Edward McHenry Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Not that I have anything against Trey Parker and Matt Stone, but their Team America: World Police flick was a disaster, in my opinion. While I'm a huge fan of South Park, I could not, for the life of me, get past the first fifteen minutes of Team America without changing the channel. And I really wanted to love it -- had heard such good things about it -- but simply couldn't discover the proper vibe within myself to enjoy the puppets ... and the guns ... and the puppet sex.

Needless to say, newbie Edward McHenry will soon give us his take on the puppet gimmick with Jackboots on Whitehall, except he'll be using action figures to accompany some top notch voice talent. Comedy spoof will tell of a fictional scenario in which the Germans win the Battle of Britain during World War II, only to be defeated by the Scots ... and Ewan McGregor. That's right, McGregor has signed on to voice a "heroic Scottish farmhand who leads the resistance against the invaders and wins the girl." Joining McGregor in this latest round of casting is Richard Griffiths; he'll be playing the Luftwaffe leader Hermann Goering.

Also on the list of Brits playing Germans are Alan Cumming as Hitler, Tom Wilkinson as Hitler's propaganda minister Goebbels and Richard O'Brien as Holocaust-header Himmler. Rosamund Pike will play the object of McGregor's affection, while Richard E. Grant and Sanjeev Bhaskar have also snagged roles. Writer-director McHenry jumps from his popular short film, Baptism of Fire, to helming a feature film with an assortment of pretty big names. How did he do it? Not sure, but I'm positive the script (which won the Swipe Films Screenplay Scholarship) had something to do with it.

I've never seen Baptism of Fire, but apparently it utilizes a lot of the same techniques found in Jackboots. Brits as Germans, action figures instead of puppets and an unknown writer-director -- what do you make of this?

You're familiar with the Battle of Britain, right? It's when the German Luftwaffe bombed the crap out of British cities and tried to wipe out the Royal Air Force during World War II. While a statement, it was the first real defeat of Hitler and changed the tide of the war. But, what if Hitler had won? Not only that, but what if he had won, only to be defeated by the Scots? There's a new film just budding on the horizon that will tackle this very notion, but it won't do so with earnest, live-action drama, but with a Team America sort of twist.

Although Jackboots on Whitehall will have the same tone and style as its American predecessor, the Brits are cutting the strings, literally. They have "specially made 'Action Man' type action figures" that will move without the need of strings, animation, or stop motion. Edward McHenry, recent Oxford grad and co-writer of the script with his brother, Rory, once used the same techniques for a short film named Baptism of Fire. It's a great start for McHenry, who has gone from winning the Swipe Films Screenplay Scholarship with the script to directing the feature.

What's even better is the cast. Where Trey Parker and Matt Stone handled most of the voices in Team America, Jackboots is a fragrant potpurri of British names: Timothy Spall, who you might remember as Peter Pettigrew, will be the voice of Churchill, the Nightcrawling Alan Cumming is Hitler, Tom Wilkinson will be Hitler's propaganda minister, Goebbels, and there will be some Riff Raff with Richard O'Brien as leading Holocaust-header Himmler. If you actually need more reasons to watch, other voices will include Richard E. Grant, Rosamund Pike and Sanjeev Bhaskar.