Interview: Director Bruce McDonald for 'Dreamland'
Dreamland stars genre film favorites Stephen McHattie, Henry Rollins, and Juliette Lewis in a story about crime, drugs, and human trafficking. It’s a harsh look at the despicable characters that infiltrate and fill the European underworld, and just about every character we meet in this movie is scum. Stephen McHattie turns in a fantastic dual rope performance here, and Rollins chews up all the scenery he’s in and spits it out with an intense vile mania that oftentimes comes as a welcome relief in contrast to the stark and gross subject matter that permeates the darkest elements of the plot. It’s good, but it’s about bad people who are the worst of the Earth.
Bruce McDonald recently spoke about Dreamland with us and gave us some insight into his new film. Dreamland is available on VOD and Digital HD now.
Trouble City: First off, I’d like to get your summary of what you tell everyone, whenever you discuss the film: what it’s about, Stephen McHattie, and the whole thing.
Bruce McDonald: Well, I would say that Dreamland is—sometimes I like to describe it as a Eurotrash jazz western, and sometimes I like to call it a druggy jazz film. It’s a story of a contract killer named Johnny Deadeyes who works for his underworld boss Hercules in a club called Al-Qaeda . Ona particular day, Johnny is given a mission by Hercules to go cut off the finger of Chet Baker before he plays the wedding of the vampire and the vampire’s child bride at the Countess’ palace. So that’s the quick story pitch.
TC: Tell me a little bit about making a heavily jazz-infused crime thriller. These kinds of movies are very singular, and I want to get your perspective on it, because I know you really well for Pontypool and for Hardcore Logo. What was your approach to this?
BM: When we wrote it, it was Tony from Pontypool, the screenwriter, and we wrote it with Stephen McHattie in mind from the very beginning. We were kind of powered by the idea that we all worked together and had a good time, so this was a great motivator for us to do the work and write this script. I think, unconsciously, that we never really believed that we might shoot this, because it seemed so crazy. But we had a lot of fun writing it, and Steve would chip in once in a while; we’d send him a draft, and then one day out of the blue arrives Jesus of Luxembourg, which is kind of a producer over there. He had come across the script through a series of shuffles, and said, “I really like this, do you guys think you could shoot it in Luxembourg?”
We said yeah; we didn’t know exactly where that is, but we would love to come there. So it worked out, and that’s why we ended up there. The impulse to do it—Tony comes from love of noir and horror, and he loves weird semiotics, and he loves people like William Burroughs and French surrealists, so it’s very much—Tony is the brains behind the operation. My job was to encourage him and not to stamp out the weirdness, but to try to keep it alive. Making a film with producers who are very logical creative people, it’s not an easy thing to convince them to make a film like this. We were sort of stunned when our Luxembourg friend opened his arms to us and gave us the embrace. If it wasn’t for him, there’s no way this would be made by somebody. We feel very privileged to go on this mad escapade and try to do our best.
TC: One of the things that I think is most unique about Dreamland is that it’s a most vibrant film, but it’s also incredibly dark with the subject matter and the plot and the development of how things play out. How was it shooting in Luxembourg and have such a heavily European movie with the elements of the surreal influences and unique perspective that you brought to it?
BM: I do remember one day when we were shooting at a place called Charleroi, Belgium, which is kind of like the Detroit of Belgium. We were dressing the club called the Al-Qaeda. They had this big neon sign that was going to be lit up that night with “Al-Qaeda.” Then five squad cars arrived as we were putting that up, and they were like, “You can’t put that sign up in this town. There’s going to be trouble.” It made me realize that there are all kinds of things going on in Brussels, and we were in Europe, you know? Steve mentioned that there was this whole child abduction thing going on in Belgium that made the news--
TC: Human trafficking, immigration, political issues… it’s a very tumultuous time, which was interesting.
BM: Yeah, when we made it, I don’t think we were consciously thinking of those real-life events, we were thinking of a dark fairy tale. Every once in a while, the real world would kind of echo these strange things we’ve had about child abduction and things like that. It was a great place to shoot, Europe really fun and it really suited the film and the sense that the film has all of these strange collisions of old and new, the world above and the world below, the collision of different languages and cultures is very present in Europe. For us Canadians, it felt very exotic being there and working with the crews and actors and talent. Just lovely, amazing people.
TC: Fantastic. One of the things that stood out to me-- talking about the bar, the setting, the set dressing and things like that-- I noticed that Christmas shows up a couple of times in the movie. Was that intentional? Did you make this a holiday film?
BM: Yeah, I’m glad you picked that up, because I think we could’ve done that a little bit more, but when you do a movie, it’s always interesting to often think, “What day is it? What time of year is it?” For Pontypool, it’s Valentine’s Day for some reason. You get a couple of little hints on that. For a movie we did called Weirdos set in Eastern Canada, it was the bicentennial. These real-life time clocks give it this very specific thing, so it was in our heads—maybe because it was near Christmas when we shot it—we thought, “Let’s make it Christmas.” I’m glad you picked that up. Not sure what it all means, but it was Christmas in Dreamland.
TC: It’s always fun to point that stuff out, whether it’s in an action movie or crime movie or any other genre. Let’s talk a little bit about you working with your actors; I love that you gave Henry Rollins such a villainous role in this movie. How was it working with him?
BM: Well, I’m so glad that you say that, because Henry was a bit nervous about working with Stephen, initially. Stephen’s such a powerhouse, and he’s been doing it since he was a kid. So Henry was totally game, and I had been fortunate enough to meet Henry before on a TV show in Vancouver, so that’s where we first met. We totally hit it off, so when it came time to cast, he was the first person I thought of. Being the champ that he is, he jumped right into it with no hesitation. The first time I met him, I was a little nervous and scared because he comes across—he’s got a lot of presence.
Very quickly, you realize he’s one of the kindest, gentlest, intelligent humans. He’s an incredible teammate to have on your side. A bunch of the crew guys just couldn’t believe it. They were like, “Oh my God, it’s Rollins! Could with sit with you guys at lunch?” He’d let them sit with us, and so the locations guy and the props guy are just sitting there at the feet f the master, and Henry is a great storyteller, so it made their decade. I’m so glad that he reads well for you and he comes off, because when you’re stepping into the acting world—and by tis time, he’d done other things, but he’s not a career actor—I hope this gives him more confidence to do more things, or people will see him and think he really delivered the goods.
TC: Some of the best scenes in the movie are him and Stephen McHattie going at it. One thing that I think is unique about Stephen McHattie’s role in this is that he plays that dual role throughout the film, of Johnny and the Maestro. How was it directing him being these two characters?
BM: I’ve got to say, it was probably one of the easiest directing times I’ve ever had because we have a long history, so we’ve worked together a bunch. After he was cast, we had some discussions about this and that and costuming and hair, and so by the time the shooting came, we were pretty much dialed in. So it was like me pulling up a front row seat for Steve’s Acting Academy, and just being completely entertained by his performance and loving the detail. Once he was cast and we had our talks about the character and how we might pull this off, very practical things—because I’m familiar with Steve and how he is, I knew that he just does his homework.
Every detail, whether it’s the things in his pockets that you don’t even see, or how his apartment is acquainted, or how his hair is going to be, does he smoke? Does he not smoke? These are all things that Steve thinks about and he brings it up to me and gets my thoughts on it, but his instincts are, ninety percent of the time, amazing. As a director, it’s a pleasure. My job is just to make the set a safe and fun place for him so that when he walked on, he was ready to go and had all the things he needed. For me, it was kind of a dream job because it wasn’t difficult, it wasn’t a challenge. It was just setting the stage for Stephen and be like, “Okay, on you go.”
TC: It’s great to see a troubled character on one side who becomes this avenger type of heroic character trying to fight what’s going on with child trafficking, and on the other side he’s this character who’s completely consumed by drug use and is sort of a trapped genius musician. It’s really interesting for the dynamics of the film.
BM: I’m just so proud of him, he did such a wonderful job and adds a grounded-ness to the characters, a kind of authenticity to them, it really is something. It was just a pleasure to kind of watch him. My job was just to let him alone and don’t interfere. That’s the best direction you can give, is don’t give any. I’ll pass that onto Stephen because—like all actors do—he’s like, “Is it okay? Is it enough? Is it too much?” So I’ll definitely pass that on, I think he’d be thrilled to hear that.
TC: We can’t wait to get the word out about Dreamland, this interview has been great. Is there anything you’d like to end on for all of the readers and anyone who’s looking forward to seeing this?
BM: We’ve got quite a gang, and we don’t plan to disband the band anytime soon. We hope to return on some new tour with our ensemble. Things are in the cooker, and we’ll keep you posted on our progress.
See Dreamland on VOD and on digital now!