EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-nominated Bridge of Spies writer Matt Charman has a plan to simultaneously get to grips with falling budgets and save on industry waste.
Speaking to Deadline about his new Sky series Prisoner, Charman said producers need to come together and “work out how to re-use some of the sets and assets that we have on TV shows.”
Having made a number of high-end thrillers both for the big and small screen, Charman, who also runs an indie, Binocular Productions, said it “just feels really wrong” that teams “build these beautiful sets and amazing structures, and then sort of rip them apart and put them in a skip.” If a plan can be forged, producers could save money and be more sustainable, he believes.
“I didn’t grow up in or around the business and so sometimes early on in my career I’d look at things and really lament the waste in our industry and the amount of money that doesn’t make it onto the screen,” Charman told Deadline. “I probably always came into running a production company with the mindset of, ‘How do we do this and make this look great but in a smart way?’. The day I turn around and say I’ve not got enough money [to make a TV show] will be a sad day.”
Charman said he’s had informal conversations with Sky to work out “how we reuse some of the sets and assets we have on TV shows,” but added that ultimately change “has to come from the producers.” “I’m keen to talk to other producers about trying to get people on board because I think this could be a huge thing for our business.”
Charman’s idea has shades of Love Actually director Richard Curtis’ recent blueprint for “ushering in a new era of efficacy and legacy in our industry” by hiring specialist impact producers.
Coming up with ‘Prisoner’ on the school run
Charman was Oscar-nominated for Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies and has penned TV thrillers including Netflix double Treason and Hostage, along with Prisoner.
Prisoner, which launches soon (exclusive trailer can be watched below), stars Izuka Hoyle (Big Boys) and Tahar Rahim (The Serpent) as a principled young prison transport officer, Amber, and a trained killer, Tibor, who is accused of murdering 47 people. When their convoy is brutally ambushed, Amber is forced to put her life in Tibor’s hands. As the sole survivors, handcuffed and on the run, they must race to reach their destination alive and on time. The show also stars Eddie Marsan, Catherine McCormack and The Teachers’ Lounge star Leonie Benesch.
The idea came to Charman during the daily school run. “We pulled up at some lights alongside a pretty serious looking police transport van and my kids said, ‘Dad what is it?’ I said that there is probably a prisoner in the back of the van and was left with this thought of who was in the back, who was in the front and what their relationship was.”
Building out from an “image of them being handcuffed together,” Charman enjoyed having a “blank sheet of paper” with which to apply detailed back stories to these characters. “The combination of a guy who’s killed 47 people being handcuffed to a young woman just back from maternity leave was fascinating to me,” he added.
Charman had “watched and loved” Rahim for years and wanted to bring his “in-built enigmatic quality” to the character of Tibor. With Amber, Charman and Sky were keen to find someone slightly less well known “who didn’t come with loads of baggage.” Hoyle is highly-rated rated for roles in British shows like Boiling Point and Big Boys but isn’t necessarily a household name. “When she auditioned it was like a ‘hairs on the back of your neck’ thing,” added Charman. “She had this remarkable ability to be strong and fragile in the same moment.”
Charman said Sky was always the destination for the series and talks with an American buyer are at an advanced stage, while the show has also sold internationally to Canal+. NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution is handling international sales of Prisoner.
Charman is currently working on an adaptation of His & Hers author Alice Feeney’s novel Sometimes I Lie with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice producer Tommy Harper.