‘The Guard’ is a hilarious, fish out of water tale of murder, blackmail, drug trafficking and rural police corruption. Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) is a small-town cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humour, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international cocaine-smuggling ring that has brought FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) to his door. However, despite the fact that Boyle seems more interested in mocking and undermining Everett than in actively working to solve the case, he finds that circumstances keep pulling him back into the thick of it.

First his tiresomely enthusiastic new partner McBride disappears, then his favourite hooker attempts to blackmail him into turning a blind eye, and finally the drug-traffickers themselves try to buy him off as they have every other member of the local police force. These events unwittingly offend Boyle’s murky moral code. He realises that he needs to take matters into his own hands, and the only person he can trust is Everett. And so the scene is set for an explosive finale. Directed and written by John Michael McDonagh, ‘The Guard’ is out now in the US, it opens in UK cinemas August 10th.

The character you play, he certainly has a strong sense of justice, what stood out about him for you?

Don Cheadle: I love that he gets over there and he sort of gets the piss taken out of him, he’s knocked down a couple pegs. It’s funny to see that he gets over there and he doesn’t know who the people are, he doesn’t know much about them, he isn’t very interested at all, he’s just trying to follow his case. Then he runs into somebody who he cannot get around, not only who he cannot get around, but actually someone who has more information than anyone over there – and he knows it better than my character knows it. So there’s an affinity on that level. But they’re completely opposite, antithetical to one another.

Brendan, you’ve played a number of real-life individuals, Winston Churchill, Michael Collins. How does that differ from playing a fictional character?

Brendan Gleeson: There’s two ways of looking at it, obviously you can embrace something in a fiction, it’s all yours – it’s the writers, the directors and it’s yours. On the other hand if you take something like Churchill and Collins, because their lives have been so extraordinary, you can suspend disbelief immediately. It has happened, so you suspend disbelief, so the most remarkable things that happen in history – they say truth is stranger than fiction – it liberates the character from any suspicion that this couldn’t happen.

Don, you’ve worked with so many ensemble casts, the Ocean movies, Boogie Nights, Iron Man 2. This film has a very intimate feel to it, a lot of two person scenes. Do you enjoy that kind of more intimate filmmaking?

Don Cheadle: I enjoy it all. The difference between something like this and something like Oceans, where you have all the bells and whistles, all the amenities, trailers, whatever else you need at the tip of your fingers. This is a movie where everyone is there because they love the script. They love the story. They wanna see this come off. That kind of reminds you why you do this – lets just put this show in the barn kind of thing (laughs). People are there because they really believe in the material. That feels like a family, you’re all in the trenches together to make this thing.

You are both so great in this together. Did you have a lot of rehearsal time to get that chemistry right?

Brendan Gleeson: We had one meeting in LA, that we managed to get together with John. The three of us sat in a room and read the script, had a laugh about it, talked about it and chucked stuff back and forth. But that was it really. I just knew from the beginning, he’s such a great actor, such a great contributor to any work. We both knew that there wasn’t going to be some sort of competition on set, any of that dumb stuff that can happen (laughs). Where people try to create their own spaces, this was something we had to co-inhabit. So we went at it from the beginning, he arrived over and the weather was apocalyptic, basically that was the enemy (laughs).

Don Cheadle: We did hang out every-time after we wrapped. No matter what time it was we’d go to the pub, get a pint, hang out, get to know each other. Every weekend I’d golf so I saw a lot of Irish golf courses which is great. I really wanna go back and do that. Brendan was a great host while I was over there. It was a lot of fun, we hit off right away. We were really embraced by the community as well.

Is it more freeing to work with a director that wrote his own material like how John did with ‘The Guard?’

Don Cheadle: It can be a double edged sword, sometimes you run into people who have written their material that are directing it that don’t want a syllable changed, they want every inflection exactly as they’ve written it down. John was not that way about the material, he was very open to it flowing and breathing – but really there wasn’t that much improv necessary, the script was there. The characters were fully realised, the story was taut, it was a complete piece from the very beginning. I knew if we just showed up and did what…kind of the Bible dictated we’d have a good shot.

In the dramatic comedy ‘Larry Crowne,’ Julia Roberts stars alongside a stellar cast in Tom Hanks (who also directs), Taraji P. Henson, Cedric the Entertainer , Bryan Cranston, Gugu Mbatha Raw, Wilmer Valderrama, Pam Grier, Rami Malek, George Takei, Grace Gummer, Rita Wilson and Jon Seda. The story follows Larry Crowne (Hanks), a middle-aged man who after losing his job reinvents himself by going back to college. ‘Larry Crowne’ is set for release July 1st. Check out what Julia Roberts had to say about the film below.

How was it like working opposite someone like Tom Hanks, as both a director and co-star?

Julia Roberts: We’re kind of similar, I’m not as smart as him (laughs), but I have better hair! It was great, we both believe working should be fun, and I think we both believe in a responsibility to create that idea for everybody else. It is funny with him directing, it’s amazing the amount of energy he’s emitting in a day. He must just go home and fall into unconscious sense of sleep. He really does go 100% in each department. All day long he’s happy, he’s buoyant, he’s present. It’s kind of mind-boggling (laughs). This is only his second time directing, he really has it down how he can shape shift between one place to another, it’s pretty impressive.

It must have been a pretty fun set to be on?

Julia Roberts: Tom is amazing at that, he makes everyone feel apart of it, participating in it, like their two cents are meaningful. It really is a collaboration. He really does create an environment where we’re all happy and we feel like we are doing our best stuff, everybody.

The film has such a broad appeal.

Julia Roberts: Yes, I like that it’s really topical, for so many of the characters. People losing jobs, people losing their faith in the world. I just think that there was a lot of things that impressed me with….really a social-consciousness with how people are coping right now, or not coping. How they long to reinvent their lives, or they find what it is what their life is about then they’ve lost it, then maybe find it again.

Your character is dealing with a number of issues herself…

Julia Roberts: Yeah, she’s having issues herself. I think she’s in a position where her dreams are not coming to fruition the way she pictured them. She, in a way, in opposition to what Larry has decided to do for his life, she’s kind of given up a little bit. He inspires her to reinvigorate herself and her life. She’s fallen to a bitter attitude, he helps her see her way through that.

How was it acting in front of the class?

Julia Roberts: I have this great group who are in my classroom, along with Tom. It was funny because when we first shot in the classroom I just started working on the movie. Day after day it was me standing in front of this group of either five or ten young people. It was so nerve racking, I was just so unhinged. I would try to not make eye contact with people, if I locked eyes with people I’d forget my place, it was really nerve racking. It wasn’t until the end of that week when they each, one by one, had to get up and sit in my spot to give their final essay to the class. And every single person who got up there said, “It is horrible up here!” (Laughs) Even Tom was like, “God, it’s nerve racking up here!” It was fun to get that out of the way, get to know them in that environment, feel them cheering each other on.

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker lead a reunion of returning all-stars from every chapter of the explosive franchise built on speed in Fast Five. In this fifth installment, former cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) partners with ex-con Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) on the opposite side of the law. Dwayne Johnson joins returning favorites Jordana Brewster, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Matt Schulze, Tego Calderon and Don Omar for this ultimate high-stakes race. Check out what Paul Walker had to say about the film below. ‘Fast Five’ is out in UK cinemas now, it’s set for release April 29th in the US.

Tell us a little about Brian, he’s on the same side as Dom now.

Paul Walker: Basically we’re running for our lives, it’s the only way to make things work. The funny thing about the whole deal is that Brian’s been a cop for a while, he’s been this so called “good guy”, and now here he is running for his life, trying to keep out of jail and harms way. Even with this the guys happier than he’s ever been, he’s living more free and far more looser. He’s with the people he loves, he’s with the guy he see’s as a brother/maybe even father figure – because he never had that. He’s also with the girl of his dreams, he’s floating in the midst of all this crazy stuff going, he’s on cloud 9, he’s in a very happy place. With Brian and Dom it’s not much unlike Vin and I, we get along and I think there’s this mutual respect and fascination with one another.

The heist is pretty epic.

Paul Walker: Yeah, you think about it being the fifth film, obviously there’s the pressure of doing something pretty ridiculous, something that people haven’t seen before. For the most part everything’s been seen, when you think of heist movies how many things have been boosted, jacked, robbed, hijacked, whatever you wanna call it. The sequence that I read, for the first time when I read the script, I thought it was pretty ambitious (Laughs). I’m a pretty visual guy, I can put stuff together, I can read it and connect the dots and that, but nothing like what Justin Lin (director) put together. To actually see it edited together, blowing through banks, taking cars, it’s next level for sure.

Justin wanted everything to be real, 200 or so cars were destroyed, what does that add to the film?

Paul Walker: From my position that’s sick, that’s ridiculous. Justin is really really competitive, I think because of that competitive nature I think he wanted to shoot it practical, he wanted to do it real, not with CG. That is his personality, that is his make up. In pulling it off, it’s definitely a pop your collar moment, he can say “I’m the man”, (Laughs) there has to be some of that. He’s a humble guy, he doesn’t put that on, but from what I’ve seen and what I know of him I know that’s going on. I like to think that because of that people will appreciate it, we’ve seen CG this, CG that, I remember when the computer generated stuff first came around it was pretty wicked, we were all like WOW, but then I feel like for the longest time we saw so much of it that after a while people get slightly tired of it, you might as well be watching an animated movie sometimes. Justin is just one of those guys, he just wanted to make it happen.

How was Dwayne Johnson’s addition? He’s great in the film.

Paul Walker: The thing with Dwayne is that I watch him and there’s times when I’m just going “man this guys larger than life, is he real, really!” (Laughs) You talk to him and you just think this guy is too perfect, there’s something about this dude, I don’t know if it’s something that he has developed, or it’s something he had innately, it was an organic thing, he was just born with perfection (Laughs). Or maybe it’s just a culmination of him being born with some of it, then he’s worked on the other stuff. There’s no better match to fit for the Hobbs role than Dwayne. He OWNED that stuff, when he walked on set you were like “there’s Hobbs.”

If you like some adrenaline filled action, car racing shenanigans and manly scowls I’m pretty sure ’Fast Five’ will be your cup of tea. The film stars the likes of Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson and Dwayne Johnson. ‘Fast Five’ is released in cinemas April 29th in the US, and is out now in the UK. Check out what Vin Diesel had to say about the film below.

In the film you’ve got to assemble a team, a lot is at stake. Talk about bringing everyone back to assemble this team?

Vin Diesel: There was never a more appropriate time. We started this leg of the trilogy with Fast & Furious, the fourth instalment. The studio, I, Justin, we were all kind of dreaming at first that we could create a new trilogy, we started it with ‘Fast & Furious’ in 2009. This film however has a sombre element to it, we wanted to do a 180, bring in all these elements of levity and make it super fun, we did that by bringing back the whole cast and having them all work together as one family, one team.

Dom (Diesel) and Brian (Walker) are on the same side now.

Vin Diesel: FINALLY (laughs).

What’s that like? It’s like a family now.

Vin Diesel: That’s one of the things that I think speaks to our audience so much, the fact that aside from the fact that we’ve gone to a new level of action, aside from the fact that this film is more adrenaline pumped than any of the other four films. At the same time it continues its loyalty to family, it’s such an important element to this film, it’s also so rare in Hollywood action films, to feel that element so prevalent throughout the whole picture, but that’s what this is. How often do you see an action movie where two guys are talking about Fatherhood, or the female character is pregnant, you have to deal with that, and it’s your sister…all those things play into this really really really cool film.

Something like 200 cars were destroyed making the film.

Vin Diesel: (Laughs) It’s very real, when you shoot a lot of this practicalthe cars get destroyed, if we used a lot of CG we wouldn’t have had to worry about the cars, but we would have lost something that the audience feels when they watch the movie.

How was it with Dwayne ’The Rock’ Johnson being involved?

Vin Diesel: I couldn’t have dreamed for a better ’Hobbs’. We initially designed the role for Tommy Lee Jones, one of my fans on Facebook, Jan Kelly, said I would love to see you and The Rock in anything together. When the last film came out in 2009, the only person to call me after the 72.5 million dollar opening weekend was Dwayne Johnson, long before he ever knew he was going to be apart of this, he called me and congratulated me for the success. That kind of stuff goes along way. We’ve been toying to do stuff together and been wanting to do stuff together for ten years. It really was the best choice in the world if we were trying to challenge my character Dom, we needed someone bigger, we needed someone who looked formidable and acted as a formidable adversary. We needed someone who felt like they were on the outside of this franchise and to come in with that type of testosterone.

I watched the film with a big crowd and people were having a tonne of fun.

Vin Diesel: I think because in spite of us having the best action in the world, we deliver a story that they feel, and the core of all this IS a story, with characters that they know, that they’re on this journey with, that they’ve basically started this whole millennium with. At the end of the day there’s a heart to this film, that I think translates.

Hard-nosed federal agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) never misses his target. When he is assigned to track down Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian (Paul Walker), he and his strike team launch an all-out assault to capture them. But as his men tear through Brazil, Hobbs learns he can’t separate the good guys from the bad. Now, he must rely on his instincts to corner his prey…before someone else runs them down first.

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker lead a reunion of returning all-stars from every chapter of the explosive franchise built on speed in Fast Five. In this installment, former cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) partners with ex-con Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) on the opposite side of the law. Dwayne Johnson joins returning favorites Jordana Brewster, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Matt Schulze, Tego Calderon and Don Omar for this ultimate high-stakes race. Check out what Dwayne Johnson had to say about the film below. ‘Fast Five’ is out in UK cinemas now, it’s set for release April 29th in the US.

Tell us a little about your character, you’re a super-human bounty hunter from hell, what is your job?

Dwayne Johnson: (Laughs) My job is to find these individuals, whoever they are, my name comes across my desk, I find them, I hunt them and I bring them in. That’s it, that’s my characters job, they can come in dead or alive, that’s up to them (laughs).

This franchise is still white hot which is so rare after a fifth film, what was it like joining fray with such a great character?

Dwayne Johnson: It feels fantastic, jumping into the franchise with a great character we created from scratch, that was the fun part of it, creating him from scratch. Adding different elements, working out what he’d say, having these cool one-liners, he’s proficient, he’d have so many different elements. It’s very exciting for me as an actor to be apart of something this epic, something this successful. When you think about this level of success over ten years, it’s so difficult to do, very difficult to do. It’s difficult to do in any platform, regardless of what you do, they’ve been able to do it. What Universal have been able to do with this group of actors is nothing short of spectacular, so for me as an actor to come into this and help elevate this story any way I can, create a cool character, hunt down Vin, whoop his ass, fantastic (laughs).

I thought it was fun jumping into the franchise with a character that could be taken either way, he can be looked at as a protagonist and an antagonist, if you cheer the character for what he does and what he believes in then great, if you boo him that’s great too. You can’t stop him, he’s still gonna kick ass (laughs). He’s a unique guy just in terms of the job he has and the job he embraces.

A lot will be expected of you clashing with Vin, what can people expect?

Dwayne Johnson: The fun thing is I know they wanna see Vin versus The Rock, The Rock versus Vin, something you’ve never thought you would see before, like Tyson/Ali, Lebron/Jordan (Laughs). They’re gonna get me giving Vin an all day long f*cking ass whooping that is what they’re gonna get. You can use that, language is fine (laughs).

Seriously what the audience is gonna get with me and Vin together, first of all we recognise, all of us for that matter, Vin and myself, Universal, Justin, just the opportunity, it’s something audiences thought they would never see. I wish Stallone and Schwarzenegger got together in the 80’s, we have that opportunity now, we wanna deliver. What they’re gonna get is an intense, solid, epic, match up (big smile).

There’s a lot at stake in this story, they’ve got the law after them, the baddest ass in Rio after them.

Dwayne Johnson: It’s got a lot of good story and that’s important, the story was important to Justin, it was important to all of us, because you’re coming around for number five – you’ve gotta come with it, it’s more than just sizzle, you’ve gotta have some meat, it’s gotta taste good, the audience has gotta feel good about it. You have to do your best to create a story that is rooted. What is it about, my perception of it, my interpretation of it is that it’s about family. Dominic, Hobbs, they love their family. My men are my family. I think audiences will love that.

What was it like working with director Justin Lin?

Dwayne Johnson: I think from Justin’s perspective as a director, he’s a very rooted director, he loves character, he loves a grounded sensibility, he brought that in the last one, I think you can see Justin’s growth as a director over the years which is awesome to see. That’s my goal as actor, to grow and just get better at things. Justin does that, Justin bought that to this movie. I was really really impressed, I’ve never worked with Justin before, we spent a lot of time together before the movie. I loved his approach and the job he did. Infusing a new character into the franchise was really interesting and working with Justin on that was great.

Disney have got a very big year in films in 2010 with Alice In Wonderland, Toy Story 3, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Tron Legacy and this. I’m slowly warming to this the more that I see from it, I’ve always liked Jake Gylanhaal, it’s good to see him do something more action packed, from the trailer he looks like he spends much of the movie jumping around like coked up Kangaroo(nothing wrong with that!). I’m also looking forward to it for Toby Kebbell and Gemma Arterton two of the UK’s best young talents. They should have cast a few more Persians though it looks like a bunch of English people wearing eye liner and dyed black hair, its the 21^st century now I should think films can be a bit more realistic. Look’s like a lot of fun though.

From the team that brought the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy to the big screen, Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films present PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME, an epic action-adventure set in the mystical lands of Persia.  A rogue prince (JAKE GYLLENHAAL) reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess (GEMMA ARTERTON) and together, they race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time—a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world.

Lee Daniels is a critically acclaimed Director and Producer, he has produced the Academy Award Winning Monsters Ball, The Woodsman and Tennessee. Daniels made his directorial debut with 2006’s Shadowboxer, starring Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is his second directorial outing…

Set in 1987, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a sixteen-year-old girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo’Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write. Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.

Initially, the author, Sapphire, was against a film adaptation. Yet you won her over.

Lee Daniels: Love her. Love her for that. It took me nine, probably ten, years to stalk her. I have stalked her for ten years. Sapphire is a scholar. She is a genius. She is a poet. She is an intellect beyond belief. She doesn’t give a fuck about Hollywood. She don’t care about it, just doesn’t. It is about literature and I think that Lady Luck must have been on my side because she finally embraced the idea. I think that even if I did a bad movie, it would not affect her brilliant masterpiece and I think that she saw the difference in both. She finally realised it and I was there the right time stalking her.

Do you know why she changed her mind? Did she see one of your other films maybe?

Lee Daniels: I think it was a combination of things, but I think she saw Shadowboxer and she really thought I could bring something to the world that she created and she is very excited that I am doing it.

Did she come to the film set?

Lee Daniels: She came down once or twice. I think she had to watch some of what I was doing because I am dealing with her very profound book. She laughed at something that only Mo’Nique and I thought was funny and she was laughing with us because she got it. She understood that there is humour and that she was still the creator. There was a moment when Mo’Nique was laughing at something and I was laughing at something and Sapphire was laughing at something and we realised that nobody else was laughing but us and that we were on another plane. It was a surreal moment.

What was the moment?

Lee Daniels: It was the scene when the mother tells Precious about the HIV. Precious says, ‘Do you have it?’ And the mother says ‘No.’ And Precious says, ‘How do you know?’ And the mother says, ‘Because we didn’t do it up in the ass!’ No one else thought that was funny. I don’t think it was funny but it was this brilliant delivery of it. I think we were laughing at the execution. It was exactly how Sapphire wrote it in the book so there was this triangle of understanding between Mo’Nique, Sapphire and myself.

It is a tough film but also a very tough book. You have had to soften the delivery a little bit, and add a few more rays of light…

Lee Daniels: A little bit!! A lot of a bit. If I had done the book it would have been X-rated. Not that I have a problem with doing X-rated films. I haven’t yet. But this would have lost an audience. I think that the audience should be entitled to breathe. I think with the book, if it gets too much, emotionally, you can put it down. It affected me so that I had to stop. I had to digest it. I put it down and picked it up again later on and I think that the sequences and the touches of humour that we put in the script really do it justice. Geoffrey Fletcher really did a marvellous job translating this book, this script, and we just took it to another place on the screen. We had to let the audience breathe. If you’ve read that book you will know what I am talking about.

You’ve said that you knew people who were moments away from being characters in this story. From where in your life do you know these people?

Lee Daniels: I knew these people when I was a kid. I knew these people as an adult. I know these people now. As a 50-year-old man, there are Precious, there are Marys. These are real life people to me. Everybody in that movie is someone that I have known. And I find it surprising that people don’t know them. I know that if you live in New York City there is no way you don’t see Precious. And I often see Mary. I am down in the grocery store and I am watching mothers yank on their kids, and just really fuming at them, with a cigarette dangling from their mouth. It doesn’t matter if they’re black, Puerto Rican, white or Chinese. Each woman exists.

Was the character of Mary the hardest to cast? She needs to be very complex, almost macabre, yet able to show that she did have something good inside her once.

Lee Daniels: Mary is a very complex person and she was the first person that I did cast. Mo’Nique is my best friend; a very, very good friend and I speak to her every day. I like working with friends. Mariah Carey is another. Gabby has become a good friend. I like working with friends because I know they have my back and we have such a tight budgetary parameter in dealing with the film that you have to count on friendships to take you through those barriers. It is a difficult journey. With regards to Mo’Nique what we did, only friends can do. It went beyond the director-actor friendship; she really understands me. Mo’Nique understands me in my primal place and we just talked about her. And we talked about me. We talked about my insecurities, paranoia, hopes and dreams and sex life, and what I love poetry-wise and what literature I like. And then she sort of broke down and then we transcended all that shit that she knew that I wanted into her interpretation of Mary. It was volatile, explosive, a magical moment, for me. I expected everything that she gave me. I was not surprised by a syllable.

On that point, you’ve been very brave in talking about the abuse you suffered as a child. That’s reflected specifically in the movie, right, with Precious’ dream sequences?

Lee Daniels: I was never sexually abused, but I was physically abused at home. And when bad things happened to me or I saw bad things happen, I would fantasize. When I was 12, I saw someone killed. I remember very clearly that I went into a bubble and I became a prince in a silver crown, knighting someone with my sceptre. I just dropped into a place right there, so I wouldn’t feel the pain. My imagination was God’s way of protecting me and keeping me sane, and I think we catch that in the movie, yes.

When did you first decide that you wanted to direct films, as well as produce them?

Lee Daniels: I started directing theatre. That’s how it started. I was in theatre early on and I moved. The camera was an animal to me that scared me but I learned about that while I was managing actors, and while I was producing films. Because of that, actors have always been in my comfort zone. My whole thing to begin with in the entertainment industry was media and managing actors throughout the world and being on sets and studying. I was always studying the process of filmmaking through filmmakers and through cinematographers and through production designers etc etc. So that whole experience was learned not through your conventional way

Finally, what was the most important thing that you wanted to convey with this film?

Lee Daniels: That never again should we look at Precious and not look at Precious. When you stumble across this girl you will acknowledge her. Because I have cousins that are her, friends that are her and even having friends and cousins that are her, I still disassociate myself. It is so important for me that I embrace this girl with all my gusto, because she is embracing me. The other important part of this story is about learning to love yourself, and accepting who you are. Those are the two big points I hope people will walk away with from this film. Who knows if they will? But I pray to God that they do.

PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL “PUSH” BY SAPPHIRE is released in cinemas across the UK on 29th January 2010

I’ve made it no secret how much I loved A Prophet. It is hands down one of my favourite films of the last few years. The film fully deserves all the praise it’s been getting. Check out a Q & A with the acclaimed Director of A Prophet Jacques Audiard. A Prophet is released in cinemas January 22^nd go check it out, it’s worth it!

At the Cannes press conference you spoke a little about the irony in the title of A PROPHET.

Because this dimension is real but apparently it isn’t evident. The film could be called LITTLE BIG MAN for example. The title acts as a sort of injunction, obliging someone to understand something which isn’t necessarily developed in the film, namely, that we’re dealing with a little prophet, a new prototype of guy. Originally I wanted to find a French equivalent of “You Gotta Serve Somebody” a Bob Dylan song that says that we are always in the service of someone. I liked the fatalism and the moral dimension of this title but I simply never found a satisfying translation, so it stayed A PROPHET.

How did you come to tell the story?

What interested both myself and my co-writer Thomas Bidegain was to ask how we could begin with the subject by Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit and create a pertinent cinematic story. We had to find a manner to make A Prophet resonate in a contemporary way. We wanted to create heroes from people that we didn’t know, that didn’t already have an iconic representation in cinema, like the Arabs for example. In France the tendency in cinema is to put them in representations that are naturalistic or sociological. So we wanted to do a pure genre film, a little in the manner of a western that spotlights people we don’t know and transforms them into heroes.

Through the character of Malik, the film conveys the idea that the knowledge and know how give access to power.

Yes, and it’s this that I find the most interesting. This type of person breaks the mould, he’s not your usual hooligan. Following Malik, we see his mind at work, a mind that shows phenomenal adaptability, that this character will use for any opportunistic possibility, at first to save his skin, then to survive and improve his lot, and finally to reach another level of power.

Malik seems to have a detached and opportunist rapport with his identity.

The Corsicans consider him an Arab and the Arabs as a Corsican. He is permanently between the two camps. However he will naturally lean towards his community. It’s here that he will discover something he has been ignoring. The same as he’s a particular kind of hooligan he’s also a particular kind of believer.

Can you talk to us about the ghost that accompanies Malik and that inspires his mystical visions?

The film does have fantastical moments but it’s not because of an intention to be mystical. Reyeb’s ghost comes from the scriptwriters as a way of helping us into the possibilities, a way of to passing into a level of imagination that helps us free what has already been told. It’s also thanks to him that we also invoke the ideas of Sufism and the Dervishes and allows the screenplay to take on another dimension.

There is a trend in current cinema for darker, more damaged heroes.  In A Prophet you take someone who is damaged yet lead them toward a kind of redemption.

And with tools that wouldn’t be recommendable. There is always a default way of making anti-heroes. This doesn’t interest me so much. Me, I like my heroes to learn something, to put it to use. I find that Cinema has that function: it looks at the real to teach us how to use it. Perhaps the lesson which strikes Malik is paradoxical, but it’s this which interests me.

In any case it says that you have to learn…

To learn, to be attentive, to not open one’s mouth all the time, to be reserved and most of all to not make the same mistake twice because the third time you’ll be dead.

Is A Prophet, according to you, a moral film ?

Yes, what would have been immoral would have been to create a character without conscience.  However he is conscious of both good and evil precisely because evil has been done to him.

How do you explain Malikʼs mysterious smile at the moment of the shooting?

Malik suddenly has the feeling of being in a film and has the feeling of invulnerability, like a fictional character whereas the others are reaching a stalemate in the events which are unfolding. Malik is a person who, instead of getting heavier under the weight of things he lives through, he gets lighter, and will free himself, little by little.

Is the prison a metaphor ?

Evidently, genre films always present themselves as metaphor. The character was incarcerated for a long sentence. The intention was that he would understand within himself that which would serve him later, on the outside, therefore arriving at a parallel between the two universes.

The ending of the film suggests there could be a sequel.

Indeed. It does induce us to question Malik’s destiny with this woman, this child and his life stretched out before him. Especially since Malik is a hooligan that hates hooligans, finding them unreliable, stupid and dangerous. He is someone with a very critical viewpoint. He wouldn’t tolerate bling or outward signs of hooliganism.

If there was a sequel, what would it be about ?

I would like to see Malik continue to develop his skills and watch him learn. A little like in The Beat That My Heart Skipped. That through trying to become a concert pianist the hero becomes really competent. He’s like Malik, we leave everything just formed and we sense that he has an interesting future…

Were you conscious while making A Prophet that you were making a film that was anchored in popular culture?

This is what I wanted to do. For as much, we wanted to make an anti SCARFACE. For me neurotics are pure cretins and simply cant be objects for identification. The rise to power of an absolute crazy person doest interest me at all. On the other hand a film like LA HAINE by Matthieu Kassovitz touches on something that I’m sensitive to. It’s no co-incidence that A Prophet occasionally inhabits the same terrain. These two films a looking to denounce that there is something missing in cinema.