18/12/2002

Are you still working with your long- time business partner Stephen Woolley at Scala? And how would you define the films you produce?
“When Dreamworks did a deal with Stephen Wolley and Neil Jordan’s Company of Wolves a few years ago, Stephen left Scala, but we’re still making films together. We hope to make a Brian Jones movie very soon, based on the rise and fall of the Rolling Stone guitarist. Scala’s main thrust has been working in the lower-budget end of filmmaking, working with a lot of first-time directors. But we also work with established directors such as Fred Schepisi and Mark Evans. We also want to work around the world, so this year we did not even make one film in the UK. For instance, we made One Love in Jamaica, and two films, Black & White and The Night We Called It A Day in Australia”.

What makes you fall in love with a project?
“We have two types of projects: those that we develop ourselves, and outside projects like One Love that was developed and produced by two first-time producers, Yvonne Deutschman and Sheeogh Ferrell. The appeal of this project was this was the first film of its kind - a romantic comedy – to have been made in Jamaica. Also it was written by Trevor Rhone who wrote one of my favourite films, The Harder They Come. One Love just wrapped and was directed by Don Letts and Rick Elwood who also made Dancehall Queen together. BV International Pictures is handling international distribution.
What attracted me to Leo –another film made earlier this year - was the talented first-time director, Mehdi Norowzian, whose career I have been following for three years now. It’s a fantastic little film and we managed to put an interesting cast together: Ralph Fiennes, Elisabeth Shue and Dennis Hopper. The film is sold internationally by US Vortex Pictures”.

Do you have any first-look deals in place with international distributors like the one you used to have with Miramax, for example?
“No. Even at Palace our films were always spread around. Miramax is no longer involved in films in the $5-$10m bracket that we did with them before. But we still have a very good relationship with them and are developing a project called Saint Agnes’ Stand with them”.

What other films are you developing right now?
“We’re involved in a New Zealand film by a director whose career I have been following for the last five years, Harry Sinclair (Topless Women Talk About Their Lives). His project, Surprising New Zealand will be a high-concept romantic comedy that will start shooting in November 2003. Next year, we’ll also do Meek with Marc Evans, the Brian Jones project and hopefully, another film in Australia. This weekend we just finished shooting a co-production with Australia, entitled The Night We Called It a Day with Dennis Hopper, Melanie Griffith and Portia De Rossi. The director, Paul Goldman, made a delightful little film called Australian Rules that got six Australian Film Award nominations. Winchester Films is handling international sales”.