Produzent spricht über die neuen Filme
Verfasst: 25.09.2008, 18:57
Post in seinem Blog vom 22. September:
#+ Übrgens findet ihr den Blog auf der Relaunchten Agatha Christie UK Seite !!!!!
Marmalade and Marple by Phil_Clymer
It’s slightly disturbing to realize that it was a year ago that we embarked on one of the most intensive and demanding projects imaginable: eight ninety-minute television films (four Poirots and four Marples) started production on October 1st 2007, with Mrs McGinty’s Dead filming exteriors in a bleak and blustery autumnal landscape, and actors and crew alike muttering grimly ‘whatever happened to the summer?’ … and here we are, having just started shooting the final film, They Do It With Mirrors, with (predominantly) the same crew making the same complaints about the same weather. Plus ca change …
Except, of course, there’s one very major change this year: Julia McKenzie having stepped into Geraldine McEwan’s sensible shoes and offering a new interpretation of Miss Marple. That was something we weren’t expecting the wind to blow in when we started this time last year. Bowing out after a wonderful three-year, twelve-film stint, Geraldine has handed the knitting needles to Julia, who has already proven to be immensely popular with the entire crew (possible not unconnected with the fact that she permanently keeps the biggest box of sweets you could imagine on the steps of her mobile dressing room) and with me. I don’t really do sweets – but I do do marmalade, and Julia makes it, and I’ve got some.
Actually, saying ‘Julia does marmalade’ is a bit like saying ‘Agatha Christie writes books’, in that it in no way encompasses the scope and scale of the operation. This marmalade is truly wonderful. Not only does Julia import vast quantities of oranges from Seville (nothing else will do), she spends weeks peeling, chopping (and other things that marmalade makers do, but which I’m too shy to ask her about) until she ends up with enough bottles to see her through the winter, and to satisfy family, friends and a very demanding executive producer. The only problem is, now she’s Miss Marple, (and wasting all this time preparing, rehearsing and filming the part) the marmalade-making, I have discovered to my horror, has had to be put on the back-burner, so to speak.
This has meant urgently-convened, long and painful discussions with the department that puts the filming schedules together to try and ensure enough free time for next year’s batch to be made. The alternative is too awful to contemplate.
Staying with citrus fruits, amongst the highlights of our filming Appointment With Death in Morocco last May were the local tagine stews – which have preserved lemon as part of the important ingredients. The trick in eating tagine is to try and avoid the lemon itself, or you risk getting an uncomfortably big hit of quintessential sour that stays with you for longer than you would like. Close observers may notice that Poirot’s lips are looking even more pursed than usual in scenes towards the end of the film; in part, this is the character communicating increasing disbelief at the stories and alibis that the various suspects are spinning him … but in part it might also be the actor attempting to resist the full-face grimace brought on by a sudden return of the pickled lemon.
Phil Clymer, Executive Producer for the Poirot and Marple films
#+ Übrgens findet ihr den Blog auf der Relaunchten Agatha Christie UK Seite !!!!!
Marmalade and Marple by Phil_Clymer
It’s slightly disturbing to realize that it was a year ago that we embarked on one of the most intensive and demanding projects imaginable: eight ninety-minute television films (four Poirots and four Marples) started production on October 1st 2007, with Mrs McGinty’s Dead filming exteriors in a bleak and blustery autumnal landscape, and actors and crew alike muttering grimly ‘whatever happened to the summer?’ … and here we are, having just started shooting the final film, They Do It With Mirrors, with (predominantly) the same crew making the same complaints about the same weather. Plus ca change …
Except, of course, there’s one very major change this year: Julia McKenzie having stepped into Geraldine McEwan’s sensible shoes and offering a new interpretation of Miss Marple. That was something we weren’t expecting the wind to blow in when we started this time last year. Bowing out after a wonderful three-year, twelve-film stint, Geraldine has handed the knitting needles to Julia, who has already proven to be immensely popular with the entire crew (possible not unconnected with the fact that she permanently keeps the biggest box of sweets you could imagine on the steps of her mobile dressing room) and with me. I don’t really do sweets – but I do do marmalade, and Julia makes it, and I’ve got some.
Actually, saying ‘Julia does marmalade’ is a bit like saying ‘Agatha Christie writes books’, in that it in no way encompasses the scope and scale of the operation. This marmalade is truly wonderful. Not only does Julia import vast quantities of oranges from Seville (nothing else will do), she spends weeks peeling, chopping (and other things that marmalade makers do, but which I’m too shy to ask her about) until she ends up with enough bottles to see her through the winter, and to satisfy family, friends and a very demanding executive producer. The only problem is, now she’s Miss Marple, (and wasting all this time preparing, rehearsing and filming the part) the marmalade-making, I have discovered to my horror, has had to be put on the back-burner, so to speak.
This has meant urgently-convened, long and painful discussions with the department that puts the filming schedules together to try and ensure enough free time for next year’s batch to be made. The alternative is too awful to contemplate.
Staying with citrus fruits, amongst the highlights of our filming Appointment With Death in Morocco last May were the local tagine stews – which have preserved lemon as part of the important ingredients. The trick in eating tagine is to try and avoid the lemon itself, or you risk getting an uncomfortably big hit of quintessential sour that stays with you for longer than you would like. Close observers may notice that Poirot’s lips are looking even more pursed than usual in scenes towards the end of the film; in part, this is the character communicating increasing disbelief at the stories and alibis that the various suspects are spinning him … but in part it might also be the actor attempting to resist the full-face grimace brought on by a sudden return of the pickled lemon.
Phil Clymer, Executive Producer for the Poirot and Marple films
sich mehr mit der Materie David Suchet als Poirot beschäftigen. 
