... or goes further up it. You be the judge.
1. What, drunk already, mate? It's only noon....
The fictional Hong Kong that you've used for the setting of Reprobate feels like Bruce Lee meets Bladerunner. Was this the intention, to show a sort of codeless Asian truck-stop for the clubbing-corporate-banker set?
Quill Potter: "No don't be a twat. It's cos people go to Hong Kong and go robospastic. If you honestly think I get THAT deep into stuff then you have lost your mind, innit.
Hong Kong was stolen from the Chinese by aggressive British opium traders and then attracted rebels dedicated to throwing over the Emperor who thought they could use HK as base to launch their revolution (who are now the hugely powerful Triad gangs - evidently they discovered that crime was more profitable than overthrowing an Empire). Therefore it's always been a magnet for ne'er do wells.
Many of them, including me, wash up on it's shores to reinvent themselves... remember, I was on the run from the law and love when I arrived in '96. The fucking truth is, I lived there for 3+ years, acted like a cunt and decided to make a semi-autobiographically film about mine and others' adventures. If I'd lived in NYC woulda written about the Big Apple.
One massive advantage Hong Kong has over London though is it is soooo fucking cinematic. When you're walking around it at night, high as a kite, it's like being on a film set. After Charlie and Tubbs, I've always said that Hong Kong is 3rd biggest character in this film."
2. Yes. Only like 54 times.
There's a dose of Renton from Trainspotting in your protagonist, Charlie. In terms of Charlie's outlook and attitude, what would you say are the main differences? Aside from the skill level of the writers...
Quill: "Well Charlie's posh for a start. But Renton was never my role model for this. I can't relate to pikey smack-heads from Scotchland. Although I fucking loved the film and book. All of Welsh's works in fact I've read multiple times.
If I get anything from Welsh it's just the uncompromising way he allows his characters to talk. And in that sense, Charlie is clearly my alter-ego. He does and says what I would say and do if I enjoyed the taste of prison food more. I don't. It's disgusting, and when I first had it I pushed it back at the guard and asked to see the menu. He thought I was taking the piss. I wasn't. It was a shock to discover prisons aren't like 5 star hotels.
Getting back to the question..."
Yes, go on then.
Quill: "I would say Charlie is far more like Withnail, from Witnail & I. And I('d like to) think I've written a modern successor to that particular film.
"One more thing about Trainspotting. Yes it inspired me to start writing. Immediately. I ran out the cinema thinking 'Fuck me you can make films that don't fit the Hollywood formula that are hugely entertaining'. It was only when I went on Robert McKee's "Story" course in Singapore that I realised that Trainspotting is far more classically structured than it first appears.
Next!"
3. Well done on learning to read, mate. So bring us up to speed as this blog sets sail with the milestones to date in the 'Making of Reprobate' process? What date did you start and finish the script? How long did it take between first draft and completion? Where to next?
Quill: "Oh for cunt's sake. Can't fucking remembered when I start writing it officially... I was fucked out of my mind on cocaine for at least two years. Let's say I did the first draft after Trainspotting was released in '97. The script was called Superwave, named after an aircon that was cooling me down in my front room in HK as I smoked a big fat dooby.
"Then I went out picking magic mushrooms on a Welsh hillside after driving from London high on acid one night (we found three) and came up with the idea of making it about a hedonistic suicide. I wrote some notes. Then came up with an idea for a martial arts film which I'm writing now... but spent ages working out ideas for that. I guess it took 1-2 years of dossing about and 6 months of intensive writing to get it to a stage where people started reading it going: "Yes Quill. You are a fucking genius."
4. Charlie has 24 hours to live in the movie. Does this define the atmosphere of the film, the sense of a ticking clock? A lot of the humour is graveyard stuff right -- there's a far bit of 'what the fuck' to what unfolds.
Quill: "Are these two points related in any way? Did you just vomit out some words that you thought looked like they might form a coherent sentence, but on closer examination don't?"
You clearly bought beers along to the reading course.
Quill: "I'll try and ignore your incompetence and answer anyway... 1) I always try and put a ticking clock in a script. It gives it a sense of urgent - DUR."
A sense of urgent. Consider me schooled.
"2) Yeah no shit it's graveyard humour... it's a black comedy FFS, he's trying to pleasure himself to death. But I wanted it to stay more on the side of the 'comedy' than the 'black'.
One of my mates who shall remain nameless keeps saying it's a great idea for a script but I know he would've prefered a much darker version. Which would've missed the fucking point entirely. I wanted people to laugh. Ultimately it's an uplifting film about making the most of life.
Nietszche: "Is life not a thousand times too short to bore ourselves?"
(Interviewer has fallen asleep)
Ahem... Oh yeah right. Excellent. You have both a writer's and a co-producers role in Reprobate. Describe the different attributes needed for each task, so far.
Quill: "Oh Christ.
Well clearly I'm a good writer cos the head of Sundance read the script and told me so. As for co-producing it's a fucking struggle cos it's about putting a package together, including raising the cash. That's hard, and takes a lot of time and energy. At moment I'm focusing more on writing my martial arts script."
Right then. Thanks chap. Back to the dungeon with you. T'rah.
