Edgy action film New Town Killers is one of the most anticipated features at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival. Writer and director Richard Jobson and actor James Anthony Pearson join the five thirty show to discuss the gritty Edinburgh film.
Written and directed by the former front man of The Skids, the film is set on the dark streets of Edinburgh and follows the life of a homeless teenager who is made an offer he can’t refuse by two hedge-fund managers. The wealthy bankers set him up to play a violent game of hide and seek.
Jobson outlined his inspiration for writing the film, following personal experiences with the forgotten classes on the edge of society.
“I was working with some young kids in Edinburgh…the children of alcoholics and heroin addicts. I think to all intents and purposes they had become socially invisible. I became interested in that we as a society are turning our back on these kids,” said the director.
He continued, “So I wanted to write a story about them but I didn’t want to do it in that social realism, kitchen sink way we tend to do in Scotland. I wanted to make it like a thrilling action film that had something really exciting that you could bight into, but underneath that lay something very serious.”
At the centre of the film are two private bankers, played by Dougray Scott and Alistair Mackenzie, who get their kicks from hunting those in the margins of society. The irony of the present economic climate is not lost on the director.
“I put at the heart of it these two crazy, nasty, vicious hedge-fund managers and lo and behold look what’s happened; we’re surrounded by nasty, vicious hedge-fund managers,” said the former rocker.
The star of the film is the hunted homeless teenager played by James Anthony Pearson. However, the English-born actor admitted he had reservations about taking the role.
“I didn’t actually [think the part was for me] but we kind of turned it around in the room and it all went really well. It wasn’t till we started filming that the excitement started,” said the actor who has appeared in Casualty and Holby City.
The young actor also performed all of his own stunts in the film, many of which were dangerous action sequences. His background in medical drama, however, may have provided some comfort should anything have gone wrong.
