Summary

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff chats with the team behind The Ballad of Wallis Island at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Adapted from the 2007 short, The Ballad of Wallis Island is about an eccentric lottery winner who invites his favorite artists to his secluded island.

In this interview, director James Griffiths, co-writers and stars Tom Basden and Tim Key, and Carey Mulligan discuss the original short, how the world has evolved, their favorite scenes, and Mulligan teases Beef Season 2.

The Sundance Film Festival is a huge stepping stone for independent filmmakers to make a name for themselves. The festival, in particular, has been a launching pad for filmmakers and creative artists to adapt a previously existing short film into a feature. This is exactly the route taken by director James Griffiths, who adapted his 2007 BAFTA-nominated short film (The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island) into the feature film premiering at Sundance, The Ballad of Wallis Island. The film, co-adapted to screenplay by the original writers, Tom Basden and Tim Key, and starring the three-time Oscar-nominated Carey Mulligan, follows a lottery winner (Key) who lives alone on a secluded island and tries to make his fantasies come true by getting his favorite artist to perform a special event.
At the festival, Griffiths, Mulligan, Key, and Basden stopped by Collider’s media studio at the Rendezvous Cinema Center to sit down and discuss the short-turned-feature film with Perri Nemiroff. During their conversation, the crew looks back at how they’ve grown since the short film, what it was like adapting their work into a full feature, and bringing Mulligan on board. In addition to sharing her experience joining this filmmaking trio, Mulligan also teases what’s in store for Beef Season 2.
“Opening Up the World” of ‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’ 18 Years Later

PERRI NEMIROFF: I get to say congratulations and thank you to the team behind The Ballad of Wallis Island. It feels like the movie I needed in my life right now. When we celebrate a film festival debut, there’s a chance our audience might not know about your movie just yet so, Tim, can you give us a brief synopsis?
TIM KEY: There’s an eccentric millionaire who’s sort of bumbling and lives on his own in a large house on an island somewhere—we don’t know. He decides to use his money to get his favorite band back together and gets them to come to his island, and then causes havoc in their personal lives.
I have quite a few questions about taking this idea from short to feature, the first two-parter being, do you all remember the very first moment that you suspected it could be a good option to adapt to a feature, and then, while doing that, did you have a break story moment, an idea that you came up with that made you think, “You know what? This is going to work?”
TOM BASDEN: The original short film was a two-hander. The key thing for us was introducing other characters and realizing that the comedy early on in the film, which is all about these two strangers hanging out, getting on each other’s nerves, needed to go somewhere. It needed more characters to come in that could bring backstory, old relationships and old tensions to the surface, which Tim’s character, Charles, is unwittingly manipulating. When we were planning the feature, it felt quite natural to us that we’d have to open up the world of it, bring other people in, and bring in some history, bring in some regret and some emotions that weren’t there in the short.
James, from your perspective, when did you know that there was potential for your short to be turned into a feature? Did you kind of have that feeling all along, or was it a surprise when they told you?
JAMES GRIFFTHS: We discussed it when we made the short, and it actually did very well around the festival it was in. It won at Edinburgh, and we very thankfully had a BAFTA nomination, a nod. So, there were conversations early on about developing it into a feature, but we were very young at the time, young filmmakers, and we kind of got moved into a development process that was bigger than the film is now. It took us a while to grow up a bit and, for them, grow into these characters like they are now, 18 years on.
The Original Trio Looks Back on Their Short

“You’ve got to move forward.”

Image by Photagonist

I’ll build on that a little with the three of you. Given how much time has passed and how much you’ve grown, what would you say is the thing about this story that struck you the most back in 2007, and what is it about the feature film version that makes the biggest impression on you personally?
GRIFFITHS: For me, the original short is such a neat and charming two-hander and very funny, but my children are as old as the film, so I’ve had a lot of experience from that. For me, what touched me about how they’d moved the script on—not just because it had opened up and there was more conflict and more interesting dynamics with these three characters, and the introduction of Nell—was it was a time in my life where I felt like, you know, you get sort of stuck, where you start questioning the choices you’ve made in the past and spend a lot of time looking backwards, and, for me, personally, as well, through music, looking backwards and remembering times and things that happened in my life that were evoking a lot of emotions. So then, 18 years on, the message in the film for me is you’ve got to look forward. You’ve got to move forward. That’s why it’s very personal to me.
Beautifully said.
BASDEN: The funny thing for me about watching it yesterday, and it was the first time I’ve ever seen it with an audience, so it was really thrilling, but I also found it very moving because what happens in the film is it’s about people who are remembering a time in their life, 10, 15 years earlier, when they were young and optimistic, and they had a very different outlook on things, which is, of course, the time when we made the short. There’s an art imitating life element of it where I’m watching it, and it’s about characters in their 40s remembering what it’s like to be in their 20s and the first flush of love and creativity and all these things. That’s, of course, the time in my life when I made the short, as well. There’s something about the film that echoes the story of the film in a really lovely way.
KEY: I feel like it’s kind of a good thing to just make this film every 18 years just to see what your relationships are like.
I’m here for it!
KEY: I think I am. It is interesting. I haven’t seen the short for a while, but it would be interesting because we’d be all young, and still with the story that we’re telling. Griff put it very well, really. We’re at different stages in our lives, and you see it through a slightly different lens.
‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’s “Brilliant” Script Captured Carey Mulligan’s Attention

“Every day on this just felt easy, and that’s a testament to a really good script and really good actors, and a really good director.”

Image by Photagonist

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Carey, I’m coming your way with one of the biggest questions I could possibly ask. I was reading another interview James did and he mentioned that you saying yes to playing Nell really helped lead this film to a green light. You getting involved in films is really important, and it could help get movies made that might not otherwise, so what does it mean to you to have that kind of power in your career, and how do you hope to continue wielding it going forward?
CAREY MULLIGAN: Oh my god! How shall I wield it? It’s so amazing to get jobs generally, isn’t it? This film was going to happen, regardless. It’s always nice to be additive to something. I think I just wanted to be in it. I read it, and I thought it was the most incredible script. It’s unbelievably rare to read really, really good writing. You read a lot that’s like, “Yeah, it’s great, and you’ll get it there,” or, “Maybe we’ll improvise that a bit.” But it doesn’t come along very often that you get a script, and you go, start to finish, “This is so good! There’s nothing I would change,” and, “I just want to be able to say these words.” It makes your job so much easier as an actor. The script was so brilliant, and the shoot was so great. It was like, if I can be a part of this being a feature, that’s amazing. It’s wonderful to get to be remotely useful or helpful.
You said you read the script, you really loved it, and it was a no-brainer to be part of this. When you first signed on, what single part of making this movie and playing this character were you most excited about, and then ultimately, was there any part of making this movie that wound up being more creatively fulfilling than you ever could have imagined at the start?
MULLIGAN: Gosh, I was so excited just to get to be a front-row seat for this situation—for the two of them. There are just hours and hours and hours, I imagine, of footage that is of them just riffing after the scene, before the scene, in the middle of a scene. I was so excited. I knew I was going to be the straight man in a situation where I could just watch these guys being hilarious. When you have a set like the set that Griff made, that just feels so warm, and everyone can do whatever, it’s so free and lovely, and there’s so much love. The crew felt like they really loved the story, and had a love for all the characters. You do just become incredibly free. I didn’t feel like any of us had to enormously push for anything, and that’s very often not the case. Often, you feel like, “Okay, how am I going to sort of figure it out today?” Every day on this just felt easy, and that’s a testament to a really good script and really good actors, and a really good director.
I love highlighting good vibes on set, so I’ll jump on that idea. For each of you, what single day of making The Ballad of Wallis Island brought you the most joy as an artist?
BASDEN: I loved the scenes when Carey and I are performing the music, and the scene when we’re playing to Tim at the dinner table. That was just a really magical day. It was just so lovely. That’s the kind of moment where you’re like, “I’ve been writing this music, and we’ve been thinking about this film, and now we’re here, and we’re doing it,” and it felt really good. That was a real highlight for me.
KEY: I love doing the scene with Carey, but I think the thing is, you can take for granted what me and Tom have. So I think the scene in the shop with me and you [Tom], with Sian [Clifford], probably. I’m getting quite emotional. The easy one is to say Carey because it was lovely to do that, but I knew I’d get a bit emotional about Tom. But that scene with Tom, where you encouraged me to ask her out.

Image by Photagonist

GRIFFITHS: You’re going to get everyone going now! For me, I’d say all the scenes with all the characters have been amazing for me. I enjoyed every, every minute. The dinner table scene where the secret comes out about the money , and we’ve got pretty much all the cast, minus Sian, and these dynamics. Everyone gets a chance to have these comedic moments within that, and the awkwardness that everything plays really well. It’s such a simple scene, like a dinner table scene, but I really love what everyone did on that day and the characters and how they formed their dynamics. I love that.
MULLIGAN: The sunset scene on the beach where we’re all setting off our lanterns. The process of setting off all of those lanterns was such a disaster. [Laughs] We couldn’t light them because of the National Trust, and it’s very bad for cows. Those lanterns are terrible, generally. Don’t use them, but we did—fake ones. So, they had the three guys from props out on fishing rods…
GRIFFITHS: It was a disaster. And the sun was going down, of course!
BASDEN: We were quite worried about that scene.
MULLIGAN: The sun was going down, but there was no beautiful sunset. We were like, “Is there going to be a sunset?” Unfortunately, there was none, but it was very fun.
Al Pacino, Carey Mulligan Has a Proposition for You

Image by Photagonist

I wanted to squeeze in one sillier question, and I fear it’s one you’ve been asked a lot, so I’m going to shake it up a little. If each of you won the lottery and could have someone or something performed just for you, what would you choose? I keep thinking about one of my favorite Broadway musicals, Wicked, or even, with the Super Bowl coming up, to have an NFL game played just for me.
GRIFFITHS: I love the stadium. I actually really enjoy collective things, so having something just for me, I’d feel so self-conscious.
I thought about that with watching movies, too. Being the only one in a theater could take away from it.
GRIFFITHS: Exactly. With the sports thing, I love having 80,000 all sort of willing something along. So, that’s tricky.
MULLIGAN: I was at a lunch a couple of years ago, and Al Pacino gave the speech, and he made this 20-minute speech, and it was just the greatest speech. I can’t even remember what it was about, but it was so good. I could sit and watch Al Pacino just telling stories for several hours. I’m hiring Al. Check his avail.
KEY: I’d probably just go watch some sport. As you say, Griff, I feel like you want the 80,000 people with you, so I’d watch an Ashes cricket match in Australia.
BASDEN: Am I allowed to take part? Could I play soccer against Ronnie O’Sullivan? Is that allowed? I’ll do that. I’ll hire someone I can play with, or box.
Carey Mulligan Says Season 2 of ‘Beef’ is “Unpredictable”

Image by Jefferson Chacon

Carey, I have to take a quick moment to ask you about Beef Season 2, which everyone is very excited about. I know you’ve already mentioned that almost everything about Season 2 is different, but given how much I love Season 1, I’m wondering, is there anything you saw in that first season that inspired you and you find yourself holding especially tight to while tackling your own story in that world?
MULLIGAN: I think it’s just something so unpredictable about the show, and that’s so appealing. Sometimes, it’s just nice to have no idea where a story is going as an audience and also as someone who’s in it. That’s definitely the case.
Special thanks to our 2025 partners at Sundance including presenting partner Rendezvous Capital and supporting partners Sommsation, The Wine Company, Hendrick’s Gin, neaū water, and Roxstar Entertainment.

The Ballad of Wallis Island

Release Date

January 25, 2025

Runtime

99 minutes

Director

James Griffiths

Writers

Tim Key, Tom Basden

Cast

Carey Mulligan

Nell Mortimer

The Ballad of Wallis Island hits theaters on March 28.
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