Michael Hazan Joins Juma Entertainment

EXCLUSIVE: Unscripted television veteran Michael Hazan has became a member of reality production company Juma Entertainment (The Singing Bee) as Mind of Development/West Coast and Co-Executive Producer. Hazan will are accountable to Juma founder and leader Robert Horowitz. Development professionals Alaina Killoch and Dionne Clifton will are accountable to Hazan. Lewis Fenton, who was simply based at the organization’s West Coast headquarters, will proceed to Jumas New Hope, PA offices. He'll still function as Mind of Production and Executive Producer and run productions on shorelines but will concentrate on New England procedures. Hazan formerly offered like a supervisory producer of unscripted television series at Krasnow Prods and Fremantle Media. His credits include Hole Within the Wall and Average Person and two Juma projects, The Celebrities (ABC) and Rules of the overall game (CBS).

Drive-Inspired Sketches by Chromatics, Desire Include Track Listings of Unused Film Score

The musical partnership between director Nicolas Winding Refn and electronic musician Johnny Jewel dates back to Refn’s Bronson, which used a track from Jewel’s group Glass Candy to strike its stylized period feel. For Refn’s latest film, the L.A.-set crime thriller Drive, he turned once more to Jewel to help create an ’80s-tinged pop synth sound — and the inspiration seemed to go both ways, as evidenced by drawings and a full collection of Drive-inspired tracks created by Jewel and his musical collaborators. Two of Jewel’s groups, Chromatics and Desire, have tracks featured on the soundtrack to Drive (“Tick of the Clock” and “Under Your Spell,” respectively). But the score to Drive is largely comprised of compositions by composer Cliff Martinez, built around a handful of mostly electronic tracks that also include Kavinsky’s “Night Call” and College ft. Electric Youth’s “A Real Hero.” “Johnny had scored two specific scenes — one was ‘Tick of the Clock’ which was in the beginning from Chromatics and then there was ‘Under Your Spell’ later on,” Refn told Movieline via telephone earlier today. “Then I had the College song and the Kavinsky song, and I had Cliff Martinez kind of emulate the feel of those sounds and those songs into a score.” Jewel, meanwhile, wound up composing his own Drive-inspired tracks at Refn’s encouragement. These unused score tracks appear to have surfaced as part of a 30-drawing collection of sketches by Chromatics and Desire inspired by scenes from the film; on the blog Primitive Desire, Jewel’s Desire collaborator Megan Louise notes that the songs listed “will be coming out on Johnny Jewel & Nat Walker’s soundtrack project ‘Symmetry’ in the fall.” Full two-part track listing follows, but beware spoilers! 1. Isolation (3:10) Winner Take All (2:42) Death Mask (1:22) Love Theme/Air (2:01) Magic Gardens (1:40) The Family (1:33) Rearview Mirror Pt 1 (0:37) Rearview Mirror Pt 2 (1:04) Irene’s Eyes (3:01) Lady (2:56) The Midnight Sun (1:37) City of Dreams (2:42) Beyond the Rim (2:18) Love Bite (3:40) Driver’s Theme (4:02) Baby (2:35) Bernie’s Theme (1:40) The Nightshift (1:00) Nino’s Death (1:41) Love Theme/Earth (3:27) Fading Away (2:44) Memories Are Forever (1:50) 2. Flashback (2:57) Paradise Lost (0:28) Car Jack (2:50) Behind the Wheel (7:28) End Game (2:21) Murder Motel (4:29) The Crimson Torch (2:43) Fragments (0:43) Strangers (4:03) Music Box (0:43) Paper Chase (3:00) Mr. Midnight (3:28) Shannon’s Death (1:11) Blood Sport (2:26) The Nightshift/Reprise (0:58) Outside Looking In (2:21) Symphony of Light (3:15) All the Faces (2:46) Love Theme/Water (4:14) Echoes of the Mind (6:29) The rest of the drawings are taken from stills from the film, depicting various scenes of Driver (Ryan Gosling), the neighbor he falls for (Carey Mulligan), and the various forces he comes to contend with as he crosses paths with seedy crime bosses and thugs in L.A. They’ve got a charming Etch-a-Sketch quality to them, but what’s most striking is how vividly they capture scenes from the film in spare black and white renderings. Click here to see all 30 of the Drive-inspired sketches, but again, potential spoilers abound, so view with caution. [Primitive Desire]

Toronto Film Festival 2011: Nicole Kidman, Clive Owen, Robert De Niro, Jennifer Hudson Added to Lineup

TORONTO -- Robert De Niro, Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Ralph Fiennes, Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman and James Gandolfini on Tuesday joined the star-studded lineup for the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.our editor recommends'King's Speech' wins TIFF audience award'Gaza' premiere set to shake up TIFFRelated Topics•Toronto International Fil... Fest organizers announced British Writer/director David Hare's Page Eight will close TIFF with a Roy Thomson gala after a debut at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival. Hare's spy thriller stars Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes and Judy Davis. As Toronto continued Tuesday to set its Roy Thomson lineup with another eight galas unveiled, French director Christophe Honoré's The Beloved was given a high-profile gala here after a Cannes bow for the 1960s Paris and contemporary London drama that stars the real-life mother and daughter Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni. And Jennifer Hudson and Terence Howard will walk the red carpet with director Darrell J. Roodt into Roy Thomson Hall for a world premiere of Winnie, the Canada/South African co-produced biopic about Winnie Mandela, the wife of Nelson Mandela. Toronto also booked Roy Thomson Hall slots for The Awakening, from British director Nick Murphy, a psychological thriller that stars Rebecca Hall, Dominic West and Imelda Staunton, and director Tanya Wexler's Hysteria, a romantic comedy top-lined by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Pryce, Rupert Everett and Felicity Jones. There's also star-driven world debuts for Gary McKendry's Killer Elite, a globe-trotting action film starring Jason Statham, Robert De Niro and Clive Owen set for a September 23 theatrical release; Marc Forster's Machine Gun Preacher, which stars Gerard Butler in the true-life role of criminal-turned-kidnapped child saver Sam Childers; and Joel Schumacher's Trespass, which stars Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman. Another 18 titles were added to the Special Presentations sidebar Tuesday, including Italian director Ermanno Olmi's The Cardboard Village, which stars Michael Lonsdale and Rutger Hauer; U.S. filmmaker Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress, the Greta Gerwig-starring comedy that will close Venice; and Irish writer/director Ian FitzGibbon's Death of a Superhero, which stars Andy Serkis and Thomas Brodie-Sangster and is based on Anthony McCarten's novel. There's also world bows for The First Man, by Italian director Gianni Amelio, an adaptation of Albert Camus' autobiographical last novel; Agnieszka Holland's In Darkness, a Holocaust drama starring Robert Wieçkiewicz and Benno Fürmann already picked up by Sony Pictures Classics; and Intruders, by Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and starring Clive Owen. Toronto also booked a North American premiere in the Special Presentations sidebar for Hong Kong director Johnnie To's Life Without Principle, a drama about three characters in desperate need of money that will screen in competition in Venice. Also Toronto-bound for a North American debut is Low Life, by French directors Nicolas Klotz and Elisabeth Perceval, which just screened in Locarno, while there's a world premiere for Indian director Pankaj Kapur's Mausam (Seasons of Love), a turbulent love story starring Shahid Kapur, Sonam A Kapoor and Anupam Kher. Other world premieres: Anne Fontaine's My Worst Nightmare, starring Isabelle Huppert; fellow French director Mathieu Kassovitz' Rebellion, and U.S. director Geoffrey Fletcher's Violet & Daisy, a film about two girls and some guns that stars Saoirse Ronan, Alexis Bledel and James Gandolfini. Toronto also booked North American bows for Hong Kong director Ann Hui's A Simple Life, which reunites Asian screen star Andy Lau with his godmother Deanie Ip as they perform together in front of the movie camera for the first time in 23 years, and Australian director Julia Leigh's Sleeping Beauty, which stars Emily Browning and Rachael Blake. Fest programmers also gave an international premiere to Terraferma, from Italian director Emanuele Crialese; and North American bows to Philippe Garrel's That Summer, which stars Monica Belluci and the French director's son, Louis Garrel; the epic film Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, from Taiwanese director Wei Te-Sheng; and Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights, which stars James Howson and Kaya Scodelario. Toronto's Contemporary World Cinema section added another 51 titles, including world bows for the latest films by Nancy Savoca, Xiaolu Guo and Nacho Vigalondo. And there's North American bows for new films by directors Andrey Zvyagintsev, Gerardo Naranjo, Sono Sion, Asghar Farhadi, Karim Ainouz, Ole Christian Madsen and Cristián Jiménez. U.S. director Joshua Marston will bring The Forgiveness of Blood, an Albanian family feud drama to Toronto after a Berlin bow; and French director Vincent Garenq will bring the justice drama Presume Coupable (Guilty) after a Venice debut. And there's world premieres for Italian director Stefano Chiantini's Islands; Juan of the Dead, by director Alejandro Brugués, about a zombie outbreak in Cuba; Always Brando, by Tunisian director Ridha Béhi, and Blood of my Blood, by Portuguese director João Canijo. The Future Projections sidebar of moving image installation includes a collaboration by James Franco and Gus Van Sant, entitled Memories of Idaho (1991; 2010 and 2011), and artworks by Peter Lynch, Nicholas and Sheila Pye, Mr. Brainwash and David Lamelas. And the Visions program of avant-garde films includes a North American premiere for Julia Loktev's The Loneliest Planet, and an international premiere for Debbie Tucker Green's Random. The Toronto International Film Festival is set to run from September 8 to 18. Related Topics Toronto International Film Festival Clive Owen Nicolas Cage Nicole Kidman Robert De Niro International

TV Ratings: PGA Championship Delivers Win for CBS

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images CBS won Sunday night with a strong lead-in from the PGA Golf Championship, which ran into primetime and pushed the schedule back by 65 minutes (and preempted CSI: Miami). As a result, fast nationals for the network are approximate, and may slightly adjust later. PHOTOS: CBS' New Season TV Shows: 'Person of Interest,' 'A Gifted Man' and More Big Brother was down 14 percent from last week, and Same Name dipped 6 percent. ABC came in second place in the key 18-49 demo with a 1.4. The CMA Music Festival rated a 1.6, and was down 6 percent in the key demo from last year's telecast. However, it was up 17 percent in total viewers, its second-largest audience in six years. Fox came in third with a 1.2. The Jamie Foxx-produced In the Flow With Affion Crockett premiered soft with a 1.3 for the first hour, and 1.0 for the second. Univision came in fourth with a 1.1, followed by NBC with a 1.0. The first hour of The Marriage Ref was flat, but the second hour was down 10 percent versus last week. Below, networks ranked by demo: CBS - 1.9 · PGA Championship Over-run (S) 1.7, 9.3 million total viewers · 60 Minutes: 2.0, 7.9 million · Big Brother: 2.5, 7.2 million · Same Name: 1.5, 4.8 million ABC - 1.4 · I.AM.FIRST: Science is Rock 'N Roll (S): 0.5, 2.2 million · CMA Music Festival (S): 1.6, 7 million Fox - 1.2 · American Dad (R): 1.0, 2.1 million · Bob's Burgers (R): 0.9, 1.9 million · The Simpsons (R): 1.4, 3 million · Family Guy (R): 1.7, 3.5 million · In the Flow With Affion Crockett (S): 1.3, 2.7 million · In the Flow With Affion Crockett (P): 1.0, 2.2 million NBC - 1.0 · Dateline (R): 1.2, 6.5 million · Minute To Win It (S): 0.9, 3.5 million · The Marriage Ref (S): 0.9, 2.7 million · The Marriage Ref: 0.9, 2.7 million TV Ratings

Groovy! Mike Myers Signs On For Austin Powers 4

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- This sort of thing is our bag, baby! Mike Myers is set to bring Austin Powers back to the big screen for a fourth installment of the 60s spy-spoof movies, Hit Fix reports. Details of the proposed plot have yet to be revealed and its unclear whether director Jay Roach (who helmed the first three blockbuster comedies) will return for Austin Powers 4, according to the website. Myers, 48, first introduced audiences to his hilarious snaggle-toothed Powers character in 1997s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, which reportedly grossed over $67 million worldwide. The 1999 follow-up, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, took in over $310 million, and the most recent installment, Austin Powers in Goldmember in 2002, reportedly earned $296 million. In addition to Myers newly-announced film project, the Saturday Night Live alum will soon become a first-time father. The funnyman and his wife, Kelly Tisdale, are expecting a child. The couple quietly wed in New York in 2010 and kept their nuptials a secret until March. Myers and Tisdale began dating in 2006, after the actor split from Robin Ruzan after 12 years together. Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Who Makes What: TV's Greatest Salaries

Ashton Kutcher Many people think TV is preferable to movies nowadays. For a lot of stars, it certainly pays better. Unless of course you are in a position to play a super hero, it's difficult to obtain super-wealthy from large-screen work, so more stars are moving to series TV. The broadened talent pool has given systems and galleries extra leverage in settling salaries. "You will find so couple of gigantic stars in features and also the relaxation aren't coming to a money," states one industry executive acquainted with the 2010 deal-making. "That's useful." The overall rule over the TV clients are to maintain lead entertainers on new network prime-time series to $125,000 a chapter. (Cable systems 're going up to $150,000.) That isn't Charlie Sheen money, but it is pretty good. "Occasions that by 22, [and] you are able to maintain an excellent lifestyle depending on that which you were making in features however you are not," the executive states. You will find always exceptions for established TV stars. Hit series veterinarians Tim Allen and Kiefer Sutherland can get $225,000 a chapter to return to the weekly grind in new shows. However with lengthy-running top shows getting good costly as they age, galleries are seriously interested in trimming budgets when confronted with decreasing rankings. House lost Lisa Edelstein, and Chris Meloni is finished from Law & Order: SVU largely due to costs. Ted Danson will earn $225,000 a chapter to become listed on CSI - a savings from Laurence Fishburne's $350,000. Warner Bros.' has become the greatest-compensated sitcom actor at $700,000 per episode - far under Sheen's take of $1.two million. Whether this is a bargain will not be known before rankings are available in following the show's premiere. Network news divisions and talk- show producers will also be attempting to hold lower costs. After Katie Couric left the CBS Evening News, Scott Pelley began at within third of her $15 million annually. Regis Philbin is departing Live! With Regis and Kelly rather than going for a cut in the $15 million salary. And Piers Morgan gets under another of the items Ray King gained throughout his final year in CNN's prime-time selection. However, many stars can strike as the iron is hot. The cast from the Large Bang Theory saw their salaries grow his or her show produced distribution deals. And Current TV is attempting to go in the cable large leagues with Keith Olbermann, giving him $tens of millions of annually as well as an equity stake within the network. Time Warner, meanwhile, tangled up Physical Violence Worsens with a brand new talk show along with a new deal at CNN that pays him around $11 million annually. Which should keep him in tight black T-t shirts for any very long time. For that complete listing of TV's greatest salaries varying from drama, comedy, late evening and reality, get this week's problem of TV Guide Magazine, on newsstands Thursday, August 11! Sign up for TV Guide Magazine now!

Brit Marling in Robert Redford's 'Company'

RedfordMarlingEXCLUSIVE: Sundance standout Brit Marling is in talks to play the female lead in Robert Redford's political thriller "The Company You Keep."Redford directs and stars as a former militant wanted by the FBI who must go on the run when his true identity is exposed by an ambitious young reporter, to be played by Shia LaBeouf. Nick Nolte also co-stars.Marling had been considering several other projects including Paramount's Tom Cruise-starrer "One Shot" and Steven Soderbergh's stripper pic "Magic Mike," before committing to work with Sundance founder Redford. Marling, who currently stars in Fox Searchlight's "Another Earth" will soon be seen as a cult leader in "Sound of My Voice." She won praise at Sundance for co-writing and starring in both pics.Marling is also attached to topline Zal Batmanglij's thriller "The East."Redford and Bill Holderman are producing "The Company You Keep" through their Wildwood Enterprises banner along with Voltage Pictures' Nicolas Chartier. Craig J. Flores is exec producing the pic, which Lem Dobbs adapted from the novel by Neil Gordon.Marling is repped by CAA. Contact Jeff Sneider at jeff.sneider@variety.com

'Brother' tops Large Four on Thursday

MTV's return of ''Jersey Shore'' figures to become the very best-ranked enter in demos on Thursday, however it would be a bigger-than-usual ''Big Brother'' that paced the tv stations and brought CBS to victory. Based on preliminary national estimations from Nielsen, ''Big Brother'' averaged a couple.7 rating/8 be part of grown ups 18-49 and 7.3 million audiences overall , up a little versus. a week ago and also the top broadcast program from the evening. Also for CBS, ''The Large Bang Theory'' (1.6/6 in 18-49, 6.3 million audiences overall) and ''Rules of Engagement'' (1.4/5 in 18-49, 5.3 million audiences overall) still publish solid amounts and simply top the comedy competition on NBC. And shutting the evening, a repeat of ''The Mentalist'' averaged single.1/3 in 18-49 and 5.9 million audiences overall. CBS brought the evening in 18-49, 25-54 and total audiences. ABC went second using its all-original selection of ''Wipeout'' (2./7 in 18-49, 6.six million audiences overall), ''Expedition Impossible'' (1.4/4 in 18-49, 4.8 million audiences overall) and ''Rookie Blue'' (1.3/4 in 18-49, 4.9 million audiences overall), using the latter holding steady week to week and leading its broadcast rivals in 18-49 regardless of the added cable competition from MTV's ''Jersey Shoreline.'' Fox was lower a tad versus. a week ago with ''So You Believe You Are Able To Dance'' (1.6/6 in 18-49, 5.two million audiences overall) along with a repeat of ''Glee'' (.8/2 in 18-49, 2.9 million audiences overall). NBC battled using its repeats of ''Community'' (.6/2 in 18-49, 2.a million audiences overall), ''Parks and Recreation'' (.7/2 in 18-49, 2. million audiences overall), ''The Office'' (1./3 in 18-49, 2.4 million audiences overall), ''30 Rock'' (.8/2 in 18-49, 2. million audiences overall) and ''Law and Order: SVU'' (1./3 in 18-49, 3.six million audiences overall). Rankings for that 4th-season premiere of ''Jersey Shore'' are required to become launched this mid-day. The show opened up last season having a 4.2 rating in grown ups 18-49 and peaked having a 4.7 a couple of days later. Preliminary 18-49 earnings for that evening: CBS, 1.8/6 ABC, 1.6/5 Univision, 1.3/4 Fox, 1.2/4 NBC, .9/3 CW, .3/1. As a whole audiences: CBS, 6.3 million ABC, 5.5 million Fox, 4. million Univision, 3.two million NBC, 2.six million. Contact Ron Kissell at ron.kissell@variety.com

Attack the Block's John Boyega on Going 'From Hoodie to Hero,' and Taking Hollywood by Storm

Now that his feature film debut as a hoodlum-turned-savior in Attack the Block is finally hitting theaters stateside, 19-year-old John Boyega is savoring his big moment. As Moses, the hardened teen anti-hero of Joe Cornish’s British alien invasion romp, Boyega leads a gang of misfit delinquents into battle against a horde of vicious E.T.s to defend a South London council block. Off-screen, the charismatic up-and-comer has a new territory in his sights: Hollywood. Upon debuting at SXSW, Attack the Block earned its geek-approved buzz the hard way: By earning it, with relatively little marketing from distributor Screen Gems, through a grassroots campaign that won some of the most dedicated fans (“Blockheads”) of any film this year. (Opening over the weekend, Attack the Block earned a $16,250 per-screen average in limited release.) Much of the hook is the genre appeal — part John Carpenter, part Goonies, it flies on its sharp wit and the visceral thrill of letting children fight aliens, plain and simple — but there’s more than meets the eye to Attack the Block. Like Boyega’s performance, for starters. Moses the character is a clever, biting piece of film-as-social commentary in itself; introduced while mugging a young nurse (Jodie Whittaker) at knifepoint, he becomes a hero by circumstance when furry, animal-like aliens begin assaulting South London one fateful night, triggering his juvenile aggression. But circumstance is just as much to blame for Moses’s violent ways to begin with, and under Cornish’s direction, Boyega lets his vulnerable secrets slip, bit by bit, to reveal tragic beginnings. It’s a performance made all the more impressive by Moses’s relatively little dialogue, built primarily on silent glances and sheer screen presence. (Boyega cites The Wire as pre-performance homework.) In real life, however, the ebullient actor couldn’t be farther from his on-screen alter ego, as Movieline learned upon meeting him earlier this summer on the Sony lot to discuss Attack the Block and his future plans for taking Hollywood by storm. You’ve taken this film from its humble beginnings to opening in the U.K. to now doing a press tour in the U.S., and we’re talking to you for a column called The Verge. How do you feel things are going from where you’re sitting? Well, I feel things are looking more clear. Just have to put in the work, you know. There’s a lot of hard work to do. How so? Because it’s the first film, it’s the first role… I’ve grown as an actor, so now it’s time to put it into other stories, to tell other stories in different formats and stuff. All that magickibob. [Laughs] That’s not a slang, I just made that up. Put that out there, I just want to influence America a little. Will do. We’ll get that trending. Thank you. Yes! What’s your background as an actor and what were your goals when you initially signed on for Attack the Block? I’ve been acting since I was 5 years old, from primary school to secondary school, did training at drama school which was the big thing for me because they trained me, put me out into the industry. That was my first… I wouldn’t call it a big break, but a break. But what was I expecting, what were my goals? To be good, you know. When you start as a kid your goals may not be as fully formed as they are later in life… Yeah, when you start off as a kid you don’t really see it, but when I was maybe 9, 10 I watched films and went, ‘Oh yeah, they get paid for that! That’s an actual job, it’s not just a hobby — I want to do this.’ And I found myself in Sony in L.A., for some reason. I’ve been following you on Twitter… Nice! You seem to be having the time of your life here, visiting L.A. Well, you know… it’s been great. I’ve been here for two weeks now. Tell me about your Hollywood experience so far. Highlights? Oh! Well, we’ve had a little bit of highlights, you know… we’ve seen some people, some weird people. McDonald’s is a big highlight for me. What? You have McDonald’s in London. Yeah, but you do things differently. Seriously. I mean, I asked for a burger and they give me a tank. It’s like, ‘Wow, you guys eat!’ I really respect that. We don’t have the little thing where you can refill your drinks. We don’t have that! So yeah, it’s been fun. Seeing the history, seeing the Hollywood sign. I’ve been on Sunset. I went to the Griddle Caf. Oh, man. I had an Oreo pancake. It was heavenly. I don’t want to go back now, just because of that pancake. Speaking of things I learned from following you on Twitter, I know that you are a huge movie nerd. Yes. I know my movies. I love my movies. I’m an actor, what the hell would I be doing otherwise? [Laughs] It’s like being a doctor and not knowing what the flip you’re doing in there. Are you up on the latest blockbusters? Well, I’ve seen Super 8, I’ve seen Green Lantern. I’m looking forward to seeing Transformers. I’m a Michael Bay fanatic. Ah! The few, the proud. Yeah! People say that! You guys, go away. Michael Bay’s beautiful, that’s what he is. He’s a great guy. I love him. So, Attack the Block. How many times have you seen it with an audience now? Over eight times. That’s what makes it really special. Back home I went to different cinemas and I’ve seen it here. What’s the reception been like back home — do people recognize you now on the street? Well, yeah. Little by little. But I’m a quiet guy, I just do my thing. It’s not like, “Oh my God, it’s you!” People recognize you, they say hi, you say hi back, and it’s appreciation for people thinking you were good in it. What were your initial thoughts when you first heard about the project, and what did you do in your audition to nail it? I first heard about the project through my agent, and they told me it was about aliens coming to a South London council estate, and attacking this block, and I thought it was incredibly stupid. Then, I got the script, and I just fell in love with it straight away. For me, that cinematic element just 15 minutes away from where I live, it’s crazy — having orchestral music, having Basement Jaxx on the soundtrack giving it that kind of, you know, we can represent in Hollywood too! We can do a feature film like that! How aware were you of how all the elements — the look and feel and sound of the film — would come together? If there’s one thing about Joe [Cornish], he knew where he was going with it. He even gave us a DVD package with Warriors, The Goonies, giving us the vibe. Attack the Block is a love letter to all these films like that. I thank you letter for coming on Channel 5 and getting us kids escapism from the cruel, cruel world. [Laughs] Take me into the psyche of Moses, because one of the tremendous things about him and your performance is how much is conveyed emotionally, and with such complexity, through so little dialogue. Well, Moses is a strong and silent character and you meet him at a point where he’s trying to make two decisions, whether to go on the right path or the wrong path. Obviously all that is disturbed by this alien invasion that so happens to come to South London, and with that, that brings out the good in himself. But it’s about him trying to find that, trying to find what he lost due to circumstances due to no fault of his own — you see his room, you see the way he’s living. You watch it at first and think, “This is a terrible kid.” Then you see that he hasn’t got family. The boys are his family. He’s got no money. And it’s like, wow. Do you know what I mean? He’s just a kid. For me it’s about trying to externally give out, “Oh, I’m hard,’ but in the interior you’ve just got a little boy who’s just trying to make ends meet. It seems challenging to accomplish that, again, with such little dialogue — and we glimpse shades of his true self along the way. When we see him among actual gangsters there’s a vulnerability to him, for example. Exactly - which are decisions I made to show the audience. Because you get those urban roles, you get those hood roles, and you only get the forefront. You only get, “I’m hard,” and that’s about it. But back to these roles, I wanted to give you guys kind of a kid, a human being who’s able to cry, who’s able to laugh, who’s able to feel sad. Just trying to give you that, breaking him down from hoodie to hero. You have a moment where something tragic happens and you turn toward the camera with this tear streaming down your face, which I found quite moving. That was actually quite petty, man. We were crying on set, all of us — even little Alex [Esmail] — because Joe likes to make everything real and we were preparing for the scene. Joe was like, “[Character name redacted] is dead, on the floor.” And I was just like, I wasn’t going to cry, man. Then the tears just started going and I had to turn around and do the kind of scared shot. I was breathing hard, when I was filming I thought, “This is going to look so stupid,” I thought I needed to turn around and do a little [affects bold hero voice] “Oh yeah, what’s out there?” kind of thing. But they used that shot, which was interesting. For me, it showed a lot. Putting myself out of it and watching it solely as an audience member, it showed a lot about Moses and his journey, and that’s the first time you think, “Aw, he’s just a kid. A kid in bad circumstances.” Moses also has so much invested in this group of kids, as their leader. Yeah, those are his boys, those are his family because he has no one. Speaking of that group, how much did you and your cast mates know about “hoodie” culture, so to speak? I’ve lived in South London all my life, but obviously there’s a difference between living there and being a part of there. It’s just something you see every day, if you get to a certain area, you live in a certain area, you’re going to be exposed to certain things. You know, urban culture is fun, it’s lovely. You have fun elements to it, you have dark elements, you have light elements… so you kind of know that, right, because you’re there. So you get that and just bring that to the film through your performance. You mentioned the Warriors as a reference Joe gave to you, but there’s also a distinct Goonies vibe. Oh, yeah. I felt that on set. How do you go about capturing that spirit? No no, that’s down to Tom Townend , our cinematographer. Warriors was shot at night, and me watching that gave this a certain flavor, a certain kind of light in the darkness kind of flavor. Kind of fun, filled with these sequences, they weren’t all stilted shots, they were still and focused, which for me reminded me of The Warriors. With the Goonies, it’s just a thing of normal kids in abnormal circumstances. Even the banter, the kind of fun, the jokes, getting scared and saying things like, “This is too much madness to explain in one text!” Saying the silliest things… that reminded me of The Goonies. The aliens in Attack the Block are unusual in that they were physical, practical presences on set, and so different in design than most aliens we see these days. What were they like to work with? What did you even have to work with? We had Terry Notary in a suit, on all fours. This guy is amazing. He was in Avatar, he was an ape in Planet of the Apes, great guy. He brought a Hollywood energy to the set. He was like, “Let’s get this shot, John!” He was really like, “I’m going to bite your ass off before you even start a scene!” Or making the sounds and stuff. And I was there like, “‘Hey Joe, this guy’s taking it a bit too seriously…” [Laughs] But he was fun to work with. What would you like to happen, career-wise, from this point on? What I would like to happen? To carry on telling you guys stories, in the form of cinema. Eventually I’ll be here, up in the hills looking over your city, seeing where I’ll attack next. Make the arrangements. I’ll be here soon. Do you have projects already lined up to do next? Not in this country, but there are plans being made. I’ve read a couple of scripts, you guys are bringing out some really good stories in the future that I’m willing to be a part of. So when the yes comes from me, I’ll let you guys know. [Laughs] Attack the Block is in limited release.