British director Mike Barker graduated from TV to work on "Best Laid Plans" with Reese Witherspoon, and "The James Gang" with John Hannah. His latest film, "To Kill a King", is an English Civil War drama starring Tim Roth, Dougray Scott, and Rupert Everett.
"To Kill a King" was a nightmare production wasn't it?
Basically we ran out of money. We started filming and after two weeks it collapsed and we had to stop filming. Three weeks later we had some more money and started filming again, but then it basically collapsed again. It took us 17 weeks to do a ten-week shoot.
What was the worst problem you faced?
We built a set of Westminster Palace inside Hampton Court Palace. We removed all their lawns and everything, and then couldn't take the sets down because we'd run out of money! It was pretty nightmarish. It was the first time anyone had filmed there. We took over the place, took up all the grass and then couldn't replace it... They had the garden show coming up and there were no lawns!
That must have been difficult for the cast?
The focus becomes "can we finish this?" rather than anything else. There's one perfect example. I was filming the armoury scene and all the drivers started threatening to walk out. So I ran upstairs to try and persuade them not to go, but while I was upstairs, the scene was still being shot. Since there was no one there to shout "cut!", the actors just kept on ad-libbing! That kind of pressure is very difficult for the cast to cope with.
What kind of directions did you give Rupert Everett for playing King Charles I?
Rupert Everett playing the king is a bit like Hugh Grant playing a romantic lead. There's a certain obviousness to him playing that part. I wanted to keep his wit but not overplay it, so I told him I wanted to see his eyes dancing all the time in terms of the mischief he's creating. I didn't want to lose what he has as an actor, that posh boy naughtiness.
How do you think audiences will deal with the lack of battle sequences?
We knew we鈥檇 never be able to match big budget pictures like "Rob Roy" or "Braveheart", where there are 2,000 men running down a hill. I'd rather not do it all than do it badly.
