Directors

So Nicky Caro had turned us down. After surveying the field in NZ we decided to try UK directors. We approached many, including Stephen Daldry and Stephen Fry. There was an exciting moment when we thought we had Fry hooked, but he got away.

The UK team were keen on Egyptian director Khaled El Hagar (Room to Rent) - he was keen to do it - but the NZ production team weren't convinced.

We thought we had a live option in Gillies Mackinnon. We liked him, he liked the script, we began talking. A brilliant director from Glasgow with a ton of experience and a real eye for talent (of the acting variety), it seemed that we had found our man. He understood what the story was about like no one else had. But then, over Easter of 2005, he made the call that he didn't want to leave his family for the duration of the shoot, and reluctantly turned us down. I wrote an impassioned email to him, asking him to reconsider. He said he would. 

Out walking with friends near a mountain lake in New Zealand, I watched the full moon rise over a street sign "Mackinnon Drive". I took it to be a sign. A few days later Gillies told us he'd thought it over and still wouldn't do it.

Enter Emily Young (Kiss of Life), winner of a BAFTA for most promising young director. She read, was excited, and we began to exchange emails. We were all quite upbeat about her initial approach, and her agent was keen. But as discussions went on, it became apparent that as a writer/director, she wanted to tackle the script. For some reason, I wasn't keen on that. We parted company.

The search had been going on for years now. We couldn't seem to find the right person at the right time in the UK, so we decided to look again in NZ. Would this be easier?