Page 16 - Fujifilm Exposure_15 Melinda Messenger_ok

What The Hex Fun and fantasy in the make-believe world of Mumbo Jumbo
O ne dictionary defines it as “foolish religious or super-
stitious reverence.” Another intriguingly suggests “an object of senseless venera- tion.” But according to Stephen Cookson, co-
writer/director of a new British fantasy comedy, Mumbo Jumbo is “a mytho- logical sprite from the sixth century summoned to free the land from the tyranny of an evil businessman.”
For Cookson’s tale, fuelled by the music of Andre Jacquemin, Dave Howman and AC/DC, a young American drifter called Thomas (Jamie Walters from Beverly Hills 90210) is required to assume sprite-like powers to save the cursed community.
In Sinmouth, the villainous Mr Bounder (Brian Blessed) now rules. He’s kidnapped many of the locals, ruined the town and even imprisoned the fragrant Princess Vanilla (Melinda Messenger). His even fouler plan is next to build a financial empire on organic, high-yield fertiliser made from the remains of the hapless inhabitants.
Can Thomas, a total loser in life and love up till now, save the day – and get the girl? Shamelessly borrow- ing from Gulliver’s Travels, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz and probably Roald Dahl too, the end result of this dark-edged quest is never really in doubt.
Getting Cookson’s film finally up and running was, on the other hand, altogether more halting and long-
drawn out. According to one of the line producers, Margarita Doyle – daughter of Monty Python editor Julian Doyle, who also edited Mumbo Jumbo – there were at least a couple of false starts before an eventual green light.
In fact it was, rather appropriate- ly, the night before last Christmas Eve when, finally, long-supportive German executive producer Margit Bimler flew over to England and excitedly told the film-makers: “I think I’ve got your Christmas present. We have the money, but... the film’s got to be up and ready to start shooting on February 14 [yes, Valentine’s Day]”
Cookson, 29, whose background has been in shorts, commercials, script-writing and acting (as a one- time member of the National Youth Theatre) freely admits that his original inspiration for Mumbo Jumbo was, of all things, Dad’s Army.
“I loved Dad’s Army and my idea was to do a kind of ‘fish out of water’ thing with this teenager thrown into a Dad’s Army-like town, then make it a fantasy.
“ I wrote it with Richard Mathews and took it round all the usual sus- pects in the UK but no-one was remotely interested in fantasy. They wanted another Trainspotting, something more realistic. I wanted to do something totally original.”
Meeting Margit from Munich hap- pily ignited the project and the end result – now being screened for poten- tial buyers just under three years after
Cookson first hatched his idea - is a $4m, entirely German-financed, co-production between Firelight Entertainment and Apollo Media.
Having a couple of serious blips along the way – when, first, Isle of Man then some German finance fell through – had its compensations, smiled Cookson, “because we luckily ended up with this cast.” Alongside Blessed are such familiar faces as
Joss Ackland, Brian Murphy, Nigel Davenport, Richard O’Brien, John Inman and Sylvester McCoy.
In what proved to be a key re- write for investors, Cookson decided to make the role of the lovely Princess much stronger: “In earlier drafts, she was only seen at the end of the film. Now she appears all the way through.”
However he couldn’t stop nature taking its course and by the time shoot- ing eventually started, his Vanilla - played by the former Page 3 girl turned popular TV presenter – was eight months pregnant with her first child.
Judicious filming and some crafty amendments to costume design ensured that the show went on with Mel M the ever-smiling super trouper.
Using an entirely British cast and crew, apart from a pair of producers, Mumbo Jumbo did, however, utilise a couple of Teutonic treats – a suitably fairytale-like castle found on the island of Rugen off the northernmost tip of Germany and a Truman Show-style ‘American’ town nearby. The rest of the film was re-created in various
English locations including a partially-disused mental hospital out- side Epsom. In one particularly cav- ernous hall they’d built the Hellhole set where in a frenzied climactic dance number – Jacquemin and Howman’s Griller, choreographed by Stuart Arnold - Sinmouth’s Youth return to life after having been earlier reduced to bagged fertiliser by the evil Bounder.
Behind the camera on a crane which swooped up and then forward into the eyeline of these now ecstatic kids just freed from a terrible curse was DP, Nina Kellgren BSC, on a film that couldn’t have been further removed from the rather rigid period flavour of her 1999 Oscar-nominated Welsh- Yiddish drama, Solomon & Gaenor.
Kellgren, who is currently on the latest of her by now regular South Bank Show assignments this time charting the life and times of Turner Prize-winning Rachel Whiteread, clearly relished the challenge posed by a tight schedule and an even tighter budget.
On Mumbo Jumbo, she worked particularly closely on the colour scheme with costume designer Ann Maskrey (Star Wars: Episode One,
The Phantom Menace, The Borrowers, The Fifth Element).
“The film has got a kind of surrealism to it that might,” smiled Kellgren, “just work.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
Mumbo Jumbo was originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
Photos above from left: Mumbo Jumbo Director Stephen Cookson, Melinda Messenger and Costume Designer Ann Maskrey and scenes from Mumbo Jumbo opposite page main: Brian Blessed; top right:DP Nina Kellgren BSC; bottom right: Jamie Walters in Mumbo Jumbo
EXPOSURE • 14 & 15
cover story