Page 28 - Fujifilm Exposure_20 Bend It Like Beckham_ok

One of cinema’s more unlikely young heroes, Patrick Smash could become a role model for children everywhere. Smash is a much put- upon child, the not-so- proud possessor of a remarkable gift in Thunderpants, a flatulent fable with a heart of gold.
Rejected by almost everybody because of his gale force sphincter, he is recruited by an American space agency to help in a mission to save some stranded astronauts, something he achieves with the help of his brainy best friend Alan A. Allen.
Directed by Pete Hewitt and shot by Andy Collins, the film occupies the same kind of carefully crafted never- land that Hewitt created in a previous hit, The Borrowers.
The setting bears passing resem- blance to the world as we know it but also has a timeless appeal and a kind of Beano sensibility. And then there’s the story which tells of a boy whose windpower can launch rockets.
“The story evolved from these con- versations I had when I was working on a live action Thunderbirds movie,” Hewitt recalls. “The producer David Barron and I would pitch each other these ideas for the most absurd films never thinking for a moment that I would end up directing a fart movie.
“When I came up with the story it made us laugh enough to come up with a first draft. Then I did Whatever Happened To Harold Smith? and I sug- gested to the producers that we should do Thunderpants next but really quickly - like a dogme fart movie. From that, it grew over the course of the next year.”
Any thoughts that Gerry Anderson’s most popular creation might have been the unexpected progenitor of Patrick Smash’s windy adventures is quickly dismissed by Hewitt who was also con- scious of keeping his film in the realms of the Beano and not Viz.
“It isn’t called Thunderpants in any way because of Thunderbirds; the origi- nal title was The Boy Who Dealt It which I really liked.
“And, of course, good taste was a primary concern, and I think we han-
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EXPOSURE • 26 & 27