British Culture: Albion Never Dies Interview with Jonathan Sothcott - CEO of Shogun Films [Episode 202]
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Thomas Felix Creighton interviews the CEO of Shogun Films, Jonathan Sothcott.
Jonathan Sothcott is one of the UK's most experienced and successful independent producers with a track record of success with high concept, low budget genre films. Described by GQ Magazine as "a film producer behind a whole new generation of on-screen hardmen", a 2021 Sothcott profile piece in The Telegraph noted his movies "have saved our film industry."
Over the years Sothcott has worked with a galaxy of stars including Ray Winstone, Danny Trejo, Lee Majors, Mark Hamill, Jason Statham, Michael Paré, Steven Berkoff, Richard E Grant, Charlie Cox and Sir Roger Moore.
Notable successes amongst his 40+ feature credits include ‘Vendetta’, ‘We Still Kill The Old Way’ and ‘Renegades’. He set up Shogun Films in 2020 as a genuine international counterpoint of independence and the company has won a slew of awards recognising it's trailblazing approach.
He has over 20 years of experience in the British film industry, and we discuss what makes a movie ‘British'?. We also discuss some of the best films of the 1980s, and the established stars at the time. We also discuss his forthcoming movie, ‘Knightfall’, currently in post-production:
“Charles Knight, a paranoid former spy catcher, must work with his estranged daughter to foil an international terrorist plot, while surviving a terrifying home invasion in this explosive espionage thriller”.
Before making his name in feature films, Sothcott produced documentaries and moderated DVD commentaries for numerous cult films, including The Wild Geese.
Our topics include:
- Roger Moore
- Roger Moore’s son, Geoffrey Moore
- Ian Ogilvy - an English actor, playwright and novelist best known as the star of the television series Return of the Saint (1978–79), in which he assumed the role of Simon Templar from Roger Moore (1962-69)
- The Fourth Protocol (1987) starring Pierce Brosnan and Micheal Caine, based on the 1984 book by British novelist Frederick Forsyth
- The debt that modern action movies owe to traditional 007 films
- The Wild Geese (1978) with Roger Moore, John Glen (second unit director) and Ewan Lloyd (producer)
- Joan Armatrading wrote and recorded the theme song
- Ingrid Pitt, Polish-British actress and writer, most famous for her role in ‘Where Eagles Dare’ but also appeared in The Wild Geese II
- The Sea Wolves (1980), Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven
- Ewan Lloyd – BFI: “Lloyd stood alone within the depressed British film industry of the late 1970s and early 1980s as a producer with the self-belief, charisma and bluff to mount large-scale independent action-adventure films, such as The Wild Geese (1978) and Who Dares Wins (1982)".
- Lewis Collins, star of the TV movie, ‘Who Dares Wins’ (1982), also known as The Final Option, the star was the tabloid’s favourite for ‘next James Bond’ for some years due to his action star credentials
- David Wickes, TV producer best known for his work on ‘The Sweeny’ ‘The Professionals’, and ‘CI5: The
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