![]() Because the schedule was so tight, and there was so much to do in such a short space of time, there was this great comradery. It wasn’t exactly full of laughs on set, but there was some good banter. With the film being so serious in tone and subject matter, what was the atmosphere like on set? Then after about 15 minutes, the gate started closing! So we ran out before we got locked in. There was nobody manning the entrance, so we went in and had a walk around. It was a bit crazy though because the big gate, that secures the whole compound, was open when we visited. We were allowed in the prison and everything. Yeah, me and one of the producers actually went to Pretoria. She’d left the country a couple of times before coming back, but unfortunately, she passed away before Tim was able to see her.ĭid you actually visit the prison itself? Not long after he was pardoned he went back and asked some friends about what she was up to. Well, because they were fugitives from 1979 to 1991, he wasn’t allowed in the country. The end of the film revealed that Tim never saw his girlfriend again after his escape. So, I loved that and sort of adapted it with the photo holder scene. But, the captain didn’t know what Karl Marx looked like so he let him off. Karl Marx was a left-wing communist so he was banned at the time in South Africa. What actually happened was the captain did an inspection and found some photos of Karl Marx. One of the film’s most tense scenes comes when Tim is caught with part of his wooden key and successfully passes it off as a photo holder. But, the producers thought that audiences are paying for a prison break movie, so we needed to get to the prison as quickly as possible. We did manage to maintain a bit of other stuff, like with the court hearing at the beginning. It was a spy film, that then became this prison film. But, I loved the fact that this film had a bit of everything. I wish I could have adopted more of the espionage stuff. Then the real Tim was like ‘hmmm I don’t know about that’ he literally just looked at the keys! He spent three months looking at them, and then drawing, and then looking again, and then changing it. Originally, we had a much more long, cool version of how Tim breaks out and figures out the shape of the keys. They had to be in the prison in the first 15 minutes. I loved that stuff, but it was about 30 pages before they enter the prison, and we were told that it had to go due to budget concerns. The original script had a lot more cool espionage spy stuff from before they got arrested. It was a great frame of reference! Signature Entertainmentĭid the script go through a lot of different iterations? Tim and Stephen would make 25 to 30 page PDF’s for me, detailing how they escaped and how each door was opened. So, we met with them every couple of years, and they also visited the set in 2019. We also saw the real car park where they set off the leaflet bomb too. ![]() In 2017 I actually went to Tims house in South Africa, and they drove us around all the locations they were arrested. Then in 2015, I met them again to speak a little bit more. I met Tim and Stephen in London in 2013, and we chatted for a couple of hours. ![]() So, this was our attempt at telling one of these narratives.Īt what point in the process did you meet the real Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee?Īs soon as we got the rights. It’s the same with the Apartheid, and there are so many amazing stories of ingenuity and survival that haven’t been told. It’s like with WWII where you hear all these crazy things about how people survived and what they went through. Dan came on board in 2016 and we started shooting in 2019. They got the rights back about a year later, and then we spent a long time on the scriptwriting, financing, and casting. I read the book cover to cover and absolutely loved it. I told them that I loved political thrillers and they said ‘read this book, ‘Escape from Pretoria prison’. I met the initial producers back in 2012. We were fortunate enough to chat to Annan about getting the script to the big screen, casting, meeting the real-life escapees, and a potentially Marvel-ous future.Ĭan you tell us a little bit about the process of getting this story to the big screen? Starring none other than Daniel Radcliffe, the film is an excellent thriller with some absolutely nail-biting moments of tension. These brave men join forces with another inmate to hatch a daring escape from the prison. The film charts the unbelievable true story of two political prisoners during the Apartheid in South Africa. Francis Annan makes his feature film directorial debut with the fantastic Escape From Pretoria.
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