Sucker Punch The Movie

The first problem the two faced was that ‘The Longshot’ script was too complex, with too many characters and gun related action to be realistically developed as a low budget first feature, so it was agreed that Malcolm would write a more (no-budget) user-friendly script. Having been born in 1960, the films that influenced him most came from the mid to late 1970’s (a decade he will argue is the greatest in cinema history with anyone with the fortitude to go the full 10 rounds with him), especially the nihilistic, sparse action films of that era. In particular the Charles Bronson movie ‘Hard Times’ stood out as a superb directorial debut from Walter Hill, a depression era bare knuckle action drama that was mean, lean and melancholic. He showed it to Gordon, who by one of the many happy coincidences that drove the project, was already a big fan of the film, especially the economy of the dialogue and action and that became the template for Buchinsky, Gordon’s character and the retro-styling of the action in what was to become ‘Sucker Punch’.

‘We both knew that what we had was something special and that there was an audience for the type of film we wanted to provide them with. In terms of cinematic sensibility we were really reading from the same page and that’s why we work so well together.’

Taking the first step was the biggest problem as logistically, when you have no industry ‘backing’, the sheer scale of the undertaking is of Everest proportions. Thankfully, both men had a wide range of contacts in the film and ancillary industries and the first person Malcolm called upon was Joseph Long. As with Gordon, he had known Joe, as a friend and business acquaintance for a number of years and what he knew Joe brought to the table was a huge list of contacts and a no-nonsense, pragmatic approach that would be needed to ground the whole enterprise in reality-if Joe said he was going to do something, you knew it was going to get done. Joe loved the script and felt the time was right for what he saw as a huge new challenge, helping people that were of a similar mind-set and who had been, like himself, generous in their aid to others without seeing that help reciprocated when the people they helped got what they wanted.

‘Within the Fight world there are very few people you can trust or work with, or once you have worked with them you never do it again! Malcolm Martin is not one of those people. The main man and magnet behind ‘Sucker Punch’ brought Gordon, Jacko and I together to discuss the possibilities on how all of our contacts could benefit such a project. It was apparent that we all had respect within our given avenues and the tools to pull the film off, it was also crystal clear that all four of us had put in hard work to benefit others in the past and not been recognised or credited for doing so, that’s business sometimes.

Gordon had just finished work on Richard Jobson’s kung-fu take on ‘The Warriors’, ‘The Purifiers’ alongside Kevin McKidd and had received favourable, often glowing reviews but still felt that his acting and choreographing talents had yet to be fully utilised or appreciated. Malcolm had similar feelings working as Producer and co-writer for the cult movie ‘Hell to Pay’ starring celebrity gangster Dave Courtney. Friends since they had both worked on a short, years earlier, they decided enough was enough and that the only way to get the film made, and made the way they wanted it, was to do it themselves.