Category: Freelance Film Director

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When The Earth Gives Up The Dead – Poster drops

When the Earth Gives up the Dead (2022) is crawling from the very gates of hell (well post production) towards its release – the film should be completed by the end of July (or maybe before).

Audiences will need to fasten their seat belts as it’s already being describes as an ‘Evil Dead’ style horror comedy with style, blood and gore to spare.

Keep checking back for more info…

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham’ was released in 2020, his second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ hit the screen in 2021. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb. Matthew is also a  judge in the Page Turner Awards 2022.

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When the Earth Gives up the Dead (2022) – Principle Photography has WRAPPED

When the Earth Gives up the Dead (2022) is a wrap – the live action sequences at least are now in the bag – this, the third film in my Lovecraft Trilogy (which includes ‘Markham’ and ‘At the Mountains of Madness’) is now moving into a heavy post production phase that will include loads of exciting SFX sequences as well as some knock-out old school Stop Motion animation provided by the Warehouse Transmedia Wrecking Crew.

Below are a few behind the scenes shots from our last day of shooting.

Behind the scenes on ‘When The Earth Gives Up The Dead’ Directed by Matthew Cooper

Keeping checking back for more exciting updates.  

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham’ was released in 2020, his second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ hit the screen in 2021. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.

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Shooting now on When The Earth Gives Up The Dead…

When The Earth Gives Up The Dead (2022) the latest feature film from Matthew Cooper Director is currently shooting.

The film will be the third in a low budget horror trilogy based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft.

As you can see from the photos we’re having a BLOODY good time making this one.

As a director Matthew Cooper likes to run a efficient, creative and fun set, and these days we keep an eye on our carbon footprint when shooting too, and look to minimise pollution and waste too.

The film is due for release summer 2022 – keep checking back for more info…

Matthew Cooper has been a scriptwriter for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

Matthew is also a director of feature films including the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham’ which was released in 2020. Matthew’s second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ was released in July 2021.

You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here and find his broadcast credits on the IMDb here.

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At The Mountains of Madness (2021) – Horror Feature film – Buy on DVD or VOD

‘At the Mountains of Madness’ is one of horror author H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous tales of terror. It was said to be one of the great un-filmable novels.  Well, not anymore…

In 2021 scriptwriter and director Matthew Cooper, released  his take on the tale of terror and madness.

Finally, somebody had managed to film ‘At The Mountains of Madness’

Watch ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ (2021)

You can watch the film now on VOD below or buy the DVD on the director’s website.

At The Mountains of Madness (2021) from Matthew Cooper on Vimeo.

Matthew Cooper has been a scriptwriter for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham’ was released in 2020, his second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ will be released in 2021. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.

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At The Mountains of Madness (2021) Rough cut completed

At The Mountains of Madness (2021)

My second feature film as a director – the micro budget Lovecraft themed ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ had its first rough cut completed this week, and has been sent off to the composer to start work on the score.

A few clients in my day to day work as a UK script consultant, have asked how we could have possibly shot a feature film (on any budget) during the last 12 months – most of which were spent in Lockdown in the UK, due to the pandemic.

The answer is, it wasn’t easy.  But, making a feature film never is, and it often feels like trying to walk a very strong dog, which has ideas of where he wants to go.   You try and pull the leash, but a lot of time, the dogs superior strength means it gets to go exactly where he decides, however hard you pull.

‘At the Mountains of Madness’ is due for release later this year. I’m very pleased with the film and especially pleased with the effects work, nearly every shot in the film has had something done to it from a special effects POV, but it has retained its naturalistic black and white look, which at times was hard to do.

Keep checking back, as I intend to reveal more about the making of the film as we approach the release date.   

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

Matthew’s directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

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10 films every director needs to see – Matthew Cooper Director

I’m on my third week of post production on my second feature film as a director – ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ a moody little horror film based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft.  This is my second horror feature film as a director and this week, as I’m knee deep in horror, I’ve decided to list ten films that directors need to see – which are out of the horror or sci-fi genre.  A palette cleanser if you will…

These films aren’t in any order and are the first ten that came into my mind.  I’ve also avoided the usual films and directors that I talk about a lot.

The Last Detail – What a script! And what performances by all the cast.  Director Hal Ashby doesn’t get in the way of Jack Nicholson turning in the best performance of his life. A funny, sad and ultimately tragic tale, a road trip, not much happens but we learn everything about three sailors, two taking the third to the brig (prison).  It’s a shitty detail.

The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 – one of the best heist movies ever made, when a group of colour coded professionals take over a subway train and ransom the occupants. The city of New York is a character we meet the Mayor, chief of police and these odd guys called transit cops, lead by a deadpan Walter Matthau.  It’s tense, funny, rousing and has one of the best scores of the 70s.  It’s also one of those films that shows a dirty run down 70s New York, a city on the skids reluctant to pay.   The remake is nowhere near the original

The Commitments – the best let’s start a band movie. Great characters, very funny, good music, but what it captures best is the feeling of aspiring to be something beyond the norm, and the bittersweet worry that it won’t go anywhere or last.  But better to be an unemployed sax player than an unemployed pipe fitter, right?

Breaking Away and Gregory’s Girl – the two best films about growing up.  One set in Glasgow, the other in Indiana. They both share the same spirit.

Margin Call – yes, it’s about the financial crash, but it focuses on the impact on one  company and one set of employees. It’s an eye opener and feels realistic and well researched. All employers will fuck you over eventually, but in this case, they fuck over the entire financial system too.

Bad Company – a western for young people.  But a REAL western never the less. Jeff Bridges and Barry Brown are cast as the two aspiring outlaws, and things don’t go well for them at all. Will they live, and survive the multiple ways young men could die in the west?  You must see it yourself.  Great original score too.

Hard Times / The Streetfigher – known under two different titles.  This depression era set tale of bare knuckle boxing is a top film by Walter Hill.  You’ve got James Coburn and Charles Bronson, which is all you’ll ever need.  It’s gritty and tough and you’d expect nothing less.

Black Book – Paul Verhoeven is simply one of the best directors still working.  He’s still very underrated by many.  Check out Black Book, shocking, rousing, engrossing and a film that will be talked about for years to come.

Bad Day At Black Rock – Spencer Tracy arrives in a small town looking for someone, it’s clear the town has a dirty secret.  The question is, will Spenser get out alive.  Ripe for a remake, outstanding actors, locations and camerawork (I didn’t count more than two or three close-ups in the entire film). It still stands up today.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

Matthew’s directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here

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Editing and Post Production on – At The Mountains of Madness – Matthew Cooper Director

Matthew Cooper Director

I’m one week into post production on my second feature film as a director – ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ (ATMOM) and already, the process is much smoother than on my first feature film Markham  which was released in 2020.

On ‘Markham’ we used improvisation, and never had a real script or storyline.  While this made ‘Markham’ a pretty unique film, it also made it hugely hard work.

‘ATMOM’ had a script, I didn’t entirely stick to it, but for the most part, the actors had set lines to learn, we had set scenes and a pretty strict structure too. And, that has made making the film and editing it soooo much easier.

As a  script writer for hire and in demand script consultant of course, I should know this myself.   Yes, everything works better with a good script – but it’s a gentle reminder to the director in me to get the script working before you do anything else – something I didn’t do with Markham, I almost attempted to write the film after we’d shot it. A mad idea.

ATMOM is already looking like a winner, like Markham it’s a horror film based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. It’s the second film in what will be a low budget trilogy of horror films based on Lovecraft stories.

All being the well, the film be finished very soon, for a late April release. Keep checking back more info.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

Matthew’s directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

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Matthew Cooper Director – Deal of the Dead

Matthew Cooper Director

We finished and released our first micro budget feature film last month – Markham which is getting decent DVD sales and on demand screenings on Vimeo.  Almost straight away I’m moving onto my next low budget feature – the slightly more ambitious Sci-Fi/Horror Deal of the Dead.

We’ve learned a hell of a lot of things from the making of Markham, and these lessons are all being ploughed into Deal of the Dead, the biggest lesson being most of Deal of the Dead is being shot in one location, in Leeds (the location is being kept under wraps for now). The location covers just about all the exterior shots we need, and is available for night and day shoots without much hassle.

Markham, in contrast was shot in Staithes, Whitby, Liverpool, Morecambe, Leeds and Kefalonia (and that’s not even the complete list).  So much time was spent moving from one location to another – we’re not doing that again, on a low budget.

While Markham had some gory special effects, Deal of the Dead is hugely effects heavy, from practical make-up effects to stop motion animation, and we’re doing all of this in-house.   This is the bit that alongside working with the actors excites me most as a director.  We’re setting up a kind of old school mini ILM- it’s fun.

As well as directing I’ll also be operating as the main director of photography.

We’re hoping that on Deal of the Dead we’ll be able to secure a slightly wider release and distribution deal once the film is completed – so watch this space.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire, and UK script consultant.  He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb and you can get in touch with Matthew on matcoop23@yahoo.co.uk.

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Matthew Cooper Director looks at Frozen Ground (2013)

As a freelance film director for hire, script consultant and script writer for hire I thought it was interesting that this week the number one movie on Netflix was Frozen Ground which was made in 2013 and went quickly to DVD at the time it was released.   Not a big hit, not really well known, yet it was the number one movie on Netflix and is still high in the charts as I write this.  The question I guess is why?

I actually saw Frozen Ground in 2013, and I remember it.  Based on a true story, it was gritty, had some good location photography and decent low key performances from Nic Cage and John Cusack. This true story of a serial rapist and killer was disturbing and unpleasant – but the film tried to keep things real and have some semblance of taste out of respect for the real victims (or at least I felt it did, and I felt it on the second viewing too – that the film kept a level of distance from some of the killings as these were real people).

Was the film memorable? I remember the cold location photography, and it was unusual to see Cusack playing a really bad guy – an evil man.  Apart from that, it was an okay, very watchable film based on a very unpleasant real case.  The film is well made, but it’s not some sort of undiscovered gem (or is it?).

 So, why did it fly in at number one?  Was it the presence of Cage and Cusack?  Was it the trailer? Was the thumbnail picture on the Netflix glallery? Was it the subject material – let’s face it Netflix loves a serial killer true story?  Was it a mix of all this?  Was it a film that suddenly, out of nowhere suddenly found its audience on a streaming platform in the middle of a pandemic?  I think yes, to all of these, and I think we might see more of these ‘breakout’ older, lesser known films suddenly smash Netflix.

The director of this film Scott Walker has only one feature film credit – this film, and back in 2013 Frozen Ground was due for a wide cinema release after testing well with audiences and receiving pretty decent critical feedback.   But for various reasons the film never had the release (two studios merged) and the film was dumped.  Leaving director Walker kind of stranded, he would have become a footnote if not for Netflix, and now seven years later, director Walker is suddenly a hot property and his phone is ringing off the hook.

It’s estimated that 100 million people have now seen Frozen Ground in the last few weeks. That’s a huge, gigantic audience for a film, an unexpected bonus and manna from heaven for Walker.   But, the key take away here, is that Netflix should take note of this.  Frozen Ground is old content, a good film, not seen by many, and there are a lot of undiscovered films (often made by major studios) that never got the attention they deserved (stuff like Miracle Mile and Sorcerer) these films, presented to new audiences on a platform that didn’t exist when the films were made could become huge hits for Netflix if treated in the correct manner.  Netflix must take note.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

Matthew’s directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

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Matthew Cooper, Director—looks back at Hollow Man (2000)

My feature debut as a director is due out in a few days or so Markham–will be available from 31 August.

I’m starting to move onto my next project as a director, and in the meantime I have some work as a script writer for hire which is my real bread and butter business at the moment and how I earn my living.

While waiting for Markham’s release I’ve been studying the careers of some of my favorite filmmakers–the people who really influenced me.   One of those directors is Paul Verhoeven, who made one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made–RoboCop (1987)

Verhoeven was a Dutch director who made it in Hollywood by treating sci-fi action pictures with a huge amount of humour and intelligence.

Hollow Man–his take on the invisible man story was a big flop back in 2000. Recently The Invisible Man (2020 starring Mad Men’s Elizabeth Moss) took similar territory and scored with a more financially successful reboot, but personally, I found Hollow Man to be a LOT more entertaining.

Hollow Man seems to have a kind of stalled Verhoeven’s career in the US. Maybe he’d had enough, or the studios didn’t trust him after a couple of mis-fires (including the famous bomb ‘Showgirls’).

Recent reboots of RoboCop and Verhoeven’s Total Recall have bored me to tears–the originals are soo much better and even feel more modern than recent remakes despite being made nearly 30+ years earlier.

Verhoeven himself has stated that he wants to look into the past now as a director, and work on true life historical pieces—like his own Black Book (2006)  I realised looking at his career on the IMDb that I hadn’t seen any of his films since 2006 – this is something I need to correct, because Verhoeven is a major talent, from his early films in Holland to his work in Hollywood, he seems largely to have been ahead of the game in many respects.  I’d take Hollow Man, Total Recall, Starship Troopers and RoboCop over just about anything else made in Hollywood at the time.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire, and UK script consultant. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, Eastenders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.Matthew’s work as a director here.