Brothers Kevin and Andrew Macdonald mentioned their respective careers in an ever-shifting movie business on Sunday on the Edinburgh Worldwide Movie Pageant‘s keynote session.
Kevin Macdonald, an Oscar winner for his feature-length documentary One Day in September (1999), can also be recognized for his fiction work, together with The Final King of Scotland (2006) and State of Play (2009), in addition to Touching the Void (2003) and How I Dwell Now (2013). Andrew Macdonald, in the meantime, is a producer greatest recognized for his collaborations with Danny Boyle and Alex Garland on the likes of Trainspotting (1996), The Seaside (2000), Ex Machina (2014) and the 28 Days Later franchise.
The session, hosted by Edinburgh TV Pageant boss Rowan Woods, started with a blast from the previous: the brothers’ quick movie that noticed them as 20-something-year-olds interview the creatives — together with Robbie Coltrane, Sam Fuller and Michael Winner — on the 1992 Edinburgh Movie Pageant. The pair have been urgent business names on the right way to get Shallow Grave made. On the finish, Sean Connery stars over the cellphone; Kevin had managed to pay money for the Scottish actor in his trailer whereas he shot 1993’s Rising Solar in L.A.
The dialog spanned a myriad of matters, specifically the tasks they’re most happy with and the interior workings of getting among the twenty first century’s largest movies over the road. Kevin Macdonald spoke candidly about working with Hollywood A-listers for the primary time on political thriller State of Play. After months of rewriting the script with Tony Gilroy (and spending some huge cash), “[We] gave it to Brad Pitt,” Macdonald defined. “And he mentioned, ‘I hate it.’”
“That was only the start of an extended, very Hollywood [experience],” he laughed. “A sure sort of wasteful Hollywood filmmaking, the place they have been attempting to make clever and good movies,” he added, referencing how a complete sound stage was knocked by way of in L.A. as a substitute of taking pictures on location in Washington D.C., as a result of Pitt needed to remain close to his household. However Pitt’s function ultimately went to Russell Crowe, anyway.
Macdonald mentioned about feeling out of his depth filming with big stars: “I don’t suppose I’m saying something out of flip to say that Russell Crowe is kind of a troublesome man and he would intimidate the studio to such a level that they wouldn’t really wish to come to set.”
“I might say to the studio, ‘Oh my god, this can be a nightmare,’” he laughed once more, “‘I can’t management this, man, we’re spending all this cash,’ they usually’re saying, ‘You’re doing nice.’”
He additionally revealed he needed to push for Forest Whitaker to be forged in The Final King of Scotland: “He got here in so eager to do that,” he recalled. “He felt compelled to do that half… I noticed this very light, non secular man, however there’s one thing darkish, and that was, I feel, what he needed to specific. I keep in mind going to Fox Searchlight. They’d mentioned, ‘Forest is completely mistaken. He’s so light and candy. He can’t be proper.’”
He continued: “It grew to become a little bit of a battle. In the long run, they relented. It’s a kind of nice issues in life when your actor goes on to win an Oscar, and Searchlight should admit that you simply have been proper. That doesn’t occur fairly often.” His brother Andrew managed to sneak into the Oscars’ Vainness Honest occasion that yr, pretending to be Kevin, the siblings additionally revealed, the place he gave an interview as Kevin to British broadcaster Sky Information.
When requested what sort of tasks he finds are price pursuing within the present local weather, Andrew merely gave thanks for locating Garland: “I’ve been very lucky within the final 10 years, to work with this man who can give you a script, actually, in 24 hours. So we spent a whole lot of time producing his movies, what he needs to do, and out of that has come an excellent relationship with A24, and that’s actually nearly all of what we’ve achieved. Now and again, one thing comes up that matches in.”
On the issue of filming 28 Years Later and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple again to again, Andrew mentioned: “It wasn’t laborious, as a result of there’s some key actors that have been in first [part]. That’s why we did it back-to-back. I feel the director of the second movie, she most likely did the toughest factor — as a result of she needed to take some components that have been already in place, that weren’t essentially her […] alternative,” he mentioned about Nia DaCosta, whose installment is ready for launch in January 2026.
The pair fielded a collection of questions from the viewers in direction of the top of the session, the place Kevin expressed he thought lots of people within the business are “overly despondent” in regards to the influence of AI.
The filmmaker additionally mentioned he would like to be making Richard Linklater’s Merrily We Roll Alongside, filmed throughout 20 years with Paul Mescal and Ben Platt. “What a beautiful concept,” he mentioned. “That may be a lot enjoyable to do.”
Edinburgh Worldwide Movie Pageant 2025 runs Aug. 14-20.