Lockwood & Co: Joe Cornish on his first TV project since The Adam And Joe Show

Published

1 year ago

January 29, 2023

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Many will remember Joe Cornish as one of the hosts of cult TV series The Adam And Joe Show – which saw the two friends recreating films out of toys, performing pranks, and getting Adam’s dad to review music videos.

But it’s now more than two decades since the programme ended and Cornish has since established himself as a writer and director, working on Steven Spielberg‘s The Adventures of Tintin, Marvel‘s Antman and his own directorial feature debut Attack The Block – which starred John Boyega in his breakout role – and more recently The Kid Who Would Be King.

Now, he’s returned to TV with an adaptation of the young adult supernatural book series Lockwood & Co, for Netflix. And while it might feel to some as if Cornish takes his time between projects, he insists he’s not slacking.

“This is me in rapid-fire mode,” he laughs, pointing out to Sky News’ Backstage podcast that the gap between Attack The Block (2011) and The Kid Who Would Be King (2019) is far greater than the three years between the latter and his current show.

“It takes a while to make these things – to get the money to write them, to film them, to post-produce them, so give me a break,” he jokes. “I’m going as fast as I can!”

Lockwood & Co is about three young paranormal investigators, set in a version of London where an invasion of ghosts is causing misery to many, and children are used to fight against them.

It’s certainly not the first time Cornish has worked with a younger cast.

“I love it, I love the energy that younger actors bring,” he says. “I love the excitement of coming to work every day – this part of the process is incredible, the process of the cast and crew screening, the premieres, it’s so exciting and it brings this really youthful energy to everything, I guess.

“And I’m less scared of directing them than I am of very experienced actors because remember: actors make three films a year, directors only make a film every three years if they’re lucky, so it makes me feel like the wise old man, which I kind of am I suppose – old, maybe not so wise.”

Lockwood & Co is something Cornish has been interested in for a while; he read the first of Jonathan Stroud’s books a decade ago, describing it as “really brilliant and unique in these core ideas it has”, but after a bidding war another studio bought the rights and his career took him elsewhere.

Some 10 years later, the rights became available again – and now with several more books in the series – and after a phone call to Stroud himself the wheels were in motion for the show to go into production with Cornish at the helm.

“They’re right in my wheelhouse, they have all the things I love and they just have these really brilliant original ideas at the core,” he says of the stories. “The first of which is ghosts can kill you by touching you.”

Click to subscribe to Backstage wherever you get your podcasts

He continues: “The second is quite an old-school supernatural idea that young people are more sensitive to ghosts and the supernatural than older people; the third is that these agencies build up that employ the young people to fight the ghosts; the fourth is that ghosts can be repelled with iron and salts and these fairly sort of old-school analogue methods.

“So I’d never come across a ghost story with this new set of rules that turned it into an action-adventure story. Also, the central characters of Lockwood – Lucy, George – are so compulsive.”

While this was a fresh take on the supernatural for Cornish, it certainly wasn’t his first, though he’ll be hoping it’s better received than his first one was.

“I tried to make a Super8 film at school when I was 13,” he admits. “It was called Yesyes, because that’s [one theory] why a Ouija board is called Ouija board – Oui (French) – Yes, Ja (German) – Yes.

“I thought that was a very clever title! But we never finished it because no one cared about it as much as I did. They all got bored.”

Lockwood & Co is out on Netflix, hear more about the show in the latest episode of Backstage – the film and TV podcast from Sky News

Entertainment

Chris Pratt pays tribute after ‘friend and former stunt double’ Tony McFarr dies unexpectedly

Published

4 hours ago

May 17, 2024

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Chris Pratt pays tribute after 'friend and former stunt double' Tony McFarr dies unexpectedly

Hollywood star Chris Pratt has paid tribute to his friend and former stunt double Tony McFarr – who has died unexpectedly aged 47.

McFarr was Pratt‘s stunt double on some of his biggest films – including Guardians Of The Galaxy and Jurassic World.

The stuntman’s mother Donna said he died at his home near Orlando, Florida, on 13 May.

A cause of death has not been reported.

However, his mother told the celebrity news website TMZ that he was healthy and his death was “unexpected and shocking”.

Pratt shared a heartfelt tribute to McFarr in an Instagram story, writing: “Devastated to hear about the loss of my friend and former stunt double Tony McFarr.

“We did several movies together. We golfed, drank whiskey, smoked cigars, and spent endless hours on set. I’ll never forget his toughness.

“I remember he took a nasty shot to the head (in the title sequence of ‘Guardians 2’) and got several staples in his head came right back to work ready to go again. He was an absolute stud.

“He was always a gentleman and professional.

“He’ll be missed. My prayers go out to his friends and family, especially his daughter.”

McFarr first doubled for Pratt on the 2015 film Jurassic World and followed that up with 2017’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 and 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

He also performed Pratt’s stunts in the 2016 drama Passengers, which co-starred Jennifer Lawrence.

Entertainment

Kings Of Leon’s Caleb Followill on ‘scary’ AI, sponsoring a darts player, and taking on Taylor Swift

Published

14 hours ago

May 17, 2024

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Kings Of Leon's Caleb Followill on 'scary' AI, sponsoring a darts player, and taking on Taylor Swift

“When you first start out, it’s you versus the world,” says Kings Of Leon’s frontman, Caleb Followill, speaking from his home in Nashville, Tennessee.

He remembers the comparisons – “the Southern Strokes, I think someone called us Y’all 2, like U2, which was funny” – and how each one added to the fire in their bellies to make their own name.

Now, with the release of their ninth album, Can We Please Have Fun (not a question), 25 years after the band was formed by Caleb and his brothers, Nathan and Jared, and cousin Matthew, Kings Of Leon have definitely done that.

“I feel like at this point, the thing we’re trying to do is something that inspires the next generation,” says Followill. “It’s kind of hard because people don’t really look to the grown-ups for answers. So we listen to the kids, we get inspired by what they’re doing.”

Earlier this week, according to the Official Charts, things were looking good for Can We Please Have Fun to become the band’s seventh UK number one album, with only one teeny thing standing in their way – Taylor Swift, another artist who cut her teeth in Nashville. After topping the charts, The Tortured Poets Society is currently sitting at number two; but this is Taylor Swift, and she’s been known to climb back before.

Followill laughs. “At this point, I think everyone’s just trying to go for number two. Which, you know, that’s great too. But I love Taylor. I’m so happy for her and her success.”

Topping the charts once again would be a “kind of validation”, he says. “That’s also kind of a notch on the belt that you can show your family one day – hey, we had a number one.” Or several number ones, even. “But we don’t make records so they’ll be number one. We’ve been beat out by a lot of music that didn’t necessarily last as long as our music has.”

‘It hasn’t been the most fun the last handful of years’

It’s been 21 years since their debut, Youth And Young Manhood, and hits including Molly’s Chambers and California Waiting, which saw them embraced by the UK way before their homeland took notice.

The band have previously talked about the tolls and pressures of fame, of sibling fights, and going through the motions. Now, Followill says there is “renewed passion and this kind of fire in us that we haven’t had necessarily, in the last handful of years”.

Can We Please Have Fun, both in title and content, definitely feels like a Kings Of Leon with a new lease of life. There were other options for its name – Actual Daydream, Moving Spectacle, Suicide Machine among them, says Followill, flicking through a notebook to remind himself – but they would all have painted a different picture.

“It hasn’t been the most fun the last handful of years”, he says. “Not being in this band necessarily, just life has been kind of heavy. There’s been a lot of seriousness. I feel like maybe it’s always been that way. It just feels much more nowadays because it’s in our face with our phones and our computers.”

Their last album, 2021’s When You See Yourself, saw the band moving into the world of NFTs, a form of cryptocurrency used to hold assets such as art and music, which exploded that year. They were billed as the first music artists ever to release an album in this way; for a band rooted in good old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll, it seemed a surprise move.

‘It doesn’t take AI to sound like us’

Followill admits they “never truly” understood it. “Apparently it was something that was happening and maybe is still happening, I don’t know. I know it got us into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was cool. We were the first band to ever sell our music as an NFT, might be the only one, I don’t know.

“But we weren’t trying to push some new type of technology on people… it was just something that looked like that was kind of where things were headed. So, you know, why not be on the forefront of it?”

Since then, AI has become a huge issue affecting the music industry, with stars including Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj recently calling for more protection. Followill describes himself as “kind of an old man” when it comes to his knowledge. “I am scared of it though, I think, maybe, a little bit,” he says. “I’ve seen some stuff that makes makes me a little nervous.”

He grins. “As far as music, it doesn’t take AI to sound like us, my god. We’re still learning how to play, so our skill level is still very much achievable by just human beings. It’s not going to take aliens or artificial intelligence.”

After When You See Yourself, they parted ways with their long-term record label. Rather than being a negative experience, “we felt like we were free for the first time since the very beginning”, says Followill.

On Can We Please Have Fun, they worked with producer mastermind Kid Harpoon, renowned for his collaborations with artists including Miley Cyrus, Harry Styles, Calvin Harris and Florence + The Machine. Despite being industry veterans, Kings Of Leon were keen to impress.

“We had to record a little bit and then he would duck away for a couple of weeks to do some stuff he already had scheduled. But that was a pretty eye-opening experience because he would go away and then it was like, all right, let’s get a bunch of stuff that’s going to make him impressed when he gets back.”

Strip clubs to stadiums

Last week, they performed at a ranch in Nashville to mark the album’s release – “a real barn, no air conditioning, there was a peacock in the rafters screaming the whole time, a dog in the room”, is how Followill describes it.

It’s not the strangest setting they’ve ever found themselves in. That title would probably go to their first ever UK gig, in High Wycombe, at a pub that also doubled up as a lap-dancing venue.

“I remember we were backstage for soundcheck and we kept commenting on the potent smell of lotion,” Followill recalls. “It smelled like floral lotion everywhere.” After drawing small crowds in the US, that first UK show “was insanity, with probably only 100 people, but we had been playing in America to five people. So it was this crazy thing”.

The band went on to fill arenas and stadiums, headlining Glastonbury in 2008. They play London’s Hyde Park – “which always feels like a homecoming” – once again this summer. Last year, they played at Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground; a stage that at one time might also have been added to their unlikely venues list, but following its Hollywood takeover is now a huge celebrity draw.

It felt like the whole town was there to see them, Followill says. “We were playing the show… but I feel like it was almost they were supporting just whatever was going to be happening at the club that night.

“The kind of fairytale story of Wrexham and what’s happened, it’s worldwide. Americans don’t necessarily know what it means with the different leagues and how you can get relegated and all that stuff. But we do know what an underdog story is and how special it is when you see someone work their way up.”

With celebrity football buy-outs becoming all the rage – Will Ferrell being among the latest, investing in Leeds – would Kings Of Leon ever consider it?

“We don’t have that kind of money,” says Followill. “Maybe darts. Can you sponsor a darts player?”

They can add darts to the list of ambitions Kings Of Leon still have to tick off. Followill says there are “a lot of big lofty things I probably won’t say” because at one point they felt “ridiculous”; now, so many years in and still going, maybe less so.

The singer says he doesn’t look back on what the band has achieved “as much as I could or should, at times”. He sees reflection as something that comes when there is no longer “a lot left in the tank… and I feel like I still have a lot”.

But the reminders are all around. “My daughter came downstairs in a Kings Of Leon T-shirt… and it’s an old T-shirt too. It’s like, wow.” These moments, he says, are “like a splash of water in the face… it definitely has surpassed anything we ever dreamed of”.

And seeing crowds singing his songs back at him never gets old.

“It’s more than just singing. Sometimes you look at people and they’re not just singing the song… it means so much to them, it’s like they are screaming it back at you. Whenever that happens, that is always just confirmation that you’re doing what you’re meant to be doing.”

Kings Of Leon’s Can We Please Have Fun is out now. The band play BST Hyde Park on 30 June

Entertainment

Reality TV stars charged over promoting unauthorised investment scheme on Instagram

Published

14 hours ago

May 17, 2024

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Reality TV stars charged over promoting unauthorised investment scheme on Instagram

A group of social media influencers have been charged in relation to promoting an unauthorised investment scheme.

The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) original cast member Lauren Goodger, 37, former Love Island star Biggs Chris, 32, and Celebrity Big Brother winner Scott Timlin, 36, also known as Scotty T, are among seven TV personalities alleged to have been paid to promote the scheme to their combined 4.5 million Instagram followers.

The others charged by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) include former Love Islanders Rebecca Gormley, 26, Jamie Clayton, 32, and Eva Zapico, 25 and TOWIE member Yazmin Oukhellou, 30.

The UK’s financial watchdog brought the charges in a crackdown on “finfluencers” who use their online platforms to offer advice and information on various financial topics.

It alleges that between 19 May 2018 and 13 April 2021 Emmanuel Nwanze, 30, and Holly Thompson, 33, used an Instagram account to provide advice on buying and selling investments known as contracts for difference (CFDs) when they were not authorised to do so.

The watchdog said CFDs are high-risk investments used to bet on the price of an asset, in this case the price of foreign currencies.

It previously warned that 80% of customers lose money when investing in CDFs.

Mr Nwanze has been charged with running the scheme. He faces one count of breaching the general prohibition of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, and one count of unauthorised communications of financial promotions.

Ms Thompson, Mr Chris, Mr Clayton, Ms Goodger, Ms Gormley, Ms Oukhellou, Mr Timlin and Ms Zapico each face one count of unauthorised communications of financial promotions.