Interview: Scott Mann

Killer Film was present for the LA Premiere of Director Scott Mann’s hyper-violent actioneer The Tournament, which took place at the 2009 Screamfest Horror Film Festival. This scribe hit the black carpet and had a chance to ask Scott a few questions regarding the film, which is currently available on DVD from Dimension Films.

Jason Bene: Can you tell us a little about The Tournament, where did the idea come from?

Scott Mann: It came from myself and a couple of mates from film school. They came up with it a long time ago really, about five years when they came up with the idea, and it kind of developed and went through a few different versions. This is our first film and it was a big effort to get it going really. The amount of time it took, it developed and changed throughout it, but, I started out pitching together deft ideas and developed into something else. We actually had a ton of stories we weren’t able to put into the film – which is a shame really – we had alot of stuff we couldn’t do.

Jason Bene: You have some big stars in the movie like Ving Rhames and Kelly Hu, how did they become involved?

Scott Mann: Being a first time film – I didn’t succeed – I failed. I’ve spent a couple years trying to get something off the ground, which didn’t happen, so, I approached this one differently and did like a short film of the film, like a two-minute pitching promo. I was showing people and that’s how we got the interest of the actors, we sent them the promo so before they ever read the script they were able to see how that’s the character we’d like you to play. The first who made a real difference was Robert Carlyle. People seemed to like the project and got behind it – actually Ving came quite late –  he was the last person cast in the film. He seemed to fit like a glove and was great.

Jason Bene: From the trailers the film looks like Hard Target meets Battle Royale.

Scott Mann: Battle Royale is a huge influence. One of the writers(Jonathan Frank) is a huge Japanese fan and he introduced me to Battle Royale, which is one of his favorite films.We always talked about doing something kind of similiar, so, it is a big influence in the sense of it’s kind of an adult Battle Royale. Obviously it developed into something different storywise. Robocop is a huge influence, that kind of humor in the kind of violence and just having fun with it and not taking it too seriously.

Jason Bene: You can never go wrong with a little Paul Verhoeven.

Scott Mann: He’s totally brilliant isn’t he?

Jason Bene: When are we going to see The Tournament released on DVD?

Scott Mann: Dimension Films is releasing it next week. It’s very exciting to finally have people see it at last. It’s been a long journey. It’s the kind of film I’d want to watch when I was a young lad – hopefull they’ll like it.

I’d like to thank Scott Mann for being my first interview ever for Killer Film!