September 1, 2024 • 25 mins
Ant Timpson, born April 21, 1966, in Auckland, New Zealand, is a prominent film producer and director. In 2003, he founded the 48 Hours film contest, a significant platform for emerging filmmakers.
His work has garnered notable awards, including the British Independent Film Awards Discovery Award and a Saturn Award for Best International Film, both in 2016.
Timpson also launched "The Incredibly Strange Film Festival" in 1994, now part of the New Zealand International Film Festival. His distribution company, starting with "Slacker" in 1993, has released numerous specialist films. He owns the largest private collection of 35mm films in the Southern Hemisphere and is a board member of the New Zealand Film Commission. Timpson is married with two children.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk, said, b
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Real Conversation, Real Connection. It's Real life with John Cowan
on news Talk, said.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Be can I welcome to real life.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I'm John Cowen and my guest night is at Timson,
a New Zealand filmmaker whose latest movie is called Bookworm
and it's in theaters now. Congratulations on your latest movie.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Thank you very much, John.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
There must be a buzz seeing like a baby, you know,
drop into the world and out there doing well in
the theaters.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Well, hope it's doing well.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
It's doing okay, Yeah, no, it's I mean, I wish
the buzz happened a lot faster and a lot quicker. Yeah,
these things take a long long time. I'm a huge
chunkier life and I started so late, so I'm kind
of playing catshup.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I've heard yourself describe yourself as the world's oldest debut.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Direct I think I was.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
I think I think I was like fifty two with
the first one, which is crazy. I wish I was,
you know, I wish I'd wound the clock back.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Okay, but it's hardly a field that you've just started
to dabble. And you've been in motion pictures and movies
and every aspect of cinema life for all your life, really,
haven't you pretty much?
Speaker 5 (01:29):
Yeah, when you realize you're not going to have much
chop in any other sort of area of industry, you
sort of align with the one that gives you the
most passion, but also the one that you think you're
quite good at.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Well, let's give a get this buzz going about your movie.
Tell us what it's about and white people.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
Yeah, I mean, the interesting thing about Bookworm for me
is that it's the first film I can recommend to
family and friends because my history is from the world
of kind of cult and more sort of outrageous films,
and this is a very PG family orientated film what
you really.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Call death gasm or greasy or ABC of death.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
You know, family maybe as a family film, but no,
this one, this one's.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Very This is my sort of tribute to the seventies
family movies I grew up with, which is like, you know,
your Benji's and your wilderness families that kind of vibe.
But yeah, so it's a father daughter story, a father
who has been hasn't been part of his daughter's life,
and he's a sort of has been illusionist from from
(02:38):
the States who has to come down and look after
his eleven year old daughter, who's a bit of a bookworm.
She's smarter than him, more capable than him, and she
sort of railroads him into saying, let's go search for
the Canbury Panther because it's going to the reward's going
to solve all our problems. And that's the sort of
that's the plot. In a nutshell, You've got two great
stars in the movie. You've got to Lijah Wood and
(02:58):
the South Island.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
And Nelfish.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
And who's going to be a major star. Absolutely, she's
in the New Stranger Things. Yeah, she's going to be.
We were very lucky to get her on her rise,
you know, so she's I don't think we can afford
her next time around. But yeah, the South Island, which
was a reunion for Elijah's we put him in the
same sort of course.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
And Lord of the Rings, so going oh I remember
coming here or.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Oh absolutely, it wasn't hard to twist his arm. Let's
be honest, he'd been we'd been talking about doing a film,
another film together because he was in my first film, yes,
and we were like, why don't we My pitch was,
why don't you do it as a family vacation because
he's got two young kids and they hadn't been down
here and he wanted to bring them down and it
was a perfect excuse to like, let's do everything, let's
(03:44):
make a movie and you bring the fan down and
they can see everything that you loved about New Zealand
when you were here twenty years ago.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yea, and twenty years ago, I think so, yeah, would
be I suppose wasuldn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (03:56):
I think the first one was around the millennium, so
a long time, right.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Well, his career has got on and on and in
your career, as I say, this is your second feature film,
and your first one also featured Elijah Wood.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Now, I don't want to get all psychoanalytical on you
and and rip your psych shreds on radio and everything.
But this movie, Bookworm, is about a girl with her
dad that she doesn't know, her dad coming back into
her life. Your first film was about a man going
to meet his father that he had ever met in
his life before.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Either you know what's going on? What's going on?
Speaker 5 (04:33):
I could just blame the other rifer I work with.
It's all his issues. No, I think we just love we.
The writer and I have talked about a loose trilogy
that we wanted to do with Elijah Wood appearing in
each one as a different character. He's good exactly, So
we want to we want to repeat that formula, and
(04:53):
we just wanted it to be based on kind of
these hang ups that Toby who's the writer, and I
have and they all sort of stem from a singular idea,
usually involving fathers and sons or you know, parental figures
to trying to be what they want to be. And
so the book when was you know, the singular idea
(05:15):
was failing in front of my kids, which is was
the singular fair that I shared with Toby saying, I.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Don't think you have that one on your own, mate.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
No, no, but really in a time of crisis. We
all failed daily with our kids, you know, when they
growing up, and we're always trying to you know, I had,
you know, a huge authority figure as a dad, like
the ultimate patriarch, So it was a lot to look
up to when I was growing up, and so it
was playing on that where I had a family vacate
(05:46):
with my kids when they were very young that went
horribly wrong, which is kind of where the film stemmed
out from. And it was like it ended in like
emergency callouts and like you know, battered bodies and everything
was a horrible, horrible experience.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
You're talking about your vacation, not one of your movies.
Speaker 6 (06:03):
Yeah, this is the vacation.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
This was a small jaunt around an island in the harbor,
which is Rakino Island.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
Everyone said, oh, it's very easy at low tide, you
just go around the tip of it and walk around.
But it ended in absolute chaos and the kids nearly drowning,
and me panicking and not being this heroic dad that
you should be in these In these moments, I completely
pooped the bed and panicked, and I just remember looking
at my kids and they were looking at me, and
(06:32):
it was them seeing my panic like I just it was.
It haunted me, and I was like, I'm going to,
like I do with any trauma, minor trauma, I'm going
to mine it for comedic effect and we'll make another
movie out of it, as I did with the first film.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
You can't tell me that you're busy struggling away there
I for your kids and dying of exposure or whatever
it was that you're going through, and you're thinking this
would be a good funny fee later on.
Speaker 6 (06:55):
Yeah, you do, later on, you do later on.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
That's the way I think.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
Yeah, not immediately, like I might have it like a
few beers in the pub later on to calm down,
But I mean months and months later, or even sometimes years,
it'll come back. So come to Daddy came from a
kind of you know, huge event for me, which was
witnessing my dad drop dead in front of me, and
so that was and then spending time with his with
(07:22):
with the body in his house for like five or
six days and as a way of you know, grieving,
lying in wake, and then but just those those moments,
spending that time with him at night, my I just
my mind just played crazy tricks on me. And then
I started talking to Toby the writer about it way
(07:42):
down the line and saying, I really think there's something
interesting here.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
That's very strange.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So you spent all this time with your I know
that this is something that perhaps we think of in
Mari culture of spending your time but not usually sitting
alone in a house with.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
He was well, he was there for like all this,
all lying and siblings like yeah and so. And then
during some of the days, old old friends would turn
up and most of them we knew, some of them
had never met, and they had these stories about my
father that I thought never heard this before, like this
is a secret history, so to speak, of my father.
(08:20):
And that's later on when we were when we were
I was trying to process it, and it was very
it was cathartic. The whole thing was a remarkable time.
So your relationship with your father actually evolved after he.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Died in a way, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
And the film is a tribute to him, because it
was it was a kind of tribute to the films
we used to watch and he loved those sort of
tough British thrillers and they put that credit comedy. Yeah,
a tribute to him, Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
And so.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
If you obviously think a lot about fatherhood and father's
death and its Father's Father's Day Fursday. Yeah, and so
you've thought a lot about your relationship with your own
dad and and and been a fear of stuffing things
up with your own kids. Did they look after your
Father's Day that's probably the big thing.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
Yeah, I mean I got a heart stopping pulled pork
sandwich for my breakfast and a pretty pretty good coffee
as well. So that's look at that's all I can
expect these days.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
I think they're giving you a past mark, mate.
Speaker 6 (09:28):
I don't think maybe I should be reading between the lines.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I don't think the movies they'll be making of you
making themselves later life will be there.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Who knows that their dad suffering from high blood pressure
and brings a pulled pork sandwich up. I mean, I
feel like I think it's a murder of kid. I
feel like something's going on behind the scenes I'm not
aware of.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Well, as you're processing feel thoughts about your dad, and
I bet you thinking about him today. Was there things
that he did in his role as a dad that
you'd like to emulate with your own kids. You described
him as being very authoritarian. I think he had a
nickname or something. Do you think the Major General?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
The General?
Speaker 6 (10:05):
Yeah? He and so well.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
I spent a lot of my time as I was
going being quite scared of dad. You know, he was
that kind of imposing figure at times. It's very stressed.
His workload was insane, So he brought a lot of
that home. But eventually it also kind of turned a corner.
And then when everything eased off and the work wasn't
like this huge priority in his life, it was just
(10:28):
just became a wonderful and then yeah, got on like
a house on fire, which and he was a great
dad throughout, but it was like, I just remember, you know,
he was a very imposing figure when I was young.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Isn't that a.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Nice and encouraging thing that people can change. Yeah, that
people can can mallow and everything. Absolutely just listening to
a David Sadaris book and he's talking about his relationship
with his dad and how he became His dad became
so much nicer as he got older, and there's hope
for my kids.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
I might even get nice as I get old.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Well, And I think it's a good self check as well,
because you do, no matter how far you you think,
you're not going to be your parents, those traits are
very hard to get rid of. I mean that's it's
genetically tied into you. So so it is a yeah,
it's a great way to kind of reminisce, but also
think about your relationship with him in the past, with
(11:24):
your father and then what am I going to do
to you know, not be the negative side of those
things and more focus on what was great about it.
So yeah, so it's it's And what I've learned is
that it's it's it's. The journey never stops, the learning
never stops. In terms of your kids, they might start,
you know, shooting up by a foot, which is what
(11:46):
happened has happened in the last year or so, and
turn into monsters, but that's the kind of yeah relationship
you have them goes ebbs and flows.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Then that's yeah, we've got to change gear. I guess
is that changing gear? And it's it's a challenge, isn't it.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
Well, and the world changes around them.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
You're planning three movies on this. It's not going to
be the m probably.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
So they'll come into the third one for sure, someone.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Okay, So I'll be interested to see how that evolves.
I'm talking with New Zealand movie maker director and Timson,
and We've got a fascinating career. He's always been involved
in movies in one way or another, a festivals and
in producing films, and I also wort to talk about
the genre of movies that you made your name in,
(12:32):
which is these sort of what was the name of
the of the of this.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Genre is it?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
They're sort of almost like mock horror some of them,
aren't they that there's always.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
This comedy horror. But yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
I mean, there were a lot of the Yeah, I
guess it's kind of cult. Cinema is another word people
use in the film the cinephiles used. But yeah, the
kind of like outlier titles.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
A lot of them.
Speaker 6 (12:56):
They were ones that push buttons. They were kind of outrageous.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
Yes, and then but I also produced other people's films
that were kind of more Yeah, some of them were
comedy bassed, but yeah, tried to do anything that I
really felt either the person I wanted to support or
just love the material, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Okay, so there's lots we can be talking about in
the In the second half of this program, we were
talking with Aunt Timpson about his career, about his life,
and about we'll be talking about also about censorship and
a few other things related to the movie industry. This
is real life on News Talks EDB be back with
you in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on Newstalks edb.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Trouble Trouble the way.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I have seen your face and it's too much for
me today.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Trouble Trouble can see you have made me?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Who rack it? Now? Won't you leave me?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
In Mom's re.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Welcome back to real life. I'm John Cown talking with
filmmaker and Simpson. He spoke a beautiful song there. What
are we listening to?
Speaker 5 (14:16):
This is Trouble by Kat Stevens, which I first heard
when I was a young chap on the Harold and
Wud soundtrack, the great film by the late hal ashby
Bud Cought and Ruth Gordon. Just a wonderful cult film
that used to play in theaters for about two to
three years NonStop, back in the days when cinema's kind
(14:38):
of ruled. And yeah, it's always had a huge impact
on me. For some this is a morbid thing. But
I always I thought, oh, that's the song I want
played at my funeral because it's gonna it'll squeeze out
a few tears for sure.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Right it's.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I know we should all be sort of prepared and
have sort of things like that. But is this something
you think about a lot?
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Yeah, but not in a not necessarily in a kind
of morbid negative way, kind of just just I just
find it fascinating. I find that we don't talk about
it enough. Really, it's still it's not taboo, but it's
I feel like it's very different now. You never it
was something like it was very inappropriate to bring it up,
(15:21):
you know, when I was young, just it seemed like
something that was tied into the ugly side of things
you didn't want to talk about. But I just think
it's it's part of life, and it's it's a huge
thing that we should be talking about.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Okay, So you've got that aspect of it worked out.
I don't know if I've got too many plans from
a funeral. I have thought that I'd like to have
every student at a local theological college coming and giving
a sermon for half an hour. I reckon about it.
You know, if I'm not having a good time, I
don't think anyone else should be having a good time.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Now that sounds great.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Now, your life within you has been stapled to movies
right from the early dage. As a kid, you watched
lots and lots of movies.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
Yeah, I was fortunate enough to have a great far
up the road from us at the Crystal Palace in
mount Edon, and it was you know, walking distance.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
I hope it's still going.
Speaker 6 (16:11):
It's still there.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
It's not necessarily it's not going, but it's it's a
gorgeous you know, single seven hundred seater, single screen. But
that was a time when every suburb had its own theater.
You know, there was sixty five and around Auckland, sixty
five around Auckland even more, I think it was. There's
just enormous and beautiful buildings too. Like it was such
a shame when they all started in the eighties getting
(16:35):
the chop. But I grew up in that period where
they were just you know, the magical places to go
as a as a kid, and I, yeah, I guess
I escaped suburbia into the worlds of like Clint Spaghetti
Westerns and everything else around that time.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
And in your childhood you had time in la and
you got to actually see some of the people that
were made.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
On the screen. Yeah, yeah, that was that was wild.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
So my father tried to set up a arm of
the business he had in New Zealand. So we all
jumped ship and went over there to live and went
to school and we all got put in different schools.
And then but then in my class, I had like
you know, at the time, it was seventy seven, I think,
(17:23):
and so Get Smart was still on air, which is
a great comedy series by mel Brooks, and his daughter
was in my class, Don Don Adams, and I went
to his house and it was suddenly like it was
just like this was that right, Yeah, it was like
looking behind the curtain.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
You know that Don Adams spent a couple of years
in New Zealand.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Yeah, the war, it was invalided down here.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Marina.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Yeah, he was.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
I mean, he was a huge figure growing up. You
couldn't escape him if you were you went to Maxwell
Smart's house exactly. Yeah, it wasn't there was no sort
of cone of silence or anything else, but it was
just it was more that you Yeah, and then you
run into people like Martin Landau at the at the
grocery store, and so it was suddenly coming from you
do small town New Zealand or and then yeah, that
(18:10):
just kind of yeah, it was just very formative.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Help us to give you the idea that these people
aren't on a separate planet. Yeah, and so yeah, so
I gave you the idea that you could get into
that felt accessible. So you came back to New Zealand
full of hope and dreams. Full of hope and dreams
went down to a tiger killed one dream down there
pretty quickly.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Probably my parents dream of.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
A law degree.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
That just was an absolute disaster. But I blame Otargo
well more than myself. And then but I that was there. Yeah,
while there, I started, I mean I was even applying
for film jobs because I knew I was tanking out,
so I was looking around what it was. There was
no sort of guy for roadmap or how to get
(18:59):
into the industry or anything. So I just sent out
letters to all production companies and hoping I was going
to hit. And then had a couple and then started
working in the in the sector, and yeah, I worked
on the It's kind of was like a fourth AD
on a film called Queen City Rocker, which was shot
around Auckland, and I got a break, I think through
(19:22):
a connection fourth ad. Yeah, is that a trainee role?
So you AD's are assistant directors. But it's way too
big a title to name what label what I was
doing more Dog's Body dog's body, general dog's body. Yeah,
but I loved, you know, even though we were working
incredibly long hours and everyone was seemed really annoyed and
(19:44):
pissed off with that aspect, I just lapped it up.
I loved how how I Yeah, just just looking just
confirmed that confirmed that this is what I This is
the world that I really love and I should be involved.
But the crazy thing is that took a long time
to get back into that, that actual side of it.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Right, And so while being sort of involved in all
sorts of different aspects of film production, you're also promoting
movies in that you formed the film festival the gridly Strange. Yes,
this taste for things out on the edge. I don't
(20:22):
know what eclectic, exploitive, Yeah, sometimes edgy. I guess if
you used the cheese scale where Disney was sort of
mild e dam this is your tastes are up in vein,
aren't they. They're running French.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
They're probably more in that Greek one with the maggots
in the cheese. I don't know what that's called, but
is that one? But yeah, you like a death tang
to your and your sort of a taste. Yeah, and
to be honest, I don't know why, when when that
actually first happened, Why I kind of leaned into that.
I think part of it was starting a film fanzine.
I started writing about films that I liked, and then
(20:56):
I met Charlie Gray, who was quite influential on me.
Do you remember a cinema And there's a cinema in
Auckland run by Charlie Gray who was a great jazz
collector who started Auckland's first night clubs, and then he
got into the movie game and he had his own
cinema called Charlie Grays. And I ended up doing some
work with Charlie and he yeah, he was, he was
(21:18):
a mentor. But in just that kind of really opened
my eyes up to a lot of other aspects of
the business, which is exhibition and buying films and releasing.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Yeah, and some of these films that you were bringing
in it made the sense of sit forward in his
chair some what shall we say, and sometimes invited the
ire of more conservative people.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
There was a yes, there was an organization that really
didn't look favorably Society for the promotional Tunity to commit,
which Partlett Bartlett founded Patricia Bartlett, Yeah, who was you know,
I met her iconic You met her?
Speaker 6 (22:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (22:01):
How was she in person?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Actually she was.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I was trying to take a photograph of her and
she wouldn't stop eating. That's my recollection of Pat Bartlet.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
I've got it. I saw a few photos with her.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Maybe I took them.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
Yeah she yeah, No, she was a quite a figurehead.
And there's so someone took over her role and yeah,
there just it was. It was a huge kerfuffle between
film festivals and that organization.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Now, some of the movies that you were bringing in,
I can remember that one called I think it was
Bese Moire. Yes, actually they got a rating, but then
got challenge and went to court.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Yeah. I went to Yeah, I went to High.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
High Court and they actually gave it a less restricted rating.
I think you won that. But but I just looking
back at that, you were saying, you you think these
movies have some type of significance that they do actually
some good if people educated and how they view them
is that.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
I mean I don't necessarily know the like the elements
in the film are good or but I knew that
they weren't going to be injurious.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
To the public.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
Good.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
It was more the fact that I think anything that
sort of arouses discussion is worthwhile, whether it's pro or negative.
But I believe censership, no for classification, I think is
really useful, which is an educational tool saying, but I
do believe that having one singular organization may be a
bit archaic now because the access to this material is
(23:29):
like you're trying to put the genie back in the bottle.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
That's right, Kids go straight to whatever they want to
watch on their phones, exactly.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
Yeah, cinemas seem to be the only place you could
regulate it.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Right now, I'm getting signals from my director which is
he's either very rude to me or he's saying, there's
two minutes to go, and so do a quick plug
for your movie again.
Speaker 5 (23:48):
Yeah, it's Bookworm. It's out in cinemas now. Yeah, bring
the kids. It's one of the few films I think
adults will enjoy just as much as their eight to
thirteen year olds. Yes, and it's yeah, it's my big
swing at trying to recreate a seventies family movie.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Well, all the best for that, and all the best
for whatever other project. I know you've got other projects
coming down the sheet to look forward to seeing what
that what what? What os you create? And we'll go
out on another song that you've picked a bit of.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Bob Dylan, absolutely the man, the myth, the legend, and
and to be honest, I was a late bloomer on
Dylan and I'm just I've got a lot to catch
up on.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And it's been great talking to you and I wish
you're all the best.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
Thank you, John.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
I'm John Cown on real life. Looking forward to being
back with you again next Sunday Night Man.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
We will have some jobs to keep from being c
but that's just because he doesn't want turn into some machine.
Take a woman like you to get through the man.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
La La La La.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
For more from News Talks at b listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk, said, b
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio,
Real Conversation, Real Connection. It's Real life with John Cowan
on news Talk, said.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Be can I welcome to real life.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I'm John Cowen and my guest night is at Timson,
a New Zealand filmmaker whose latest movie is called Bookworm
and it's in theaters now. Congratulations on your latest movie.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Thank you very much, John.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
There must be a buzz seeing like a baby, you know,
drop into the world and out there doing well in
the theaters.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Well, hope it's doing well.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
It's doing okay, Yeah, no, it's I mean, I wish
the buzz happened a lot faster and a lot quicker. Yeah,
these things take a long long time. I'm a huge
chunkier life and I started so late, so I'm kind
of playing catshup.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I've heard yourself describe yourself as the world's oldest debut.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Direct I think I was.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
I think I think I was like fifty two with
the first one, which is crazy. I wish I was,
you know, I wish I'd wound the clock back.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Okay, but it's hardly a field that you've just started
to dabble. And you've been in motion pictures and movies
and every aspect of cinema life for all your life, really,
haven't you pretty much?
Speaker 5 (01:29):
Yeah, when you realize you're not going to have much
chop in any other sort of area of industry, you
sort of align with the one that gives you the
most passion, but also the one that you think you're
quite good at.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Well, let's give a get this buzz going about your movie.
Tell us what it's about and white people.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
Yeah, I mean, the interesting thing about Bookworm for me
is that it's the first film I can recommend to
family and friends because my history is from the world
of kind of cult and more sort of outrageous films,
and this is a very PG family orientated film what
you really.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Call death gasm or greasy or ABC of death.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
You know, family maybe as a family film, but no,
this one, this one's.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Very This is my sort of tribute to the seventies
family movies I grew up with, which is like, you know,
your Benji's and your wilderness families that kind of vibe.
But yeah, so it's a father daughter story, a father
who has been hasn't been part of his daughter's life,
and he's a sort of has been illusionist from from
(02:38):
the States who has to come down and look after
his eleven year old daughter, who's a bit of a bookworm.
She's smarter than him, more capable than him, and she
sort of railroads him into saying, let's go search for
the Canbury Panther because it's going to the reward's going
to solve all our problems. And that's the sort of
that's the plot. In a nutshell, You've got two great
stars in the movie. You've got to Lijah Wood and
(02:58):
the South Island.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
And Nelfish.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
And who's going to be a major star. Absolutely, she's
in the New Stranger Things. Yeah, she's going to be.
We were very lucky to get her on her rise,
you know, so she's I don't think we can afford
her next time around. But yeah, the South Island, which
was a reunion for Elijah's we put him in the
same sort of course.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
And Lord of the Rings, so going oh I remember
coming here or.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Oh absolutely, it wasn't hard to twist his arm. Let's
be honest, he'd been we'd been talking about doing a film,
another film together because he was in my first film, yes,
and we were like, why don't we My pitch was,
why don't you do it as a family vacation because
he's got two young kids and they hadn't been down
here and he wanted to bring them down and it
was a perfect excuse to like, let's do everything, let's
(03:44):
make a movie and you bring the fan down and
they can see everything that you loved about New Zealand
when you were here twenty years ago.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yea, and twenty years ago, I think so, yeah, would
be I suppose wasuldn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (03:56):
I think the first one was around the millennium, so
a long time, right.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Well, his career has got on and on and in
your career, as I say, this is your second feature film,
and your first one also featured Elijah Wood.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Now, I don't want to get all psychoanalytical on you
and and rip your psych shreds on radio and everything.
But this movie, Bookworm, is about a girl with her
dad that she doesn't know, her dad coming back into
her life. Your first film was about a man going
to meet his father that he had ever met in
his life before.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Either you know what's going on? What's going on?
Speaker 5 (04:33):
I could just blame the other rifer I work with.
It's all his issues. No, I think we just love we.
The writer and I have talked about a loose trilogy
that we wanted to do with Elijah Wood appearing in
each one as a different character. He's good exactly, So
we want to we want to repeat that formula, and
(04:53):
we just wanted it to be based on kind of
these hang ups that Toby who's the writer, and I
have and they all sort of stem from a singular idea,
usually involving fathers and sons or you know, parental figures
to trying to be what they want to be. And
so the book when was you know, the singular idea
(05:15):
was failing in front of my kids, which is was
the singular fair that I shared with Toby saying, I.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Don't think you have that one on your own, mate.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
No, no, but really in a time of crisis. We
all failed daily with our kids, you know, when they
growing up, and we're always trying to you know, I had,
you know, a huge authority figure as a dad, like
the ultimate patriarch, So it was a lot to look
up to when I was growing up, and so it
was playing on that where I had a family vacate
(05:46):
with my kids when they were very young that went
horribly wrong, which is kind of where the film stemmed
out from. And it was like it ended in like
emergency callouts and like you know, battered bodies and everything
was a horrible, horrible experience.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
You're talking about your vacation, not one of your movies.
Speaker 6 (06:03):
Yeah, this is the vacation.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
This was a small jaunt around an island in the harbor,
which is Rakino Island.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
Everyone said, oh, it's very easy at low tide, you
just go around the tip of it and walk around.
But it ended in absolute chaos and the kids nearly drowning,
and me panicking and not being this heroic dad that
you should be in these In these moments, I completely
pooped the bed and panicked, and I just remember looking
at my kids and they were looking at me, and
(06:32):
it was them seeing my panic like I just it was.
It haunted me, and I was like, I'm going to,
like I do with any trauma, minor trauma, I'm going
to mine it for comedic effect and we'll make another
movie out of it, as I did with the first film.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
You can't tell me that you're busy struggling away there
I for your kids and dying of exposure or whatever
it was that you're going through, and you're thinking this
would be a good funny fee later on.
Speaker 6 (06:55):
Yeah, you do, later on, you do later on.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
That's the way I think.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
Yeah, not immediately, like I might have it like a
few beers in the pub later on to calm down,
But I mean months and months later, or even sometimes years,
it'll come back. So come to Daddy came from a
kind of you know, huge event for me, which was
witnessing my dad drop dead in front of me, and
so that was and then spending time with his with
(07:22):
with the body in his house for like five or
six days and as a way of you know, grieving,
lying in wake, and then but just those those moments,
spending that time with him at night, my I just
my mind just played crazy tricks on me. And then
I started talking to Toby the writer about it way
(07:42):
down the line and saying, I really think there's something
interesting here.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
That's very strange.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So you spent all this time with your I know
that this is something that perhaps we think of in
Mari culture of spending your time but not usually sitting
alone in a house with.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
He was well, he was there for like all this,
all lying and siblings like yeah and so. And then
during some of the days, old old friends would turn
up and most of them we knew, some of them
had never met, and they had these stories about my
father that I thought never heard this before, like this
is a secret history, so to speak, of my father.
(08:20):
And that's later on when we were when we were
I was trying to process it, and it was very
it was cathartic. The whole thing was a remarkable time.
So your relationship with your father actually evolved after he.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Died in a way, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
And the film is a tribute to him, because it
was it was a kind of tribute to the films
we used to watch and he loved those sort of
tough British thrillers and they put that credit comedy. Yeah,
a tribute to him, Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
And so.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
If you obviously think a lot about fatherhood and father's
death and its Father's Father's Day Fursday. Yeah, and so
you've thought a lot about your relationship with your own
dad and and and been a fear of stuffing things
up with your own kids. Did they look after your
Father's Day that's probably the big thing.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
Yeah, I mean I got a heart stopping pulled pork
sandwich for my breakfast and a pretty pretty good coffee
as well. So that's look at that's all I can
expect these days.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
I think they're giving you a past mark, mate.
Speaker 6 (09:28):
I don't think maybe I should be reading between the lines.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I don't think the movies they'll be making of you
making themselves later life will be there.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Who knows that their dad suffering from high blood pressure
and brings a pulled pork sandwich up. I mean, I
feel like I think it's a murder of kid. I
feel like something's going on behind the scenes I'm not
aware of.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Well, as you're processing feel thoughts about your dad, and
I bet you thinking about him today. Was there things
that he did in his role as a dad that
you'd like to emulate with your own kids. You described
him as being very authoritarian. I think he had a
nickname or something. Do you think the Major General?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
The General?
Speaker 6 (10:05):
Yeah? He and so well.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
I spent a lot of my time as I was
going being quite scared of dad. You know, he was
that kind of imposing figure at times. It's very stressed.
His workload was insane, So he brought a lot of
that home. But eventually it also kind of turned a corner.
And then when everything eased off and the work wasn't
like this huge priority in his life, it was just
(10:28):
just became a wonderful and then yeah, got on like
a house on fire, which and he was a great
dad throughout, but it was like, I just remember, you know,
he was a very imposing figure when I was young.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Isn't that a.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Nice and encouraging thing that people can change. Yeah, that
people can can mallow and everything. Absolutely just listening to
a David Sadaris book and he's talking about his relationship
with his dad and how he became His dad became
so much nicer as he got older, and there's hope
for my kids.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
I might even get nice as I get old.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Well, And I think it's a good self check as well,
because you do, no matter how far you you think,
you're not going to be your parents, those traits are
very hard to get rid of. I mean that's it's
genetically tied into you. So so it is a yeah,
it's a great way to kind of reminisce, but also
think about your relationship with him in the past, with
(11:24):
your father and then what am I going to do
to you know, not be the negative side of those
things and more focus on what was great about it.
So yeah, so it's it's And what I've learned is
that it's it's it's. The journey never stops, the learning
never stops. In terms of your kids, they might start,
you know, shooting up by a foot, which is what
(11:46):
happened has happened in the last year or so, and
turn into monsters, but that's the kind of yeah relationship
you have them goes ebbs and flows.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Then that's yeah, we've got to change gear. I guess
is that changing gear? And it's it's a challenge, isn't it.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
Well, and the world changes around them.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
You're planning three movies on this. It's not going to
be the m probably.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
So they'll come into the third one for sure, someone.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Okay, So I'll be interested to see how that evolves.
I'm talking with New Zealand movie maker director and Timson,
and We've got a fascinating career. He's always been involved
in movies in one way or another, a festivals and
in producing films, and I also wort to talk about
the genre of movies that you made your name in,
(12:32):
which is these sort of what was the name of
the of the of this.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Genre is it?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
They're sort of almost like mock horror some of them,
aren't they that there's always.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
This comedy horror. But yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
I mean, there were a lot of the Yeah, I
guess it's kind of cult. Cinema is another word people
use in the film the cinephiles used. But yeah, the
kind of like outlier titles.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
A lot of them.
Speaker 6 (12:56):
They were ones that push buttons. They were kind of outrageous.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
Yes, and then but I also produced other people's films
that were kind of more Yeah, some of them were
comedy bassed, but yeah, tried to do anything that I
really felt either the person I wanted to support or
just love the material, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Okay, so there's lots we can be talking about in
the In the second half of this program, we were
talking with Aunt Timpson about his career, about his life,
and about we'll be talking about also about censorship and
a few other things related to the movie industry. This
is real life on News Talks EDB be back with
you in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on Newstalks edb.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Trouble Trouble the way.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I have seen your face and it's too much for
me today.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Trouble Trouble can see you have made me?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Who rack it? Now? Won't you leave me?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
In Mom's re.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Welcome back to real life. I'm John Cown talking with
filmmaker and Simpson. He spoke a beautiful song there. What
are we listening to?
Speaker 5 (14:16):
This is Trouble by Kat Stevens, which I first heard
when I was a young chap on the Harold and
Wud soundtrack, the great film by the late hal ashby
Bud Cought and Ruth Gordon. Just a wonderful cult film
that used to play in theaters for about two to
three years NonStop, back in the days when cinema's kind
(14:38):
of ruled. And yeah, it's always had a huge impact
on me. For some this is a morbid thing. But
I always I thought, oh, that's the song I want
played at my funeral because it's gonna it'll squeeze out
a few tears for sure.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Right it's.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I know we should all be sort of prepared and
have sort of things like that. But is this something
you think about a lot?
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Yeah, but not in a not necessarily in a kind
of morbid negative way, kind of just just I just
find it fascinating. I find that we don't talk about
it enough. Really, it's still it's not taboo, but it's
I feel like it's very different now. You never it
was something like it was very inappropriate to bring it up,
(15:21):
you know, when I was young, just it seemed like
something that was tied into the ugly side of things
you didn't want to talk about. But I just think
it's it's part of life, and it's it's a huge
thing that we should be talking about.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Okay, So you've got that aspect of it worked out.
I don't know if I've got too many plans from
a funeral. I have thought that I'd like to have
every student at a local theological college coming and giving
a sermon for half an hour. I reckon about it.
You know, if I'm not having a good time, I
don't think anyone else should be having a good time.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Now that sounds great.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Now, your life within you has been stapled to movies
right from the early dage. As a kid, you watched
lots and lots of movies.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
Yeah, I was fortunate enough to have a great far
up the road from us at the Crystal Palace in
mount Edon, and it was you know, walking distance.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
I hope it's still going.
Speaker 6 (16:11):
It's still there.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
It's not necessarily it's not going, but it's it's a
gorgeous you know, single seven hundred seater, single screen. But
that was a time when every suburb had its own theater.
You know, there was sixty five and around Auckland, sixty
five around Auckland even more, I think it was. There's
just enormous and beautiful buildings too. Like it was such
a shame when they all started in the eighties getting
(16:35):
the chop. But I grew up in that period where
they were just you know, the magical places to go
as a as a kid, and I, yeah, I guess
I escaped suburbia into the worlds of like Clint Spaghetti
Westerns and everything else around that time.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
And in your childhood you had time in la and
you got to actually see some of the people that
were made.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
On the screen. Yeah, yeah, that was that was wild.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
So my father tried to set up a arm of
the business he had in New Zealand. So we all
jumped ship and went over there to live and went
to school and we all got put in different schools.
And then but then in my class, I had like
you know, at the time, it was seventy seven, I think,
(17:23):
and so Get Smart was still on air, which is
a great comedy series by mel Brooks, and his daughter
was in my class, Don Don Adams, and I went
to his house and it was suddenly like it was
just like this was that right, Yeah, it was like
looking behind the curtain.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
You know that Don Adams spent a couple of years
in New Zealand.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Yeah, the war, it was invalided down here.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Marina.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Yeah, he was.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
I mean, he was a huge figure growing up. You
couldn't escape him if you were you went to Maxwell
Smart's house exactly. Yeah, it wasn't there was no sort
of cone of silence or anything else, but it was
just it was more that you Yeah, and then you
run into people like Martin Landau at the at the
grocery store, and so it was suddenly coming from you
do small town New Zealand or and then yeah, that
(18:10):
just kind of yeah, it was just very formative.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Help us to give you the idea that these people
aren't on a separate planet. Yeah, and so yeah, so
I gave you the idea that you could get into
that felt accessible. So you came back to New Zealand
full of hope and dreams. Full of hope and dreams
went down to a tiger killed one dream down there
pretty quickly.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Probably my parents dream of.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
A law degree.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
That just was an absolute disaster. But I blame Otargo
well more than myself. And then but I that was there. Yeah,
while there, I started, I mean I was even applying
for film jobs because I knew I was tanking out,
so I was looking around what it was. There was
no sort of guy for roadmap or how to get
(18:59):
into the industry or anything. So I just sent out
letters to all production companies and hoping I was going
to hit. And then had a couple and then started
working in the in the sector, and yeah, I worked
on the It's kind of was like a fourth AD
on a film called Queen City Rocker, which was shot
around Auckland, and I got a break, I think through
(19:22):
a connection fourth ad. Yeah, is that a trainee role?
So you AD's are assistant directors. But it's way too
big a title to name what label what I was
doing more Dog's Body dog's body, general dog's body. Yeah,
but I loved, you know, even though we were working
incredibly long hours and everyone was seemed really annoyed and
(19:44):
pissed off with that aspect, I just lapped it up.
I loved how how I Yeah, just just looking just
confirmed that confirmed that this is what I This is
the world that I really love and I should be involved.
But the crazy thing is that took a long time
to get back into that, that actual side of it.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Right, And so while being sort of involved in all
sorts of different aspects of film production, you're also promoting
movies in that you formed the film festival the gridly Strange. Yes,
this taste for things out on the edge. I don't
(20:22):
know what eclectic, exploitive, Yeah, sometimes edgy. I guess if
you used the cheese scale where Disney was sort of
mild e dam this is your tastes are up in vein,
aren't they. They're running French.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
They're probably more in that Greek one with the maggots
in the cheese. I don't know what that's called, but
is that one? But yeah, you like a death tang
to your and your sort of a taste. Yeah, and
to be honest, I don't know why, when when that
actually first happened, Why I kind of leaned into that.
I think part of it was starting a film fanzine.
I started writing about films that I liked, and then
(20:56):
I met Charlie Gray, who was quite influential on me.
Do you remember a cinema And there's a cinema in
Auckland run by Charlie Gray who was a great jazz
collector who started Auckland's first night clubs, and then he
got into the movie game and he had his own
cinema called Charlie Grays. And I ended up doing some
work with Charlie and he yeah, he was, he was
(21:18):
a mentor. But in just that kind of really opened
my eyes up to a lot of other aspects of
the business, which is exhibition and buying films and releasing.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Yeah, and some of these films that you were bringing
in it made the sense of sit forward in his
chair some what shall we say, and sometimes invited the
ire of more conservative people.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
There was a yes, there was an organization that really
didn't look favorably Society for the promotional Tunity to commit,
which Partlett Bartlett founded Patricia Bartlett, Yeah, who was you know,
I met her iconic You met her?
Speaker 6 (22:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (22:01):
How was she in person?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Actually she was.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I was trying to take a photograph of her and
she wouldn't stop eating. That's my recollection of Pat Bartlet.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
I've got it. I saw a few photos with her.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Maybe I took them.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
Yeah she yeah, No, she was a quite a figurehead.
And there's so someone took over her role and yeah,
there just it was. It was a huge kerfuffle between
film festivals and that organization.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Now, some of the movies that you were bringing in,
I can remember that one called I think it was
Bese Moire. Yes, actually they got a rating, but then
got challenge and went to court.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Yeah. I went to Yeah, I went to High.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
High Court and they actually gave it a less restricted rating.
I think you won that. But but I just looking
back at that, you were saying, you you think these
movies have some type of significance that they do actually
some good if people educated and how they view them
is that.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
I mean I don't necessarily know the like the elements
in the film are good or but I knew that
they weren't going to be injurious.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
To the public.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
Good.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
It was more the fact that I think anything that
sort of arouses discussion is worthwhile, whether it's pro or negative.
But I believe censership, no for classification, I think is
really useful, which is an educational tool saying, but I
do believe that having one singular organization may be a
bit archaic now because the access to this material is
(23:29):
like you're trying to put the genie back in the bottle.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
That's right, Kids go straight to whatever they want to
watch on their phones, exactly.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
Yeah, cinemas seem to be the only place you could
regulate it.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Right now, I'm getting signals from my director which is
he's either very rude to me or he's saying, there's
two minutes to go, and so do a quick plug
for your movie again.
Speaker 5 (23:48):
Yeah, it's Bookworm. It's out in cinemas now. Yeah, bring
the kids. It's one of the few films I think
adults will enjoy just as much as their eight to
thirteen year olds. Yes, and it's yeah, it's my big
swing at trying to recreate a seventies family movie.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Well, all the best for that, and all the best
for whatever other project. I know you've got other projects
coming down the sheet to look forward to seeing what
that what what? What os you create? And we'll go
out on another song that you've picked a bit of.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Bob Dylan, absolutely the man, the myth, the legend, and
and to be honest, I was a late bloomer on
Dylan and I'm just I've got a lot to catch
up on.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And it's been great talking to you and I wish
you're all the best.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
Thank you, John.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
I'm John Cown on real life. Looking forward to being
back with you again next Sunday Night Man.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
We will have some jobs to keep from being c
but that's just because he doesn't want turn into some machine.
Take a woman like you to get through the man.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
La La La La.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
For more from News Talks at b listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
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