If you compare this to the last film you directed,4.3.2.1, that had a huge procession of companies involved.
This has Universal, your company and The Tea Shop & Film Company.
Is that indicative that this was a slightly easier project to pull together?
That the currency youve built up over your past few projects makes it a slightly easier sell?
Its not necessarily easier.
Its just indicative of, as a brand, us getting stronger.
Plus knowing what were talking about, so needing less people around us.
Its us being able to deliver movies to studios, so they trust us.
You dont need other companies coming in and saying we can get this delivered because weve done it now.
Weve done it a few times.
We can actually deliver a film.
Do you want to come on this one?
And so by all means I wanted their logo on there.
Ad content continues below
Whats the on-set ramification for you, then?
But less so this time?
But you dont do that.
If you hire people to produce with you, you let them do their job.
Thats why theyre there.
The focus is on everyone else.
Can you relate to that?
What lessons do you take?
Ill say though that Ben Affleck is a hero of mine, and Ive watched him from the beginning.
Ive been a fan, even beforeGood Will Hunting.
Im not one of these Johnny-come-latelies whos now loving him because hes won an Oscar!
IsPhantomsin your DVD collection then?
[Laughs] Its not in my DVD collection!
But I have seen it.
My thing is to direct the movie so you concentrate on everyone else, more than yourself.
So you’re free to give yourself less.
Youre more likely to get it in less amount of takes.
Whereas other actors you might need to spend more time with them.
At the end of the day, hes had more money, which gets him more time though.
If we shoot a scene in this room today, weve got to be out today.
Whereas on some of the big films, half a day can be left if someone has a headache.
On the jot down of film that we do currently, we just dont have that time and money.
Its really about making sure that it’s possible for you to get everything you need.
So you spend a lot of time concentrating on the actors.
Where did you see the evolution from what youve done before?
Well, I think you see that on the screen.
It came to me from Simon Lewis.
He wrote a great script calledTiger House, which is now being made by a buddy called Tom Daley.
But I was after that script initially to produce it for Tom.
As I was in the middle of optioning it, a bigger company came in and took it.
Were a little company, were trying to get good scripts, and we wanted that one.
So I met with the writer, Simon Lewis, and he was very apologetic about what happened.
He said he had other ideas, and one of them wasThe Anomaly.
I said I liked the sound of it.
Let me know more?
So he told me, and I said I want that, I want that.
He went away and finished writing his draft and delivered it.
I thought it was amazing.
I loved the concept, I loved what hed done.
I thought it needed some work.
In terms of evolution, visually I think you’re free to see it on screen.
Ive always prepared a lot, but I know what Im doing a lot more now.
It cost five times less than it looks.
Youve certainly chosen which horses to back.
Theres a bit in New York, for instance.
I liked that sequence a lot.
In your case, it helps the scene.
Can you talk about taking a lower budget film into the middle of Manhattan?
The good thing about it is it suits the scene.
We ran into Times Square, and we had all those people there.
We were listed as a low budget project for New York, so we had permission to be there.
There was no problem.
For the first few takes, nobody was looking, it was all fine.
Then people started recognising me fromDoctor Who, and then the crowd started building.
Then we had a UFC fighter, Michael Bisping, and people started recognising him.
And before you know it, theres a crowd gawping.
But because of what we were doing, with the threat and us, it kind of worked.
It was all real.
We just did it.
Cutting one minute somewhere would affect the other three.
Its experience this time.
If I edited4.3.2.1now, I could lose ten minutes easily, and it wouldnt affect the film at all.
Thats experience.The Anomalyis that same sort of thing.
You cant really cut a scene.
Any scene affects the whole story.
When the editor plugs them into the edit, they are what they are.
it’s possible for you to speed them up, slow them down, but thats it.
We comfortably got down to our length.
It wasnt a problem.
We feel you couldnt cut any more.
When the first cut came in, after the shoot, we were two hours five minutes.
But we didnt panic.
We knew we could bring it down.
Did you give yourself more time in the editing process?
We were playing around with the fights too.
They were all shot at 300 frames.
John Woo would have made people grow their hair for those fight scenes.
And have a dove flying in the background!
I come back to4.3.2.1, a film Ive a lot of time for.
You mentioned once that you had funding in place for a sequel, 5.4.3.2.1.
Is that still an active project?
Yes, I have the idea for it.
But the studio doesnt feel like the brand is strong enough to do another one.
I disagree, but theyve decided they dont want to do another one.
The budget theyve said they would do another one for, we said were not doing it.
You have other projects youve been toying with over the years.
So it became impossible.
But that films actually on its way back.
No chance, I would love to!
You lobbied in the past for Black Panther from Marvel.
But then you said youd written your own superhero movie, and it was on your laptop.
I did, and its still there!
What are you planning to do with that?
Is that just one for the back pocket?
I think Im going to rewrite it and make the lead character younger.
I think if I make the lead character a teenager, it might actually work.
But I feel like when I wrote it originally, it was five or six years ago.
I thought Id love to do it, because Ill never get a chance to play a superhero.
Ive interviewed you a few times now, and cant believe Ive never asked you this before.
So finally: whats your favourite Jason Statham movie?
Of course it does.
Every day of the week!
Noel Clarke, thank you very much.
The Anomaly is released in UK cinemas on Friday 4th July.
