Tom Green Interview: Monsters: Dark Continent and Misfits

Monsters: Dark Continent director Tom Green talks to us about filming in the desert, Misfits and more.

I was really struck by the way this film looked.

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Its Christopher Ross, who Ive worked with since I left film school.

We did the first two series ofMisfitstogether andBlackout.

I think were in tune.

It was very lo-fi.

But hes an amazing innovator, Chris, and an amazing cineaste as well.

So yeah, I think hes done an amazing job.

So was your approach similar to Gareth Edwards?

He shot it on the hoof, really, didnt he?

He found it afterwards in the edit.

It was very similar.

Thats really not the case at all.

So we faced the same challenges.

I wanted it to be really authentic.

In that way, very much reflected Gareths process.

Again, it was very grabbed, in a way.

That was a long answer!

Id say the majority from a scripted process, but it was very dynamic, the writing.

Theres usually the development process, then the financing process, and then you go and make it.

It was reverse-engineering: heres the budget, where do you want to do it?

So it was always going to be leaping into it.

Having an actor like Johnny Harris, for example.

I was trying to create an environment for him to explore the psychology of his character and improvise.

I think its quite experimental, I think, what we did.

A lot of the atmosphere and the interaction with a local, non-actor cast isnt written, its found.

But again, you have to have actors who are prepared to work in that way.

Johnny [Harris] completely embraced that.

Hes good for this, Johnny Harris, because he has that volatile air about him.

He stayed in character for the whole film.

Obviously, hes not American.

We bought the guys out for a week-long boot camp, which was invaluable, really.

That was one thing I wanted.

We worked closely with US Marines out there, who are based there still.

One guy in particular.

He put all the actors through a weapons training process.

He was there on set with us a lot.

It was incredible commitment.

[Laughs] You guys have gone deep here!

That was quite frightening for them, I think.

I dont think it is that.

And thats not the conversation we had with the actors.

Its the same with the firstMonsters: its not driven by the genre elements, which is relatively unusual.

Thats what I responded to in the first one I was hugely impressed by it.

Assuming youve got one of those, you might go anywhere with it.

And I thought it was really smart.

At that point, I didnt think Id be making a sequel [toMonsters].

I thought it should stand alone, and all the producers were supportive of that, too.

That forces you back into exploring character and something a bit more interesting.

Partly, it was necessity we cant achieve the spectacle of a blockbuster movie.

He was saying that [the budget on] his film was one days shooting onGodzilla.

The whole of his film, you know?

And my films in the same budget range, really.

It puts it into perspective.

That was a very tight, committed little team.

Nor could it be in the way its made.

It reminded me a bit ofApocalypse Nowin some ways.

Some of the allusions to it felt quite conscious.

Its impossible, isnt it, to go to places other films have gone before in that category.

I was actually keen we didnt go anywhere near something likeApocalypse Now,because why would you?

Its one of the greatest films ever made in my opinion.

Certainly one of the greatest war films ever made.

Come And See was a reference point for me, as much as anything.

Which is unfortunate in a way, because it wasnt our intention to emulate a film like that.

It was a small team of us travelling through the desert.

Thats what I meant.

Looking into the darkness changes them, you know?

Again, it wasnt a conscious thing.

People may not believe that when they see the film.

Yeah, its what you end up with.

Its hard to make a film that…

I wanted to have that road trip quality, partly because of the production restrictions.

Yeah, by saying What can we do with this?

How can we have an interesting journey with these characters and not make it static?

And the landscapes become more epic, but you become more drawn into the minds of the characters.

Thats what was interesting to me when Jay was writing it.

Thats how we could make a film with real scale, while also exploring something psychologically interesting.

So I guess that is similar toApocalypse Now.But I think we were just trying to write our own film.

You cant ever tell, can you?

You have to make your own, unique film.

And I think this is a unique film.

The visuals and the combination of those with the science fiction make it stand out as something quite different.

What are your memories of makingMisfits, because you got to direct the first few episodes.

So you got to establish the look and feel of it.

They were just brilliant scripts.

There needs to be a tone and feel to the show, and they need a metropolis.

They said, Yeah, go for it.

So we changed the script quite a lot, visually, in that respect.

So go figure it out!

All within a limited budget and resource.

But again, the cast was amazing it was a confluence of things, Misfits.

We found a brilliant cast, and the scripts were really funny, really great stories.

Again, my relationship with Chris, the DOP, was fantastic.

Its sort of my baby, Misfits its something I will always be proud of.

Tom Green, thank you very much.