DEAN SPANLEY: INTERVIEW WITH PRODUCER MATTHEW METCALFE
March 13th 2009 07:42
Bringing your 'A' game: Matthew Metcalfe says that you've got to be in top form when working with actors of Peter O'Toole and Jeremy Northam's calibre.
The first thing you notice when you research the development of the offbeat new New Zealand/British coproduction, Dean Spanley, is the young years of the predominantly antipodean production team, and it all started with 35-year-old producer, Matthew Metcalfe.
Metcalfe, despite being straight off the plane after an Auckland premier of the film and having had just a few short hours of sleep, is in an erudite and cogent mood as he chats about the development of the film.
“Basically, a friend of mine brought me a short-film script about ten years ago. It was a script that screenwriter Alan Sharp had written for fun, based upon the novella, Conversations With Dean Spanley. I immediately loved it but I didn’t do anything with it because at the stage I hadn’t really made a movie; I had no experience. So, as the years went by I always had it in the back of my mind and one night I sort of had a ‘Eureka!’ moment, sitting bolt upright in bed and saying, ‘Dean Spanley! I really want to make that film!’ I spent the next six months tracking Alan down, then the next three to four years developing the script with him and then finally we went ahead and made it.”
A large part of the attraction for Metcalfe was the oddball framework of the story, through which he and Sharp thought they could tell the tale of a father and son’s emotional reconciliation with both the past and also each other.
“Dean Spanley is the story of a curmudgeonly old man played by Peter O’Toole and his son, played by Jeremy Northam, with whom he has grown somewhat distant since the demise of his older son in the Boer war,” explains Metcalfe. “One particular day the son takes his father on an outing to a lecture on the reincarnation of souls, where they meet an eccentric Anglican dean, Dean Spanley (Sam Neil), and that meeting leads to a series of adventures that eventually allow father and son to reconcile, an old man to find his heart, and the grief of a family member’s tragic death to finally be exorcised. It’s just a very genuine adult fairy tale.”
An interesting aspect with regards to the production of Dean Spanley was the bringing together of a very young production team with an extremely experienced bunch of actors. As Metcalfe tells it, however, there was little room for being nervous.
“You’ve just got to be on your ‘A’ game. You don’t want to be 35, working with Sir Peter O’Toole who’s more than double your age and not go in there thinking, ‘I’m on my ‘A’ game.’ I always liken it to international test rugby: You’re going to get bruised but you’ve kind of got to accept it and having a week like this is great – it’s like scoring a try at the SCG. So, working with a cast like that: Sure, you get a few bruises but they’re great guys and they only make you better. They’re awesome at their job because they have high standards and they impart a little bit of that on you and it ultimately makes you better.”
Of course, that such a film could be made with New Zealand backing is an indicator of the strong state of the industry in that small country. As we look on with jealousy on this side of the Tasman, Metcalfe explains that there are a number of reasons for that impressive strength.
“Well, firstly, there’s Peter Jackson, who has just done an enormous amount for New Zealand, as have shows like Xena. Also, you have films such as Narnia, and together all of these productions have created a very resilient talent base. There’s also been a commitment from the national film body, the NZFC, to high standards and I think that’s been really brave. They’ve followed some strict rules and really focussed on the training and raising of standards. And of course a lot of the credence should really go to the men and women of the industry who are doing the yards.”
Whatever the secret, it’s certainly is working, and Dean Spanley is further proof. Quirky but absolutely confident in its artistry, it’s a film that tells of a New Zealand film industry that with every year is growing in maturity.
Dean Spanley is in cinemas now. Read the Screentrek review here.
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