Cockneys vs Zombies
James Moran has already enjoyed a successful career writing for TV and film and this week sees his latest screenplay hit the big screen in the form of Cockneys vs Zombies.
I caught up with him to chat about the new movie, working with director Matthias Hoene as well as his own plans to step behind the camera.
- Cockneys vs. Zombies is about to be released so can you tell me a little bit about the movie?
As you would probably guess from the title it is about a zombie breakout in the East End of London and a bunch of cockneys have to deal with it.
The main concept is it doesn’t matter who you are, even if you are a zombie, don’t start rouble in the East End because you will get a slap.
- You penned the script so how did you first get involved with the project and where did the idea for the script come from?
The initial idea was Matthias’ (director) and he had a title and a short pitch/concept based on the ‘don’t start trouble in the East End’ thing.
They brought me in and I wrote about four or five pages of notes of all the things that I would expect to see in a film with that title if I was going to see it on a Friday night after a couple of drinks.
So I threw a load of stuff at them and they seemed to like all of it and I went off and wrote it all up.
Pretty much all of it stayed in - I have some crazy stuff in there and I thought maybe one or two things would stay in and they would tone it down and make it more sensible but it all stayed in; I can’t think of anything that was actually taken out for reasons of silliness.
- You have said that you made a list of all the things that you wanted to see in a movie like this but this is not your average zombie film there has been a lot of emphasis on character development and backstory so why did you decide to focus in on this aspect?
That is something that I try and do with everything - even if it is a comedy/horror such as this - because I think if you haven’t got solid characters and a decent story then it is just a comedy sketch and no one is really going to care.
If you are rooting for the characters and you want them to survive, even in a silly plot this like this, you will still be worried for them otherwise you are not really interested and you want them all to get killed.
I didn’t want this movie to make fun of cockney’s or the East End I wanted it to be a celebration of the people, the spirit and the characters that live there as I genuinely believe that if there was any trouble in the East End it would be taken care of very quickly and quietly.
- While there are some traditional elements to the movie there are also elements that set this zombie movie apart from other so did you discuss with anyone during the writing process how to put a unique stamp on this story?
We were very aware from the beginning that Shaun of the Dead casts a very long shadow and we didn’t want to copy any of that - we all really love but we didn’t want to copy it because that would be insulting to them and a waste of time for us.
So anything that was remotely similar to that we all made sure that it didn’t stay in - there was even one scene where they walk past a pub and I was like ‘no, no, no we can’t have a pub’.
People will compare it to the last thing that came out in a similar genre but you have just got to make it as different thing as possible.
And a big thing for me was celebrating the characters in the East End and making it authentic and so I read a lot of cockney autobiographies to get myself in that mindset and get the voices right.
We knew that we wanted Alan Ford for the main pensioner so it was written with his voice in mind. It was a lot of work that you won’t necessarily see but hopefully pays off.
- Well you have slightly touched on my next question the East End is the heart and soul of this film so I wondered what sort of research you did into that area of London?
Well I know lots of people from the East End and my mum was born in the East End and I have friends and family that live there - so I do know it a bit. I knew enough about it to know what I did and didn’t want to do.
It was mainly doing lots of reading autobiographies of elderly cockney characters just to get in that mindset. I know that community, family and honour are a big thing and I wanted to respect that and try and get that across.
- The movie mixes humour with horror so how did you find balancing those two elements as you were penning the script?
You have got to try and keep them separate as much as possible so if there is a jump or a gore moment you have to try and treat that realistically and have people react in a believable way.
The comedy comes from the heightened situation that they find themselves in. So there are not really any jokes in it but it is funny because they are reacting in character to these ridiculous things.
But also they react differently to people in other zombie movies - we have never seen these people reacting to a zombie threat before; even it if it is not a joke but they react in an exasperated way it is going to make people laugh.
- How have you found the early feedback about the movie?
I have had quite a bit and nearly everyone who has seen it seems to like it. I kind of knew this would happen but it is surprising a lot of people.
Half the people who hear the title think ‘that’s great, I want to see it’ and the other half think ‘that is stupid I am not interested’ but when they see the trailer they think ‘oh that looks pretty good and it actually has a story’ and I think that that comes from us not wanting to make fun of cockneys.
So it is surprising people and people are surprised at how warm-hearted it is. I call it a feel good horror/comedy/zombie movie because if you go and see a movie with that title then you want to come out smiling and laughing you are not going there to be traumatised and taken on a harrowing journey.
- The film is playing at FrightFest this week so how much excited are you about that?
I am very very excited as I have been going to FrightFest for over ten years - the last film that I had out was Severance; we had the premiere at FrightFest as well. I have got really fond memories of that and so I am really excited.
I will be there for the whole weekend and I have another film Tower Block closing the festival on Monday night - I am going to be the emperor of FrightFest.
- You have done a bit of directing yourself so are we going to be seeing you stepping into feature film directing territory any time soon?
That is the plan yeah. I directed half of my web series and I directed a short last year for FrightFest and I have down a couple of small things for FrightFest this year.
I am directing another short sometime next month and then hopefully I will be getting a feature ready for me to direct - fingers crossed that will happen.
I have got a couple of scripts that I want to direct and no one else can have them - wither I will direct them or no one else will.
- You have written for TV as well as movies so how does writing for the two mediums compare?
It is pretty much the same except with TV you know that it is going to be on the air in three months so you have to go a lot faster. With film you have a little bit more time to work out the storyline.
With TV you are in people’s homes and you can tell longer stories and in film you usually have a bit more money to throw at the screen.
I treat them both the same way and just have some fun and interesting characters behaving realistically to a heightened situation.
- You have slightly touched on my finale question but what is next for you?
Hopefully directing but I also have a few more film and TV things in the pipeline - I have been developing stuff for three years and it is now starting to pay off. We will see which one happens first.
Cockneys vs. Zombies is released 31st August.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw