Making a horror movie on human cloning was a difficult subject for British director Nick Hamm. But, as he tells Steve Pratt, the end justified the means.

Making his first US movie, Godsend, proved a never-ending story for British director Nick Hamm.

He shot six endings over a period of a year of re-shoots on the human cloning horror movie. And he admits that the ending seen by cinemagoers is "unsatisfactory" as far as he's concerned.

The Hollywood experiences of Hamm are fascinating and, dare I say it, more interesting than the finished movie.

Let's start at the end. He says that the studio deemed the original ending too expensive to shoot. So they shot a new ending, and then another, and then another. By the end, they'd spent as much as they would have done on filming the original finale.

"I'm not saying that's a good thing or a bad thing, but the commercial value of their product is disproportionate to the artistic content," he says.

He moved into movies after working in the theatre and television. His previous films include the romantic comedy Martha Meet Frank, Daniel And Laurence and the horror drama The Hole, with a pre-Pirates Of The Caribbean Keira Knightley.

Hamm was a director for hire when the script for Godsend was sent to him through American film company Lions Gate. The script told of a couple who use their dead son's DNA to clone him, with the help of a fertility doctor (played by Robert De Niro).

He liked the script and the ideas but knew that was only the beginning of trying to get the project greenlit. "You spend nine months trying to get it made," he says.

"When they send you the script, you go out to LA. Nothing is greenlit unless it's a huge blockbuster or has an actor attached. They decide what movies go all the time. Unless you have an actor in your picture, the movie is not happening.

"They put a certain amount of money in. They say, 'Let's spend this much and until you get a huge star, we will not bankroll you'."

That makes casting all the more vital. "You have this extraordinary struggle that goes on between you and the studio about the commerciality of the project," he says.

"I remember hearing De Niro was interested in doing the role and all of us in the office going, 'Yeh, yeh'. A week later, they rang back and we were still poo-pooing the idea and I was getting ready to get on a plane back to England. I got a telephone call the day before to go to New York to meet Robert De Niro. On the basis of his involvement, the movie was greenlit the next day."

Breakfast with De Niro was everything he thought a meeting with a top Hollywood actor would be. Hamm admits he was "incredibly nervous" but was assured by studio executives that "unless you vomit on him", the movie would be greenlit.

The meeting took place in the caf at New York's Tribecca centre, where De Niro is based. "He was in a private area. He summons you in and you feel as though you're meeting the unofficial Mayor of New York. You sit opposite this extraordinary man who is actually very shy," he recalls.

They hit it off, with Hamm passing what was essentially an audition by De Niro to see if he would do as director.

"In the end, he's an actor who likes to continue working with different people in different situations. I think what was interesting to him was playing a normal being who becomes demonic, dangerous."

Working in America or England makes no difference, he feels, because a director does the same job wherever he is. The difference is the control of the material that's shot. In England the level of money being spend is low so authorship is given to the director. In America, the amounts are higher so the studios want more control. The $19m budget for Godsend was small for the US but "rather a lot" for a smaller outfit like Lions Gate.

The film provoked controversy on its US opening, thanks to a website. "The studio set up a site for The Godsend Institute and didn't advertise it as a movie site but a real cloning site. People were invited to phone up and make an appointment to clone someone.

"It led to a ferocious row to the point where we were on the six o'clock news and it was being asked if it was appropriate to use people's suffering like that. That was a big debate when we opened in America."

Godsend (15) opens in cinemas tomorrow.

Published: 01/07/2004