The Official Killing Bono Blog

Thought we’d give you a peek into the aforementioned depths of the editing process…..edited for your sanity.

Posted by Directors Assistant

Stephen Warbeck composing for Killing Bono at Air Studios

Thought we’d packed it in, didn’t you? Unfortunately this blog has suffered at the hands of the all consuming post production process. For those of you who are unfamiliar with such a beast, it consists of much time spent in small dark basement editing suites with men who see little more light than the warm blue glow of their computer screens. Well, it’s perhaps a little less Middle Earth than I may indulge, but you can rest assured that “Killing Bono” is looking great and we will be continuing to give you updates on a slightly more regular basis.

Perhaps a little more glamorous was our trip to Air Studios ( I know of at least 3 sound geeks who have just wet their pants) to record the film’s score. Stephen Warbeck (pictured) who won an Oscar for scoring “Shakespeare in Love” and has been composing for films longer than I’ve been alive, has composed a score that ensures the film will sound as good as it looks.

We have some exciting news to be announced shortly…..so watch this space.

Posted by Directors Assistant

Neil and Ivan McCormick

Have you ever wondered which actor would play you in the film of your life? Perhaps you’ve also wondered if anyone would bother to tell  a mass audience the story of your spectacular failures in the face of trying to make it to the big time? If you happen to be Neil McCormick, wondering is no longer necessary. With the film based on his life growing up in the shadow of his former school mates U2 now in post production,  Killing Bono ensures Neil’s story of the underdog who never quite makes it, is soon to be immortalised forever.

We had a chat to the real Neil and Ivan McCormick about  having some of the hottest young actors playing themselves and would-be-probably-soon-to-be-real fame:

How close did you really get to becoming rock stars?

Ivan: As close as possible without it actually happening … and yet it always felt so far away!!

Neil: We got a deal from Warner then got dropped ’cause they didn’t like my hair.

Ivan: Well, it was a crap haircut.

Did you fight with each other as much as we see in the film?

Ivan: Probably.

Neil: It was hardest on the other band members who’d think World War III had broken out and we’d be like, “What? We were just discussing the set list!” We never actually came to blows that I recall.

Ivan: There’s still time. Wait till the film première.

Who was the most talented?

Ivan: Need I answer…?

Neil: Ivan had the musical talent and I piggy-backed on that.

Ivan: So you finally admit I was the most talented?

Neil: It depends what kind of talent we’re talking about.

Ivan: You just can’t bring yourself to say it, can you?

Who was the best looking?

Ivan: As above.

Neil: I was a late bloomer.

Ivan: A bit too late for the record companies, apparently.

Who was the most successful with girls?

Ivan: Same again.

Neil: I was a one woman guy. Ivan was more of a one woman at a time guy.

Ivan: Sometimes two, actually.

What was your worst gig?

Neil: We played in an illegal strip club in Dublin known as Sweaty Betty’s. I remember one old duffer saying to me, “Is that what they call punk rock? I like it!”

Ivan: An A&R man who had come to see us signed a band called Black instead. They had one big hit, “Wonderful Life”.

Neil: But where are they now, eh?

Ivan: Probably living off the royalties.

How did you feel seeing the actors being you?

Neil: I thought maybe if I could speak to my younger self, I could spare him a whole world of pain.

Ivan: Ben Barnes is a bit too good looking to play Neil, let’s be honest.

When did you last see Bono?

Ivan: On the 360 Degree tour, but I doubt he saw me amongst the 50,000 others.

Neil: You can’t avoid the bastard. I spoke to him during filming. We talked about Marty McCann, the actor playing him, and he said, “Just so long as he’s tall…and modest.”

Ivan: Which, of course, are two of the characteristics people most associate with Bono.

What are you doing now?

Ivan: Making a living singing U2 songs at weddings.

Neil: I write about music for the Daily Telegraph and was the ghost writer on U2’s autobiography, “U2 By U2”, so I got to spend a couple of years inside their lives. It gave me real insight into why they made it rather than us.

Do you still want to be a rock star?

Ivan: No thanks, but I wouldn’t say no to the money.

Neil: Liar. Secretly, I’ve never given up hope.

For the complete interview www.salt-co.com

Posted by Directors Assistant

Pinching yourself is commonly seen as the best cure for a wildly improbable dream. Having led a fairly innocuous life up until now, I’d never had to utilise this method. However, as I find myself invited to attend the Cannes Film Festival, I feel the need to not pinch, but thump myself right in the face to wake up. This. Cannot. Be. Happening.

Nick Hamm (Killing Bono’s director) had asked me over to report on the various goings-on as they attempted to sell the film to other territories throughout the world. After he told me, I feigned some level of cool with the news, while the thought of attending made me feel positively giddy. I grabbed my passport and dusted my shorts off. As we got to the hotel, the producers headed off to their luxurious suites and I attempted to follow. I was informed that my lodgings would be slightly different however. As the yachts faded from my view and the litter started to pile up, I finally found my ‘motel’. I was suddenly reminded of my place in this whole spectacle; right at the very bottom, sharing my room with a family of flies.

I left as soon as I got there and found my way back to the circus. The film still hadn’t been completed so the producers were given the task of trying to sell it, based on a handful of scenes, to various distributors who were being simultaneously courted by an endless number of competitors. It was a bit of a pissing contest frankly with both the sublime and the ridiculous on offer. Ridiculous being well-supported by films such as Zebraman 2. I stalked the producers as much as I could, with a notepad and a nose that was worryingly reddened. My skin wasn’t used to this much sun. I managed to follow one as he showed the (re-cut) promo to a US studio chief. With Cannes being so incredibly frantic, they carried out their ‘meeting’ on the pavement, outside of a restaurant.

The film did receive some odd, unintentional publicity which we only discovered by accident. A Hungarian distributor (yes, that’s a thing) showed us an invite to a Killing Bono party, supposedly from Bono and Wyclef Jean. At the party, there would apparently be a screening of the film. But the film wasn’t even completed and a call to the U2 camp confirmed that Bono wasn’t even in France. In other words, it was the real-world equivalent of one of those ‘YOU HAVE WON AN IPOD’ emails, except in this case, Killing Bono was the iPod. Must be a good thing, right?

For every party that I heard of, there were another ten that I wasn’t allowed to attend. My incrementally aggravating position as the one being pushed out of the way, coupled with the embarrassingly sweaty heat meant that returning home was actually a relief. Cannes was amazing to look at but it was hard to get involved. Plus, all of this buzz was starting to make me feel increasingly impatient. I still hadn’t seen the film. Back on UK shores, and to my shabby flat, I’m thinking back fondly on my French escape. As humiliating as it may have been, I was still part of it all. Admittedly, I was the scum on the surface of the perimeter of the edge of the coating but I’ll take that for now.

Posted by Hot Press Rookie

The very first peek at footage of the film is currently being shown to the blearry eyed buyers on a yacht somewhere on the French Riviera at the Festival de Cannes. For those of us who aren’t gripping onto their glass of champagne for dear life (and those of us who are, just in a not-so-glamourous setting) I can but offer a small consolation of the teaser poster that is currently on tour.

More news from the festival to come!

Posted by Directors Assistant

I hate myself on the train. I manage to transform a simple 15-minute journey into a painstaking examination on the current state of my life. Every fear or concern that’s been brewing inside comes to the surface and by the time I step onto the platform, I’m a ball of shredded nerves.

Making my way over to Twickenham Film Studios, my worries over what I’d taken on and my potential (read: incredibly definite) lack of ability was starting to prey on my mind. I’d been hired by Hot Press to report on the goings on behind the scenes of the new Killing Bono movie. It was currently being edited, hence my trip out west.

I met the director’s assistant in reception and she took me to their office to see a promo that had been put together for Cannes (to sell it to the yanks). It was strong and played up the romance and comedy, although I was informed that the more dramatic side to the story hadn’t yet been showcased. At Cannes, it’s all about how to impress people that aren’t easily impressed, as well as being somewhat pissed.

What had intrigued me from the very beginning was how U2, specifically Bono, perceived the film. I learnt that Ian Flooks, their agent was actually a producer and they’d given consent for two of their songs to be used. Bono clearly has a sense of humour. Not many music icons would agree to a film with the word killing in front of their name. Imagine trying to get the greenlight for Killing Elton John…

It was time for me to meet Nick (the director) so I was taken to the cutting room via a headache-inducing labyrinth of corridors. Through my limited experience on the student magazine, I’d chalked up some gig reviews and opinion pieces but never once conducted an actual interview. I was still trying to finalise who I would be emulating (I was thinking maybe a young Louis Theroux) when I was introduced to Nick.

He was friendly off-the-bat but gave me an unsure stare, as if I were a Rubik’s cube, waiting to be solved. It was only fair really. My allegiance was to the magazine, not to the film or to him and I’d been told by Niall to write what I see and think, no-holds-barred. This was easier said than done. I’d never knowingly offended anyone before with my writing. Well, no one I’d met anyway.

I took a seat and tried to ask Nick some questions. It was harder than I’d imagined. He was busy at work, putting together an edit of the film to show Paramount. My presence, while not unwelcome, was a distraction. I asked him about the current state of the edit. It had already been shown to the producers, which had given them an idea of what was and wasn’t working and these notes were being put towards the current version in time for Paramount.

As it stood, Paramount hadn’t seen a thing. Nick was a tad nervous but he was one of those people who admitted nerves in a voice more confident than I could ever muster. He had to be somewhere so our meeting was cut short. I said my goodbyes and headed out. Trying not to get lost as I manoeuvred my way through the maze, I stepped outside to see a shirtless Robert Pattinson, smoking a cigarette. He must have been filming some non-vampire film at the studios. It was a sight that would send a million teenage girls into cardiac arrest.

For me, it just exemplified the surreal nature of my new job. How did I get here, and more importantly, how do I manage to stay here, without fucking everything up?

Posted by Hot Press Rookie

Posted by Directors Assistant

There are many places you don’t want to be when you receive an important phone call. Having never had one before in my 21 uneventful years, the unnecessarily cruel hand of fate placed me with my head halfway inside a toilet when my phone started to ring. It was the morning after I graduated and my first day as an official adult. Adulthood had so far been punctuated with a monstrous hangover but on the other end of the phone, a voice woke me to the possibility that my days as a man might be worth staying sober for.

It was a call from Niall Stokes, editor of Hot Press (the NME, only much better). After doubting him for a good 90 seconds, my inability to match up his voice to any of my idiotic friends led me to believe this was no joke. I’d sent him some sample writing from our student magazine (hopelessly and nonsensically titled Splash) and he’d seen ‘promise’ in my various gig reviews. The word promise had a miraculously sobering effect on me, as if he’d sucked out the poison I’d inflicted upon my body the night before.

There was an assignment.

I scrambled to my borderline uninhabitable bedroom, throwing clothes and magazines aside, eager to find a pen. There was a film called Killing Bono, currently in post-production, and Niall wanted me to be his man on the inside. I’d be given access to the cutting room, the director, the cast, the crew, pretty much everything, and then I’d be reporting back to tell him the unofficial story of what was going down.

In other words, I’d be like that kid in Almost Famous, except I probably wouldn’t get the chance to put my mouth on Kate Hudson’s. Probably.

Like him, I realised the main reason I got the job was because I’m cheap and I’m willing. Niall knew I wouldn’t say no and he was right. The post-graduation fear was a grey cloud above my head, and coupled with the added ‘Where am I going?’ paranoia I always feel when I’m hung-over, I would have said yes to a month’s work experience on Potato Weekly.

As the conversation ended, I finally took a breath. The words from the call replayed in my head and my expression mutated from an excitable smile to a nervous frown. This was my chance. Mine to make good or mine to fuck up.

I grabbed my worryingly sticky laptop and allowed Google to educate me. Killing Bono tells the true(ish) story of the band that didn’t make it while U2 did. It’s based on a popular book, directed by Nick Hamm (The Hole) and stars Ben Barnes (Narnia 2). It’s just been picked up by Paramount, meaning it’s sort of a big deal. My mutating expression continued.

I’m heading to the cutting room next week to kick things off. Right now, it all seems a bit like a fever dream. Half of me expects it to be some sort of hangover-fuelled mirage. Going on the assumption that it is in fact actually happening, I need to read up, listen to some U2, start getting used to having a pen behind my ear (that’s what journos do, right?) and head back to the toilet…

Posted by Hot Press Rookie

Knowing how many of you have already been hanging off every word of our Facebook and Twitter updates, am feeling not dissimilar to the anxiety a director experiences in the face of editing their opening sequence. Sheer terror aside, as the Director’s Assistant (and sometime cameo appearance extra), I will be your guide to the behind-the-scenes glamour of the making of our film Killing Bono.

When I say glamour, I allude to the kind of glamour somewhere between a 6 ft 4 transvestite shivering in a sequined mini-dress and an extra swaggering behind a make-shift bar in little else but the chaps he has brought from home, where  I realise two things:

1. The transvestite looks much better in that dress than I ever would
2. Only in the film making business would I find myself at 9am on a Monday morning in February, in a drafty old warehouse in downtown Belfast , wearing a 1980’s outfit reminiscent of a Bangles video (cue topless body painted man and roller-girl in feathered bikini), surrounded by an entire film crew…

No doubt a simultaneous sigh of relief and groan of disappointment will echo into cyber-space when I say that this isn’t a teen-slasher film…but a rock’ n’ roll comedy about two Irish brothers struggling to forge their path through the 1980’s music scene, whilst the meteoric rise to fame of their old school pals (U2!) only serves to cast them deeper into the shadows.

Based on the memoirs written by Neil McCormick , Killing Bono is Directed by Nick Hamm (The Hole, Godsend) and stars Ben Barnes (Narnia 2), Robert Sheehan (Season of the Witch) and Krysten Ritter (Confessions of a Shopaholic).

From the edit room to festivals, to sneak peeks at the forthcoming film; dust off your air guitars, slip into some high-waisted acid wash and make sure you stay tuned in to the Official Killing Bono Blog.

Posted by Directors Assistant