by Joseph McCabe

As one of the finest horror filmmakers working today, Neil Marshall's a guy who really needs no introduction. The director of Dog Soldiers and The Descent, Marshall has, in recent years, done the almost impossible--elevate the public's perception of the horror film as something more than a collection of cheap thrills, while still making kick-ass entertainment. In Marshall's latest, Doomsday, he tries once more for the unattainable--rediscover the sense of wonder and excitement of such classic action films as Escape from New York and The Road Warrior, while telling a chilling, cautionary science-fiction tale about an England besieged by a viral infection in the not-too-distant future. We spoke with Marshall this week about how Doomsday came to be, a possible sequel, what may be on the film's DVD, and his involvment in The Descent 2!

Your previous two films were more overtly within the horror genre. Why the move from horror to action-adventure?

It?s just something else that I wanted to try. I don?t want to repeat myself. I?d done two horror films back to back. The one thing that kind of links all my movies is action. Those are the kinds of films I like to watch. Those are the kinds of films I like to make?action stuff. So I definitely wanted to keep that element. But Doomsday is a story that I came up with five years ago, and had been knocking around, had a treatment, and off the back of Descent, I had an opportunity to pitch it to someone who said, ?Great, let?s do that!? And who was also a huge fan of the films that inspired it, which are the Mad Max?s and Escape from New York. Since we were both on the same wavelength, they kind of jumped aboard. It was great. It was an opportunity to make a film that would be much bigger, and a different kind of thing to what I?d done previously. So I jumped at the chance.

You mentioned Mad Max, which is interesting?because it seems this film could do for Scotland what Mad Max did for Australia.

[Laughs.] Possibly. The one thing that nobody?s called it yet, which I think is on my MySpace page, is ?Mad Macs.? I?m waiting for that to happen. [Laughs.] But who knows? It could do the same thing for Scotland?portray it as a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

In addition to being an action film, do you consider Doomsday to be a political allegory?

From my point of view, I just wanted to set out to tell a great story. And I guess allegories are inherent once you start looking at a movie. But I don?t like to apply them to the film. So as far as I?m concerned, I?m making an action-adventure movie, and I don?t want to tell people how to think about it.

In casting this, you?ve gathered quite an eclectic mix of performers, coming from your past projects, as well as other films from within this genre.

Oh yeah. I mean it?s an all-British cast. For a film like this, that?s quite unusual. But when you see who it is, with Malcolm McDowell and Bob Hoskins and Rhona Mitra, it seems quite eclectic, and a real mixed bag. And throwing into that, we?ve got Adrian Lester and Alexander Siddig and David O?Hara and so many other great names. And then a bunch of guys from Dog Soldiers and a couple of the girls from Descent, because they?re all friends of mine, and I?ve always wanted to build up a kind of rep group with my friends and great actors, again and again and again. But only if each time that we do it is a challenge. If it?s something different. None of us have any interest in repeating ourselves. So working with these guys again was great, to give them something new, give the girls from Descent, who had smaller parts, a bigger part in this. And the guys from Dog Soldiers, who maybe had smaller parts in that, give them bigger parts in this as well. I had a lot of fun with that, and there was a really strong esprit de cour. The cast in this movie, everybody got along so well, and they just had a blast doing it.

Since you?re creating an entire world here, do you see the potential for a trilogy of films, again like that of Mad Max, of at least a sequel?

Well, I certainly think that there?s more of this world to explore. Certainly. With this future world, there?s definitely more to be done. Well see how it goes I suppose. [Laughs.]

Speaking of sequels, can you comment on the extent of your involvement with The Descent 2?

I don?t have any real involvement with that at all. I?m looking on from afar. But I know that they?re going ahead with it, and I know that it?s in safe hands. It?s the same producer, and he was a great guide for me when I was making it. And the editor of Descent is directing it, and I can?t think of anybody better for the job. So, yeah, I?m just kind of sitting back and letting it happen, and once again in the production I?ll probably go and hang over their shoulders a bit, and see what they?re doing. But I don?t really want to hassle them at this stage. They want to get on with it, and that?s fine.

So you?ll just be executive producing?

Yeah.

Getting back to Doomsday, since it?s such an ambitious project, with so much work having gone into it, can you talk about what might not have fit into the theatrical cut?that could find its way onto the DVD?

There aren?t any huge chunks. The first cut that I screened for the producers was, like, two-and-a-half hours long. And even I knew that that was too long, so we have whittled it down quite a bit since then. But I am gonna be doing an extended cut for the DVD, just to put back some of the finer?a couple of little extra fight scenes, and some character beats. Things like that, which I think will just put a bit of breathing room into it. Because it moves so fast?it?s such a furious movie. And I?d just like to have the opportunity to do a more?better paced version, I guess.

So there were no subplots cut?

No, I didn?t cut out any subplots, or things like that. No.

Can you comment on what?s next for you? On what other projects lie ahead?

Um, I?m working on various things, but nothing?s set in stone yet. So I don?t really know what I?m gonna be doing. I mean I?ve been developing various projects over the past couple of years. I?d certainly like to do those, but whether they?re going to be next, I don?t know.

You mentioned how you?ll take on the role of executive producer on Descent 2. Do you see yourself producing other projects, or predominantly focusing on directing?

I?m looking at other projects for other directors, things like that?with the potential of maybe producing. I?ve never done anything like that before, so I?m not quite sure how it all works. I?m just kind of dipping my toes in the waters of that at the moment. So we?ll see it how goes. But I need to concentrate on my directing career as well.

Doomsday is, again, a very ambitious project. What was the biggest challenge you faced in making it?

There were so many. Every day was a challenge in itself. I mean the biggest challenge was maybe the car chase at the end of the movie. There?s this huge and elaborate car chase going on, and we needed three weeks to film it. So yeah, that was a huge logistical challenge, because there was a major stunt sequence or explosion, something like that, every single day. And dealing with that whilst going ninety miles per hour is?it ups the stakes a bit. And also people risking their lives. So it was pretty interesting.

As a fan of the genre, you?re certainly aware of how audiences will compare this film?s climactic car chase with those they've seen in other genre films, such as the Mad Max series. How did you make your chase scene unique?

For me personally, I?m such a huge fan of those films that when there were rumors there was going to be a Mad Max 4, I couldn?t wait for that. And then it got knocked on its head. It was like, ?Well, but I still want to see that stuff, and if no one else is going to make it, then I?ll have to make it myself.? [Laughs.] So I was kind of bringing that to it, but at the same time I had no intention of just doing a duplicate of what I?d seen before. So we kind of bring elements of those car chases, but then give it a completely new twist. And when you see what happens in this car chase, it?s unlike anything from Mad Max. It just happens to have very similar vehicles in it.

Did you find that the Scottish landscape contributed a great deal to that, since it?s so different from the Australian desert?

Yeah. It was quirky use of British cars, rather than? It was always American cars that you saw in those movies. So I wanted to take quintessential British cars, like a transit van, or a black cab, and turn them into kind of V-8-powered monsters!

In real life, what?s your greatest fear?

I?m not very good with heights. I have this kind of fear of falling out of airplanes. No, I?m not very good with heights. And spiders?I?m not particularly good with spiders. That?s another personal fear of mine.

In some ways those fears are reflected in The Descent.

Yeah, very much so. Yeah. [Laughs.]

Thank you very much for your time, Neil.

My pleasure!