The debut feature by director James Marquand (son of Return Of The Jedi director, the late Richard Marquand), Dead Man rsquo;s Cards is a gritty and violent modern-day thriller/western set in the unforgiving underworld of Liverpool's gangster-run clubland.
The plot follows the story of Tom (played by Marquand rsquo;s co-writer James McMartin), a former boxer turned nightclub bouncer forced to question his morals and his loyalties when he reluctantly becomes involved in the sinister side of the security business.
James Marquand recently took some time out from work on his future projects to discuss the film.
Q: How did you first become involved in Dead Man rsquo;s Cards?
JM: I worked with James [McMartin, co-writer and star of Dead Man rsquo;s Cards] as an actor on a short film that I did, which was championed by Alan Bleasdale. I rsquo;d seen him in a play and thought he was an extremely good actor. He had a great look.
He has the look of a guy who has been there and done it, which I liked, and we rsquo;d always kept in touch. We had a lot of mutual likes ndash; Charles Bukowski, westerns and music. He only listens to gangsta rap and country and western, which I thought was quite a good combination.
I knew he was writing stuff but I hadn rsquo;t actually read any of his writing.
Anyway, we were chatting during lunch while we were making this thing and he mentioned that he had this script about his experiences as a doorman. I said, ldquo;Let rsquo;s have a look at it.
rdquo; It was scattered around in various places where he rsquo;d been staying. He pieced together this thing and within the first page I just thought, ldquo;This is great. rdquo; It had a reality about the world it depicts but it also had a kind of honesty, which you don rsquo;t expect from that macho world.
It deals with the inadequacies of the people, their hang-ups, their fears and all of that stuff. It just really appealed to me. It was much less of a thriller.
It was more, I suppose, ldquo;kitchen sink rdquo;. I think there was stuff in it that was a bit ldquo;Coronation Street rdquo; but we took that as our base and tried to hone it into something that was more of a thriller.
Q: That doesn rsquo;t sound like the dark and violent urban western-cum-thriller that ended up on the screen.
How close was James rsquo; original draft to the final shooting script?
JM: It was very different. Like I said, it was more ldquo;kitchen sink.
rdquo; There was probably more romance in it. It was called Broken Hearts and was more about this guy rsquo;s relationships and what happens between him, his wife and Mary, the barmaid he meets through his work. It was really good and in some ways, maybe it was better, but we were very conscious of our commercial constraints.
It was anecdotal stuff that he rsquo;d written. It was very real. It had the drug dealers and the bitch slap and all that sort of stuff but there was a lot less of Paul Barber rsquo;s character and his back-story.
We added all of that stuff about what had made him into this immovable object. He rsquo;s set in the way that he does things and he rsquo;ll fight that to the death. We started to develop it and think about what we wanted to focus on, which for me was the doorman stuff.
The ldquo;kitchen sink rdquo; romance stuff has been done a lot before, but to make a film that really looks at how the door security works seemed quite unusual. It was an interesting little world that I don rsquo;t think had been explored very much. And it just gradually became more of a thriller.
That even happened during the edit. There was more of the back-story that went, some of which I rsquo;m pretty sad about but some of which I agree the film is better without. So it got honed down into the simple western thriller that it is now.
Q: It rsquo;s interesting, but also very appropriate, that the term ldquo;western rdquo; has become attached to a film that would normally be referred to as a thriller. And it rsquo;s not just because of the film rsquo;s title, which I believe is a reference to the poker hand held by Wild Bill Hickock when he was killed.
JM: The western thing came out of the Billy the Cowboy character and the codes of honour that doormen really do hold.
They are like old cowboys, gunslingers, where your face and how you front up is everything. It makes you what you are, which is very much like a Hollywood western outlook on life. There was a dead man rsquo;s cards reference as Billy the Cowboy shows Tom around the club for the first time and he rsquo;s looking at all these pictures of boxers on the walls.
There was a picture of the dead man rsquo;s cards on the wall and that was where the film rsquo;s title eventually came from.
Q: Although the film revolves around the story of the former boxer, Tom, he is almost overshadowed by Paul Barber rsquo;s character, Paul, who you rsquo;ve already described as ldquo;this immovable object rdquo;. Paul Barber is amazing in the role of this complex and sometimes frightening but extremely charismatic doorman who walks a fine line between good and bad.
JM: I think the idea of the Paul character was just fascinating. He rsquo;s the great character of the film really. It rsquo;s just playing with clich e s, like having a black soldier with a picture of the Queen and Malcolm X above his mantelpiece, and just trying not to do the norm.
Then there rsquo;s the link with the Orange Lodge and all of that. You probably know Liverpool is a pretty unusual place for England. The fact that there is an Orange Lodge in Toxteth is a very strange thing.
There are all of these pieces of reality there that are stranger than fiction in a way.
Q: How did your relationship with first-time executive producers Steve Corless and Phil Evers come about?
JM: I met them as I was starting out after I rsquo;d moved to Liverpool.
Phil and Steve were in the building trade, out of Liverpool, working all around the place and I just got on with them. We just hit it off.
Q: So initially it was a social relationship?
JM: Totally, yeah. They were both massive film lovers. They were getting to be quite successful in their businesses and they had quite a lot of contact with very rich people.
I spent a long time with them. They were streetwise, talented guys with the right connections and an absolute passion and love of film, who maybe didn rsquo;t come from backgrounds where they would ever have had a chance to express that particularly. With this first feature we had always had in the back of our minds the idea to look around to try and find the right people to help us to raise the money and that rsquo;s what we did.
It wasn rsquo;t like this great master plan. I guess that everything that has happened for me has happened in an organic way and I guess maybe I inspired Phil and Steve a little bit. Because of my upbringing I have no fear or apprehension about making films and I rsquo;m not of the belief that filmmaking is some kind of precious, elitist jewel that only the select few have access to.
Q: You set up your own independent production company, Stray Dogs, specifically to produce Dead Man rsquo;s Cards. Will future Stray Dogs productions feature the same creative team? Will you always direct, with Matt Whyte as director of photography, Phil and Steve producing and so on?
Is that the plan?
JM: No. Our long-term goal is to expand.
We want to be a production company so our long-term goal is to make more films than I can direct in a year. We rsquo;d love to make three, four or five films a year. That rsquo;s our aim.
We want to find other filmmakers. I think the success of any British film is a great thing for all British filmmakers and we are certainly a company that would look to find new filmmakers or work with other established filmmakers.
Q: Watching Dead Man rsquo;s Cards, something that surprised me was the appearance of Drew Schofield, who I know is an old friend of yours from the days when you were making short films.
His role is really a cameo. Were you not tempted to cast him in one of the more major roles?
JM: It rsquo;s a good question.
We originally cast him as Billy the Cowboy.
Q: This was before Tom Bell became available?
JM: Yeah.
We didn rsquo;t think we rsquo;d get Tom Bell. We didn rsquo;t think we rsquo;d get Paul Barber. We just sent the script out not expecting anything.
I wanted Drew to be Billy the Cowboy but he wouldn rsquo;t do it and I understand why because he is of an age where if he plays a guy fifteen or twenty years older than he is, he may never get to play a young guy again. So it was a sensible move. So I was like, ldquo;Shit, Drew, who can you play?
All the characters are these huge doormen. rdquo;
Q: And Drew rsquo;s not a huge doorman.
JM: No, he isn rsquo;t.
I mean, he probably could have done it brilliantly because he can do anything that guy. If I have to criticise him as an actor it rsquo;s because he rsquo;s too good at everything. There rsquo;s nothing that guy can rsquo;t do, which means he doesn rsquo;t get certain roles because they always think of someone else who they can typecast to play a part.
Do you know what I mean? Before I make my last film, I am going to get him the best part ever. I rsquo;ve seen a lot of fantastic actors through working with my dad and I rsquo;ve never seen a better actor than him.
He rsquo;s just an incredible actor. Every take he puts a different slant on it and every take is brilliant. I don rsquo;t know why he rsquo;s not hellip; I mean, he played Johnny Rotten to Gary Oldman rsquo;s Sid Vicious in Sid And Nancy.
Obviously Sid was the main part but Drew should be regarded as being of that level. He should be recognised as much as Gary Oldman is.
This interview from November 30th 2006 was provided to us as part of the publicity for Dead Man rsquo;s Cards and we did not conduct it.
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