Father Geek here posting a great interview Dr. SOTHA snagged this week with the guys that are currently working with Aardman on resurrecting their TORTOISE VS HARE project after wrapping up their very funny Soccer flick MIKE BASSETT.
Soooooo with nothing more for ol' Father Geek to add, here's SOTHA...
Since Harry put up his review for Shaolin Soccer, I thought I’d weigh in with my own football related story – an interview with screenwriter’s Rob Sprackling and John Smith, responsible for the hilarious mockumentary ‘Mike Bassett England Manager.’ This little baby opened with big numbers in the UK two weeks ago, and looks set to open in North America toward the end of the year.
I’ll have you know that Rob and John are currently working on rescuing ‘Tortoise vs Hare’ for Aardman. Since I had worked on many tortoise and hare biological transmutations, they sought me out as a technical advisor on the film. I managed to secure Nurse Hollis a position as VP vet.
Directed by Steve Barron (Rat, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) ‘Mike Bassett’ tells the story of a documentary crew who set out to follow the newly appointed English soccer manager, Mike Bassett, on his misadventures to the World Cup Finals in Brazil. With a boisterous group of characters inspired by the professional game itself, a consistently comical tone, and a knack for well-observed satire, it promises to do for football, what ‘This is Spinal Tap’ did for rock music. Sit back and relax, let DR.SOTHA take you on a soccer odyssey.
DR.SOTHA: Other films about football have generally done badly, what do you think differentiates ‘Mike Bassett’ from those?
JOHN: Well first of all, we really tried to make it an all out comedy. Other films about football have either been nostalgic or had some form of social commentary i.e. ‘POW’ films (Escape to Victory.) We just thought it was a great target to spoof, and we think people are up for seeing something that debunks the huge and wealthy game of football as it is today. In the last 5 years football has become a huge preoccupation for the nation.
ROB: The film is different from other football films. For instance if you heard that the writers of ‘Airplane’ were coming out with another disaster movie, what it really means is that they’d be coming out with another ‘spoof’ of a disaster movie. So this is different from another football film in that it’s just a satire about the sport.
DR SOTHA: When casting the characters, and particularly Mike Bassett, did you have any actors in mind at the time?
JOHN: We never actually write with any actors in mind for our scripts, usually because we’re concentrating only on the character itself. So we never had a single actor in mind. It was only when Hallmark and the Film Council came on board that we drafted a wish list.
ROB: Yeah, Michael Caine was in there somewhere, probably because of his experience on ‘Escape to Victory’.
JOHN: Rob came up with Ricky Tomlinson for Mike Bassett, and we were phenomenally lucky to get him, because he was our first choice.
ROB: Steve Barron (the director) called us and said is there any other names you have, because we weren’t completely convinced by anyone on the list, and then it just hit me, it had to be Ricky Tomlinson. John’s eyes lit up and we knew it had to be him. When we took it to Steve, he completely shared our enthusiasm for Ricky, and so it turned out that we had our lead.
DR SOTHA: How did you go about creating the supporting characters?
JOHN: If you’re making a film about a football manager, obviously some characters are there from the start. You have to have an assistant manager, a coach, a physio. In other words a team that they work around. We quickly hit on the idea that Bassett is molded around the two men that he chooses to come on the journey with him, who are assistant managers Lonnie and Doddsy. Doddsy is very much a man who talks all the time, but actually says nothing, and Lonnie is a man who never says anything, but it always speaks volumes for his psychological state of mind. That provided a really nice shape for the heart of the football related parts of the script. We then panned out to the football squad, who are vaguely redolent of certain players that we’ve come to know in the press over the last ten years. People like faded football star, Rozzer, hard-man Wacko, super striker Harpsy, and so on. We decided that we had to give Bassett another side to him, which came in the shape of his h! ome life and family. That was a particularly difficult challenge because there really isn’t any template to work with within this world. You’re free to create anything you want, which means you have a million choices. So we developed Karine who we were particularly hard on, in making her a strong and sympathetic character. She’s Bassett’s wife. She’s someone who hasn’t chosen to be manager, but still has to share all the shit that is leveled at her husband over the course of the story. She’s swept along on the highs and lows of this merciless football journey. Then there’s Jason, Bassett’s son, who idolizes his father, but is torn when things turn out worse than expected.
DR. SOTHA: It does seem like that particular sub-plot provides for the poignant sequences in the story?
ROB: Yeah, it’s the emotional journey. It’s the impact that this horrendous job has on completely innocent individuals. Like for example a thirteen year old boy who ends up getting his eyebrows shaved off because his father is made a scapegoat by the entire nation. We’ve got Amanda Redman from ‘Sexy Beast’, - a wonderful actress - playing Karine, Bassett’s wife. She brings a lot of strength to that character. We see this very loving and loyal wife put under the stress and strain of this lethal managerial position that Bassett is elected into. This is a side you don’t get to see in International football. So, yes that does provide for the emotional side of the narrative.
DR.SOTHA: Did you look at other films within the mockumentary format, like ‘This is Spinal Tap’ and ‘Waiting for Guffman’, with regards to the structure and tone?
JOHN: When we started writing we did look at ‘Spinal Tap’ just to decide whether it was great work from an actual screenplay or whether it had more to do with the improvisational approach of the actors. As we discovered it was for the most part ad-libbed. From that point on we didn’t know what we were going to do, whether we were going to write a complete screenplay or whether it was going to be a devised process of fleshing out a tight structure, that would hold all the pieces in place, and then asking the director and actors to improvise on the gags and dialogue to give it a raw feel. The more we developed it, the more we wanted to have creative control over the project in a writing capacity, and that meant working a great deal on the dialogue. We were glad we did that, because this was our first film as screenwriters, and so we needed to find our own way. We wouldn’t be able to do that if we handed it on, even to someone very skillful because it then becomes their jour! ney, not ours. So we watched ‘Spinal Tap’ and then discarded it. We haven’t looked at anything like that since.
DR.SOTHA: How long did it take to get made?
ROB: The original idea came to us in 1994, and we fleshed it out into a 30 page treatment, which we sold to Duncan Kenworthy who at the time had just produced ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’. We had hoped it would be his next film, but it didn’t quite work out that way. We then developed it with Duncan over a period of 3 to 4 years. In that period of time we did a lot of changes, developed the central story more convincingly. We kept most of the humor, but gave it structure and shape. Duncan had set up DNA with Andrew Macdonald
DR.SOTHA: At what point in development did Steve come in?
ROB: Probably about three years ago, possibly longer then that.
DR.SOTHA: So he has been attached to Mike Bassett for a long time?
JOHN: Yes, he was the first director. Duncan brought Steve in, within a year or two of development of the project.
ROB: Steve had just finished making ‘Rat’ with Pete Posthlewaite, and he called us from Ireland just before Christmas the year before last, and he said "I’ve got to make this film". So he called us just about the time that John and I were going to have our annual Christmas function
DR.SOTHA: How has Steve Barron approached the characters and the comedy?
JOHN: Steve wants to make the film as real as possible, and of-course in the traditional documentary format.
ROB: Even though its absurd from time to time, Ricky is totally believable. Take for example John Cleese who always does that heightened and manic comedy, and is great at it, but Ricky brings a deadpan honesty to the dialogue and his character.
DR.SOTHA: Do you see a sequel in Mike Bassett?
ROB: No not really, I think it only works as a single entity.
DR.SOTHA: I suppose sequels are destined to fail, unless you’re James Cameron.
ROB: In which case, you’ll need a man made of mercury, otherwise forget about it.
DR.SOTHA: What you should do, is have Bassett come out of retirement and take the Luxembourg job, and then he can morph into different players at half time?
ROB: Umm, Yeah why not.
DR.SOTHA: The Film Council moved pretty fast on it didn’t they?
ROB: They were great. Rob Jones (producer of ‘The Usual Suspects’) had just started up a new division, different from the old funding body from the National Lottery. I think we were one of the first major films to come out of there.
DR.SOTHA: Are there any writers who have inspired you now or in the past? You can’t say each other.
JOHN: Damn. Well, Jane Austen has been a great inspiration for us. No, we’re far too self-centered to concern ourselves with what other writers are doing.
DR.SOTHA: What about films or filmmakers?
ROB: Withnail and I, Airplane, Life of Brian, and all the great comedy classics that we’ve been blessed with over the years. Oh and the great ‘Car Trouble’. Who can forget that. We just love unmitigated all out, well-observed comedies. John’s a big fan of ‘Nuns on the Run’ . Where’s the sequel he keeps asking. Idle’s still on the run (laughs.)
DR.SOTHA: Rob, you’ve directed a short film called ‘Green Monkey’, what was that like?
ROB: That’s right, and John was in it. It was a ten minute film about a crime that was committed, and the three different sets of people who had witnessed it. A detective tries to piece together what really happened from a very unreliable group of witnesses. They all saw it in their own way, with their own prejudices. There was a character on the roof, one on the street etc.
DR.SOTHA: It sounds Citizen Kane-ish?
ROB: I wouldn’t go that far, I’m missing Rosebud. It’s a comedy with a dramatic twist in it. It won awards at the New York Film Festival.
DR.SOTHA: Do either of you have any aspirations to move into directing?
JOHN: I think so, but if there is such a thing as the typical writer who is happy to hand his work over and let others provide for the interpretive link in the chain, then we’re it. I mean we’re obviously delighted with what’s happening with ‘Mike Bassett’ . We also feel that we could take on the mantle of directing ourselves at some point along the line. We think we have good eyes as directors, and would enjoy it. We haven’t made any definite plans.
DR.SOTHA: Would you consider directing as a duo, since it seems to work on a writing level?
ROB: It’s a tricky thing to do, but then look at the Coen Brothers, Farrelly Brothers, Hughes Brothers etc. Obviously we’d have to work out a system of doing it, since we’re both big heads. It’ll be difficult for whoever will be in that secondary role, because there always has to be one leader on any one film. We could alternate between Governor and right hand man if we ever reached that stage where we were allowed to co-direct something. I think any great writer would want to see his vision through. Essentially you’re seeing through the original germ of an idea into its finished version, and to be able to control that whole process would be a dream. There’s very few auteurs out there. Eventually, we’d like to have a crack ourselves.
JOHN: To be fair whoever is not directing, gets to do sound. It’s a give and take really.
DR.SOTHA: What other screenplays do you have floating around?
ROB (deadpan): We’re actually huge in America. We’ve sold more scripts in America than we have in our own country (England.) We sold Black Water Zoo to Fox, another spec to Disney. We’re doing something now with Dreamworks
DR.SOTHA: So you’re quite high up the pecking order?
ROB: Yeah, evidently. We get to fly out first class to Los Angeles and drink fancy drinks and that sort of thing. Occasionally talk to ladies. Then we get back to England, and its straight off down to the housing benefit. We don’t tell anybody. No, the last 3 years things have really taken off in America.
DR.SOTHA: Tell me a bit about the projects you’ve sold.
ROB: The American stuff all seems to be in a completely different mold to the material we write in the UK. We started writing family entertainment ala Toy Story and Chicken Run. We wrote an idea which is actually Chicken Run, about 4 or 5 years ago for, initially, Working Title. It was a film called Black Water Zoo about a bunch of animals who break out of the zoo. We wrote that about a year before they conceived Chicken Run, and sold it.
DR.SOTHA: How did you feel when Chicken Run was released?
ROB: Obviously frustrated more than anything. It’s a really good film, and we’re working with Aardman now, so we’re on good terms with them. It was absolutely our idea, and we knew it was a great concept of having a bunch of animals wanting to do the ‘Great Escape’. Tunneling out of a zoo was just funny to us. It was a really inventive script, and we loved it. We sold it to the Jim Henson Company, and then Fox came in. We regularly flew out to LA and worked on it. Then it went into that whole studio/development system where it disappears for many a year. You go back in and do re-writes on it and they pay you well, then more re-writes and they pay you again, and on and on. So that’s gone into turn-around at Fox. Henson is now looking at trying to make it themselves. It’s going to be a difficult sell after Chicken Run though. I do think that it’s different enough to be able to work.
JOHN: We also have a project with Disney which is based on garden gnomes. It’s a little story that we concocted using the famous English garden gnome as our lovable character, and that’s through Rocket Pictures which is Elton John’s company. They have a deal with Disney. Then there’s a project in the early stages of development with Aardman who have a deal with Dreamworks. We seem to have curiously found ourselves writing in the animation/CGI world. You tend to get known very quickly when writing to those parameters.
ROB: It’s great because we have two strings to our bow with the small-scale five million dollar fringe movie in England, and then you have the $40m + American movie for the family market. We seem to have slightly closed two areas. We did quite a lot of rewrites. We’ve recently just finished rewriting a completely new draft of a film called Talk Back Buena Vista which is going through further stages of development now. We did an awful lot of work on a film called French Exchange, which is hopefully getting made in this year, about three 15 year old lads going to France and trying to get laid. It’s got an American Pie like tone and energy to it for the European market.
JOHN: We do a lot of uncredited rewrites on films that have been made as well.
ROB: There’s a film called Abduction Club which has just been made and is being released by Pathe. It had a great script. Neil Peplow is producing (Waking Ned), who is also producing Mike Bassett. He brought us in on the project. We punched it up and created a few more scenes. It’s a good romp of a film.
JOHN: Yeah, it’s a bawdy Irish romp with people on horses, bonnets, leather outfits etc.
DR.SOTHA: Do you ever see yourselves moving into a completely different direction?
JOHN: Well I always wanted to be a carpenter. No I think it’s hard for a writing partnership to go into darker or heavier material, because the advantage of a partnership is you can gauge whether something is funny by whether the other person is laughing or not.
DAN: You can also test somber material by checking if the other person is crying or not. Or if there’s something thrilling and the other person is on the edge of their seat. That’s how we test things.
DR.SOTHA: That’s interesting because comedy is such a difficult dynamic to pull off on the page.
DAN: Yes, but there’s a rhythm to something on the page when you write it, and often the way we work is to come up with a broad concept, routine or set piece which we find funny, and through a bit of improvisation three or four key punch lines emerge. One of us goes away, types it up and hones it to a rhythm that works on the page.
DR.SOTHA: How did you approach some of the ‘art imitating life’ parts of the screenplay, given that there are references to the current English soccer team?
JOHN: We kept half an eye on what was happening in the real world of football. For example when Sven Goran Erikson became the England manager, we felt compelled to make a reference to that so that an audience would be aware that our film takes a modernistic take on the world of football.
DR.SOTHA: Do you have any star cameos from the world of football lined up for the film?
DAN: We have Rinaldo playing one bounce in the Maracana stadium. In the film the interviewer asks him what he thinks of Mike Bassett, and he just gives him a slightly confused Brazillian retort ‘Ehh’. We’re hoping to get Pele in it for a vital dramatic scene, where he is unveiled at the world cup riding a donkey. We wanted to get Eric Cantona in it, but I think he’s too busy being French.
DR.SOTHA: I thought he was trying to pursue an acting career?
DAN: Well that’s the strange thing, but I don’t think he wants to go around playing ‘Eric Cantona’. I don’t know if you’ve seen Elizabeth, but I thought he was playing Eric Cantona in that anyway. We’re also hoping to get Ian Wright to do a cameo too. We’ve got Barry Venison and Gabby Yorath playing the commentators.
DR.SOTHA: Even though the tomfoolery and hi-jinx is quite broad in the script, there’s quite a few references to English football, how do you see ‘Mike Bassett’ playing beyond the football fanatic demographic?
JOHN: Well I don’t think you need to have an in depth knowledge of English football to enjoy this film. The thing is you can’t escape it these days. There’s a certain knowledge upwards of football. You have to live on Mars to not know something about it.
DAN: We realize that our first fan base will be football fans, but hopefully there’s enough in it to bring in people who just want to see a funny film. You don’t need to know an awful lot about rock music to enjoy Spinal Tap.
JOHN: You don’t need to know about climbing to watch Cliffhanger.
DR.SOTHA: In the same token, you don’t need to be a vegetarian to go and watch Chicken Run.
ROB: Exactly, good analogy. I wish I had come up with that. If it does do well here in the UK, then hopefully it can pan out to the rest of the world. It’s doubtful whether the Americans are going to understand our ‘soccer’. However, judging by the response of Americans who have read the script, they seem to love it, despite knowing nothing about the sport.
