Ten Years On: Robot Overlords and Gillian Anderson plugs us on the BBC…

Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the filming of Robot Overlords. From now on the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).

After the amazing response to the last blog, I’ve realised that I need to put the name Gillian Anderson into the title of my blog posts more often… Sorry, Gillian (and hello fans of Gillian… plenty more to come!).

Tuesday 11th June – home

My phone suddenly went mad at about five to eight this morning with people texting and tweeting me. Robots was featured on BBC Breakfast News! We managed to catch a couple of minutes, then saw the rest online. It was part of a piece asking if Northern Ireland is the new Hollywood after the success of Games of Thrones, The Fall and now Robots. They interviewed the stunt team, Piers and SBK and it was a great plug for the film.

Mum called, very excited. She was in the canteen at work when it came on. She was proudly telling all her friends.

Wednesday 12th June – home

Had a call from Jon this morning for an emergency rewrite: needed a few lines between Danny and Sean talking about his powers. Jo C (my boss) kindly let me duck out of the office for an hour while I zipped to the relative peace of the Curzon to have a go.

Emailed them to Jon and Chris, but haven’t heard back yet (night shoot tonight).

I’ve been reading Paddy’s pass on The Black Spitfire and making detailed notes for my rewrite. There’s some really good stuff to play with. He’s done a cracking job.

Thursday 13th June – home

Got a very brief call from Jon tonight. He had to cut it short when he realised the restaurant he was in was about to close, and he had to eat!

Got some additional notes from the BFI today. Chris is going to run through them with me tomorrow and Jon and I will speak first thing.

More BBC coverage tonight. BBC NI interviewed Gillian Anderson at the ravine location. Top marks to our publicist.

Friday 14th June – home

Went with work chums to lunch at the Giant Robot restaurant in Clerkenwell Road. The taxi pulled up and we were looking for it when (colleague) Jo Jacobs cried, ‘Look! Look what it says!’ On the chalkboard on the pavement outside the restaurant was written “OUR ROBOT OVERLORDS ARE COMING SOON!”. I thought that was nice of Jo to set that up, but she knew nothing about it. When she asked, the waiter said, “Oh yeah, it’s the name of a movie coming out next year.”

Jo nearly exploded. “Oh my god, he’s the writer! He wrote the film!”

So a fantastic little bit of serendipity. Made my day, I don’t mind telling you.

Sent Chris my comments on the BFI notes. He seemed happy. Going to tweak sc200 – when Sean links with the Mediator.

I haven’t been able to find the original piece with SBK and Piers, but here’s the clip with Gillian…

The Curzon mentioned is the one in Soho. It was just around the corner from where I used to work at Orion and I would regularly write in there on my lunch break. They have a great basement bar with nice quiet nooks where you can tap away in peace with a cup of tea and a bag of chocolate covered raisins.

The Black Spitfire was a script that I was developing with VFX director Paddy Eason. It was, if I say so myself, a bloody excellent action adventure feature about an Air Transport Auxiliary pilot called Ginny Albion who has to rescue Churchill from the advancing Nazi Blitzkrieg in France in the lead up to Dunkirk. Sadly, it never got picked up. Too expensive, too British for Americans, and back then film backers were iffy about an action movie with a female lead. Hey ho. But check out the sales poster we commissioned…

Art by Brian Taylor aka Candykiller: https://candykiller.artstation.com| Model: Claire Garvey

Readers of the Witches of Woodville books might have spotted that a black Spitfire arrives at the end and is piloted by a young woman called Ginny. Yup, that’s her…

Next instalment: I go to Belfast and find some standing stones, there’s more Gillian and a cameo from Air Force One…