Episode 1: Attack The Block with Joe Cornish
In 2011, BBC 6 Music radio broadcaster Joe Cornish wrote and directed Attack The Block – his cult-acclaimed sci-fi comedy about an alien invasion on a south London council estate. The film, starring the then-unknown John Boyega as gang leader Moses, was a riotous, hilarious genre thrill-ride that delighted in overturning conventions and challenging perceptions: released during a media panic over youth crime in underprivileged areas of London, the movie made heroes out of the type of (predominantly Black) teenagers being vilified in the UK press at the time.
We caught up with Joe during an unexpected moment of renewed interest in Attack The Block. Days before our conversation, as protests flared across America and the world over the death of George Floyd, John Boyega gave an impassioned speech at a London Black Lives Matter rally. John’s speech, as well as inspiring fans and challenging the British government, sparked a new wave of celebration of his own work as an actor – beginning with this incredible breakout role, full of sadly-pertinent-as-ever messages about racial divides and the ways young Black people worldwide are targeted and persecuted.
Joe had lots to say about the movie’s message and its relevance today, before we delved into his first draft of the film in detail. Then titled Attack The Estate, the film packed a slightly different ending but the genre-flipping spirit and sense of invention. Here’s Joe on how he wrote it, the trips to buy weed with Louis Theroux that helped influence this first draft and the possibility of an Attack The Block 2…
