Jonathan Sothcott has produced movies like Renegades, Nemesis, We Still Kill the Old Way, Age of Kill and many more. He has various projects in development, so he stopped by to chat with us about them.
I’m looking forward to your impending clown film HELLOWEEN starring Michael Pare. How was he to work with and what was it that appealed about the script to you?
Michael Paré is just a dream to work with – an old fashioned consummate professional, very easy going but really on it – if I could work with him on every movie I would. I really respect him as an actor, I’m a big fan of his back catalogue, I mean Streets Of Fire is a bona fide 80s classic and he’s just such a warm, strong screen presence who brings gravity to everything he does. What a guy. I met writer/director Phil Claydon a few years ago and we were looking for something to do and spit-balling and I think he said what about a killer clown movie and he wrote it for Jeanine, she’s the lead, he wrote her a really strong alpha female role, which was great. Initially Michael’s character was going to be a cop (like John Saxon in Nightmare On Elm Street) but we couldn’t reconcile an American cop in a British movie so we made him a journalist which actually helped the story during development. Claydon wrote a fantastic script and did a great job of directing it and Michael and Jeanine have a great on screen chemistry, they really work well together in it. The villain of the piece, the psychotic Kane, is also magnificently played by Ronan Summers who I had on my ‘to work with’ list for a while. These three key performances really elevate it and Claydon is a superb craftsman who has made a really unique film. I think audiences will love it, initial reaction has been great and we’re looking at action figures and some expanded universe stuff. I’d love to make a little franchise out of it.
What do you look for in scripts now opposed to say 5 years ago?
The same thing – quality, I just think now I am more in tune with the market and the audience and take a world view rather than a UK facing one. Since the collapse of DVD the UK has become a fairly minor territory on the global map so I am thinking more about the Americas, Japan, Germany etc. It’s really quite refreshing to change your perspective and it means I can take a step back from the promotion – these aren’t ‘Sothcott Films’ these are ‘Shogun Films’.
How do you find working on horror movies compared to gangster/action pictures?
It’s a lot more fun. You know I fell into that genre really by accident and had a little success in it but it’s very easy to become (too) closely associated with your product and I think I became something of a cliché, the gangster movie producer out on the beers with the cast promoting these films I was never really emotionally connected to. It took me quite a while to figure it out and you know you grow up as well. But horror was my first love really, I wrote a book about Christopher Lee, I helped set up, launch and then ran The Horror Channel and my first few movies were all horrors. But then I fell into the crime and gangster films and in a way it was just easy. Action is still big passion for me, but the market has changed dramatically, budgets have dropped a lot and the sales side is harder. To adapt is to survive.
I work a lot with a writer named Robert Dunn, I like him a lot, he wrote Doctor Plague and has co-written Knightfall and Werewolf Hunt. Great guy. I’ve also been working with Simon Cluett who woite We Still Steal The Old Way for me a decade ago. We usually develop content in house from an idea, rather than finished scripts arriving on spec, though that happens too from time to time.
You’re reuniting with Martin Kemp for the upcoming serial killer movie DOCTOR PLAGUE. What stage is that at?
We Just wrapped the main unit, few pick up days left and it’s in the edit. It was so nice working with Martin again, it has been a decade since we made a film together but it was just like clicking back into the old routine. There’s a lot of shared history there, he’s an exceptional human being who opened a lot of doors for me at the start of my career and has been a big part of my life. But what a terrific actor he is, I think he gives his best performance since The Krays in this, his role is a little like Edward Woodward in The Wicker Man, he’s a cop investigating a serial killer linked to a secret cult so it’s a little like 7even and then we have this awesome Plague Doctor villain which I think is really fresh and iconic. Doctor Plague is really a horror/thriller, it’s not a slasher movie, more like Silence of the Lambs but with a folk horror strand running through it, there’s even a nod to Blood On Satan’s Claw, now there’s a cult movie. Can’t wait to share a trailer, I think people will be pleasantly surprised.
I’m loving the sound of your upcoming action spy thriller KNIGHTFALL which stars Roger Moore’s son Geoffrey, Michael Pare and the legendary Ian Ogilvy. What can you tell us about that and how was working with Geoffrey?
Knightfall is a really fantastic project – it’s great to be working with Ian again and Michael and Robert Cavanah who is a wonderful actor, one of the best I know, is playing the villain. And Jeanine is the lead really, the story is her character’s journey and we developed this wonderful father/daughter relationship for her and Ian, they are estranged at the start and have to work together to stay alive – she’s very by the book and he’s a little bit out there, like Gene Hackman in Enemy of The State and then the wild card is her boyfriend Hugh (played by Geoffrey) who is this very cool MI5 agent with a few surprises up his sleeve. Working with Geoffrey is a joy, I love the guy and it’s an honour to give him this platform, he’s been acting since he was a kid but this is a real vehicle for his huge charisma and screen presence. This film has everything – lots of action, some real character drama and, I think, just the right little amount of humour. Sure it’s partly nostalgia charged but I see that as a good thing, films have changed so much and some of us want to see stuff like we grew up on – familiar but different. If you like the old Bonds, The Saint, The Fourth Protocol, Harry Palmer, Who Dares Wins, The Professionals… anything like that, Knightfall might just be the film for you.
What is your process for selecting a director for your films?
I work a lot with a UK director named Ben Mole, we have known each other a long time but Knightfall was our first project. I like him a lot: highly intelligent, very film literate but has a clear understanding of our model. It’s a great partnership. I meet a lot of directors and if we click we try to find something to do together. I’d do another one with Phil Claydon and I’m doing another one with Stephen Reynolds early next year, a very clever hitman thriller called Too Long The Night. If you want to direct smart, low budget genre movies I want you to knock on Shogun’s door. We’re open for business, we get films made and out there and we attract top quality talent.
I believe you have a few projects coming up working with screenwriter Chad Law; can you give us any details about them?
We have two Chad Law projects in development – siege thriller Active Shooters and assassin movie No Good Men. They’re both in the frame for end of this year/early next. Chad is a super guy and a terrific writer obviously – I mean he’s the number one indie action writer in the world right now, no doubt about it. He’s writing and producing the movies he loves and working with some great people and nobody deserves it more – he really loves genre movies: his passion is as impressive as his writing.
Any plans to direct yourself at some point or are you happy as a producer for now?
No it has never interested me, I think growing up I was always more interested in the business of production and sales: ours is a producer-lead business, I think commercial B movies have to be, really. I think Jeanine will direct, and sooner rather than later. With her theatre background and empathy for actors I think that would be great. But me, no.
What other projects do you have coming up over the next few years that you are able to discuss?
We’re doing Werewolf Hunt next, which is a fantastic action-horror, part Dog Soldiers, part The Most Dangerous Game. Then Harbinger, another horror, which is like a genre riff on the Tom Hanks movie Big. A Maniac Cop style policeman killer horror called Night Beat. A Guy Fawkes horror called The Secret of Guy Fawkes. There are a couple of classic horror adaptations, a Phantom of the Opera and a Mask of the Red Death. Werewolf Circus. Killer Instinct, which is an underground fighting film. An Eye For An Eye is a high concept revenge movie. I’m hoping we can make 6-8 movies in 2024.
Thanks so much for taking the time to chat and all the best with the upcoming projects?
No thank you I appreciate it very much – it is harder and harder to find platforms to talk about these small independent movies so please keep doing what you’re doing!