Paul King (Bunny And The Bull) interview

A freewheeling road movie set entirely inside a flat, Bunny And The Bull is written and directed by Paul King, director of The Mighty Boosh. LastBroadcast caught up with Paul to find out the latest news on the Boosh movie, his upcoming Paddington adapation and more.

> Buy the DVD on Amazon.

> Read our review.

Bunny & The Bull stars Ed Hogg (White Lightnin’) as obsessive-compulsive Stephen Turnbull, so afraid of the unexpected and the outside world he has turned his flat into a virtual mausoleum, eating, TV-watching and even urinating to a timetable. Played out against part animated and endlessly inventive handcrafted backdrops, Paul King echoes Gondry, Gilliam and Burton for visual eccentricity.


Where does your love of "do it yourself" practical effects work originate? Which other filmmakers have influenced your style?

My background is theatre and I’ve always liked watching films where you can work out how the effects are done. It gives a particular sort of pleasure that you’re unlikely to have when you know it’s all done on a computer, in the same way that collage has a different feeling to Photoshop. The directors who have really influenced me in the looks department have been Jeunet and Caro, Murnau, Gilliam, Burton and Michael Verhoeven, who made a staggeringly great film called The Nasty Girl which inspired my love of back projection.

Is it hard to couple budgetary constraints with your imagination or does one dictate the other?

Certainly there were things we wanted to do in the film that we simply couldn’t afford - but I suspect that is true for every filmmaker working at every budget level. You work out what you can afford and either find clever solutions or - more often than not - a restriction forces you to come up with an alternative which you end up preferring. But it’s true that there was no way we could have afforded to go round Europe so at the basic conceptual level, the film was written with a particular budget range in mind.

Do you ever have to jettison ideas based on their impracticality or is there always a different way to realise them?

I think it depends on the level of reality that you’re after. In one version of the script, it was always raining outside Stephen’s flat until the house was totally submerged. Eventually the waters receded and he was able to open his front door to see the ocean. And Captain Crab came to the door on a shrimp boat and took Bunny away. That would have been achievable in one way, but I wanted it to look realistic and that was never going to happen so I abandoned the idea - but I think the film is better for it. Actually scratch that, I’d really like that ending to have happened!

Were you ever worried about Bunny And The Bull finding an audience?

Not as much as I should have been! I knew it was hard to do a “genre-busting” film like this - it’s got lots of comedy in it, but it comes from quite a dark place, and it’s got lots of sadness in it but is in no way a tragedy. I think what is good about working at this budget level was that there was never any suggestion of trying to get stars in it or appeal to a particular demographic. The money involved is so comparatively small that people are more happy to take a risk. But I would have loved more people to come and see it and hope that it finds a good life on DVD.

Who would win in a fight between Old Gregg and The Bull?

The Bull. Old Gregg would take one horn to the Mangina and die in a pool of Baileys.

A Mighty Boosh movie was confirmed in February 2008, do you know what the current status of this is? Will you be returning to direct if it goes ahead?

I know they are finally writing the script and yes, I would love to direct it. I’m sure whatever they come up with will be massively brilliant.

In light of the League Of Gentleman movie, would a proposed Mighty Boosh film need to go in a radical direction from the TV series to work?

I don’t think so. The Mighty Boosh is very cinematic anyway with stand-alone single storylines whereas The League Of Gentlemen was a sketch show so they obviously needed to find a different style of storytelling to sustain 90 minutes. Noel and Julian have such fertile imaginations, their TV scripts often come in at around an hour anyway and we have a hell of a job cramming them into 28 minutes - so I think they’re very well suited for the big screen.

Were you disappointed that Garth Marenghi's Darkplace never returned for a second series?

I was very disappointed. It’s such a good show and I think we would all love to have done more. It was just very expensive - all shot on film and so on - and I don’t think Channel 4 could justify it.

You're directing the forthcoming Paddington movie - will it retain the visual style of the original series? Can you reveal anything about the story?

Paddington has made me promise not to give any details away until nearer the time. He’s rather a private bear, when all’s said and done, but I can promise that there will be plenty of marmalade involved.


Bunny And The Bull is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 29th March 2010.

> Buy the DVD on Amazon.

Interview conducted on 26th March 2010.

Written by Simon Cole.