You may not have heard of The 4th Reich yet, but soon you’ll be hearing much more along with news of the film’s director, Shaun Robert Smith.
The film, which begins production in April, is the first feature film from Smith, whose short film The Soldier displayed an excellent knack of cinematography and suspense.
It also won a small boatload of awards and gained a national theatrical release in the UK.
You can watch The Soldier here.
The short film forms a sort of foundation for The 4th Reich.
From the official synopsis for the film:
June 1944, after the glorious victory on D-day, the armies of the combined allied forces begin their long push to Berlin with the aim of bringing down Hitler and the despised Nazi regime of the Third Reich.
But buried deep in secret files German Reichstag, is the chilling reality of Hitler’s plan to create an eternal living hell, The 4th Reich.
A small brigade of soldiers from 3rd Infantry Division, under the command of the battle hardened Captain Bathurst embark on an ever darkening quest to liberate Europe. Fighting their way through the French countryside, villages and war ravaged towns. Each step discovering progressively strange battles and events until they reach an abandoned research facility where the true horror begins…
What’s interesting (and distinctive from other films of this ilk such as Dead Snow) is that the filmmaker plans to realistically ground the film in historical fact.
“The audience today are extremely savvy and the plot may be accepted as an event in history or simply appeal to their imagination, which allows for the characters, setting, and plot events as if they actually could have happened.”
What’s even more interesting is the fact that the film will be in 3D, with a cast headed up by genre actors such as Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Knightriders) and Craig Conway (Doomsday, The Descent). For a first outing, the crew Smith has assembled is pretty outstanding: Director of Photography Peter Hannan worked on Children of Men, while the FX team has been credited on The Wolfman, Rambo, and Valkyrie.
I had the chance to chat with Mr. Smith for a brief interview, and he was gracious enough to fill me in on more details.
John: Can you tell me a little about your favorite films and filmmakers? My materials mention John Carpenter’s The Fog, which I love along with the rest of his canon.
Shaun: Where to begin, many films have been influential to me since I was young. One of my earliest memories was watching The Gate with Stephen Dorff. I knew somebody had to be creating these images, so I was hooked. The Fog was another, but I landed my parents in it when I decided as an 8 year old to write about watching it at school! But these films had an impact on me, when I finally started making films professionally I was heavily influenced by Fulci, Scorsese, Romero and Argento.
These guys really helped me indentify my own directing style, a style which I hope our audience will indentify with. It’s difficult for me to select a favorite film, I guess we could argue, which genre etc, but I usually say the film that most had an effect on me in my youth was Raiders of the Lost Ark amongst all the horror.
John: Your short film The Soldier preceded a rush of films and media such as Dead Snow, Outpost and even Call of Duty: World at War in the Nazi/Zombie genre. It even preceded Inglourious Basterds in terms of being a stylized take on World War II era material. Talk a bit about making The 4th Reich distinct in an area that’s suddenly becoming somewhat crowded.
Shaun: Where do I begin? Lots of these sub-genre films follow the same structure, I was totally aware of this whilst writing the script, fair enough, it fits into the sub-genre but boy is it original. We have something for everyone in this film. I wanted to create a period piece, but include as much accurate historical information as I could, we are dealing with World War II here, the story needs to be told. World War II was a tragic event in history, I don’t want to poke fun at it, but more exploit the darker side of what the Nazi’s were involved with, distancing ourselves from purely exploitative films like Dead Snow, Outpost etc.
We started this journey way back in 1998, with my student film horror called AWOL to Horror that was actually about a conspiracy theory during the Vietnam conflict! The story evolved over the next few years, the setting changed to war torn Europe as I discovered Hitler actually commissioned research into re-animation of dead tissue! So the story of The 4th Reich was conceived, but I needed to test the water with the idea, so we produced The Soldier and entered it in a few festivals resulting in a few awards, a theatrical release and a distribution deal.
John: How did you transition from the short film to The 4th Reich? Specifically, how does a filmmaker land Tom Savini, a well-rounded cast and what’s shaping up to be an amazingly talented crew for a feature length zombie picture?
Shaun: I met Tom when I was 18 at a convention way back in 1998, I showed him the script of AWOL to Horror, Tom flicked through and signed it! I jokingly asked him if he wanted to be in it, he jokingly replied “I’d love to.” 10 years down the line and now in a serious position, Tom IS in it. Lucky for us Tom loved the script, his character is something he’s never done before and he can’t wait to get started. Our FX team has been hand-picked, as you know that’s how I started out in this business so I needed a crack team of FX artists, these guys are the cream of British FX artists and I feel very comfortable with them carrying out the FX.
I have assigned specialist to each role, we have guts, explosives, prosthetics and limbs specialists! As I’m about to pop my feature filmmaking cherry, we have surrounded myself with talented filmmakers, a team that produces films the traditional way, Peter Hannan, our DoP has worked with Kubrick and has seen his fair share of action, casting legend Jeremy Zimmerman is putting together a brilliant cast, so far including Sean Pertwee, Craig Conway, the afore mentioned Tom Savini, with much more to come. We will see a few other Horror legends grace the screen and Clayton Fussell from The Soldier return.
John: The 4th Reich will be in 3D. What’s your opinion on the state of 3D film? Is it a fad that’s recently had a successful resurgence, or will it be here to stay?
Shaun: I believe the direction of recent releases means that 3D is here to stay, with the introduction of 3D TV etc. 3D has been back and forth for years, we have seen almost every animated film over the past months get released in 3D, and the techniques are becoming more available to filmmakers, even amateur filmmakers are producing 3D films. With The 4th Reich, we have been very innovative in our approach, over the past few weeks we have been watching plenty of 3D films selecting what works and what doesn’t work, and believe me it’s a fine line. So much can go wrong with 3D, but when you get right it throws the audience into a whole new world.
John: You’re a credited screenwriter on the picture as well as sitting in the director’s chair. In writing, how does one stay true to the genre needs of a zombie film while retaining an interesting and unique voice, as was evident in The Soldier?
Shaun: I’m a huge fan of this sub-genre, my DVD collection has its own shelf, just for this sub-genre. I have been producing these types of films for years. AWOL to Horror, The Twitching Dead and The Forgotten Ground are just a few, they just haven’t seen the light of day. But all have contributed to The 4th Reich. When I started writing the script I took all the rules and threw them out of the window, thinking outside the box was priority, I wrote the film as a war film, but let the situation pull the characters down a darker path keeping true to the events of WWII, but slightly exaggerating the darker points.
This project is very ambitious for a first timer, but that doesn’t bother me, this idea has been festering in my mind for long enough, I know every shot, every angle and the script like the back of my hand.
John: You’re proud of heralding a more realistic, true-to-actual-events tone and story in the concept of The 4th Reich. Where did your interest in exploring the subject derive from, where do your thematic interests dwell?
Shaun: After we produced The Soldier we uploaded it to YouTube, which was very successful, we endured tens of thousands of hits in just 2 weeks. But I had a comment from somebody about the soldier wearing the wrong gear for that period, it shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did. Our vision and intention for The 4th Reich is primarily to be a war film, although there just happens to be a premise, which encapsulates the characters, leaving them with plenty to deal with. Similar to that of Saving Private Ryan, in their quest to save Private Ryan, they had encountered something not seen before, something dark and at that moment, the focus of their mission became survival, a test of human endurance and unspeakable horror.
Whilst researching the script, I discovered much information about Adolf Hitler’s true intentions. Hitler’s firm belief, in the coming of a new race, the ‘Supermen’, A Fourth Reich ultimately led to his expectations that a literal ‘mutation’ of Homo sapiens, could be achieved by arriving at higher levels of consciousness. This vision alone leaves us plenty of room to engage an audience, having them at the edge of their seats. With this genre of motion picture, it is simply not plausible to produce a horror genre piece, within the setting of WWII. My aim is to deliver a period piece, from wardrobe to location.
John: The Soldier was violent and bloody, to be sure, but not excessive. In terms of tone, it was more akin to the documentary-style feel of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, mixed with say, Wolfenstein. Should we expect a bloodbath with The 4th Reich?
Shaun: Yes! I’m glad you mentioned TCM, it too is one of my favorite horror films, its clever in a way that you don’t see any blood, but you come away thinking that you have just witnessed something horrific! The 4th Reich will leave you feeling that way, but you won’t be thinking, you’ll know that you have just seen something horrific. The attitude I want to take is let’s cram it full of gore, but at least we have the option to cut it out if the higher powers say we should, thanks to Ridley, we have the director’s cut!
In most cases, Zombies are viewed with a pinch of humor, I will create the world’s first truly terrifying Zombie movie, although I don’t like using the ‘Z’ word. A few of our FX guys did Rambo 4, now that film is beyond brutal, we aim to bring the same brutality to The 4th Reich. Watch this space.
Oh, we’ll be watching, Mr. Smith, and keeping you Atomic Popcorn readers updated as the film progresses. Till then!
