Hey U Guys

At HeyUGuys we love low budget gangster films almost as much as we love low budget horror films. You can imagine then, how excited we were to hear about forthcoming Brit-flick Dead Cert. Described by the films producer, Jonathon Sothcott as “Layer Cake meets From Dusk Till Dawn”, it tells the story of a group of London gangsters, who go up against a group of Romanian vampires.

HeyUGuys sat down with the film’s director, Steve Lawson to find out more.

Lawson began by talking about where the idea came from:

“An actor called Andy Tiernan, [and screenwriter] Garry Charles sent us through a script. We looked at the script, and I came up with a totally different idea. [Their ] script was about daemons and so on, and son on.

“We decided to go ahead with it, and we turned the script over pretty quick. We got our first draft out in two or three days. It needs a bit more work done on it, which is what we’re doing at the moment.

“We’ve got a bit of time on our hands, we’ve still got a month before we go into pre-production, so that’s what we’re working on at the moment.”

“The concept obviously shares some similarities, not only with From Dusk Till Dawn, but with the nightclub scene in the first Blade film. HeyUGuys mentioned this, and Lawson set us straight:

“It’s not an extended version of that, because it opens up and you wouldn’t even know it’s anything to do with vampires. For the first seventy pages of the script it’s based on a battle between two rival gangs, and it all comes down to a wager on a boxing match between the British gangsters’ fighter, and the Romanian gangsters’. They lose the club and they decide to take it back.”

He then went on to talk about another film with similarities to Dead Cert:

“One of my favourite films was From Dusk Till Dawn, and we’ve never seen a British version. It’s not a version really, but it’s got the same ingredients: a couple of gangsters versus vampires. What we’ve tried to do with ours is to base them as much as we can on real experiences and real people we’ve met in the past. What would happen if you put these people up against vampires?”

One of the things Lawson focused on during the conversation was that, as much as possible he wanted viewers to feel like it was in a real world.

“We’re going to see what would happen if you put the alpha male in against vampires. When you get these people, that we’ve met in the past… people like I grew up with, it was just this idea of ‘what would it be like if you stuck them in a room [with a vampire]’.

“Even worse than that, what would happen if they lost? If you’ve got one of these alpha male type figures, they’d have a go against the vampires, and if they got turned, what would you have? We tried to keep it as real as you can with a vampire film. The law we’re using with the vampires is very Bram Stokers, they can walk out in the day and they’ve not got their powers, they need property and so on.”

That realism was even more important for the team when it came to representing the gangsters:

“[Freddy Frankham, the protagonist] runs part of Shoreditch, and that’s what he looses. [He’s] the leader of the English gangsters, well he’s not really a leader, that’s the great thing we’ve done. When you see films nowadays there’s a leader, and it’s ‘boss this’ and ‘boss that’. What we’ve tried to do, is that you’ve got many faces in London who run certain crews, and they all come together to do a deal. That’s how it all goes. They’re all equal.”

Dead Cert is Lawson’s second film (His first, Just For The Record was shot earlier this year). Like many sophomore filmmakers, Lawson has brought is working with a number of the actors from his debut.

“It was a big thing for me to use as much of the cast from Just For The Record as I can, because it was a great cast. It also shows what I can do with actors, because Just For The Record was the first thing I directed, rather than any shorts, or any music videos, so I can show what I can do with actors in comedy, horror, etc.

“The people coming over are Phil Davis, who I think is one of the best British actors there is. We’ve got Craig Fairbrass involved, Ciaran Griffiths from Shameless. We’re also going to be using Danny Midwinter in a slightly bigger role than in Just For The Record. Roland Manookian is coiming over. We’re also going to try to throw in a few new people. Andy Tiernan, who was in 300 is confirmed, and we’re also going after a few other British Actors. If we can combine it right, and get the right blend, you’re going to see a bloody good film.”

As the conversation came to an end Lawson made a point that aspiring filmmakers should take to heart.

“You’d be surprised what you can do British films on. So much wastage goes into the productions. It’s not hard to do a film on £250,000 if you can get the right script, the right team behind you.”

Dead Cert goes into production in October. Just For The Record, which features Steven Berkoff, Sean Pertwee and Colin Salmon, is due for release in February. You can read our on-set interview with Lawson here.