TMW #58: The best shark movies (that aren't Jaws), The Ballad of Wallis Island interviews and a spin-offs quiz
There's plenty to chew on in this week's newsletter
Welcome to your Tuesday edition of The Movie Wingman, where the news of a major new Jaws documentary got us thinking about the best shark movies that aren’t Spielberg’s sea-bound masterpiece. We’re also speaking to the team behind the hilarious and heartfelt The Ballad of Wallis Island, and there’s a quiz on famous spin-offs in honour of John Wick series extender Ballerina. Read below, and like/share/comment/restack to earn Wingman’s eternal gratitude…
Fin-tastic Beasts
Everyone knows that Jaws is the king of the, er, ocean, but what are the best shark movies not directed by a 27-year-old wunderkind called Steven? With Dangerous Animals hitting screens later this week, and Jaws about to turn 50, The Movie Wingman assesses the runners-up with the bite stuff…
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Is Deep Blue Sea good? That’s debatable. But it is a lot of fun. Renny Harlin’s ’99 actioner about super-smart mako sharks run amok is fondly remembered for its killer Samuel L. Jackson twist and daft set-pieces, even if the decision to use VFX sharks before VFX were up to snuff makes it feel like Thomas Jane is being hunted by one of the cartoon biters from Shark Tale. There’s some wishy-washy science involving Alzheimer’s research to explain it all, but makos with mega-brains is a spectacular bit of shark movie one-upmanship. Featuring over-qualified support from the likes of Stellan Skarsgård and the aforementioned Samuel L., LL Cool J also appears, memorably, as the facility’s parrot-owning chef, while Saffron Burrows chief scientist – who’s largely responsible for the rampage – was considered so unlikable by test audiences that the ending was re-shot to have her sleep with the fishes. It’s enough to put you off working at a shark research facility for life.
Open Water (2003)
As far as nightmare holidays go, being stranded in shark-infested waters is second only to getting food poisoning on day one of a cruise, and only because the sharks can end the misery mercifully quickly. No such luck for the unfortunate couple in Open Water, though. The 2003 micro-budget, minor sensation is based on the true story of a husband and wife who were left behind during a scuba dive when the boat crew took an inaccurate head count. In the film, after it slowly dawns that a rescue isn’t on the cards, couple Daniel and Susan realise they have no option but to bob above the surface and hope for the best while apex predators circle below. Unlike Bruce in Jaws, who wastes no time chomping down on his targets, the sharks in Open Water stalk their prey, drawing blood to incapacitate before going in for the kill. It’s harrowing stuff, lent an air of grimy authenticity by the fact it was shot on camcorder-like digital video, as well as the use of live sharks (gulp). It’s enough to put you off scuba diving for life.
The Reef (2010)
This Ozzie frightener from Andrew Traucki – director of the similarly snappy crocodile attack movie Black Water – plays like a high-octane remake of Open Water. Five friends help deliver a yacht to Indonesia, but the boat capsizes and the group is stranded when the hull strikes a coral reef. Four decide to make a break for land, while one (sensibly) stays behind. Quicker than you can say ‘Get out of the water!’, a Great White is nipping at their heels and severing legs in a single bite. The bigger group allows for more interpersonal drama to play out as death lurks under the surface, and there are some neat mechanics – only one character has goggles, and is the group’s designated doom-mongering eyes. Some of the visual effects don’t hold up, but where real shark footage is used, the fear is palpable. It’s enough to put you off sailing a yacht through shark-infested waters for life.
The Shallows (2016)
Deserving of a place on any shark-movie list for the inclusion of its exquisitely named supporting bird, Steven Seagull (real name: Sully), director Jaume Collet-Serra’s nifty shark-attack thriller is a blast. Blake Lively stars as medical student in mourning Nancy, who’s stranded on a rock a stone’s throw away from the shore by a bloodthirsty great white. Much closer to Deep Blue Sea in spirit than Jaws, it deploys humour to great effect, as Lively’s Nancy uses her smarts and good fortune (Deus Ex Go-Pro revealing a hidden weakness) to take down a shark so mean it makes Bruce look like a goldfish. Being so close to the shore’s salvation is a devilish tension-builder, and Collet-Serra does an impressive job of keeping the action compelling, despite the limited number of pieces on the board. It’s enough to put you off surfing for life.
Playing with Sharks (2021)
This doc about diver Valerie Taylor is a pretty convincing bit of rehabilitation for the humble shark after Spielberg’s potent blockbuster gave them the kind of rep that Freddy Krueger and co. could only dream of. Taylor’s thesis is that sharks are no worse than dogs, in that they may have one hell of a bite, but they have no reason to hurt you if you play nice. They can even be trained, as Taylor demonstrates with a delightfully obedient hammerhead. Taylor worked briefly on Jaws as an underwater photographer, capturing some of the real shark footage used in the film, and advocated in the years that followed for lawmakers to put protections in place, fearing the film’s power could cause populations to decline (though overfishing is generally considered the main driver). Putting her money where her mouth is, she even dons chainmail and allows sharks to take a bite, emerging unscathed. It’s enough to make you think that getting back in the water might not be such a bad idea after all. (Jordan Farley)
Interview: The Ballad of Wallis Island
The Movie Wingman meets Tim Key, Tom Basden and James Griffiths…
In cinemas now is the utterly delightful music-themed dramedy, The Ballad of Wallis Island. Adapted from a short film (2007’s The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island), it’s written by longtime collaborators Tim Key and Tom Basden, who also star as lottery-winner Charles (Key) and Herb (Basden), the famous folk singer Charles invites to perform a private gig on the remote island where he lives. What Herb doesn’t realise when he initially agrees to the gig is his former partner Nell (Carey Mulligan) has also been roped in. The Ballad of Wallis Island is directed by James Griffiths, who also helmed the short, and last week The Movie Wingman had the opportunity to sit down with Key, Basden and Griffiths to discuss their joint collaboration from short to feature, the songs, their “Hail Carey” and nailing the film’s ending(s)...
The Movie Wingman: This project started out as a short in 2007. Did you have thoughts about expanding it back then?
Tim Key: Yeah, we had thoughts. But they weren't good enough thoughts. [laughs]
Tom Basden: I think we sensed early on that the story could be a lot bigger, that the story of the super-fan and the artist could grow and grow and become a feature film. I think we just didn't quite know what that was.
Tim Key: I think we had a vague idea of like a music festival with other people who'd also been hoodwinked all around the island. But I think it's a good advert for not making something before you know what it is. We could easily have bungled it in 2008.
James Griffiths: We sort of needed the time to be able to tell this specific story really. You need to be older, I guess, to sort of be looking back at that period, which we did as filmmakers too.
Was it during lockdown when you started thinking about expanding it into a feature?
Tim Key: It's a grey area. I tend to think it was just before.
Tom Basden: It was definitely around that time. I think that the key thing about lockdown is that it also informed the kind of story that we were going to tell, because we thought to ourselves, “Well, maybe we can write something that we can make in lockdown conditions.” As it happened we made it later, but it did influence the story certainly, and it helps to explain why it is such a self-contained, claustrophobic film.
Tom, you wrote the songs for the film too. At what stage of the writing process are you putting those together?
Tom Basden: A couple of the songs are from the short. And then there's another handful that are songs that I'd written, you know, in my bedroom over the intervening years, never really thinking they'd see the light of day. And then, about half of them were written once we had the script, once we knew what the story was gonna be, and once we knew about Herb and Nell's relationship. I was writing the songs really to illuminate that shared history and to add another layer of story to the movie where we can use certain songs at certain points to kind of bring out certain ideas. So it was a combination of very, very early and very, very late, to be honest.
And are you writing them in isolation, or are you sending demos to Tim and James?
Tom Basden: I'm sending demos to these guys and they'll give me a sort of thumbs up emoji and then I'll be like, “No idea if that's good or bad.” I think I needed a few more emojis than that. I was feeling quite exposed. [laughs] And then eventually I'm sending them to Carey and [her husband] Marcus Mumford and hoping that he doesn't listen to them going, “Sorry, what's this? You're not singing that!” But, yeah, everyone was very supportive and lovely about it. It turned a quite terrifying situation into a very nice one.
And what's the relationship like between the three of you with James as the director, because presumably it’s quite different to working with actors for hire when the leads have also written the script and the songs?
James Griffiths: For me, it's an absolute pleasure really because you've got an incredible encyclopedia and knowledge of these characters and the writing, and you're working with those people in those scenes. So my job, as a director, is to give them the space, set them up for success, so they can do their thing. That's a great space to be in. We all kind of stick in our lanes a little bit on the day because you have to. They turn up as actors on the day, not writers. And they allow me to do my thing with the crew and try to put the camera in the right place to tell the story. And then editorially, it was lovely just working together to find the rhythms of the film, and they were invited in very early so that we could collaborate on all those things. It's a joint ownership. It really has been an amazing collaboration between us.
You’ve referred to it as a Hail Mary when Tim contacted Carey Mulligan about playing Nell…
Tom Basden: Hail Carey!
Tim Key: The Hail Carey was, we drew up a list of our favourite Nells and Carey was at the top of the list. And then I said, “Well, I think I can maybe reach out to Carey.” And then these two were like, “I don't know what you're talking about.” They had no faith. So then I reached out to her and she signed up for the film. I had her email from a few years before where she'd contacted me through my agent to host an event. I declined politely because that would be horrific to host an event. But I knew I had her email and so I emailed her personally, which is not always advised, but in a very polite way - I mean, I spent a lot of time on that email - and fortunately she was already on board when she got the email. She was like, “I know these people,” she was aware of what we do. And her husband also is a fan. And so I think he sort of said, “You've gotta do that.” And, we also said, “You've gotta do that…”
You said that you wanted someone who would force you to keep up with them. How did that play out?
Tim Key: It played out very well, but I remember us talking about that and it's kind of frightening to have someone that good on set and you do know you have to up your game. I remember talking to [Tom] about a very intense scene at the heart of the whole thing in the conservatory and I wasn't there because I'm not in the scene. Just asking him the next day how it went and he's like, "I don't know. I think fine."
Tom Basden: "Carey was very good." [laughs]
Tim Key: Yeah, that scene more than any, you've got to sort of go toe to toe with someone that good. And it does sort of bring the best out of you.
Tom Basden: Also Carey is so natural. Everything she's doing is so well judged. I think the main thing for me actually was it really helped me understand that you don't need to push it. You just gotta play it in a way that feels right and feels real.
[Minor spoilers follow…] Something that really works in the film is the ending, and how multiple dynamics between different characters are tied up. Were the endings all locked from the beginning, or did you workshop different ways it could potentially go?
Tim Key: I mean, amazing to think that a lot of that was locked down 18 years ago [in the short]. When we went back to it, I think there was a lot of discussion about different ways of doing things, but I think we all decided quite quickly it would end the way it would end, in terms of my character and [Tom’s] character. The other three characters obviously weren't in the short [Mulligan’s Nell, Sian Clifford’s Amanda, Akemnji Ndifornyen’s Michael], so you have to work out how the story will all come together at the end. But yeah, the main sort of foundation stones of the end were in place.
James Griffiths: I think there was discussion inevitably with whether Nell would come back or not, and there was certainly a lot of discussion around that, or how she might come back into the story, like whether we see her somewhere else or whether she actually physically comes back. But the intention was always that this was not a romantic comedy in that sense. There's romance in it obviously, but it was more a film about [Herb and Charles’] relationship and everyone's dynamics. So yeah, it was on the table. But then I think we got to a good place. (Matt Maytum)
The Ballad of Wallis Island is in cinemas now
The Wingman Quiz: Spin-Offs
With John Wick side-quel Ballerina pirouetting into cinemas this week, let’s see how en pointe you are when it comes to other brand extensions. Scroll down for the answers…
Which of these Conjuring Universe films grossed the most at the worldwide BO?a) Annabelle: Creation b) The Nun c) Annabelle Comes Home d) The Nun II
In 1984’s Supergirl, which actor reprised their role from the earlier Superman films?
a) Marc McClure b) Jackie Cooper c) Valerie Perrine d) Marlon Brando
This is 40 protagonists Pete and Debbie previously appeared in which Judd Apatow film?
a) Funny People b) The 40-Year-Old Virgin c) Knocked Up d) Anchorman
Which of these Dune stars had an early role in High School Musical spin-off Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure?
a) Oscar Isaac b) Austin Butler c) Timothée Chalamet d) Dave Bautista
In Lego Movie spin-off The Lego Batman Movie, who plays the mayor of Gotham City?
a) Katy Perry b) Lady Gaga c) Mariah Carey d) Christian Bale
Quiz Answers
b) The Nun
a) Marc McClure (as Jimmy Olsen)
c) Knocked Up
b) Austin Butler
c) Mariah Carey