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© Charlie Gray 2017
e was a bulldog. But of all the dogs, bulldogs are actually quite sensitive,” says Brian Cox, the Scottish actor who Churchill, reflecting takes the title role in Churchill on the contradictory nature of the celebrated wartime UK prime minister. Speaking in his trailer during a break in shooting, Cox describes Churchill as “a man of destiny” but also a manic depressive who self-medicated through alcohol. “You realise you can’t avoid his theatricality, but it is a device he used,” says Cox. “The cigar was like thumbsucking. He was probably a thumbsucker. He hardly inhaled. He was very much a little boy, in tune with his inner child. He had a miserable time when he was growing up.” Producers Nick Taussig and Paul Van The Guv’nor Guv’nor, Carter of Salon Pictures (The Gascoigne)) originated the project, which is being sold by Embankment Films and is due to be released in the UK by Lionsgate in June. Partly inspired by Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Downfall (2004), which depicted Adolf Hitler in his Berlin bunker in his final days, they set out to reveal “the man behind the icon, behind the myth”. Churchill was developed with the assistance of the BFI; Salon Pictures is producing alongside Tempo Productions, with backing from Silver Reel, Lipsync and Creative Scotland. Contemporary portrayal The $5.1m (£4m) production is set in the 48 hours leading up to D-Day — June 6, 1944. Churchill, still haunted by the carnage he unleashed during the bungled Gallipoli landings in the First World War, is very wary about the D-Day plans but is overruled by the Allied generals, Dwight D Eisenhower (played by John Slattery) foremost among them. “We’re doing a very contemporary portrait of him. The natural reflection off that was to have a young woman write the screenplay,” Van Carter says of the decision to recruit historian and journalist Alex von Tunzelmann to script Churchill. The film was developed with Cox — renowned on screen as the first Hannibal Lecter in Michael Mann’s Manhunter (1986) and on stage for his portrayal of King Lear in an acclaimed 1990 production at the UK’s National Theatre — in mind. “If this is going to be the edgy, rock ‘n’ roll, cool Churchill movie, that’s reflected in the conceit — it’s a thriller, a ticking clock,” says Van Carter. “We always knew we were not going to make a Saving Private Ryan, $100m film with the storming of the Normandy beaches. It became all about that internal drama and conflict in Whitehall in the lead-up to D-Day.” The brooding, internal approach
56 Screen International at Cannes May 20, 2017
Director Jonathan Teplitzky (far left) and Brian Cox on set at Newhailes Estate, Musselburgh, Scotland
Life during wartime Winston Churchill has been portrayed on screen many times, but Salon Pictures’ latest film shows him in a new light. Geoffrey Macnab reports focuses on Churchill’s relationship with Brian Welsh. “It’s like a Labour suphis wife Clemmie (Miranda Richardson). porter making a film about Margaret There are tensions between them. They Thatcher,” Teplitzky jokes of being an sleep in separate beds. Churchill is aware Aussie telling the story of a man still held he has been neglecting her, and yet responsible for the death of so many remains very dependent on her. “They’re young Australians during the First World symbiotic but there’s a terrible strain on War. “But, as a filmmaker, you look for the relationship,” says Richardson. “He interesting characters and then try to always expects her to be there. He’s putexplore and humanise their behaviour.” ting her in a position where he is potenChurchill may be set in England but it tially an embarrassment to himself. He was shot almost entirely in Scotland. refuses to delegate to his generals. He’s “We talked to all the regions,” Taussig not doing what she perceives to be the explains. “We explored Wales, we real job, to lead the country by attitude explored Yorkshire, but Jonathan had rather than by interfering with the genershot The Railway Man in Scotland. On a als who are doing the dirty work, running low-budget film, we need to use nature the war. She seems to and there are some beautiful have an inherent underlandscapes here, some beautiful standing of that.” horizons, a dramatic quality Australian director that gave us a scale Jonathan Teplitzky we would have (The Railway struggled to get Man) came on in London.” board just a few The filmweeks before makers conproduction tend that began, a late people know less Cox with Miranda Richardson as Clemmie replacement for about Churchill
‘It was about whether we can say something fresh’ Nick Taussig, producer
than they might think, even if his image is everywhere: Churchill’s face is on the UK’s £5 note; his highly theatrical speeches (“We will fight them on the beaches!”) are still frequently invoked; and everyone knows he smoked cigars and made ‘V For Victory’ signs. Gary Oldman is also due to play him in Working Title’s Darkest Hour, scheduled for release at the end of 2017. What they are far less aware of is what Cox calls his “humanity… his flaws, his pettiness, his temper”. “There is obviously a massive existing brand there,” Taussig concludes of the Churchill phenomenon. “The film was about whether we can say something genuinely fresh, new and different s about him.” ■
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