smoke I've been approached by Is it William Morris Is the biggest agency in Hollywood Or one of the I've been approached By Hollywood about 10 times For the rights to How is it My first memoir Eating Smoke One man's descent Into crystal meth psychosis In Hong Kong's triad heartland Wow And nothing Ever came of it But I spoke to a wonderful Lyle Howry the other day Who's also a Producer He's over there in Hollywood He said, yeah, send it across Chris But The way I explained it to Lyle Is there was a time When you had classic Films Do you remember Midnight Express Yes Oh my god And it seems now that Honey would just shy away from that From just creating classics And they stick with the kind of tried and tested You know And this sort of stuff But Eating Smoke would Be It just would make It would just be great on the screen I think It might need a sort of Danny Boyle Take on it because Of the psychosis Aspect But yes That sounds like a good subject I can't believe somebody like An Amazon or something like that Do you want to do it? Yes I'll pin you a copy Yes, please Thank you No, thank you Neil It's just been an absolutely wonderful Chat And I get to ask all the things That are in my head I wish you all the best With the Lair I can't wait to Yeah, can't wait to see it Can't wait to show it to people Yeah, feel free to come on The show again and when it comes out And let us know how it's going Alright, yes, thank you So stay on the line So I can thank you properly When I hit the record off But to our friends at home Massive love to you all Thank you for continuing to support the channel I hope you love this chat as much as I did If you can like and subscribe That will be legendary And we'll see you next time