One would never expect that Jackdaw was filmmaker Jamie Childs’ feature film directorial debut, given how well-executed the thriller is, but he’s got his long and storied history in television to thank for that. Childs has worked on several beloved genre shows, including Doctor Who, Netflix’s recent adaptation of The Sandman, and HBO’s highly-regarded His Dark Materials. And yet, Jackdaw is much more straightforward in its storytelling than any of them, while still managing to be equally as engaging.
Jackdaw stars Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Jack Dawson, a veteran who struggles to make ends meet while looking after his brother Simon (Leon Harrop). When he agrees to retrieve a mysterious package only to find himself stiffed after a job well done, what follows is a familiar series of events that manages to be told through fresh eyes. Upon returning home, Jack learns that Simon has gone missing and must face his past demons in order to ensure his brother’s safe return. The movie also stars Jenna Coleman, Joe Blakemore, and Thomas Turgoose.
Screen Rant spoke to Childs about the holiday that inspired his debut feature film, why Oliver Jackson-Cohen was the right man for Jackdaw despite his own protests, and what he’s learned from working on shows like Doctor Who and The Sandman as he steps into the movie director’s chair.
Jamie Childs Talks Jackdaw
Screen Rant: This film is an intense thriller that’s gritty, and it keeps you guessing every step of the way. You wrote and directed Jackdaw. What inspired this film?
Jamie Childs: It was inspired by me sitting down and realizing that I needed to make a film if I ever wanted to get into the film world and not just make TV for the rest of my life. Which I have no problems with; that is not a criticism. It’s just I have a desire to make films, so I felt like unless I sit down and write one, no one’s ever going to give me one.
I was in between two TV jobs at the time, sort of unemployed, and thought I can’t really sit around just watching movies for another month. I thought I should probably sit down and write one. Also, my partner basically stopped talking to me on a holiday. She was rehearsing for something she was doing next, and basically, I realized that she just needed to get her head into it. So, I put my headphones on and began writing, and that when it all started.
This story centers around former motocross champ and army vet Jack Dawson. Tell me about the main character and how you conceptualized him?
Jamie Childs: Jack for me was based on people I knew growing up; he’s semi-autobiographical in some ways as well. You put things you’ve learned from your own experience onto these kinds of characters, and I think he [was] a vehicle to represent the struggles with masculinity in a working-class town where I come from. I felt like, “Let’s try and do that through a bit of genre.”
What made Oliver Jackson-Cohen the right fit to play Jack? Because I think he’s great in this movie. He brings the emotion, he’s an action star, written all over him. What did he bring to the role that wasn’t on the page?
Jamie Childs: Pretty much everything you just said. That was exactly why I went with him, so it’s good that he’s come across that way. I had that exact same feeling about Ollie. It was not the first choice in my mind. Not necessarily like I had a first choice, but what I mean is when I sat down and wrote Jack, I didn’t have any actors in mind at all. I just wrote a character; I didn’t write it for anybody.
Then I had casting directors throwing ideas at me. I was actually meeting Ollie for something completely different, and we were having dinner together. Once I was at dinner, I was telling him about the movie, and then I was like, “Hang on, why don’t you read it?” He said to me straight away, “I’m not right for that part at all. I don’t think you’re looking for the right guy.” And I said, “Well, no, that’s exactly why you are,” because that’s the way he responded with such humility.
Anyway, he went away and read the script. He was like, “I love the script.” I remember him texting me that night. He read it straight away, and he’s like, “I’ve got one problem with it.” I was like, “What?” He’s like, “I’m definitely not right for the part.” That was his response, and then I convinced him that I think he is right for all those reasons that you mentioned. He does have this physicality that’s great for it. He’s a great actor, and he has this sensitive side to him that I think a lot of the people who would’ve been obvious choices wouldn’t have necessarily brought to it.
There’s a scene towards the beginning of the movie that takes place in water, which looked extremely difficult to shoot. Was that the most challenging part of the shoot for you?
Jamie Childs: Probably not the most challenging. Every sequence in this movie had its own challenges because they were also very different from each other. That bit was challenging because we were shooting in the north of England in December, and it’s minus 12 degrees in the North Sea. You can imagine trying to convince anyone to put Oliver Jackson-Cohen in there for a good six or seven hours. Dry suit or no dry suit, it don’t make a lot of difference.
He didn’t complain, by the way. He was hands-on with everything; he was good. But I also had to convince producers and stuff that it was okay that I volunteered myself to also be in the water with him the whole time. Every time he’s in the water, I was also in there. That was definitely challenging because I was like, “Why did I volunteer for this?” They could have quite happily put me in a boat alongside him, but I felt like he needed the camaraderie, you know what I mean?
Jackdaw is a gritty cat-and-mouse thriller that almost feels like a noir. Can you talk to me about capturing the tone of this film?
Jamie Childs: When we do British crime thrillers, often historically they’ve been quite naturalistic. I wanted to do something that lent into a kind of more genre piece that I would’ve watched when I was growing up, which would’ve been American films. John Carpenter’s a big reference, Walter Hill or Tony Scott. Those kinds of movies became my influence, over the years, to make something like Jackdaw.
Convincing British financiers and British audiences that you can make that kind of film over here is tricky, so I needed to make sure that by setting it all at night, I could give the film a certain atmosphere for its lighting and for its sound and for its staging. You can show a larger-than-life world in Britain. But I owe that to American cinema as well, the films that I grew up watching, and that was important to me.
You shot this in Northern England, which is a crucial part of the film’s atmosphere. Can you talk about the energy Northern England brought to Jackdaw?
Jamie Childs: I grew up there. That place that you see on screen is literally where I grew up, so I knew all the places I could get production value out of quickly, but would also lend me to these big set pieces and stuff.
I was just telling somebody earlier that the landscape of those oil refineries where I grew up is where Tony and Ridley Scott also grew up. We grew up in the same town, and that was Ridley’s influence for Blade Runner, those oil refineries. He literally looked out of his window as a kid at that exact view, those factories that we use in Jackdaw, and that was his inspiration for the design of Blade Runner.
I was always like, “Okay, what if I just use that landscape in a live-action film, and it’s all there?” That’s where we started with it, and it helped me know what the world was of Jackdaw. It was almost like if I started with that ingredient, I knew what to add and what to take away to keep it in that world and keep it in that atmosphere.
Jackdaw is your feature directorial debut. How did projects like The Sandman, Doctor Who, Willow, and His Dark Materials help you prepare to make your feature debut?
Jamie Childs: Yeah, they totally did. Having that work over the years is a crash course in every different kind of style and genre for me. Getting to do all the big set pieces I’ve had the luxury of doing in the big shows, learning what does work and what doesn’t work, and doing it with someone else’s money. That for me was the best film school I could ever go to.
With Jackdaw, I will say it felt like going back to the beginning. We had to work with what we had available and try and make something bigger. But because of the skills that I’d learned off those shows, I felt like I could do that with greater ease than I would’ve done if I’d just done this film a few years ago, definitely.
You’ve worked on some of my favorite properties. I’m going to switch gears for a second because you introduced us to Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor. Sadly, her time has come to an end, but what excites you about seeing Ncuti Gatwa portray the Doctor?
Jamie Childs: I think Ncuti is going to be great. I know loads of people who are working on that show. I know Ncuti personally. I actually met him the other week, and we talked about this and it’s like, I feel we were doing something new with Jodie. Ncuti is going to bring something even fresher to the table.
They’ve got a big budget now on that show as well. They’ve got the collaboration now with the US. We’re going to open it up to a whole new audience. People who have never even looked at Doctor Who. When I found out that he was doing it, I just thought what a great choice.
This is also the second round for Russell T. Davies. What does that mean for Doctor Who this time around?
Jamie Childs: Well, I think what Russell’s done in the past has been brilliant. Everyone knows when you go away from something, and you come back to it, you see [more clearly]. Russell’s learned from it before [and] is going to bring you know so much. What a luxury to come back to something that you did such a great job of in the first place, but also now we have new ingredients, a new budget, and a new production team behind it.
I’ve worked with Bad Wolf who were making it. It’s who I made His Dark Materials with. They’re an excellent company. Jane Tranter, who set it up in Wales in the first place, is back on it as an exec producer. It’s like the only thing that’s missing here is I need to be part of it.
You absolutely need to be a part of this because your episodes are some of my favorites. Are you coming back for season 2 of The Sandman? And if you are, what are you most excited to bring to life?
Jamie Childs: I am coming back for season 2. We were shooting it already, but we’ve gone down obviously, because of the strikes. Honestly, the whole show so far has been incredibly exciting. And like what you just said about Russell? It’s like, we’ve done it before. We know what worked and what didn’t. We know now.
Coming at it, it was scary coming out at the first time because it’s like, we’re the first time putting that onscreen, and everyone who’s tried historically has not managed it yet. What’s different about us? Nothing. We could just mess this up or whatever. But some stuff we did in Season 1 really works. Some stuff we felt worked less. We’ve now got all that prior knowledge, and we’re coming at it again like a team who’ve done it before. It just feels really good.
It’s unfortunate about the strikes because we were right in the swing of it. It was six weeks into filming, it was going really, really well. And to be excited about one bit, it’s quite hard to say because honestly every day is different on that show. It’s a bit like Jackdaw, where every sequence was different every day. We’re doing Greek tragedy, and then we’re doing cyberpunk, and we’re doing contemporary drama, or we’re doing cat and mouse chess stuff. It’s honestly it’s such a fun show to work on for that reason.
Have you already conceptualized your second feature film, and has Jackdaw influenced your perspective on filmmaking now that the dust has settled?
Jamie Childs: Big time. I think I haven’t got something 100% that I’m going to do next, and part of the exciting bit for me is going, “What should I do next?” I’m feeling it out with Jackdaw, seeing what the response is. But at the same time, I love delving in that world of Jackdaw.
The thing that excites me, as maybe you’ve picked up from the previous things we’ve just talked about, is doing something totally different. I think I’ve had the luxury of doing that in the shows that I’ve worked on. I don’t want to just get pigeonholed into one thing as well, because I’ve got other stuff to give. Who knows, man? I might do a romantic comedy next. You never know.
About Jackdaw
A former motocross champion and army veteran is now caring for his younger brother. Broke, he agrees to do an open water pick up of a mysterious illegal package in the North Sea. A resulting double cross and his brother’s disappearance set him and his old bike on a violent nocturnal odyssey through England’s northern rust belt.
Jackdaw had its premiere during 2023’s Fantastic Fest. The film is 97 minutes long and currently unrated.
