The debut feature by director James Marquand (son of Return Of The Jedi director,
the late Richard Marquand), DEAD MAN'S CARDS is a gritty and violent modern-day
thriller/western set in the unforgiving underworld of Liverpool's gangster-run
clubland. The plot follows the story of Tom (played by Marquand’s co-writer James
McMartin), a former boxer turned nightclub bouncer forced to question his morals
and his loyalties when he reluctantly becomes involved in the sinister side of
the security business.
James Marquand recently took some time out
from work on his future projects to discuss the film.
Q:
How did you first become involved in Dead Man’s Cards?
JM: I
worked with James [McMartin, co-writer and star of Dead Man’s Cards] as an actor
on a short film that I did, which was championed by Alan Bleasdale. I’d seen him
in a play and thought he was an extremely good actor. He had a great look. He
has the look of a guy who has been there and done it, which I liked, and we’d
always kept in touch. We had a lot of mutual likes – Charles Bukowski, westerns
and music. He only listens to gangsta rap and country and western, which I thought
was quite a good combination. I knew he was writing stuff but I hadn’t actually
read any of his writing.
Anyway, we were chatting during lunch while
we were making this thing and he mentioned that he had this script about his experiences
as a doorman. I said, “Let’s have a look at it.” It was scattered around in various
places where he’d been staying. He pieced together this thing and within the first
page I just thought, “This is great.” It had a reality about the world it depicts
but it also had a kind of honesty, which you don’t expect from that macho world.
It deals with the inadequacies of the people, their hang-ups, their fears and
all of that stuff. It just really appealed to me. It was much less of a thriller.
It was more, I suppose, “kitchen sink”. I think there was stuff in it that was
a bit “Coronation Street” but we took that as our base and tried to hone it into
something that was more of a thriller.
Q: That doesn’t sound
like the dark and violent urban western-cum-thriller that ended up on the screen.
How close was James’ original draft to the final shooting script?
JM: It was very different. Like I said, it was more “kitchen sink.” There was
probably more romance in it. It was called Broken Hearts and was more about this
guy’s relationships and what happens between him, his wife and Mary, the barmaid
he meets through his work. It was really good and in some ways, maybe it was better,
but we were very conscious of our commercial constraints. It was anecdotal stuff
that he’d written. It was very real. It had the drug dealers and the bitch slap
and all that sort of stuff but there was a lot less of Paul Barber’s character
and his back-story. We added all of that stuff about what had made him into this
immovable object. He’s set in the way that he does things and he’ll fight that
to the death. We started to develop it and think about what we wanted to focus
on, which for me was the doorman stuff. The “kitchen sink” romance stuff has been
done a lot before, but to make a film that really looks at how the door security
works seemed quite unusual. It was an interesting little world that I don’t think
had been explored very much. And it just gradually became more of a thriller.
That even happened during the edit. There was more of the back-story that went,
some of which I’m pretty sad about but some of which I agree the film is better
without. So it got honed down into the simple western thriller that it is now.
Q:
It’s interesting, but also very appropriate, that the term “western” has become
attached to a film that would normally be referred to as a thriller. And it’s
not just because of the film’s title, which I believe is a reference to the poker
hand held by Wild Bill Hickock when he was killed.
JM: The western
thing came out of the Billy the Cowboy character and the codes of honour that
doormen really do hold. They are like old cowboys, gunslingers, where your face
and how you front up is everything. It makes you what you are, which is very much
like a Hollywood western outlook on life. There was a dead man’s cards reference
as Billy the Cowboy shows Tom around the club for the first time and he’s looking
at all these pictures of boxers on the walls. There was a picture of the dead
man’s cards on the wall and that was where the film’s title eventually came from.
Q: Although the film revolves around the story of the former
boxer, Tom, he is almost overshadowed by Paul Barber’s character, Paul, who you’ve
already described as “this immovable object”. Paul Barber is amazing in the role
of this complex and sometimes frightening but extremely charismatic doorman who
walks a fine line between good and bad.
JM: I think the idea
of the Paul character was just fascinating. He’s the great character of the film
really. It’s just playing with clichés, like having a black soldier with a picture
of the Queen and Malcolm X above his mantelpiece, and just trying not to do the
norm. Then there’s the link with the Orange Lodge and all of that. You probably
know Liverpool is a pretty unusual place for England. The fact that there is an
Orange Lodge in Toxteth is a very strange thing. There are all of these pieces
of reality there that are stranger than fiction in a way.
Q:
How did your relationship with first-time executive producers Steve Corless and
Phil Evers come about?
JM: I met them as I was starting out after
I’d moved to Liverpool. Phil and Steve were in the building trade, out of Liverpool,
working all around the place and I just got on with them. We just hit it off.
Q: So initially it was a social relationship?
JM: Totally,
yeah. They were both massive film lovers. They were getting to be quite successful
in their businesses and they had quite a lot of contact with very rich people.
I spent a long time with them. They were streetwise, talented guys with the right
connections and an absolute passion and love of film, who maybe didn’t come from
backgrounds where they would ever have had a chance to express that particularly.
With this first feature we had always had in the back of our minds the idea to
look around to try and find the right people to help us to raise the money and
that’s what we did. It wasn’t like this great master plan. I guess that everything
that has happened for me has happened in an organic way and I guess maybe I inspired
Phil and Steve a little bit. Because of my upbringing I have no fear or apprehension
about making films and I’m not of the belief that filmmaking is some kind of precious,
elitist jewel that only the select few have access to.
Q: You
set up your own independent production company, Stray Dogs, specifically to produce
Dead Man’s Cards. Will future Stray Dogs productions feature the same creative
team? Will you always direct, with Matt Whyte as director of photography, Phil
and Steve producing and so on? Is that the plan?
JM: No. Our
long-term goal is to expand. We want to be a production company so our long-term
goal is to make more films than I can direct in a year. We’d love to make three,
four or five films a year. That’s our aim. We want to find other filmmakers. I
think the success of any British film is a great thing for all British filmmakers
and we are certainly a company that would look to find new filmmakers or work
with other established filmmakers.
Q: Watching Dead Man’s Cards,
something that surprised me was the appearance of Drew Schofield, who I know is
an old friend of yours from the days when you were making short films. His role
is really a cameo. Were you not tempted to cast him in one of the more major roles?
JM: It’s a good question. We originally cast him as Billy the Cowboy.
Q:
This was before Tom Bell became available?
JM: Yeah. We didn’t
think we’d get Tom Bell. We didn’t think we’d get Paul Barber. We just sent the
script out not expecting anything. I wanted Drew to be Billy the Cowboy but he
wouldn’t do it and I understand why because he is of an age where if he plays
a guy fifteen or twenty years older than he is, he may never get to play a young
guy again. So it was a sensible move. So I was like, “Shit, Drew, who can you
play? All the characters are these huge doormen.” Q: And Drew’s
not a huge doorman.
JM: No, he isn’t. I mean, he probably could
have done it brilliantly because he can do anything that guy. If I have to criticise
him as an actor it’s because he’s too good at everything. There’s nothing that
guy can’t do, which means he doesn’t get certain roles because they always think
of someone else who they can typecast to play a part. Do you know what I mean?
Before I make my last film, I am going to get him the best part ever. I’ve seen
a lot of fantastic actors through working with my dad and I’ve never seen a better
actor than him. He’s just an incredible actor. Every take he puts a different
slant on it and every take is brilliant. I don’t know why he’s not… I mean, he
played Johnny Rotten to Gary Oldman’s Sid Vicious in Sid And Nancy. Obviously
Sid was the main part but Drew should be regarded as being of that level. He should
be recognised as much as Gary Oldman is.
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