SHH: Squeezing it a little.
MM: I don’t think so. We would have had “Doctor Who” this year, but Sue and Stephen Moffat were on holiday. Next year we’re going to have a very strong television presence, but we may have different programs. “Doctor Who,” I’m a massive fan of, I really love it, and Stephen is the most hard working man in television, and I’d have loved to have him here this year, but it was literally off on their holidays this weekend because it’s the school break. So TV is a definite section. We’re going to try to stick to the same formula.
SHH: There’s obviously a clear comparison between “Super” and “Kick-Ass.” There are things that are done in the same way, because it would have been impossible to not do them in the same way. Was that a deliberate choice to, of all of the films you might have shown, bring in one similar to “Kick-Ass”?
MM: It’s funny, some people have said to me, ‘oh my God, he’s ripping off Kick-Ass,’ because it’s coming out one year later, but James was doing this when I was doing “Kick-Ass” as well. Both projects were coming together at exactly the same time. We were e-mailing each other at the time, and I asked him, ‘what are you working on at the moment?’ and he said, ‘a realistic superhero project,’ and I said, ‘So am I. Sh*t.’ And we were e-mailing back and forth saying, ‘this is terrible’, and we decided that we’d best not look at each other’s stuff. James said, ‘there’s a million bank heist movies, there’s a million high school comedies’, so there’s room for more.
SHH: Won’t that make it very difficult to convert for a theatrical release?
MM: I’m a great believer in, if it’s good, it will work out. If it’s not good, then it’s my fault. I’m an inexperienced, first-time director, it’s very possible it’ll be rubbish. If it’s good it’ll find its audience, and if not, I can only blame myself.
SHH: What is the budget on it?
MM: It’s tiny, microscopic. We’re doing it for £150,000 ($250,000).
SHH: Proper guerrilla filmmaking.
MM: Yeah. I’ve shot 30 minutes of it, and it’ll come in at about 70-80 minutes.
SHH: Is the reason for only shooting 30 minutes of it so far to do with your schedule.
MM: Yeah it is. It’s funny actually, because I said to everyone, ‘I’m gonna shoot the movie in about three weeks, I’ll do it before I get on with Kick-Ass 2. Then as I was doing it I realized that actually, this takes a bit longer than I expected, and real life gets in the way. We actually, in Scotland, had snow for three weeks. We couldn’t get the car out of the driveway, and then I had to do “Kick-Ass 2,” “Superior” and stuff like that. In a way it’s good though, because I’ve had a bit of a breather, and I like doing lots of projects at once, so we’re actually going back to filming the week after next. I can’t wait.
SHH: I take it you’re going to shoot the last forty minutes or so in one go?
MM: No. I’m going to probably shoot the middle section and come back. The final section is using a much smaller number of actors. There’s a scene with 500 people in it in the middle section. It’s funny, we talk about this gigantic cast, and yet the movie’s only being made for 150 grand; then there’s a massive action sequence with a crowd of 500 people in the centre of Glasgow.
SHH: You mentioned “Supercrooks” at the Millarworld panel. Is that going to have the feel of British gangster stuff, or are you going to steer clear of that?
MM: It touches on that. The high concept is “Ocean’s Eleven” meets “The X-Men,” but I actually want it to have a Euro-vibe. I love European cinema, I love superheroes, and I haven’t seen them merged yet. I quite like those cultural mash-ups, and that’s what I love about “District 9”; “District 9” was one of my favourite films for the last ten years, and the thing I loved was taking something that you’re familiar with and putting it in an unfamiliar setting. I wanted to do the same. There’s a superhero movie in “Miracle Park,” taking place in Scotland, but to then go further east, and take it to Madrid, and make it American leads. There’ll be six American leads, in an alien setting. We had an amazing lucky break, which are the Spanish tax breaks. I picked that out of a hat, but as it turns out, the director that we had is a great Spanish director. It was one of those luck bits of fate where everything just falls into place.
SHH: And “Kick-Ass 2”?
MM: “Kick-Ass 2,” just not sure. We’re all getting paid real money now, so it’s really hard to get everyone back in the same room.
SHH: You’re obviously now straddling both worlds between film and comics. Are you trying to spend more time making films?
MM: No, no, no. I’ve got three new comic properties that I’m just doing instead. I don’t want to write screenplays. The only screenplay I’ve attempted was “Miracle Park,” because I knew I was directing that myself. I hate writing them to be honest; I like the finished product, but I hate the process.
SHH: So after “Miracle Park,” no more directing?
MM: If it’s any good, maybe another film, but it’s not a burning passion. I had a lot of fun doing it, but there’s nothing I love more than the freedom of comics, and movies can’t possibly offer that. A talking heads scene in a movie doesn’t cost any money but an alien invasion does. Comics it’s all the same price. I love that, you’re only limited by your imagination. I’ll always be a comic book guy. Films is my hobby, comics is my job.
