With your screenwriting experience, were you tempted to write a Farscape episode?
Well, I did, and I think it went into another episode as a useful contribution, but I really didn't have much time.
My contract on Farscape [said] that when they needed me for each episode, they would fly me in from any part of Australasia, so I was flying from Perth when I was doing the Year of Living Dangerously, from New Zealand, and from far North Queensland where I was lecturing for a bit.
I didn't have all that much time to write, but I've been rather inspired to start writing again. I've got a couple of films in train that may well come up, one of which is a horror film which I'll probably try and direct myself.
Have you directed before?
Well, I was going to direct The Man from Snowy River. I cast it, and suddenly collapsed, and had to have a heart transplant. In that sense I've got something in common with Rygel, I've got somebody else's heart, so I'm a bit alien myself.
Ooh. I hope it's bearing up alright.
Well, I've had it for sixteen years, and they keep prodding it and I haven't fallen over yet. I've suffered no rejection, except for the emotional rejection I always get. [Jonathan puts on a sad, affronted voice]. I look like Rygel. I'm a small, ugly New Zealander with big eyebrows.
Ah, I once said you and Rygel had similar eyebrows.
Theoretically, Rygel doesn't have eyebrows, he has earbrows.
When they get this big, it's like looking out from under wisteria. Still, I've got a very big hedge clipper at home, so maybe I could just fall into that for a moment.
