Total Film 03.2022

MARVEL’S MOON KNIGHT

“THE MCU’S
FIRST FULL-ON
CHARACTER STUDY”

OSCAR ISAAC

THE ADAM DAISY
PROJECT EDGAR-JONES

Ryan Reynolds’ Normal People to
new Free Guy? Hollywood star

WHERE PAUL
NEXT FOR VERHOEVEN
DOES NUNS
BOBA
FETT?

BLOODY HELL! ALEXANDER SKARSGÅRD GETS HIS VIKING ON

“MY CHARACTER IS A BERSERKER, HIS BODY IS A WEAPON”

HALO THE LOST CITY DEEP WATER BILL MURRAY JASON MOMOA
MARK WAHLBERG JULIETTE BINOCHE MARK RYLANCE



Welcome to CALL SHEET

THIS ISSUE’S EXTRAS

EDITOR AT LARGE Anya Taylor-Joy hasn’t
changed in all the years
JAMIE GRAHAM
we’ve chatted: funny,
@JA M I E _ G R A H A M 9 caring, grounded.

And hardcore: swam in
the freezing Irish sea
each day when filming

The Northman.

DEPUTY EDITOR As a Normal People
obsessive, I loved
MATT MAYTUM talking chemistry,
Crawdads and creative
@ M AT T M AY T U M catering with Daisy
Edgar-Jones, and was
very happy to hear that
she hopes to work with
Paul Mescal again.

I t’s all about fathers and sons this issue for me – both CONTRIBUTOR It was great talking
in the vengeful Viking offspring kicking ass and taking Bridgerton S2 with
names in Robert Eggers’ The Northman and in Ryan ASHANTI OMKAR acting legend Adjoa
Reynolds’ latest actioner, The Adam Project. I’ve talked Andoh aka Lady
to Reynolds numerous times over the years (from wandering @ASHANTIOMKAR Danbury. We swapped
around LA while talking about Buried in 2010 to last year’s suggestions on what
Free Guy) and he’s always been the entertainer in chats. pairs well with Ghanaian
This time we ended up talking about our dads and what our
pre-teen selves might think of us now. “If my 12-year-old jollof rice.
self could see where I’m at right now he would have taken
his damn glove to my insolent face, and said, ‘How dare you CONTRIBUTOR John Cameron
have this amazing life that you’ll one day get to share with Mitchell looked so
people?’” he said. I had to agree; as a movie-mad kid who ANN LEE comfortable when I
dreamed of being on film sets and talking to filmmakers interviewed him over
about their work, younger me would have been pretty stoked @_ A N N _ L E E Zoom while he was
to see that I get to do just that. As. An. Actual. Job. Twelve- in bed. His Airbnb
year-old me would have pored over this issue with delight,
just the way I have in creating it with my equally film-crazed in New Orleans
team. We hope you enjoy coming along for the ride. was “cold as hell”,

Enjoy! apparently.

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR A real privilege
chatting with Moon
JAMES MOTTRAM Knight’s Oscar Isaac.
After the year he’s
@JAMESMOTTRAM having he modestly
said it was “a little
over-exposure”. Not a

bit of it, Oscar!

REVIEWS EDITOR Great Scott, I had a good
time watching Back To
MATTHEW LEYLAND The Future: The Musical.

@ T O TA L F I L M _ M AT T L Really hope they do
the sequels – if they
can pull off a moving
DeLorean on stage, they
can do hoverboards and

horses, no probs.

JANE CROWTHER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

@TOTALFILM_ JANE

TOTALFILM.COM MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 03

Contents#322MARCH2022
THIS ISSUE TEASERS

36 THE NORTHMAN 7 THE LOST CITY
Robert Eggers, Alexander Bullock and Tatum
Skarsgård and Anya romance a stone.
Taylor-Joy on the epic
that’s fit for a (Vi)king. 10 JASON MOMOA
Aquaman is revving up to
48 MOON KNIGHT join another franchise.
Oscar Isaac sports 50
shades of grey as the 12 JAMES MARSDEN
troubled antihero in the The Sonic The Hedgehog 2
must-watch Marvel series. star is talkin’ to us.

54 THE ADAM PROJECT 14 SUNDANCE
Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Our pick of the best films
Levy’s swap NPCs for time- from the biggest indie fest.
travelling existentialism.
17 HALO
60 DAISY EDGAR-JONES The videogame series
The Normal People star on prepares for its TV debut.
her Fresh new movie, and
lockdown fame. 18 DEEP WATER
Adrian Lyne is attempting
64 CANCEL CULTURE to bring sexy back.
When your movie’s saddled
with a ‘cancelled’ star, how 33IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN
do you release it? TO A FILM JOURNALIST
Our Jamie on getting movie
70 THE PHANTOM reviews wrong.
OF THE OPEN
Mark Rylance in an above- 35BILL MURRAY
par (or should that be The sometime Ghostbuster
below-par?) feelgooder . on Wes Anderson, artistic
legitimacy and poetry.
74 STAR WARS
What The Book Of Manda TOTAL FILM BUFF
Boba Fett means for the
galaxy far, far away. 116 IS IT BOLLOCKS?
So when can we buy an
80 BENEDETTA actual Matrix from Argos?
Verhoeven’s film about a
17th-century lesbian nun is 117 10 OF THE BEST
a typically restrained affair. Red outfits! A crimson tide
of couture, from Flatliners
EVERY ISSUE to billowing bloomers.

3 EDITOR’S LETTER 118 IVAN REITMAN
What the team have been A 21-Neutrona Wand salute
up to this month. to the late filmmaker.

84 TOTAL FILM 120 FLOP CULTURE
INTERVIEW Retracing the unlucky path
Juliette Binoche on her of The 13th Warrior.
journey from France
to Hollywood and 14
back again.

128 DIALOGUE
Your letters.

4 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS

7

48

36 54 SCREEN
74
THE NORTHMAN 94 THE WORST PERSON
Alexander Skarsgård goes on a IN THE WORLD
roaring rampage of revenge in Robert Poss title for a multiverse
Eggers’ new epic. And we get full sequel: Norway Home.

access to its making. 96 MASTER
Why should you enroll in
‘IT’S LIKE A GREEK Regina Hall’s college horror.
DRAMA, IN A WAY.
AND EPIC. INSANE’ 97 RED ROCKET
One of the hottest tips you’ll
60 get this month. Stop. It.

TOTALFILM.COM 98 FRESH
Think a (way) more extreme
version of First Dates.
99 BROADCAST SIGNAL
INTRUSION
Thriller about a disturbing
TV incident from 1987. No,
not It’s A Royal Knockout.

102 ALI & AVA
Adeel Akhtar and Claire
Rushbrook hook up.
Hopefully not to see Fresh.

103 LUCY AND DESI
Doco on the married duo
who changed TV. Even more
than Richard and Judy.

106 KIMI
Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies And
Dodgy Data Streams.

107 THE GODFATHER
PART II
Just when you thought it
was safe to betray your
Mafia don brother...

108 BLU-RAY REVIEWS
Not one but two Robert
De Niro films you haven’t
thought about for 25 years!

110 EXTRAS
The Batman: the merch.
Plus big helmets. (That’s
enough, Red Rocket fans.)

112 SOUNDTRACKS
Do you like scary-movie
musical re-issues?

114 BOOKS
The fuel story behind Mad
Max: Fury Road.

MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 5



EDITED BY
JORDAN FARLEY

@JORDANFARLEY

ROMANTIC FRICTION
THE LOST CITY | Sandra Bullock’s novelist and Channing Tatum’s cover
star rumble in the jungle in an old-school romcom adventure.

I f the premise of The Lost City – a sheltered author of romance novels finds (along with co-writers Oren Uziel and
herself lost in the jungle with her hot Fabio-style book cover star while Dana Fox) began crafting a screenplay
outrunning baddies and trying to find treasure – evokes memories of ’80s that intrigued Sandra Bullock as
corker Romancing The Stone, sibling screenwriter/directors Aaron and Adam Nee producer and star. “She cares about the
aren’t mad about it. important, little details that make a
film great,” says Adam. “So she’s been
Growing up, Aaron admits being flavour of comedy and romance.” Adds deeply involved from day one. From
‘very influenced by Raiders Of The Lost Adam: “And the thing that’s so exciting script development to everything. She
Ark and obviously Romancing The Stone. to us about making a movie in that gets in there, and gets her hands dirty.”
“We went into this excited about world of a film like Romancing The Stone,
making something like that, but then is that it’s kind of a film that really Originally thinking that Ryan
found as we were working on the doesn’t exist any more.” Reynolds would play the role of Alan,
concept it was turning it into something the dim but sweet model that graces the
that was unique, with a distinctive Picking up the story from Seth covers of Lorretta Sage’s bonkbusters,
Gordon (Horrible Bosses), the brothers in a The Proposal reunion, conflicting

MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 7

schedules meant the team began to as they thought they
look at other comi-action actors. When
Channing Tatum met Bullock, sparks weren’t going to
flew. “A lightbulb went off,” recalls
Aaron. “Immediately, it was so clear – be able to convince
they had so much chemistry together.
And it was so much fun, just watching him to turn up for
them sit and talk to each other, that we
couldn’t see the movie any other way a supporting role as
from that point on.”
a mysterious gung-
Tatum has documented his efforts
on social media to get in ridiculous ho adventurer. “Brad
shape to play a book jacket adonis, but
the Nee brothers are keen to explain Pitt’s name came up
that he’s in no way just a pretty face.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover early for this. But the
model,” laughs Aaron. “We needed
someone who could be everything you role isn’t a cameo,
think the stereotype is, so you could
judge him harshly. But we needed he’s in a good chunk
a performance that could turn that
around, and make you go, ‘Oh, wow. of the movie. We were
This guy is so sweet, and so lovable. And
he’s not vain.’ And just really fall in like, ‘We’re never
love with this character.”
going to get Brad Pitt
For the love-hate banter between
Tatum and Bullock to work, both to do this,’” chuckles
comedically and dramatically, as they
wade through leech-infested waters, Adam. “And then
lose cars off the side of mountains and
attempt to survive the great outdoors, Sandy did Bullet Train
the brothers knew they needed an
equally charismatic nemesis. Like [with Pitt], she was
Danny DeVito’s in-pursuit crook in
Romancing The Stone, for The Lost City, pitching him the role
enter Daniel Radcliffe – as British
billionaire, treasure enthusiast and and she and Brad
unhinged criminal, Fairfax, who
kidnaps Loretta to force her to help his share a hairdresser,
nefarious prospecting.
Janine [Thompson].
Radcliffe has shown that his taste
and range expands further than his Janine was saying to
Harry Potter days in his post-Hogwarts
projects. And this outing is going to Brad, ‘How would Brothers Aaron and
impress fans, the brothers assure. “I you do your hair if Adam Nee co-wrote and
don’t think he’s done anything like this you played this part? co-directed The Lost City.
before,” says Adam. “As soon as he What would you do
came onto set, he’s such a commanding
performance, so steady, certain and about this?’ It felt
powerful. The character seems like this
total gentleman and your best friend in like she just started
the world, and then he can turn. And
the way he does it is so subtle and with getting him excited about it. And it then
such precision, it’s just been incredible
to watch his performance come to life.” suddenly became real – and we were

There is another performer in the sitting on a Zoom, and talking to him
cast that tickles the directors, especially
about the movie. Before we knew it, he
‘A lightbulb went
off. Immediately, was in the jungle.”
it was so clear –
they had so much Ah yes, the jungle. With its critters,
chemistry together’
weather and uncooperative foliage,
AARON NEE
the Dominican Republic wilds aren’t

the most comfortable filming location. Bullock’s Loretta Sage
“It was pretty brutal, but it brought is slightly overdressed
this authenticity,” admits Adam. “At for a jungle hike…
the beginning of the film, we thought

we’d schedule the hardest stuff first.

So our first four days, we basically held

everyone hostage on a waterfall ledge,

because it would take 45 minutes to

do a round trip to go use a bathroom.

From that, we went to the open ocean…

It was like a Werner Herzog comedy.

But it was an amazing way to start the

film, because it bonded us all closer

together, and set the tone – that this

isn’t a regular studio comedy; this is an

adventure film that is very funny.”

And if the success of Free Guy has

taught us anything, it’s that lockdown-

traumatised audiences crave nostalgic

action-adventure with a side of heart

now more than ever. “When we read

the first draft of this it just was that

light going on,” says Adam. “This is

what we need. This is what we want to

see right now.” JANE CROWTHER

THE LOST CITY OPENS IN CINEMAS ON
15 APRIL.

8 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022

Channing Tatum and XXXXXX
Sandra Bullock go

wild in The Lost City.

Daniel Radcliffe gets to
explore his villainous side.

MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 9

NRHOIOGWTHT TURE LILLEGRAVEN /AUGUST

JASON MOMOA

IS READY TO HIT THE ROAD…

W hen Jason Momoa’s Aquaman swooped
in to help tackle Steppenwolf in Justice
League, he took swift advantage of the
opportunity to surf a ride on the Batmobile. Now,
the endearing Honolulu-born beefcake might well
get some hot wheels of his own as he revs up to
join another franchise.

“The Fast Fam keeps getting bigger,” tweeted
@TheFastSaga in January. “Welcome, Jason
Momoa.” The big fella will join Dom Toretto’s crew
for Fast & Furious 10, with rumours linking Momoa
to the villain role in the speed-demon saga’s
farewell blow-out. Going by Momoa’s career form,
though, a little ambiguity would be no surprise:
“I like playing the bad good guy,” he’s said.

Certainly, Momoa’s role choices suggest a range
that accommodates sly reserves of wry humour
and boho warmth. After a choppy career start
in Baywatch Hawaii and a first encounter (not his
last) with undersea myth in Stargate Atlantis,
Conan The Barbarian and Game Of Thrones came his
way, affirming his presence even if Conan didn’t
hit big and Thrones’ Khal Drogo didn’t say much.
Along the way, Momoa showed reach: his choice
of directors ranged from action vet Walter Hill
(Bullet To The Head) to Ana Lily Amirpour (The Bad
Batch), and he tried his hand at writing/directing
with Road To Paloma.

Momoa’s role as Arthur Curry/Aquaman
consolidated the sense that here was the kind of
he-man you’d want on-side: tough-looking, yes,
but protective and playful with it. That persona
made for persuasive casting in streaming titles
See and Sweet Girl, and more persuasive casting
still in Dune. As back-slapping Duncan Idaho,
Momoa made disarming work of the warrior
prepared to give his life for House Atreides.

If Momoa’s goofy side has been underused,
as he has suggested, that looks set to change
with his role in Francis Lawrence’s upcoming
Netflix children’s movie Slumberland. He
promises “a lot of comedy” for Aquaman
And The Lost Kingdom, too, which should also
make lots of money for DC/Warner Bros this
year. Furious and funny? Big Dom better be
driving hard if he wants to keep up. KEVIN HARLEY

AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM OPENS ON
16 DECEMBER. SLUMBERLAND IS TBC 2022. FAST
& FURIOUS 10 OPENS ON 19 MAY 2023.

10 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022

Nicolas Cage and Pedro Pascal
in their meaty meta roles.

EXCLUSIVE ‘I’ve never war without ever having even spoken to
dealt with an the guy it was written about, Gormican
CAGE OF actor who eventually convinced Cage to sign on –
ENLIGHTENMENT comes this finding an actor uniquely aware of his
prepared’ own image who was surprisingly keen
THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE to rip it all apart.
TALENT The most meta film of the year? TOM GORMICAN
“He just got it,” says Gormican,
I mean, it’s all pretty surreal,” laughs Tom Gormican. “There’s a scene in “and I’ve never dealt with an actor who
this film where we show the making of the film you’re watching, and comes this prepared. He would get up
Nicolas Cage is watching it in the theatre. And now I’m about to watch Nic every morning and reread the script on
watch himself watching the movie in a theatre... Everything is sort of looping in his elliptical from three to five o’clock,
on itself and I’m just hoping it just doesn’t all collapse!” and then send me his thoughts via text,
so when I woke get up I had this list of
Describing the plot of The Unbearable decided to just “write a movie that I things to talk to him about.” LIONSGATE
Weight Of Massive Talent takes some wanted to see”, only ever having one
doing – with Nicolas Cage playing an man in mind for the lead. Describing the film as a character
actor called Nicolas Cage who takes a piece that becomes a buddy movie that
paid gig to do a celebrity appearance at “Everybody has a different version becomes an action movie that ends up
a billionaire’s (Pedro Pascal) birthday of Cage. When I think about him, I’m as a family movie, Gormican is keen to
party, only to find himself in an action thinking Con Air and Face/Off, but if you get the film in front of a crowd – racing
heist trying to rescue his wife and talk to someone 25 or younger, they’re for a premiere at SXSW. “I’m just
daughter. “Pedro is a huge Nicolas Cage like, ‘Oh my God, I love his memes!’. excited that studios are taking a bet on
fan, playing a huge Nicolas Cage fan, so I just knew this was the guy that I something so strange and radical,” he
everybody’s playing a version themselves wanted to get behind, and the gamble says. “I feel like there’s an appetite for
in real life,” laughs Gormican, speaking was really that other people would original storytelling right now. My big
to Teasers from the edit suite. want to do the same.” hope is that what we’ve done lives up to
people’s expectations of whatever they
Coming up with the idea with his The bigger gamble, of
writing partner, Kevin Etten, while they course, was whether Cage think this is!” PAUL BRADSHAW
were both stuck on the staff of a TV would want to get behind
show, Gormican (That Awkward Moment) it too. Finding his THE UNBEARABLE
script in a bidding WEIGHT OF MASSIVE
TALENT OPENS IN
CINEMAS ON 22 APRIL.

TOTALFILM.COM MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 11

You talkin’ to me? YOTUOTAMLEK?IN’ going to movie theatres without
Well, yes I am, and I’m so masks on… Not to Babe Ruth
happy to be talking to you. FILM QUOTES POSE AS QUESTIONS. it and call the home run, but
FILM STARS TRY TO COPE. hopefully, fingers crossed, we’ll be
Have you ever danced ushering back in a little bit of that
with the Devil in the era this springtime.
pale moonlight?
I have not, I usually dance If I say to you, “Don’t think
with him in the daytime. That has about elephants,” what do you
probably kept me out of trouble all think about?
these years. Much safer, out in a I just pictured Dumbo flying
public space. around with a black feather in his
trunk. I don’t know why that’s the
Do you ever have that feeling elephant I thought of! I could have
where you’re not sure if you’re taken that down a really serious,
awake or still dreaming? heavy path, and said, “The
Yes, I do. I was this kid from elephant that I pictured is the
Oklahoma who’d gotten his 1984 topic we’re not talking about. It’s
Honda Accord and drove out to LA the elephant in the room: global
on a whim, to become a movie star. warming.” [laughs] I don’t know
And I was just young and confident what it says about me that you
and cocky enough to think I could said “an elephant”, and I think of
do it. And it’s worked out. I still Dumbo. Jesus. How old am I?
pinch myself, and wonder if this
whole thing is a dream. What’s your favourite scary
movie?
How much can you know about IN THE CROSSHAIRS THIS MONTH… It doesn’t sound like it would be
yourself if you’ve never been in great, but it actually is: The Exorcist
a fight? JAMES MARSDEN III. There’s a sequence in the
I would say a lot, and nothing at corridor of the hospital that’s one
all [laughs]. If you’ve never been of the greatest jump-out-of-your-
in a fight, then you know that it’s seat scares, because it takes five
probably a good idea that you avoid minutes to set up with silence. It’s
them. If you have been in a fight, so expertly done. William Peter
it teaches you a lot about yourself, Blatty directed that. But there’s
and what not to do. You either also just enough camp to it as well.
learn that you’re good in a fight, Brad Dourif in the jail cell is terrific.
or you’re probably like me, which And George C. Scott, he’s our
is that you’d be losing quite a few protagonist, and he’s bringing that
fights. So I tend to avoid them. kind of gravitas to the whole thing.
I think it’s an underrated and
So what are you afraid of? Absolutely. It’s impossible not Tika Sumpter joins James under-appreciated horror film.
I have three kids. And, as any to, especially these last couple Marsden in trying to keep up
parent would probably say, that of years… It’s impossible to go with the little supersonic blue What would you prefer, yellow
they grow up to feel confident through life without having felt guy in Sonic The Hedgehog 2. spandex?
in themselves, that they stay like you’ve lost all touch with There’d be a big problem if I
healthy – no illnesses, life-altering reality, and the cause and effect PARAMOUNT
mistakes… not the lightest answer! have been turned upside- didn’t remember that quote!
down. I don’t think you’re a You’d have to send me away
What’s normal anyways? normal person if you haven’t for early dementia, which I
I have to agree with that: what is lost a fraction of your mind could be very much in danger
normal? Everyone has their own these last two years. of. I’m very happy I don’t
definition of it. To me, ‘normal’ prefer the yellow spandex. If
is a life with flaws. That’s what Why so serious? that were the case, I probably
makes it unique and interesting. [laughs] I guess it says a lot about would not have been cast. If it
I have a crazy, wacky family that me, the way I’ve been answering
I adore and love, and some people these questions, I need to lighten was a prerequisite for the casting
might not feel like it’s normal. up! Hopefully the Sonic release session, there would be a few
My ex-wife is still my best friend. in April will put some smiles on giant films erased from my IMDb
Some people might look at that as people’s faces. I hear a lot, in page. Thankfully, I was able to
strange, or not normal. passing, from people that [Sonic wear baggy clothes and get cast.
1] was the last film they saw in But yellow spandex? I would have
We all go a little mad theatres. That feels like so long been sent away. JORDAN FARLEY
sometimes, haven’t you? ago now, doesn’t it? We were
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 OPENS
IN CINEMAS ON 1 APRIL.

QUESTIONS TAKEN FROM: TAXI DRIVER, BATMAN, THE MATRIX, FIGHT CLUB, CREED, FORREST GUMP, THE DARK KNIGHT, INCEPTION, SCREAM, X-MEN

12 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS

Ruth Wilson’s Kate does a
naughty thing: go underequipped
on a country walk.

EXCLUSIVE

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS When Law stepped back from the
project, Wootliff cast Tom Burke (The
TRUE THINGS Harry Wootliff’s take on Souvenir) as the ex-con benefits claimant
Deborah Kay Davies’ cult novel tells it like it is… – known only as Blond – who Kate falls
for after their car-park tryst. “What I
W hen actress Ruth Wilson (The Affair) teamed up with Jude Law to like about Tom is he’s very attractive, but
option Deborah Kay Davies’ cult 2010 novel True Things About Me, the he’s not traditionally the perfect-looking
plan was to find a filmmaker to bring it to the screen. Harry Wootliff, leading man,” says Wootliff. “But I think
who made her feature debut with 2018’s IVF drama Only You, readily agreed to he’s very charismatic, and when you fall
adapt Davies’ tale about an unnamed single woman who works in a benefits for someone, not everybody sees what
office and – on a whim – has sex with one of her claimants in a car park. you see.”

Wootliff was immediately intrigued and how they behave – and imbue ‘I think a While Blond is anything but reliable
by the book’s narrator, a woman who that into the character,” adds Wootliff. character – frequently disappearing for days on
hasn’t followed the expected path by “Ruth often plays strong, formidable that is always end, even stealing Kate’s car – Wootliff
finding a husband and having children. characters but as a person, she has a good is less was forced to tone his behaviour down.
“I like the fact that she’s an outsider lightness, she laughs a lot, she’s quite complex and “In the book, he’s much worse. He hits
and that she doesn’t fit in,” she tells scatty and has an impulsivity to her.” a bit boring’ her. He’s got another family. It’s very
Teasers. “I think a character that is black-and-white. But I felt as soon as
always good is less complex and a bit HARRY WOOTLIFF he becomes that, then we know she
boring. And I don’t find her boring. shouldn’t be in the relationship.”
PICTUREHOUSE ENTERTAINMENT She doesn’t always behave like a good
girl. She’s not always strong. She’s not Indeed True Things is determined to
always saying the right thing. She’s not show the warts-and-all complexities of
always very grounded or sensible.” this pair – whether its Blond’s own
abandonment issues or Kate’s gradual
Locating the action in the coastal journey towards empowerment. Will
town of Ramsgate, Wootliff watched she get what she wants out of life? Will
interviews of her star, Ruth Wilson, as she get a happily ever after? No spoilers
she sculpted the character – now called here. “At some level, she works out who
Kate – for the screen. “I really like to she is,” hints Wootliff. “She becomes
use the actor and part of who they are her truer self.” JAMES MOTTRAM

TRUE THINGS OPENS IN CINEMAS ON
1 APRIL.

TOTALFILM.COM MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 13

FESTIVAL ROUND-UP

DANCE CENTRAL

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL The standout movies from this year’s indie showcase.

EMILY THE CRIMINAL GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE EMERGENCY

Aubrey Plaza completes her Animals’ Sophie Hyde directs this sweet, sex-positive two- Like a cross between Booksmart
transformation into tough-as-nails hander from writer Katy Brand. Widow Nancy Stokes (Emma and Get Out, Emergency aces emotional
leading lady as a debt-riddled college Thompson), who has only slept with her husband, hires a wallop with a convincing friendship
dropout who enters the world of quick- sex worker (Daryl McCormack) to help her on a voyage of arc while also making salient points
cash credit card fraud in first time carnal discovery. But as the duo’s tryst metastasizes from about bias. Two partying Black
filmmaker John Patton Ford’s gritty LA awkward to introspective, she unearths more than sex. A students (Donald Elise Watkins and
noir. Supremely tense and explosively barnstorming Thompson is matched by McCormack’s slinky RJ Cyler) hesitate to call the cops
pertinent, this is a heist thriller rooted nuance in a tender, frank and funny liberation story with a when they discover an unconscious
in cutting social commentary. Plaza feminist twist. white girl on the floor of their living
surfaces her too-rarely-seen serious room and spiral into a smart, socially
side as resourceful antihero Emily, a aware disaster night that tests
debtor-class, gig-economy worker with their friendship as they navigate
no prospects who’s pushed to escalating institutional racism. A warm, mirthful
extremes. We’re a long way from Parks and pertinent bildungsroman that
And Recreation… builds to a gut-punch final act.

SUNDANCE INSTITUTE

14 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS

SPEAK NO EVIL

A Danish and Dutch family click on
a Tuscan holiday, but when the Danes
accept an invitation to spend the
weekend at their new acquaintances’
rural home six months later, they
discover a terrifying gulf between
them. As one of their friends asks,
“What’s the worst that can happen?”
Um, where to start… Soaked in
dread from start to finish, this
sharp psychological horror explores
stranger-danger, social anxiety,
passive aggression, middle-class
inertia and cruelty to torturous effect.
Horribly great.

LIVING improbably close to Kurosawa’s masterpiece with
this thoughtful remake, a handsome, deeply
Kazuo Ishiguro scripted this remake of 1952 moving slow-burn. As the repressed Mr. Williams,
classic Ikiru, relocating the story of a buttoned- who flowers with understated grace, Nighy hits a
down government bureaucrat (Bill Nighy) who heartbreaking career high. A transportive, precisely
finds renewed purpose in the face of his impending mannered period piece to luxuriate in.
mortality from Tokyo to postwar London. Moffie
director Oliver Hermanus achieves results GOD’S COUNTRY

CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH A grieving professor (Thandiwe
Newton) living in rural Montana becomes
Radiating the nuclear charm of engaged in an escalating conflict with
its sickeningly talented leading man two local hunters in director Julian
(Cooper Raiff, still in his early twenties, Higgins’ stark neo-western. Newton is
wrote, directed and stars), Cha Cha Real career-best in this atypically intelligent
Smooth is a bittersweet and terrifically revenge thriller that doubles as
funny crowd-pleaser. Aimless 22-year- politically charged state-of-the-nation
old party-starter Andrew (Raiff) hits character drama. Higgins knows how
it off with local mom Domino (Dakota to marshal nerve-fraying tension, but
Johnson), but this effortless connection it’s Newton’s formidable performance,
is complicated by their wildly different as a Black woman whose fury at the
trajectories. Andrew is an infectiously world threatens to spill over, that
delightful man-child, but it’s Johnson’s makes this such a riveting experience.
richly sketched young mother who
anchors the film’s touching take on love JANE CROWTHER/JORDAN FARLEY
and longing.

YOU WON’T BE ALONE

“What if Terrence Malick directed The Witch?” is the
elevator pitch for Goran Stolevski’s spellbinding folk horror,
which follows a freshly turned shapeshifter (the faces of
Noomi Rapace and Alice Englert are among those worn by the
transformative central character) who discovers her humanity
by stealing strangers’ lives in 19th-century Macedonia. First
time feature filmmaker Stolevski has an eye to rival Malick’s
pastoral poetry, while his script locates empathy and insight
amid the spilt guts. A complex, challenging and singular vision.

MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 15



Pablo Schreiber dons Master
Chief’s legendary outfit.

EXCLUSIVE

CHIEF ENCOUNTER

HALO One of gaming’s biggest guns makes
the leap to live action…

I t’s taken close to a decade for a live-action adap of videogame phenomenon
Halo to reach fruition. But now it’s finally upon us, with the war for humanity’s
survival in the 26th century being realised on an epic scale by Pablo Schreiber as
super-soldier Master Chief. Oh, and one Steven Spielberg as exec producer…

CBS, PARAMOUNT What was the goal in adapting such a was a legacy project of Steven’s. He ‘We set out to I definitely see her as someone who is
well-known property? godfathered it in terms of reading every build a huge, misunderstood. She believes we’re in an
Kiki Wolfkill (executive producer): script, helping choose showrunners, epic 26th- unhappy valley as a species. Her belief is
Adapting a beloved videogame, with 20 writers, director, cast, production century sci-fi it’s all for the greater good and everyone
years of history and story and character design, and visual effects; every aspect world’ will understand when they catch up.
development, is a daunting task. But it’s of it, he looked at.
also really gratifying. We looked at this KIKI WOLFKILL Will the series satisfy Halo die-hards
as, ‘How do we take the essence of the What drew you to Master Chief? as well as total newbies?
game experience and really express it in Pablo Schreiber (Master Chief): What Steven Kane (showrunner): We worked
our own unique voice?’ With that, we set was really interesting for me was the with [videogame developer] 343 Industries
out to build a huge, epic 26th-century opportunity to explore the themes and in every department to be able to reward
sci-fi world, with brutal aliens, Spartan ideas of the relationship between being the true Halo fan. And if you’re absolutely
super-soldiers, artificial intelligence, a warrior and being a hero… What new to the game or don’t know anything
military politics and ancient mystery. But are the similarities? Where do they about it, it’s still a great story. It’s a great
against that backdrop we also wanted diverge? And one of the real beauties war story and love story. It’s a story of
to tell some very personal stories and of this project is the depth of story and intrigue and a story of characters who
explore the humanity - or lack thereof - mythology we’re able to draw from with are just reaching for something, and
and complexity of our characters. the Halo universe, which is amazing. they’re all yearning for something that’s
just beyond their grasp. And the heroism
Amblin Television is on board. How Dr. Halsey is the creator of the Spartan comes not so much in the succeeding,
involved has Spielberg been? soldier programme and a polarising but in the trying. TARA BENNETT
Darryl Frank (executive producer): figure… how do you see her?
We always treated it as though it Natascha McElhone (Dr. Halsey): HALO RELEASES LATER THIS YEAR.

TOTALFILM.COM MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 17

Ana de Armas and
Ben Affleck play an

unhappy couple.

EXCLUSIVE Ana de Armas’ Melinda
begins a destructive
MARRIED STRIFE game of infidelity.

DEEP WATER Adrian Lyne revives the erotic
thriller with Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas.

I ’ve always liked relationship pieces,” says Adrian Lyne. “That’s what I’ve
been attracted to – the small story, rather than the large. A movie about you
and me, rather than The Matrix, for example.” Lyne is chatting to Teasers
ahead of the debut of Deep Water, his first movie in 20 years. The British director
found fame in the ’80s and ’90s with iconic films like Flashdance and Jacob’s
Ladder, and he became synonymous with erotic thrillers and dramas like Fatal
Attraction, 9½ Weeks, Indecent Proposal and 2002’s Unfaithful.

He’s returning to that world with thing, because it’s so destructive. ‘I tried to you do sense that,” says the director. AMAZON
Deep Water, which stars Ben Affleck and But on the other hand, it’s erotic, have a certain “I was pleased that they obviously were
Ana de Armas as Vic and Melinda, an potentially. It was a terrific story.” complicity intrigued with each other, but within
unhappily married couple. Infidelity between the movie.”
leads to murder, in a loose adaptation When it came to the casting, them… she’s
of a novel by Patricia Highsmith Lyne tested Affleck and de Armas doing this in Guaranteed attention for that life-
(The Talented Mr. Ripley, Strangers On at his LA home. “I thought it was part for him’ imitating-art off-screen factor, Deep
A  Train). “I liked the novel very much,” more interesting to sort of be able Water is also reviving a genre little
continues Lyne. “But it was just really to do something in the bathroom, ADRIAN LYNE seen in US cinema these days. Not that
about somebody who hated his cheating or the sitting room, or the bedroom, Lyne categorises his work that way.
wife. He wasn’t sexually involved with or wherever, rather than just doing “People always say I do erotic thrillers
her at all, really. It was sort of a non- it in a studio,” he says. “And it was or whatever. But with Fatal Attraction,
sexual relationship.” just very interesting to see how the for example, there’s a scene where they
chemistry sort of developed between screw over a sink, and people remember
The film takes a different approach. them, and starting to see it working. that. It only lasts a minute. But I guess
“What I tried to add to that… was to In the end, I’m not casting him, and that’s what makes it an erotic thriller.
have a certain complicity between them, I’m not casting her – I’m casting what It’s funny – people are interested in
to get a sense that she’s doing this stuff happens between them.” that side of things…” MATT MAYTUM
in part for him,” Lyne says. “I thought
that that was an interesting thing to deal Affleck and de Armas would go on DEEP WATER COMES OUT ON PRIME
with. Jealousy is always an interesting to date in real life; clearly the chemistry VIDEO ON 18 MARCH.
was there. “You’re always lucky when

18 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS

“AM I EAGER TO DO “You’re still
HELLBOY 3? NO, I’M 71 making that

F***ING YEARS OLD. f***ing
[BUT] WE OWE THIS TO backwards
story about
THE FANS. SO seven dwarfs
GUILLERMO... GET THIS
living in
F***ING THING DONE” a cave

RON PERLMAN WANTS BIG RED TO RETURN (SORT OF) together,
what the f***
1
are you
doing, man?”

PETER DINKLAGE HAS NO TIME
FOR DISNEY’S SNOW WHITE REMAKE

IN TOPPING The month in dialogue and digits. £290m
THE UK
THE REPORTED BUDGET FOR
CHARTS, ‘WE MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7, WHICH
DON’T TALK BALLOONED BY $100M THANKS
ABOUT BRUNO’
(NO, NO, NO) TO PANDEMIC-RELATED
BECAME THE COMPLICATIONS.
FIRST ORIGINAL
DISNEY SONG DAMN FINE “PEOPLE OFTEN THINK
TO DO SO. CASTING OF VISUAL EFFECTS
IN TERMS OF THE
“THERE IS David Lynch has joined
AN INNER the cast of Steven SPECTACLE… BUT WHAT
CIRCLE, Spielberg’s semi- ABOUT THE POOR VFX
INTERN WHO HAD TO
LIKE, autobiographical drama GO FRAME BY FRAME
‘WE ARE The Fabelmans in an
THE GREAT undisclosed role. AND PAINT OUT MY
ARTISTS,’ NOSE HAIRS?”
AND THEN
THERE’S SIMU LIU ON THE LESS GLAMOROUS
THE POP SIDE OF MOVIE MAKING.
ARTISTS”
DOUGLAS TRUMBULL RIP “DID
JENNIFER LOPEZ REFLECTS ON HER ANYONE
HUSTLERS OSCAR SNUB. VFX pioneer Douglas UNDERSTAND
Trumbull has died at 79. THAT LAST
MATRIX
Across a trailblazing MOVE?
career, Trumbull worked WTF??”

on sci-fi classics 2001, ICE-T IS MOVING INTO
Close Encounters and FILM CRITICISM.

Blade Runner, and
directed Silent Running.

TOTALFILM.COM MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 19

John Cameron Mitchell
is suited and booted for

his role as Joe Exotic.

EXCLUSIVE

EXOTIC
CREATURE

JOE VS. CAROLE
John Cameron Mitchell
on becoming the
Tiger King.

W hen Tiger King came out in
March 2020, it captured
the hearts of pandemic-
weary viewers across the world. One
person who wasn’t so enamoured,
though, was actor/director John
Cameron Mitchell. “It felt like another
rubbernecking-for-roadkill series,” he
tells Teasers. “Europe does like crazy
American stories! But it felt a little
empathy-free. The characters were
compelling but it didn’t go very deep.”

That doesn’t mean he didn’t know ‘It’s hard to But then, perhaps in his attempt to megalomaniacs. It feels like I’m playing SKY/PEACOCK
a juicy part when he saw one. Mitchell see a more defend himself from toxic masculinity Richard III.”
jumped at the chance to play Joe Exotic delicious role and toxic femininity, he imitates his
in Joe Vs. Carole, a TV dramatisation of to sink your oppressors so much that he becomes And while there’s still a healthy
Netflix’s astonishing docuseries about teeth into’ worse than them. I’m from the same dose of the story’s absurdity, Joe Vs.
a bitter feud between a gay zoo owner area and we’re the same age. I know Carole attempts to show the real people
and the founder of a big-cat sanctuary, JOHN CAMERON what it’s like to deal with a very macho behind their shocking actions. “It’s in
that spirals into a mind-boggling tale and homophobic [environment].” the realm of [the Coens’] Raising Arizona
of attempted murder-for-hire. With MITCHELL with a touch of Nashville by Altman,” he
his dodgy blond mullet and oddball Based on a Wondery podcast of the says. “And you’re going to care! Some
eccentricities, Exotic became a cult same name, the show digs into what people watched Tiger King and cared, but
figure and inspired countless memes. made these archenemies tick. In the most were just laughing. There’s a lot
docuseries “you didn’t get to know of love in this story. You’re going to feel
Mitchell was so keen to play him about Joe’s husband who died of Aids, for both characters a lot.” ANN LEE
that he was willing to do his first and Carol’s abuse”, says Mitchell. “The
audition in 25 years. “I was in London, way they dealt with how they grew JOE VS. CAROLE IS ON PEACOCK (ON
acting in The Sandman, when it came to up made them both into heroes and SKY AND NOW) FROM 4 MARCH.
me,” he says, reclining on a bed in New
Orleans with three heaters on full blast
around him. “A friend got my mullet on
Amazon, did my make-up and found
some costumes on Brick Lane, and he
was born!”

The Hedwig And The Angry Inch
filmmaker stars opposite Saturday Night
Live veteran Kate McKinnon, who plays
Exotic’s arch nemesis, Carole Baskin.
“It’s hard to see a more delicious role to
sink your teeth into,” he says of Exotic,
who ran a private zoo in Wynnewood,
Oklahoma, filled with exotic animals.
“An antihero who’s admirable in one
way, facing down homophobia his
whole life and creating a community.

20 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS

TRAILER BREAKDOWN

DINO MIGHT

JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION Old friends face new threats as Jurassic goes global.

01 02

Four years into the neo-Jurassic Age, dinosaurs and humans are A herd of parasaurolophus galloping along the open plains, a mosasaurus
co-existing not-so-peacefully across the planet. “We’re racing towards feasting on a fishing trawler’s haul… Dominion promises awe-inspiring
the extinction of our species,” says Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire. new sights, and a mournful apatosaurus (brilliant, we’re crying again).

03 04

Blue’s back, and… aww what a cute little baby raptor! Seems Owen’s Another first for the Jurassic films: feathered dinos! Given the way this
prehistoric BFF has been busy since we last saw her. Later, adorable menacing pyroraptor is charging towards Owen and Jurassic newcomer
Baby Blue is caught in a trap, and you can bet Mum won’t be happy. DeWanda Wise it’s safe to assume she isn’t too friendly.

05 06

UNIVERSAL The dilophosaurus is back with a vengeance in Dominion, and gets all More exciting than all that is the long-awaited return of Alan Grant
up in Claire’s face. The original film took significant scientific liberties (Sam Neill), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum),
with the beast’s abilities – will Dominion make amends? back together for the first time in 29 years. Life found a way…

JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 10 JUNE.

TOTALFILM.COM MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 21

CAN WE TALK ABOUT?
OSCAR SNUBS
SHUNNED BY THE ACADEMY, THESE ARE ALL AWARD-WINNERS IN OUR HEARTS.

JORDAN FARLEY LEILA LATIF JANE CROWTHER MATT MAYTUM

@JORDANFARLEY @ L E I L A _ L AT I F @TOTALFILM_ JANE @ M AT T M AY T U M

DENIS VILLENEUVE BRADLEY COOPER THE GREEN KNIGHT RUTH NEGGA WARNER BROS, A24/ENTERTAINMENT FILM, SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES, NETFLIX

Best Director Best Actor Best Picture Best Supporting Actress
There wasn’t a better-directed film While an actor like Bradley It was number two on Total Film’s Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut
than Dune in 2021, which makes Cooper could skate by on classic movies of 2021, a sumptuous was snubbed across all categories,
the Academy’s decision to omit good looks and innate movie- feast for the senses. Heart- but most egregious was the
Sandworm-wrangler-in-chief star charisma, the Academy stopping cinematography, rich, omission of Ruth Negga. She
Denis Villeneuve – in the immortal failed to recognise that he tactile costumes, a haunting plays Clare, a Black woman able
words of Josh Brolin – “fucking pushed himself to give two soundtrack, lyrical script, career- to ‘pass’ as white, unquestioned
totally dumb”. Consider the of the year’s best and boldest best performances from a zeitgeist by society or her racist husband
vision required to translate Frank performances. In Nightmare cast… it even had a talking fox. (Alexander Skarsgård). It’s a
Herbert’s unwieldy prose into Alley he sold a pitch-black neo- But it didn’t set Academy hearts supporting performance of
visual poetry, the skill necessary to noir arc, as Stanton Carlisle is alight. Maybe a chaotic release maximum impact: her charisma
mount a production of unparalleled destroyed by his own hubris. meant a lack of awareness of its galvanises or discombobulates
scale and never lose focus of And in Licorice Pizza he was an febrile existence. Perhaps it was everyone in her orbit, not least old
the most intimate character utter delight as Jon Waters, an too off-kilter for voters with its friend Irene (Tessa Thompson).
interactions. Villeneuve brought unhinged producer in need of chatty canids, ambiguous ending, But far from just being an electric,
out the best in those around him – a water-bed. For the Oscars to dual roles and ancient source catalysing presence, there’s layer
a fact the Academy recognised with ignore one iconic Bradley Cooper material. Or was it just that A24 upon layer of nuance, as her
10 nominations for Dune, but they performance is unfortunate, but didn’t play the vote-courting buried past and privileged present
missed the most important one. two is just careless. game? Heads should roll. bristle against each other.

22 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS

Mark Rylance plays
Mob-connected Chicago
cutter Leonard.

EXCLUSIVE Dylan O’Brien and Zoey
Deutch look suitably stylish
SUIT CASE
as Richie and Mable.
THE OUTFIT Mark Rylance stars in a precisely
tailored crime thriller. at Hudson, learning to cut, learning
to sew. If he’s doing it on screen, he’s
A few years ago Graham Moore, the Oscar-winning writer of The Imitation really doing it.”
Game, knew he wanted to make a film about a Savile Row tailor. There
was only one problem: “We couldn’t quite get a story to put him into,” Though a fictional story, every
Moore tells Teasers. “And then one day, we were reading a book about the history character in the film is inspired by a
of men’s clothes-making. We found this single sentence about how the first bug real Chicago gangland figure of the
in FBI history was planted inside a tailor shop in Chicago, Illinois, in 1956. And 1950s. Moore himself was born in
we said, ‘That’s the film – it’s about a tailor who works for the Mob!’” Chicago, and set the story just a couple
of miles from where he grew up. The
UNIVERSAL Said tailor is Leonard, played Set over a 48-hour period, with ‘How could personal connections don’t end there:
by Mark Rylance. Leonard, more a cast of just six main actors (Zoey this guy Moore’s grandfather was a doctor who
specifically, is a highly skilled ‘cutter’ Deutch, Nikki Amuka-Bird and who’s so treated notorious mobster Jerry Catena.
who has set up shop in Chicago, where Simon Russell Beale also feature), gentle work “I always thought that was fascinating:
he lets local gangsters like Richie (Dylan The Outfit unfolds entirely within the for this how could this guy who’s so gentle
O’Brien) and Francis (a deeply sinister confines of Leonard’s shop – the monster?’ and kind and loving, work for this
Johnny Flynn) make drops out of his physical constraints of the story monster?” Moore ponders. “And at
back room. One night Francis walks in designed to mirror the mindset of GRAHAM MOORE what point can you no longer take that
with a wounded Richie over his shoulder a workaholic main character who any more?” JORDAN FARLEY
and a tape in his hand which, he claims, never leaves his place of business.
contains evidence of a rat in the family, Leonard’s vocational dedication to THE OUTFIT OPENS IN CINEMAS ON
and no one’s going anywhere until the his craft was something that Rylance 8 APRIL.
truth comes out. – a serious contender for the title of
Planet Earth’s Greatest Living Actor MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 23
“The film is, on one level, this – could relate to intimately.
white-knuckle ride,” according
to Moore. “And on another level, “On one level, it felt like typecasting
it’s a character study into this very – Mark Rylance as a confident
interesting, mysterious man. We’re craftsperson!” Moore chuckles. “Mark
pulling back the layers on Leonard is such a consummate researcher. He
the way one would remove layers of spent time learning to make clothes
their clothing.” himself on Savile Row. He apprenticed

TOTALFILM.COM



Seidi Haarla and Yuriy Borisov
form an odd but relatable

couple, as Laura and Ljoha.

EXCLUSIVE ‘I was more journey in Europe, and in the ’90s
looking for at that, Richard Linklater’s Before
STRANGERS soulmates; Sunrise (1995) might come to mind as a
ON A TRAIN sister and comparison. But while affection forms,
brother’ this is far more a platonic relationship
COMPARTMENT NO. 6 Cannes-winning tale than anything overtly romantic.
of a travelling odd couple… JUHO KUOSMANEN
“I was not looking for a romantic
T he joint winner (with Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero) of the Grand Prix in couple,” says Kuosmanen of casting.
competition at Cannes last year, Compartment No. 6 is the newest film “I was more looking for soulmates;
from Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen, who previously made the sister and brother. In the beginning,
charming real-life boxing story The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Mäki, itself the characters have these roles.
another Cannes prize-winner and festival darling. One’s a Finnish student, wannabe
intellectual character, and the other
CURZON As Finland’s official submission for hard-drinking, chain-smoking Russian has a role of a Russian working-class
the International Feature award at this miner, Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov). guy; strong-headed and presenting
year’s Oscars, Compartment No. 6 only as big and masculine. It’s a story of
strengthens Kuosmanen’s status as one Sparks certainly don’t fly and much losing these roles and seeing the other
of the most exciting rising talents from of the early leg of Laura’s journey is as a human being, not just as the
his country. But his latest is actually set spent trying to avoid her abrasive other.” JOSH SLATER-WILLIAMS
in Russia. “I like Russian scenery,” he roommate. But gradually, in ways
tells Teasers. “It’s really cinematic.” natural and touching, a bond begins to COMPARTMENT NO. 6 OPENS IN
form. A warm, ultimately lovely movie CINEMAS ON 8 APRIL.
Set in the 1990s, it follows a emerges in spite of all the frostiness
Finnish archaeology student, Laura inherent to its premise and setting. Laura and Ljoha
(Seidi Haarla), taking a long train trip slowly form a bond
from Moscow to snowy Murmansk. Inspired by a novel by Rosa Liksom,
Ostensibly travelling to observe rare, the film’s story resonated with co-lead on their journey.
ancient rock paintings, the journey Haarla. “I had read it the first time
is also a means of getting away from when I was younger,” she says, “when
a relationship situation on the rocks. it came out in 2011. I was something like
Within the tight confines of her 26, I had just studied in Saint Petersburg
assigned bunk compartment (shot on and then lived in Russia. In the novel,
a real train with 35mm film instead there’s this really strong vibe, based on
of with a presumably easier digital the younger, not native girl who’s in a
approach), she has an unexpected world run by men and it’s scary.”
and unwelcome companion: a cranky,
With the plot of an odd couple
forming a connection on a long train

TOTALFILM.COM MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 25

Jack Lowden (left) stars as poet
Siegfried Sassoon while Jeremy
Irvine plays composer Ivor Novello.

EXCLUSIVE Director Davies (left) on
set with Lowden (right).
POETRY IN MOTION
which also dealt with a famous poet,
BENEDICTION Terence Davies tackles Emily Dickinson. “That run is over!” he
troubled WW1 scribe Siegfried Sassoon… cries. “Because the next film is proving
difficult, as always, to get money for.”
S ix years ago, when Terence Davies was presented with the idea of making
a film about Siegfried Sassoon, he jumped at it – rather blindly. “I had no He’s currently looking to fund The
idea what kind of life he had,” he says. Yet the more he read, the more he Post-Office Girl, based on an unfinished
connected. “I can obviously respond to the fact that the First World War made novel by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig,
him a great poet. whose work previously inspired
Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest
“Then he was gay, I can respond to Wilfred Owen and famous composer ‘None of us Hotel. “It’s a wonderful book,” he VERTIGO RELEASING
that. He then got married, which I can’t Ivor Novello – Davies was also keen can find says. “Like a lot of Zweig, it’s about
respond to because I’m not married. to take audiences to a later period. In redemption pain and torment and hope – hope
And then he became a Catholic, which several poignant sequences, ex-Doctor except in relinquished or taken away.” Is it
appalled me because I was brought up Who star Peter Capaldi features as an ourselves’ expensive, enquires Teasers naïvely?
a Catholic… I can’t understand why he older, more embittered Sassoon. “I Is that what’s holding up the funding
would go into such a faith that deals in did feel it was important to show what TERENCE DAVIES for it? “All independent films are
guilt all the time.” it was like at the end of his life, still expensive,” he chuckles. “You don’t
trying to find some kind of peace, if make them for two and sixpence!”
After honing the film’s script, Davies you like, and not finding it.” Clearly,
(The House Of Mirth) cast Dunkirk’s Jack the conversion to Catholicism did not JAMES MOTTRAM
Lowden as the young Sassoon, haunted bring him redemption. “Unfortunately,
by both his sexuality and the horrors none of us can find redemption except BENEDICTION OPENS IN CINEMAS
he’d seen, and which inspired such in ourselves.” ON 20 MAY.
poems as ‘Suicide In The Trenches’. “I
did think he carried that with him for Already the film has won Davies the SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
the rest of his life,” says Davies. “And Best Screenplay award at the 2021 San
who wouldn’t? Those dreadful battles of Sebastián Film Festival, nominations at
the First World War and huge casualty the BIFAs and a host of good reviews. “I
lists and seeing people blown to pieces. think it’s my best,” he admits. It’s also
Of course you’re going to carry that.” the latest in an impressive run of four
films in a decade – following The Deep
While depicting Sassoon’s early Blue Sea, Sunset Song and A Quiet Passion,
years – embroiled with fellow poet

26 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022

NEXT BIG THING

PHOTOGRAPHER: JONNY MARLOW @JONNYMARLOW / EARLY MORNING RIOT. STYLIST: ENRIQUE MELENDEZ HAIR: CLAYTON HAWKINS MAKEUP: ALLAN AVEND JENNA ORTEGA

IS USING HER VOICE…

W ith 40 credits to her name,
21-year-old Jenna Ortega is among
the most prolific and accomplished
young actors working today. Already this year
she’s appeared in Scream and Foo Fighters
horror-comedy Studio 666; still to come
are school-shooting drama The Fallout, Ti
West’s X and Tim Burton’s Wednesday, where
she plays a teenage Wednesday Addams.
“Working in any other field almost seems
unfathomable at this point,” she says.

What was it like ‘requelising’ Scream’s
iconic opening scene?
It was fun. It also was nerve-wracking, because
it is so reminiscent of Casey Becker, down to
the colour of the sweater. I know how intensely
the Scream community takes the opening scene.
I just wanted to make people proud, especially
with Wes [Craven] not being involved.

You’ve got another big horror movie on
the horizon, Ti West’s X…
It’s the most outrageous thing I’ve ever done.
I’d say it’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre meets
Boogie Nights. The character, Lorraine, she’s a
conservative Christian girl. I think some people
will really appreciate it, and others won’t get it.
Those are the most enticing projects.

Where did your love of film come from?
I saw the film Man On Fire and I told my
parents that I wanted to be the Puerto Rican
Dakota Fanning! When I watch a good film I
get a rush of adrenaline, and this excitement
to participate in life. That’s a really beautiful
feeling and one that should be cherished.

Was playing Wednesday Addams for Tim
Burton a no-brainer?
Yes, because there’s not many Latina
characters that are as iconic as Wednesday
Addams. It is an interesting challenge, because
we’ve only ever seen her as a child. Her
humour or sass is entertaining and shocking
when you’re 10 years old, but as you become
a teenager it’s less charming. I wanted to keep
that likeability factor, and not let it become
annoying, bratty or pretentious. I really hope
to do her justice, because I know that she
means a lot to people. JORDAN FARLEY

SCREAM IS AVAILABLE SOON TO BUY OR
RENT. X OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 18 MARCH.
THE FALLOUT AND WEDNESDAY OPEN
LATER THIS YEAR.

TOTALFILM.COM MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 27

EXCLUSIVE

LEAP
OF FAITH

FATHER STU Mark
Wahlberg throws
himself behind a new
passion project.

M ark Wahlberg has faith
in Father Stu – so much
faith, in fact, that he
“cut the cheque” to make a film
about the eponymous priest. “This
is my baby that I’ve been pushing
uphill for quite some time,” he
says. “I financed it myself, and
I think it’s the best movie that
I’ve ever been in, and certainly
my best performance.”

Wahlberg’s passion for the project Wahlberg stars as the
is palpable. The actor – who plays Stu colourful title character in
and produces – is about to enter the passion project Father Stu.
editing room to see first-time director
Rosalind Ross’ recent cut when he tells ‘There’s lots going to get baptised, but he was going by Mel Gibson in the film – then came
Teasers about why Father Stu was a story of laughs to become a priest. Everybody thought back to help him. “It’s a pretty special
he couldn’t let go of. until there’s he was really crazy. He worked his way story,” Wahlberg adds.
lots of tears’ into the seminary, even though nobody
“It’s a true story about a guy from wanted him there. He challenged And while there’s certainly “a
Helena, Montana, who had a younger MARK WAHLBERG everything about it. And then he faith-based component” to the film,
brother who passed away from a rare came down with a rare muscular as Wahlberg puts it, we should expect
disease,” Wahlberg says. “His parents degenerative disease. As he was losing to see a lead character who is “super- SONY
really didn’t know how to cope with his physicality, his spirituality soared. edgy” and “doesn’t mince words”. “It’s
that. They turned to drink, with their They couldn’t ordain him because of Boogie Nights meets The Fighter in tone,”
inability to contend with that loss. his deformity, but then the parish he says. “There’s lots of laughs until
Stu became a fighter and a boxer. He campaigned to get him ordained.” there’s lots of tears.” In other words,
got hurt. They told him he couldn’t expect this to punch harder than your
box any more. He couldn’t get a job Wahlberg met a bishop who said average religious film.
anywhere. He decided he was going to Stu did more in four years than he had
go to Hollywood to become an actor. done in 40. Stu apparently had lines of JACK SHEPHERD
He fell in love with a girl, who was a
devout Catholic, and she said, ‘I can’t people waiting hours just to visit FATHER STU OPENS IN CINEMAS
date you if you’re not baptised,’ and him. His own father – played LATER THIS YEAR.
he said, ‘Dump the water on me now.’
He was infatuated.”

Stu couldn’t quite escape his
troubles, though, and still found
himself scrapping; one altercation
saw him run over, twice. “They ran
him over on the freeway and left
him there to die.”

That led to a moment of epiphany,
explains Wahlberg. “He had a visit
from Mother Mary and he
decided that, not only was he

28 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS



Simone Ashley and Charithra
Chandran join the cast
as the Sharma sisters.

EXCLUSIVE ‘It provokes a qualities are lacking in the world, so we
conversation need more people like her.
STATUS REPORT as to how
England Bridgerton’s London feels similar to
BRIDGERTON S2 The Netflix smash returns looked back our modern, multicultural one…
with new stars and new scandals… then’ AA: Historically, we’ve been fed a lie, in
the way it has been represented. In this
A record-smashing 82m households tuned into the first season of ADJOA ANDOH time period, 20,000 Black people lived in
Netflix’s Bridgerton, the conversation-starting period drama set in London. Our show is not a documentary,
Regency-era London. As fans get (cor)set for S2, Teasers talks to but it provokes a conversation as to how
returning favourite Adjoa Andoh (Lady Danbury) and new face Charithra England looked back then.
Chandran, who plays debutante Edwina Sharma…

Why does Lady Danbury take the helped us get into character. At the start What first appealed to you?
Sharma family under her wing? Edwina fears her, but as the season goes AA: [Creator] Chris Van Dusen took
Adjoa Andoh: She has history with on, they discover a lot of similarities and Julia Quinn’s book series and injected
Lady Sharma [played by Shelley Conn] develop a mutual respect. a whole extra energy into it. I’ve been
who, due to the choices she made about doing this for a long time, so I want
who she loved, was shunned by society How did you feel about Edwina to do work that’s exciting, innovative.
and ended up in India. At the time, being raised with the aim of And with Lady Danbury, there was the
Lady Danbury was simply trying to marrying a suitor? possibility to do something expansive,
survive and wasn’t able to help. Cut to CC: I grew up very independent and which was fantastically appealing.
S2: she doesn’t need to hide behind the strong-minded. But I have a lot of
parapet for anybody any more, and so family in India, including cousins who Sadly, we won’t see the return of
makes reparations for her past cowardly live Edwina’s life, even today. They Regé-Jean Page, a S1 fan favourite…
behaviour, providing the Sharmas with have these marriages for security, but AA: Why? What’s there to love about
everything from housing to clothing, as they are in loving relationships, so him, I wonder? [laughs] We’ve become
well as their entry into high society. inspiration was fairly close by for me. really good friends. Thank you,
Bridgerton, for giving me my new baby-
Edwina shares a lot of scenes with She seems very doe-eyed at the brother lifelong friendship. [On S1] we NETFLIX, LIAM DANIEL
Lady Danbury… start of the season… both leant into our African heritages
Charithra Chandran: Adjoa was so CC: She’s a special character.
supportive to me and my screen sister She’s so different from what and it gave us an extra bond, on and
Simone Ashley [who plays Kate Sharma]. I’m like in real life, but as time off set. ASHANTI OMKAR
She embodies a lot of what Lady Danbury went on, I began to appreciate
is - her authority, her confidence - which her positive qualities. Those BRIDGERTON S2 IS AVAILABLE ON
NETFLIX FROM 25 MARCH.

30 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS

5 THINGS ‘The twists 4PAIN AND DRAIN
are never While Compston finished off
LIVING NIGHTMARE for the sake Amazon’s sci-fi epic The Rig, Middleton
of it, they shouldered the emotional heavy lifting
OUR HOUSE Things go from abode to worse always move for the first two weeks. “I dove straight
for Tuppence Middleton… the story at the deep end,” says Middleton, not
forward’ long awake after her “one and only lie-
1LOST PROPERTY in a rented studio flat, abiding by an in”. “After that I thought it would calm
Adapted from Louise Candlish’s agreed contract of rules throughout. MARTIN COMPSTON down,” she continues. “But it’s all really
bestselling literary thriller by Simon “I’d done a few period projects,” says heart-wrenching.” After nine years as
Ashdown (co-creator of 2005’s Middleton, “and I really liked that this Line Of Duty’s Steve Arnott, Compston
superbly strange Funland), Our House relationship story felt modern and is no stranger to gruelling character
is a suburban ordeal inspired by relatable. Ultimately, it comes down work, but this has still been “the most
a real-life case of property fraud. to communication – we all know what emotionally draining part I’ve played in
Returning to the well-appointed south it feels like to think: ‘if only I’d said a long, long time”, he says. “It has felt
London home she had shared with her that’. She’s quite controlled and he’s relentless at times. The situations they
children and estranged husband Bram a thrillseeker, but he’s a good dad and get into are pretty severe, but the twists
(Martin Compston), interior designer regrets his mistake, so he’s doing his are never for the sake of it, they always
Fi (Tuppence Middleton) finds her best to make things easy. Even so, she’s move the story forward. It’s a gift for an
belongings gone and strangers moving understandably very guarded – and actor, but things can go very dark.”
in: their house has been sold without then Toby comes into her life…”
her consent, Bram is AWOL and she 5RAISING QUESTIONS
has no apparent legal recourse. “What 3TOBY OR NOT TOBY? “One wrong move can destroy your
Fi finds seems totally absurd,” says The mysterious, enigmatic Toby life,” muses Compston. “Sometimes,
Middleton. “Something she has put her is so mysterious and enigmatic it’s about when you come clean. At
life and soul into has gone in a day.” that the man playing him has times with this, you find yourself
to apologise for his evasiveness. rooting for people like Bram who’ve
2RULES OF “I’m afraid I can’t tell you why done pretty bad things, but they’re
ESTRANGEMENT the role appealed,” laughs Rupert only there because they’ve got a bit
Penry-Jones, checking his crib sheet. lost. What would I do? It’s hard to
Running parallel to the fallout of the “Toby’s a seemingly lovely, confident say without being in it, but it’s really
house sale are flashbacks to Fi and guy going through his own divorce. intriguing to consider. I’ve loved being
Bram’s marital breakdown after he He charms Fi with his kindness and part of it.” GABRIEL TATE
has an affair. Bram and Fi agree to reliability. He’s a grown-up, which
‘nest’, where the children stay in feels like a breath of fresh air after OUR HOUSE STARTS THIS MONTH
the family home and the parents Bram, but he’s not what he seems.” ON ITV.
alternate living alone with them and

ITV Martin Compston and
Tuppence Middleton
TOTALFILM.COM
star in Our House.

MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 31

Nicôle Lecky stars as Sasha
in music-filled series Mood.

EXCLUSIVE ‘I want to tell by Dawn Shadforth (whose CV includes
stories about the music video for Kylie’s ‘Can’t Get
FINE TUNED characters I You Out Of My Head’) and inspired by
care about’ everything from Tinie Tempah and
MOOD Nicôle Lecky’s song-filled saga the house music her DJ dad used to
promises all the feels… NICÔLE LECKY play, through to Cardi B and, er, Celine
Dion. “I used to have a necklace that
N icôle Lecky is following in the footsteps of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and said ‘Celine Dion’, but the chain fell
Michaela Coel in bringing her one-woman show from the London stage off the ‘E’…”
to television. The six-part Mood (formerly known as Superhoe) is every
bit as distinctive as Fleabag or Chewing Gum in its portrait of Sasha, an east Exploring social-media obsession,
Londoner whose loneliness and vulnerability are hidden behind by superficial the debate over empowerment versus
swagger and razor-sharp tongue. sexualisation and crises in housing and
mental health, it’s a show that pairs
“Sasha’s a wannabe singer- who is involved in online sex work. ambition with emotion. “I want to tell
songwriter,” explains Lecky. “She’s Sasha goes on this crazy journey, trying stories about characters I care about
quite troubled, struggling with her to find herself and her voice and figure and who you don’t see on screen,” says
expectations not meeting the reality of out what she is running away from.” Lecky. “To make people ask questions
her life. She falls out with family, ends and feel things.” GABRIEL TATE
up sofa surfing with a drug dealer and Mood showcases not just Lecky’s
meets Carly [Lara Peake], an influencer writing and acting but also her singing, MOOD STARTS ON BBC THREE
weaving in musical sequences directed THIS MONTH.

SHORT CUTS The latest happenings in movieland… WEIRDING WAY

WORLD WIDE WEB RED ALERT HEAT WAVE Daniel Radcliffe will BBC, BONAFIDE, WARNER BROS
play satirical musician
Dakota Johnson is Dwayne Johnson Michael Mann returns ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic in
joining Sony’s Spider- has enlisted Captain to his 1995 crime classic an upcoming biopic,
Man Universe for a solo America star Chris Heat with new novel co-written by Yankovich
Madame Web movie. Evans for his upcoming Heat 2, co-written with and director Eric
In the comics, Web is a ‘holiday event movie’ Meg Gardiner. It will Appel. “I have no doubt
paralysed mutant and Red One. Plot details cover the lives of key whatsoever that this is the
sometimes ally of Spidey are non-existent, characters, including role future generations
with telepathic abilities. but if Dwanta Claus De Niro’s McCauley and will remember him for,”
Jessica Jones’ S.J. doesn’t make the leap Pacino’s Lt. Hanna, both Yankovic said.
Clarkson has signed on to the screen we’ll eat before and after the
as chief yarn spinner. our baubles. events of the film.

32 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS

TJHITOOAUSPAHRPFONEIAUNLLLMIDSNT’T
Editor-at-Large JAMIEGRAHAM
lifts the lid on film journalism. THIS MONTH...

O ver the last month or deeply for a regular family man GETTING
so I’ve rewatched all whose tragic flaw of alcoholism is REVIEWS
of Stanley Kubrick’s chiselled away at by the Overlook WRONG
13 features and my order of Hotel until he harms those whom
preference has changed. Eyes Wide he loves the most. Like King, I felt ‘IT TOOK ME THREE WHOLE
Shut, a film I found repetitive, that Kubrick had entirely missed DECADES TO ACCEPT THE FILM’
stilted and outdated upon the point, and it took me three
release, this time cast a hypnotic whole decades to entirely accept yourself, and it’s the last thing missed altogether, and I now
spell – I felt like I was suffering the film as its own magnificent you want to watch – but critics think it’s a masterpiece. Likewise,
some sort of sleep paralysis, beast. are not machines. I remember the first time I saw Antichrist,
unable to move as an ominous I was not in the mood for Wong it riled me, then riled me even
creature slouched towards me. GROWING PAINS Kar-wai’s In The Mood For Love more because I thought that was
Lolita, which I admired in my because the screening room was exactly the response that Lars
twenties, now seemed devoid Why do I bring this up? Because so hot and I didn’t have any water. von Trier wanted. He was not so
of the novel’s brio and wit, with film journalists, like everyone INLAND EMPIRE was three hours much a provocateur as a juvenile
Peter Sellers miscast as Clare else, change over the years, and long and demanded maximum troll, I decried from the rooftops.
Quilty. And Barry Lyndon was their opinions on a movie can concentration and I went in Now I think I unfairly dismissed
exquisitely emotional whereas alter. Undergoing different life hungry. In Cannes, I was shattered his intentions and the film is
it used to leave me frozen to my experiences is a part of it (we and needed coffee, not meditative sincerely great.
core, like Jack Torrance at the end all see movies through our own monkeys, when I viewed Uncle
of The Shining. lens), but it can also be down to Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past The thing is, as a film
something far more mundane, like Lives. All three of these films I journalist, you often have to form
Ah, The Shining, a movie I’ve our mood on a given day, or the have since revisited and adored. an opinion instantly and plant
admired for 30 years, seen perhaps conditions of a viewing. your flag in the ground within
20 times, but only recently grown BAD TAKE minutes. Tweets are expected as
to fully embrace. I was 14 when OK, so an important part of the you make your way for the exit,
I first watched it, and a leering job is to divorce yourself from this Also, film journalists can, whisper and reviews must be live the
Jack Nicholson was not what I’d and to be as objective as possible it, just get it wrong, like when next morning. There’s no time
imagined when I’d read Stephen – it’s not fair to dislike a movie I first saw Gus Van Sant’s school- to see how a film sits with you,
King’s book, which made me care about, say, a relationship breakup shooting drama Elephant and if it grows or fades. All we can
because you’re going through one dismissed it as an irresponsible hope for is to get it right (if there
exercise in style that was clumsy is a right) more times than not.
It took Jamie a long and trite in its search for meaning. So, if you violently disagree with
time to take a shine It wasn’t until I revisited Elephant my review of Jackass Forever in
to The Shining. having read other, more insightful this month’s mag… don’t worry,
reviews that the scales fell from I might do a Shining and revise
my eyes. There were angles I’d my opinion in 30 years’ time.

JAMIE WILL RETURN NEXT ISSUE… FOR MORE MISADVENTURES,
FOLLOW: @JAMIE_GRAHAM9 ON TWITTER.

TOTALFILM.COM MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 33

Maya Vanderbeque and
Günter Duret play young
siblings Nora and Abel.

EXCLUSIVE Nora is sworn to
silence about what
HARD LESSONS she sees Abel endure.

PLAYGROUND Who says school is the best Wandel started with her own
time of your life? Not this agonising drama… painful memories, but spoke to
many children and teachers to widen
S et in a French primary school and sticking close to seven-year-old Nora the story. The response to Playground
(Maya Vanderbeque) as she witnesses the bullying of her older brother has been overwhelming. “I receive
(Günter Duret), Laura Wandel’s blistering debut has been compared to daily messages of thanks – it is
concentration-camp drama Son Of Saul. Yes, it really is that traumatic, and extremely moving,” she says. “I
utilises a similar visual style: everything is shot from Nora’s eye level, with never intended on this film being
shallow-focus photography amplifying her sense of disorientation and terror. a teaching tool, but there are loads
of teachers asking for it.” But can
“It is to confront the viewer, beginning of a scene and talk with them ‘My point of bullying at schools ever be eradicated? NEW WAVE
and to be there as a child,” says to see how they felt it might play out. view is that “My point of view is that violence
Wandel, pointing out that what is As for the extraordinary Vanderbeque, violence does not come from nowhere. There
happening outside the frame is often chosen from 200 girls, she landed the does not is something that brings it up,
as distressing as anything that Nora part when she told Wandel, “I want to come from something that’s not being listened
actually witnesses. The sound design give all my strength to this film.” In nowhere’ to, dealt with. I believe if we spent
is ferocious. “What is this world when return, the writer/director taught her more time listening, things would go
you’re at that level? I wanted to bring young charge to swim, and in building LAURA WANDEL better.” JAMIE GRAHAM
the viewer back, because we’ve all trust they created a deeply affecting
been through it. I wanted to show how story that all viewers can connect with. PLAYGROUND OPENS IN CINEMAS ON
much children’s fears are legitimate. 22 APRIL.
They can be dismissed as not real, not “We’ve all been in school for pretty
important, but I believe that if these much eight hours a day, for 12 years of SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS
fears are not believed and dealt with our lives, and actually it determines the
during childhood, they crystallise within adult we become,” says Wandel. “What
us. At some point, they will reveal I wanted to explore, rather than the
themselves as an adult.” educational side, was the apprenticeship
of relationships. I wanted to show a
It took Wandel seven years to get her young child who’s experiencing first
drama before the camera. She then shot times in everything, and the challenges
it in 25 days, during summer holidays. of what she has to take in, and how she
She would provide the kids with the adapts and behaves.”

34 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022

THE HERO
I have been fortunate to avoid don’t embarrass yourself, if you
most of the potholes,” don’t really embarrass yourself
smiles Bill Murray. Indeed, and do a piece of real garbage,
the former SNL star has a largely you’re gonna have legitimacy.”
flawless career, from Ghostbusters
and Groundhog Day to nine films You’ve always been very
with Wes Anderson, including careful about your choices.
recent literary comedy The French Even Ghostbusters, you were
Dispatch. With this month’s very resistant to sequels…
concert film Bill Murray’s New So much of the momentum was
Worlds arriving, it looks like the about making the money. I went
71-year-old is dodging those five years before we made the
potholes once more… second one. Five years! They were
pushing for it the hour after the
Bill Murray’s New Worlds is a first one came out, and they baited
concert film with you, cellist and switched me on that one
Jan Vogler, violinist Mira Wang anyway. They told me a story they
and pianist Vanessa Perez. How were going to write that didn’t end
did this come together? up being the story they wrote, so
I met Jan travelling back and forth I was like, ‘Oh shit! Here we are
from Berlin, and after seeing each with the special effects.’ That one
wasn’t as satisfying a film. There
other’s stuff, and getting to know BILL MURRAY are two scenes in it that are really,
each other, he said, “Why don’t really funny and I had really a lot
we make a show?” He basically THE ‘MURRICANE’ BLASTS US WITH of fun with… but the whole shape
came up with this idea – he’s MUSIC AND MIRTH… of it was weird. I was in the girls’
seen me read poetry. He plays, one too, briefly, the one [2016’s
the girls play. I read some poems. Ghostbusters] that the women did.
I sing. They’re so talented… it’s I did that because I like those girls.
a powerful little show. I don’t mean to sound important,
but that was a case of saying,
CINEMALIVE, DISNEY, PARK CIRCUS You’ve just worked with Wes Sometimes they stay just once. Murray in Bill Murray’s ‘OK, these girls are funny. And
Anderson on The French Dispatch You see who fits in and who New Worlds (top), they deserve a shot to make this
and the upcoming Asteroid City, doesn’t. People fit in, or they thing and why shouldn’t girls get
your 10th movie with him. don’t. And the living part of it, The French Dispatch (middle), to be Ghostbusters?’
What is it you love about him? as far as I’m concerned, is equal and Ghostbusters (bottom)
Well, I guess when I think about to the performance. There are How did you find reprising
him, and I think about his movies, some people that are fantastic Peter Venkman for
I think about how he’s managed performers that are difficult to Ghostbusters: Afterlife?
to make his life – the living of live with. But most of the people I ended up doing the same stuff
life – part of filmmaking. Many are great livers. And we have good as the first one! And I’m looking
people stop living in some regard livers because we serve wine at at Ernie and Danny going, “How
when they make films. They really every meal! the hell? This hurts! Those packs
divorce themselves with ordinary are really ugly!” And you’re on
life. And he just says, “OK, now Do you feel working with the ground again with those
we’re going to have this real Wes, Sofia Coppola and Jim damn packs on, getting knocked
different experience.” Jarmusch changed your career? down and stuff. Did we really
I feel like that’s the reward I got do this all the time? In that first
You all stay together during for not being too terrible early on! one, that whacked your spine so
the shoots. What’s it like when I always say to people, “Well if you out of whack. That was 35 years
he brings someone new into ago. It was hard, it was physically
the fold? hard. JAMES MOTTRAM

‘WE HAVE GOOD LIVERS BILL MURRAY’S NEW WORLDS
BECAUSE WE SERVE WINE IS IN CINEMAS ON 22 MARCH. THE
AT EVERY MEAL ’ FRENCH DISPATCH IS AVAILABLE
NOW ON DISNEY+.

TOTALFILM.COM MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 35

After establishing himself
as a true visionary with
The Witch and The
Lighthouse, Robert Eggers
is amping up the scale and
the action for Viking epic
The Northman. Here, the
director and his starry
cast, including Alexander
Skarsgård and Anya Taylor-
Joy, tell Total Film how
they raided Hollywood to
make such a vast, brutal,
uncompromising saga of
cold-blooded revenge.

WORDS JAMIE GRAHAM

36 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022

MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 37

COVER STORY

Alexander Skarsgård gets
in touch with his animal side
in The Northman.

38 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS

THE NORTHMAN

hen I first thought, ‘I want to make movie for some time,” says Eggers.
a Viking movie,’ I knew three things,” “I’m friends with Lars, but I had no
explains writer/director Robert Eggers idea! So then I was really excited.
(The Witch, The Lighthouse), with the I said, ‘I could make a Viking movie.’
hint of a smile. “I knew it needs to take I hadn’t really thought about what that
place mostly in Iceland, it needs to be would be, but I was sure I could figure
a revenge story, and it needs to have something out quickly.”
a naked sword fight on a volcano.”
Quickly, in film terms, is a couple of
Well, that’s us sold. And so was star/ years, which is what it took for Eggers
producer Alexander Skarsgård, who met and Icelandic author/poet/musician
with Eggers back when he’d made only Sjón to fashion a screenplay. Eggers
The Witch. Their lunch was to discuss wrote the treatment and Sjón penned
other possible projects, but all that was each draft of the script, with Eggers
shelved when they discovered their making notes and revisions, and Sjón
shared passion for Norse mythology. in turn desaturating Eggers’ purple
Eggers had only immersed himself prose (“Sjón had to reprimand me for
recently, after visiting Iceland with his being too Shakespearean, and I had to
wife, clinical psychologist Alexandra restrain myself, because these Icelandic
Shaker, who then used her spouse’s texts are mostly austere and less
admiration for the VistaVision flowery”). By the time the screenplay
landscapes to bombard him with was ready, Eggers’ sophomore picture,
Icelandic Sagas and Old Norse literature. The Lighthouse, was premiering at the
Skarsgård, meanwhile, had dreamt of 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it won
making an epic Viking movie since he the FIPRESCI Prize awarded by a jury of
was a boy growing up in Stockholm. international film journalists. American
He’d bounced ideas with Danish entertainment company Regency
producer Lars Knudsen (The Witch, Enterprises were quick to strike a deal
Midsommar), and read Prose Edda, an for The Northman.
Icelandic 13th-century textbook that is
considered the most detailed source for It was a bold move. Brilliant as The
modern knowledge of Norse mythology. Witch and The Lighthouse might be, they
are contained, intimate, esoteric movies
“We were trying to find the perfect shot on a limited budget. The Northman
story,” explains Skarsgård. “A lot of the would be a muscular Viking epic with
Icelandic Sagas revolve around a family battles, raids and swordfights. Always
drama. It’s a lot about revenge. So we on the move, it would, according to
knew that we wanted something big Eggers, “begin in the Viking diaspora,
and epic, but at the core of it, it had to in an island north of Scotland, and take
be a family drama.” us to the land of the Rus, which would
be modern-day Ukraine, and then
“Alex mentioned that he and Lars obviously to Iceland.” It would require
had been trying to make a Viking a budget reported to be in the region
of $60m – four times the combined
budgets of Eggers’ previous two movies
– and at its heart is the tale of Amleth,
written in the 13th century, in Latin, by
Danish author Saxo Grammaticus.

“Once upon a time, there was a
Nordic prince whose father was killed
by his usurping brother, and he then
sees his mother being dragged away
over the shoulder of his uncle,” says
Eggers, for any TF readers who don’t
happen to be scholars in such matters.
“The kid swears vengeance. But later
on, we find that he’s grown, and he’s
an elite Viking warrior, and he

TOTALFILM.COM MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 39

COVER STORY

seems to have lost his path. How each other, and we’re like, ‘OK, this Skarsgård’s Amleth crosses
does he get back on that path, you is different than me helping lay down paths with Anya Taylor-Joy’s
know?” The path signposted Roaring the dolly track. We’re moving up in Olga of the Birch Forest.
Rampage Of Revenge? “Yeah.” the world!’”

If any of the above rings a huge Dafoe flashes the toothy grin he so
clanging bell, that’s because Amleth effectively clamped around the stem
formed the basis of Shakespeare’s of a pipe in The Lighthouse. “Of course
Hamlet. But whereas Willy favours I wanted to work with him again,” he
waffle, Amleth is lean and mean. And says. “The Lighthouse was such a good
as reimagined by Eggers and Sjón, the experience, and also I admired, very
pissed-off prince – played, naturally, by much, The Witch. That’s what really
Skarsgård – boasts a torso that would led me to reach out to him, to have
make the star’s loinclothed hunk in a meeting. And then we hit it off. I
2016’s The Legend Of Tarzan go ape with think he’s a supremely talented guy.
envy. Well, you’ve got to look your best He’s got an original voice. He’s a crazy
when you’re having a naked swordfight believer. He’s a crazy researcher. And
on a volcano. he understands performance, and he
understands cinema. So what else do
STARS LIGHT THE WAY you want?”

The Northman is a risk, but is made Newbie Hawke, who’s worked
less so by the tremendous cast that with such cinematic icons as Richard
Eggers has assembled. When you make Linklater, Paul Schrader and Peter Weir,
back-to-back films of the quality of The was bowled over by what he saw. “It
Witch and The Lighthouse, actors want was awesome,” he starts, wide-eyed.
to work with you, and here we’ll see “It’s incredibly rare to see someone
the likes of Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, strive for the level of excellence
Ethan Hawke, Claes Bang and Björk that Robert strives [for]. The level of
team with Eggers for the first time, discipline and aspirations were sky
while Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse) high. It’s fun sometimes to watch
and Anya Taylor-Joy, Kate Dickie and somebody swing for the fences. Robert
Ralph Ineson (The Witch) are back for wasn’t trying to make a good movie.
more. It was a no-brainer. He was trying to make a phenomenal
work of art. I mean, he was pressing
“Absolutely,” chuckles Taylor-Joy, himself and all of us to the limit. And
who also points out that all of the heads frankly, I just loved it.”
of departments from Eggers’ previous
movies have returned. “I mean, I will “It was an opportunity to do
take any opportunity to be a part of something quite different to what I’d
making art with this group of people. ever done before,” muses Claes Bang,
It really felt like a homecoming, and I a great Dane whose mesmerising,
was absolutely elated every single day. menacing turn as Dracula in Mark
We’ve all maintained a family unit. Gatiss and Steven Moffat’s three-part
But what I will say is that the scale of BBC drama has given him serious
this film is much bigger. There were heat. “It’s like a Greek drama, in a
definitely moments where Rob, Jarin way. And epic. Insane. Alex Skarsgård
[Blaschke, DoP] and I would look at is fucking fighting all the time. It’s

Robert Eggers and his cast and
crew braved the harsh elements
every day of the shoot.

40 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022

UNIVERSAL like a fairytale, an adventure, and has as Dracula. He has that Christopher Lee THE NORTHMAN
this Shakespearean…” He whistles stoicism and authority. He plays Fjölnir,
his appreciation. “It has the feel of a who is a cool character because you Dafoe ums and ahs. “Heimir the
Kurosawa movie.” see him in act one, through the child’s Fool is involved in some of the…”
eyes, as a 100 per cent villain. But then He stops, then sets off in another
While everyone is only too delighted you see that he has more complexities direction. “Heimir the Fool is a little
to wax lyrical about Eggers and the as a human being later on in the film.” bit of a misnomer in the sense that…
film in general, they immediately You know, through a voice and through
clam up when asked specifics about The cast elaborate, carefully. “Olga different modes, I pepper some of the
their characters. The Northman is event is someone who is very connected to mystical stuff that involves this journey
cinema, and spoilers will only steal the land and her deities,” Taylor-Joy of revenge this young prince has to go
from its impact. So what can be said offers. “She has this overarching through. I can’t say more than that.”
about the supporting characters, to at eye. She experiences what’s
least give us a foothold? Eggers rubs at happening in the moment, “I’m basically Claudius [in Hamlet],”
his dark beard. but she also, through her says Bang. “I end his father’s life.
connection to spirituality, is Hopefully there’s more to it than that,
“Willem’s character is credited as able to see a larger picture. and he is trying to…” He halts abruptly.
Heimir the Fool, and he is a kind of Olga and Amleth are “Oh fucking hell, I’m getting myself
thyle character – a jester and also a united by circumstance. into trouble. Let’s just leave it. The bad
keeper of sacred knowledge,” starts She’s definitely wary guy is the bad guy.”
the director. “And what’s a better role of him at first, as she
for Willem Dafoe than that? Anya plays should be, and…” Hawke, for his part, keeps it simple:
Olga [of the Birch Forest], a somewhat A sudden laugh. “In a lot of ways, I play Hamlet senior,”
witchy-inclined, Slavic woman who has “And I think that’s he says, meaning he’s the king who
been enslaved by Vikings. Björk plays probably as far as I is offed early by his brother, who
the Seeress, obviously! And Claes… you can go into that!” then takes Queen Gudrun (Kidman)
know, there’s a reason why he was cast for himself. Bang won’t offer any

TOTALFILM.COM ‘WE WERE OUT ALL THE
TIME, AND IT’S FOUL
WEATHER FOR A 98-DAY
SHOOT. RELENTLESS’

ROBERT EGGERS

more details, only saying, “Nicole is
a massive star because she knows
her shit,” and instead switching the
focus to Prince Amleth: “Oh my God,
what a massive performance Alex has
put in on this one.” His voice raises
an octave, incredulous. “Are you
kidding me? Endlessly, endlessly being
battered. I have to say the work ethic
is just mental.”

Taylor-Joy laughs. “He fills the
entire screen,” she says, referring
to both his pumped-up torso and his
imposing presence.

“My character is a berserker, so his
body is a weapon,” shrugs Skarsgård,
who speaks quietly and hesitantly
despite being built like a proverbial
brick outhouse. “It was essential that

he just looked menacing and capable
of extreme violence. So I worked
with Magnus Lygdbäck, the guy I
trained with on Tarzan. We started
about four months before shooting,
and he incorporated a lot of the
choreography from the movie into
our training – similar weapons and
similar movements. The character is
also a slave on a farm for a chunk of

the movie, so I’m doing heavy

MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 41

COVER STORY lifting and heavy labour. So we did and that’s why it works,” adds Eggers.
a lot of exercises that would build up “That’s why the Greek Tragedies
TF’s favourite shoulders and the neck.” work. It’s because you’re dealing with
Norse(wo)men… mothers and sons and fathers and
But Amleth’s mind is a muscle too, uncles and brothers and sisters and
THE VIKINGS 1958 and it receives a strenuous workout. these relationships that are so close
“Throughout the movie, he’s not to us. And so when all of that stuff
A one-eyed Viking prince (Kirk Douglas) always 100 per cent certain of which starts falling apart and spiralling out of
and his former slave half-brother (Tony direction he’s going in, or what his control in the most extreme ways, that
Curtis) battle over a kingdom and an English mission is,” Skarsgård continues. “It is entertaining, you know?”
Princess (Janet Leigh). Richard Fleischer’s was prophesised to him that he will
epic plays more comic book than authentic, have to choose between kindness for MOUNTAINS OF BADASS-NESS
but Fleischer later directed Conan The his kin, and hate for his enemies. And
Destroyer, and Schwarzenegger’s Conan is a it’s that dichotomy that he’s struggling Shot largely in Northern Ireland,
key reference point for The Northman. with, and that gives the character a lot with forays to Iceland, naturally, The
of interesting depth. The trailer very Northman continues Eggers’ penchant
KNIVES OF THE AVENGER 1966 much focuses on the mission – it’s a for filming on forbidding terrain in
clear-cut, good-versus-evil narrative. brutal weather.
Italian maestro Mario Bava is best-known But in reality, the movie has a lot more
for influential horror movies like Mask Of shades to the drama between the “Yeah, it was worse than The
Satan and Blood And Black Lace, but this characters. Throughout the journey, you Lighthouse,” nods Eggers, his grin
stripped-down drama sees a Viking warrior see different sides of all the characters, indicating that he wouldn’t have it
protect a peasant woman from the clutches so your allegiances might shift slightly. any other way. “I mean, look, the
of evil. Bava shot it in just six days, and had Which, to me, makes for really side of Mount Hekla [in the south of
previously tackled Vikings in 1961’s Erik interesting drama. It’s more fun to play, Iceland] is windier than Cape Forchu
and it’s hopefully more fun to watch.” [the headland in Nova Scotia where much
The Conqueror. of The Lighthouse was shot], that’s for
“Hamlet is a mythic family drama damn sure. We were out all the time,
VALHALLA RISING 2009
Ethan Hawke plays King
Mads Mikkelsen is One Eye, leading a slave Aurvandil, Amleth’s father.
revolt in the 11th century and then facing
even greater hostilities when he heads for
the Holy Land and Jerusalem. Danish auteur
Nicolas Winding Refn made this measured,
moody drama between Bronson and Drive.

It’s well worth keeping an eye out for.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

2010
Viking lad Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel)
trains Night Fury dragon Toothless to help

protect his village against attacks. This
delightful DreamWorks animation spawned

two sequels, but this is the one, with
sweeping, swooping action and the cutest
boy-beast friendship since Elliott hooked up

with intergalactic turd E.T.

VIKINGS 2013-2020

This six-season TV show is inspired by the
sagas of legendary Norse hero Lothbrok
(magnetically played by Travis Fimmel), who
rises to fame through his daring raids on
English shores. Vikings’ mix of sex, violence
and political intrigue invite comparisons to
Game Of Thrones. Prequel series Vikings:
Valhalla has just dropped on Netflix. JG

SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS

THE NORTHMAN

Ingvar Sigurðsson’s He-Witch and it’s foul weather for a 98-day people were. Because nothing about
better not be preparing dinner. shoot. Relentless.” But there was an this life is easy. There is no cushy going
upside. “Because the locations have home and watching a movie while
all this green grass, it doesn’t have the you’re all toasty, eating dinner. No,
same oppressive feeling. You don’t it’s pretty miserable all of the time.”
feel the weight and the pain that we
experienced when you watch this For Taylor-Joy, the experience was
movie to quite the same degree that actually a godsend given The Queen’s
you do with The Lighthouse, where the Gambit aired on Netflix while she was
cinematography is so much more bleak shooting The Northman, making her a
and brutal.” global superstar. “I was living with the
wonderful Kate Dickie, in Ireland, so
Try telling that to Skarsgård and it just existed on my phone, it wasn’t
Taylor-Joy. “It was physically and real,” she smiles. “It’s very grounding
mentally the most difficult job I’ve ever to be covered in mud, in a tent, on the
had, but also the most rewarding,” side of a mountain, that’s threatening
says Skarsgård. “The days were really to blow over.”
long and hard, and we were out in the
mud, and up on these mountaintops Upon these vast, foreboding vistas,
with the wind and the cold. The week Eggers and fight choreographer C.C.
prior, I was working on the television Smiff mounted thrillingly unique action
show Succession, on which I play a tech scenes. Eggers isn’t a fan of action
billionaire in a villa on Lake Como. So movies (“Even a lot of my film-snobby
I literally went from playing one of the friends want to watch Die Hard movies
richest dudes on the planet in a crazy, for fun; I don’t”) and really couldn’t
beautiful villa, surrounded by yachts care less for the Marvel or Star Wars
and helicopters and luxury, and got template (“It’s not of interest to
on a plane and flew to Iceland to get me, at all”). When he namechecks
shackled and dragged through the mud. influences, they are Akira Kurosawa
action movies (Seven Samurai and

‘IT WAS THE MOST DIFFICULT JOB I’VE EVER HAD,
BUT ALSO THE MOST REWARDING’

ALEXANDER SKARSGÅRD

It was definitely a waking-up moment Ran, the latter being a transposition
and a humbling experience.” of Shakespeare’s King Lear to feudal
Japan), and the stunning raid of a
Eggers insists that while many of village by Tatars in Andrei Tarkovsky’s
the huge guys playing Viking warriors medieval epic Andrei Rublev.
struggled, Taylor-Joy was a trooper.
“Aw, Rob,” she responds affectionately And get this: The Northman is a one-
when TF passes this along. “I’m not a camera movie, meaning the lengthy
complainer, and Rob and Jarin know action scenes are performed in just
that, but there was one day when the two or three shots, or often only one.
mud was up to my knees, and it had Imagine the famous hammer assault
frozen overnight, and I’m barefoot. It in Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy, only
had got to a point where I think just with boatloads of Vikings dishing out
squeaked out, ‘Please!’ And they were carnage, and you’re getting close.
like, ‘Oh, OK, it’s bad. It’s really bad. We
need to get this done. If Anya’s saying, “We had to carry out complicated
‘Can we please roll? I can’t stand here stuff in these long takes, and make
any longer…’” it believable,” says Eggers. “So that
requires a lot of discipline, but it’s also
But there is, of course, a point to all very enjoyable. The first fight sequence
this movie masochism. “Because of that we shot, we were really behind
the authenticity that we’re bringing to after day one. Jarin and I were thinking,
it, in terms of the costume, in terms ‘Wow, we’ve never done this before.’
of the landscape… we don’t have to But we got there.”
imagine much,” Taylor-Joy explains.
“You can just inhabit. You can just Skarsgård winces. “Almost all of the
exist. You’re not on a stage where the scenes are single-camera and one-shot
director is saying, ‘Hey, remember, it’s choreographed between the camera and
really bloody cold.’ It gives you a real the actors, so you often have to do 20 or
appreciation as to how tough these 30 takes of a four-minute scene. It was
completely draining, physically and

TOTALFILM.COM MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 43

COVER STORY

mentally. But also, that undertaking working hard enough.’” He smiles. “It’s
is such an exciting challenge, because dangerous if there’s nobody telling you
it’s a way of working that I’d never ‘no’. You do need your ideas challenged,
experienced before.” because you can get up your own butt.
Look, I got to make this movie. That’s
As for Taylor-Joy, who’s now revving crazy. I got to make a single-camera
up to play Furiosa for George Miller in Viking movie, and we built everything
the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, she you see. That’s completely crazy.”
loved working with the stunt team.
“Everyone is pushing you,” she says. So there we have it: The Northman
“But there’s no aggression in that promises to be a true Robert Eggers
pushing, it’s just incredibly supportive. movie, but supersized and boasting
I think that Robert and George are insane action sequences. Skarsgård
similar in that they are fully immersed concludes by saying, “I hope people
in the world [they’ve created], and I feel are excited to see what a visionary
lucky to be able to be a part of it.” filmmaker like Rob can do with a big
budget, where he gets to tell it on
RIDING INTO BATTLE a big, big scope, with a scale that’s
massive, and where you’re thrown
The more you talk to Eggers and his into this world that’s not based on
cast, the more you have to wonder IP that’s been regurgitated a million
just how the hell he got a studio to times.” And Eggers insists that he’s
stump up $60m to mount such an stayed true to himself while spreading
idiosyncratic vision on such a gigantic his wings. “Like my other films, it’s
scale. Surely there were concessions a period film where I’m endeavouring
and compromises along the way? to create this verisimilitude, and also
Eggers grins. I’m trying to articulate not just the
material world, but the interior world
“If I was following exactly my of the people. So therefore it’s the
approach that I have done thus far, meeting of the naturalistic, everyday
I would be making a film in Old Norse, stuff with the supernatural, because
which can’t happen at this budgetary again, it’s a period where people believe
level,” he laughs. “The language is in supernatural things. It’s part of their
much more welcoming. I think it’s no everyday life. I mean, there’s a Valkyrie
more difficult to decipher than Tolkien. in the trailer!”
And I really have endeavoured to make
something I love wholly myself, but Eggers has one last rub of his beard
is intended for more people to enjoy. when asked why audiences should go
Even if some stuff is like: ‘That’s a little to the multiplex to see The Northman on
weird, I didn’t quite get that, but damn, a Friday night. “Because even though
that last swordfight!’” Another stroke of it’s a Viking epic and this mythic story,
the beard. “To be honest, I don’t think you’ve never seen this world before.”
I’m ever going to make a film where I He won’t say more, for fear of spoilers,
don’t have final cut again, because it’s but he’s so confident in the truth of his
a bit much. I’m proud of the film, but it words that he says them again, eyes
was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to full of pride, mischief and fire. “You’ve
do, to take the notes, and still make it never seen this world before.”
my own. And I’ll thank Sjón, who said,
‘We’re smart, creative people, and if THE NORTHMAN OPENS IN CINEMAS
we can’t interpret the studio notes in ON 15 APRIL.
a way we’re proud of, then we’re not

The stern glare comes easy to
an actor of Hawke’s quality.

44 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS

THE NORTHMAN

Skarsgård’s Amleth is
covered in what we can only

assume is not his blood.

TOTALFILM.COM Robert Eggers
on why he

storyboarded the
entire film…

“We storyboarded
virtually the entire

film. I think that
earlier in my career,
I was sort of [wary
of storyboarding],
because of Herzog’s
statements about
how storyboarding
can only lead you to
kitsch, and all this

kind of stuff. That
said, Jarin [Blaschke,

DoP] and I would
always shot-list our
stuff very carefully.

“But then with The
Witch, because
of some financial

reasons, I needed
to storyboard a few
expensive sequences,

and things with
animals and VFX. And

on The Lighthouse,
it was animals, VFX,
boat work, and SFX.
And that became a
lot more. And then

on this movie, it’s
like: ‘OK, boat work,
SFX, fight sequences,

animals, lots of
background…’ And
you’re just like, ‘Oh, so
the whole movie!’

“The other thing is,
because the movie
was exponentially
larger than anything

we’ve done, we
needed to do that, to
give us the assurance

it would work.
Because we were
making a movie we
weren’t experienced
enough to make, to
be honest. And we
personally shot the
whole movie. To my
sadness, we did have
to have a second
unit do some stuff in
Iceland, but we were
there, looking at a
monitor, saying, ‘Pan
up, pan down’ or ‘Tilt
up, tilt down’, or ‘This
lens’, or whatever.” JG

MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 45

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MARCH 2022 | TOTAL FILM | 47

MULTIPLE IDENTITIES, EGYPTIAN
MYTHOLOGY AND A CORKER OF
A COCKNEY ACCENT CAN MEAN
ONLY ONE THING: MOON KNIGHT
MAKES ITS BOW IN THE MCU.
TOTAL FILM CHATS WITH
STARS OSCAR ISAAC AND
ETHAN HAWKE, AND THE
CREATIVE TEAM BEHIND
THEM, ABOUT MARVEL’S
SINGULAR NEW HERO.

WORDS JAMES MOTTRAM

48 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022



MAKING OF

n the mosaic that is the Marvel Cinematic Marc Spector has abilities
Universe, you suspect there has always bestowed upon him by an
been a place for Moon Knight. The cowl- Ancient Egyptian god.
wearing crimefighter – and the alter-ego
of former CIA spook Marc Spector – may
be at the lesser-known end of the Marvel
Comics spectrum, but that didn’t stop fans
daydreaming about his screen debut. When
Kevin Feige was asked about the character
back in April 2018, the producer confessed
there had been discussions to bring Moon
Knight into the MCU. But when? “Does that
mean five years from now,” he teased, “10
years from now, 15 years from now?”

Shortly afterwards, head writer Jeremy
Slater (Netflix’s unorthodox superhero show
The Umbrella Academy) was brought in to discuss
the character for a planned six-part Disney+
series. “I am a Marvel kid for life,” he says,
sitting today in his office in front of a Jaws
shark toy still in its box. “I grew up on Marvel
comic books. So I had been trying to get into
the MCU camp, literally, since the day I saw
the first Iron Man.”

While Marvel’s recent small-screen
output – WandaVision, Loki, The Falcon And
The Winter Soldier and Hawkeye – has all been
centred around familiar faces, Moon Knight is
the Phase Four entry from leftfield. “Kevin is
constantly looking to expand the borders and
the boundaries of what is a Marvel project,”
says Slater. “I think it would be very easy for
them to continue to kind of churn out Avengers
and Avengers-style knockoffs. And that’s not
at all what they want to do or what they’re
creatively excited by.”

Instead, the message from on high was
clear: make sure that Moon Knight looks and
feels like nothing else in the MCU. After all,
this is a character whose powers of strength
and agility are bestowed upon him by the
Egyptian moon god, Khonsu. Which might
explain why Slater’s reference points going into
his meeting were the 1980s movie classics he

50 | TOTAL FILM | MARCH 2022