- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: WORLD PREMIERE OF FILM 'HIGH HEELS AND LOW LIFES'
- Date: 17th July 2001
- Summary: WEST END CINEMA, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 17, 2001) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OUTSIDE OF ODEON WEST END CINEMA, LEICESTER SQUARE, LONDON (3 SHOTS) SCU/ CU THE FILM'S DIRECTOR, MEL SMITH POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS (2 SHOTS) SC/CU ACTOR DANNY DYER ARRIVING AT ODEON MV MEL SMITH TALKING TO JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR MEL SMITH SAYING: "It was kind of original.
- Embargoed: 1st August 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Environment
- Reuters ID: LVA6U0RRPMEN2KNYPWI6CXWNGM6T
- Story Text: Minnie Driver and Mary McCormack arrived in London for the world premier of British director, Mel Smith's latest comedy/thriller, High Heels and Low Lifes. The two actresses play a pair of early thirty-something friends who overhear plans of a bank robbery and devise to blackmail the gang of thieves.
Directing may be a fairly recent career move but Mel Smith is certainly no stranger to comedy. He started out in the eighties on the BBC's highly successful comedy series, Not the Nine o'clock News. There he teamed up with "Alas Smith and Jones" partner Griff Rhys Jones who he went on to form Talkback with, a lucrative production company responsible for hit TV comedy shows, "They Think It's All Over", "Smack the Pony", "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" and "Da Ali G Show".
Hardly surprising then he feels his new comedy/thriller, High Heels and Low Lifes is his best film directing work to date.
"I mean for what its worth I'm very proud of it. I think it's probably the film so far in but my brief career that you know I'm really happiest with so far," said Mel.
The film centres on two hip, thirty-something friends, Shannon, a nurse in a busy London casualty department, played by Minnie Driver and Frances, a struggling American actress, played by Mary McCormack. When the pair overhear plans of a bank robbery in their London neighbourhood they set out to blackmail the thieves. An initial phonecall throws them into a violent underworld and before they know it they've taken on far more than they ever bargained for."
Smith says it was the script's originality that attracted him to the project. "I hadn't read a script that featured two women who were funny and that were pro-active in a film. It had a lot of very funny set pieces in it, and it had a very, very I thought for a first read, it had a very compelling story-line. I thought, I mean it is a comedy/thriller and there's a lot of laughs in it, but I'd like to think that if you took the laughs out it would still hold as a story. I mean I found it a real page turner so it was an easy one to say yes to. And the guy who wrote it Kim Fuller is a bloke I worked together with twenty years ago on, "Not the Nine o'clock News", so I knew we'd have fun working on the script together which we did."
Fuller had the idea to write a female led action film some years ago and was absolutely convinced that he wanted the central characters to be two determined and courageous young women. "I must say though when Disney got the script they thought it was a woman that had written it. And I was getting notes saying, Kim Fuller you know we like her script but she's got a problem with men cos they're all pretty evil in the script. And I wrote back and said I don't know if I have got a problem with men but actually I'm sorry that they're evil but they have to be for the film. I don't think all men are evil", says Fuller.
The ill-fated Danny, one of the film's male character's could hardly be described as evil. Played by Danny Dyer who came to fame in the cult Brit-flick, Human Traffic. Dyer says Danny is the gang's fall guy.
"I play a right useless gangster. I'm the one who gets blackmailed. I'm the one who causes all the aggravation. He's a sweet little character, but he's useless, he tries to be right hard and that, but he couldn't even hold a gun you know what I mean."
The female leads on the other hand get to discover a whole new side to their personalities and find out that their best weapons are their wits and their friendship. The demure nurse Shannon dumps her self-obsessed boyfriend and before too long she and sidekick Francis are perfecting shoot-outs, drop-offs and break-ins as they become more and more determined to get their blackmail demands met.
Driver says the two get lured so easily into the gangsters violent underworld because they're ready for an adventure.
"They're greedy really aren't they. I mean they want the money, the police won't listen to them. They try and do the right thing to begin with and when they try to hand the money in and if they won't take it. And as people start getting hurt it becomes more sort of imperative for revenge."
Driver was a natural choice for the role of Shannon. One of Britain's most respected and prolific actresses, Driver received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Good Will Hunting and showed her gift for comic timing in, An Ideal Husband.
Driver and McCormack's on-screen chemistry shows they are good friends off-screen as well as on-screen. The pair met through a mutual friend in the US and were delighted to work together on the project. McCormack especially enjoyed the opportunity of working with a mostly British crew and cast. "I liked it a lot. I mean I did a play here last year to, so I've been here quite a bit. I love it here so I'd like to come back and do more."
One thing that doesn't play out in reality is Shannon's boyfriend situation. On the contrary, Driver herself, is currently working on the plans for her forthcoming wedding to Josh Brolin, Barbara Striesand's step-son. "It's fantastic. I won't be wearing a dress so they'll be no bother about who designed it." - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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