‘My second film took a decade to make and is not your average period drama’

Director John Maclean is back in cinemas this summer with his second film, a decade after his award-winning and critically acclaimed debut, Slow West.

The revisionist Western starring Michael Fassbender and Kodi Smit-McPhee saw him named by Bafta as ‘a Brit to Watch’ and claim a jury prize at Sundance.

It was dubbed one of the films of the year and still has a 92% score from critics on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

And now Maclean’s finally returned with his second film – ‘notoriously difficult’ in Britain, he says – a Scottish samurai Western, naturally.

Starring Jack Lowden, Tim Roth, Japanese model and songwriter Kōki and Shogun’s Takehiro Hira, Tornado sees a Japanese puppeteer’s daughter get caught up with criminals when their show crosses paths with a crime gang in 18th-century rural Scotland.

A refreshingly unusual combination of things, Maclean reveals that Tornado ‘led on’ from Slow West as an idea, examining the concept of nationality again.

‘In America in 1860, people were from all over the world, they weren’t American yet. Then I thought the same about Britain – that it could be a multicultural place, and there could be a Japanese samurai, a French weightlifter, an Irish bandit,’ the Scottish filmmaker tells me at the Sands International Film Festival in April, where Tornado is previewing as the closing film.

‘I added to that my love of Japanese cinema and thinking, “Oh I’d love to do a samurai film, but I’m not Japanese – so what’s my way in?” The way in was a father-daughter relationship, family and setting it in a Britain of people from all over the place.’

Maclean, who is also a founding member of indie-rock group The Beta Band, tells me that Tornado was based on an old music video he filmed with the group 25 years ago too, in the exact same location.

People don’t normally make a Western as their first feature film, like he did, but Maclean actually saw Tornado as his opportunity to ‘play a lot more’ with the Western tropes.

He was also keen to shake up how British history is traditionally thought of at this time.

‘It’s always been viewed through novels or class systems or kings and queens, and I just thought there was a place for historic Britain full of more of your outsiders: circus performers and poets and musicians and bandits.’

For him, there was also a parallel between Tornado and Slow West with great changes on the horizon.

‘Setting it in 1790 I felt was a kind of equivalent to the 1860 West, when things were about to change drastically – the law and the Peelers were coming, and the industrial revolution was coming, and swords were becoming guns,’ Maclean points out.

Taking a decade between the releases of Slow West and Tornado was not intentional; Maclean’s screenplay was written by 2018 and he jokes he was ‘going as fast as I possibly could’.

But it turns out even if you’ve made a splash with your first film – and he’d won a Bafta for his 2011 short Pitch Black Heist starring Fassbender and Liam Cunningham prior as well – you are far from set up for smooth sailing the second time around.

‘It was just hard to get funding. I thought it would be easier because Slow West was a decent first attempt. In Britain, second films are notoriously difficult to get off the ground,’ he admits.

As to why, he ponders if maybe the script ‘came across as not the trendiest of subjects’ but also reckons it was to do with the film’s titular hero being a young girl and ‘so she has to be a kind of new face’.  

It was just hard to get funding. I thought it would be easier because Slow West was a decent first attempt

‘You do need the big names attached to get any money at all these days.’

He did get them – ‘eventually’ – in Roth and Lowden portraying father and son, and Roth signing up to play the villainous Sugarman ‘unlocked a lot of doors and people started taking it seriously and coming on board’.

As far Lowden, who is especially hot property now given his involvement with hit TV series Slow Horses and casting as Mr Darcy in Netflix’s upcoming Pride and Prejudice adaptation, Maclean was prepared to work for it – and around a few people.

‘I actually met Jack at Edinburgh Film Festival drinks and found out that he loved Slow West. So I went back and rewrote the part with him in mind because – just anything to get beyond these people’s agents! And to know that maybe they want to work with you is huge.’

However, Maclean is far from self-pitying about how hard it was to get Tornado made despite his previous success – although Slow West did not make its budget (a reported $2million (£1.46m)) back at the box office. But it was a word-of-mouth phenomenon that grew a cult audience and charmed critics, juries and fans alike.

‘I’m reading a book about the making of The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde and films of the ‘60s, and it was just as big a struggle. I mean, you’re asking for a lot of money for people,’ he observes (the budget was around £3m for Tornado).

‘I think anything that you want to do that’s sort of – not necessarily against the grain – but just something different …’ he begins, before adding: ‘I think Tornado is not your average British period drama.’

He’s dead right in that respect – and what might make financiers wary is exactly its USP. Thanks to a wider shift in the genre away from rigid historical accuracy in favour of more creative interpretations, diverse casting and contemporary points of view – as seen in the likes of Bridgerton, Netflix’s 2022 adaptation of Persuasion with Dakota Johnson and The Personal History of David Copperfield – it makes Tornado seem bang on the money.

Maclean’s ‘hopeful’ that people want to reinterpret how a period drama looks in Britain.

I wonder what he would like to do for his next film.

‘I love the crime genre and the noir genre – but I’ve got a lot of contemporary music I love, so it’d be nice to make something contemporary. I’m sort of blank page at the moment, so just starting to feel around again,’ he shares.

When I apologise for pressing him on the next film already, he laughs.

‘A lot of directors will have the thing lined up ready to go. I’m just not that guy, so it takes me slightly longer.’

Tornado is in UK cinemas now.

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