Interview with James Nunn, writer-director of Hungry

After working on creature features in the past, including directing shark flick Shark Bait, writer-director James Nunn wanted to create a creature feature with a fresh twist. Instead of sharks, snakes, ‘gators, or even apes, Nunn found an animal still waiting to make its big screen bow in cinemas: the hippopotamus.

Nunn’s film relocates the hippo to the Louisiana Bayou, pitting the massive beast against a boat full of tourists who become stranded in the Bayou, fighting for survival. Nunn was on hand at the 2026 Edinburgh International Film Festival to discuss the film ahead of its screening as part of the Midnight Madness strand.

So what is your relationship to monster movies, and how did Hungry come to be your next project?

I’ve done some creature feature stuff in the past as second unit director, and I also directed a film called Shark Bait. So all three of those are shark movies and I wanted to do a creature feature that was an animal, ideally something that kind of did water and land because I love shooting in the water and I just googled like, what are the world’s worst animals? Or, you know, human killers, and hippo is really high up that list. They kill over five hundred people a year and it’s just wild. So I was like, why haven’t hippos got a movie and did a bit more research into it and looked for a story, and I stumbled across this fact about the hippo bill in America in 1910. I thought, okay, that’s how I can put hippos in America and kind of rest is history.

Obviously the film’s title and tagline are a nod to Hungry Hippos, the board game. I remember back in the early 2010s, when it was announced that Hasbro were making a film adaptation, the internet was full of spoof horror trailers. Is that something you were aware of when you came to tackle this project?

No, not really, because truthfully, the movie was never going to be called Hungry. The movie I originally wrote was called The Bayou. It hadn’t even occurred to me that there would ever be the potential for a Hungry Hippo sort of tie in. It was only when we got close to shooting the movie and an alligator film called Bayou was released that the producers said we had to change the title and we struggled and struggled and struggled. It’s actually really hard to come up with film titles. I actually quite like the title Jaw, but one of the producers decided it had to be Hungry. It just stuck and we ended up going with it.

Does it help with marketing, having something that’s a bit cheeky that might catch on?

I think it’s a blessing and a curse. I think because it’s called Hungry, people are expecting a hungry hippo thing. It gets a lot of people through the door for sure, I think. But then equally, I wonder in hindsight if it undermines the slightly more serious tone that we’ve delivered on the movie, because a lot of people hear Hungry and then they expect a very silly Cocaine Bear style movie, and it’s not campy like that, they get more of a Lake Placid experience, I suppose. But yeah, it’s a tricky one, film titles.

As you say, you’ve worked on creature features before, including directing Shark Bait. How did that experience help you on Hungry and how different was it dealing with a hippo?

Yeah, twofold really. So I wrote Hungry, I didn’t write Shark Bait. One thing that I took away from Shark Bait, because you learn on every job, is nobody really liked any of the characters, and I don’t think I realized that because I was having fun making it and I enjoyed working with the actors. So we were friends. But one thing that the reviews really took away is that they were all rooting for the shark, and they were just waiting for the characters to get eaten. I don’t think I really noticed that in the way I perhaps should have. So when going into Hungry, it was more of a mission to make sure that, although people have fun with the hippo, you really want people to care about the cast because you know that the cast are going to get picked off. And if their death means nothing, then your emotional response is very little. So it became more of a challenge to make sure people cared about the characters enough so that when they inevitably get eaten, you actually feel something. We perhaps overcompensated and made everyone too nice and too melodramatic, but you live and learn!

You do take the time over the backstories and make the characters relatable, so it does, as you say, matter more when you find them in peril. So how was it assembling that cast and how important was that for the film?

It was really fun. Normally my experience of making movies is you kind of have to include a safety net of some level of cast because you never know if the movie’s going to be a success or not. I think if you’ve got a bit of a household name in it, at least you’ve got that to fall back on so that there’ll be some level of business. What was interesting about Hungry is the hippo is the star of the show. So people want to see great acting, but they also just want to see a great hippo. And we knew we were putting all the money into the hippo. So it became less about trying to get like big tentpole names and just get like really good actors for the roles. So it was quite freeing and fun because I was like a kind of kid in a sweet shop. We got to kind of pick and choose and try and find the best of the best and the best for the movie. A lot of people auditioned and sent tapes. It’s a really good yardstick for seeing what people can deliver. I know it’s frustrating for actors and I feel for them because obviously you audition and you audition and you audition, you don’t always get the parts. Kenneth Branagh was talking about yesterday (at his in person event) about how there’s always loads of actors out of work, but from a director point of view, if you see twenty people read for a role and then very clearly one of them like leaps out as being like the person, it’s sort of a no brainer. You’re like, now can we get them, do the dates work? Will they do it for the money? So yeah, it was a really fun experience on this one. Not to have the pressure of the big name element.

You mentioned that the hippo was the star of the show. Did you create it with practical or digital effects? Or was it a mix of both?

Yeah, a bit of both. We had an animatronic head the size of a real hippo head. It took five people to operate. Two on the neck, one on the mouth, one on the tongue, one on the ears. Actually, someone else was also doing slime. I think the tongue person also did slime. So, that was fun. But you can only do so much with the head, you know, because it’s, it’s only a head. So it’s great in close ups, but then when you need to see the full body animal running and the heavy, the weight of it, you need to employ CGI. So our fabulous prosthetic designer called Dan Martin and his team built the hippo head. They did a tremendous job and our fantastic VFX team called Magic Dust did all of the hippo, the full body hippo shots. We gave them a year to do it. We’re low budget movie, but giving them a year allowed the render times required to really kind of give that Jurassic Park kind of finish. I’m really proud of how it turned out, it looked great.

I believe you shot the film in Malta, was any of the filming on location or was it a soundstage?

So we built the tank. Basically we found some wooded land, like a circle, an empty circle of wooded land. We built a fifty by fifty meter swimming pool that was about four feet deep. And the trees are fiberglass and steel. It just made it much safer and practical as opposed to shooting in a real swamp where you could be eaten or bitten or whatever. Again it’s one of those dream situations. I come from a background of shooting on location like, let’s shoot in the park, let’s shoot in this room, let’s shoot in this. So the fact that we can actually design something pretty amazing, like magical and big in scale, it’s a dream come true.

What were the practical challenges of shooting in water? Is that difficult, especially for the cast?

Yeah, it is difficult. I mean, part of the reason I chose the hippo was because I wanted to shoot in the water, because I’ve had those good experiences on the shark movies. One thing I say when we’re recruiting the actors is, this isn’t a normal film shoot. I call it an adventure shoot because you are going to get wet. You’re not just going to be in the water, but then you’re going to be wet standing on something and wind’s going to be hitting you. And that’s actually when you get cold. It’s the wind hitting you when you’re wet. So I try to go in telling them as much as possible. I always try to talk them out of the job where I go, are you sure you want to do this? Because I’m going to ask this of you, and I’m going to ask this of you and you’re going to be cold and. And they go, how hard can it be? And then they get there and they’re like, oh, yeah, you weren’t lying. But they’ve been made aware ahead of time, you know, because I’m not a tyrant and we care about them. We have containers full of steam rooms and hot radiators and things so that they can just get warm if they need to. We look after them. But it’s a very demanding, challenging thing, especially with all the climbing over the trees and things like that.

What were the challenges of capturing somewhere as recognizable as the Bayou without actually shooting there?

The production designer, Carlo, a Maltese guy, did a tremendous job. He worked on Gladiator before, so he’s a top level production designer. He did lots of research into the trees and things like that. I’d actually been to Louisiana and I’d done the ‘gator tours in New Orleans a couple of times before over the last ten years. So I was able to provide a lot of photos of things that I liked. When I wrote those elements into the script, I’d kind of already seen them, to ground that little bit of truth to it all. But yeah, just research to make it feel authentic.

It seems like Hungry could expand into a franchise. Is that something you’ve thought about?

Yeah, I would love that. I like building worlds and continuing the story. I have got ideas for sequels and prequels and sequels. There’s no real word, but it all comes down to business and sales. So, you know, I think we’ll probably have a better idea after the movie’s been out for six months. We’ll know, you know, are people hungry for more? (laughs)

You could do a prequel getting the hippos to the US.

Yeah. Well, the initial pitch for the movie was set in 1910. So funnily enough, it went from being this 1910 movie to what it is now. But yes, we could do a prequel where they’re setting up the farm. I don’t really want to spoil the end of the movie, but we could keep the same villain, let’s just say, and expand that.

What was the thinking behind the move away from doing a period piece?

Mostly budget. So shooting it was actually completely different; it was like a crime caper. It was about these gangsters who had stolen a diamond from a gangster in Chicago and gone and hid in the bayou with their loot. They stumbled across the farm and kind of got trapped in there. What comes with that was one, I don’t think the sales company were kind of keen on the cross genre of like having this crime caper period thing. They just wanted to focus on what the movie was. And equally, like period costume, period cars, period vehicles, it all becomes a little bit more challenging in different ways.

Are there any animals that you’re scared of that you think could have potential for a big screen horror?

The animal I’m most scared of in the world is a snake. Obviously we’ve got Anaconda and we’ve got that new one. There’s, I think, another Lionsgate snake movie that is coming out. So I don’t think I can do a snake movie. I don’t know if I actually want to because they are fucking terrifying! But I could see more creatures in my future for sure.

For me, it’s kangaroos. Imagine a killer kangaroo, in the outback, slaughtering people. You can have that one for free.

Thanks, man! (laughs) There is an Australian movie called Razorback, which is about a killer hog. It was shot in the eighties by the guy who directed Elton John’s music videos. So it’s this cocaine fuelled wild pig movie set in Australia. So, maybe if we did the kangaroo meets Razorback. Like a rogue Timon and Pumbaa, just a really violent version!

It sounds like you have the perfect concept for your next film! Is there anything you currently have in the works?

So I have a franchise called One Shot, which I did One Shot, One More Shot, and I’ve just done One Last Shot. So that’s actually going to come out in a few months time, before the end of the year. So I’m excited about that one. Technically my next project is a second baby – a son – being born in October, so I’ll be taking a few months off just to be a dad. Then next year, we’ve got a few things in the pipeline. I’ve written two movies, and hopefully it’ll be one of those. I don’t want to overcook it, but I’m really pleased, really, really pleased with both of those. Both are in the action thriller space.

Are those things that you’ve written for yourself to direct?

Yes, both. Both currently for me to write and direct. Look, hey, if Spielberg reads it, and he wants to do it. You never know. I’m open to the conversation.

Hungry screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and will be available on Sky Cinema from September 4th via Signature Entertainment.