Film, TV and Animation

The Salford born and bred writer was already used to writing in his native tongue, having been principal writer on the Manchester-based, landmark BBC Three series, Burn It, but Control was his first script for the big screen, a task that he didn’t take lightly even before he put pen to paper.

"The research was heavy, but I enjoyed it. I probably researched for about four months and I could have gone on. With any project, you can research and research, especially when it’s something like this, where you want it to be so right for so many reasons.

The cast as Joy Division in Control

"After four months, I felt I’d had enough. I’d met the major players and you know it’s time to start when the voices start talking in your head. That’s when you sit down and write it, because research doesn’t write scripts."

Something of substance

That in-depth delving into the characters involved may have been hard work, but it was worth it. Control has been commended for its characters, particularly the depiction of the troubled Joy Division front man, a portrait that Matt is particularly happy with.

“I am happy with how I’ve written Ian. It’s so hard to tell the story of a mind that’s so complex in two hours, but overall, I’m happy with it.

“I came out of the Cannes screening, which was the first time I’d seen it, and turned to my wife and said ‘that was really quite good, wasn’t it?’ And then I had to go for a quiet pint on my own, because it was.

Ian (Sam Riley) + Annik (Alexandra Maria Lara)

“It is really good and that was unexpected, because I’d written it three years ago, I had some distance, I’d written three more scripts since it, so coming back to it was like watching an adoptive son grow up.

“I found very little fault with the film and normally I find lots of faults with the films I do.”

Getting closer

For Matt, the crux of the script was to make sure it wasn’t about Joy Division but about the relationships Ian has with his wife Debbie and his mistress Annik, though he’s happy to have had the band’s music to underscore his words.

"I never wanted to write a Joy Division film, because the music could take over and get in deep water, making a film that’s not far off a music promo.

"But if you’d concentrated on the music to the detriment of journeys and characters, then you’d have ended up with a film that is wafer thin and doesn’t stand up."

Of course, the main difference between Control and Matt’s previous work is that he was putting words into the mouths of people who actually exist, something that he did find difficult but thinks he’s succeeded with.

"No-one’s hit me yet, so that’s a good sign. No, at some point, you have to forget the fact you’re writing words of, if you like, real people.

"I was getting stuck down in the fact that these people are alive and I’m making up what they say and situations that they might have been in.

"But I got through that and got on and wrote it. I think that the people who are in it are ok with it because they are intelligent enough to know that this is a dramatic and, to an extent, fictional film, and to drive it, you have to have dialogue that is made up.

"There’s certainly no-one who’s come up to me and said ‘I never said that at Bowdon Youth Club’ or anything like that."

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