How would you introduceSightseers?
Ive had a few that Ive had to do, and the one with Cannes was just Enjoy!.
I got in trouble for that, though, because youre supposed to thank the producers at that screening!
Its the minor tourist attractions that give you so much gold in the film.
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No, they were all fine.
None of them turned us down, and they were all super-helpful.
But its a tricky one, isnt it?
But you cant really put across tone.
I hope they like the film.
The jokes were about the characters, and not the locations.
That was really important.
The Crich Tram Museum is just brilliant.
I live down in Brighton, so I go to Bluebell Railway and places like that.
Crich is like a world in itself then.
You mentioned that you dont get the full feel of what the film is until its done.
How did this one vary from what you set out to make?
I dont know, because we didnt know what we had.
Especially here, with two such improvisational leads?
And comedy as well.
And then youve got allow for that and how that works within the structure of that edit.
The old adage of editing comedy is half a second can make all the difference.
Ive learned that from working with Henry Normal.
The first thing I did with him was Ideal.
Hed be going cut that frame out, add a frame on that.
And wed be looking at each other going fucking hell, whats all this?
Then wed watch it and itd be better.
It does hinge on it: the timings are absolutely critical.
Those characters were the stage characters, the characters you had for your TV thing.
But the ones were now going to use are the film characters, and theyre different.
That was basically a toning down of performance, and trying to find the reality within them.
We did a lot of improv and interview stuff.
We started to built up a fake memory of them.
The short that had been done was good, but very broad.
You have to tone down the comedy Brummie accents.
Dont knock Brummie accents!
Well, Steves from Coventry, and theyre proper Midlands accents!
But theyd turned into a kind of Kevin Turvey-style.
That had to be rubbed away.
The shorter the running time, presumably, the greater the need to exaggerate things slightly?
Well it made total sense in the short.
You have to really care for them, and really root for them forSightseersto work.
You do with any character, otherwise whats it about?
That was my main concern when I looked at the script originally.
There were two versions of the film.
That would be really bad.
But you cant laugh at them.
It would be very easy for an audience to come to a differently-interpreted version ofSightseersand look down on them.
I would imagine thats been one of the key challenges, to check that that didnt happen.
Its about them being real people, making real decisions.
Theyll be contradictory, and sometimes theyd do stupid things, but sometimes theyd do clever things.
And theyd be selfish, but also be caring and loving, petty and generous.
Thats whats inKill Listand Down Terrace as well, otherwise they become targets, and it becomes mean-spirited.
Dont go for cartoon violence, show the impact of it.
How important is that to you?
I think inSightseersit was important.
And as an audience member, you get the thrill of the kill with no consequences in that case.
I really fought to get the gore in, though.
So that you know its real.
Then you go back into the comedy.
You feel as an audience member youre going through it.
It adds guilt and darkness to the laugh.
Totally, and you start to think about what youre laughing at.
You sit throughFast & Furiousand a thousand people get shot in that, and its as violent as aBournefilm.
Ryan Pope from Ideal.
Lots of mushrooms and magic, and its a bit like a cowboy film too.
That was a two week shoot?
Is yours a slightly similar ethos?
No, its just the way the storys come out.
They would have turned into cowboys from that point.
That scales the other way in terms of the size of the production?
Yeah, thats in April.
Its done, its all ready to go, but its financing and casting at the moment.
Are you shooting in America?
Its set in America.
Was there never any temptation to take the shoot overseas?
I dont want to go away from home.
The moneys better spent here, too.
Shooting in the States is expensive.
I know the crews, I know how I work here.
Ill shootFreakshifthere, because its a lot of work to take on.
But the UK is the plan.
Youll end up shooting it in 3D as well, then?
Is that still the plan?
Were working on lots of different things.
Theres some stuff thats a much higher level, which were developing.
Were looking at developing books as well, and adapting stuff.
Were looking at real, ultra-low budget stuff.
Theres lots of little ideas kicking about, maybe doing something in a day.
And then maybe another film likeField, thats done in two weeks.
It depends what my energy levels are like after doingFreakshift!
Whether Ill be totally rinsed after Freakshift.
I might need to take a year off after that and have a cry.
Its ten years worth of work in a year on that way.
Its six months post, its massively complicated, pyrotechnics, animatronics, CG, explosions…!
Ben Wheatley, thank you very much.
Sightseersis out in UK cinemas on Friday 30th November.
