Dreamland
Director Bruce McDonald makes kindling stone movie . From the grindhouse horror ofPontypoolto the rock and roll mockumentaryHard Core Logo , McDonald ’s motion-picture show play by their own rules and do n’t necessarily adhere to traditional cinematic logic . Case in point : his former film , Dreamland . Ostensibly set within theheroin - fuel hazeof a Chet Baker - esque jazz musician , Dreamlandoperates on its own principles and does n’t much care if the average viewer ca n’t keep up .
Stephen McHattie stars as two characters , both of whom are based on legendary musician Chet Baker , a man with multiple facets to his character . Baker was a sensitive and melodious jazz participant who carried himself like a furrowed and dangerous leather - clad outlaw , and the characters embody either side of his dichotomy . McHattie plays Johnny , a hit man working for a gangster ( Henry Rollins ) who is forced to go varlet when he ’s require to cross a line he ca n’t bring himself to cross . He also fiddle a drugged - out jazz musician who is asked to play at the wedding of a vampire and his child St. Bridget .
Related : Stephen McHattie Interview – Dreamland
While promoting the release ofDreamland , Bruce McDonald spoke to Screen Rant about his piece of work on the film , from his esoteric sensibilities to pinning the responsibility of the film on the shoulder of its pass actor , Stephen McHattie . He discusses his own enthrallment with Chet Baker , crafting a film that runs on the same psychological pipe dream logical system of1960s art cinema , and shares his own ambition to one solar day develop , in his words , " a squawk - American Samoa stone and roll Western . "
Dreamlandis out now on Digital and Video on Demand .
How ’s it going ? What is quarantine like in Canada ? How are things going down up there ?
Well , I ’m sit on my sunny ceiling right now . So it ’s somewhat great . People are take by . It seems alright . We ’re blessed with our wellness , there ’s no riots in the street yet , so it ’s all good . ( NOTE : this consultation was put down on May 20 , before the execution of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer , and this quote has nothing to do with the protests that emerged in the wake of his death )
Would that it were the case here !
Where are you ?
I ’m in Far Rockaway , New York City . For the most part , it ’s one of the better - managed places , even though our COVID type are through the roof , but other parts of the country are get a minuscule restless .
Yeah . We ’re not going back to schoolhouse this year . It ’s skillful to have the prissy weather here . Everybody ’s wearing mask while they ’re biking . I do n’t recognize , it ’s a weird metre .
Weird times are perfect for a weird moving picture ! Segue !
Weird movie for a weird time , that ’s good timing .
Dreamlandis such a punk stone movie . It does n’t feel the need to explain itself . If you may keep up , amazing . If you ca n’t , just go up back on when you ’re ready . It does n’t arrest your heavily .
You go for the ride and do n’t ask too many questions , hopefully you ’ll enjoy the drive , you recognize ?
Can you talk about your approach to making a quotation - unquote , " genre film ? "
I think , like anybody , I love repugnance and sci - fi and crime flick and material like that , it ’s sort of the bread and butter of what we learn . I have a go at it that . One of the inspirations was Raymond Chandler . I was learn a lot of Raymond Chandler to fix for this . It was really fun to read his stuff . It ’s all atmosphere and movement and big character . That was an inspiration . Steve McHattie is one of the bang-up character actors . He lives in that world . He kind of embodies that hard - bitten tough guy fellow . He fit well into that domain , and we wrapped it around him .
He ’s one of my preferent worker , and it ’s awesome to see him in a top role . Well , two leading roles !
He told me , " Bruce , I do n’t know anybody else except you who would cast me in a leading role ! " He works all the sentence , and he does all kinds of different thing . I ’ve worked with him many times and always enjoyed it , and it was a real kickshaw to kind of do a little seamster - made job for Steve .
Was XIII the first clock time you work with Stephen ?
No , in XIII he played the president , ripe ? That was pretty big . No , the very first meter was sort of a kids ' show , predict Emily of New Moon . He wager Cousin Jimmy , who was kind of a retarded farmhand , but he brought a dignity and grace and intelligence information to the function . It was really something to see . This was years ago , but we became acquaintance . We ’d go out drinking . I ’ve always been a fan of the stuff I ’d seen him in . We did a idiot box miniseries call in Killer Wave , he was in that . We did this live telecasting show , once , called American Whiskey Bar . Pontypool , we worked together on that . And some other things . He ’s one of those … Initially , he ’s sort of scary , but like a lot of scary guys , he ’s sort of a truelove ! ( Laughs )
He ’s got the everlasting aspect for this movie . Every line tells a story , right ?
I love ! ( Laughs ) Yeah . It ’s not a usual affair , where you’re able to write something for somebody , because often , if you do that , they might not do it , or the producer wo n’t require them , or something like that . So I feel lucky that we were able to do it . Steve was our inspiration from the origin . He was part of the scripting process . He would jump in every once in a while and give his two cents . It was really fun to mould that means .
So it was indite with him in mind , then .
Oh yeah . He had done this short film we saw after we shot Pontypool , which was our crazy virus movie . Tony , the author of Dreamland , wrote that . But Steve was in a short film bid The Deaths of Chet Baker . It was a myopic photographic film by a guy named Robert Boudreau , and he represent Chet Baker , and the film tries to imagine , how did Chet Baker actually die ? Did he fall from the hotel elbow room ? Did he fall ? Did he nod off on diacetylmorphine ? I was light upon with what a beautiful Chet Baker he made . We kind of started there , and then render to imagine , " What would a movie inside a heroin - addicted trumpet player ’s nous be ? " And we came up with this .
Is he a Brobdingnagian Chet Baker sports fan ? Because I know he played his dad inBorn to Be Blue .
Yeah , it ’s from the same director , Robert Boudreau .
Oh , I see .
I ’ve been adjudicate to get the unretentive film to play with our celluloid , because I thought it would be a decent companion composition . I mean , Steve is a music lover , he ’s a music fan . I do n’t know if he ’s specifically a Chet Baker fan , but you know … Like a heap of hoi polloi , he ’s intimate with him and admires him . Yeah , he turn over in and did a lot of research about Chet , watched him , and channeled him nicely .
I think thing are a bit looser in the Canadian film industriousness than in Hollywood . You ’re not needfully spending $ 200 million on every movie , so there are n’t an US Army of producer and lawyers cracking down on every decision you test to make , right ?
Totally . The more money you have , the more commission you have . And the more committee you have … matter even out . You do n’t get the blossom and the dynamic range of a function of a toughie rock and roll thing . There ’s a very punk rock attitude of , " score it and go . " Our budget was not a lot . It was enough to project and to do thing , but that ’s the glory of independent films . They get to work outside the gates of Hollywood and play in some place that a self-aggrandizing big show would not or could not play in , because of attorney or concern , or the idea of attempt to do things " the correct fashion . " Dreamland is a pic that sort of would never get made with those people . They would go , " Why is it two guys ? Why is there a vampire ? Why ? " And it ’s because it ’s a dream .
It ’s the right way there in the championship !
Yeah ! I mean , that give everybody permit to keep the doorway to the unconscious open , to let it out . It ’s still legitimate , but you do n’t oppugn it too much . restriction can be freedom . That ’s what ’s great about punk rock . Punk rock was people who ca n’t really act , sort of . They were n’t virtuosos , they were n’t especially good looking . But they did n’t wait for permit . They just sort of did it . They did it without a stack of production , they did it without a lot of wraparound . I ’ve always been passing inspired by punk rock for that attitude . That " just go for it " mental attitude , that ism , that fearlessness . So when you do have those parameters , there are downside , because you could only get so much time , and you ’re only given so much money . We need to get some Alice Cooper songs for the movie , but we could n’t really afford it . You know , clobber like that . But when you know what the sandbox is , when you know what your limitations are , you could have a circle of fun within that .
With that in head , would you be opened to moving to L.A. and doing a Hollywood moving picture ? Like , if they call you and are like , " Hey , do this tops hero moving picture , " orStar warfare , or whatever ?
Oh yeah , sure ! Give me $ 100 million and I ’ll go to town ! I wo n’t hesitate for a second . I ’ve always wanted to make a kick - fanny rock-and-roll and roll Western , and that ’s expensive because it ’s horse and it ’s townsfolk and wardrobe and guns and all that . That ’s gon na cost something . I call up , to go to Hollywood , you have to be invited . It ’s one of those thing where it ’s best to be ask in . If they desire to open up the war breast , I have no problem spend time and money on something .
A rock and cast Western ? We ’ve got to getZachariahto become a big hit on cable television service . That ’s one of my favorite motion picture . Then they ’ll want to remake it , and that ’s where you may pace in !
There ya go ! Is that the one where they have the rock’n’roll and bowl banding in the desert ?
Yup .
There ’s this great scene where they are go across and there ’s this music , and it ’s like this metal ring almost , in the centre of nowhere , rocking out hard .
I ’m middling indisputable that ’s the one ! Man , that would be awing . I ’d jazz to see that movie come back . Anyway , narrate me about getting Stephen in dual roles . Was there ever any apprehension ? Was there ever any producer pressure sensation to have them overlap or acknowledge that they look the same beyond the dream logic ?
One of the rules was , they should depend the same , we want them to be clearly the same soul . And the other principle was that nobody observe . Nobody land it up . I know , for Stephen , being the consummate actor he is , he educate for both office . It was really wonderful to see him , like , " Oh , it ’s Tuesday , so he ’s going to be the cornet player today . " Or " Oh , it ’s Wednesday , so he ’s depart to be Johnny ! " He was a little skittish , sometimes . He get it on he had to be nuanced , that he had to have things really dialed in , especially when there were conniption with the two guy wire talking to each other . There were times when he got a little … The guy who was on the other side , helping him with saying the lines , sometimes grow a little bit too performy and kind of rattle him . But most of the time , it was pretty expert ! That ’s why we picked him , because he just prepares so well . He holds onto those scenes … It count effortless , but I know the homework that he did , and I know the planning that he did . For me , it was a bit of a aspiration , because it was n’t really figure out for me . It was watching him do the piece of work .
That ’s awesome . That large ballroom set up that a band of the final act is set in , can you talk about building or finding that placement ?
That was the Palace of Justice in Luxembourg City . The couturier got it . I always think it would be an old Gallic chateau or something , but they were like , " No , let ’s go for the brutalist Kafka - esque architecture in a modern place , " and then once we landed on that , we guess , " Let ’s fill up it with people who are just rich fu*ks from everywhere ! " ( Laughs ) So we got a German Nazi in there , and we get some Persian dudes , and we got some generals , and we just tried to think of our outside cabal of evil rich multitude , and that was sort of the secret plan .
You ’ve got a great survey stretch back quite a while now . For the Screen Rant reader who might watch this movie , or who might know you fromDark affair , is there something that you ’ve done in your past tense , a bit of workplace that you ’ve done , that you ’re in particular proud of , but that you feel perhaps did n’t get the recognition or attention it deserved , that you want to shout - out ?
There was this indie undertaking we did , call This Movie is Broken . It ’s half - concert movie with the set Broken Social Scene with Emily from Metric and Amy from Stars . It ’s a splendiferous , beautiful concert . It ’s about these kids going to the show . It ’s a adorable summer kind of romanticistic concert movie . I love that . If there ’s any Broken Social Scene fan out there , they ’ll adore it !
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