WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:07.960 Oh, folks, it's showtime. 2 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:10.560 People say, good money to see this movie. 3 00:00:10.919 --> 00:00:13.560 When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas, 4 00:00:13.880 --> 00:00:17.199 hot popcorn, and no monsters in the protection booth. 5 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:19.199 Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring. 6 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:20.879 Don it off. 7 00:00:40.439 --> 00:00:52.320 That's what's so interesting about monsters. Most monsters are victims. 8 00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:12.879 How do you do? I'm Christopher Lee. 9 00:01:09.239 --> 00:01:13.359 Tool, handsome, erogant, im, curious, powerful. 10 00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:15.159 Oh he must be scary to meet. 11 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:18.000 He went from. 12 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:21.879 Tiny parts in swashbuckler movies in their early fifties to 13 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:24.760 working with George Lucas and working with Jackson, I mean, 14 00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:26.760 the most respected directors in the world. 15 00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:29.640 He put that in perspective with his wartime experiences and 16 00:01:30.359 --> 00:01:30.799 so what. 17 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:37.920 It was for intise it marked him. 18 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:43.519 There is some mystery attached to his work during the 19 00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:45.000 war and immediately after it. 20 00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:50.239 He was involved with a lot of sabotage and targeted assassinations. 21 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:53.359 Which of course the British government doesn't know anything about it. 22 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:56.799 The British film industry was in its tenith, particularly after 23 00:01:56.879 --> 00:02:00.920 the war, there was a great hunger to create new stars. 24 00:02:06.680 --> 00:02:09.080 Everyone that will always remember him is Dracula. 25 00:02:11.879 --> 00:02:14.039 Great things are expected of him and here he was 26 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:15.039 playing monsters. 27 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:19.280 It had got him recognition, but it also was the 28 00:02:19.319 --> 00:02:21.639 sort of thing that he could never leave behind and 29 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:23.759 that so many people thought was all he could do. 30 00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:25.719 He said to me that he pinioned me because I 31 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:27.879 had seen so many of his movies. He wanted to 32 00:02:27.960 --> 00:02:28.599 move on from that. 33 00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:13.439 Hey, folks, welcome to a special episode of The Projection Booth. 34 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:14.439 I'm your host Mike White. 35 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:17.000 On this episode, I'm talking with John Spira. He is 36 00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:19.919 the director and writer of the new film The Life 37 00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:22.960 and Deaths of Christopher Lee. You've heard John on the 38 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:26.159 show before. Most recently he was on the Morons from 39 00:03:26.199 --> 00:03:29.439 Outer Space episode. You can pre order the blu ray 40 00:03:29.479 --> 00:03:32.199 of the Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee over at Kickstarter. 41 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:35.000 I will provide a link in the show notes. Thank 42 00:03:35.039 --> 00:03:36.840 you so much for listening, and I hope you enjoyed 43 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:40.280 this interview. John Spira, how did you get involved in 44 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:41.960 this project around Christopher Late? 45 00:03:42.759 --> 00:03:45.520 I generate to the project. It was my idea to 46 00:03:45.560 --> 00:03:50.240 do the project. Original kind of conception, righty, right from 47 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:53.479 the get go, from the kind of the earliest genesis 48 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:57.120 of an idea came from me in a weird way. 49 00:03:57.800 --> 00:04:00.439 I always work with marcro Gusa Hanks stars talk about 50 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:03.599 fifty to fifty on everything really, which it's so fair. 51 00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:07.000 The director always gets the credit the stuff, although they 52 00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:09.560 also get the blame, so it's all right. Bat Hank 53 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:12.919 is always there from day one as well, and he's 54 00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:17.199 my kind of closest creative confidant as well. So we 55 00:04:17.240 --> 00:04:19.079 would never do a project that both of us weren't 56 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:22.360 excited about. So we had just finished our last project, 57 00:04:22.439 --> 00:04:27.560 which was our first TV series, which was called Real Britannia, 58 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:31.279 which was the modern history of British cinema in four 59 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:35.920 hour long episodes. We had to do that in some 60 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:40.240 about eight months. It was really ridiculous. Everything from researching, writing, 61 00:04:40.519 --> 00:04:42.879 the whole thing had to be done really quickly. I'm 62 00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:44.920 really happy with it, but we ran ourselves into the 63 00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:48.240 ground doing it. We were exhausted. So when it finished, 64 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:51.639 he went off to the Bahamas or somewhere and I 65 00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:55.439 just took to the Sofia basically, and I just decided 66 00:04:55.480 --> 00:04:57.519 that for two weeks I was going to do absolutely nothing, 67 00:04:57.600 --> 00:04:59.879 like nothing. I wasn't going to look at my computer 68 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:01.800 and do no work. I was just going to just 69 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:04.959 exist and sleep, or I wanted to sleep and that 70 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:07.480 kind of thing. I hit the sofa and I got 71 00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:11.879 really addicted to watching old episodes of This Is Your 72 00:05:11.959 --> 00:05:15.839 Life on YouTube, which that you had that in the States, 73 00:05:15.959 --> 00:05:18.439 Oh yeah, you definitely have it, like the fifties and 74 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:21.839 kind of sixties, and in this country it carried on 75 00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:25.399 right into the kind of nineties, maybe even further. So 76 00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:27.279 I was just watching the episodes of that, which I 77 00:05:27.319 --> 00:05:31.600 found really interesting because I'm interested in biography, I'm interested 78 00:05:31.639 --> 00:05:34.399 in an interview, I'm interested in cultural figures, and This 79 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:36.800 is Your Life for such a weird way of doing it, 80 00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:40.680 there's nothing quite like it. We over here we have 81 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:43.399 a great radio show called Desert Island Discs, which is 82 00:05:43.439 --> 00:05:46.040 a great way of getting into somebody's life in a 83 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:48.600 non traditional way. And I think that's what This Is 84 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:51.639 Your Life does because it's not the person who it's 85 00:05:51.639 --> 00:05:54.120 about doesn't really get to speak the whole way through 86 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:57.639 the show. It's just stuff being presented to them, and 87 00:05:57.720 --> 00:06:00.000 you see them put into these kind of situations where they, 88 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:03.319 I don't know what's going to quite happen. So it's great. 89 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:05.800 It's a really good shot. But you've probably seen the 90 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:10.720 Laurel and Hardy Boris Karloff episodes really wonderful things, and 91 00:06:10.759 --> 00:06:14.160 the British version is hilarious because in the ages we 92 00:06:14.199 --> 00:06:18.920 had such bad celebrities, so plowing through those and then 93 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:23.160 it came up next video Christopher Lee, and I was like, 94 00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:26.680 I'm on board for this. I would love to see this. 95 00:06:27.319 --> 00:06:29.720 And I'd read his autobiography a couple of years earlier, 96 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:33.240 and I'd really enjoyed that. It's a really well written book, 97 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:36.959 and the thing that's surprising about it is that it's 98 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:40.879 written in a very self deprecating man. Now anyway, so 99 00:06:40.920 --> 00:06:42.600 I'd enjoyed this book, and I was very excited to 100 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:45.399 see that this is your life, and it was a 101 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:49.079 really kind of shocking thing to watch because actually like 102 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:53.319 he was having a horrible He really was having horrible time. Actually, 103 00:06:53.399 --> 00:06:56.480 and when you watch it, and it's worth watching he's 104 00:06:56.519 --> 00:06:59.120 on YouTube. If you really look at his face, he 105 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:02.480 is absolutely panic from beginning to end. He does not 106 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:04.959 like it. And in fact, if you've read his book, 107 00:07:05.680 --> 00:07:08.560 one point they bring out like his old army friends. 108 00:07:09.079 --> 00:07:11.519 But actually if the researcher had done their job, they 109 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:13.600 would have realized that these men bullied he was in 110 00:07:13.639 --> 00:07:17.240 the army, and even they come to his wife at 111 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:21.600 one point, who looks furious at these men. And what 112 00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:24.639 really struck me was it was such a strange episode, 113 00:07:25.160 --> 00:07:28.120 and what was particularly strange about it was that he 114 00:07:28.279 --> 00:07:31.439 clearly is someone who was used to controlling his own 115 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:36.040 narratives and to not be in control was deeply upsetting 116 00:07:36.120 --> 00:07:38.560 to him. And if you actually listen to it, there 117 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:41.639 are parts where people are clapping or people are laughing, 118 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:45.040 or his microphones down. But if you listen to him, 119 00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:47.399 like there's a bit where they bring Oliver Read out, God, 120 00:07:47.439 --> 00:07:50.120 you wouldn't want Oliver reed Brown this is your life, 121 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:55.000 and especially eighties Oliver Read and you actually hear him 122 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:57.839 telling a story. If you listen Christopher, he's kind of 123 00:07:57.879 --> 00:08:01.240 correcting him while he's talking. It was really weird, and 124 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:04.480 I just thought, what an interesting and what a fascinating 125 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:08.000 There's just something there that I was immediately structed. I 126 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:11.079 watched it twice by the idea that there's something there 127 00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:13.600 and I'm not sure what it is, but there's something there. 128 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:19.360 And very quickly after that, we were in a situation 129 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.720 where one of the people whose funds I work or 130 00:08:23.079 --> 00:08:26.399 funded I worked before, basically said they were looking for 131 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:31.079 a documentary about an iconic British person, and so I 132 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:35.120 was immediately I was just like committed christfully and it 133 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:37.120 panned out, and then when I started doing the research 134 00:08:37.159 --> 00:08:40.200 into it, it was all all there. He's such a heat. 135 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:43.360 There are so many legends about Christophiley, and the thing 136 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:46.919 that's fun about it is that the most unlikely ones 137 00:08:46.919 --> 00:08:50.200 are true, and the ones that people most boundy about 138 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:56.039 aren't true. But he didn't ever disavow people's notions because 139 00:08:56.039 --> 00:09:00.360 he liked having this kind of mystique around him, this 140 00:09:00.440 --> 00:09:04.840 kind of air of legend around him. And as soon 141 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:06.759 as you start thinking christa Lene, you actually look at 142 00:09:06.759 --> 00:09:09.200 the facts, look at the career. It's amazing that nobody's 143 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:12.720 made a proper documentary about it before. It's ridiculous because 144 00:09:12.759 --> 00:09:15.120 he holds the world record for the most appearances in 145 00:09:15.159 --> 00:09:19.000 a film, Like he's more acting roles than anybody else, 146 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:24.120 and he as the film goes into hew he had 147 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:27.080 this ridiculous life before he even got into film, And 148 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:29.679 then he had a film career that spanned eight decades, 149 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:35.240 which started with him in uncredited roles fighting Errol Flynn 150 00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:38.639 and the En, died with him in Alder the Rings. 151 00:09:39.399 --> 00:09:40.159 No one like that. 152 00:09:40.840 --> 00:09:44.639 Where did the idea for the style come from? Because 153 00:09:44.679 --> 00:09:48.399 you do it in such an interesting way. You've got animation, 154 00:09:49.320 --> 00:09:53.600 computer graphics, the puppetry of course, so many different styles, 155 00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:55.840 but it all comes together so beautifully. 156 00:09:55.960 --> 00:09:58.639 I knew from the get go that he's the thing 157 00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:01.480 that's so fascinating when you think at Chrisopher Lee. I 158 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:03.519 was the other day. I was reading something about that 159 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:07.759 that condition Cymastivia, where people hear sounds and sea colors, 160 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:11.159 and I was thinking about that a lot, and I 161 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:14.399 was thinking that when you think about people, you almost 162 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:18.279 think about them in a constant You could assign color 163 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:21.240 or a feeling or a tongue, like the whole career. 164 00:10:21.799 --> 00:10:24.279 But actually, if you look at Christopher Lee's career and 165 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:28.559 his life, it's madly the fun. There's a lot of 166 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:30.799 people who just go, oh, he was dragged him in 167 00:10:30.879 --> 00:10:33.440 the Hammer films. And now there's a lot of people 168 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:35.240 who go, oh, he was the guy in Star Wars, 169 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:36.559 or he was the guy in Lord of the Rings. 170 00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:39.240 But the truth is he had all of these amazing 171 00:10:39.320 --> 00:10:43.080 periods of work where he was in there. There's great 172 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:48.320 British awful nineteen forties what are called quota quickies, which 173 00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:52.480 is that in this country for a while, cinema was subsidized, 174 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:55.799 so all these film companies were making bean movies just 175 00:10:55.840 --> 00:10:58.480 to make money and there no care attention I into. 176 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:00.720 They were just churning them out. He was in those, 177 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:03.480 then he was in the Hammer films. He went to 178 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:07.320 Europe and was in those crazy Mario Bava and Jess 179 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:10.080 Franco films, and then in the seventies he was in 180 00:11:10.120 --> 00:11:13.480 Ala and Bollywood. And actually, when you look at his career, 181 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:17.600 it feels more like a kind of crazy patchwork quilt. 182 00:11:18.039 --> 00:11:21.600 I was always going to do it so that each 183 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:25.519 section felt completely distinct, and it almost felt like kind 184 00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:27.759 of chapters and was a very different style of a 185 00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:31.919 very different feeling. Because his career was so mad, I 186 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:37.240 wanted the film to feel Matt and the character that 187 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:40.759 people know as Christopher Lee, which I think it was 188 00:11:40.759 --> 00:11:42.360 interesting and we had to focus in on it when 189 00:11:42.360 --> 00:11:45.720 we were getting the puppet bye. It was like what 190 00:11:45.799 --> 00:11:47.480 Christopher le is he going to be? He was in 191 00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:50.679 the public eye for eight decades, and I think that 192 00:11:50.679 --> 00:11:52.879 the crystally that people actually most think about it is 193 00:11:52.919 --> 00:11:55.159 not really the dragcular one. I think it's the kind 194 00:11:55.159 --> 00:11:58.320 of the nineteen seventies one. Maybe he was just making 195 00:11:58.360 --> 00:12:00.440 more films then, or maybe it's like the scar manga 196 00:12:00.600 --> 00:12:02.960 kind of thing. But when you think less fully, I 197 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:06.200 think you do think gray hair, dark at the sides, 198 00:12:06.919 --> 00:12:11.240 that kind of age. And so it was I never 199 00:12:11.240 --> 00:12:15.080 wanted to be straightforward ever, because I just thought it'd 200 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:17.879 be boring. He's not alive, so there couldn't be a 201 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:21.080 central interview in that kind of way. So my original 202 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:24.279 idea for the Narration was always for it to be 203 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:27.600 very strange, and I always wanted him to be back 204 00:12:27.639 --> 00:12:29.639 from the grave. And I always wanted to script the 205 00:12:29.720 --> 00:12:33.200 Narration if I was very upset, and it's a good film. 206 00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:35.279 But I was very upset when Mark Cousins came out 207 00:12:35.320 --> 00:12:37.399 with that Hitchcock film where he did the same thing. 208 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.440 He got an impersonator and he wrote a script and 209 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:44.879 I thought, oh, I'm doing that. My original kind of 210 00:12:44.919 --> 00:12:47.600 inspiration for how the Narration is going to be was 211 00:12:47.960 --> 00:12:53.279 this fantastic advert on TV here probably twenty years ago. 212 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:55.360 You can see it on YouTube, and it was a 213 00:12:55.440 --> 00:12:59.120 very famous British comedian called Bob Munkhouse, who was a 214 00:12:59.200 --> 00:13:02.120 legendary comedian, you know, the old start kind of suits 215 00:13:02.200 --> 00:13:06.720 and kind of punchlines, and the advert comes on and 216 00:13:06.759 --> 00:13:09.240 it's Bob Munkhouse, but it's three years after he's died. 217 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:14.080 And the advert starts he's in a graveyard and he's, hey, 218 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:18.799 Bob Munkhouse here, I died three years ago. And it 219 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:20.919 was really even I watched it when we started making film. 220 00:13:21.039 --> 00:13:23.480 Even now it really stands up. It was very early, 221 00:13:23.639 --> 00:13:27.000 kind of could gu CGI, kind of manipulation, and they 222 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:29.200 used clips of him and they put him into the 223 00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:32.799 graveyard and they used an impersonator and they manipulative lips 224 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:35.080 and stuff, and it was an advert about prostate cancer, 225 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:37.480 about checking because that's what he died of. And he 226 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:39.360 tells jokes the whole way through it, and it's really 227 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:42.679 well done. And I thought that that is really what 228 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:44.879 I want to do. I want that Christopher Lee from 229 00:13:44.919 --> 00:13:50.480 the nineteen seventies, who we know, the kind of very authoritatives, 230 00:13:50.600 --> 00:13:54.960 kind of slightly wry. I want him narrating his story 231 00:13:55.039 --> 00:13:57.720 from the grave. It was a very long process to 232 00:13:57.720 --> 00:14:01.240 get to the puppet because we did try i CGI 233 00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:04.559 and all of that deep fake stuff was really happening 234 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:07.720 at that point, and we did some tests. We got 235 00:14:07.759 --> 00:14:10.919 to go in and we did some tests, but firstly 236 00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:15.879 it looked creepy. There's something weird about it that just 237 00:14:15.919 --> 00:14:18.360 didn't quite sit right. Maybe we could have iron the 238 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:22.559 kinks out, but it just it didn't feel right. And 239 00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:27.799 then secondly, John Laddis screamed at me and just was like, 240 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:31.879 you can't do that. It's disrespectful to Chris. You can't 241 00:14:31.919 --> 00:14:34.039 do that. And at the end of it, I was 242 00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:37.720 just like, okay, fight, what are our other options? And 243 00:14:37.799 --> 00:14:41.320 Hank was the person who suggested puppets and we looked 244 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:44.000 at all kinds of different things. There's a guy here 245 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:47.559 who makes these amazing paper puppets that are kind of like, 246 00:14:47.720 --> 00:14:52.720 very satirical looking, and he can animate animate If not animation, 247 00:14:53.200 --> 00:14:55.120 he puppets them live. But I made a paper might 248 00:14:55.159 --> 00:14:57.799 look amazing. We tried some of that, but eventually with 249 00:14:57.879 --> 00:15:01.639 incredible company Arch Models Studios, who do all of Wes 250 00:15:01.639 --> 00:15:04.080 Anderson's They did all the Isle of Dogs and that's 251 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:07.159 the Fox, and they did Frank and Weeney for Tim Burton, 252 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:12.039 and they are lovely people, brilliant and they love old 253 00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:15.600 horror films. They came on board just made that amazing marionette. 254 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:18.919 I wanted it to be a patchworker styles. I wanted 255 00:15:18.919 --> 00:15:23.360 it to always be surprising, to always be strange, to 256 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:27.559 have a very weird tone to it, and I wanted 257 00:15:27.559 --> 00:15:31.480 it to feel quite irreverent. I just it's just about 258 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:34.080 it not being boring and as a filmmaker, but the 259 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:36.840 biggest princesson I get for all of my films is 260 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:40.000 how much talking heads footage I use, because I really 261 00:15:40.039 --> 00:15:43.320 love talking heads. It's just my favorite thing. But if 262 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:47.039 I've left my own devices, usually I would make something 263 00:15:47.799 --> 00:15:50.799 show Up which is nine hours long talking heads of 264 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:54.320 people in different languages and stuff. But I've learned over 265 00:15:54.360 --> 00:15:58.799 the years what the audience is like, and I've got 266 00:15:58.799 --> 00:16:01.679 into that and become more adventurous. And on this film 267 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:03.840 where it was just like, let's pull all the stops 268 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:07.240 out and let's make it really fun, and I think 269 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:07.519 it is. 270 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:10.120 Did you always have Peter Surf and a Wents in 271 00:16:10.200 --> 00:16:13.600 mind for the voice or he was my first choice? 272 00:16:13.720 --> 00:16:17.080 And the funny thing is that I'd never seen him 273 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:19.399 doing Yeah, I didn't know if he could do it 274 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:21.720 or not. I assume he wouldn't have taken the show 275 00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:24.720 if he didn't think he could, So we didn't know 276 00:16:24.799 --> 00:16:26.720 until he sat down and recorded with on the first day. 277 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:28.120 We didn't know what the voice was going to be 278 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:30.879 and made him worked on it a little bit, but 279 00:16:30.919 --> 00:16:34.600 it's amazing he was. Yeah, he was always always first choice, 280 00:16:34.600 --> 00:16:37.679 but not just because he's a great impersonator, but he 281 00:16:37.799 --> 00:16:40.080 also he has that voice, and he's got a deep, 282 00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:44.720 sonorous voice, so it just it made immediate sense to 283 00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:47.240 me that he would be the guy to do it. 284 00:16:47.799 --> 00:16:51.559 But also the thing was important actually in the film, 285 00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:56.039 because there's so much of the narration, was what Peter 286 00:16:56.159 --> 00:17:00.000 does is so different. It's not impersonations are very different 287 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:04.440 and performances. He does a performance. And it's funny reading 288 00:17:04.440 --> 00:17:06.519 the reviews that are starting to come out now, because 289 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:09.359 some people are like, it's a spot on thing. I 290 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:11.880 forgot that it was if in origin it just sounded 291 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:14.480 like Christopher Lee. But the truth is it's not about 292 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:18.440 being technically bang on the money because impersonations always have 293 00:17:18.440 --> 00:17:22.319 a level of exaggeration to them. Anyone could do a 294 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:26.119 Crystophery impersonation. It's not a part, but it's a joke. 295 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:29.279 It's not how he actually talked. You exaggerate yourself to 296 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:32.079 sound like his kind of manner. But what Peter did 297 00:17:32.079 --> 00:17:35.000 really was. He got the spirit of him and he 298 00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:38.559 got the tone right, which meant that in the more 299 00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:42.920 serious moments, it doesn't feel joky at all, and he's 300 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:48.039 able to be funny at times, serious at times, and 301 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:51.920 everything the whole spectrum in between. He was just amazing. 302 00:17:52.039 --> 00:17:55.799 He really was amazing, and it was fascinating like watching 303 00:17:55.880 --> 00:18:00.319 him work and watching him sustaining performance. I think we 304 00:18:00.359 --> 00:18:04.759 did four sessions with him to get it, but it's amazing. 305 00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:08.200 He's a hilarious as you would expect as well, like 306 00:18:08.279 --> 00:18:10.640 he's I don't know if you've seen his show, like 307 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:13.160 you can see most of his full up on YouTube, 308 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:15.240 but he's just one of the funniest people in this 309 00:18:15.519 --> 00:18:17.319 country any great. 310 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:20.160 I know you have some of Chris h Lee's relatives 311 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:23.440 in the movie. How do they feel about this documentary 312 00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:25.480 and maybe some of the ones that didn't appear. 313 00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:32.119 It's really weird making documentaries because you work really hard 314 00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:35.519 to get people into the studio and then you do 315 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:39.680 the interviews, and the interview you form you obviously you 316 00:18:39.799 --> 00:18:42.119 have experienced this bit. Over the course of even just 317 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:44.920 an hour, you form a relationship with somebody and it 318 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:46.920 can feel like friendship as well. And it can still 319 00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:52.480 really deep. How are one in the film? We've not 320 00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:55.720 before us. I know we've actually heard back from either 321 00:18:55.720 --> 00:18:59.519 of them, so we sented them to watch. We don't 322 00:18:59.559 --> 00:19:02.640 know if they've watched it. We don't know. But that happens. 323 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:05.519 That genuinely happens a lot. It's really weird, but it 324 00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:08.599 does the whole of real Britannia. We insued all these 325 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:11.920 legendary filmmakers and they were great and I all came 326 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:14.880 in and they oppened these fantastic interviews, and then when 327 00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:18.279 it was done, we shut the screens out to everybody. Hey, 328 00:19:18.359 --> 00:19:20.240 we got a couple of replies, but that was it. 329 00:19:20.839 --> 00:19:25.119 So I don't know. Yeah, we have just I would 330 00:19:25.119 --> 00:19:28.119 love to know. It'd be interesting to find out, but yeah, 331 00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:29.079 I just don't know yet. 332 00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:33.160 You talked about the Hitchcock Hitchcock documentary, which I remember 333 00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:36.279 seeing theatrically years and years ago. How many years have 334 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:38.000 you been working on this Lee. 335 00:19:37.720 --> 00:19:40.400 Project that was the new the Mark Cousins one. 336 00:19:40.839 --> 00:19:42.920 Oh, because there was one a few years ago where 337 00:19:42.920 --> 00:19:47.599 they had an impersonator telling stories with Hitchcock's voice quote unquote. 338 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:50.640 Oh okay, maybe I missed that. That wasn't the Hitchcock 339 00:19:50.680 --> 00:19:51.480 tree fo one. 340 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:53.559 Now I'll have to look up the title for you, 341 00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:57.480 but yeah, I remember the Hitchcock impersonator was just dead 342 00:19:57.519 --> 00:19:58.680 eyes sounded so good. 343 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:01.200 Oh I don't if it's the same film there, because 344 00:20:01.319 --> 00:20:04.079 the Mark Cousins one only came out. It couldn't have 345 00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:07.160 even been more than eighteen months at the most. But 346 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:12.680 it's worth sing. It's interesting. My mother scared me when 347 00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:14.000 I was three months old. 348 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:17.279 She said, boot. 349 00:20:20.599 --> 00:20:25.119 Name hit Karma. Alfred height five for six. Wait, prisoner 350 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:28.359 refuses to make a statement. Here's his record nineteen forty 351 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:32.359 picked up on Suspicion nineteen forty four, Notorious nineteen thirty five, 352 00:20:32.400 --> 00:20:36.039 Were Window nineteen fifty six, The Man who Knew too Much. Well, 353 00:20:36.319 --> 00:20:40.000 I ain't a good record, but I'll try to do better. 354 00:20:40.200 --> 00:20:42.400 Better appearing on television. 355 00:20:42.680 --> 00:20:46.000 I'm sorry, sir, but my family was hungry. Take him away. 356 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:49.039 Wait a minute, sir, you've got the wrong man, and 357 00:20:49.240 --> 00:20:50.799 now for for his contestant. 358 00:20:53.400 --> 00:20:59.000 Good evening, ladies and Jaelchum, Welcome to the Alfred Hitchcock 359 00:20:59.079 --> 00:20:59.960 look alike conton. 360 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:08.359 Yeah, because this movie you announced that Kickstarter. It feels 361 00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:11.039 like just a few months ago, and then boom, that 362 00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:13.720 in my inboxs and like, this is crazy how fast 363 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:14.519 this came together. 364 00:21:15.319 --> 00:21:18.559 When we did the kickstarter, it was already finished. The 365 00:21:18.640 --> 00:21:21.400 kickstarter was to raise money put the Blu ray together 366 00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:24.559 because the industry is in a really weird state right now. 367 00:21:24.559 --> 00:21:26.599 I don't know how much you know about all the 368 00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:28.799 prop that's going on, but the industry has never been 369 00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:31.200 in as bad as state as it is this year. 370 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:34.519 Everyone is suffering. I don't know anyone who's doing it 371 00:21:34.599 --> 00:21:38.799 right now, and us included, even if we were doing okay. 372 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:41.599 The problem with him on this film is that we 373 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:44.960 lost US deal quite early on. We had a US deal, 374 00:21:45.599 --> 00:21:48.400 it wasn't finalized and it fell through. But we'd already 375 00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:50.759 started making a film. We'd already sold to other territories, 376 00:21:50.759 --> 00:21:53.359 so we would commit it to a different film, and 377 00:21:54.279 --> 00:21:58.359 that has made things incredibly difficult. But we finished, the 378 00:21:58.440 --> 00:22:02.480 film is done. These days, it's quite hard to sell 379 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:05.039 the rights to things, even though we've got physical media 380 00:22:05.160 --> 00:22:07.559 kind of being I don't know if it's just documentary, 381 00:22:07.559 --> 00:22:10.039 but there's not a lot of interest in putting stuff out. 382 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:13.759 And when you do get office from companies who do 383 00:22:13.839 --> 00:22:18.519 Blu rays, they're usually so low that it's up. I 384 00:22:19.279 --> 00:22:22.759 don't want to say it's offensive, but you're not going 385 00:22:22.839 --> 00:22:26.079 to make any money out of it because creative accounting 386 00:22:26.119 --> 00:22:29.039 and all of that kind of stuff. In this industry, 387 00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:30.640 if you don't get money up front, you're never going 388 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:35.400 to get money. That's just how it works. And that's depressing. 389 00:22:35.559 --> 00:22:37.720 And I knew that there was a big audience of 390 00:22:37.759 --> 00:22:41.200 people who would want to own this film on physical media. 391 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:43.720 And I've put stuff out. I put my first time 392 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:48.279 out by myself. I sell public, self released that on DVD. Yeah, 393 00:22:48.440 --> 00:22:50.440 me and Hanks just decided, you know what, we'll hold 394 00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:52.319 on to the Blu Ray rays. I want to do 395 00:22:52.359 --> 00:22:54.960 it ourselves. So the kickstart was about raising enough money 396 00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:58.119 to put together a really great Blue ray. And it's awesome. 397 00:22:58.680 --> 00:23:02.359 We're I think we deliver in December. But it's beautiful. 398 00:23:02.359 --> 00:23:04.559 It's you get a kind of coffin. It comes in 399 00:23:04.599 --> 00:23:08.680 a wooden coffin, but you get all kinds of all 400 00:23:08.759 --> 00:23:10.640 the things are starting to kind of come in. Now 401 00:23:11.079 --> 00:23:14.480