Interview With Simon Boyes

Wednesday 9th of January 2008

Simon Boyes is part of the writing combo of Adam Mason and Simon Boyes who are behind the films Broken, The Devils Chair and now Blood River

Simon Boyes - welcome to Scifind.co.uk

Scifind.co.uk - Simon, your first feature was origionally to be entitled "The HeartEater" was this a different script or just slightly reworked into "Broken"?

Simon Boyes - Hearteater was a totally different script. I know there is some confusion out there because people think it was simply a name change but they were very different. Hearteater was a Texas chainsaw kind of movie with a bunch of good looking teens heading out into the wilderness and getting attacked by inbred freaks, cannibals actually, hence the title. We wrote a script for it that was fun I guess, but very derivavtive and we even went as far as setting up a casting. That’s where we met Abbey Stirling who ended up having a part in Broken. She originally came in and read for the part of ‘Mercedes’ in the hearteater.

Scifind.co.uk - Might we ever see "The Hearteater" be filmed in the future?

Simon - No, I really don’t think so. Adam (Mason, my writing partner and co-director on Broken) and I have moved on from that kind of film now I think. Looking back at it now it was very derivative and I think we realised that and decided to go off in a different direction which is why Broken was such an oddity in a way. We had no choice but to tailor the script to what we had, which was basically nothing. Hearteater had a large ensemble cast, many locations, things we couldn’t have done on our miniscule budget. We could revisit it now but I really hope that our writing has come along since then and it is usually better to face forward with new original ideas than look back over old ones I think.

Scifind.co.uk - "Broken" was very well recieved, won awards and had a good reception on DVD can you tell us more?

Simon - The reception to Broken was amazing for us. We had literally gone out into the woods with a tiny crew, three actors and a camera and tried to make a good movie. It was a pretty unpleasant experience making the movie because the conditions were harsh and we had no money for luxuries or even basic comforts. To then get the movie released and showing at some major film festivals was incredible and made it all worth while. It seems to be a film that people either love or rabidly hate but that’s great and people still seem to like to discuss its merits or otherwise on the net. The DVD release in the states was through the Weinstein Company’s Dimension Extreme and it was a really big DVD launch which is great for the movie, and exciting for me and Adam and everyone else associated with it. It’s nice when you put a lot of effort in to something for people to actually end up seeing it and also appreciating that effort I guess.

Scifind.co.uk - Your second feature "The Devil's Chair" has previewed at several film festivals, but do we have any news on a release date?

Simon - Just to clarify I wrote the screenplay for The Devil’s Chair with Adam and he directed it, but it was my second feature as a writer. It’s been doing the rounds at some big festivals and is being sold at the moment. I don’t know the details of to who and in which territories so we’ll have to wait and see, but it should definitely be out this year. I’m looking forward to a lot of people seeing that one as I think it might cause even more division than Broken did. I hope so anyway.

Scifind.co.uk - Can you tell us more about the upcoming film 'Blood River'?

Simon - Blood River is probably the most excited I’ve been about anything I’ve been involved in. Adam and I both agree that it’s the best script we’ve written so far and the fact that it was shot in Nevada gave us so much more scope for our ideas. It’s a bit of a departure from Broken and Devil’s Chair because it’s less horror orientated. It’s more of a thriller and there’s definitely less gore in this one because it just didn’t fit with the story. Despite that I think it’s still a pretty shocking story and it’s dark of course, like all our stuff seems to be. Maybe one day we’ll write some kid’s movie or a romantic comedy, but I doubt it.

Scifind.co.uk - You have been in LA filming 'Blood River' How different is it filming for a studio rather than on an indpenedant film.

Simon - Blood River was actually an independent production as well, not a studio pic. The experience of making this one out in the States was awesome for a whole bunch of reasons, just a different experience and different way of doing things.

Scifind.co.uk - Can you tell me what you are working on now?

Simon - We are working on a couple of new ideas. One is a post apocalyptic story about a community living in a nuclear war ravaged world but as we always do we’re trying to put a spin on it. In a weird way it’s a kind of road movie with this band of people heading for salvation but getting pretty messed up along the way. We’re at the early stages of that one so it’ll change and grow as we get into it. We also have an idea which focuses on a religious cult, a kind of Manson family, end of the world cult kind of idea. Cults are fascinating and frightening things and we’ve talked for a while about doing a movie about an outsider exerting an opposing influence on a cult to that of it’s established leader. Again it’s early days for that idea so we’re still working out the details but those two will probably be the next projects we tackle. I’m also looking to direct my second film. I have a script I wrote which is maybe a hard sell because it’s a kind of a serial killer sports movie. I guess it’s American Psycho meets Rocky or something like that and I’m trying to get that one off the ground.

Scifind.co.uk - Do you intend to stay / return to the horror genre in the future?

Simon - I’ve always said I’m not really a massive fan of horror movies myself but they are a great place to start making movies and I’ve had a lot of fun with that genre. Adam and I are definitely moving into a more psychological, thriller kind of area with our new ideas and I expect that will continue. That’s not to say I’d never want to do another horror movie and if the idea was good I’d be there for sure. I guess it’s a question of what you define as horror as well.

Scifind.co.uk - Are there any existing films out there that you would like rework or remake

Simon - Well, there’s this big debate about remakes going on at the moment because Hollywood seems to be trying to remake everything. I don’t know how I feel about it because a part of me doesn’t mind because I don’t think it tarnishes the original, but then when you see these bullshit remakes of The Wicker Man or Psycho you just wonder what people are thinking. There’s that popular theory now that you should remake movies that weren’t that good first time around but if they weren’t that good then why bother? And then on the other hand it’s considered kind of scariligious to remake Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I mention those two because I actually think the remakes of both those are great movies. Not a patch on the originals but great in their own right. There’s nothing that stands out to me as something I’d like to remake I don’t think. If I did do something like that I’d want to really rework it and add a lot of new ideas. The best ‘remake’ I’ve seen is actually the TV series Battlestar Galactica. It is infinitely better than the original and I guess it’s a good example of how when remakes work they really work.

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