Straightblog

rabid nonsense...

... hideous, ugly, repellent, wrong, stomach-churning, vomit-inducing, gruesome, abysmal, twisted, lurid,  nasty-brutish-and-depressing, nasty-and-nonsensical, nasty-vindictive-and-violent, nasty-brutish-and-short, unhinged, dangerous, foul and violent, brutal, raw and uncomfortable, deeply unnecessary, disturbing, unsavoury, objectionable, grubby, shocking, uncommonly brutal, exploitative and depressing, torrid, stupifying (sic), grisly, violent and unsettling...

I think we hit a nerve.

Those were all quotes by the way, a selection from the gusher of apoplectic reviews for Straightheads here in the UK.

Actually there have been more considered ones too, notably James Christopher's in the Times here in the UK, Derek Malcolm in the Evening Standard, Variety magazine, the Daily Mirror, Sight and Sound and a good handful of others which gainsay the splutterings of the frazzled majority.

The Independent went as far as accusing me of having a borderline personality disorder, and the usually articulate Guardian, after a short, coruscating paragraph, ended its review with a strangled cry of "Wrong!". I have to admit I actually burst out laughing when I read these, so the guy from the Independent might have a point after all!                                                               

Well, today's the day. To the those of you who've been following this blog from the beginning, it's been exactly a year since my first post.

Thank you all so much for your support, and for your kind and warm comments. You've made the long months of waiting for the release a lot more interesting for me, and I truly appreciate the time you've taken to be part of this blog with me.

Now, if you're in the UK and you've nothing better to do this weekend, why not go and catch Straightheads and let me know what YOU think?

dawn of the collective yeeeuch!

The press cuttings are beginning to come in from Verve Pictures' PR people, and in spite of the fact that I've always known (see this blog) we'd get a lot of vitriol thrown at us, it's still frustrating to read review after review basically going Yeeuch! without much more analysis than that. There was an intelligent review in the May issue of Sight and Sound, by Anna Smith, another in Little White Lies, so you see folks, it can be done! Straightheads is dark, violent and provocative etc.., it's not a worthy kitchen sinker or a safe cozzie drama, so I'm really not looking for approval here, just a couple of well-articulated thoughts would do. But we aren't going to get that, judging by the majority of press so far. And this is proving to be a tricky week for me because the movie's not out yet and people can't watch it and make up their own minds, and that's the equivalent of being pelted with rotten eggs without being able to throw any back. As you can see, being a writer/director has its humorous moments.

I really enjoyed the Radio 3 interview I did last night for Nightwaves (that's on Monday folks, from 945pm onwards) about new British stories of revenge. The questions were insightful and smart, and they also interviewed Jonny Glynn, whose dark debut novel "The Seven Days of Peter Crumb" I just happened to pick up in a bookshop the other day. You should be able to listen to that online via the BBC radio website, if you're not based in the UK.

Straightheads isn't a film for everyone, and the reviews certainly reflect that, though my belief in the film and its qualities (and flaws!) is unshaken. I also believe it has an audience out there, and that many of you reading this blog will find it rewarding and highly memorable at the very least. So please don't let the sniping trouble you, and make up your own minds once the movie opens at a cinema near you - there should be a few more screens added to the official list of venues this week, the total now is well over 200. But right now, yes, it's nerve-racking, for me, for Gillian and Danny and all the cast, and for Verve Pictures, who have backed us to the hilt and given us a proper good cinema release. Let's just keep our nerve and see what happens over the opening weekend.

Deep breath. Grim smile... Hang on in there, folks.

seven days to go

Verve Pictures hosted a small but beautiful launch event on Tuesday at the Rex, a members' club with a great screening room in Soho. It was a friendly, memorable evening with just a few people, and I really loved it though I admit such occasions always make me a touch nervous and very thirsty. No press were allowed in, barring a couple of photographers to get pictures for the newspapers - the Evening Standard ran a nice picture of GA and DD in their diary section, there may have been pics elsewhere too. Guest numbers were limited, so mine were mainly family. There was a lovely, chilled vibe and as I introduced Gillian and Danny before the screening, I must have got a little over-animated because I took a step too far backwards, plunged off the stage and into the cinema screen - well, almost. Somehow I didn't actually fall all the way, and managed to bounce back on stage. That really broke the ice.

As usual after every screening so far, a lot of pale, shocked faces, people couldn't stop discussing it, and predictably a number of people took me to one side and asked me to consider psychotherapy...

This coming week things accelerate on the publicity front - in addition to the TV spots on Sky and Channel Four and the cinema trailers already out there, Verve are running a poster campaign on the Tube (the underground metro network), plus radio ads and I think some print ads too. I'm starting to hear back from frineds of mine "Oh, I spotted a Straighthead poster... " or "I caught the end of a Straightheads trailer on Sky...". I'm still praying for grey skies a week today.

Tomorrow we'll get the first newspaper reviews. I hope they're as favourable as the one in May's "Sight and Sound" (the British Film Institute mag) but somehow I suspect they won't be! But as Gillian says it's out of our hands now and we just have to let go of the result. I know Verve Pictures are giving Straightheads the best possible release here in the UK, and have got it into more than double the maximum number I ever thought we'd get. Still, that means nothing until those screens have rows and rows of people sitting there in the dark watching my movie. It's up to all the people out there now. Straightheads has to find its audience. That means YOU and YOUR FRIENDS! You have no idea how much I'm counting on you.

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I'll leave you with the last of the clips from our press day at the Dorchester.

Have a great weekend.

the film-maker's fear of sunny weekends

The sun is out here in London, with promise of hot days (by our standards!) to come. But for the first time in my life I'm wishing for dull, stay-home-or-catch-a-movie weather in a fortnight's time. You can all guess why. Exactly two weeks to go until UK release.

By the way, for those of you worried about whether the movie's coming to a Cinema Near You - it's too early to fret. Straightheads is coming out on 200 + screens, but the Straightheads official site so far lists less than 50 venues. That list will be updated regularly. Another 50 screens have already been booked, Verve Pictures tell me, with plenty more coming through next week. And by the way this is a much wider release than most UK films get (if they're ever released at all) so Verve have done us all proud.

Gotta dash. Started a new gig. It helps to be working, the pressure's on now ...

the Burbank files

OK so how many people were at the screening last night in Burbank, CA? I only found out about it by chance when I read a post on the IMDB message board for Straightheads. For those of you not in the know, Sony Pictures (they acquired Straightheads for most of the world including USA and Canada)  organized a test screening at a cinema in Burbank, California, which I imagine involved an invited / randomly selected NRG-type audience, special forms to fill in and a focus group at the end of it all. I wonder how big the audience sample was. More than that, I wonder what the test result was!! I'd love to hear more, so please post your comments if you were one of the Chosen Few of Burbank. A well-organized test is a great thing - we screened Straightheads in a late rough-cut to a proper test audience in London and the results were phenomenal. In fact the test screening took a lot of the executive pressure off me in the cutting room, as it reassured our wonderful financiers that audiences would "get" the film. But that was London. Now let's see if Straightheads translates...

The famous Straightheads premiere - well, it looks like there ain't going to be a premiere as such, more like a small private screening and no public hooha. No press, no red carpet (damn!) and therefore I suspect no reason for you intrepid travellers to rejig your travel plans. Now, are some of you really going to fly to London to see this movie - or are you just saying that to provide my fragile ego with a welcome boost? I guess we'll see, come the Weekend of Truth (27-29 April, for those of you who have just joined us). By the way for anyone who might be interested, one of the movie trade mags published this today: Download screen_international.pdf