Making waves across the pond

With an international cast including Oscar-winner Charlize Theron, David Oyelowo and your brother Joel — how much of a step up was it for you to make Gringo?

It’s definitely the biggest thing I have directed — it had a lot more moving parts and a bigger cast and a lot of travelling to make the movie. It felt like a step up in terms of trying to tackle it. One of the hardest things was directing in languages I didn’t speak — there are scenes in Spanish and others in Spanish and English.

Your leading man David Oyelowo is better known for his serious roles — as Martin Luther King in particular — did you know he could be funny?

I had dinner with David and we got on like a house on fire — and halfway through the dinner I knew I had found the guy I wanted to cast in this movie. I personally like to cast actors against type. I feel like my brother has a great range as an actor and similarly I thought that David and Charlize and a lot of the other actors in the film had that ability as well.

Both you and Joel have had a lot of success overseas. Do you still feel an obligation to the local film industry that gave you your start?

For sure. As soon as I finished the film I came back to Austra- lia to make a TV series called Mr Inbetween that’s coming out on Foxtel in September. I edited a lot of Gringo in Sydney and got to come back and make the TV series. Any chance that both of us have to come back home to work or involve other Australians we have grown up working with in our projects, we do it.

Gringo is far and away the most ambitious film you have made. Would you be up for a huge franchise film like a Bond or a Marvel movie?

If it was the right project, sure. I am definitely interested in making bigger films — it just has to be the right project and a story that I respond to.