Gangs of London is a show known for its intense action and bloody violence. With an impressive ensemble cast, it follows a London crime family trying to survive after the death of head mob boss Finn Wallace (Colm Meaney). The show was co-created by The Raid director Gareth Evans, who writes and directs the series alongside a team of talented directors.
RLJE Films released Gangs of London season 1 on DVD and Blu-ray on July 20. Screen Rant sat down with director Xavier Gens to talk about the season, the collaborative process of working with Evans and the other directors, and the films that inspired the series.
Screen Rant: I watched Gangs of London when it first screened in the UK, and I was completely bowled over by it. I was obviously part of a really big audience reaction, because of how it took off in the UK. What do you think, led to that success, in terms of the UK audience in particular?
Xavier Gens: We know that was the first lockdown. So, in a way, we got the chance to have that success. Also, the fact everybody was in lockdown - and we are cautious about this. That's one real thing, to be honest.
Because the show is so violent and so genre-oriented, the audience responded because there is always the reaction of curiosity. Although if you don't like the show, you don't go until the end. But I think everybody was attracted by the show because it was a different proposition, which was real.
Xavier Gens: Between Gareth, Corin [Hardy], and me, we were really thinking about the fans - and we are fans of them first. When we did these episodes, it was important for us to be as generous as possible in the genre. We really wanted to do something exceptional; we really wanted to do something which is beyond the frontiers of what we are able to do [on] TV. Basically, we pushed the limits where we could.
We were always trying to figure out what's going to be the best way to tell the story in this way or that way. We were thinking about our characters, but also thinking about the way we're going to set up the action and the violence of the show. What's going to be the level of action and violence of the show? When I asked Gareth, the first thing he told me was, "Dude, push the limit as far as you can. No censorship, just push the limit and do what you as a fan want to see."
Basically, that was the model we were following during the shooting. I think we feel that could be what attracts the audience when you watch the show, the generosity that began the scenes. When Gareth is doing an action scene, it's obviously fascinating because he is the master of action. I think he is the best director for action scenes today; even in the scenery and the staging, he's a genius. And he was fully expressing himself as much as he could during the show.
And after, when he asked me to do some episodes, I followed his steps, basically. I was just following what Gareth would do and trying to be in his mind. As a big fan of his cinema. I just have to follow the way he's thinking you know. When he gave me episode 6, I was not surprised why he called me.
It's interesting that you mentioned censorship. Was there anything at all that you wanted to get in there that you weren't able to? Anything that was too violent for Gangs of London?
Xavier Gens: No, I think we have everything we shot in it. But when we were doing the presentation of some episodes, there was one of the producers on episode 6 - when the girl tried to escape - we had a shot where the skin was going completely off her hand. We cut down a little bit of this moment because it was impossible to watch. It was so horrific, and everybody was very squeamish. Even me, I was like, "I can't watch that."
But I like it. I enjoy pushing the limit and feeling that squeamish feeling we can have when we are watching a show. And it was quite enjoyable to be able to create that kind of feeling.
There is one moment - this is little trivia or funny thing - there was an insert of a spoon in between the teeth of the girl. I have an insert of the spoon cracking the teeth of the girl and I kept it. Because it was not too much, but I think it's more efficient when Sean [Wallace, played by Joe Cole] is arriving and taking the spoon off.
How much does the idea of a show like Gangs of London being binged, like during lockdown, influence the way that you make it?
Xavier Gens: No, we never talked about this. And to be honest, it was just about what is the pleasure we can have as a filmmaker to tell that story. It was just about pleasure, really. The guilty pleasure of friends doing a show together.
Between Gareth, Corin, and myself, we enjoy so many movies and genre movies. We were just like, "How can we push the limit on this?" We're talking about staging, sequence shots, or we can make something special - all to make the show special. We were just excited about how to push the limit and enjoy ourselves by doing it. The main challenge was this one. We never think about what's gonna be the reaction, or if they're gonna binge or not. It was just doing the best we could.
And when it was released in UK, it was a weekly release. It was not fully released in one time. It was released over nine weeks, if I remember, so the show didn't get binged from the very beginning. The start was super strong - I think we did 16 million on the the first episode, when it was done. And after, everybody followed until the very end. Which is a success, because usually when you binge, I think that at some point you want to stop. I think getting that weekly release was was a good strategy from SKY, because the audience doesn't get burned and they really want to catch up.
I tried to binge it to see what's going to be the feeling of it, and you can reach the tree first episode, then do a pause. Then you can binge 4 and 5 in one go - the first episode is cut into two episodes in the US, but the first episode is one hour and a half. So, when you watch an episode that's one hour and a half, you can do maybe one or two more max. But I think you can do one and two altogether. Then 3 through 5 maybe.
But it's not a show I think we are bingeing. In French, we say "déguste". You taste it, and then you come back to it because it's very good. It's gastronomy.
Considering everything that comes out now seems to be geared towards binge culture, this was the closest to that sort of Game of Thrones weekly event release. The rest of the week would be thinking about what could possibly escalate beyond the violence of the previous episode.
Xavier Gens: But it's good, because when you do things with love - and I think this show has been made with love and passion - you're not thinking about [those things]. When we were shooting, we didn't know it was gonna be a weekly release. We know nothing about the way it's gonna be released at all. We discovered that in post, when we finished and delivered the final episodes.
But we were lucky, because I think it was the best way to release it. I really enjoyed the fact that people responded this way. We had a lot of fun, and we're so happy with that. So, we're getting excited to see season two.
You talked a little bit about the genre background and wanting to pay homage to the films that you've loved. What specific film and TV inspirations went into making it?
Xavier Gens: To be honest, it's the first time I didn't really think about influence while doing this. Maybe on episode 6, there was a little bit of Funny Games and these kinds of films. But we're not really into trying to [imitate] - we are influenced, but I think today as we are older, we digest our influences and they are logically and naturally in our work. I think it's important to be able to digest imflunces.
And when we discuss with Gareth, the influence is not the Japanese movies from the 50s. We are really into character-driven stories; we want to be as character-driven as possible and to put action and something special in it, because we love that so much. It's trying to figure out what is the best way to hook the audience with your character, and then you can push any crazy situation where you will love the character and be afraid for the character. You will be engaged emotionally with with him.
It's always the same thing. It's how to be engaged emotionally with a character. If you want to follow someone for nine hours, that's a big engagement for an audience. We wanted to be as generous as possible for that. For us, the main influence was that. As a fan, what do we want to do and how do we want to express ourselves.
With Gareth, we were shooting on Monday but on Saturday, we we wanted to see movies. We had been in theaters to watch Robocop, Natural Born Killers, and True Romance. Again, we know these movies by heart. But it was important for us to see these three movies in a row, just because we love those movies so much and there is always something to catch in the movie. I think it was just to get fed by cinema and then deliver a pure cinematic experience to the audience. That was the main goal.
It was not getting the experience, but giving the pure cinematic experience to the audience. That was the main goal.
I'm always fascinated by a series that passes the baton between directors. How did that collaboration process work on Gangs of London?
Xavier Gens: It was quite organic. Because when you have someone like Gareth or someone like Corin, they are the most generous guys ever. They're super cool friends, first. And we were just showing each other [everything]. I was going on Corin's sets to see how he was shooting, and then I was going to Gareth's dailies because he was shooting in Cardiff when I arrived in London.
He was shooting episode 5, and we'd meet each other and were watching the dailies of each other. At some point, we were like, "Oh, wow. When you did that oner on that scene, it was so cool. Let me try to figure out how we can push the staging of the scene." We were just exchanging ideas and pushing ourselves.
Gareth and Corin are so good that I wanted to push my own limits. I wanted to be at the same level. It's just so exciting, and it's such a good excitement to be able to work together this way. Because, basically, we are sharing a passion for cinema. And I think when you watch the show, you can see the passion everywhere.
There is the violence - because everybody talks about the violence of the show - but there is also the staging of the scenes. You have some moments with such complicated movements and complicated setup. The staging of the show itself is challenging all the time, and we wanted to do something very special and very cinematic. That's why we were pushing the limit all the time. That was the main goal when we did it, to figure out the best way to tell the story and stay character-driven as much as possible.
We had to stay the most generous as possible with the actors, and how to set up the relationship and the performance as well. We had such a blast with the cast, and they were really amazing. It was just brilliant. To be honest, it was one of my best experiences ever. I really had so much fun; it was fantastic.
Gangs of London season 1 is available on DVD and Blu-ray on July 20 from RLJE Films.
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