Q & A with BLACK SHEEP director Jonathan King
September 6th 2007 01:43
With the New Zealand horror fauna flick Black Sheep digging gory hooves and bleating all manner of bloody chaos around the world I threw some questions at its first time feature writer/director Jonathan King, who lives in my old stomping ground, windy Wellington.
Horrorphile: How did Black Sheep first come about? What enabled you to get the financing for it?
Financiers responded immediately to the pitch. Internationally people knew about New Zealand's connection with sheep and saw it as a fresh horror idea. Here, the New Zealand Film Commission thought it was a good script and supported it from the first draft. Our challenge was to make sure the script delivered the kind of movie you'd hope to see when you heard the idea.
H: Have you always been interested in horror movies? If so, what horror movies and directors do you admire?
JK: The Evil Dead and Dawn of the Dead were seminal horror movie experiences for me. Later An American Werewolf in London, which had a big affect on the tone of this. Jaws and The Birds are films that played into it as well. My formative movie-going experiences were with films that transported me to another time or place: Star Wars, later Brazil. Going back to older films: Cat People, The Haunting, Citizen Kane, these were films that had a real effect on me.
H: Black Sheep's combination of horror and comedy is very reminiscent of Peter Jackson’s early films, in particular Bad Taste and Braindead. What influence did Jackson and these movies have on you?
JK: I was influenced by Braindead and Bad Taste. But, more than just the films themselves, I was really influenced by the fact that someone made films like that in New Zealand, in the city where I live. Also how he made Bad Taste - for no money, in the weekends - was a great inspiration to keep going when I was learning how to be a filmmaker: if he could do it like that, then I could too, if I had to (in the end I didn't have to).
H: They say working with children and animals can be a nightmare. How difficult was it working with real sheep? Were there sheep wranglers, or even sheep whisperers on location?
JK: Yeah, it was a bit of a nightmare! We had amazing sheep wranglers, but there is a limit to what sheep will do. There's a lot of footage on the cutting room floor of sheep running in the wrong direction, stopping for a bit of grass or looking generally kind of lame.
H: What festivals has it played at? Has it scooped any awards?
JK: We had our world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in the Midnight Madness section. Since then it's played in fantastic film festivals in Spain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, South by Southwest in Austin Texas, and Tribeca in New York. I've just been to FrightFest in London. The film won the Audience Prize and the Jury Prize at the Gerardmer Fantastic Film Festival in France and the Silver Raven at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival.
H: How much of the film’s budget was set aside for SFX? Was this the most expensive part of the movie?
JK: I guess proportionally it was ... it all adds up! Just being on the land was expensive and difficult.
H: When you were writing the screenplay did you consciously think “I want to make a cult movie, what elements do I need to put into it to assure this kind of status”?
JK: No, definitely not. I had a fun, distinctive idea. I just wanted to make the best version of that idea that I could. Its strange or distinctive nature was what helped get it made. I didn't want to bland it out, but nor did I put stuff in just to be “culty” or weird.
H: At the screening I was at, several people walked out, presumably they couldn’t stomach the movie’s outrageous splatstick. What do you say to that?
JK: Pussies! I wonder what they were expecting …?
H: Would you ever make a straight horror movie? Or would you prefer to move into another genre entirely?
JK: I want to keep making fantastic films. I doubt I'll go and do a straight romance or kitchen-sink drama. I would love to make a scarier film than Black Sheep was, but I'm not sure I'll ever do a completely straight horror film, I want to elevate or twist it in some way. All comes down to the story, really …
H: Will there by an unrated shearer’s, er sorry, director’s cut for the DVD market?
JK: DVD will have Making Of, Deleted Scenes, Bloopers and, hopefully, some cool Weta concept art ... but, no, the cut is the cut!
H: You’ve co-penned another horror, The Tattooist. What else do you have on the horizon? Black Sheep 2: Killer Lambs, or Ram’s Revenge, perhaps?
JK: The Tattooist is out in NZ now. Not all of our work made it to the screen. I hope it does well, but can't say I have a big stake in it. Next up I hope to shoot an adaptation of Maurice Gee's Under the Mountain, working, again, with Weta Workshop and with Matthew Grainger whom I wrote The Tattooist with.
A special thanks to Jonathan for his time and additional Black Sheep pics.
| 81 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
A true Horrorphile exclusive. Great interview and thanks for sharing it with us.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Learned a lot.
Comment by KylieW
Celebrity Obsession
Comment by Nickoftime's Sanity Corner
what a great opportunity for some really cool inside info! Nice score there Bryn...
Is this coming out stateside? Cause I'm almost sure I saw a trailer for it a while ago...
But could be wrong though!
Great review, interview and trailer...
Take care,
Nick
Comment by D. Armenta
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Nick, yeah, should be out stateside ... perhaps not in wide distribution, but the "Peter Jackson" element should see that it recieves some attention from US critics.