Paul King, esteemed kooky director of the Mighty Boosh talks to PartB Film about his feature debut Bunny and the Bull, not getting paid and what else he’s got in the pipeline.
Seeing as this is your first feature film, did you feel apprehensive at all as to how it would be received?
I was shitting it. It’s absolutely the most terrifying thing I’ve done in my whole life. I kind of thought it would be alright, but it wasn’t. Suddenly, I’m doing this proper film, going from working with your mates and lots of people you know to a red carpet and people taking pictures. Me and my girlfriend were in the paper, which read “Director Paul King plus unidentified companion”, like she was some whore I picked up or something! It suddenly all felt a bit proper, and I was really nervous…
If you were given a big budget, would the film have been any different? Are you a Roland Emmerich or Robert Rodriguez?
I really like how it looked, I like the kind of lo-fi and homemade thing. The main thing is people would have been paid… there were so many people working for nothing, like me and the producer. It was a bit of a nightmare, because we needed to make a living and we just didn’t get paid for two years. The newspaper model bit was like six weeks of 30 volunteers from Nottingham Arts School putting it all together. If we had another two million we could have given people a pay check, but it probably wouldn’t have looked any different on screen.
You really can see the art school thing. The whole thing looks amazing. Was it all in your minds eye, or was there an evolutionary process?
I’d feel arrogant to say it’s just how i imagined it. It wasn’t, not at all…like the flat is a nicer version of my flat. I just took lots of things I liked, and stuck it all together really. I wanted a sort of timeless thing, no computers or phones, like in Fantastic Mr Fox, it looked beautiful.
Speaking of Wes Anderson, people are starting to favourably compare you to these directors; Gondry, Gilliam, and the like.
They’re only my childhood heroes (laughs) fucking hell! That’s great! But no, it’s enormously flattering for people not to just go “sub-standard Gondry rip-off!” – I’d rather not have that, but people seem to think it looks good, so I’m proud of that…
This is a move away from the Boosh, exploring darker issues like compulsive gambling, loss and mental health
Yeah… these are much more real people I think. I love the Boosh, obviously, probably more than anyone. It’s wilfully surreal, with bubblegum characters like Betamax Bandit and people with flamingo legs. It refuses to deal in the real world, and this is obviously much more real.
It does touch home in some respects. A lot of us know people like that.
Yeah, a lot of people have had relationships where their best friend was actually a bit of a fuck up and a bastard. Like Bunny is incredibly horrible and really selfish. And I think it’s all about coming to realise that. He’s bad news, and it’s all about moving on.
There seems to be a tendency of TV comics in this country to make that transition onto the big screen and just make a really shit film; Alien Autopsy, Lesbian Vampire Killers, Sex Lives of the Potato men and that. Was that something you were constantly aware and trying to steer clear of?
Weirdly I haven’t seen any of those films…or not so weirdly since they got a fairly bad write-up. But I do think I need to step in on behalf of British cinema. There’s also In the Loop which is really good, Le Donk which is really good. There are obviously lots of good British comedies, all the Python movies… I wasn’t so worried about it, because it isn’t the Mighty Boosh movie, where it has to be a big step up. I thought it would be better to go down the Edgar Wright route, in that we’re not making Spaced the movie, but instead a totally different film. It is its own beast, but hopefully people who like the Boosh will like this.
What was it like writing? Often with comedies you have writing partners, two people, three, four, even five people working on the script. People to bounce off, to moderate ideas.
I did use a lot of people, Richard did a lot of script editing and I had a couple of script editors. It’s quite weird because i always thought I was going to try and bring someone else in, because like you say it’s a good thing to do with two people. And then I thought I’ll just write the treatment, I’ll just write the second draft, ill just do the second draft. and by the time i finished it i sort of thought i just want this to be mine now.
So you preferred the extra creative control?
It’s really different. It’s definitely harder on a personal level. On the Boosh I can go “is this want you want?” But this is a lot more lonely, there’s no one to hide behind. It’s just you. But I wouldn’t have to write if someone came along with a script that allowed for the visual invention. I’d do it in a heartbeat, but they’re hard to come by.
The Boosh is very much a cult phenomenon, whereas now you’ll perhaps be enjoying mainstream success.
Let’s hope so! If it happens it’d be amazing, but how do you know? An obviously something like this is not going to be for everyone. Set in a world made of cardboard and newspaper, there’s going to be some people saying “I will not watch that”. So I really hope people would like it, the more the merrier. I never set out to be fringe. I want everyone to love it! But I’m not worried that it’ll be too Hollywood.
Where did you draw your inspiration for the films distinct aesthetic?
Lots of different things, I definitely had music I was listening to while I was writing. I was listening to lots of Tom Waits, especially Mule Variations. And I really liked Ralfe Band, that slightly gypsy home-madey thing. And lots of visual art really, pinching things from photographers. Obviously there are other films have done things a bit like it, But there aren’t so many films like this that you can just go “I’m gonna watch all the homemade weirdo films”; you can watch them all in an afternoon. Whereas if you go “I’m making a robot takes over the world movie”, there’s a hundred to watch. So it was a little tough to find things.
The film is a road trip. Did you really visit all these places? A Polish shoe museum? That’s real?
Yes. All of them. They are all real, all there in the credits. We had no money, so it’s not like anyone else would go out and take pictures, so me and this photographer spent like six days driving from Brussels to Poland, we were sleeping in the car and it was a fucking nightmare, but it was amazing. The museums were brilliant and there’s so many we didn’t get to, like there’s a museum of birds nests. I mean what is that!?
Where will we see you next?
I’m working on something that’s all about a multi-dimensional tramp, and I’m writing a script of Paddington Bear.
Finally, why should people go and watch Bunny and the Bull?
Because it’s funny and it’s beautiful and its touching, and a lot of people put a lot of love into it.
BUNNY AND THE BULL IS IN CINEMAS NOW
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