Attack the Block

Director Joe Cornish and main actor John Boyega discuss the making of the film Attack the Block.

The film is about a group of young boys who discover that their neighborhood has been invaded by aliens and they do all they can to save it. The director of the film said that his reason for making the film was to tell a story about the main character Moses—a character that Boyega said was not difficult to relate to.

 “to mix up quite a kind of meaningful character study with a crazy alien invasion movie felt to me like a fun challenge,” said Cornish.

According to Cornish, he had the idea in his head back in 2001 and said that it has been sitting in his head for years. He said that he started writing it about three years before they shot the film.  Attack the Block is Boyega’s first feature film and is the first film that Cornish has directed. According to Cornish, the film’s director of photography and composer are first timers as well.

Even with a small budget Cornish said that they wanted to try to be ambitious in creating the film.  Attack the Block took 10 weeks to film and takes place in South London—both Boyega’s and Cornish’s hometown. 

Cornish said that he likes films that make you care and make you feel something and with his own film wanted people to have a good time.

“I hoped that people would be a little bit provoked by the film because these characters start off doing the bad thing and then our ambition is that as the story unfolds you start to understand and love these kids and by the end hopefully you will stand up and cheer for them, said Cornish. “…we just wanted to make a good film...”

While Cornish said that he doubts that there will ever be another film like Attack the Block, he hopes that people will go and see the film and said that they couldn’t be more excited that the film has made it to America. The film will be playing in Chicago July 29 and will be showing in 6 other cities.