Continued frompart 1…
How was it for a guy from London going over to LA for an Oscar?
It was kind of unbelievable.
In those days it wasnt such a big thing.
It was a huge shock that we got it.
I think it shows on all our faces.
Absolutely brilliant and unusual talents.
But George wasnt recognised.
He never had a nomination.
And I think that summed it up for all of us.
Because it was Georges vision, totally, one hundred percent.
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Then you got nominated again, after that.
Was your experience different the second time round?
It was, yes.
WithAlien, it was different.
WithStar Wars, because we came back to England and there was a tiny party.
There was nothing in the press about it.
Even though the film had won about seven or eight.
And I think science fiction was still in its infancy in cinema and not recognised.
Then with Alien it was different in that there was a lot more reverence towards it.
Its one of those ironic things and I thought, Well, this is the path.
John Boorman helped me a lot starting out as a director.
John is another of the UK directors whos always been brave, like Terry Gilliam.
John had a screening ofBlack Angelfor his entire crew preparingExcalibur, which was daunting.
We didnt even have money for tea.
But John kept saying, No, this is what I want, this feel and look.
Look at what these guys have done.
And I said, John, we had a crew of eight people.
I could go into difficult locations that were stunning.
And thats what everyone kept telling him youve got a crew of a few hundred people.
You cant do the same thing.
And the pressures of a big cinema movie are different.
I was just going out to experiment and create what I want.
And can I ask aboutThe Dollar Bottom, which again got an Oscar.
Ian Scorer, Id met.
He was the head accountant at Paramount in Britain at that time.
It was ending, the government had sadly once again destroyed something really helping the arts and cancelled it.
Ian called me in and he said, Look.
I want you to read this.
It just came this morning from an agent.
And I readThe Dollar Bottom.
I went in the kitchen and said, But, we have to make this.
And he said, I know.
James Kennaway is one of the foremost contemporary Scottish writers, he wroteTunes of Glory.
He died in a terrible accident and his widow had been totally protective of this story.
It set him off as a writer.
He sold it to Lilliput magazine for 11 pence.
It would be a short film for the cinema and one hundred percent faithful to his writing.
And she said, Im going to give you the rights.
I believe in what youve just told me.
The film got an Academy Award, that was really gratifying.
I got an enormous amount of letters who said theyd been touched very deeply by the story.
with kids, eleven-year-old boys acting whod never acted before.
I did it as a kind of really strong, dramatic acting platform for myself as well.
Was it any kind of release after the pressures of the years before?
Or was it just a different kind of pressure?
It was a different kind of pressure.
Yeah, because then the benchmark goes up.
[laughs]
Did you find that when you returned toStar Warsas well?
That the goalposts had changed significantly?
Or were you able to go back and do it the way you did before?
No, I was able to go back as before.
It was easier onReturn of the Jediwhen they asked me to help out, directing second unit.
But, it was the same spirit.
The only pressure that wasnt there was because George was funding it.
He was in charge.
There was nobody there telling him what to do.
It was purely a matter of just filming.
It was easier because it was an indie film.
They had their own pressures because it was his own money backing it.
But it was very similar way of making it.
They chose theYoung Indy[Young Indiana Jones] crews.
Yes, you had involvement in that as well, didnt you?
I did a link sequence for an episode.
Those crews were great, and nobody was questioning what George wanted.
That was the biggest thing.
That he could just film it.
And so, in a way, it was a tighter ship.
Off the back ofThe Dollar Bottomyou built your own directorial career up across the 80s and 90s.
Was that always the ambition?
Thats where I started and thats where I wanted to go.
I was offeredConan, to go design it.
I would have loved to have done it, but I turned it down.
I thought, If I dont do it now, Im not going to do it.
Ridley asked me to designLegendfor him.
Which, I cant tell you, I angsted at home over it for days and days.
Because I really wanted to do it.
And I see films and you think about it.
Ive got to do it.
How hard did you find it to make the transition?
Did you find people accepted it fairly quickly or was it a real uphill battle?
That got some of the most amazing press Ive ever had.
I was compared to Hitchcock by one of the major Canadian papers.
But the studio never got behind it.
So, that was the battle, yes.
Sendergot a Best Film nomination from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films as well.
For genre fans to react to a genre film like that must be quite satisfying.
Its only later in life I understood.
A few years back, everybody kept telling me, Have you not read all the stuff about it?
That its become a worldwide cult classic.
In fact when I went to Japan, they were all bowing to me and I said, Why?
[The reply was..] Oh,Sender, Sender.
And make a run at be innovative.
And take a stab at be reverent to cinema ideas.
Welcome to the film industry…
You spent most of the time betweenStarshipandNostradamusdoing commercials?
That was after the mainstay.
Partly because my son Thomas was born duringThe Senderand it was a bit difficult.
I joined Boss Films as a commercials director, Richard Edlunds company, which was great.
We did some great commercials there.
That was kind of an interesting period.
It was actually a phone call that sent me back its a funny one.
He phoned me from England one day, he was working for PolyGram.
He said, Im gonna get Boy George to play the lead and youve gotta do it.
I said, What!?
Let me think about this, David.
This was a classic heros journey.
This was everything Id been looking for.
And I realised the name was famous throughout the world but no one really knew about him.
I called David back and said, You know what?
Weve got to make a film of this.
Hed fired up that voice inside me again, with a passion.
We got it made within two years.
I got it written and made.
And that one did quite well as well, didnt it?
I remember at the time it was quite warmly received.
Very, very warmly received.
Its made huge amounts of money that the producer Harald Reichebner is still trying to track down.
About $100 million over its period.
I made it, with little money, in Romania.
At a time one year after the revolution when there was no food in the country.
This was not an easy shoot.
It was very like the Medieval Ages.
It gave it a kind of truth, I think.
Tcheky Karyo is a wonderful actor.
I had great actors in it.
He chose it himself, that part.
Talking of Rutger, were you aBlade Runnerfan as well?
Do not listen to anybody.
Do not ever doubt it.
And I wrote this whole letter to him because I was so angry at its reception.
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