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Four filmmakers speak at BAFTA about their major new projects
GIVING THE ACADEMY
GIVING THE ACADEMY
DAVID LELAND & RICHARD LONCRAINE
It has been a good year for Hertfordshire: Harry Potter and Band of Brothers in production at the same time only a few miles apart, each feeding dollars into the local economy at a breath- taking rate, and receiving in return a critical mass of some
of the finest screen and technical talent in the world.
Warner Brothers’ contribution –
£100million for the first Potter. Number two, The Chamber Of Secrets is now shoot- ing at Leavesden.
And it is not every year that Steven Spielberg spends the lion’s share of £85mil- lion in a small county North of London.
Indeed, even with the maestro’s deep pockets, that is a huge commit- ment for a BBC 2 television pro- gramme. But Band of Brothers is spe- cial. You can feel the quality. These are perfectionists at work.
One of them is British director David Leland (The Land Girls, Wish You Were Here). He was in charge of episode six when Easy Company, a unit of US paratroopers from the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division is surrounded in an Ardennes forest by German troops. They are cut off, hungry and struggling against a bit- terly cold winter.
“We shot it on the back lot in Hertfordshire.” explains Leland. “The set is a work of genius. We built the for- est in an old aircraft hanger with 4000 trees cut from Hatfield House as part of their culling process. I had five kinds of snow and fog when I wanted it. Total environmental control. Joss Williams, who did the special effects, is a master- craftsman. He said to me: ‘David, you want half a dozen trees to blow up at
five second intervals, you shall have half a dozen trees. Snow as far as the eye can see? No problem!”
Leland was grateful. “I have never been able to paint on a canvas like this one. Able to have things. I’m used to the great British budget compromise.”
Leland, who has read copiously about the war, spent many hours talk- ing to Easy Company survivors: “Spielberg was keenly aware that a whole generation of people – the
me. Then I went to Normandy and stood on the ground. I talked to widows and men who had sur- vived. I realised these were sto- ries about people who went through hell. I have five kids, the oldest is 19 and I thought, ‘This is just as relevant today.’
“Brothers made me appreci- ate as never before that warfare has to be taken very very serious- ly before we get into it. We have to be so sure of our ground.”
One week after the pro- gramme’s pre-transmission screening at BAFTA, two planes smashed into the highest sky- scrapers in New York and President George Bush declared:
“We are at war.”
It will be a very different war from
the one Loncraine and Leland helped to bring so chillingly to the screen.
Leland explained: “We needed to capture the juxtaposition between un- natural calm and chaotic obscenity. The fear and filth of close-up warfare: the exhilaration when the lull comes and you’re still alive.
“I think we achieved this and along the way, we proved that British talent is unbeatable. There were an enormous number of British actors in Band totally exploding the myth that there are only a few who ‘can do American.’
“No excuse for saying we haven’t got technical, directing, writing acting talent. It is all here. Damian Lewis, the leading character is an Englishman. His performance is as good as you get.”
With a smile he added: “And excel- lent carpenters and plumbers. Sixty carpenters on my episode: all those bloody carpenters and I can’t get one to come and fix my bathroom floor!”
In the meantime, Leland is being coy about a new project he is devel- oping with Spielberg producer Tony To. And Loncraine is now well into his next film, A Lonely War – another BBC/HBO collaboration – with BAFTA Fellow Albert Finney as Churchill. ■ John Morrell
Private Ryan
generation –
who had pre-
dominantly
remained
silent about
their experi-
ences were
prepared to
talk, first to
historians and
subsequently
film makers.
Every story in Band of Brothers is taken from the aural history of these men. That is its strength.”
A devoted seven million viewers a week across BBC 2 and BBC 1 agreed.
Leland expanded. “Late in life, men in their 70’s and 80’s suddenly began to talk as though 1944 was yesterday. Band of Brothers is a faithful representation of the nature of these men. Who are they, what are they? How they discovered things within themselves they had no idea existed.
director chosen for the series by Hanks and Spielberg, Spielberg said: “David Leland did a great job. The Ardennes Forest scenes were beautiful. Richard Loncraine shot the second hour for us,
all the night-drop scenes, the parachuting into Normandy. It was amazing work. I was envious.”
Loncraine (Richard III, Wide Eyed & Legless) con- fessed that until the Spielberg call, he had no intention of making a war movie. “The subject didn’t really interest
“We don’t need to make gung-ho war films any more. I felt we needed to make films showing the reality of it – get away from the whole mythologising process. Show the mess and chaos that war leaves in its wake.”
Paying tribute to Leland and Richard Loncraine, the other British
Photos from top: Richard Loncraine; David Leland (right) on the set of Band Of Brothers with DP Remi Adefarasin; Shane Taylor and Lucie Jeanne in Band of Brothers
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