Revolver Entertainment are proud to announce the release of TONY in cinemas 5th February, on DVD 8th February. The outstanding debut from Gerard Johnson, Tony has been compared to classics Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Taxi Driver and is one of the most important and disturbing British films of recent years.

Unemployed and unemployable, Tony is a sympathetic recluse with severe social problems, an addiction to VHS action films and a horrible moustache. Occasionally he snaps and murder is the result...

Featuring a star-making lead performance from Peter Ferdinando, Tony is dark, brutal and bleakly amusing and will stay with you long after you finish watching.

We were fortunate enough to catch up with cousins Gerard Johnson and Peter Ferdinando, who gave us a wonderful insight into Tony’s world as well as their own.

Having seen the film, I now find out that you are related… how does that cause any problems when working together?

Gerard: No quite the opposite actually. Peter’s been an actor for years, even before I got into the film business and he was the one person when I started off making my shorts that I wanted to do this crazy idea. I mean I guess it wasn’t really that crazy but he had just come off doing this feature film and I had a VHS camcorder and I asked him, bearing in mind I had no script at this point, I asked him “Can we do this thing where I follow you around the streets of London” [Both laugh]

Well did that cause a problem for you, having just come off some bigger budget films?

Peter: No not at all. Gerard has always had a huge passion for film and he’s got an encyclopedic knowledge on the subject and I guess it was his way of trying to have a stab at something. It became like an exercise and I was up for it.

You mentioned the mean streets of London there, how important a part of the film is the city?

Gerard: Very important, London is our city and I love it. Every time I go away I love the fact that I’m going to come back to one of the best places in the world. There’s stuff wrong obviously and of course there are times when I hate it, but in film London never quite seemed to be used properly on the whole. There are certain films that show it but it’s always the same stock footage, the Richard Curtis glossy style for example. It’s all there but I wanted to film something that really captured the atmosphere of London. There are the independent films of New York that manage to do that, loads of films set in Paris do it and I thought ‘Why can’t we do that?’ That’s why I insisted on real lactations and there’s no ‘sets’ used in the film either, it’s all places that I either lived or have been to myself.

Sometimes on a film you need a café for example, and they’ll scout a place and find it only for the director to wait until the day of the shoot before he sees the café he is using to shoot in! That to me is madness, I wanna know these places, it has got to be authentic.

Well would you say then that London has been unfairly portrayed in the past on film?

Gerard: There are some great films, Peeping Tom and Long Good Friday sort of stand out as good examples...

Peter: Withnail and I is another one, you know the moments in London and of course Performance as well. It’s just lately it tends to be shown in the same way. Nil by Mouth is a really good one from recent years, although that’s set on one estate.

Gerard: Yeah, I think one of the reasons is that it’s just so hard to film here as well. You’ve got a lot more access in New York and it’s so much more open. They positively encourage you over there to film, but the amount of red tape here is unbelievable.  

Was it hard to pitch the film then?

Gerard: Not really, I’ve heard it being called a serial killer movie and a horror but it’s really none of those. It’s a character study of a lonely man with some pretty unsavory habits.

So how do you get into the role of someone like that, you are physically very different to Tony.

Peter: We both did a lot of research, not just into serial killers but also taking cues from people that we knew. Aspects are based on real-life characteristics of individuals as well as other physical changes I undertook. I lost about 30 pounds because we felt he would be under-nourished and then there’s the haircut. It’s kind of based on Ed Gein but the idea came from a bad haircut I had when I was a kid that was similar and I imagined Tony going to the same barbershop just out of habit. The walk as well came from someone we know and there’s the obsession with action films of the Eighties… it’s all a combination of several different people and I had to take that and create our Tony. Moving into the flat was also very important; I lived there for the duration of the shoot.

I’m interested to hear you both say that it’s not a serial killer movie, because one of the things that struck me is that Tony as a character doesn’t fit the stereotypical view of such a character from the films we’ve seen on the subject. He’s not a cool or sexy anti-hero at any point.

Gerard: Exactly, he’s not a genius nor does he have a hockey mask disguise. It’s the nuts and bolts of such a person; he might not stand out from a crowd it’s all about what goes on behind closed doors. It is a well-worn genre but I wanted to put my own take on it and have a social realistic film that’s not about a wife-beater or a single mum but a lonely serial killer.

And on that basis do you think the film will travel well abroad?

Gerard: We’ve just sold it in the US and had a very positive screening at Slamdance. I don’t know for sure but I think despite some of the slang going over some heads the themes themselves are quite broad.

Peter: It’s a story about loneliness and trying to fit in, those themes are universal.

When I saw the film it just so happened to be on the same day that I went to the Avatar premiere… and it was your film I enjoyed more, which film’s would you say you enjoy watching or perhaps have influenced your work?

Gerard: Well thanks for that! We haven’t quite got the effects…

Or the budget I would guess?

Peter: [Laughs] No not quite.

Gerard: People like Ron Peck who made a film called Nighthawks. I liked the methods he used and use of locations as well as the acting in that film. Also Alan Clarke was a huge influence on me, as well as a lot of European films. They tend to deal with mood and atmosphere as well as plot which I think is important. If I go into a film which has a strong atmosphere and come out in a different mood thanks to it then that to me is more important than plot in some way.

Peter: Yeah it’s same for me, those styles and genres have connected with my thinking more than the mainstream films from Hollywood tend to do. As an actor I do tend to veer to the American actor though, not that there aren’t great performers here. But I tend to find something more organic and honest with some of the American performances on screen. Having said that I have been really bowled over by Christoph Waltz, I think he was amazing in Inglorious Basterds.

I’m guessing you must have watched a lot of films together when you were younger given the similar tastes then?

Gerard: A lot of it is shared information. We did watch a lot of films together but also we had the same interests. When I was younger I did watch a lot of Action films as well as the other genres but I think it’s important in terms of this film that you know your stuff. Tony is really into the Eighties action films, so we re-watched titles from back then… things like No Retreat, No Surrender just things we might have an affection for.

With some of the outdoor scenes it looks like there was some improvisation…

Gerard: I’m not keen on improvisation as a term, just because it gets thrown around a lot. It says to me ‘the director just stands around and lets them get on with it’. What we did do was work on the script before filming, and then Peter can mix it up or ad lib something but all the points get mentioned and then you can look at loosening it up. It looks and feels more authentic that way. It’s not just read straight from the page, and this way you can get some happy little accidents rather than it feeling choreographed. It keeps things fresh and organic. If something works on the page you leave it as it is, but you have to be willing to change it up when needed.

 So finally are you going to be working together again on your next project?

Gerard: We are, there is something in development which has similar atmosphere but is more plot driven.
Peter: It’s about a corrupt cop in London but with more characters than Tony. It’s called Hyena.

Is there any scope for more from Tony, perhaps a sequel or prequel to the story?

Gerard: Well if they give us a load of money to fly out to Africa and then we could do Tony on Safari [Laughs]. It would be a year shoot and six months of that is definitely going to be research. Seriously though I think thanks to the reaction to Tony we should be able to make more films in general, touch wood my short films were well received and so I feel like I’ve got my own voice and I can make more personal films. I mean we can make a feature for 40 grand so that always helps as well.

Theatrical release date: Friday February 5th 2010
DVD release date: Monday February 8th 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 78mins

DVD Extras:
Feature Commentary with director Gerard Johnson, actor Peter Ferdinando and producer Dan McCulloch
Two short films from Gerard Johnson – Mug (2004) and Tony (2005)

Official Site: http://www.tonythemovie.com

Interview by Cassam Looch