Rogue Interview

On my merry bloggy travels around this here blog-fashioned site, I discovered a travelling interview courtesy of the wordeating Anna Russell (who also has another blog over here too). This seemed like an ideal opportunity to get her to help me create a blog post as inspiration was lacking today. Feel like joining in the game? Here are the rules:-

1) Leave me a comment saying "interview me"

2) I will respond by emailing you 5 questions (I get to pick the questions)

3) You will update your blog with answers to the questions.

4) You will include the explanation and offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5) When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them 5 questions.

See? Easy as pie.* If anyone else wants me to play interviewer, just follow the rules above and I'll add links to your answers on this post.

Right, on with Anna's questions then and an impressive selection it is...

1) Who would win in a fight between Batman and a tyrannosaurus rex, and why?

Ah, we're off to an easy start. Batman - because he actually has a replica tyrannosaurus rex in his Batcave to practice on for just such an eventually (see picture over there on the left hand side for those of you who think I'm just making it up). I tell you, the man thinks of absolutely everything. Well, he did. Before he went and got all killed recently. (Don't worry, in comics, death isn't always the handicap it used to be. He'll be back.)

2) You're a proud Londoner: what does the city mean to you, outside of the regular touristy stuff the rest of us know about?

I have something of a love/hate relationship with this wonderful yet infuriating city. It has the casual expensiveness and haughty disdain that only a capital city seems to get away with; a sweaty, rushing, impatient, crowded feeling that you're always late for something and need to be there faster; it's dirty, it's smelly and, for the most part, it's rude. And yet...and yet... All around is a sense of history, a sense of a place that has grown and changed and evolved over time as the inhabitants have grown and changed with it. It has old, dusty, familiar, comfortable places and bright, new, shiny, exciting places. It has wide open spaces and tiny little nooks. Sometimes it's always open, one of those cities that never sleeps and just sweeps you along in the whirlwind. Sometimes you'll struggle to find somewhere selling a loaf of bread at 9 o'clock on a Monday night. It's timetabled and regimented yet flowing and random. It's home and it's work and it's friends and it's family. To paraphrase Woody Allen, London was his town, and it always would be...

3) As an independent film maker, how do you feel about big Hollywood studios and the money they spend on blockbusters?

I'm actually very fond of a good solid blockbuster. In fact, some of my favourite films are blockbusters (I'm not gonna go for listing here - have a squint at the profile for a tip of the iceberg type list). Some of my other favourite are also small independent films. I think that there's more than enough room for film as both big, mass culture spectacle and more intimate, small scale art. From a purely personal point of view, I would have no problem working within the system (of course, I'm saying that as an outsider with no real experience - I imagine once the system had ground me up and spat me out, I'd have an entirely different perspective). I see the things that I make as entertainment first and foremost - it's about telling the story or generally getting the laugh if it's quick little short. If a studio can offer me the money to realise that story in a way that wouldn't be possible otherwise then I'd definitely consider it. That said, I am a control freak so I'd need to retain the rights to Time-Travelling Ninja Dinosaurs In Space...

4)Can you name a film based on a book that was better than the book?

My general rule of thumb (to which there are naturally exceptions) is watch the film first then read the book - that way I tend to enjoy both. off the top of my head, I'd have to say Fight Club. Love the film an obscene amount (really wish I'd made it) but got about five pages into the book before I had to put it down because it was (in my opinion) unreadable.

5) You are on the tube. The doors are sealed. In your carriage is a bomb which is about to go off. In the carriage to your left there are an army of ninjas, in the one to your right there are an army of samurais. Which carriage do you choose to get away from the bomb?

The bomb, the ninjas and the samurai are all part of needlessly convoluted and easily thwarted plan for total world domination. Unfortunately, my arch nemesis Captain Spiffing has trapped us all on the train as I hurtle towards certain doom. And yet, a state of zen-like calm engulfs me. I will escape this fiery death-trap. How? Oh, that would be telling. But rest assured, I shall return. Oh yes, I shall return. Mark my words, you will all rue this day. And on that other day, the one when you do the ruing of this day, you will all tremble and quake in fear at my feet. For the world has not heard the last of-

*BOOM!*

(Thanks, Anna, I enjoyed the challenge!)

EDIT: - TrodoMcCracken has taken up the interview challenge - read it here. Anyone else fancy a go?

* Apparently, pies are the sluttiest of all desserts. You learn something new every day, don't you?