In another adventure of the wonky harddrive, lost Big Rock Candy Mountain material, here is another of the interviews we originally meant to go live with. Enjoy.

Editor’s note: While also being lost and partly corrupted. The original interview was recorded in a low frequency wma. It’s quality is dreadful. Frankly if anyone ever tries to sell you an Olympus USB voice recorder. Shoot them in them face, kill their family and burn their house down. It has taken four people over a year and many tantrums and bouts of giving up to get this interview transcribed as it now stands. We have included this information for your general amusement and as stark warning to humanity regarding Olympus products. We have also included it by way of a pre-emptive apology – Mr. Banke, if anything here is wrong it’s probably because it was misheard. We’re probably the most worried about whether you did shoot those shorts in film school or whether that was random swearing we misheard. Also, the bit regarding your pet rabbit, we’re just not sure.

Interviewer’s Note: Don’t even ask about the Lamberto Bava interview, families have been killed, do you hear me, killed.

While at the Horrorthon, I had the chance to meet and interview Anders Banke, the director of ‘Frostbite’. Who, if impressions from the five days of the Horrorthon are anything to go by is a thoroughly likeable and wise man. There is a short review of Frostbite in the review section of the mountain. It’s also worth mentioning that at the time of transcribing this interview, ‘Frostbite’ has won the following accolades:

• ‘Best Film’ Fantasporto 2006
• ‘Best Score’ Screamfest Horror Film Festival 2006
• ‘Best Makeup’ Screamfest Horror Film Festival 2006
• ‘Best Special Effects’ Screamfest Horror Film Festival 2006

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Screwy: Anders, there’s absolutely nothing about you on the Internet. Could you tell us how you got into film?

Anders Banke: Well I was interested in film since I was about nine ten eleven, so from pretty early on. But I didn’t really think a director was something you could actually be. I always drew a lot of pictures, so I wanted to be an artist for quite some time. And then when I was studying Russian for some reason and I was in Moscow, as part of the course I was doing. By accident I got acquainted with a guy who was an engineer at a film studio, one of the biggest film studios there. He took me around the place one day and then I found out next that the film studio was the world’s oldest and biggest film school. Which is an order of the red banner, state institute of cinematography named after Sergei Gerasimov in Moscow.

The next day I went there and I asked if it was possible to study there. And they said yeah, if you can pass the test. So I went back home and I thought hmm. Because by that time, I wanted to work in art, but I had a keen interest in music as well and things visual, so I came to the conclusion that film is the ultimate art. I thought at some point in the far future I’ll be able to be a director, then I came across this film school. So I came back and I managed to get in, after six months preparatory course studying Russian.

So I stayed there for four and half years, shot a few short films and that is how I became a filmmaker.

Screwy: Frostbite is your first full feature?

Anders Banke: Yes.

Screwy: Are you pleased with it or is there anything you’d change?

Anders Banke: Um, it was really tough to do, because we set up to do a lot more than we had the money for. And also because on a regular film you need about three months pre-production and on a film with a lot of special fx, there’s about six months pre-production. And on ‘Frostbite’ it was really complicated to time it because we needed snow, we needed a guarantee of snow. And to make a very long story short, we ended up with one month pre-production. During which time, two of the key personnel, local key personnel, couldn’t take it anymore and so they dropped out. And so it was a bit chaotic. We had to schedule a lot of special fx as late as possible in the shoot because they weren’t ready yet.

So given that and given that for our first film we picked everything you’re not supposed to have in a film, let alone what you’re supposed to. We had children, lots of special fx, animals, talking animals, action sequences, explosions, car chases, historical stuff and everything in the snow in the middle of the night, and considering all that, yes I’m happy with the results. But there were a few things we had to cut out. There were a lot of things I’d hoped and planned to do but we couldn’t do because of the physical trouble of working in the snow and combined with all the special fx.

Screwy: Are we likely to see a director’s cut or is what we see now the director’s cut?

Anders Banke: What you see now is the director’s cut yes. I consider that the director’s cut. We had to cut, there was a really, there was an excellent, we had to cut a couple of things from the script because we just didn’t have the money and the time. A few interesting scenes that we felt the storyboards didn’t work.

Screwy: Of the things you cut, what was the one you’d have liked most to see in the movie.

Anders Banke: Probably there was this stalking horror scene where the main monster of the film chases down one of the characters in the film and that was to happen in a supermarket. It was quite elaborate and would have looked really cool, but we just decided when we came up there that we couldn’t do it. So that would probably be it.

Also there was this scene that we shot completely and we edited and it turned out really really good. Very very funny. It’s a dialogue sequence with two policemen, the flashback scene is where we do more bad things to small animals. Unfortunately we had to cut it, everyone agreed that is was excellent and very funny, but it just stopped everything. Cause it’s like a five-minute sequence in the middle of the film and you couldn’t cut up from it. For various reasons, we had to, it just slowed the film down and the overall flow of the film was more important than this scene. It’s going to be included in the special editions of the DVD because it’s too good to be left out.

Screwy: So it being your first feature and it’s success helps guarantee you’re ability to make more films, if people like Frostbite they should buy it?

Anders Banke: Yeah, I mean, don’t download it illegally. If you like the film, you should buy it. Especially when the special edition comes out, cause there’s going to be a lot of stuff on there.

Screwy: Do you have any favorite gore scenes?

Anders Banke: Favorite gore scenes. Hm. Well my favorite horror film is ‘Brain Dead’. You asked me before why I got into filmmaking and one of the main reasons was Peter Jackson. This was long before anyone in Sweden knew who Peter Jackson was. Somehow, some reason, I got a hold of ‘Bad Taste’ pirated, on vhs, because it just wasn’t available, it wasn’t even sold in Sweden at that time. I was not really a, I wasn’t a horror fan, because I’ve a vivid imagination, I get very easily scared, especially by like horror films. I didn’t watch them because they were quite good. But someone told me “you should really watch this” and I saw it and it was quite horrific but it was different from anything else I’d seen before and it was very funny. Also this film was made for almost no money, by a guy who is like working in a small little country on the other side of the world. So what it did, what this film did was inspire me to actually make films because it showed you can make films even if you’re from Sweden. You don’t have to be in Hollywood to make interesting films and interesting to me is like fantasy films or films with a fantastic element.

The other filmmaker was actually a Swedish filmmaker called Mats Helge Olsson. Few people know it, but in the eighties, he made a lot of really low budget not very good action films. One of them was ‘Ninja Mission’. It was one of the biggest selling Swedish films internationally ever and you know it’s a ninja film and when I saw it I thought, I can do that, if he can I can. Those are the two films that inspired me to make the leap into becoming a filmmaker. They provide me with the inspiration that prove to me that it is possible to do.

Screwy: So there’s no chance of you selling out and going off to Hollywood to do a big budget remake?

Anders Banke: Yeah certainly, I’ve no qualms about that, it really depends on the project.

Anders Banke: Remake? No I wouldn’t go out specifically to remake something. But if I was offered a remake and the script itself was good, you know, why not?

Screwy: And if a Hollywood studio came to you and offered you the money, saying they wanted you to re-imagine some movie, come back to us when you’ve picked one, is there anything you’d say “I’ll remake that.”

Anders Banke: No. Not really, I have a lot of other; we have like seven or eight projects that we’re working, that are all, well with one exception are all based on original ideas and we’re working on those. Then if someone else comes to me with a project that’s interesting enough and if the script is good enough then it almost doesn’t matter if its a remake.

I am doing a remake next year, but it’s a Russian remake of a Hong Kong action film. Johnny To’s ‘Breaking News’. The reason I’m doing that besides the fact that I like the script is that it’s a good original film that could be improved upon. The point of remaking that film, is that its actually very Asian and also because the premise has to do with media manipulation. Which for Russia is a very interesting subject, because there is a lot of that stuff going on.

So that attracted me to the project and also the fact that we’re reworking the script because I didn’t particularly like the ending and we’re changing it, we’re russifying it. But my goal of course is to make a film. It’s going to be in Russian, it’s going to be all Russian actors, mainly Russian crew and the main market will be Russia. But my goal will be that it will be a film that will work outside Russia as well.

Screwy: What would be your favorite scene in ‘Frostbite’?

Anders Banke: Well everyone seems to like the dinner scene. Where he bites the head off the rabbit. The other two scenes I like the best I’d say, one is with the police, it’s in the original film where they’re standing outside the cell, they’re discussing how they found this guy. That happens to be a very famous Swedish comedienne, it’s his first film role and he’s doing an excellent job and I’ve always wanted to work with him, he’s a very funny man. I like the whole dead pan sort of humor of that scene.

Screwy: Having seen what you do to small animals in the film, I have to ask, do you have any pets?

Anders Banke (laughing): Yes, I have a cat, I have a black cat called Felix. Who is the cutest, cuddliest little, I don’t know he’s not really that catlike.

Screwy: So you’re not down with rabbits?

Anders Banke: I had a little rabbit almost exactly like the white rabbit we bit the head off, when I was little. Very cute and I loved him a lot and I didn’t do anything to him.

Screwy: What was his name?

Anders Banke: Sniffler I think. (Due to distortion caused by acoustics in the room, this segment is quite indistinct, so if we have this wrong and the name of Mr. Banke’s rabbit was something in Swedish that sounds like Sniffler, please feel free to email us and correct our mistake)

Anders Banke: But I have an aversion to small irritating dogs.

Screwy: I think anyone who watches “Frostbite’ will cop that and be happy by the scenes in ‘Frostbite’

Anders Banke: It is inherently very funny to really bad things to little animals.

Screwy: Any dream projects that you’d like to do? Any books or something that you’d love to do, something maybe you’re waiting until you’ve gotten yourself very established before you think about doing it?

Anders Banke: Um. Yeah, what’s it called, there is a book, I think the original was a TV series. Which was made by, um, it’s about the secret underworld of London. It’s called um…

Screwy: Neverwhere? By eh…

Anders Banke: Neil Gaiman, yeah.

Anders Banke: That was an excellent book. I know it started off as a TV series but I read the book and I thought it was really excellent. That would be something that would be really cool to do.

Screwy: See what you could do is you could write it and send it in to him, he’s got a blog where he answers questions. See what he thinks.

Anders Banke (laughing): Well I think it’s an excellent book that could turn into a really great film.

Screwy: Would you London it or would you Russify it?

Anders Banke: No, I’d do it London. It’s such an English thing and I feel, very close to British culture. So I wouldn’t really want to change a lot.

Screwy: Having seen Frostbite, particularly the beginning, I think you’d do a brilliant job. Have you read his other books?

Anders Banke: Yes! I have! One of my absolute favorite books of all time, is the one he did with my other favorite writer which is Terry Pratchett and it’s ‘Good Omens’. I think they’re doing that now aren’t they?

Screwy: Yeah I’ve heard Gilliam is looking for the money to do it.

Anders Banke: Oh yeah, actually yes that’s right I discussed that with Gilliam not so long ago, when I met him. I hope he, I mean he’s perfect for that, I hope to see that as a film, made by Gilliam actually.

Screwy: Aye Gilliam would be perfect, he’s one of my favorite directors.

Anders Banke: Yep, me too.

Screwy: You’re a Pratchett fan, what would be your favorite Pratchett book? Would it be ‘Good Omens’?

Anders Banke: Um, it’s difficult to say, I mean ‘Moving Pictures’ is a good book. ‘Mort’ I liked. Well I mean the last book I read was more like a children’s book, it was the something and his amazing rodents…

Screwy: Maurice?

Anders Banke: Yes! Maurice! I just thought that was really good.

Anders Banke: One of the projects we have is a fantasy horror film. So it might be like certain children’s fantasy films.

Screwy: What about your parents, have they seen ‘Frostbite’? What did they think.

Anders Banke: Yeah, my father actually worked on it. My father has an apple juice factory, so he works a lot from September to November and then well he’s not off for the rest of the year but he can take time off. So he actually worked as a carpenter and built a lot of the sets. He built the coffins.

Screwy: Did he enjoy it when he saw the finished project.

Anders Banke: Yeah.

interview ends here as we ran out of time. Or it may not have, we may have lost more audio files than we previously thought. The mystery deepens.