| Interviews |
Intervew with screenwriter Guther Gupta
By AL J. Vermette
Screenwriter Gunther Gupta's new film "The Curse of Spring Heeled
Jack" is his latest work of fantastic story telling mixing folklore with his
own writing style. The following is an interview with him as he talks about
his new film and the story behindone of the UKs creatures of the night.
AL: Please tell the readers of Blood Moon Rising a little about your new
screenplay?
Gunther: Hello readers. The Curse of Spring Heeled Jack centres around the
murky streets of old London town, where the citizens learn of a legendary evil.
The Super-Human beast with a twisted sense of humour becomes hell-bent on
causing as much chaos as possible.
As the signature prank attacks mount up in the city, The Duke of Wellington forms
a unique task force to rid London of its most feared menace to date.
Meanwhile, the Marquis, a known prankster who many of the community think is
Spring Heeled Jack himself, falls for the Dukes daughter and helps the search but
soon learns the ultimate price for imitating SHJ.
AL: Where did the idea with this film come from?
Gunther: The idea for the story came from a friend of mine who came across the
history and legend of Spring Heeled Jack. He called me up and said he had come
across this incredible folklore legend, steeped in history. When we met up and he
told me about the idea, I could see his enthusiasm and excitement almost bubbling
out of his head.
After a while of looking through the pages he had printed off and some notes he
had made, I was immediately convinced that this would make an astonishing story.
We were pretty lucky to find masses of detail on this legend so we spent months
pouring over them all and set about crafting a structured storyline.
The previous year, we co-wrote and produced a couple of short films together that
did pretty well on the indie circuit and at short film festivals here in the UK, so we
felt the next logical step was for us to pen our first collaborative screenplay. Thus
‘The Curse of Spring Heeled Jack’ was born.
AL: Are you planning on shooting the film yourself or are you looking for a
production company to help you bring the script to life?
Gunther: Well you know, as much as we’d love to put this together ourselves, due
to the vast and mainly set heavy locations in the script, it would be extremely
difficult to shoot and produce this film ourselves so we would look to an
established production company with a track record of producing films of this
genre.
AL: If Hollywood picked up the screenplay who would you like to see play
your cast?
Gunther: Well that’s funny because that’s an idea we’ve always had fun with.
I think the characters in this screenplay vary considerably from the athletic, dry
humoured bastard of the Marquis, to the robust authoritative Duke of Wellington,
the maniacal menace of SHJ himself, to the sensitive beautiful daughter of the
Duke that is Charlotte.
We always thought of some relatively unknown, home grown talent for these parts,
but depending on the budget etc, to reel off some obvious names from the top of
my head would be Ralph Fiennes, Willem Dafoe, Natalie Portman, Patrick Stewart,
the list could go on…
AL: Is the film a lone story or is it something you would like to turn into a
series of films?
Gunther: We think we have captured pretty much all the facts on SHJ and weaved
them into our screenplay, so I don’t immediately see this running and running.
Although the ending I’m sure people will agree is not entirely tied up. So we’re not
ruling out the possibility of a sequel.
AL: So what other works do you have waiting in the wings other then your
movie script?
Gunther: I have just written a few episodes for a comedy animation idea, set in a
Tin-Pot thrown together I.T company where the entire team of staff are under paid,
under skilled and looking for a way out.
Some of the events that take place are based on my actual work experience in a
company I used to work for (although I won’t be giving their name away!)
I have already found a very talented local animator who has done the initial
character and location drawings. I next need to find additional resources to put a
Pre-Vis trailer together.
I plan to finish writing the remaining episodes by spring 2010. Ok there you go, six
questions in all. Cheers
By AL J. Vermette
Screenwriter Gunther Gupta's new film "The Curse of Spring Heeled
Jack" is his latest work of fantastic story telling mixing folklore with his
own writing style. The following is an interview with him as he talks about
his new film and the story behindone of the UKs creatures of the night.
AL: Please tell the readers of Blood Moon Rising a little about your new
screenplay?
Gunther: Hello readers. The Curse of Spring Heeled Jack centres around the
murky streets of old London town, where the citizens learn of a legendary evil.
The Super-Human beast with a twisted sense of humour becomes hell-bent on
causing as much chaos as possible.
As the signature prank attacks mount up in the city, The Duke of Wellington forms
a unique task force to rid London of its most feared menace to date.
Meanwhile, the Marquis, a known prankster who many of the community think is
Spring Heeled Jack himself, falls for the Dukes daughter and helps the search but
soon learns the ultimate price for imitating SHJ.
AL: Where did the idea with this film come from?
Gunther: The idea for the story came from a friend of mine who came across the
history and legend of Spring Heeled Jack. He called me up and said he had come
across this incredible folklore legend, steeped in history. When we met up and he
told me about the idea, I could see his enthusiasm and excitement almost bubbling
out of his head.
After a while of looking through the pages he had printed off and some notes he
had made, I was immediately convinced that this would make an astonishing story.
We were pretty lucky to find masses of detail on this legend so we spent months
pouring over them all and set about crafting a structured storyline.
The previous year, we co-wrote and produced a couple of short films together that
did pretty well on the indie circuit and at short film festivals here in the UK, so we
felt the next logical step was for us to pen our first collaborative screenplay. Thus
‘The Curse of Spring Heeled Jack’ was born.
AL: Are you planning on shooting the film yourself or are you looking for a
production company to help you bring the script to life?
Gunther: Well you know, as much as we’d love to put this together ourselves, due
to the vast and mainly set heavy locations in the script, it would be extremely
difficult to shoot and produce this film ourselves so we would look to an
established production company with a track record of producing films of this
genre.
AL: If Hollywood picked up the screenplay who would you like to see play
your cast?
Gunther: Well that’s funny because that’s an idea we’ve always had fun with.
I think the characters in this screenplay vary considerably from the athletic, dry
humoured bastard of the Marquis, to the robust authoritative Duke of Wellington,
the maniacal menace of SHJ himself, to the sensitive beautiful daughter of the
Duke that is Charlotte.
We always thought of some relatively unknown, home grown talent for these parts,
but depending on the budget etc, to reel off some obvious names from the top of
my head would be Ralph Fiennes, Willem Dafoe, Natalie Portman, Patrick Stewart,
the list could go on…
AL: Is the film a lone story or is it something you would like to turn into a
series of films?
Gunther: We think we have captured pretty much all the facts on SHJ and weaved
them into our screenplay, so I don’t immediately see this running and running.
Although the ending I’m sure people will agree is not entirely tied up. So we’re not
ruling out the possibility of a sequel.
AL: So what other works do you have waiting in the wings other then your
movie script?
Gunther: I have just written a few episodes for a comedy animation idea, set in a
Tin-Pot thrown together I.T company where the entire team of staff are under paid,
under skilled and looking for a way out.
Some of the events that take place are based on my actual work experience in a
company I used to work for (although I won’t be giving their name away!)
I have already found a very talented local animator who has done the initial
character and location drawings. I next need to find additional resources to put a
Pre-Vis trailer together.
I plan to finish writing the remaining episodes by spring 2010. Ok there you go, six
questions in all. Cheers
For interview with
Photo Artist Dave
Watkins, click here
Photo Artist Dave
Watkins, click here
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