At The Mountains Of Madness – Page 2 – Matthew Cooper Director

17 January 2021

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

9 January 2021

Editing and Post Production on – At The Mountains of Madness – 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.

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.

9 December 2020

Wrapped – At The Mountains of Madness – Matthew Cooper Director

Boom, about a week ago we wrapped shooting on my new feature length horror film – ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ – which is based on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft. This is the second film (after ‘Markham’ released August 2020) in a trilogy of micro budget Lovecraft adaptations.

Unlike Markham, we had a pretty solid script for this production although my actors Tony Coughlan, Ashe Russell and Gary Geeson still had plenty of room to improvise and play with their characters.

The main shoot was completed in two intense weeks, where at times, we had to be really creative to get the scares and required atmosphere on a tiny budget.

ATMOM had exteriors shot in Greenland and Alaska, but the majority of the film was done on custom built sets in a studio environment. Like Markham, ATMOM will be black and white and some of the film is shot on Super 8mm. The most fun I had on the shoot involved fake snow and a snow machine – which resulted in me nearly breaking ankle – but hey, the shots looked great.

I’m looking forward to diving head first into post production, and the film will hopefully be released online in April 2021.

Obviously, Covid-19 made shooting the film a challenge and at all times we stuck to the Covid-19 film industry guidelines.

Keep checking back over the next few months as I detail the post production process and start releasing a few images and trailers from the film.

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire, UK Script editor 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 UK script coverage service, Script reading service and script development service are highly sought after.

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

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.