Why a Status Quo film - why not .....

Films are made with at least one purpose.

The only reason you ever make a film is to make money, those who say otherwise are lying. Just ask them if they took a fee, or are salaried by a commission. When you look at the number of executives feeding off a film with producers titles of various forms, and those who stay in well paid jobs in film commissions and lotteries, the film is a vehicle to keep them employed... so that again holds up, the only reason to make a film is to make money. We made a very lean film with no overpaid executives, so how? Why?

Stuart St Paul was attached to ITV and had turned Emmerdale into an action series from plane crash to train crash. He dived between that and major movies in many areas in the world and it was a long and distant cry from being a radio DJ though the two jobs both had the same loud cache value. The call to go to Coronation Street was unusual, but like so many jobs it is just a date in the diary and often the fee and content are never discussed because ITV had a set fee with Stuart. The content did not need to start until all the team came together and costume, make up and designers needed the how and where. All Stuart knew was that it must have been a special occasion for him to be asked to do Coronation Street rather than the guy who normally looked after the action there, it must have been bigger than their normal studio ambitions. But there is still no need to ask the booker and the chance is they do not know the detail yet.

Stuart was as always in a car driving between locations as he was when he got a call that seemed so innocent but was in fact from a government contractee asking for a special team to be put together to remove Swampy and nearly 100 protestors out of trees where a motorway was to be built. Stuart had specialised in planning strategic disasters and had a phone book of the past strange characters and could plan anything almost anywhere in the world. Running Strike Back in Hungary, Austria, Slovakia and Italy etc years later was like going to war. It was unlikely Corie would surprise him.

When Stuart re-met with Quo on the set of Coronation Street in 2005 it was one of those ships in the night re-unions. Stuart had all but left music in 1980, but they had much old ground to remember and exchange. What was interesting was that Coronation Street resulted in Quo having over 600 press clippings, going on almost every TV chat show and then selling a good number more tickets for the December Christmas concerts. That alone meant joining Corie had the most incredible positive third party effect that a film could only be quantified in many dimensions.

Stuart's work on Corie with Quo was easy, it was more about having him as a safe pair of hands that the band would settle with, but, the re-uniting was a seed. Stuart had produced and directed a number of films and the idea was exciting.

He had a finished screenplay we had on the shelf about 4 youths who discover tramps being slaughtered in London, by a foreign mafia making them play Russian Roulette as in The Deer Hunter, the kids see this murder and have to run for their lives. Hunted they have to find out who is trying to kill them and discover it is a side business to stealing tramps off the streets to stepl body parts. As always the story was an extrapolation of a news story from elsewhere not too far away in Europe, and it was a pretty violent dark action adventure. That set to music and with two rock and rollers and their roadies (meaning any actors) seemed a slam dunk and Vinnie Jones was approached to be the bad guy. His manager agreed seeing the synergy and with letters of agreement art work was made and the film put into the market place.

Craig had been mates with Stuart for years and was also a perfect fit. Guitars, guns, action.....

The project was a runaway train, stopped by Rick's cancer scare. When a train stops so suddenly there are many repercussions. Rick's health came first, but when he had the all clear there was the backlog of trains waiting to come into the station. At that time Quo were playing over 200 gigs a year. Here is why more pop stars are not in films; there is a whole army of staff and people who depend on that train running at that speed and making money. From the team of accounting staff, to the artwork designers, marketeers and road managers. Quo had three equipment lorries and a bus, and there were two sets of equipment and two sets of trucks so when they jumped from Germany, to Ireland, to France, the logistics could be sorted.

Now there was a back log of gigs and commitments and insurance companies looking for a resolve. There would be no time to schedule a film for the foreseeable future until the calendar could be sorted.

Here's the problem, when the train stops, people walk round it and kick the tyres, check the oil and water. The project was looked at and considered again. Whilst the initial plan was to run an EIS and have the fans invest, which was totally underwritten by a property investor from Derby so the film had a green light even if the EIS failed. That was reconsidered. Whilst it was a good idea and the loyal fans would have benefits money could not buy including a gig, screening and party at the bands  historic home the Hammersmith Odeon, you have to second guess the press. What would the press say about the band asking fans for money to make their film. The EIS idea was dropped and the only winners there were the lawyers with bills of over 50k thus far. It was probably the right choice because there was no shortage of eager investors out there and it let the fans be fans. We had trips to Germany where the lead investor interest wined and dined us... that is another story in a white marble palace and dancing fountains to Quo tracks - in your garden!

The investor in Derby went into other projects because of the long hiatus, and more tyres on the bus were kicked.

Stills from the screen testing were studied  and considered. The marketing people wondered if the violent rock and roll image was right? They asked if that was where their current fans were?
Would a comedy not be better, putting them more in line with the arena and party in the park audiences they were now playing to? Vinnie Jones was replaced with David Hasselhoff (maybe a little German influence too) and the script went for rewrites to match. Same script, same story, just changed.

There was also a serious consideration of the fact that Quo if in London with such a problem would have it resolved, and the feeling was the movie could go somewhere else and put them in a vulnerable position. Thailand was chosen and line producer Ed Harper was sent there to plan preproduction. The film was to start with a concert in Chiang Mia where they saw the murders, just getting away and onto the Orient Express to Bangkok. The band had previous connections to the Orient Express and filmatically it all worked. The script was rewritten round Thailand and as Stuart had filmed there before and Ed was there as well as other film colleagues the changes were easily done. However Thailand got expensive and offered no real incentive.

The investors wanted a cash incentive from location, Fiji offered 47% back on investment so the film went there. The reason they offer 47% is because films don't go to Fiji, because there is little there and no film infrastructure. So the deal was done, we went there, and to date Fiji still have not paid anywhere like what was promised, and still, films don't go there. We live in hope....

And, as you will have seen from the previous blog, it rains in Fiji.... no, I mean RAINS !!!!

The film, BULA QUO is a great caper, and very watchable. It was never meant to be the Shawshank Redemption or to please critics, it was a caper for fans. It is now available almost anywhere in the world on Amazon as a download or DVD. The BluRay has more extras because it can hold more.  Click here.

How we went from Hasselhoff to Lovitz, and Craig went from Villain to nice guy manager, are just a few of the many stories that could only happen in film...



More stories to follow as well as the series Doris Visits Fiji with Status Quo, on the Doris Visits channel. Which by the time we get it out at the end of the year, you should be able to find easily on TV. Click here for the embryonic channel via computer. If you can find it on TV let us know.