Interview: Jonathan Sothcott… Producer, Writer, Casting Director… all around good dude…
Greetings Shamblers,
Ok, remember this (LINK) from April last year?!?!? Go…take a look, we’ll wait.
Ok good, you’re all caught up then…
Yeah, that, well it looks like we are getting some North American love over here finally from Black and Blue Films!!! Not that they didn’t love us… they just needed some distribution! We first broke the news LAST APRIL, about the new film in that same interview called ‘Devil’s Playground’ featuring Athletic zombies… yeah I said it, but once you read HOW they come about it makes sense… Anyway that film is done and here’s an ‘official as it gets’ synopsis and a trailer from the Black and Blue films site itself:
Devil’s Playground :
As a performance-enhancing drug turns people into flesh-eating zombies, one man must find the only girl who is immune before it’s too late.
Winner of 4 British Horror Film Awards – Best Film, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Producers
Well, Hello Mr. Fancy Pants! I happen to HAVE one of those ‘Best Producers’ right here…for a RETURN VISIT!!! (What the fuck am I gonna ask him about this time?!?!?!) Ladies and Gentlemen… Welcome back Jonathan Sothcott!
ZK: Heya Jonathan! Welcome back, glad to see we didn’t scare you off!
JS: Hey it’s always a pleasure talking horror movies with you! And all I can tell you about the ‘Best Producer’ award is that it was a slow year!
ZK: So… fast fucking zombies huh? Want to explain yourself?
JS: Well it’s kind of an accepted genre convention now, isn’t it? 28 Days Later was the gamechanger I guess, but I was watching Return of the Living Dead (AGAIN) the other night and they were getting pretty nippy back then (look at old tar man). In movies like in life, to adapt is to survive. On the whole, horror movies have become faster in order to meet audience expectations – as have action films. Zombies – and vampires and werewolves – have kept pace. Mummies haven’t — and I think that’s why there aren’t any mummy movies any more.
ZK: Ok, I have to admit that the idea of a performance enhancing drug being the trigger for the whole ‘fast zombie’ thing is a GREAT fucking idea… I love the fact that there is an explanation for the speed/agility and stuff… I give it up to the writer on that one sir! So I see you’ve been doing a ton of casting these days, how the hell did you get such a great cast for Devil’s Playground?… I mean, I’m sure that I’m not the only one who noticed Jamie Murray’s name in the credits… I realize she was Dexter’s ‘crazy as balls’ girlfriend in the ‘Dexter’ TV show… CRAZY HOT that is!!! Danny Dyer (Severance, Doghouse), Sean Pertwee (Equilibrium, Dog Soldiers!), Craig Fairbrass (Terminator(TV), Cliffhanger, Dead Cert) , Colin Salmon (Resident Evil, AVP), MyAnna Buring (The Descent, Lesbian Vampire Killers)… the list goes on and on, it reads like a ‘Nerd-gasm’ of genre talent…so how did you manage to get all these people together?
JS: Jaime is the daughter of my my partner in Black and Blue Films, Billy Murray. The Murrays are my second family: Billy is my best friend. I was friends with Jaime of course, but she’s flying so high out in the US with Dexter and, more recently, Spartacus for Starz that there was no guarantee she’d do it, so I’d say it was the biggest coup of the film to get her for a fairly small role. She’s a brilliant actress and I can’t wait to get her in another film. Danny, Pertwee, Craig and Salmon were all mates of mine I had done other films with. Colin Salmon is a bloody brilliant film actor, one of the best we have in this country and I’ve now done 5 films with him. MyAnna Buring – we knew her work and had her in to audition and she was just incredible. She’s gone on to land a big part in Twilight, which doesn’t surprise me at all, the girl’s a real talent! We use a lot of the same actors in different films – I like using familiar genre faces that audiences enjoy seeing – like Hammer used to.
ZK: So things at Black and Blue Films seem to be humming along, tell us a bit about some of the projects that are underway…
JS: Since Devil’s Playground I’ve done another film with Danny, 7Lives, which Billy and I were Executive Producers on. It’s a kind of Sliding Doors type thriller that should premiere at Cannes. We then made two very different films back to back with our friend Simon Phillips who produced the underrated post-apocalyptic thriller 7Lives: a slapstick comedy called How To Stop Being A Loser and supernatural thriller Airborne starring genre icons Julian Glover and Mark Hamill. It was a real honour to work with Mark – the star of the biggest franchise in film history – and we had a lot of fun talking about 50s and 60s horror movies. One night we were filming at the Space Museum in Leicester and after we wrapped there was a fancy dress birthday party… with a Star Wars theme… so the poor guy walked out of his trailer into a parade of Storm Troopers and wookies! He was a very good sport about it though. And this week I’ve just wrapped a movie I am truly proud of – a dark tale of cannibalism called Elfie Hopkins (see pic at bottom of the interview for a sneak peek!) starring Ray and Jaime Winstone. Its a project I’ve been tracking for years – the director was production designer on my first short film – and I’m so please we’ve managed to bring it to the screen. Ryan, the director, is a real talent and I think he’s got a very British, eccentric Tim Burton vibe – a film-maker to watch.
ZK: Ok, so since you’re already answered my ‘usual zombie question’ last time… How about this: What would you say is YOUR favourite horror movie of all time, and why is it such?
JS: That’s a tough one… there are so many… my favourite movie of all time is undoubtedly Jaws. I am obsessed with Jaws. I love it so much that I even love the sequels. Yes, even the 3D one and the one in the Bahamas Michael Caine used to pay for his new house. My love for Jaws is so unconditional that not only do I love the whole series, I also have to watch every crappy straight-to-DVD shark movie that comes out. So I have sat through utter dross such as Red Water, Shark Attack 1-3, Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus. You name the crappy shark movie, I’ve seen it. But Jaws to me is pure, perfect cinema and I love it. Honourable mentions have to go to the first Hammer Dracula, Masque of the Red Death, The Wicker Man, Blood On Satan’s Claw, American Werewolf In London, Nightmare on Elm Street, Lost Boys, Fright Night, Critters and, well, I could go on forever.
ZK: So, tell us about the distribution deals that you got going on for us folks ‘across the pond’ here in North America…
JS: Well Devil’s Playground was released by eOne in Canada last week and will be released in North America by Indomina in early September 2011. Dead Cert we have just signed with Shout Factory who are, I believe, releasing it in North America in the fourth quarter of this year.
ZK: Look! the Canadian Art right here!
ZK: I gotta tell you I’m pretty fucking STOKED to see that we’ll finally get to see some of the Black and Blue stuff over here, makes me want to kick a Chihuahua… ok, I made that last part up… I want to kick them anyways…especially the one in Paris’s purse (but only if she’s wearing it at the time) but seriously, I am glad to see your stuff make it over here… WOAH…Left turn, back to the interview questions, are you still writing?
JS: Well… yes and no. I am writing a monthly column for the recently relaunched UK horror magazine The DarkSide. I used to buy it when I was 14 and devouring all the genre material I could get my hands on, so that’s nice to have come full circle! My writing credit on Dead Cert was really to try and steer it in the right direction – the story origins of that one are so bloody convoluted I’m not even sure I can explain them! To say that film isn’t what I hoped it would be is an understatement, but it ‘does what it says on the tin’ and I hope people have fun watching it. I am toying quite seriously with writing another book – I know my girlfriend would rather I wrote more because it’s so much less stressful than making films, but it doesn’t pay as well! To be honest I have been working pretty flat out since the first quarter of 2009 and have produced nearly a dozen movies in that time, so I’d like a bit more r and r – I’m getting married to the girl of my dreams soon and that can change your perception a bit!
ZK: So, what is on the immediate horizon, then what’s after that? (PLUG YOUR STUFF HERE)
JS: In May I start a comedy called Strippers Vs Werewolves… you can probably guess what it’s about. It’s a Kick Ass/Piranah 3D type of humour and I think it will be very funny. I’m casting it right now and I already have Barbara Nedeljakova from the Hostel movies and the awe-inspiring Sarah Douglas from, well, just about every brilliant 80s genre sequel. I’m totally in awe of Sarah, she’s a bona fide horror movie goddess!
Ok Jonathan, get out of here… you got enough to do than to hang out in this hell-hole with us all the time… and let us know when you got new stuff for us! Oh…and if you need an extra for the whole Stripper something, something movie… CALL ME!
JS: Yeah knowing me I’ll be back with 6 more movies this time next year! Thanks for having me.
Elfie says: Want some Bacon?!?!?!
I’m the Zombieking… and this topic is now DEAD to me! Oh, who the fuck am I kidding… drop by anytime Jonathan!
-ZK
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