It was fraught with problems. Making a movie in the United Kingdom… I take my hat off to anyone who gets a movie made because it is very difficult as you are asking people to hand over a lot of money for you to go and make a film.
With this particular film we had a very limited budget, which meant it was huge undertaking for us, we were suffering with lack of bullets so we were limited to how many bullets we could fire in the film, we were limited to how many explosions we could have in the film - and everyone who is involved wants you to make the best movie that you can make.
Everyone hopes that you will make great action movie but the reality is you are trying to make the best movie that you can and you know that you are limited to how much action you can put in the movie - if I had gone and said ‘I’m making this as an action film from beginning to end’ I would have needed a lot more money.
I was very fortunate to have fifteen or sixteen members of the military, they played my German soldiers, they were remarkable, I got them from an organisation called Force Select; a charity for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, they were as keen as mustard to be involved and they were brilliant.
They looked like the real deal because they were from the military, but I only had seventeen of them - so that was a challenge when you are trying to make a battle scene. It was a challenge fro beginning to end.
- Sean Bean and Danny Dyer were on board so can you talk me through the casting process - did you pen the script with certain people in mind?
I penned the script with Sean and Danny, when I had first been approached to make the film those names were mentioned and I’m a fan of both Sean and Danny.
Rosie Fellner I thought of certainly but it was really who would play Ian Fleming? That was the big one. There were a number of faces for that part. But it was really just about writing a good story and maybe encourage a little bit of education along the way.
- I was wondering what it was you saw in James D’Arcy that led you to cast him as Ian Fleming?
I think everything that I have read of Ian Fleming; educated, smart, a charmer, these things with James are very similar. He is a very smart young man as well as a dashing young man and a very good actor - and with his acting he has a charm so he fit’s the part very nicely.
- And what sort of training did you put the cast through before filming started?
We sent them down with Andy Buckley of the Royal Marine Commando Unit and got them some education from that.
Then we had a major from the parachute regiment as my military advisor and a number of background artists, my German soldier were all ex-military and so they would keep the actors on their toes every single day.
The great thing was the actors took it all on board very seriously and they were very serious about holding their weapons correctly and moved properly as a unit and during the battle sequences, we were never going to go down the road of trying to be Rambo, we were trying to make it as authentic as possible under the circumstances.
So the military boys would make sure that our actors were on their toes and doing everything correctly - which the actors took on board and thoroughly enjoyed.
- The story takes the unit from the Highlands of Scotland to Norway so where did you film the movie? Towards the end of the film the commandos find themselves in Norway so what challenges did you face filming in the snow?
The majority of the movie was shot in Norway - we shot Scotland in Norway and we shot Norway in Norway (laughs). We shot the opening of the movie with Danny, which is supposed to be France, in Epping Forest.
(laughs) How do you describe -15, 6 or 7 feet or snow, it threw everything at us really. At times I felt I was on a wildlife shoot because it would take fifteen to twenty minutes to move the camera from one area to another that was five or six feet away because it was tough going.
Everyone is cold; the actors, the crew, the camera operators - we would quite often have a lot of hot sun but it was still cold and then it would go extremely cloudy and a blizzard would come; and then you have the issue of continuity.
So you are really up against it everyday with the weather - but I was very keen on if the script said these guys trudged through snow that I didn’t make a path for them I wanted to see them struggle through the snow. So that’s what I threw at them and they really rose to the challenge.
- This is only your second feature film so how have you found the transition from TV into movies?
These days TV, I have been very lucky to work in TV and different production companies, you are always making something that is a well known programme or already has its boundaries and you follow a particular story line and style.
But with film I have been given the chance to do my thing and be more of the author, if you like, of what I’m doing.
Making movies and making TV are very similar these days because you have very little time to do either - you are shooting a lot of footage in a very short space of time.
I think with film you hope at the end of the day you can get the product that you can look at and say this is me, this is mine, we managed to pull that off - that’s what makes me keep wanting to make movies and write movies; to tell stories good stories if you can.
- Finally what's next for you?
Good question (laughs). At the moment I am writing a movie called Black Money, which was announced at Cannes, and it’s something that I will probably do at the end of the year. But I have got to make sure that the script is in good condition - I’m doing that with Manmade Films and James Barker.
Age of Heroes is out on DVD now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw