A price was being paid.

And heres how it went.

Ive got some good news for you.

I was writing a few notes mid-film, and an usher came to ask me what I was doing.

[Laughs]

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I was told afterwards it was to do with piracy prevention.

As if I was individually drawing the frames of the film to leak online.

You could have done a flickbook of it, to be fair.

No copying, no illegal flickbook making.

Thought youd be pleased!

Its no secret that you were reluctant to make anotherInbetweenersfilm for a long time.

In fact, you were adamant.

The obvious, boring question: what tempted you back?

And then, what were you looking to avoid once youd made the decision to make the film?

Well, it was two things.

Id go no, theyve got why not, and it became like an embarrassing question!

We dont have a good answer, we got on really well, weve not fallen out.

We just said we wouldnt, and its not like it was closing it off.

In the end, it just seemed mental to stop doing it.

And then we we said lets think seriously about doing it, and what we could do.

It wook a while.

BIt was one of those weird things where bits came to me.

I got rear-ended by a guy in dreadlocks in Los Angeles, called Ben.

So I thought Ive got a bad guy now, so Ill write him down.

The inspirations that came slowly.

We then had a thing that we could put together.

In terms of what we wanted to avoid, we just didnt want to make the same film again.

I read a review of a comedy film last year, year before, cant remember what it was.

And our first film has that same structure.

With this one, we wanted to play with structure and form.

Its not a very funny thing to say, but to try and keep people engaged to the end.

Hence, the film has a kind of fourth act.

It was about not making the same film again.

We spent a long time trying to make something that was stillThe Inbetweeners, but a bit different.

Is that why you front-loaded the film the way you did?

You have two sequences, one that shouldnt be spoiled, so I wont name what it is.

The other gets all the Australian cliches out of the way very early.

A bit of both, probably.

So we were like whats the funniest way, in character, to make this work?

What would Jay do?

That theres a reason why youve come to the cinema to see this thing, if that makes sense.

Did you leave any Aussie cliches out in the end?!

I dont think we cut any out.

But youll notice that theres not a single kangaroo in the whole film!

You seemed to have handled the transition very well, though.

We decided to do it because we wanted to push ourselves and do something different.

Weve always been on set every single day.

Weve always been in the edit, and in the casting.

Weve always been hugely involved with every aspect of the show.

We just wanted to push ourselves: what else could we expand into, if you like.

In terms of doing it together, were pretty much on the same wavelength, me and Damon.

The other person would still be around, but the other would take the lead a little bit more.

The very first sequence is one I dont want to spoil the content of.

I will say a very fine choice of font, though.

But its an intricate sequence to put together, and a hugely challenging one Id imagine.

Was that the hardest for you?

What were the mechanics?

It was a big test.

But we got a title sequence company in to do it.

We told them exactly what to do, and they executed it.

So yes and no.

We designed it, we wrote it, but they shot it for us.

Presumably, then, the seamless edits of the Australian cliche sequence was the toughest then?

That was a nigthmare.

Each bit of it took two days.

50-odd takes in the mansion alone.

That was a long, tough one.

Im quite a big Michel Gondry fan, so we tried to do it all in camera.

Is it the editing that you find the killer?

Its always the same with anything.

You have moments where you just cant see the woods for the trees.

We also had a definite release date to work towards.

We couldnt be like, okay, well come back in six months to look at it.

I went to the theatre quite a lot too to look at bits in different ways.

Does going through the process of a film release get any easier?

This has been, and continues to be, much more stressful than the last film.

Im incredibly lucky and the positive massively outweigh the negatives.

Was that the moment when you felt you had a target painted on your back?

Can you avoid getting angry about the worst edges of film reporting?

The whole of America didnt turn against me, so Im fine.

As long as people are that Im okay with it.

What big screen comedies have impressed you of late?

I lovedI Give it A Year.

Ive been watching a lot of older films recently though, and watchedHarold And Maudethrough twice last week.

Where do you go from here?

You were linked with a coming of age road movie for Paramount?

Is that still happening?

Ill be back in LA next week so maybe Ill find out then?

She said he was a great collaborator, and that was inspiring.

Id like to work with people who are funny and clever as much as I can.

Appreciating youve ruled out again!

anotherInbetweenersmovie, is there any temptation to revisit one or two of the characters in other projects?

Whats your favourite Jason Statham movie?

I have never seen one.

Iain Morris, thank you very much.