Interview: Ross Boyask and Chris Regan

Ross Boyask

Far East Films: How did ‘Ten Dead Men‘ come about? Weren’t you trying to set up a different film to begin with but when that fell thru you went off and made ‘TDM’?

Ross Boyask: We were originally going to make a film called ‘FiXers’ which was about a corrupt police unit being brought down by a brother of one of their victims, and we ended up making ‘TDM’, essentially to help raise the funds to make ‘FiXers’, but it is unlikely that we will now attempt to make ‘FiXers’.

FEF: ‘TDM’ is much more gritty in tone and has more of an emotional undercurrent compared to your previous film ‘Left For Dead‘. Was this a conscious effort to do something that is character/emotional based as well delivering full throttle action?

RB: Very much so, as if you do not identify with the characters then the action can end up feeling hollow. We wanted to give the audience more of a reason to root for Ryan (played by Brendan Carr) and to emotionally invest in his relationship with Amy (played by Pooja Shah) as well as showing how the villains are mostly emotionally detached from what they see as basically doing their job, even if it entails killing people.

FEF: You managed to get Hong Kong stunt/choreographer expert Jude Poyer (‘The Medallion‘, ‘Downtown Torpedoes‘) on board to co-ordinate the fights. How did you hook up with him?

RB: I’ve known Jude for around 18 years now! We first met in the queue for a Hong Kong triple bill at the Scala cinema in Kings Cross, London, and got talking. We stayed in touch for some years but then he moved to Hong Kong. A few years later I saw him start to crop up in films like ‘Fist Power‘, and fighting Jet Li in ‘Hitman‘ etc. He moved back to the UK and we got in touch, and it went on from there. He’s amazing to work with, has a terrific work ethic and always delivers far beyond what you would expect to see onscreen given our virtually non-existent budget. Jude also brought some amazing people with him including Russell Macleod, Aldonio “Danny” Freitas and Peter Pedrero who co-ordinated our fireburn, performed by Jude himself for the film.

FEF: The fights hit hard in ‘TDM’ and are a mix of Hong Kong styled fighting and 80s blockbuster action i.e. we can see what is going on and the action flows in a fluid way. It’s refreshing to watch action you can actually see and is not over-edited into an incoherent mess.

RB: Thank you, that was pretty much our exact intention, we are all sick of the over-edited shaky-cam nonsense (and it IS nonsense) that seems to proliferate in films these days. What’s the point of using highly skilled action performers and spending time choreographing and filming action when you can’t actually see what is happening onscreen? ‘Quantum of Solace’ is one example of a film where you literally cannot understand what is happening from one shot to the next. The action in that film is a total mess. And when you think about the sheer number of decision makers who must have okayed everything it is incredibly depressing.

FEF: ‘TDM’ features a surfeit of British martial artists. How did they come aboard?

RB: I’ve been friends with most of the martial artists in the film for some years, including Brendan Carr, Silvio Simac and Glenn Salvage. Some, such as Chris Jones, Cecily Fay and Andy Taylor I first met whilst making on ‘Left For Dead’, and others, such as Richard Blackburn were friends of friends. Tom Gerald was a cage fighter we met when the producer Phil Hobden contacted CageRage asking for their help.  The organizer Dave O’Donnell found Tommy for us and also appeared in the fight scene for us too.

FEF: The film has been playing the Festival circuit and has recently been picked up for distribution in the US. Are you pleased with the reaction to the film so far? Certainly most of the reviews have been positive.

RB: Yes, the film has been picked up for USA, France, Japan and Indonesia so far, and there is more to come. We’ve had some terrific reviews so far, which is very encouraging, and we have had some in-depth coverage by magazines such as Impact, Combat and FSM.  I’m curious to see what the audience feedback will be once the film has been released internationally.

FEF: Any specific films influence ‘TDM’?

RB: There are quite a few influences; some direct, some indirect, including ‘Commando’, ‘Point Blank’, ‘Get Carter’, and the films of Walter Hill such as ‘Trespass’. My main influences as a director are Sam Peckinpah and Walter Hill.

FEF: Anyone who knows you, knows you have an obsession with action classic ‘Commando’. What exactly is it about that movie that makes you watch it time and time again?

It would take forever to explain every reason why ‘Commando’ is literally the best thing ever. Not just the best FILM ever, but the best THING ever! I normally find that no matter the situation, no matter how dark the hour, watching ‘Commando’ is absolutely the best thing you can do.

FEF: What’s next?

A splendid question. Watch this space.

Chris Regan

Far East Films: So how did the original concept of ‘TDM’ come about? Did you always want to write a revenge flick?

Chris Regan: The revenge story was something that was developed by the director and producer and was already there in the material I was given when I came onto the project. But I am a huge fan of revenge films so it was definitely a subject I had a lot of enthusiasm for. The revenge story also gives you a straightforward structure – it’s essentially a guy ticking names off a list for 90 minutes. The most challenging part of writing this script was finding ways to play on that structure in a way that keeps the audience interested and throws them a few surprises along the way. I was also struck by how similar the revenge structure is to that of slasher films – they both show one character killing off a succession of other characters in a variety of different ways. The only difference is the audience’s sympathy in a revenge film is placed with the killer rather than the victims. Also the bodycount in an action film at the hands of the hero is usually much higher than that of a slasher-movie villain. This was something I tried to play with and I think the end result walks a very fine line between the slasher and action genres.

FEF: One aspect of the flick that works so well is that the main character never speaks and all his thoughts/emotions/reasons are told through voiceover (by Doug Bradley). It’s a risky but successful stylistic choice that gives the film an identity all of its own. Was it always planned this way?

CR: The original idea behind the voiceover was to save time and money on re-dubbing the dialogue, so instead of getting all the actors in to re-dub we would only need one. The early drafts were written entirely in voice over. This was difficult to get around, but I decided to approach it from a stylistic point of view rather than a technical necessity and tried to have some fun with it. In some cases this just wasn’t practical and by the later drafts everyone had dialogue and we did end up re-dubbing most of it, but the voiceover still played an important part. It was originally narrated from the point of view of the main character, Ryan. I chose a point in the narrative, at the end of the film, and decided he would be telling the story to us from there. The turning point came when the possibility of casting Doug Bradley as the narrator came up and being a huge ‘Hellraiser’ fan I jumped at the opportunity. For obvious reasons he couldn’t narrate the film as Ryan, so the challenge was to find a way to do it that suited the film. I decided to treat it as kind of a dark, urban fairytale and imagined Doug’s character as someone who’s slightly amused by the tragedy of the story. I’m really happy with how it turned out and it’s something that I think really stands out and makes it a little different from other films in the genre. My favourite reaction to the voice-over so far is that it makes the film into a kind of wildlife documentary following the habits of an urban predator, which totally fits the protagonist-as-monster idea I was aiming for.

FEF: The characters of Parker and Garrett, the somewhat comedy but still violent henchman are another aspect of the flick that works so well. Was it always the intention to provide a little light relief from the dark and violent tone? What was it like writing these characters compared to the others?

CR: Actually the characters of Parker and Garrett mostly came from the actors who played the parts, JC Mac and Jason Hyde. In the script they were always kind of a duo and they did have a few comedy moments, all of which are in the film. But JC and Jason did a lot of rehearsal together and really played on the idea of them being incompetent henchmen. I was a bit worried about how it would affect the tone, but I’m really happy with how it turned out and in what is a fairly nihilistic film you do need those moments of lightness every now and again. When I watched the first cut of the film I actually found myself feeling sorry for them by the end, which adds and unexpected layer to the story.

FEF: What was the writing process for ‘TDM’ like? Was it a lengthy process or did it come together quite quickly?

CR: I wrote the first draft in a month, which I think is fairly standard, but there was a lengthy rewriting process. I think by the end we were calling it draft ten, but from my point of view it was closer to twenty. The main reason for this was that things were constantly changing throughout the filming process. Sometimes they would be good things – we’d managed to get a new location or a new actor and the script had to be rewritten to fit. Other times it would be that we couldn’t film something the way it was in the script and it would have to be rewritten to accommodate that. The great thing about this was I was involved with the film right the way through to the end of the process – it wasn’t a case of handing in a script and turning up at the screening to see how it turned out.

FEF: Any particular influences you had while writing ‘TDM’?

CR: ‘The Crow‘ is one of my favourite films and was a definite influence. ‘Point Blank’ is another favourite and I think there are a lot of similarities between Ryan and Lee Marvin’s character in their relentless pursuit of vengeance. I also think it’s a good example of a crime thriller that really plays with the genre and does some subversive and interesting things with what is essentially a very basic story. The Richard Stark novel that ‘Point Blank’ is based on was also an important reference point – the character in the novel is really difficult to sympathise with which is how I wanted Ryan to come across as well. In terms of the voice-over I was really influenced by John Hurt’s narration in ‘Dogville’, in the way he talks about some quite nasty things as if telling a bedtime story.

FEF: It was recently announced that ‘TDM’ has been picked up for US distribution by MTI Home Video. This must be pretty exciting?

CR: Yeah, it’s fantastic news but also a bit scary. So far the film has only been seen by a relatively small number of people and most of those have been sympathetic to the low budget roots of the film. The thought of it being available to loads of people is both exciting and frightening but I think it has a good chance of finding an audience and I’m hoping that we’ll be able to get UK distribution off the back of it.

FEF: What’s next?

CR: I’ve been working with JC Mac and Jason Hyde on a feature based on the Parker and Garrett characters. I wrote a 30 minute short which they filmed earlier this year to raise money for the feature. It’s kind of an action-comedy in the style of ‘Midnight Run’ and ‘Running Scared’ – a bit of a departure from ‘Ten Dead Men’. I’ve also been working on a zombie script and there are a couple of other projects moving along that I can’t really say too much about at the moment. I do regularly update my blog at www.whatwritesatmidnight.blogspot.com and I’ll hopefully be announcing some new projects in the new year.

‘Ten Dead Men’ (AKA ’10 Dead Men’) is available to buy from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Far East Films would like to thank Ross Boyask and Chris Regan for taking the time to speak with us.