Declan Lowney Delivers for Warburtons

If you've watched the new spot from WCRS for bakery brand Warburtons, you might be wondering how on earth Rocky veteran Sylvester Stallone ended up delivering bread in Bolton.  

Another Film Company's Declan Lowney - the award-winning comedy director behind Father Ted, Alpha Papa, Little Britain and Moone Boy - helmed the amusing pastiche, and below he gives us the lowdown on working with a Hollywood veteran and the secrets of spoof humour. 

What were your initial reactions on receiving the script? 

My excitement made me rise like warm dough… It’s not every day you get handed a script which includes the direction… “Cut to Sly Stallone in his Hollywood home”. I couldn’t really believe I was being asked to read and pitch on such a prestigious commercial. And it was a really funny idea too!

What was it like working with Sly?

Well, he’s Sly, so he’s very cool and you know [when] he’s on set! But he was great, really engaged with us and totally got into the character and the comedy of the piece. 

The spot is a pastiche of the Rocky films and The Expendables - as a comedy director, how easy is it to make a humorous spoof without being too cheesy?

It is a fine line, but I think we nailed it. The agency boys [WRCS] and I had had an eye on that throughout. The key is to pretty much play it straight, certainly in Sly’s performance – he was that delivery driver.

Can you tell us about some of your favourite anecdotes from the shoot? 

We woke up on the first morning of the shoot to a total blanket of snow, which was an interesting start. Fortunately, we managed to shoot around it, clearing it as we went and it eventually melted. As you can imagine, it wasn’t exactly tropical in Wakefield in January! When we were shooting the final scene at Bolton Town Hall, we were on set before sunrise and there was already a family there with kids, who’d been waiting since 4.30am to catch a glimpse of the action. And I thought the caterers had an early start…

How long did the shoot take and how much of it was shot on-location?
We shot with three units across four days.  It was a combination of locations - at the Warburtons bakery, around Wakefield and Bolton Town Hall - and studio sets.

What were the most challenging aspects of the project?
Sly had a really busy schedule: we were sandwiched between [his] film commitments, so we couldn’t extend the time we had with him. One of the most challenging aspects was how much we had to shoot with Sly - he is pretty much in every shot and there’s only one of him.  So even with additional units, he can only be in one place at a time!

And the most rewarding?
I think seeing the first over-length assembly and really, really laughing. We knew we’d shot some great scenes, but actually seeing them all coming together was exciting. Also, working with Haris [Zambarloukos, Director of Photography] for the first time was great. He brought that Hollywood feel to the cinematography and he was great fun to work with.