Invasion Planet Earth (formerly Kaleidoscope Man) is a crowdfunded British Sci-Fi film from writer / director Simon Cox. The film follows Thomas Dunn (played by Simon Haycock) a man who has lost his faith, following the death of his young daughter. On the day he finds out his wife is pregnant again, aliens invade the Earth. We caught up with Danny Steel, who plays Floyd, in this Sci-Fi adventure to let us know what to expect and more about the film’s remarkable journey from a crowdfunding campaign to the cinema screen.
Presh Williams: The Kickstarter for the film campaign received phenomenal support (backed by almost 200 people). As an independent film production, how does that support make you feel about the public wanting to see this story come to life?
it’s so amazing to see the phenomenal amount of public support for the project – it shows there’s a huge audience for Sci-Fi and independently made cinema and encourages me to want to do more. There have been waves of support from all around the world, ever since I was involved I’ve met people passionate about this project! Simon (Cox) and I were talking about this and we spoke of how countless times we’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of people wanting to see the film to fruition.
PW: A lot of the film, as is the case with Sci-Fi films, relies on CGI. How was is it like working with writer/director, Simon Cox, to act out those scenes without actually knowing how the final cut of the film would look like?
I’ve worked in CGI previously and knew how it worked, however, I had, and have, a lot of faith in Simon and his vision. I knew from the moment we met over a coffee and he spoke of how he wanted ‘Invasion’ to look, I had 100% trust in him – I had a fair idea of how it could end up and having seen the final film, it has over achieved my own expectations!
PW: What was your favourite scene to film?
DS: I’d have to say the part where Europe is slowly being destroyed – we are watching it happen high up from the Spacecraft. None of us spoke, there was no dialogue in the scene and as the camera pans across all of us watching this horror down on Earth, in instinct I reached out and held Samantha’s (played by Sophie Anderson) hand. It wasn’t in the script that I do that but felt absolutely right to do that. There is an eerie silence as this was happening. We did this several times and I was allowing myself to go deeper each time. I was thinking about how relevant the scene is now in this awareness era of climate change and political uncertainty to show how it affects us all from a macro to a micro level has never been more important.
PW: Invasion Planet Earth does draw a lot of influence from 70s/80s Sci-Fi, what can people expect when they see the movie?
DS: Ha! I think people can expect to see homage’s to certain well-known films both in the style and narrative of ‘Invasion’. If you love these certain films (not mentioning any names here, you’ll love this one basically). Like any good story, ‘Invasion’ is a story of connection, of resilience and the power of a shared collective.
PW: You’re follow up film that you are co-starring is quite different to Invasion Planet Earth, it’s called L’age D’or and based on 60s St Tropez. Can you tell us more about that film?
DS: In ‘L’Age D’Or‘ I play a French-speaking British musician who arrives in St Tropez in 1967 wanting to set up a band and explore life in the South of France. My character is an essential part of the narrative.
The film is very big on the musical numbers and 60’s cover songs feature heavily throughout the film – as a huge music fan, this was great to film and be a part of (although no CGI was used this time!)
I’m also very excited to be in pre-production on a new horror ‘Creaks’, directed by award-winning director Joe Camereno and written by Anne-Sophie Marie, I play an eccentric Ghost Hunter we are looking at making this next year..watch this space!
Invasion Planet Earth will be in cinemas on 5th December 2019 at select cinemas within the U.K.
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