Hello everyone today we are here once again with Mark Murphy and we're going to do some more Q&A sessions and ask a few more questions about things currently going on so, first of all, let's start with, Mark how have you been, are you good?

1. Mark Murphy Q&A 3 Transcript
Interviewer -
Hello everyone today we are here once again with Mark Murphy and we're going to do some
more Q&A sessions and ask a few more questions about things currently going on so, first of all,
let's start with, Mark how have you been, are you good?
Mark Murphy Director -
I’m alright, I'm here on holiday getting a bit of sun this isn't like alcohol colouring it's a bit of
sunburn so yeah, good all good thanks.
Interviewer-
Lovely, so I wanted to speak a little bit about award ceremonies, you know we've had the
Oscars and the Golden Globes and everything recently, were you surprised
by any of the people who were winning or any of the losers?

2. Mark Murphy Director-
Not really, I mean it's become a bit of a foregone conclusion I mean when you describe a year
as Barbenheimer or something it’s a closed competition. I mean Hollywood's all about well the
academy of course, the prizes and the nominations are voted for by Hollywood, so the principal
aim is, we've got this big audience here, let's make sure the right films are getting the
recognition, at least with a nomination, and then when it comes to the big pictures, I think it's
almost an intimidation process. I mean Harvey Weinstein was famous for going on a massive
Blitz beforehand. If you think about it as politics, you don't have the party saying “Yeah well
we're going to stand for the next election” and then just leave it at that, of course, they go on a
massive political campaign and that's what the films do. They and I don't know for what
reason, but they do go on a massive blitz. They'll put adverts in Variety and other trade papers
saying “Vote for this, vote for that” and they just build the publicity so it really is just a campaign
rather than, you know, watching some talent show and ringing up for your favourite singer or
whatever so, no.
Interviewer -
So, do you kind of feel that they're just basically redundant now, award shows in general
Mark Murphy Director -
I don't know, it's a tough one because it's weird because you look at the films that
are performing well, in terms of the Oscars, like Oppenheimer and even though it didn't win
anything, Barbie, they're winning their Oscars and they're through with the cinemas.
Traditionally, Oscar-qualifying films would often be released around Oscar time, so if they did
start winning Awards the films would still be in cinema, so they could capitalise on that.
Oppenheimer and Barbie and all the rest, they're not in the cinema so what are they going to
do? I guess the streaming revenues there but I don't know. I think redundant depends
on whether the audience is interested or not. If the audience isn't interested, then it's redundant
and if you look at the audience figures for where the Oscars were 10, 15, 20, years ago
compared to where they are now, then yeah I think they're becoming somewhat redundant.
Interviewer -
Do you think the Oscars and things like this could be improved if the actual public were voting
for the awards rather than the critics?
Mark Murphy Director -
Nah, because then it takes out the glamour and it does become a reality TV show then, it would
become something like the MTV Awards or something. It's not a populist award it's more of a
recognition award you know, for example, the public probably wouldn't have the understanding
or even the ability to have seen a bunch of the films, because either they're not released in their
markets or just slip under the radar. That's the thing if you're an academy voter, you get

3. sent, well in the old days, a tape for everything you're judging, so Best Foreign Language, Short
Film, Documentary, who's going to vote for that? Who's going to win the Oscar between
Ryan Gosling and Cillian Murphy? Well, I think you know who the audience would go for. It
doesn't mean that he necessarily had a better performance, so I think there does need to be
some credibility to it and I don't think you get much credibility when it's open to the public.
Like I said it's just about populism then. In terms of making them more audience-friendly, then I
think it comes down to things like it lost a lot of its glamour which was quite interesting the
people are too sanitised now it's also become too political and in a dull sense so when political
moments do happen it's just half of the cause and no one's really listening. If you go back to the
times when the Oscars weren't political, and you've got moments like Marlon Brando sending up
a Cherokee Indian to accept the award on his behalf and you have people like John Wayne and
others standing in the wings, wanting to come on and literally punch her because she was
denigrating quite rightly, or chastising quite rightly the fact that the Native Americans have been
treated so badly, and that's why Brando wanted her to see or when Michael Moon for Bing
Coline and he did his big speech which had half the audience cheering and the other half
booing when he was protesting the war. That was when politics at the Oscars was interesting. It
was only one or two, they actually stood out and meant something.
Also, it wasn't so squeaky clean it's just become so sanitised and in many ways, well apart from
when Will Smith went up and punched Chris Rock, that's the most exciting thing that's
happened in Oscars for a while. Obviously, I think Will Smith is a terrible person for doing so, but
yeah I think they just need to make the Oscars more interesting by taking off the safety wheels
and letting people be people, and not have this sanity patrol making sure the whole thing is
sanitised and dull. No one wants to watch that.
Interviewer -
I mean, I do think the thing I heard about most from the Oscars, was Ryan Gosling’s
performance of his song from Barbie. I heard more about that than any of the actual Awards.
Mark Murphy Director -
I think another thing I have absolutely no idea going back to the Will Smith one
who actually won the Oscars that evening that was a sad thing about that all the attention was
on that one thing, so no one really had any idea who won any Oscars that year, like what the
best picture was.I used to stay up obviously in the UK, I’d stay up and watch it it was exciting I
used to love listening to the pundits in the breaks and you know genuine excitement for who'd
win and now it's like I barely have time to watch the highlights. John Cena coming on that was
probably the funniest one I saw and actually, that's something else, there are two things that get
me going about the Oscars. The first thing is the red carpet, the interviews on the red carpet are
so dull and mundane. In fairness, they always have been but I just hope given the
amount of time to the question “Who are you wearing?”, I just hope it's at some fashion awards.
When you get the designers walking down the red carpet, I hope they get asked “What's your
favourite film?”, because it's totally irrelevant. The other thing is “In Memoriam” which I don't
want to say my favourite bit, but it is a genuine nostalgic bit of interest in Hollywood losing these
greats. In the past, they used to have the audience or the sound of the audience still audible,

4. and you had the memorial playing with whatever music that went with it, and what you'd have is
the audience clapping in appreciation of that person. Of course, you know when it was the best
sound editor, it didn't get a huge round of applause because no one knew who the hell that was,
but when it was someone like I don't know, Paul Newman the room goes wild and I think it was
that whole kind of “oh that's not fair” kind of thing you know. Dying is not a competition so it's not
about Awards but it does give you know, real recognition to the Hollywood stars that have gone.
When you feel it by sharing that with the audience, and now they get someone to come on and
sing and it's almost more the person singing, than it is the people that have passed away. I want
to hear the people clapping those who've died, what a wonderful part of the show. So those are
my bugaboos, but yeah I mean the fact is I'm fairly safe in saying I'm not going to win an Oscar,
so I don't mind trashing them
Interviewer -
Someone who did win an Oscar this year, his first Oscar was Robert Downey Jr, for his
supporting role in Oppenheimer. He has been in the industry for a long time most notably, for my
generation at least, as Iron Man. It's very rare that those types of movies, the superhero movies,
win lots of awards. Do you think that says something about the superhero movie industry?
Mark Murphy Director -
I mean that's not entirely true, they do win, but not in the prestigious area. They'll win for the
technical side because they are very well crafted, but yeah I mean there have been a couple
who've been nominated or even worse, like Joaquin Phoenix for Joker, terrible film, rubbish
performance, didn't deserve it. Of course, Heath Ledger also the Joker, amazing performance,
and did deserve it.
As for Oppenheimer, yeah it was an alright film, he did a great performance. I preferred him in
Tropic Thunder which I think he was also nominated for, of course, 20, well it’s almost 20 years
later. Of course, that film would be condemned and not allowed because of the lack of humour
in the world now, everyone's so scared of it.
Superhero movies, it's okay, why do they not win Oscars? Well, quite frankly it's because, why
does McDonald's not have a Michelin star? People are going to see it and eat it but, it's fast food
for the masses. It's not a stretch for these guys to play, they're not bringing anything new, apart
from, like I say, Heath Ledger, who really did bring something, that left something with you when
you watched it. It left an impression, but overall apart from a few quirky one-liners and looking
broody, there's not much to celebrate about the performance at the Oscars.
Interviewer -
In general, do you like superhero movies, do you think they're past it now? Or do you just think
they're just there to make people happy, for a bit of fun?

5. Mark Murphy Director -
I mean, look, the thing that superhero movies have in their corner, is the fact that their
characters usually are with an interesting background. That is what makes them engaging more
than just the ability to do something cool. If you know the characters have a strong human
element, and an interesting action, and reaction, to their journey then, yeah I love them. I mean
The Spider-Man films for me, Spider-Man 2 the one with Toby Maguire, it’s amazing. If that's on
TV, I will always watch it, simply because that moment at the end where Mary Jane, whatever
her name is, Kirsten Dunst, sees him, Toby Maguire, as Spider-Man, It’s a great, great moment,
and the last Spider-Man film with all three Spidies was great. X-Men 2 was great, Thor: Love
and Thunder, another great film, so sometimes they do come out with them. The problem with it,
and as everyone says, it’s superhero fatigue. Hollywood's gone through a weird transition since
it started. Since this inception, in terms of, it is still the studios that are in control of everything.
At first, it was the filmmakers who were in charge of the studios, then when they became so
bloated, unable to support themselves financially, and were getting into heavy debt, they had to
be bought out by other great big companies, like Gulf and Western, taking over Paramount and I
think Coke took over one of them for a while. Then you start getting a change at the top and for
the last 15, 20 years, the people at the top have been the bean counters, like a blueprint. Going
back to the McDonald's reference, people love a Quarter Pounder or a Big Mac, they're not
going to suddenly say “Let's take that off the menu and see how well cottage pie and peas will
do instead”.
Of course, it's not going to work, they just repeat to winning formula. That's the thing with the
superhero movies, they're so predictable now. There is nothing new, you know exactly what's
going to happen. Open up, show the threat, show our hero's potential, and then pose what the
problem is going to be, the Earth's going to be destroyed, and this bad guy is going to give
everyone leprosy, I don't know. You know the superhero is going to lose someone he really
likes, you know he's going to lose his powers and regret things, it's just so predictable. People
do still want to go to the cinema and have a few shocks and surprises, and when it just feels like
it's being phoned in, then yeah people are just like “Well, the Cinema's expensive, you know I
can see amazing effects on Netflix now, I don't need to come to see it on the big screen, it's
nothing new”.
Would you go to the zoo all the time if they only had one animal? After a while, you'd be like
“Nah”. I think superhero films, well I think the thing is, looking at last year's box office, who ruled
it? One was a very dry drama, a long film, and one was a more character-driven comedy. They
weren't action films, they weren't the big superhero films, and I think when that happens, like I
say the bean counters are like “Okay, well that's where the money is. We lost all our money on
things like the Marvels and other superhero films that absolutely flopped”, so they will go where
the money is, and the money is no longer going with the superhero films. So yeah, I think you're
going to start seeing less and less of them.
Interviewer -
Okay, so speaking a little bit about financing in films, it can be quite difficult. Can you tell us a
little bit about how that process works when it comes to actually financing a film's production?

6. Mark Murphy Director -
Yes, it's the hardest thing to do in film, because film is so unpredictable about how it makes
money. After all, when you make a film and you sell it, you're a long way down the list of of
actually getting paid. That includes the investors, so the sales agents will be the first
people, they'll take their fees which will be “Oh look at us we had to buy 10 new suits to sell this
when we went to Cannes”. They'll put in every cost they can, and then they're the first people to
get their cost paid, and then they take a commission. Of course, that's before even the
distributor releases it, and they take their money. Of course a cinema or channel or whatever
splits the the revenue. Eventually, it starts coming down to you and so you know, let's say your
film costs 5 million to make, and the film makes 5 million in the cinemas, you're going to get
maybe 1 and a half million coming back. Your budget's not cleared, so you have to make a lot
more money and investors know this, and it's a massive, massive risk, and so you've got to
find ways of making films a safer investment.
You put forward a case about getting sales agents to give you sales figures, you've got to show
other Equity members, you've got to show a cost, i.e, let's say you get Liam Neeson, and then
you can pre-sell the film for 20 million, so that's a way of getting an investor on board. Say “Hey
look, this is the value of the film now, because we've got got an actor.” Then you start getting the
money, and what that means for people who can't afford big names, is that they're screwed.
They have to go down other avenues, which is going to the channels, who will then pay for
these things, like a BBC or Channel 4, but then your competition for winning a place there is
astronomical. BBC, Film 4, they don't make a lot of films and of course, a lot of the films they do
make are with repeat customers, they’re with the usual suspects, that they usually make films
with. To break through is very tough. It's a long drawn-out process and there's more than one
way, but all of them are hideously hard. Yeah, it's not easy, and anyone who does it easily is the
luckiest person on the planet, because getting people to part with their money in such a risky
industry, it’s not easy.
Interviewer -
I think we are running out of time here Mark, but thank you for the really interesting points you
made there. Hopefully, we will be seeing you again very soon and we will be able to talk
more about your recent filming in Hungary.
Mark Murphy Director -
Yes, it won't be winning any Oscars now after I've dissed them, but it should, and it is amazing I
look forward to talking about it. So yes, I shall go back to the Sun and I hope it's
lovely in in the UK now.
Interviewer -
Lovely, thank you very much

7. Mark Murphy Director -
Alright thanks
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