Joe Cornish’s sensational ATTACK THE BLOCK is finally hitting Blu-ray/DVD this week in the U.S., so how ‘bout one more probing interview with the filmmaker before he goes on to greater glory?
It should come as no surprise that the Blu-ray for ATTACK THE BLOCK is every bit as considered and joyous as the film itself. The centerpiece of the disc is BEHIND THE BLOCK, an hour-long behind-the-scenes documentary that follows Cornish and his rambunctious cohorts through the early days of preproduction to the utterly exhausted wrap. It’s a thorough, fairly unvarnished glimpse into low-budget moviemaking; while the finished film may feel effortless, first-time director Cornish clearly had his hands full with a mostly juvenile cast and a host of technical challenges that couldn’t be fixed in postproduction. Sure, Cornish had the benefit of a great screenplay (which he wrote), but film history is awash in sure things wrecked by directors who got in over their head. Oftentimes, these resourceful, small-scale triumphs - and I’d place ATTACK THE BLOCK in a class with THE HOWLING, Carpenter’s ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 and THE TERMINATOR - are more impressive than their big-budget brethren.
When I chatted with Cornish last July, we mostly discussed inspiration and theme. This time, I wanted to get a little more nuts-and-bolts, while also getting his thoughts on ATTACK THE BLOCK star John Boyega’s meteoric rise (he’s been cast as the lead in Spike Lee’s HBO boxing drama DA BRICK). Unfortunately, our time ran out before I could ask about Terry Notary’s furry-suited performance as the alien(s), but you can learn more about that when you dig into the supplements on this superlative, must-own disc.
Beaks: It’s been so much fun to go through the Blu-ray and really get into the guts of this movie. The behind-the-scenes documentary is one of the best I’ve seen in a while. As you were shooting the film, were you constantly aware of being filmed? And were you always open to a documentary this thorough?
Joe Cornish: Yeah, very much so. I’m a big DVD and Blu-ray consumer. I’ve got thousands of the fuckers. I think I’m going to be one of those old men that is killed when his towers of DVDs fall over, and his neighbors don’t find him for several days. So I’m very interested in delivering a very good disc. I’m a big home cinema fanatic. I’ve got a projector and surround sound, and I really enjoy going to the movies. But I really enjoy watching stuff at home as well, and I particularly love a good making-of documentary. I love the ones on David Fincher’s discs. The ZODIAC making-of is really cool. And I love the THREE KINGS making-of. A good making-of is a really valuable thing to me. So we made sure we gave this guy called Phil Stoole, who is a very good little documentary filmmaker, full access, and I think he’s done a great job. I think he really captures the atmosphere on the set and, hopefully, if you enjoy ATTACK THE BLOCK you will feel a kind of atmosphere of joy and exuberance and an enthusiasm from the film. That was very much the case on the set. I think his film captures that.
Beaks: And amidst all of this, you were working with a cast of kids who were, for the most part, new to this process. It looks like you child wrangling as much as directing.
Cornish: Well, you know I’m quite immature myself, so it doesn’t take too much to get me to behave like a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old. I found it an absolute joy. I love those actors, and I loved working with them, and I’m amazingly proud of the work they did. I think it was very different having the energy of all of those young people for whom this was their first film - and not only was it their first film, but it necessitated them chasing aliens with samurai swords on mopeds. They were just so up for it, and so excited to be involved and their enthusiasm just infected the whole set and the film. And the film is about that; the film is about how much energy teenagers have, and how naturally funny they are and how self-aware they are and how they greet the world with so much passion. The film is about how that energy can be negative if you neglect it, if it feels disconnected from the world, and how positive it can be if it’s embraced and channeled in a constructive way.
Beaks: Probs (Sammy Williams) and Mayhem (Michael Ajao) are little movie stars on this thing. I’m kind of hoping they can perhaps will themselves to stop growing like the kid in THE TIN DRUM. I don’t want them to grow up.
Cornish: It’s like the urban myth of Gary Coleman being given drugs in his cereal to keep him [small]. That was an urban myth, right? That wasn’t real, was it?
Beaks: It was certainly an urban myth.
Cornish: And you are encouraging me to do that with my young actors, aren’t you?
Beaks: I am. I want you to stunt their growth. But seriously, they are so much fun. Were you tempted to use them more than you did in the film?
Cornish: Not really. You know, we stuck to the script and we stuck to what was on the page. But one or two people have talked to us about an ATTACK THE BLOCK TV series, and when people talk about that, I always love the idea of it being about them. I love the idea of following like a big adult scale alien invasion, but through the eyes of two irresponsible eleven year olds. You’d have to clean up the language, maybe a bit less pot smoking, but, yeah, I think that’s kind of a cool idea. But, again, they are growing pretty fast. Michael has put on a good couple of inches since we stopped filming, so we’d have to have a hefty BENJAMIN BUTTON style CGI budget to pull that one off.
Beaks: You’ve been talking about a potential TV show lately. I guess it would depend on where you took the show, but perhaps you wouldn’t have to clean up the language. Do you have any ideas of where you would like the show to be broadcast?
Cornish: No, you know we haven’t really thought about it seriously at all. It’s been mentioned very preliminary by one or two people, but to be honest I’ve been so busy traveling and promoting the film, I haven’t really had a chance to talk seriously, so I wouldn’t want anyone to think that this is something that’s actually like going to happen soon. It’s just fun riffing and thinking about the possibilities. Forgive me if I do that out loud, but don’t take it to mean that it’s going to happen or pending.
Beaks: Well, some people will say it’s imminent anyway.
Cornish: But that’s cool. I would like to hear what ideas other people have, you know, what kind of thing people might want to see. I’m always interested in hearing what fans and readers and people who enjoyed the film would like to see. I think that’s interesting.
Beaks: I like how you really make the kids active participants in commentary. They come up with really cool ideas about their characters’ backstories. For instance, I’d never noticed that Jerome was wearing a [school] uniform under his hoodie; I never really thought about that until the commentary. And that’s great. How did you go about getting these kids so involved?
Cornish: Well, I think that’s what a good director does. I mean I speak as someone who has only made one film, so I’m kind of not necessarily an authority, but to me a good a director is somebody who gets the best out of everybody around them and is inclusive and collaborative. When you are on a film set, whether you are working with adults or young people, you are surrounded by loads of intelligent minds and people who are skillful. In the case of these actors, not only were they really good performers and very talented, they also knew aspects of that world that I wouldn’t necessarily know. Plus, when you write a script you are kind of looking at the whole forest and then when you cast it, the actors take ownership of the trees, if you will excuse the forestry metaphor. But you know that’s really interesting as well: one of those kids might look at the part I’ve written and spend more time that I might necessarily have fleshing out the unwritten areas of the characters. So I think any director who doesn’t do that would be kind of crazy. Working with Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Jackson on TINTIN, you see them do that a lot: how collaborative and open they are, and how interested they are in listening to everybody’s ideas. On the one hand, you have to be a benevolent dictator to get the thing done, but on the other hand you have to be very inclusive and very open. It’s kind of foolish not to be, I think.
Beaks: And that’s definitely one philosophy. But, as you know, there are also directors who are much more dictatorial, who do exert a kind of absolute power over the production. It depends on who’s wielding the power, but both seem to work.
Cornish: I’m not saying they are mutually exclusive. I think you have to do both because it’s very expensive, and you have to get on with it and do it and do it well. But I went to great efforts to include the kids in rehearsal, and to include the cinematographer very early in preproduction, and to show the kids the storyboards very thoroughly to include them with their costuming. I wrote the last couple of drafts of the script with them present and kind of approving the details of the lines. So certainly, in the case of this film, which is about fifteen-year-olds and directed by a forty-two year old, I thought it was important to include them.
Beaks: You mentioned your cinematographer, Thomas Townend. On one of the commentaries or supplements, he mentions ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK as a visual inspiration. That’s a film that is almost too dark; if it’s not projected correctly or viewed correctly, it is too dark. How difficult was that for you two, making sure things were well lit enough
Cornish: It was massively important. The design of the creature was central to the whole visual approach to the film, because we knew we wanted to make a film that was almost like a velvet painting, one of those brightly colored paintings on black velvet. So we knew it was going to deal with extreme contrast, very dark, deep shadows, and very bright clear highlights. That informed our whole approach really. It informed the costume, it informed the texture of the material that the kids wore… it’s reflectivity, and I really liked that. I think that if you shoot something all at night it forces you to think about light in every single shot. In retrospect, I realize a lot of my favorite films are all set at night, whether it’s ALIEN - which is obviously in space and the darkness of a spaceship with no natural light - or BLADE RUNNER or STREETS OF FIRE or THE WARRIORS. It forces you to really think about the visual design in a way that maybe shooting at day doesn’t necessarily require. It’s Tom’s first film. I was looking very specifically for a DP who could get that range of contrast and shoot at night, but keep it glossy and rich and not make it grainy and kind of indistinct. I saw a Virgin Mobile commercial that Tom shot, and I immediately saw exactly that brightness and clarity of contrast that I was looking for. So I just looked up the commercial on the internet and phoned him up. Like John Boyega, I’ve been very lucky to get Tom’s first film as well. I very much hope I can convince him to work with me in the future, because I think he’s extremely talented and I think he’s done a great job on the film.
Beaks: John Boyega has just taken off in the last couple of months, now that he’s the star of Spike Lee’s HBO show. It was evident watching the film that this guy had the potential to be a real movie star. How do you feel watching his career kind of take off now?
Cornish: I feel really excited and proud. I think John Boyega was going to do this with or without ATTACK THE BLOCK. I think he’s a force to be reckoned with. He’s the real deal; he’s very serious and committed and motivated and enthusiastic and, most of all, he’s a big film buff. I just feel lucky that we found him. I feel privileged to have him in the lead in my first film. So, yeah, I’m just going to sit back and watch him go. I think he’s kind of unstoppable.
Beaks: During the supplements there’s a moment where you notice that your script has been published online, which is something that just happens nowadays. You say you don’t mind, but I’m not quite sure I buy it in the moment. How do you feel about your work getting out there earlier than you anticipated?
Cornish: I don’t know really. I don’t know what I think about that. I haven’t thought that through to a sound bite style conclusion. I think I’m as confused about it as everybody else really. I’m concerned that if people stop paying for products, then the industry will collapse. But at the same time, there’s a certain sort of democratic potential in it in terms of a method of distribution that’s kind of egalitarian. I just hope the way technology and the industry evolves, it does so in a way that can keep a functioning economic model – otherwise, I don’t know what will happen really. I think to a degree people need to take responsibility for what they do and they need to be aware that if you get shit for free, eventually there will be no more shit or certainly the shit will be much cheaper.
I don’t know, but it’s such a rapidly changing thing isn’t it? You know what I would say? I don’t do it. I do not download films, and I do it as a point of principle - not just because it’s my industry, but because I know how hard people work. Plus, I like the quality. I love the detail. I don’t like watching movies on airplanes, because you can’t see. I tried to watch MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, I couldn’t see what was going on in Owen Wilson’s face; it might as well have been a sponge on a stick. So I don’t know… I tend to think if you genuinely love movies, then you are not going to download. If you are a torrent-ist, then maybe that’s cool for you, but I think it will end in tears.
Beaks: TINTIN is opening up next week in Europe. How do you feel about it? Have you seen it, and do you think you will be writing more for TINTIN?
Cornish: I don’t know, man. I’m about to do some press about TINTIN in London next week, so I don’t want to talk too much about it for fear of boring myself. I was so privileged to be involved in the first one. It was an amazing experience, and I think the film is terrific; I think it genuinely captures the spirit and world of TINTIN. I’m just enjoying that moment without necessarily thinking about the future. It would be pretty greedy of me to want any more out of that experience. I feel very happy and satisfied to have been involved. Is that okay?
Beaks: That’s good. We just have to wait until December, which sucks.
Cornish: I know! Well, you cannot underestimate how important TINTIN is in Europe - especially in France and Belgium. I think the way they are doing it is very respectful of the origins of the project, and I think people are going to really dig it. I’ve certainly never seen a performance capture movie at this level ever, and with this particular aesthetic and quality. It’s pretty stunning.
ATTACK THE BLOCK is available now on Blu-ray and DVD. Buy that shit.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
