Director Thomas R. Bond II on Filmmaking and His Movie ‘Brigantia’

I had the amazing opportunity to catch up with independent film director Thomas Bond, who is currently promoting his upcoming film Brigantia. Bond is the President and CEO of The Biograph Company, as well as being the son of late Superman and The Little Rascals actor Tommy Bond, so it’s safe to say that he’s a veteran of the movie-making industry. We got a chance to talk about why his films are important to him as well as the challenges of the movie industry, and of course, I got some interesting information about his upcoming films Red Man’s View and Brigantia. If you’re a fan of historical dramas portrayed by actors who accurately depict the people of the time (both in personality and ethnicity), then you should be a fan of Bond’s forthcoming pictures, and I hope you enjoy what the visionary director had to say in our interview.

Q: For the people who don’t know, tell us a little bit about your upcoming film Brigantia.

TB: There’s a lot we don’t know about it. It’s very timely with everything that’s going on even though it’s about ancient Britain, things like that.

Q: You have a very strong British lineage, is that what makes it important to you to tell a story from your people’s ancient times?

TB: It’s something that is not only of [my] lineage, but it’s something that has not been done before on film. My own family goes back to about 580 A.D., they were from Cornwall on my dad’s side, and it was called the Bond Erth that is in Cornwall. That is a big estate castle, and we’re one of the founding families of Cornwall in the A.D. or B.C.E. periods. How I started on this was that I had never been to Britain before, and I always wanted to go where my dad never made it. He always wanted to go to Cornwall and see a lot of relatives that we have down [there]. But we went down there and it is just absolutely amazing. The country, the people, especially in northern England, and I’m a history nut. The amazing thing about it is that in Los Angeles there’s a Starbucks on every corner, but here in England, there’s a 500 foot, 1,000-year-old castle on every corner. So that’s how I really started getting interested in it.

Q: The tagline for the film is, “Through the mists of time – we endure.” Can you tell us about what that means without giving away anything from the movie?

TB: Well, I don’t mind giving some spoilers, because with the kind of film it is there are no spoilers. you have to actually watch it to see what happens. Through the mists of times refers to a lot of unusual mists found in ancient British countries, that are now proven to be real scientific energy vortexes, so that’s pretty much what that is kind of a teaser on.

Q: How do you think Brigantia stacks up against your other films?

TB: How it compares to the other films is this is truly a film that goes back to prehistoric times. This is a film that is going to show the real history that has been ignored, and that people in their own country of the UK don’t even know. Stacking up next to the other films that we did, ‘Red Man’s View’ and a couple of others that we have slated to do, it’s really special. This is just a magical film, it’s hard to explain. It’s something that I’m really inspired to do.

Q: I’m glad you mentioned Red Man’s View, how important to you was it to have an all Native American lead cast for that movie?

TB: You know what, that was one of the delays that we had. I hate to get too controversial, but I have to be very honest with you. There’s a lot of pressure in the film industry to this day. They say there’s not, but there is. Having a full native cast has made it difficult to move things along, and it’s very sad. The mainstream audience wants to see ‘Red Man’s View’, but unfortunately when I was trying to do the film the first question I got was, “It’s a Native American movie, well who stars in it?” Well, we have an all Native American cast. “But who’s the lead?” It’s Michael Spears. “So you don’t have like a union captain or anybody that’s the lead?” No, we don’t. It’s an all Native American cast. We have some amazing Native American actors, but it’s the industry, and it’s very sad that they tend to push for a Caucasian lead. I will not put a Caucasian lead in it because it’s a Native American film about the history of the Native American people.

Q: Were there any films that you looked to for inspiration while filming Brigantia?

TB: The inspiration was going to the English countryside and talking to the people. I’m an L.A. guy and I’ve traveled a little bit, but I had never been to the UK. What I saw there was just amazing, and it really inspired me. It’s so astounding to walk, for example when I went to York, the Roman Wall that was built during the same time as the Crucifixion. Wow. The real question is why hasn’t anybody done a film about this? There was ‘Braveheart’, but that takes us back to like 1,200 A.D. Why hasn’t anyone done anything pre-Christian, pre-Roman on this amazing civilization that was out there? How often have you heard of a movie that has been done on the druids? I mean a really major film? There have been a couple of low budget ones that were really mediocre, but that was it. It’s something that needs to be done, and it’s a story that needs to be told about our world history.

Q: What advice would you give to somebody who is trying to make their own independent film?

TB: You have to know that it is the industry for you. Everybody has a niche. Some people are meant to be filmmakers, and if you are a young filmmaker and you feel that you can do this, it’s very hard. You’re not going to get rich off of it, it’s not about houses or cars. It’s great to have those things, but you have to have persistence. To me, that is the biggest attribute that you can have. And I don’t mean just being persistent, I mean you have to be obsessive on your persistence. Where you can be literally knocked down to nothing, and nothing, including the fear of death, gets you down. Once you make a lot of mistakes, once you go through the trial of life, then you will get your film made. You will get your dream out there.

Q: Is there anything that you would like to add to be featured in the interview?

TB: We’re going to be filming ‘Brigantia’ in North Yorkshire, and I would also like to mention that museums in the UK are of interest. We’re very proud and happy to be talking with them and have them onboard with our project while it’s in the embryonic stages. We’re also being helped by the Middleton family, who are obviously very well known in England, and we want to thank them for being very helpful. We’re going to probably start shooting in Spring of next year, and we have several actors free right now that we’re talking to, but I can’t say who they are yet. All I can say is that they’re very interested. This is more than just a historical film, it’s a spiritual film. It has a meaning, it has a purpose. That’s the main thing that I want to push, it’s very, very special.

Brigantia and Red Man’s View start production in 2019.