Nicholas Clement has been a busy man since our last conversation. He’s a freelance script consultant, daily Facebook film reviewer, and writer for Variety and other movie publications. He’s also a devoted family man who has had to weather the storm of COVID-19 and look after his five-year-old son around the clock this past year.
Despite it all, he’s accomplished plenty during this time. This summer and later this fall, Nicholas will contribute his writing to the booklets of two upcoming Arrow Video releases: Tony Scott’s True Romance and Ridley Scott’s Legend. To top it off, he’s also in the process of earning his first producer credit on a feature film.
Luckily for us, Nicholas has taken time from his busy schedule to talk about his upcoming projects, the future of physical media, and his deep-seated love for all things Tony and Ridley Scott.
Thanks for taking the time to talk, Nicholas! First off, how are you and your family? Hopefully, everyone has made it out to the other side of the pandemic in-tact?
We’re all doing good, thanks for asking! These last 16 months have been truly “something else,” and all I can say is that I’m lucky to have remained employed and, quite frankly, that the ones I love are alive. I hope you and your family have been able to weather this storm with as little issues as possible, Matt.
Thanks so much! All is good on my end, thankfully. What movies have excited you in recent months?
It’s been such a bizarre experience, seeing the Hollywood machine come to a screeching halt, and then watching them try and re-organize, and come up with ways to satisfy consumers with different release methods. As a result, I think, so many movies have been lost in the shuffle. In terms of titles that I’ve been able to see during the pandemic, items such as The Way Back, Swallow, I Care A Lot, The Vast of Night, Sound of Metal, Army of the Dead, and A White, White Day have all made major impressions. And limited miniseries titles such as I Know This Much Is True, Mare of Easttown, and Queen’s Gambit, have been better than most films. To be honest, I’ve probably spent more time watching various television programs on Prime and Netflix than I have watched actual feature films over the last 16 months.
You have a producing credit on a movie that’s coming up. What can you say about that project right now? How did you get involved?
It’s a crime thriller called Out of Exile, and I’m thrilled to have played a small part in helping to get it made. This was a passion project for the film’s creator, Kyle Kauwika Harris, and let me tell you, Kyle is so talented. He’s going to make a big splash with this movie, and with all of the other stuff he’s got in his arsenal. I’d gotten to know him on the spec script circuit, and I helped to get him a manager based off the strength of a brilliant script he wrote. And just through his own personal determination, he got Out of Exile made, he sought out the indie financing, and I helped in that aspect to a tiny degree, and also brought on an actor to the project. It’s been really fun helping to make something rather than just critiquing stuff.
Onto Arrow Video. For those who don’t know, they’re a UK-based film distributor with a home video label devoted to physical media. Before we get into the specifics of your recent work with them, let’s talk about physical media. Do you personally have an affinity for it? Were you a fan of Arrow’s prior to working for them?
Yes. I have always been an ardent supporter of physical media. It took me a while to even consider getting into the waters of streaming digital content, as I just love holding a movie in my hand, reading the booklet that might come with it, and just knowing I’m owning a piece of the film, in some small way. I have thousands of discs and I will always be a collector. And in terms of Arrow Video’s output, they are one of the premiere outlets for “collector’s cinema,” and they put in a lot of time and effort into each one of their releases. They truly care about what they are doing, and every disc that they put out totally shows this fact.
Where do you see physical media heading? Where do you see it being in, say, ten years?
My hope is that it stays right where it is for now. I’m sure someone, at some point, will figure out a way to “better” the 4K delivery for the home market, but you have to ask yourself, why even bother? I’m not even on the 4K train, yet – I have a problem with how artificial things can look, and I love when I watch a movie, especially a movie from the 80’s or 90’s that was made with a particular aesthetic, where it still looks like a movie, and not like digital video or a soap opera. Things look too-lifelike for me, and I like seeing that artificial separation from the real world, to the movie world. So, for me personally, if things stay on their present course, I’ll be happy. I just hope companies like Arrow and Kino and Criterion and Shout! keep doing their special things.
How did Arrow approach you? Were you approached about Legend and True Romance at the same time? Were they specific about what they wanted or were you given free rein?
As with everything these days, it was through social media. I had a Facebook contact who knew about my love for all things Tony Scott, and he knew that I’d been working on a book about Tony’s career. So, they approached me to write the liner notes for their new 4K restoration of True Romance. They loved what I did, so they asked me to do the liner notes for their upcoming release of Ridley Scott’s Legend, which will drop in September. And in terms of creative direction, I was able to write a long love letter to Tony for their True Romance disc, focusing on the film, but also the man himself, and what he brought to the movie landscape in general. With Legend, it’s a bit of appreciation and production history. The folks at Arrow are just wonderful to work with and very generous in how they allow their writers to go about doing their assignments.
What is your personal connection to each film and filmmaker, if you can put it into words?
With True Romance, it’s two-fold. That film made a startling impression on me when I saw it at the age of 14, and ever since the first viewing, it’s been one of my favorite films. I’d developed a huge appreciation for Tony Scott’s movies in high school, and when I saw that film, it just blew me away, because I’d really only known him as a big-budget action filmmaker, not necessarily someone who was known for making black comedies and doing the interweaving narrative thing. So the movie was just a massive blast for me on so many levels. And with Legend, that was one of the few fantasy films that truly connected with me as a child, as that genre has never been at the top of my list. But the cinematic atmosphere that Ridley conjured up on that film is just extraordinary.
2021 is a great year to be a fan of Tony and Ridley Scott. We get these two great, massive editions of their films. Ridley has two movies (House of Gucci and The Last Duel) coming out this fall. And later in the year, we finally get to see the long-awaited sequel to Tony’s Top Gun. Why do you think their work has such staying power? Why are they just as relevant today as they were thirty years ago?
Tony’s films have that vintage razzle-dazzle that modern action films lack. His movies had a sense of speed and urgency, always rooted in strong characters, and there was a sense of humor at play, nearly at all times. These elements keep people coming back for more. And with Ridley, he’s become an iconic filmmaker, stretching various genres, and even when his films don’t connect with audiences, he’s still pushing boundaries in some manner. It’s a combination of work ethic, taste in material, and the delivery methods which make it the total package.
Last but not least, what is the status of your Tony Scott book?
I’m still working on it! Someone has beaten me to the punch in terms of first out of the gate, but that’s OK. I just need a publisher!
Thanks so much for talking, Nicholas! I can’t wait to see your work this year!
Arrow Video’s limited edition 4k (region-free) and Blu-ray release of True Romance was released in the UK on July 19th. Their limited edition Blu-Ray release of Legend will be released in the U.S. and the U.K on September 28.
Nicholas Clement is an independent film producer and motion picture screenplay consultant, while also serving as a journalist for Variety magazine and We Are Cult, and liner notes specialist for Arrow Video. He wrote the introduction to Double Features: Big Ideas in Film (2017) and is currently working on a book about the life and work of Tony Scott. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and son and a cat.
