Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / A Real King Will Rise Series Producer Jane Atkins Talks About Lion

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A Real King Will Rise Series Producer Jane Atkins Talks About Lion · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: So we've created this brand new podcast on Ero dot net,
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  Speaker 1: ar r oe dot net. Sure it sounds like old
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  Speaker 1: dot net, A r r Oe dot net. Enjoy your exploration. Hello,
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  Speaker 1: and good morning. How are you doing today?
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, I'm good. How are you?
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely excited to share a conversation with you? Because the
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  Speaker 1: Lion has been a major part of my life, my
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  Speaker 1: entire journey, and probably because my mother named me Clarence.
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  Speaker 1: But the problem is, though, is that during those early days,
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  Speaker 1: we always thought of Clarence the cross eye line, so
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  Speaker 1: everybody treated me like that. But I'm so glad you're
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  Speaker 1: doing Lion in this four part series because finally the
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  Speaker 1: Lion is going to get some true love that it deserves.
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  Speaker 2: Oh well, I hope, though, we are so excited that
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  Speaker 2: Lion has already premiered in la and in London and
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  Speaker 2: is now about to be released across Disney and JU
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  Speaker 2: and Hulu. So we're really excited and it is truly
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  Speaker 2: an incredible story with super super thrilled that we managed
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  Speaker 2: to tell this story and it's a beautiful emotional rollcaster.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I love the way that you guys are doing this,
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  Speaker 1: and the reason why is because I'm a firm believer
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  Speaker 1: and this might be my martial arts background, and that
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  Speaker 1: is that before we get to this present place of now,
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  Speaker 1: there is a story. And that's what you do with
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  Speaker 1: this is that you give us the story of Kio
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  Speaker 1: and it really does open up the door for us
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  Speaker 1: to start looking at other things around us.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think as filmmakers, we just wanted
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  Speaker 2: to find something that felt really, really immersive and intimate.
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  Speaker 2: And also, there's been lots of films about lion, right,
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  Speaker 2: There's been lots of stories about linking lions. There's been linking,
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  Speaker 2: there's been you know, a huge love lines for decades
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  Speaker 2: and decades, myself included. I'm a you know, MANI lion fan.
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  Speaker 2: But I think there has never been a story like
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  Speaker 2: this where you really get to know what it takes
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  Speaker 2: to be a lion and not just what it takes
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  Speaker 2: to be live, but what it takes to become a
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  Speaker 2: Lion King, and to have that ability to tell it
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  Speaker 2: from a kind of cubs point of view with all
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  Speaker 2: of the challenges, but also all of the wisdom that
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  Speaker 2: he gets along the way, all the courage he has
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  Speaker 2: to build and rebuild time again. I think it's a
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  Speaker 2: really relatable, really beautiful, really heartfelt story. And it's not
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  Speaker 2: teeth and Claws like a lot of sort of other
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  Speaker 2: films you may have seen my lines. It's much more.
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  Speaker 2: It's a much more like emotional, sentimental family story that
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  Speaker 2: will hopefully feel really unique because it is documentary, but
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  Speaker 2: also feels nostalgic because we are kind of like tying
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  Speaker 2: in references to familiar storylines or music moments from Lion
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  Speaker 2: King and obviously having wed John Favru and hands, we've
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  Speaker 2: kind of brought this whole package together in this with this,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the wider family of talented creatives to create
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  Speaker 2: something that is really sort of special but singular as well,
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  Speaker 2: with Kia at the heart of it.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you guys give us the opportunity to get our
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  Speaker 1: own interpretation and maybe that's the touching of Jon Favreau here.
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  Speaker 1: But the thing is, though, is that because I am
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  Speaker 1: a spiritualist and I do get into animals speak, which
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  Speaker 1: is animal totems, I mean the very second that I
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  Speaker 1: dove into this, of course, I started looking things up.
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  Speaker 1: What was the meaning, what was the purpose? What is
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  Speaker 1: the lion trying to tell me right now? And I
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  Speaker 1: realize that there are so many stories like that, but
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  Speaker 1: there's more to it for families, for business people, for
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  Speaker 1: people to look at the lion and to look at
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  Speaker 1: Kyo's journey and to sit there and say, I can
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  Speaker 1: do this in my own life. I'm learning this from
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  Speaker 1: my documentary. Yeah. Yeah, you are learning because you're going
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  Speaker 1: to pick something up that you can put in your
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  Speaker 1: own life in this documentary.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean we you know, we are all,
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  Speaker 2: whether we work in film or not, we are all
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  Speaker 2: storytellers at heart. We come from you know, kind of
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  Speaker 2: We wanted to make this story feel like it was
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  Speaker 2: being told around a campfire with an elder who was
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  Speaker 2: telling you the story. That was a story like as
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  Speaker 2: old as age, you know, is any kind of age
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  Speaker 2: could be that it could have been told in any generations.
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  Speaker 2: It has equality, a kind of grandfather equality. This amazing
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  Speaker 2: narrator brings his beautiful voice to it, and so I
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  Speaker 2: think it goes. It does feel different to normal documentaries
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  Speaker 2: for sure. I love the kind of the style and
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  Speaker 2: John Faber really kind of set that with the kind
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  Speaker 2: of tone that he wanted. It's like, let us just
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  Speaker 2: feel like we're sitting around a campfire. Let's feel like
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  Speaker 2: an elder is talking to us. And that allowed us
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  Speaker 2: to sort of dial in the type of scripting, the
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  Speaker 2: type of tone, and then we applied like the music.
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  Speaker 2: But I think all of that really like any really
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  Speaker 2: good film, it allows you to engage in a really emotional,
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  Speaker 2: deep way, and the then the layers come through of Okay,
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  Speaker 2: that little cub is struggling, who is there to help them? Yep,
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  Speaker 2: it's his mother, or it's his brotherhood, or it's the
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  Speaker 2: kind of the things that he himself has to sort
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  Speaker 2: of overcome. And those are all, you know, true to
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  Speaker 2: true in any of our lives, and so it is
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  Speaker 2: a relatable is a relatable series, even though it's lions
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  Speaker 2: like they are like family and actually we all fell
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  Speaker 2: in love them so much. They were really like that
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  Speaker 2: to us. We hope that kind of comes across with
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  Speaker 2: the audiences you watch it.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you definitely do that because I mean it's it's
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  Speaker 1: so many times people will put the line up there
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  Speaker 1: with a superhero from Marvel or DC, and what you're
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  Speaker 1: doing is you're giving us the opportunity to see a
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  Speaker 1: cub that wasn't perfect. Oh wait a second, that's my life.
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  Speaker 1: And then the cub grows and learns new things. Oh
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  Speaker 1: wait a second, that's our life. So yeah, you do.
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  Speaker 1: You put such a human side to something, and maybe
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  Speaker 1: the lions are going, wow, we got to teach him
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  Speaker 1: somehow because we're not doing it through the zoos. Let's
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  Speaker 1: just go ahead and get this documentary going so that
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  Speaker 1: we can get people to start thinking like real, honest
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  Speaker 1: to god thinkers and planners like the lion ears.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and I think for a long time lions have
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  Speaker 2: been seen this really really powerful animals. But actually when
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  Speaker 2: you watch this, you realize how vulnerable they are. There
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  Speaker 2: are all sorts of yeah, dangers and difficulties, whether that's
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  Speaker 2: in nature with buffalo or hyenas or fires or all
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  Speaker 2: these kind of you know, forces that filled their days,
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  Speaker 2: but also they are encroached in a way that they
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  Speaker 2: have never been before with the kind of the pressures
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  Speaker 2: of humankind around them. And actually, if you watch episode three,
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  Speaker 2: you'll see a storyline that's really powerful in it about
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  Speaker 2: a new challenge to lions. I don't want to give
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  Speaker 2: it away now because people won't have watched it yet,
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  Speaker 2: but we don't want to shy away from the vulnerabilities
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  Speaker 2: they face because again, that allows you to think, well,
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  Speaker 2: you know, that isn't that. That isn't perhaps how you've
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  Speaker 2: seen lives for but they they are really struggling as
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  Speaker 2: a species across Africa, and hopefully this series has shined
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  Speaker 2: a little bit of light onto that vulnerability. As well
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  Speaker 2: as them being beautiful, powerful animals, they are incredibly vulnerable
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  Speaker 2: as well.
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  Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Jane Atkins right
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  Speaker 1: around the corner, the name of the four part documentary Lion.
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  Speaker 1: We are back with Jane Atkins. Am I wrong to
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  Speaker 1: think that oj Lynch had a connection to lions because
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  Speaker 1: the way that the narration takes place, it almost feels
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  Speaker 1: like that this is a personal experience and we are
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  Speaker 1: sitting around that campfire like you're talking about Because the
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  Speaker 1: very second you said that, I'm going, oh my god,
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  Speaker 1: that's kind of because what happened. I then started having
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  Speaker 1: a conversation with people around me, like a campfire, but
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  Speaker 1: it all goes to me to Oj Lynch here.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. Oj is an actor who has an incredible voice,
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  Speaker 2: and he actually plays Mifassa in The Lion King in Europe. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: he had so he had this connection anyway, but he
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  Speaker 2: also had this really beautiful tone to his voice, emotional range,
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  Speaker 2: and it felt very natural. And what we loved also
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  Speaker 2: was that because he isn't like a really famous name,
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  Speaker 2: like a big Hollywood name, when you listen to his voice,
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  Speaker 2: you're not thinking, oh, what is this connection and why
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  Speaker 2: is he You're immediately just sort of feeling like you're
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  Speaker 2: setting around a campfire. But your eyes and your heart
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  Speaker 2: and your attention is really on the character of the lions,
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  Speaker 2: and they are the stars of the show. So we
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  Speaker 2: wanted to make sure that the whole setting was preserved
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  Speaker 2: for that kind of sort of sacred space, so that
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  Speaker 2: the storylines were flowing through the words but kind of
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  Speaker 2: carried by the animals that you see on screen.
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  Speaker 1: So what was it like for you when Hans Zimmer
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  Speaker 1: became a part of this project, Because now you know
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  Speaker 1: that the photography was going to have music, that it
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  Speaker 1: was going to help bring it forward in ways that
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be effective on our end of that
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  Speaker 1: flat screen.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean when we probably got about a year
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  Speaker 2: and a half into the project until before we started
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  Speaker 2: looking at music because we wanted to get the film
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  Speaker 2: shoots out of the door where we wanted to see
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  Speaker 2: what characters were coming through. But once we had done
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  Speaker 2: a few edits and we were trying to use different
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  Speaker 2: sort of different types of music on this sort of
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  Speaker 2: those pre early early edits, we quite quickly felt that
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  Speaker 2: hand would be an amazing person to partner up with.
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  Speaker 2: John Favreau has worked with Mobs and The Lion King.
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  Speaker 2: We've at the BBC worked with Hands on Planet Earth
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  Speaker 2: and Frozen Planet, a big kind of landmarks. So we
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  Speaker 2: asked him if he would be interested, and he was,
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  Speaker 2: which was fantastic. He watched one of our stories that's
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  Speaker 2: in the best episode, which I don't want to give
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  Speaker 2: it away, but it's a very powerful moment and very
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  Speaker 2: dramatic moment, and he immediately had a sense of what
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  Speaker 2: this could feel like with bringing in human vocals to
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  Speaker 2: make it even more kind of emotional and connected and
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  Speaker 2: about family and then also these kind of beautiful theme
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  Speaker 2: pieces of music which builds and builds across a series.
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  Speaker 2: So it was fantastic to work hands and the two
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  Speaker 2: composers that he worked with as well, Georgia and Niko,
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  Speaker 2: and together we just had a lot of back and
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  Speaker 2: forth when we were sending cuts and receiving music back.
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  Speaker 2: The whole process was amazing. It was very organic, and
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  Speaker 2: we're really really proud that the music kind of gives
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  Speaker 2: it not just the grandeur of Africa, but also it
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  Speaker 2: kind of has its own mirrored parallel storyline within the
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  Speaker 2: music because it evolves and its shapes and it builds
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  Speaker 2: as well. So we're really we're so happy with that.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, you have got to come back to this show
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  Speaker 1: anytime in the future. Ten minutes with you did you
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  Speaker 1: just tap into your experience. It's not enough. So please
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  Speaker 1: come back to this show anytime.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you. That's very kind. I will be there. Just
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  Speaker 2: let me know when you want it.
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  Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today? Okay?
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  Speaker 2: Oh? Thank you. Well, I hope you really enjoy it.
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  Speaker 2: I hate your witnesses love it as well.