Invited to watch the filming of Irish/German co-production, ‘Superhero’, IFTN today journeyed to Dun Laoghaire’s West Pier to catch a preview the film’s final scene and to chat with the feature’s cast and crew. Between takes we spoke with Irish director Ian Fitzgibbon (Perrier’s Bounty), lead actor Thomas Sangster (Nowhere Boy), Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy), Irish co-producer Michael Garland (Spin the Bottle) and German co-producer Philipp Kreuzer (Short Cut to Hollywood).
IFTN arrives to the set of ‘Superhero’ on what Irish people would fondly call a ‘fresh day’; a bone-chilling wind rushes through the west pier in Dun Laoghaire and crew members go about their business as quickly as possible. All in all, it’s a very relaxed set. First thing we see is actress Aisling Loftus (Five Daughters, Dive) climb aboard a small yacht and her co-star Andy Serkis pops his head up from below decks to greet her…
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| Filming in Dun Laoghaire for Superhero |
’Superhero’s five week shoot started in Ireland on October 5th and will move after this to Munich for two days. The German-Irish co-production was originally written by and has been adapted by Anthony McCarten and tells the story of Donald Clarke (no, not that one), a terminally ill teenager who craves sex and adventure. Donald’s time is limited and he’s never had a girlfriend so, as a form of escape, he retreats from the harsh realities of life to his illustrated comic book adventures. After reluctantly seeing several psychologists Donald meets shrink number six, Dr. Adrian King, 'Dr. Death' as he calls him. After a shaky start they come to a mutual understanding and unexpectedly end up helping each other. Then a new girl at school, Shelly, played by Aisling Loftus, arrives on the scene and things start looking up even more.
British actor Tomas Sangster plays the lead role of Donald. The 20 year old actor bears only a fleeting resemblance to the doe-eyed boy who played Liam Neeson’s son in ‘Love Actually’ and this stark difference is only highlighted by the fact that Thomas has had his hair and eyebrows shaved off to play cancer patient, Donald. Wearing a thick woolly hat,
Thomas seems acutely aware of his new appearance: “I shaved it about three weeks ago and it was really helpful getting into character,” he tells us, “I mean shaving the head was one thing but getting rid of the eyebrows is even more shocking when I look in the mirror.”
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| IFTN interviews Thomas Sangster on set |
Neither Thomas nor Andy Serkis, who plays Dr Death in the film, are strangers to working in Ireland. The former shot a TV movie entitled ‘Bobbie’s Girl’ here in 2002 and recently wrapped on the set of ‘The Last Furlong’, an Octagon films co-production. Coming off his yacht back onto solid ground Andy tells us he has been here on three separate occasions: “I did a stage production of ‘Bouncers’ back in 1987,” he explains, before recalling a charming anecdote: “We did a tour of Ireland and we stopped in Limerick where someone came up on stage and head butted me at the start of one of the shows. And yet I’ve come back which just shows how much I like this place! And I did ‘The Escapist’ of course and I worked with the great Brendan Gleeson in ‘Sweety Barrett’ in 1998 which was great fun.”
Thomas he is getting ready for an important scene with Aisling when we talk to him. The role of Donald not only calls for him to lose vast quantities of hair but also that he adopt a Dublin accent. He tells us he has gotten to a stage where he is comfortable with the accent and Irish producer, Michael Garland is quick to praise it when we speak with him later, along with other features: “He’s so fantastically thin and he has absolutely nailed the accent!” he enthuses.
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| Andy Serkis and Aisling Loftus on the set of Superhero |
’Superhero’ has reunited Michael Garland with two of his colleagues from the 2003 film ‘Spin the Bottle’, namely Ian Fitzgibbon and Irish actor, Michael McElhatton who plays Donald’s father in the film. “We’ve been waiting to work together for so long!” he exclaims, quite genuinely. “This is obviously on a whole other scale to what ‘Spin the Bottle’ was but there’s a relaxed feel to it. Ian tends to bring that to whatever he works on. Cancer is not a funny topic but we’ve managed to have a lot of fun on set already because of the way Ian has approached it. And we know our role together now – he’ll go off and do his thing and I’ll go off and do mine and it just works really well.”
Thomas is also a big fan of his director, and is particularly glad of Ian’s previous acting career: “He’s very calm,” he starts. “And because he was an actor it’s really helpful because it makes him that much easier to talk to because he understands where you’re coming from.”
Andy Serkis answers many of my questions like his celebrated character – ‘Lord of the Ring’s Gollum – i.e. as two opposing characters. Asked about working with Ian his initial reaction comes with a scrunching of the face and a “He’s alright…” before he immediately straightens up and gives me his (we assume) real answer “I mean obviously he’s fantastic. The whole thing looks stunning and I’m enjoying his approach to directing. He knows where the story is coming from which is so important to have in a director.”
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Director Ian Fitzgibbon talks to Andy Serkis on the Irish set of
Superhero |
Ian himself seems also to be thoroughly happy with affairs. He moves quietly amongst the cast and crew and regards the monitor calmly when the cameras roll. He tells us he feels lucky to be working on the film: “We’re having a good time,” he says, with not a touch of hesitation. “And it’s such a strong script. There’s a real feel of being involved with something special, which is pretty rare.” He is also very happy with the German co-producers involved with the production: “The Germans are so organised and they’re putting manners on us!” he tells us.
The feature’s German co-producer, Philipp Kreuzer is keen to talk about the new camera technology that the film is pioneering. “We’re using a state of the art arri alexa camera,” he says. “It’s completely tapeless and the quality of the image is such a huge leap from what people will have seen so far in digital film-making.” One of the feature’s special effects artists Alessandro Cioffi, hovers about the set, overseeing each take and taking note of distances being used and other technical elements at play. Philipp also tells us that director of photography, Tom Fährmann has been involved with the project since almost since its inception: “Tom was involved with the film when it was in the development stage so he knew what would be involved and so he could get a real sense of the look that we are going for,” he explains.
This ‘look’ proves hard to describe. When asked if audiences can expect to see an Irish/German take on ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs The World’ Michael Garland replies with: “It’s not going to look anything you’ve seen before. It was originally to be almost da Vinci esque but now we’re looking to give it that authentic comic-book look. It does maintain its sense of being a drama, just with elements of comic book heroes added.” Philipp also tries to explain the feel of the film, as he enthusiastically describes how the shoot has gone so far: “It’s going so well! The imagery, twinned with the camera we’re using is bringing us absolutely stunning results. The places we’ve been in Dublin have really lent themselves to the introverted sense of the film – we’ve used a lot of sea imagery and sunsets and we’ve been so lucky with this good weather we’ve been having. We can’t believe it hasn’t really rained yet!! The locations we’ve been able to use here have really given the film that cinematic feel we want the film to have.”
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| The crew filming Superhero |
Each of the individuals we speak with on-set sing the praises of the Irish crew members. Andy tells us he’s thoroughly enjoying the experience “It’s been really difficult. Some of these people don’t know what they’re doing,” he jokes, before quickly adding in that, “It’s a fantastic atmosphere, really, things are running so smoothly.” German co-producer, Philipp puts it best when he tells us that: “What’s great about the Irish crew is that they’re so used to making co-productions that they know exactly how to operate. And it’s comforting for us as producers because, of course, time spent on set is money!”
The crew yesterday shot the film’s hospital scenes in St. James hospital in Inchicore and are headed for Sandyford when we leave them. There is talk of much needed tea and the logistics of putting on yet another level of clothing as Ian calls ‘Cut’ on the scene’s final shot and we head away.
Yesterday, the crew shot the film’s hospital scenes on location in Inchicore’s St. James Hospital and are now headed for Sandyford. When we say goodbye to the Superheroes, director Ian calls “cut” on the scene's final shot and there is talk of a much needed cup of tea and the logistics of putting on yet another layer of clothing …
- 'Superhero' is a co-production between Irish production company Grand Pictures and the Germany’s Bavaria Pictures. It is co-funded by Bord Scannan na hEireann/the Irish Film Bord, the German Federal Film Board/FFA, the FilmFernsehFonds Bavaria/FFF, Bavarian Banking Fund/BBF and developed with the support of the Media Programme of the European Community.
