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Peter Mullan stars in TYRANNOSAUR, a film by Paddy Considine. Picture courtesy Strand Releasing. All rights reserved.

Tyrannosaur (2011)

Opened: 11/18/2011 Limited

Trailer: Click for trailer

Genre: British Drama

Rated: Unrated

Synopsis

TYRANNOSAUR follows the story of two lonely, damaged people brought together by circumstance. Joseph (Peter Mullan) is an unemployed widower, drinker, and a man crippled by his own volatile temperament and furious anger. Hannah (Olivia Colman) is a Christian worker at a charity shop, a respectable woman who appears wholesome and happy. When the pair are brought together, Hannah appears as Joseph's potential saviour, someone who can temper his fury and offer him warmth, kindness and acceptance. As their story develops Hannah's own secrets are revealed -- her relationship with husband James (Eddie Marsan) is violent and abusive -- and as events spiral out of control, Joseph becomes her source of succor and comfort.

Origins

Shot in Leeds, UK, TYRANNOSAUR evolved from Considine's debut short film, DOG ALTOGETHER, released in 2007. The short, which filmed in Glasgow, opens with the character of Joseph (Peter Mullan), a man caught in the grip of his own anger, the short follows him through several violent scenes, in which he is both attacker and victim, up until the point where he meets a kind-hearted woman (Olivia Colman), outside a local charity shop, whose kindness seems to burn like a light in the dark.

'The aim of DOG ALTOGETHER was to start a film with a man kicking a dog to death, and to try and get an audience to end up caring about him' says Diarmid Scrimshaw, who produced both DOG ALTOGETHER and TYRANNOSAUR, 'Paddy achieved that brilliantly. It was clear that Paddy was an exceptional writer and director'

Before shooting DOG ALTOGETHER, Considine had already co-written DEAD MAN'S SHOES (in which he also stars), directed by his friend Shane Meadows, but felt that he had more to give. 'I've had some good moments as an actor,' begins Considine, who first attracted attention on screen with his performances in 1999's A ROOM FOR ROMEO BRASS, and then LAST RESORT, in the following year, 'but I knew I had to direct. I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable in front of the camera. I had the privilege to work with directors like Pawel Pawlikowski, Shane Meadows and James Marsh, who would consult with me about narrative. I knew I had a voice of my own and stories of my own that I needed to tell. 'In my heart I knew I was a better writer director than I was an actor. The best coaches aren't always the best players. Filmmaking was an absolute necessity if I was to continue a career in this medium.'

This compunction led to Considine's short film, DOG ALTOGETHER, which won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, a BAFTA and a BIFA for Best Short Film. 'When making DOG ALTOGETHER, I had this character of Joseph that I knew very well and was very close to me, and close to my heart,' says Considine. 'And then the female character came from some research I was doing on MY SUMMER OF LOVE [the 2004 film in which he starred with Emily Blunt].

'As I was doing my research, I found out about this charity shop, and how people would come in drunk and just vent their anger at the volunteers. One of the women would close the door and pray for them; a lot of the time she'd be afraid but she had this faith that overrode everything. She'd pray for these people and they'd come back day-on-day, oftentimes quite sober and apologetic. That shop became like a haven, and she was the sort of person who attracted these kinds of people.'

Once he'd finished DOG ALTOGETHER, Considine began thinking more and more about his female character.

'People were curious about what happened to the characters,' he says. 'I think some watched the film and felt that it ended abruptly, as they were so involved in the story. With the short I wanted to know whether I could apply narrative to my ideas. I felt I'd accomplished that. I'd already written another short based on Olivia's character and was geared in my mind to making that. I was flattered that people were so concerned about where the story could go, so it transformed into TYRANNOSAUR. I began to explore what was going on in Hannah's life.'

So Considine began writing a second short film, focusing on the female character that helps Joseph, but then decided that he'd turn the story into his first feature film. 'I took myself away, and wrote what became TYRANNOSAUR in about a week and a half. I set about expanding the story and inventing a narrative for the two characters really. I sort of knew Joseph, and that's not to say he didn't surprise me, but I felt this need to find out about Hannah.

'I wanted to know what she was living with. We all make assumptions about people and judge them on their appearance or what they have accumulated, or where they are in life. We are so indulged in our own lives that we fail to think for one second that the woman who serves you in the bank could be living in hell.'

The writer-director received support from many of the people who had worked on DOG ALTOGETHER, including both actors, Mullan and Colman, and his producer Scrimshaw, with whom Considine had worked earlier on in his career, writing and acting in a promo for The Arctic Monkeys' 'Leave before the Lights Come On'. Diarmid says 'When I read Paddy's first draft of TYRANNOSAUR I knew we had a script that you could have started shooting there and then; it was that strong. It is one of those films that feels so gripping and true that it is destined to be made,' 'Lots of people come into filmmaking wanting to make powerful work that's affecting, emotionally true and honest, but few people get the chance to do that. This is a film that everyone involved has put their souls into.'

Actor Peter Mullan, who made his name with the likes of TRAINSPOTTING and, in particular, MY NAME IS JOE, agrees, 'When Paddy sent me the script of TYRANNOSAUR I was surprised. It rarely happens that filmmakers follow up their short films, and the script for TYRANNOSAUR really stunned me, how well it worked. Normally, a short is a self-contained piece, but this really opens up quite naturally, looking more into Olivia's character's life, and I thought it did really that beautifully.'