Nicolas Winding Refn Talks BRONSON!

Earlier today I had the chance to speak with Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn over the phone about his upcoming film projects Valhalla Rising and Bronson. The films make an intriguing duo, one - the true crime picture in keeping with the bulk of his filmography up until this point - actually being the first feature he has ever directed on a for-hire basis, while the period epic seemingly at total odds with the urban grit of his previous work is the passion project years in the making. As fate would have it Refn prepared both features simultaneously and shot them back to back and was more than happy to share his thoughts on both.

For organizational purposes - and also because the batteries on my recorder are dying and need to be replaced - I'm breaking the interview into two parts. The first part covers Bronson while the second - to come later - will cover Refn's thoughts on Valhalla Rising.

TB: I would like to start by asking about the timeline of how things happened with Valhalla Rising and Bronson. Because Valhalla was announced long before you actually did Bronson but then Bronson ended up being done first.

NWR: Well, what happened was just that Valhalla was a very complicated movie for me to get off the ground and it really dealt with me having to clean up a lot of history with my ex-partner. There were some issues that were just becoming too difficult. I basically decided to terminate the partnership and buy his share of the company and that took a lot of negotiating and a lot of back and forth on how to do that and on and on and on until I really didn't know if the movie was ever going to happen.

At the same time I was talking with Summit Entertainment about doing a film with them, doing one before Valhalla was set to go. That was a movie I had been working on for a very long time and I really had a lot of good interest in it, I really wanted to make it. But the Hollywood game is difficult and it just took longer and longer and longer, as it always does with this kind of project. Summit were absolutely terrific to work with but the circumstances just became very difficult and at the same time, at that point, I had a time set for Valhalla that I couldn't postpone any more. And when the Summit movie kept being postponed as well, I eventually had to say, "Guys, I can't do this movie because people have invested in Valhalla and I spent so long trying to get that off the ground." So the Summit thing just never materialized.

But then my British distributor, the people who release all my films in the UK, called me and asked if I was interested in this movie called Bronson. And I asked what kind of movie it was and he said it was basically a sort of 'lads' movie and I said, "No, not really, but send it to me anyway and I'll read it." Because they've been good friends of mine. And I read it and there was something very intriguing in it. It wasn't particularly good as it was but it could be made really, really good, I thought. So when the Summit movie fell apart, Vertigo told me that they had Bronson financed if I wanted to make it but if I didn't make it it wasn't going to go, it was going to crash. And I said, "Okay, I'll make it, this is my time slot." It was basically January, February and March – I had to be in Scotland on April first for Valhalla. And that's how it came about. And I started doing Bronson while also preparing Valhalla at the same time in Nottingham.

TB: Now, you've never shot a feature from somebody else's script before, have you?

NWR: No. I had to rewrite it, though, so Bronson ended up being completely different from what was originally intended. It changed. For the better, I think. But that was one of the things that was very new. I actually found it was kind of pleasant to not have to come up with every single idea. I didn't produce it. Vertigo did, so I didn't have to worry about the money or making payday. And Vertigo was very respectful of what I wanted to do with it. I basically rewrote it at night while we were shooting it because there was so little time to prepare.

TB: Were you familiar with Charles Bronson before making the film?

NWR: I had no idea who he was. And I still don't really know who he is. I think the movie I made, Bronson, is more about the concept of Charles Bronson because I look at it more as an outsider. For some people it's more about the actual person but for me it's more about the concept of creating somebody who changed his persona because of who he is, really.

TB: So it's not like a factual, dedicated bio-pic.

NWR: No. I couldn't make that because I don't know enough about him and I didn't grow up with him. I don't have that fascination the same way, even though I think he's a very, very interesting person.

TB: Did you have Tom Hardy before or after he did Rock N Rolla?

NWR: Well, the film had been on the drawing board for some time before I became involved, other film makers tried to get it off the ground and other actors had been attached and then not attached and Tom was already attached at the stage when I began to get involved. We met about a year ago to talk about the project, though it didn't happen at that time. When I went back to it I was not sure if he was the right choice. So I started over from scratch but very quickly realized that Tom was the right one to play Bronson. Tom's obsessed with Bronson far more than I am. He knows him and speaks with him and so it was probably very healthy to have Tom portraying Bronson. He portrays him with an honesty that is more something between him and Charlie, in a way, I think. I've never spoken with Charlie except for on a phone call for about twenty minutes when Tom went to meet with him and speak with him.

TB: I was just amazed at the physical change in Tom between Rock N Rolla and Bronson.

NWR: Oh, yeah.

TB: I would never have known that was the same man from your trailer if I didn't see the credits. He's a lot bigger in your movie.

NWR: He is. He's quite a unique actor, I would say. He reminds me a lot of Kim Bodnia, who I worked with a lot earlier in my career. He's a chameleon and yet he has very much a movie star quality. He's an extremely gifted actor. He's one of those people who were born to act, I think. It's part of his organic evolution, in a way. I liked working with him a lot.

TB: I know the shoot for Bronson is done, how much longer are we looking at for post production to be done and the film to start turning up in festivals?

NWR: Bronson is actually done. Finito. Mixed. It's having its first screening at the London Film Festival in about two weeks. I mixed it right after I finished the shoot of Valhalla. I went straight to Berlin and mixed it. It's already sold well, too.

TB: So people will have the chance to see this one.

NWR: I hope so, that's why you make movies.