The Domino effect

The one thing you don't expect to be discussing with Teesside-born director Tony Scott is the joys of fatherhood. This is a man who, by his own admission, is attracted by people who gravitate towards the dark side and whose movies have reflected that.

He's not a film-maker whose track record indicates that a fluffy, romantic comedy will be his next project.

But, at the age of 61, he finds himself the father of five-year-old twin boys and, undoubtedly aware of the cliches about saying that having children changes you, he can't resist repeating them.

"My boys are great," he says like any proud dad. "From birth to two it was like looking at a couple of vegetables and all they wanted was mum. Now all they want is dad. I could have gone through life never having kids, looked back and thought, 'what did I miss?'. It's really invigorating and great fun. You do see life through their eyes."

An unofficial family member - whom he calls his surrogate daughter - inspired his latest film Domino, the real life story of a British woman who became a bounty hunter in America.

Domino was the daughter of the late actor Laurence Harvey and Sixties model Paulene Stone. She came from a privileged background but led a double life as a tough, gun-toting bounty hunter chasing bail jumpers.

She died of a drugs overdose in June while awaiting trial on drug-dealing charges. Having known her for 12 years and having formed a protective relationship with her, Scott was naturally devastated. He didn't alter the film apart from adding an In Loving Memory caption and showing the real life Domino during the end credits.

His fascination for people reaching for the dark side motivated his initial attraction to Domino, whom he read about in an article in The Sun newspaper. "So I met her and what motivated me to stick with her for so long was her personality - a little bit of Princess Di stuck in this insane world of bounty hunters," he says.

"When I first met her, she was living in Hollywood at a house on the hill in Bel Air with her mother, who used to make her live in the apartment in the grounds because she didn't want guns in the house.

"In time, we became very close. She would go in and out of my life. In my life every day for a week, then she'd leave and I wouldn't see her again for some time."

Domino loved the idea of a film about her, he says. "All the British press slammed the movie saying she was pissed off, but that's absolutely untrue. She knew the movie story was manufactured but all the characters are real people."

Despite her unconventional lifestyle, he was still shocked to learn of her death. "I'd never seen her so healthy and looking forward to the movie coming out. It's like she had waited 12 years for it," says Scott. "The film didn't change after she died, just the addition of the In Loving Memory caption. But that's Domino singing at the beginning, a track she wrote for the movie."

Talking to him, it becomes apparent that Domino is among his most personal movies, a world away from Top Gun, the high-flying Tom Cruise movie that established his credentials.

After training to be an artist - studying at Sunderland Art School, Leeds College and the Royal College of Arts - he and elder brother Ridley Scott formed a commercial production company, RSA. He picked up every major honour in the field in the decade that followed.

He was nearly 40 when he made his first feature film, The Hunger, in 1983. This lesbian vampire movie starring David Bowie, Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve was derided by critics and shunned by the public.

Scott says he was blacklisted by Hollywood as a result and it took him four years to get another feature film directorial gig. As that was Top Gun, the wait was worth it.

His name is now on the very short list of billion dollar grossing directors, thanks to films including Beverly Hills Cop II, Days Of Thunder, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, The Fan, Enemy Of The State, Spy Game and Man On Fire.

Brother Ridley may have a higher profile (and a knighthood) but Tony Scott is just as successful. There appears to be no brotherly rivalry. They have a production company together, Scott Free, and, although both are based in the US, helped boost the British film industry by buying Shepperton Studios.

He moved to LA 25 years ago because that's where the movie industry is based. He misses England and has a house in London but comes back less and less, especially since the death of his mother two years ago.

"I had a brilliant childhood in Hartlepool, Sunderland and Leeds. I spent all my spare time on the North York Moors and we travelled the Lake District every weekend," he says.

He began rock climbing there, a pursuit he continues today. "It gets rid of all my demons," he says.

He delayed back surgery and hip replacement operations, a legacy of a motorcycle accident a decade ago, to make Domino. He was on prescribed drugs while shooting the movie which "is maybe why the movie looks like it does". That's a reference to Scott's frenetic cinematic style, first seen in Man On Fire and carried even further in Domino.

He's certainly earned the right to experiment. "It took a long time to get someone to have the confidence to let me do movies," he explains. "I did commercials for 15 years, which is the best training in terms of learning your craft. I'm always criticised for having style over content but I love what I do and try to do different things."

Brother Ridley was an influence, casting Tony when he was an art student as the leading actor in Boy On The Bike, a short film shot around Teesside. "I thought, 'this is cool'. Then I went to art school and desperately wanted to be a painter."

He made several short films as an art student but reaction to The Hunger almost ended his movie career before it had started because "they said I was arty farty esoteric". He's proved he can make commercial movies without compromising his vision.

Domino is a case in point. While some would complain about the restrictions of a rapid 60-day shooting schedule, he felt he benefited from it. He even drove the bounty hunters' trailer in some scenes because he knew exactly where to place the vehicle to catch the sun in the right place.

"This film was great. I did True Romance with the producer Sam Hadida and he trusted me for better or worse. Every day was tough but none stand out. I had good fun. I was moving so quickly and just spontaneously doing stuff and trying things. I can't tell you whether I love the movie or not - or not now, at least."

As for those early ambitions to be a painter, they've not been abandoned. "I paint with film," says Scott.

He should have been in New Orleans shooting his new film Deja Vu with Denzel Washington rather than talking to me over the phone from Los Angeles. Hurricane Katrina put paid to that plan. "A month before shooting we got hit. I don't know what's going to happen. I was fighting to take it there and support the area. It's all politics," he says.

Scott still has hopes that he'll achieve his long-held ambition to make a movie about Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. He admits he's struggling to get it off the ground because epic westerns aren't considered good box office.

He'd return to film in the North-East if the right project came along, although I doubt anywhere could compare to what appears to be his favourite place, Mexico City - "I love the danger and darkness and violence. Mexico City is about as out there as it gets".

Scott does, he reveals, hold a special pla ce in his heart for Darlington because he passed his driving test in the town. "I'd failed six times in other places. They said take it in Darlington because it has the easiest sets of traffic lights," he says.

* Domino (15) is now showing in cinemas.