Showing posts with label John Boyega. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Boyega. Show all posts

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

August to November 2015

Let's start the month with a bit of new Attack the Block artwork

And then there is this mash-up


Then there was this poster and brief review from the Green Man Festival (the one in the Brecon Beacons).


Adam played Brighton.


Radio Times did a piece on adverts before people were famous and somehow, on that pretext, they decided to shoe-horn Adam's video of him larking around with Joe and Louis. Imagine?

I was thrilled to attend BUG 48 tonight because Jonathan from Everything Everthing was the guest. That's double win, for the record.


Then he was up to Manchester for a birthday gig.


This was pleasing




Messy Goes to Okido aired for the first time on 7th September.

And the following week, it happened. The imbalance on the planet shifted a little way back into place as Adam launched Series One of his own podcast, starting with Louis and Baaadad. Wired got in quick with an interview.

As you can imagine, it shunted it's way to the top of the podcharts quicker than you can say "bread rolls"


As the weeks rolled on, the wonderful Sally Grosart persisted in illustrating each pod. Adam has put most of them on his blog but just in case, they're gathered here.

Toward the end of the month, Adam hosted the AV Awards.



And Joe went to a BFI event in Manchester to discuss his film from the olden tymes.


This sort of thimg amuses me(follow conversation).



I don't know if you knew this already but John Boyega, who was Moses in Joe's Attack the Block, has been cast in the latest sci-fi sensation. He talks about it here.

Adam will do anything for a free dinner but hosting catering awards was more than he could have hoped for.


Excellent Visual Find of the Year goes to this:


I don't even know what Pro Max UK is and I'm certainly not going to waste any internet time looking it up.



The original Saltyman made a film for Adam's intro jingle.



Scroobious Pip invited Adam into his podcast shed and while he was about it, they did a switcheroo in the interviewer/interviewee department.


The top secret film that Garth Jennings teased in Adam's podcast was made public.

Adam took two BUG Specials to Barcelona - Radiohead and Bowie.

Then he raced back to London for the Beatles BUG Special.



November 3rd also brought the news that Channel4 have commissioned a full series of the Graham Linehan & Adam Buxton comedy "The Cloud" on the strength of the unaired pilot they did. More deets here.

This tickled me,


Film4 showed Attack the Block in it's rightful slot - late on bonfire night.

No peace for the delightful. Adam hosted the UK MVAs on bonfire night.


and a couple of days later, he was at the Union Chapel.



....then another charity gig at KOKO


Miranda Sawyer has been holding the flag high for Adam and Joe over the years and is firmly behind Adam's podcast. You can listen to In Pod We Trust here.

On the same weekend, Gemma Cairney featured an old "Best of Adam And Joe" sequence on this show.

Then the month of November ended with the sad passing of Nigel Buxton. The news didn't break until a couple of weeks after the fact but the fascinating obituary is here.
Nigel made blog entries from time to time, which you can read here.  He had an incredible life and my heartfelt pained facial expression goes out to Adam and his family.





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Friday, 1 May 2015

April 2015

Adam started the month by joining a bunch of other wonderful comedians on the stage at the estimable 100 Club.
He did a brilliant set without his laptop! He's a fully functioning, independent giggle machine.

He also did some Work in Progress this month at The Invisible Dot. I don't know whether he was flying without the aide of an Inter Net again but the Twitter reports were all shiny.Oh - I see someone mentions 'youtube bit' and wait, yes....there's a photo of him with a laptop. I am an idiothole.
If you are not familiar with the noise made by a camera person who it totally besotted with Joe Cornish, you can learn something here.

There was a friendly little interaction between Giles Coran and Adam.

John Boyega has not forgotten his big break.


Franz Drameh, one of John's co-stars from Attack the Block, has also been cast in a news-worthy film.

This isn't something I found on the net. It's a snap I took in my local supermarket.


Towards the end of the month, things became a little fraught with anticipation of A New Podcast when people started to get this message.

but James calmed the situation down nicely.

As I said earlier, Adam did some shows at The Invisible Dot and managed to fit in a guest performance in Simon Munnery's Fylm School on the same night as one of them.

I am twelve years old and what is this?

Go here if you missed this.

Knowing Joe's love of Coldplay, and because I have the brain of a small child, I found this amusing

These tweets from one of  The Invisible Dot Work in Progress shows:

The dates for BUG 47 were announced, and it's back to the old format of a show with a guest director one week and then two shows, the following week.

Have you heard of Twitter? It's cuddly.



There's a Hot Fuzz dissertation to fill your coffee break and that's it for another month.


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Sunday, 1 March 2015

February 15

To celebrate, and in anticipation of Adam returning for BUG, the team and BFI made a little online episode you can view for free here.

This made us all happy


Attack the Block's lovely John Boyega presented a BAFTA for Film Not in the English Language. He's so hot right now #StarWarsVII.  Joe was also involved in this year's awards, serving on the jury for the BAFTA Outstanding Debut award.

I  stumbled upon an old techy podcast that Adam and Joe contributed to in The Guardian.

We had a bit more details about Adam's project with Graham Linehan. It's probably going to be called The Cloud. It's a comedy. It's set in SPACE and they've filmed a pilot. Thank you Radio Times and The Guardian.....although the latter claims that Adam 'boasts' about being in The Persuassionists.  The only person with any right to boast about that is the person who has the balls to shoot the writer.
Barry Shitpeas wriggled himself onto the pilot set.


This happened, of all things....and on Valentine's Day.



Adam did a couple of gigs at The Invisible Dot.

I went to this charity event and Count Buckules was sitting there, feet away from me like a regular audience member.

I was here too.....
Chain Reaction returned with Adam interviewing Reece Shearsmith. You may remember the last series finished with Graham Linehan interviewing Adam.

My memory isn't up to much these days but have we seen this bit of art before?


This is surely worth a mention. Richard Herring was given a little brit called Phoebe to play with.











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Saturday, 23 March 2013

'Tis the season of chocs and mallow bunny bits

I had a packet of choccie raisins a minute ago but I can't find them now.

Apart from that last post, there's been precious little real information on here since New Year's Eve so my aim is to remedy that. This'll be long and you won't read it all.

Whilst reminding everyone about the imminent 6Music Easter Week Bowie Love-in featuring a couple of hours with Adam Buxton on Easter Sunday, I can finally share a link to the on-stage interview that preceded Adam's Bowie-Based introduction to his Screen Epiphany at the BFI last year. Sadly, they are no longer hosting these films at their dedicated microsite and don't support embedding so there's no sexier way of linking this other than hotting up his page and leaving you to navigate from there.

The edit makes it seem as though the interviewer tried to steal the show but the actual introduction seemed more balanced at the time. It's a pity they don't include any of the other hoopla Adam gave us but if you've been to a BUG recently, you'll have an idea. It wuz laughful with fond dizrespectocitization.

Sky Atlantic have been repeating BUG and Adam has put the first episode on his YT Channel if you're overseas, too lazy or too self-righteous to have watched it by more devious means.
Enjoy!

It would seem those Sky fools do not intend to commission a second series. Listen (and watch) what Adam has to say about that here (recorded at the Norwich Playhouse earlier this month). This is an ideal opportunity for BBC2 to swoop in and take BUG over, you'd think.

Adam is featuring in Kevin Eldon's new Sunday evening show "It's Kevin" at the moment. I say featuring - he's in at least one sketch. Lovely Sally Grosart has made a Paper Person of his character.

Take a little break from reading and watch a Famous Guy clip from Edinburgh there.



After one of Adam's radio shows with Edith, a lot of people were asking about the source of that insanely wonky boooozum inflection piece. It's here.

Robyn Hitchcock had a birthday gig in Shoreditch. Not only was Adam there, he joined the crowd on stage.

There were tweeted pictures from Adam's Union Chapel gig although this one looks like The Horne Section.

I don't want to make this post too lumpy with video links but Adam uploaded a higher res version of his Popepropriation video to coincide with the recent Italian smoking party.

Emma Gutteridge shared some lovely photographs of Adam at the DiscoShed DJing gig.

Tim made this Skyfall/Buxton mash to delight your ears and eyes.


In the last couple of months, Adam chose Soundcloud to put some of his beautiful nuggets that a) don't have YouTubery to go with or b) are so good, they need to be downloadable for mp3 playerage. To single one of them out would be wrong but I was never going to be allowed into the kingdom of right.



You can read about and listen to Adam's Red Nose Day activities here at the new home of my nugget blog. The old nugget blog will be pulled at the end of April. I transferred the words but the sound may take a while longer to link up, although they are all online at Archive.org.

The Grimshaw man also showed Adam's Sushi Song during his late night Red Nose Day show on BBC1.

Adam's diary continues to fill and I've linked my silly list up at the top of this blog. Do check to see if BUG is coming to your town. As well as London's regular shows next week, there are dates for places like Bradford, Sheffield, Brummingshire, Belfast, Leicester and even Lincoln in the mix now. He's taking his Fat Boy Slim show to Brighton and doing a Warp Records Special in London.

You know, the BUG team are always open to venue suggestions. If your town has a cool place with projection facilities, a good sound system and preferably a nice bar, drop them a line.

Adam's Leicester Square Best of BUG was a sensational evening with Buxty prancing around the stage in his sexy new specs to the delight of many BUG virgins. It's lovely watching newbies. They can't quite believe what they're seeing and finally realise how uncomfortable endless laughter can be.

He did a little Popropriation section and by way of explanation & example to BUG virgins, he cited the Gillette jingle and it's use by Mike Shinks whenever his wife Fran doubts his worthiness. It gave me a little nostalgia wobble.
♫ Mike Shinks!  The Best that Fran could Ge-e-et ♫


 
Adam showed one of Peter Serafinowicz's Hot Chip videos despite the blighter not turning up for the japery. That reminds me, Adam and Peter have contributed their voice skills to the new Nintendo Lego game. While I'm talking about Lego, I have to share a shot of silent film boffin, Mr Hope Lies' wonderful Lego Cinema. He'll also be reporting from BUG at Docfest and BIFF with any luck.


Fortunately, Adam's proper guest, Edgar Wright did turn up and his showing of some Ant-Man test footage caused a little Disney Net Ripple while most of us were in bed. Somebody filmed it from the audience and put it on YouTube but it was swiftly removed. I shudder to think how poor the quality would have been. The sad thing is, it was probably uploaded by a huge fan on Edgar's who didn't understand why it was a bad thing to do. It really makes you wonder......but at least it gave the blogs plenty to witter about for a few seconds.

The only really new sniff of Ant-Man recently has been this from January. Marvel's Ant-Man Facebook page is currently still Stark infested from last October. The release date is slated for November 2015 which is six months after the next Avengers film.

Talk of Ant-Man finally takes proceedings to Joe by association.

There's virtually no public news about Snow Crash or Rust. I guess both are still noodling about with scripts. This is understandable. I mean, Snow Crash is too long to make into a film, apparently.

The hard copy of Sci-Fi mag had this page about Rust but I've yet to read it. Lovely Royden was on the Archaia stand at the ECCC chatting about the various volumes of Rust. There was a little mention about the film from Royden at a Livestream event a while ago too.

If I've missed any other news about either of these films, please let me know.

There have been some Attack the Block screenings lately. Being from the future and altogether topsy-turvey, Melbourne had a Rooftop Cinema screening. In Camberwell, it was free and followed by a Q and A with Leeon Jones. In Hornsey it was only a quid but unfortunately they have a gzillion lumins light that shines directly downwards about a foot in front of the projector beam, rendering the picture that eventually arrives on the screen almost invisible.

Tyler Stout includes Attack the Block in his range of artwork which he sells in limited edition.

If I could justify the price of yet another copy of Attack the Block, I'd go for the Japanese version as it has these little darlings stuffed in the packaging.

Somebody made this amusing bit of art and tagged it Attack the Block.

The school that Attack the Block's John Boyega went to are rightly proud of him. Simon 'Biggz' Howard helped to launch Becoming Brixton in January. Jodie Whittaker is currently giving a beautiful performance in ITV's Monday night series 'Broadchurch' and Luke Treadaway has transferred his heartbreaking portrayal of Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time to the West End. Nick Frost has finished pick-ups for Cuban Fury and has now taken the lead in Mr Sloane for Big Talk.

The poor cloud hair lady was made to suffer another outing with Joe's ethereal song in January.

Such is the scarcity of Cornballs news, all I can report is that he had fish and chips in Balham on 11th March, unless of course, it was Nicholas Rowe......or that sport ball man.... Anyhoo, it makes a change from dining at Moro.

On 1st February, 6Music spent the day running through a listener-voted top 100 tunes and it warmed my cockles to discover that giggly Jude (an Adam and Joe producer of yesteryear) was listening all the way over in American Land.

During the last couple of weeks I've heard Mark Radcliffe (or was it Stuart) and Lovely Lettuce Laverne struggle with the pronunciation of Wymondham which gives me a good excuse to link a beloved nugget.

Someone tweeted a Bronholme based hoodie fashion statement.

Adam and Joe's 6Music podcast still gets included in the iTunes 'What's Hot' section but their BBC Blog is sadly in line for mothballing*.

On Valentine's Day Adam gave us the gift of song and a couple of 6Music listeners celebrated their Adam and Joe based union.

People are still telling Adam he looks like Mandy Patinkin, Eric Cantona and other Random Bearded Men. When will this madness end? He's cleverly adopted a 'with glasses' look that should fool them for a while.

You know Stephen! right? Of course you do. Well he's done a book you can get for fewp'nce on your Kindling thingling or fill your hands with treespew. Just Reading! Surely Big Talk will option the film rights for this?

Tom Haigh unearthed and upshot some archive footage from a time when Edgar Wright was legitimately small and huggable. They were duly blogged here and here.

Other random things I feel like telling you is that David Byrne's Roundhouse show is selling fast.  Both Basement Jaxx and Goldfrapp at Somerset House sold out ages ago but astonishingly, you can still grab tickets for Richard Hawley which is a dreamy thing to do of a Summer's evening. You can also see Colin 'Black' Vearne at the Bush Hall for not much cash.

Finally, apropos of nothing at all, I'd like to pimp my two favourite t-shirt stores: DBT and Archane.

*The 'more information' link at the Adam and Joe 6Music blog implies that the blog will be around for a while longer. I think it would cause more harm if they removed it.

When do you delete pages from bbc.co.uk?

In general our policy is only to remove pages where the information provided has become so outdated that it may lead to actual harm or damage.

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Tuesday, 20 March 2012

The Adam and Joe Periodical

It's annoying but inevitable, this blog is just like any other periodical. It shows up about once a month with the occasional panic when nothing happens for six weeks.

Well, whoop-di-la-di-loo - both Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish have moved among their people since my last post and a reassured calm has soothed my angsty little life.

Adam presented three editions of BUG29, the first one of which gave me particular joy because David Wilson was the guest director and he's pictured-up some of my favourite tracks. There was a BUG Special at the Leicester Comedy Festival too.

Adam's ability to make the banality of introducing award presenters seem like the best party you ever went to means he is in great demand at the moment. Recently, he hosted the inaugural Music And Sound Awards and last Friday, presented the Family Award at the Games BAFTAs (below). I believe he will also host the British Arrows Awards 2012 on Wednesday.



This week Adam returns to Norwich with his special East Anglian BUG9 and then back down to London for a small gig in Camden on 1st April followed by the BFI for BUG30 in April.

He'll present his BUG Special at the Brighton Comedy Festival, the Wilderness Festival and Latitude. There's no more news on bringing BUG to the tellybox as far as I can tell.

Joe attended an awards do recently too. He proudly ambled up the red carpet (via George Clooney's ear) at the BAFTA Film Awards and hopefully received an exciting Nominees Goodie Bag.

Attack the Block continues to win gongs such as the Black Reel Award and Joe went to Toronto on Monday, en route to Japan, so I hope he hooked up with the Serial Diners to collect his Silver Lena Awards. Joe's interview with the wonderful George Stroumboulopoulos is below but look look at these shots and chortle at the captions.

Back in February, he cosied up on a sofa with Nick Frost & Alex Esmail somewhere in Fitzrovia to waffle his way through Attack the Block via this magic portal provided by LOVEFiLM which is still available to view/relive.

Last week, he brought his front room to the South Bank to show us his Screen Epiphany, preceded by an on-stage interview. This was a magnificent ruse to present a deliciously popped & scratched print of Over the Edge on the huge screen in NFT1.

Eventually, you should be able to watch highlights from the discussion at the BFI site but in the meantime, here's the interview from Toronto.




Adam and Joe also contributed to the wonderful 6Music Tenth Birthday Celebrations including an optimistic comment from Cornballs.
BBC Radio 2 aired two Best of shows on consecutive Saturdays too. The BBC's studios in Maida Vale played host to live sessions from Sunday to Friday and the lucky studio audience were treated to a safety message from them. You can find that and more birthday links here.

Also during this period, 6Music and their guests were trending on Twitter at several points. The great and the good of the music and entertainment industry sent their best wishes via Facebook and Twitter. This is the secret station that Adam saved for us!

The Guardian's Birthday piece prompted 200 odd readers' comments, many of which were about Adam and Joe. There have been several instances of live Stephenage around town this week.

This film was on the 6Music website, on the television and projected at Maida Vale and the South Bank throughout the glorious celebrations.



During the last show in his short Saturday morning run, Richard Bacon tried to kill Adam and Joe off. It was to no avail, of course but you can listen here.

In other news, the young cast from Attack the Block are popping up all over. Sammy Williams was in an episode of Hustle and is in Dexter Fletcher's Wild Bill. Franz Drameh featured in a two part Casualty story. John Boyega stars in tv drama My Murder with Franz Drameh to air on 26th March on BBC Three and Alex Esmail is in Payback Season and Strippers vs Werewolves. Franz is also in Now is Good which recently showed at Berlinale.

Attack the Block continues to get distribution around the world. New Zealand, Portugal and Japan are up next.

ジョー・コーニッシュ、監督

Germany also released the film on Blu-ray in a steel case last month. This version includes a small feature withdrawn from the UK & US release entitled "Joe's Massage". It's probably a little inappropriate but not for the reasons you might think/hope. Watch an adorable review of the casing here.

This was made by longtime Big Mixtape and Adam & Joe fan, @SongWarmonger.


One of the stars of Traveling Tales was featured on BBC's The Tube the other week.

Do try to catch up with the Peter Serafinowicz podcasts, if you can.

Finally, this was seen on Nigerian television last month.




Adam and Joe Calendar.
*not a real word
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Monday, 2 May 2011

Unaccustomed as I am to sensationalism:
Exclusive Attack the Block Interview with Joe Cornish

Incredible though this may seem, Joe Cornish has answered not some but all of Auntie Nubbins' ridiculous questions about Attack the Block.

Joe Cornish is two halves of directing and writing duo, Joe Cornish. His debut film, Attack the Block is a great big dollop of cinematic awesome and will receive it's UK premiere on Wednesday at the Vue, Leicester Square.

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this (there's a falafel & pitta option if you're vegetarian), I should make a few things clear.

1) It has been well established over nearly two years of waffle on here, I am not a journalist. A proper journalist would probably edit their questions to make themselves sound better in hindsight but these are of the pure, vanilla form in which I tossed them to Joe.*
2) He was kind enough to do this via the internets. I have not sniffed his vapour. I do not have any connection with the man himself.
3) I sent the sweet genius a ton of stupid questions expecting him to pick a handful but he went and answered all of them. Some are sillier than others.
4) The questions were devised a couple of weeks ago during the moments of euphoria after having just seen the film. I could have put more thought into them but I didn't. (See point 1)
5) I was trying to pose many of them in the pretentious manner heard from one of those ponces you get at film festival Q & A's who are more intent on hearing their own voice and parading their encyclopaedic (albeit often shaky) knowledge of the questionees oeuvre than extracting or absorbing an answer.
6) The temptation to respond to some of his answers was overwhelming but the poor soul gave me enough of his time already.
7) Thank you. Thank you, Joe Cornish. Thornish.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS

AN: You've spoken publicly about the provenance of using Tom Townend as your DoP and the fact that your lovely producers tried to persuade you to use more heavyweight personnel. I'm only a silly but quite apart from the beautiful look he gives, surely Tom's experience in the anal retentive world of advertising and the kick, bollock & scramble of music video made him a truly pragmatic choice for this project. How much resistance did you actually encounter to securing him for the job and how many days into production was it before they (the producers) began to relax?

JC: It is not true that my lovely producers tried to dissuade me from using Tom Townend as DOP on Attack The Block. On the contrary, they were and are extremely supportive of everything I wanted to do, they merely cautioned me that using a comparatively less experienced (in terms of features) DOP would be a harder sell to the investors. In truth, as soon as everyone met Tom and saw his work, they were immediately as convinced as I was that he was the man for the job. I feel very lucky that Tom agreed to work on ATB. I think he's a genius.

AN: There are actors whom, for my own pleasure and satisfaction, I keep a gentle eye on as they leave drama school and by some wicked coincidence both Jodie and The Treadaways number among them. I now have a new slew of tiny talent tots to bother about. John Boyega seems like a remarkable young man but do you envisage that the other young actors, those garnered more from street casting, will pursue this as a career now?

JC: None of the main young cast members in Attack The Block were 'street' cast. They had all at least shown interest in acting at school, or been involved in some kind of drama or theatre group on a local level. Most of them were around 16 or so when we shot the film and I couldn't be prouder of them. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if any or all of them pursue acting as a career. I wish them all the success in the world.


AN: Forgive me for not paying enough attention to every little precious detail but the track you wrote and performed.....where is that in the film? What was it called, Bing Bong or something? I should say, you rate A+ on my does-the-score-fit-the-end-credits-o-meter and the entire sound design was flippin' amazing to my ears and my eyes.

JC: That'll be 'Baked Beats'. We kind of ran out of money for music towards the end of post production, so I put something together myself one weekend to play in the background of a scene. I'm not going to tell you which scene, for no other reason than to be gratuitously mysterious.

I'm very glad you liked the sound design. We spent an extra couple of bonus weeks working on the creature noises and the overall mix to refine everything. There's a hell of a lot going on in terms of audio, and we had to work hard to make sure all the different elements punched through clearly.

AN: There's a 1980's Habitat mug in Ron's flat that matches the wallpaper in the very first kitchen I owned. Did you chose any props because of specific sentimental values?

JC: That mug would have been chosen by Marcus Rowland and one of his crack team of mug selectors. I didn't put any trinkets on the set myself. I guess the personal sentimental value in the film for me is in the locations where we shot it; streets that I've known since I was a kid.

AN: You've said the creature was partly inspired by the silhouette of your childhood family cat but there's a touch of the Sasquatch in there too, isn't there? I know it's a quadruped but even so.

JC: Yes. Of course. Bigfoot guides my hand in all I do. And also the illustration on the side of the Space Invaders arcade cabinet. And the American Werewolf in London werewolf.

AN: Hitting the ground running with all those weeks of night shoots, did you manage to maintain a balanced diet at all times and have a ready supply of clean underkecks?

JC: I had one can of Coke a day. And quite a lot of Froggos**. We had a craft services van that made very tasty hot panninis with pesto and salami and cheese. 'Youwannapannini?' was an on-set catchphrase. And yes, my underkecks are always clean. Genuine Calvin Klein. Fresh today.

AN: I notice I'm not being quite as obsequious as a proper journalist's agenda would dictate. You know that's just because any fawning I did would have little currency coming from me, wouldn't it? Did you have any press junket coaching and quote brainstorming? (Please don't use the term 'needle drop' in your answer here, thank you x).

JC: No, no junket coaching or quote brainstorming. But I've been the interviewer in junket situations once or twice when presenting Radio 4's film show Back Row. And as I've discovered, making a film necessitates the discussion of every element in great depth many times with many different people so, by the time the thing's finished, one's opinions are already fairly well formed.

AN: You've cited some 137 films that have influenced your creation of Attack the Block. Did you dream this list up in hindsight as you gradually began to understand where all this stuff had come from or did you sit in a laboratory and study every film ever made before you even put pen to paper?

JC: I knew before I started writing what kind of a film I wanted to make, so I watched movies that I loved that I thought had a similar tone or style, both before and while I wrote. Those are the movies I mention as having influenced it.

AN: Brian Dowling was your construction coordinator. How important was to you to include a reality show winner? Were you hoping some of his post Big Brother success might rub off on you?

JC: We really wanted handyman Craig Philips, winner of season one. But obviously he's in huge demand shecuring (not a typo) shelves internationally, so we couldn't get him. Brian is less good at DIY, but as you say, it's important to have some kind of Big Brother winner around at all times.

AN: There are only a few films that can genuinely sustain the excesses of two hours or more running time but Attack the Block is a gratifyingly compacted into the ideal viewing length or 'lavvy to cola consumption ratio', if you will. Were you always working to that or did some minor character studies get nuked in the Amos-olator suite? Were there any constructive editorial interventions from the grown-ups?

JC: I always wanted to make a 90 minute film. It was in my director's statement which came with the script when we were raising the finance. That we came a few minutes under is merely the result of twisting the tap a couple of turns tighter in the edit just to keep things as lean and mean as possible, which was always the idea.

AN: Are you happy to talk about the additional shooting you did towards the end of last year? Was this footage you'd hoped to achieve during principal photography but could only be funded once the purse had seen the spectacular bang you were putting together.......or did you get that awful sinking feeling in the cutting room when you realised the narrative was compromised by the lack of a scene or two. Or did Boggins do a little wee on the neg?


JC: All feature films shoot pick-ups if they possibly can. It's a standard part of the process. Small, essential elements that you didn't have the time or resources to get during the main shoot. Some pretty memorable shots in the history of cinema are pick-ups. The severed head popping out of the wreck in 'Jaws' was shot months after principal photography in the producer's pool. The shot of the Terminator's eye being crushed at the end of 'The Terminator' was shot months later in someone's garage. We did one or two bits and bobs, but nothing that interesting. And Boggins was kept WELL AWAY.

AN: I set myself the unenviable but ultimately rewarding task of avoiding all the clips and trailers until I'd seen the film for the first time. The teasing started very early in relation to the release date in the UK and I know you appreciate the joy of coming to a film completely cold. Do you have mixed feelings about the amount of advance media out there?

JC: Not really - though I admire your ambition. There's a lot more to the film than the trailer suggests, and we've been careful to pick clips from early in the story. It's a competitive market and we've got to try and make a bit of noise. Optimum are doing a brilliant job I think.


AN: How did you feel when you realised the art department had cocked up with the spelling of Wymondham Tower?

JC: Much less confused than I do by that question.

AN: You did a stunning photo session with Pal Hansen. Did you discuss the concept for it at any length or was that entirely Pal's idea which you played along with like a silly dolly?

JC: Pal was a very persuasive and charming man. It was all from his brainium. He brought along that mysterious melty substance. So, the silly dolly answer.

AN: Would I be right in thinking there's not an aliens chance in South London of the OST hitting the shops anytime soon?

JC: Happily you're wrong. The score will be available both physically and digitally, pretty soon I hope.

AN: Have your Mummy and Daddy seen it? Have you levelled with them about being like Brewis?

JC: Yes my parents have seen the film. Plus they've seen all four series of The Adam and Joe Show and listened to the vast majority of my radio output and they raised me. I have few secrets from them, if any.

AN: Will you get some 'proper' shoes for the premiere?

JC: Probably not.

AN: Will I be numbing my arse on the cobbles of Somerset House this Summer to see it again?

JC: I can but dream of such a thing.

Edited to add, Joe's dream has come true!

AN: Can I have a crew jacket/hoodie thang....or a poster.....or a tickle.......or a punch?

JC: I don't have a poster myself yet. We've run out of ATB hoodies. And the tickle and punch are only available in a twin pack...

AN: I think you've said that Edgar Wright had a brilliant idea for a sequel but you're savvy enough to realise that probably shouldn't be your next directorial outing. Do you have any particular aspirations for your second stab in terms of genre and would you shoot someone else's script if it was good enough? Will you go out of your way to make sure most of the action takes place in daylight this time?

JC: Yes, yes and not telling.

AN: Ant-man blah, blah, blah?

JC: mumble mumble avoid question cough

AN: Do you have a ready supply of Caramac? My cash & carry sells them in bulk.

JC: Am off Caramacs at the moment. Am enjoying an 'Oh Henry' or two these days.

AN: ....just in case you've been l o n g i n g for someone to ask this:

AN: Who are you?
JC: Jedward
AN: What do you do?
JC: Jedward
AN: Who do you do?
JC: Jedward
AN: Faves?
JC: Jedward
AN: Worsties?
JC: Jedward
AN: Jedward?
JC: Yes, Jedward.

AN: .....and finally, if you could change one thing about Auntie Nubbins, what would it be? Be as wude as you like, she isn't real. (Clue: The correct answer is "who is Auntie Nubbins?")

JC: Who is Auntie Nubbins?


So there it is. I'm happy to say he answered all the questions absolutely correctly so he is completely entitled to his soon to be dispatched bucket of WIN!

Thanks again to Joe. He has made a viscerally thrilling and endearing job of his first feature. I hope it affords him the opportunities he has so patiently and diligently pursued.

If your appetite has not been sated by this waffle, you can read the answers to some questions from proper journalists at the links found here.

Attack the Block is in cinemas across the UK on 11th May, 2011
and the original soundtrack is released on 16th May, 2011.


*At the eleventh hour, I decided to omit one question pertaining to the creatures because I was concerned it might be a bit too spoilery, even for this.

** Think he meant Freddos.
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Thursday, 28 April 2011

Welcome To My Catch All,
Attack the Block
Reference Portal

I think this is something along the lines of what a proper fan-site might put together but in my case it will be a lumbering list of links that I shall attempt to update as and when the mood takes my flighty, little brain.


The shiny official website is here and it will be updated with stuff in a manner spookily similar to the regularity I deploy on this blog.






This film has been lovingly squeezed into it's cans (or BARCO spitspot) with the help of Optimum Releasing, Film4, Big Talk and the UK Film Council. All these links have a hotch-potch of things that might interest you if you poke around a bit.

What one site lacks in glossy pictures and pithy quotes, it makes up for in wordy bits of information.




Reviews







Interviews







Video Interviews







Clips and trailers if you can't navigate the official website.




So what did those Amerrricans think of the film? They saw it before any of us homeys, after all. The film was so well received at SXSW that it won the Best Midnight Feature nod so here are some links to the ejaculations of over-excited geekboys. Video interviews are here.



The next big public schmoozefest was at the Kapow Comic Con and I've been patiently thrumming my fingers in anticipation that someone might host some of the stuff that was recorded. They're probably waiting until nearer the release date.





The US Release.






and finally, a place to put all the items that defy categorisation.
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Friday, 11 February 2011

Attack The Block World Premiere news

Attack the Block will hold it's World Premiere at SXSW in March, 2011


I'm almost a day tardy with this if you don't follow my Twitter feed but hey, I'm good deal closer to the area than usual.

South By Southwest is a very cool festival that started so small in the music capital of Texas and grew into one of the most coveted markets at which to be presented and to attend. Duncan Jones' Source Code is opening the festival with it's own world premiere. It'd be nice to think the Big Talk team will be in town to rock along to that too.

I'm not entirely sure of the process involved with achieving this but I'm going to go with the notion that what the organisers have seen of Attack The Block must have impressed them considerably to schedule it like this as one of their Midnighters. Whilst I momentarily comfort my broken soul that I can't afford be there, I'm heartened by the thought that it will get some amazing exposure and buzz that could lead to a speedier worldwide success than might have originally been planned. At the moment, that thrill is outweighing any gloomy idea that it will make Joe even less accessible and available for secret radio station noodling.

It's also doing the Markets at Berlinale this week.

Spare a little thought for me and my endeavours to view this film with as little pre-cog as possible. I anticipate an overload of information from this and you'll have to forgive me if I don't pass all of it on and comment about it. I'd also appreciate it if people didn't direct spoilers at me. I know I can't hope to sustain this for the entire two months between SXSW and the UK release date but I'm going to try my best. That said, there's a sweet SXSW blog here.

Obviously, I know this much:
Attack The Block (UK) HDCAM1080i 87 minutes
Director: Joe Cornish
Producer: Nira Park, James Wilson
Cast: Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Franz Drameh, Leeon Jones, Simon Howard, Luke Treadaway, Jumayn Hunter, Adam Leese and Nick Frost
Screenwriter: Joe Cornish
Cinematographer: Thomas Townend
Editor: Jonathan Amos
Music: Basement Jaxx and Steve Price
A funny, frightening action adventure movie that pits a teen gang against an invasion of alien monsters. It turns a tower block into a sci-fi playground. It’s inner city versus outer space.
(World Premiere)


Of course, I don't mind reading stuff like this piece from The Guardian about street casting.
Cornish is a big fan of street casting. "You're casting unknowns because you want an authenticity that a professional actor may in fact find it harder to give; you want their realness," he says. "They told us as much about the script as we could tell them. They advised us on costume, on language; we used them as a kind of resource to make sure the film was credible to people of their age."

Whilst on the subject of cast, I hope you're catching the beautiful Jodie Whittaker in Marchlands on ITV at the moment.

John Boyega is in a Red Button offshoot of Being Human playing a bully called Danny Curtis.

Franz Drameh was caught on video at the London premiere of Paul, namechecking Attack The Block and Leeon Jones was there too.



This lady got a "Just Coming" from Joe! I guess he was more prepared for it in a red carpet situation. Attack the Block is getting name checks from Nick as he tours with Paul.

One last bit of trivia: The editor of Little White Lies posed as a hoodie for the next issue.

This post was mainly intended as a joyous celebration of Joe's success but while I'm here, there are a couple of other things to mention.

Adam always seems to maximise his time when he's in the big city and on Wednesday he recorded an episode from the second series of Matt Lucas' "And The Winner Is". There's a picture of him with Matt and Rory Bremmer here but they could be anyone!

Adam did an amazing set at the Tabernacle last night for Feature Spot. His Photoshop went a bit wonkaloid and that led to the most hilarious, interactive madness which he handled beautifully, adding so much to the evening. John of BBC 6Music Blog designing fame and Basil rushed to his rescue but with his usual, adorable humility, he seemed to feel this had somehow lessened the value of the evening. He couldn't be more wrong. It made it very special. At one point he offered to refund £5 to everyone (which one unhelpful audience member suggested should be more like £7 - unfair because Jonny Sweet and The Persuassionists' own Nick Mohammed were very good value) but settled with the offer of a gratis show for anyone who left their email address on his table. Without exception, I am sure everyone thought it was an exceptionally brilliant night but the offer of a freebie and another chance to see Buckles was too much to pass up so lots of people left scraps of paper on his table.

The hilight of the evening was Adam's perfectly rendered, live musical précis of Black Swan for anyone who can't spare the time to go and see it. I do hope more people get the chance to see him do this. I'm sure he'll try to squeeze into the Leicester BUG. He also did the "wot is buk" reading that I missed from BUG23 so my life was complete.

Several minutes past curfew the crowd also persuaded him to do a live version of his RATATOUILLE (THE RAT CONTROL THE COOK.

Do you remember Adam and Joe's interview with GETS! man, Dandy Sakano in Go Tokyo? Of course you do. For some reason that only the Consultants of Comedy can reveal, he is relaunching his career in Dundee because it erm, sounds like his name.

This post wouldn't be complete without a bit of off-piste nonsense so here's a bit about Edgar Wright buying the "S" from the Somerfield in Wells. He also accepted a banana for directing a film.

A full version of External World by David OReilly (of Meebox credits fame) is on the nets now.

'Our' very own Ben Mercer is performing in Hoxton next month.

Friend of the show, AmberGambler made a new mix last week too.


This bit of Wiki silliness made me laugh at a particularly low moment last week.
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