Interview with Robert Sarkies, on the announcement of ‘Two Little Boys’

Yesterday we announced the news that comedians Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Concords) and Aussie Hamish Blake (Hamish and Andy) are confirmed to star in the comedy Two Little Boys, which will begin filming in Southland in January 2011. The film will be directed by Robert Sarkies (man behind the great Out of the Blue, Scarfies) and is based on the dark comedy novel of the same name by his brother, Duncan Sarkies.

Our curiousity was piqued and Robert was good enough to tell us more about his upcoming project by email.

FLICKS: We’re a big fan of Duncan’s novel. How was working with your brother on the adaptation? Were there fist fights? Can you describe the process?

ROBERT SARKIES: Working with Dunk is always fun and productive. I guess because we are brothers, we are able to access some of the same memories and we certainly share an aesthetic. So no fist fights or brotherly hatred stories, sorry. Mostly the process is the two of us in a small office in Wellington with hundreds of cards on the wall and a couple of computers. I’ve got a shredder beside the printer so if Dunk writes something I don’t like, it’s a short journey to oblivion.

The process for this was quite unusual. It started with a bout of writer’s block when we were trying to figure out a new idea for a film. To free things up, I got Dunk to do some writing exercises. He brought a book of writing exercises and I paid him for two weeks to sit down and write anything that came into his head. What came into his head were these two characters who I think had been gestating there for a while. When he showed me some of his short stories about Deano and Nige I felt there was gold there and encouraged him to keep writing.  Then we started to structure the thing into a film.

Halfway through the first draft I got Out of the Blue up, leaving Dunk without a writing partner. So he approached Penguin with the short stories and Dunk asked me if was ok if he turned them into a novel. I said yes, as long as we kept the film rights. I kind of forgot about it during the intensity of Out of the Blue and then, during post, Dunk got me to proofread the manuscript of the novel and I went “shit, it is a film!”

We started writing the film while Dunk was still finishing the novel (which was interesting because each influenced the other).  Writing a novel in order to make a film is a bit of a convoluted process but it does make for highly explored characters and a rich and detailed world.

The novel has a unique tone – hilarious but dark. It’s a buddy-tale, and very much of a place (South Island, Aoteroa!). How do you approach putting that on screen? Do you do that through casting? Cinematography?

All of the above.  It does have a unique tone, which is driven by the distorted perspectives of the characters Nige and Deano. Basically, I’ll be working to put that up on screen and reflect their perspective through all the tools of filmmaking that are available (from cinematography to sound design).

I’m very aware, however, that it will be the performances that make or break the film. Casting has been very tricky on this – I think because of the specific tone of the piece.  Even though we have only a few characters, we have seen many hundreds of people across NZ and a few in Australia, Norway and Sweden.  Basically people are either funny or they’re not and in every part of the world there are only a few who are really funny in a seemingly effortless way. I’m lucky (like really, really lucky) to have two of them!

FLICKS: Are there departures from the book’s story or style that are required?

Yeah, you can’t be too wedded to your source material and Duncan is great at recognizing this even when he created the source material.  Our aim is to make a good film and not worry too much about making ‘the film of the book’. No one reads books anymore, do they?

There are some obvious differences – e.g. the book is 100% first person narrative and a film with 100% voice over wouldn’t give any room for performances to breath. We’ve got a bit of voiceover here and there but over the drafting process it has been gradually paired back.

We’ve also reset the film in Invercargill (the book was set in Dunedin) although we originally thought Invercargill would be an interesting setting right at the start of the process. Dunk set the book in Dunedin simply because he knew it – saves on research trips!

FLICKS: There’s a bit of wildlife to capture… Will the penguins be CGI, puppets or real?

Ah yes the wildlife – one of the many challenges of our little summer project.  Lets just call that a work in progress, shall we? The penguins will be real (they have penguins on the beaches down here don’t you know) but there will be some compositing work to do to get them in the same frame as our actors as I’m told Penguins don’t like people very much.

FLICKS: Can you let on any more info? Who’s shooting the film? Any other bits of casting? Give Flicks a scoop.

One really cool thing for me is while the film is called Two Little Boys, it is actually about three lads, one of them a friendly Maori bloke who the boys take along for the ride. We’ve just cast Dunedin-based actor Maaka Pohatu in this role, which is an amazing opportunity for him considering the pedigree he will be working with.

Shooting the film will be Jacs Fitzgerald who shot After the Waterfall and has been doing beautiful work on short films and commercials in NZ, Australia and the states. She comes from Christchurch and has lots of brothers so fits right in. Our production designer is Jules Cooke, our costume designer is Amanda Neil our sound designer is Dave Whitehead and Jon Baxter is doing our visual effects. An amazing team who are working their arses off down here as I write this.

One of the really cool things about the project is that it is being done in close association with SIT (the Southern Institute of Technology) down here in Invers. About 10% of our crew are SIT interns. My director’s assistant is Matt Innes who is an up-and-coming filmmaker and in every department there are students working alongside some of the most experienced and creative people in the business. This is the kind of career-making opportunity that is every film student’s dream – go SIT, I say.

FLICKS: We all know Bret McKenzie. Can you tell NZ a bit more about Hamish Blake?

I hadn’t heard of Hamish either until about a year ago.  But some people know him – Bret, Hamish and I were all doing some rehearsals in Wellington last month an during our lunch break we stopped to chat to a friend on a street corner. Within minutes we were surrounded by teenage girls wanting a photo with ‘the’ Hamish Blake. So they thrust their camera phone into the hands of one of the guys who was chatting to him to take the photo – without realising that guy was Bret McKenzie. Once they realized this and the squeals died down, I ended up taking the photo of the two of them with the girls – it’s my role in life.

As a result of this incident there is already an Anzac style competition on between Hamish and Bret to count who is more recognized on the streets of Invercargill.