The Boys Are Back: interviews

Clive Owen and director Scott Hicks on their touching family drama.

It was a slow climb to fame for brooding British actor Clive Owen, but he's now at the point in his career when he can pick and choose projects. His latest, the comedy drama The Boys Are Back, marks his first outing as a producer on top of playing the lead role.

Owen also played a role in developing the script, which is based on the memoir of rough-and-tumble sports journalist Simon Carr. It tells of his own coming of age when, after moving to Australia to be with his wife, he is faced with her tragic death and the responsibility of raising their young son (Nicholas McAnulty) alone. The situation is made even more tense by the arrival of his teenage son from a previous relationship (a BIFA-nominated performance by George MacKay) who struggles to adjust to dad's immature parenting style.

Australian director Scott Hicks (who was Oscar® nominated for Shine in 1997) welcomed Owen's input, as did producer Tim White who says, "I remember Clive sitting down in a windowless hotel room with Scott, [screenwriter] Allan Cubit, [co-producer] Greg Brenman and myself and spending eight hours just talking about the nuances of his character. We all walked away feeling very privileged to have an actor who was that devoted and brought such a considered and insightful approach to taking this character from the page to the screen."

In the video, Clive Owen and Scott Hicks talk more about the process of collaboration and the tricky business of remoulding a true story to fit the big screen dimensions.

Interviews by Stella Papamichael, edited by Daniel Lucas

The Boys Are Back is released nationwide on January 22nd 2010