Blast from the past…making Deathwatch

A ten minute video diary/making of… featurette that I put together for my first film, Deathwatch. It was a horror movie set in the trenches of World War 1 starring Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis.  Not a great movie but it has its moments and was pretty ambitious for the budget.   I came across this little featurette whilst cleaning out some old files and thought it would be fun to share for those who are interested.  I tried to embed the YouTube video but it just wouldn’t take here for some reason. So, here you go…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ljN1MsOyx0

23rd October

I’m writing at the moment, so have almost nothing of any interest or value to contribute.    Kane is slowly gearing up for its first set of release dates at the end of this year and early 2010, which means James and I are going to be starting a publicity tour of Europe at the beginning of December.  He’s shooting a new movie right now and I’m taking some quiet time to develop some new ideas and also adapt a children’s fantasy book that I hope will become a directing project some time in the future.  Mostly this involves me staring out of the window, walking the dogs, standing in the garden and being pecked by my raven,  domestic chores, playing computer games, reading and astonishingly little actual writing…. But that’s the process, so I don’t mess with it and I’m not  going to claim it isn’t a pretty good life.

17th OCTOBER

I know, I know I need to write up a proper and detailed summary of these last few weeks of jetting around on behalf of the Puritan.  I’ve been home a few days now and needed to revert to domestic mode and deal with some real life rather than the exotic life of film.  I’m not going to lie, it’s fab going to film festivals, being treated wonderfully by great people and getting to meet the rich and famous as well as seeing movies for free but at the same time, it’s not real life and it’s probably just as well that toilets need unblocking and wood needs chopping, just to remind me which way is up.

The Sitges Festival in Spain was wonderful though.  The audiences appeared to love Kane and really embraced what the film was trying to do (sucks that Variety wasn’t so kind to it in their review though) and the Spanish distributors seemed to be really behind the film and are looking to give it a big release early next year.  Apart from being great guys they are also amazing hosts and we ate at some fabulous restaurants and generally had a swell time.  Felt very Bacchanalian in my indulgence. Something that seems worryingly easy to do in Spain. I got to meet Viggo Mortensen, which was a great pleasure; he’s a proper guy, very charming, self effacing and thoughtful.   Had a brief chat with Duncan Jones, the director of MOON. If you haven’t seen this fabulous little sci-fi movie, I urge you to check it out.  Sam Rockwell gives a fantastic performance(s).  

 Paul Berrow (Producer), Me and Samuel Hadida (Producer)

I promise I’ll write some more soon.

SPILL AUDIO INTERVIEW

I did a kind of goofy interview with the guys from Spill.com whilst I was in Austin. I’d forgotten about it until I was just reminded. It was fun to do and not really very serious but here’s the link if you want to listen.
http://my.spill.com/profiles/blogs/michael-j-bassett-interview

SOLOMON KANESPACE

In the neverending battle to increase awareness and generate more fans, Kane now has his own myspace page… There’s a bunch of stills there, which some of you may not have seen before.

http://www.myspace.com/solomonkanethemovie

Join up, spread the word…

REVIEWS

I’m not going to go crazy chasing every review around, there are just too many sites these days but here are a few I’ve been made aware of that are all very positive.  If you know about others, then let me know as I think having this material to hand could help get distributors more enthusiastic to show the film widely or step up a campaign running up to release.  Oh yeah,  don’t bother telling me about the stinkers, I know all about those too : )

NEW ONE AT AICN ADDED 7TH OCT – http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/node/42638

http://www.film.com/features/story/fantastic-fest-solomon-kane-perfect/30268111

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/solomon-kane-film-review-1004011948.story

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41022

http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/102/1028573p1.html (this one frustrates me; great review but lowish score…)

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/2008-12-6-motion-captured/posts/fantastic-fest-mini-solomon-kane-kicks-ass

http://theflickcast.com/2009/09/27/fantastic-fest-review-solomon-kane/

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/reviews/fantastic-fest-review-solomon-kane-bjsal.php

http://www.fearnet.com/news/b16619_TIFF__09_Review___Solomon_Kane__.html?intcid=search_all_solomon-kane

http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/toronto/midnight-madness/solomon-kane/5005594.article

THE ROAD HOME

It’s been an exciting, fulfilling and exhausting few weeks but now I’m finally back home and boy, is it nice to be in my own bed again.  This felt like a long trip and a lot of ground has been covered; Toronto, Los Angeles and Austin. 

Now that it’s over and I don’t have to talk to any more journalists for a while, I’ve taken a wander through some of the reviews and comments on Kane and I have to say that I’m really quite pleased.  I think we come out of it all very well.  The feeling is overwhelmingly positive, no doubt.  From both print publications and online pundits as well as tweeters and fans in general.  Sure, there are some really bad reviews and some people just don’t think the film is any good.  Some people just seem to have axes to grind, some  seem to be dissapointed that the film just isn’t what they wanted from Solomon Kane (and I really can’t blame anyone for sticking to their purist guns and personal vision for him) and others just think the movie sucks in every way.   Of course, they’re all entitled to their opinion and some make valid points of criticism that I am all too aware of.   But it seems that almost everyone else found something positive  in the film.   But what has come through so strongly is that a really good number look past any limitations or faults and feel that it is a genuinely great film in its own right and a superb example of the genre . I can’t possibly ask for more than that.  So my homecoming is a very happy one. 

SOLOMON KANE TRAILER

Just realised I didn’t put a link to my own trailer here, which seems like a little bit of an oversight…

There’s loads of versions over the net now but YouTube seem to have a pretty good HD version here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lalm_kkczVM&feature=related

FACEBOOK KANE

So, as these things go, Solomon Kane has joined facebook….

http://www.facebook.com/solomonkanethemovie

It’s one of the ‘official’ sites where updates and info will be placed.  Please feel free to join and I’ll pop along every so often to answer questions and share some thoughts.

KANE SCREENS IN TORONTO

So that’s all done…

Solomon Kane was finally unveiled to a hugely enthusiastic crowd at the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto Film Festival.  It was, literally, screened at midnight last night but still the queue was all the around the block and more. The largest turnout for a midnight screening, I’m told.  

James and I arrived in a limo… which is always a bit of a stupid-ass thing to do but seems to be how these things are done - and I asked the driver to take us around the block a few times, just to make sure that this huge queue was actually finishing at the entrance to my screening. Seems that it did. 

And, you know, it seems like most people kinda liked the movie.  I’ve no doubt it wasn’t what everyone was expecting and some are just never going to go for it but most of the crowd stayed for the Q&A afterwards and lots stayed to pick up a poster and chat. I just wished there was more time to talk to everyone. 

If you were there and are reading this – thanks for making it a great night for me and James.