Johnny English Reborn – BEHIND THE SCENES

BEHIND THE SCENES with Rowan Atkinson

Between 1992 and 1997, comic actor Rowan Atkinson was featured in a series of popular British credit card commercials in which he played an accident-prone spy. It was at that time Atkinson had the idea to create a feature film based on the character from the advertisement. He took his concept to Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, producers at Working Title Films with whom he had collaborated over a number of years on such films as The Tall Guy, as well as the blockbusters Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bean. In 2003, the feature film Johnny English opened to enormous international success, grossing more than $160 million at the worldwide box office.

Directed by Peter Howitt and produced by Bevan, Fellner and Mark Huffam, the film starred Atkinson as Johnny English, Australian actress Natalie Imbruglia as Special Agent Lorna Campbell, comedian Ben Miller as English’s sidekick, Bough, and multiple Academy Award® nominee John Malkovich as the very French and very evil business magnate Pascale Sauvage.

In the ensuing time, Atkinson developed another one of his characters into a sequel that was just as popular as the first. Mr. Bean’s Holiday was released in 2007 to global success. But it wasn’t time for Atkinson to retire English quite yet. A second movie was put in development, and it went into production in 2010.

"We did a second Bean movie with Rowan about four years ago," explains Bevan. "He likes to make a movie every four to five years, and so we thought the time was right for a second film. There has not been a new Bond or Bourne film for a while, so when we come out in the latter part of 2011, we’ll have a pretty clear field. We also felt that in these times, people want a bit of comedy."

Aside from the commercial reasons for making a sequel to the comedy/spy thriller, the team saw an opportunity to make a film that was different in tone from the first. "Johnny English did extremely well," sums producer Chris Clark. "We always thought English was a fascinating character, and we saw an opportunity to put Johnny in a more real world and more exciting situations. "

British comedian, writer and actor Hamish McColl, who had previously collaborated with Atkinson and Working Title Films on Mr. Bean’s Holiday, was enlisted to take on the screenplay based on executive producer William Davies’ story. "Since Johnny English," says McColl "we’ve had the Bourne and the new Bond movies that have changed the look of the genre. We wanted the second film to move on from the first and be more contemporary and exciting." Comedy remained just as important to the writer. "My ambition is that the audience is caught up in the film in the fullest sense. If they’re not on the edge of their seats in terms of the story, I want them rocking back in them because of the comedy."

Atkinson believed the first Johnny English told a story that was more incredible than most spy films. His ambition for the second was to have a more realistic narrative upon which to hang the jokes. He shares: "We wanted it to be funny but, as importantly, make the audience interested to know what is going to happen to the character. We wanted to invest a little more emotion in the character and the predicament of Johnny English in the hopes that it keeps audiences engaged."

For the performer, stepping back into English’s shoes after eight years away was comfortable. He reflects: "I have always enjoyed playing him, with his smugness and capacity to overreach and to overestimate his skills. There is something inherently amusing about him. I feel very comfortable with all the characters I play, whether it’s Mr. Bean or a character like Johnny English. I slip back into them with great ease."

With the script in development, British comedic actor and director Oliver Parker was approached to direct the film. Shares Parker: "At first, I wasn’t sure there would be enough for me to get my teeth into creatively, but when I read the script, I thought Hamish had done a fantastic job."

After meeting with Atkinson, McColl and the producers, Parker realized their ambitions matched his, and all camps wanted to make the film a larger-scale project. "The world of espionage has changed since the first movie," says Parker, "and so you don’t necessarily have to play the same note. The style of filming could have a new injection of creativity and ideas. The script had an ambitious story to tell, and I knew it could work as a thriller in its own right. The challenge of combining the comedy and the thrills became a pointed one. If we got it right, the thriller would amplify the comedy."

As well, Atkinson was quite pleased to be working with Parker and McColl. He commends: "It was clear that our chemistry was going to be a strong, formidable, three-legged footstool upon which the whole film could be creatively guided and constructed."

The actor appreciated that his writer was a multihyphenate and that his director had much patience. Says Atkinson: "Apart from the fact that Hamish is a skilled comedy performer, he is also a skilled comedy writer. But the most important thing is that I get on with him extremely well. He comes up with ideas that amuse me, and hopefully I come up with ideas that amuse him. And Oliver is the most patient man. I easily lose confidence and question everything that is going on, and that is difficult and frustrating for a director. Amazingly, he never lost his temper, never a harsh word, and he ensured that the film was done on budget and on time. He is a wonderful person to work with, and more importantly, he knows a good joke when he sees it…and he knows an ill-judged moment when he sees it. What else do you need in a director?"

His producer returns the words. "It’s been fascinating to watch Rowan, either behind the camera or in front," compliments Clark. "He is incredibly talented, dedicated and thoughtful. On a personal level, it’s been interesting to see the ambition and vision that we had for the film pay off. Plus, seeing Rowan working with the calibre of actors like Gillian, Rosamund and Dominic has made it a fascinating journey."

When it came to casting Johnny English Reborn, "authenticity" was a key word. Explains Parker: "I was keen to assemble the kind of team that if Daniel Craig had slipped into its ranks, they could all make a Bond movie together. The world I wanted Johnny to join was one in which the agents genuinely had a lot at stake, which puts all the more pressure on him to get things right and gives us all the more fun when he gets them wrong."

Best known for her groundbreaking role as the intense Special Agent Scully in the global hit The X-Files, Gillian Anderson accepted the role of Pamela Thornton, the no-nonsense head of MI7, who has guided the organization to new heights. The American actress had received rave reviews for her work in Bleak House and mastered the accent requisite of one of the most powerful women in British government service.

Anderson was a fan of Atkinson’s comedy, and to play the head of MI7 was an enticing prospect. Recalls the actress: "When I saw the first film, I started laughing from the title sequence. There is just something about Rowan’s timing. I find him endlessly funny. The opportunity to do comedy on a big scale and the chance to work with and observe Rowan’s process were just too good to miss out on."

Her fellow performer returns that he enjoyed what the actress brought to the role of the tough-as-nails Pegasus. "Gillian brings hardness, credibility and a bite to Pamela," enthuses Atkinson. "You believe that this woman is in charge and is not going to take any prisoners, and she is not going to tolerate any silliness from Johnny English."

In the role of the MI7 behavioural psychologist Kate Sumner, the filmmakers cast Rosamund Pike, known for her memorable turns in Pride & Prejudice, An Education and Made in Dagenham and, most recently, in Barney’s Version. It was important for the filmmakers that the audience believe the romantic connection between the fetching Kate and the awkward English, and Pike was just the performer to pull it off.

Explains Parker: "Johnny is flawed in countless areas, but he also has a great sense of loyalty. Somewhere in him you know there’s a capacity to be a hero. And it is Kate who sees this side of him. The great thing about Rosamund as an actress is that she is very interested in what makes people tick. You can see she is fascinated by the quirks of Johnny’s character, and this curiosity and empathy give us the chance to believe in their romance."

Atkinson found that Pike brought genuine empathy to the role. He adds: "She has to fall in love with this total klutz. That’s quite a difficult thing to play when you’re dealing with someone who clearly has failings, which Johnny does in spades. What Rosamund made work was the credibility to believe that here was a decent guy who does mean well and tries hard to do his best."

Pike researched the role by reading a good deal of material on behavioural psychology, including books by the FBI and anthropologist Desmond Morris. "It’s a fascinating subject," she notes. "Kate’s job is to read people’s expressions and interpret their behaviour for MI7. When she meets Johnny she finds him a captivating study…with his curious facial expressions and body ticks. She sees the honesty that is at the core of his character, and she finds it refreshing and adorable."

For English’s ultimate hero, MI7 agent Simon Ambrose (Agent One), the team cast Dominic West, known for his portrayal of wisecracking Baltimore detective Jimmy McNulty on the HBO hit series The Wire. "We needed the epitome of the classic agent, to whom Johnny aspires and to whom Johnny is enormously sycophantic," says Parker. "Dominic has so much charisma and wit, you could believe him as the bad guy or as the new Bond."

West had actually seen Atkinson in his one-man show when West was 15. He shares: "I’ve admired Rowan for a long time. It’s interesting to watch him work and see how precise he is and how much concentration he has. He is methodical and meticulous."

Atkinson believes that West played Ambrose brilliantly. "Dominic brings total credibility to the role; he is a heroic, dashing and charming figure," says the performer. "Johnny invests a tremendous amount of time in his hero worship of him, which of course turns out to be not entirely justified."

One of the trickiest parts of the casting process was finding someone to play Agent Tucker, English’s sidekick. The filmmakers were looking for a young actor who could represent the new world of MI7, in contrast to English’s old-fashion version of skirt chasing and rule breaking. After auditioning many young talents, they found British actor Daniel Kaluuya, known by U.K. audiences as Posh Kenneth in the cult E4 teen drama Skins. As well, the actor had recently won the Evening Standard Theatre Award and the Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for outstanding newcomer for his performance in Roy Williams’ play Sucker Punch.

Parker saw Kaluuya’s performance in the play and knew the young actor was their Tucker. He notes: "I could not believe the kind of energy in Daniel, not only the speed of thought but also the looseness of his performance. Daniel is terrifically versatile and a natural comedic actor. I found him to be perfect for the role."

"Daniel has got that wonderful likability, but also empathy," notes Atkinson. "We were looking for someone who could, with credibility, suffer and tolerate the oddities of working with Johnny English, and Daniel does that extremely well." Kaluuya appreciated the nuances Atkinson brings to his physical comedy. "Rowan is a great comic, and when you work with him you see why. He is so mathematical and logical with his comedy. He wants the film to be as good as possible—not for his ego or fame, but because he wants the work to fulfill its potential. It is inspiring to see someone work that hard."

For another major supporting role, the filmmakers cast Tim McInnerny as the wheelchair-bound Patch Quartermain, MI7’s weapons expert. McInnerny had not worked with Atkinson since The Black Adder series of 16 years ago. "It was a bit odd being reunited with Rowan, but also great," the actor reflects. "We have a shorthand of understanding how each other works, which makes it so much fun."

For the additional supporting roles, Pik-Sen Lim was cast as the Killer Cleaner, who converts all her gadgets—whether it is her Hoover or golf clubs—into a rifle, and serves as English’s possible demise on a number of occasions. Williams Belle, a Parkour expert, was cast as Ling, the man who English chases across the roofs of Hong Kong. Stephen Campbell Moore came aboard to play the British Prime Minister, while Richard Schiff joined the production to play CIA agent Fisher and Mark Ivanir to portray Russian spy Karlenko.

Prior to the shoot, Parker and Atkinson were able to have the luxury of a rehearsal period with the talented cast. "I believe the rehearsal process is vital for all films, and Rowan is particularly fond of rehearsing," acknowledges Clark. "It is an important part of his process. We discover the possibilities of the comedy and how far we can go."

Award-winning production designer Jim Clay, who won a BAFTA for his design of the Alfonso Cuarón-directed Children of Men, joined the Johnny English Reborn team and set upon the task of creating a sense of genuine scale and authenticity for the film.

"Jim is incapable of constructing a small set," laughs Parker. "He had a rich and detailed vision of the film and always sees things in the big picture. There’s something about creating a vast or imposing environment in which to put Johnny English that is immediately exciting. You want to feel everything that happens within it is entirely credible and could really happen. Although it’s not a pastiche of those movies, there are moments where it would be very interesting to see how Bond himself would be fare in a Johnny English scene."

International costume designer Beatrix Pasztor, whose credits include such fêted works as Good Will Hunting and Vanity Fair, had the challenge of matching the style of the costumes to the scale of the sets. As well, director of photography Danny Cohen, nominated for an Academy Award® for the much lauded The King’s Speech, was tasked with capturing the real world in which English spies. "Beatrix has amazing flair; she looks for the individuality in each character and brings great glamour to the design," commends Parker. "And Danny has this fantastic energy and style. He is always inventive and fearless in his approach."

Production started its 13-week shoot in the U.K., then moved along to Hong Kong and the French Alps. As well as filming at Ealing Studios, some of the larger sets were built in the Gillette Building in West London. A grade II-listed Art Deco building, once the European headquarters of Gillette Company, the Gillette Building now lies empty.

The last two weeks of the shoot took place in Hong Kong and its neighbouring region of Macau. "It is a funny thing with film, all you have to have is a big backdrop…and all of a sudden you’re in a bigger movie," reveals Bevan. "It’s something we missed out on in the first movie, so we have deliberately gone for a couple of locations—Hong Kong and the Alps—in this movie to make it feel bigger."

Production designer Clay adds: "Hong Kong provided a real contrast to the rest of the movie. Our world of MI7 is a slick and contemporary, cool world. When we get to Hong Kong, it gives us this gritty, colourful texture and dirty contrasts to the other world. It provides a whole different backdrop for Johnny."

Parker appreciated the opportunities that filming in Hong Kong provided. "We staged a fight on a pontoon in Hong Kong Harbour against the great thrusting needles of commerce. One of the great thrills was to put Johnny in a vivid and bustling environment, one potentially with a certain amount of jeopardy attached to it, and see how he would cope."

Locations utilised in Hong Kong included the rooftop of the famous Chungking Mansions for the chase sequence between Ling and English. As only a hatch provided access to the roof, a crane was assembled on the rooftop to lift the equipment from the street to the roof. Additionally, the speedboat and pontoon sequence was filmed in the new Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter and harbour. The last two days of its time in the region, production moved to Macau to film the casino scene in the Grand Lisboa hotel.

After production wrapped in London in mid-December, a reduced unit moved to Megève in the French Alps to spend five days shooting the cable-car shots, the ski-doo and parachute sequence, in which Johnny makes another death-defying escape.

Racing Wheelchairs: Stunts and Gadgets

Atkinson found that his return to Johnny English meant a bit more of a workout than in his first venture as the superspy. Although a double was used for the bigger stunts, Atkinson was involved in all of the stunts in some measure. He muses: "We should have done the action scenes in the first film eight years ago and less action in this one. I found it quite challenging and it caught me by surprise, despite the existence of an extremely good stunt double. But I survived, and the film is made."

One stunt involved Atkinson driving Quartermain’s motorised wheelchair down the Mall outside Buckingham Palace at high speed, trying to escape the Secret Service. Shares Parker: "We took a classic car chase and instead of using a car, we put English in a wheelchair, racing through London at breakneck speed. Rowan is the master of deadpan, and putting him and those elements together gives the sequence a really fresh identity that blends comedy and excitement."

The studio had to be persuaded into allowing Atkinson to do the stunt driving. "The centre of gravity in the wheelchair is extremely high, so cornering and braking—and indeed acceleration—can get quite dangerous," he recalls. "We wanted the wheelchair to be powerful, and it was capable of 45 to 50 miles an hour." The SFX team made four wheelchairs, modified for each scene in which they were included.

No spy film would be complete without its gadgets. The trusty Quartermain introduces English to his upgraded mission tools, which include English’s car. Atkinson has always had a particular interest in cars and was looking for a car with a very British image…something special that one could not buy in a showroom. He notes: "I knew some years ago Rolls-Royce had developed this phenomenal nine-litre V16 engine. We approached Rolls, and they kindly agreed to put a nine-litre V16 in a Rolls-Royce Phantom for us to use. This car has astounding capability and worked out extremely well. It not only has a great engine, but it is full of gadgets to eliminate the villains."

It was important that all of the gadgets and stunts never got in the way of the production’s biggest secret weapon: Atkinson. Parker concludes: "What’s terrific about filming Rowan is that you can get great detail from his tiniest gesture—the raise of an eyebrow or roll of an eye. But he works equally well in the wide shots, because his whole body is a comic creation. Rowan takes an extremely analytical approach to comedy, and his grasp of it is extraordinary and sophisticated. The way he can deconstruct a joke is brilliant, as is the way he can build one. The key to working with Rowan is to give him enough space for these things to grow."

A Little Spy Music: Sounds of Johnny English Reborn

Award-winning composer and longtime Matthew Vaughn collaborator Ilan Eshkeri was tasked with composing the music for the comedy/spy thriller. Parker chose the musician after becoming intrigued by Eshkeri’s ability to alternate between intense sounds for such projects as Vaughn’s Layer Cake and Kick-Ass and director James McTeigue’s Ninja Assassin, as well as his more lighthearted choices for the fantasy Stardust and Jean-Marc Vallée’s period drama The Young Victoria.

Shares Parker of his decision to have Eshkeri score the film: "Ilan brings some serious pyrotechnics to the score. He has to spring from full-on action to understated comedy, from soaring romance to slapstick, and does so with wit and panache."

Whether it be Duran Duran and John Barry’s "A View to a Kill" or Bono and Tina Turner’s collaboration on "GoldenEye," what globetrotting spy film would be complete with an iconic title song? "I Believe in You," written by award-winning songwriter and producer "EG" WHITE and performed by British singer/songwriter RUMER, was chosen as the theme song for Johnny English Reborn.

White, known for his work with superstars P!nk, Kylie Minogue, Adele, Joss Stone and Duffy, created the title track that would be sung by Brit award-nominee Rumer. Curiously enough, the film represents a reunion for Atkinson and Rumer, who actually sold the actor a laptop when she was a struggling artist working at an Apple store several years ago.

Parker offers what drew him to White’s song and how he feels Rumer’s vocals encapsulate the spirit of the film: "It’s wonderful to have that effortless grace and femininity sweeping us through the credits. Eg’s excellent song ‘I Believe in You’ is a great addition to the film—passionate, ambitious and tender. We all believe in Johnny."