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Your upcoming movie The Baby in the Basket - in a few words,
what's it about?
The film is set on a remote Scottish island convent toward the
end of World War 2. As a storm sets in, a baby is mysteriously left on the
doorstep. The nuns take the baby in and one of the younger nuns, Sister
Agnes, starts to suspect the baby might be the devil... it’s all downhill
from there!
What were your sources of inspiration
when writing The Baby in the Basket?
Nathan (Shepka) [Nathan Shepka
interview - click here] sent me a voice note, which is a daily routine
between us that usually revolves around who can send either the most
accidentally gargantuan message (I think I hold the record at 13 minutes)
or the most unfit for human consumption (probably a tie on that one). We
often spitball too and Nathan had the idea of a nun being dropped on the
steps of a Church before everything skews into The Omen and Rosemary’s
Baby territory. He asked if I’d be interested in scripting and I was, so
it went from there and we fleshed it out, took on a bit more inspiration
from things like Possession, The
Lighthouse, The Shining and
Black Narcissus to name a few. A few words
about your movie's approach to horror? We kind of wanted to go with a slow burn type of horror, built
more on atmosphere than gore and jump scares. Had we approached a
distributor with the concept to see if they’d fund it, we’d likely
have had to make something more in the vein of The Nun. More jumps and
gore and less character depth and buildup. Do talk about The Baby in the Basket's directors Nathan Shepka and Andy Crane, and what
was your collaboration like? I’ve been mates with Nathan for well over a decade now and we
made our first film together during Covid. We have similar tastes in films,
so once we put a pin in an idea forming it into a full and feasible
script is usually simple. It’s a good working relationship.
Nathan has
worked with Andy a load of times too and Andy was the DOP on our previous
collaboration, When Darkness
Falls. That one looked great so I trusted
Nathan in putting together a crew, and trusted the crew to deliver
something great. We also brought Gary Collinson into The Baby in the Basket
as a producer, and I’ve known Gary years too. I’ve written for
Flickering Myth for 14 years now which Gary runs, and as you’d guess
from running a film site, it requires being a big film fan. Going forward
we’ll have more collaborations so long as we’re all not driven mad by
movie-making. What were the challenges of
bringing The Baby in the Basket
to the screen from a producer's
point of view?
From day one until today, the biggest challenge has always been
money. We started with a crowdfunder that was going great up until we had
issues with a rival indie filmmaker trying to sabotage it. In the end they
didn’t, but we lost prime placement on Kickstarter in the final week
which probably cost us a good 5k. That’s extra days to shoot, more money
on CGI, so it makes a difference. In terms of seeking private investors,
that’s becoming increasingly challenging because it’s not as viable an
investment as it was 5 years ago. As
UK filmmakers we have to deal with the industry being all but dead in UK
indies, but the US market is also in dire straits at the moment. Until
streamers pay proper money at the top of the chain, that’s unlikely to
change. We could have done with more money and more time, but like
everyone at this level, we can only do our best.
Do talk about The Baby in the Basket's
cast, and as a producer, how much of a say did you have or demand when it
came to casting?
One major reason I wanted to produce this, and produce in general
now, is to have a little more control on matters away from the script.
When I write for hire, I’m basically writing to the specs the producers
and/or distributors want. Casting is something I really enjoy having a say
on. I’d helped cast the two leads in When Darkness
Falls, Michaela Longden [Michaela Longden -
click here] and Elle O’Hara, and we loved what they did. They were always in
mind whilst writing The Baby in the Basket. Amber Doig-Thorne had actually
auditioned for When Darkness
Falls but I also knew of her through her work on films with
Scott Jeffrey and Louisa Warren, both of whom I’ve worked with. We
wanted a couple of seasoned veterans and were pretty keen right from the
beginning to cast Paul Barber (The Full Monty) and Maryam d’Abo (The
Living Daylights). We then cast Annabelle Lanyon and I was a huge fan
because of her role in Legend, but also
Dream Demon, so it was great
getting her on board. Then we ended up recasting a role a few weeks before
shooting and Lisa Riesner came on board. She stood out over about 600
applicants, and as a German native, we rewrote her role to fit to her as a
displaced German from the war, which was an interesting character
development for ‘Lucy’. Everyone is phenomenal in the film. I think
it’s going to be one of the biggest strengths of the film, because
casting can often be an oversight in low budget English genre films.
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A few words about the shoot as such,
and the on-set atmosphere?
In hindsight we really challenged ourselves on this one. We made
it a period film. We had a real baby in the film. We used a real dog in
the film and we had a very specific location that was tough to find on a
budget. We must have been fucking nuts. We somehow scraped over the line,
but in terms of atmosphere we shot a bulk of this gothic, moody horror at
a place called St Conan’s Kirk in Scotland, and it was absolutely perfect
because it’s old, gothic and moody. The $64-question of course,
when and where will The Baby in the Basket
be released?
We are close to tying up a US deal and sealing a few other deals.
All being well we might have a release date either late this year, or
(more likely) first half of 2025. It’s a long old process. We started
developing this film in 2022, funded it in mid 2023, shot it in late 2023
and it’s been in post until mid June 2024. As just a writer I’ve had
jobs where I’ve written and handed off a script in a week and I’m
done. But then I have no control on how it turns out. Producing is a slog
but hopefully worth it.
Another very recent film of yours is Cinderella's Revenge - so what's that one about?
It does very much as the title suggests. Cinderella, as usual is
having a horrible time thanks to her stepmother and stepsisters, who push
her way too far. The Fairy Godmother arrives to help Cinderella get to the
ball but then to exact revenge on her hideous family. So how close does Cinderella's Revenge
actually stay to its source material, and what were some other sources of
inspiration when scripting the movie? The original French story and then variation in the Grimm fairy tales are pretty dark. People just think
Disney, but things like
Cinderella,
Snow White
etc were a lot darker originally so in a way
we’re stepping back to that. I was inspired by Terry Gilliam films,
particularly the blend of humour in the more fairy tale styled segments of
Time Bandits and Baron Von Munchausen. One thing I was keen to do, which
the producers wanted as well, was a bit of humour in the film. There’s a
misconception among a lot of distributors that comedy in horror doesn’t
appeal to audiences, and I’ve often been asked to strip it all away. Look
at almost every cult horror film from the 70s up to the 90s and it’ll
tell you different. Almost all have some level of humour, even if it’s
just macabre. A
Nigtmare on Elm Street, Evil
Dead, Fright Night, Lost Boys, Braindead, Re-Animator and on and on. It seems there's a
trend of late to turn fairy tales and other stories for children into
horror movies for grown-ups - do you have any explanation for that trend?
We’re definitely in a cycle right now and movies run in cycles.
I feel like we’re either in the middle, or coming toward the tail end
because after the success of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a mass of
similar films launched. Ironically I turned down Winnie the Pooh: Blood and
Honey because I was juggling too many projects, and got offered Cinderella's Revenge
around that time too. I opted for Cinderella's Revenge purely because Mark L.Lester was on board
and I’d grown up on his classic films like Commando and
Showdown in Little Tokyo. It is odd to think though, had I stayed on Winnie the Pooh: Blood and
Honey I would be a Razzie Award winner right now. I suppose there’s still time
(laughs). I have a couple morefairy tale themed film projects currently
in development, which I wrote for hire (with Mark again). They’re very
well known characters, but this is why it’s a well studios are diving
into right now.
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To
put the last question slightly on its head, how much fun was it to turn Cinderella
into a horror character?
It was a lot of fun to write. I liked the idea of having the
stepsisters a kind of awful double act. I also wanted to make sure the
Fairy Godmother role allowed plenty of room for the actress to have fun.
The intention was always to cast a well known name, and then later into the
process they cast Natasha Henstridge, which made 16 year old me cartwheel
with joy. I’m a huge fan of her work and watched Species way more times
than was necessary. I’ve had some big names in my films so far that had
my inner film nerd excited, but Natasha more so than any one else. She’s
amazing and she’s great in the film too. I loved all the cast actually.
Lauren Staerck (Cinderella) has a bright future I think. I always love
writing villains and Steph Lodge (Stepmother), Beatrice Fletcher and Megan
Purvis (as the sisters) are so much fun. They really did those roles
justice. How would you describe Cinderella's
Revenge's approach to horror?
It was a fun blend of horror and comedy. I was also keen to
secretly keep a sense of the pantomime stage shows of Cinderella
that play all over the UK around Christmas season. I don’t know if it’s a thing
in the US, but panto here is basically unbridled silliness, a bit campy,
with naughty humour. I left a sprinkling of that in the script but it’s
like chilli flakes as a seasoning, you don’t use too much.
Do talk about Cinderella's
Revenge's director Andy Edwards, and what was your collaboration like?
Andy was on by the time I’d pretty much finished the script.
I’ve not yet actually spoken to him but I know of Andy and his work.
I’ve actually been meaning to touch base, but as he’ll likely also
know, there’s rarely a free minute in the life of a producer/filmmaker.
He’s got a great visual eye though and he makes good films. Check out
Graphic Desires and Punch. As well as Cinderella’s Revenge of course. He
was more director for hire on it, but he did a great job on an undoubtedly
tight budget and schedule. Any
other current of future projects you'd like to share?
For the last year or so I’ve been planning produce a film solo
and just do something completely different. I’ve flitted between some
ideas and never got time to source the kind of money needed for them. Not
huge amounts but significant, particularly as I’m actively going against
what the market suggest is commercial. A couple of actors I knew had some
free time, and a brainwave hit me. I had the bones of an idea. I launched
at the beginning of May into a script for We Go Again, an arthouse
psychological drama dealing with mental health and neurodivergence. After
a bit of drama recasting a role with a week to spare, we were shooting at
the end of the month. It was the only way to do it, kind of jump in,
otherwise you just delay and delay. We have another few days of filming
but it’s gone great so far. Zuza Tehanu is an actress, musician, dancer
and physical performer who I’ve been dying to work with for ages.
She’s got an amazing presence and I wanted to put her in the lead in the
kind of role she deserves. I’d worked with Charlotte Chiew before. She
came in, saved the film from collapsing just before shooting. I knew what
she could bring and she brought even more than that. Most importantly she
and Zuza have amazing chemistry. This is my attempt, alongside my brother
(who is directing, shooting and editing it) to make a film completely my
way. We wanted creative freedom and almost a pick up and shoot style,
which means I’ve had to fund it. What I’ve learned is, that even zero
budget costs a frickin fortune (I wanted to make sure I paid people too).
We’re really pleased with how it’s gone so far, and later this month
Annabelle Lanyon joins the cast. So all being well we’ll be hitting
festivals with this early next year. There’s just the small matter that
I’ll probably be scoring the film myself too (I’d love to do this more
but there aren’t enough hours in the day).
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Your/your movies' website, social media, whatever else?
www.instagram.com/jolliffeproductions Anything
else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? There
will be more films on the way this year, including Demon Hunter (my ode to
End of Days), Psykhe (a psychological horror) and a UFO movie. I’m also
working on the next project with Nathan and Gary, and we’re taking those
tentative first steps to finding the money to make an action thriller. A
few more hire gigs will go to camera later this year which I’m looking
forward to seeing, and I’m also working on my first book, a Making of
Die-Hard. This time next year I may need a year off and to not write a
single word. That feeling’s always in the back of my mind that I may get
fed up with writing, and if that happens I’ll either focus on music or
work a BBQ grill somewhere and make hamburgers for people. Thanks
for the interview!
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