Exclusive Kiah Roache-Turner Interview on Beast of War(2025)

Kiah:
How are you, Jeff?

Jeff:
Hi, Kiah. How are you? It’s good to have you back. Last time we spoke was for Sting.

Kiah:
Oh, fantastic. Yeah. I’ve gone from giant spiders to giant sharks—just working my way through film by film.

Jeff:
I know someone got there with Anaconda before you could jump on that one.

Kiah:
Yeah. Snakes, man. That would be a tricky one. I’m not sure if I’d know how to do snakes. I’m glad somebody else got that one.

Jeff:
We’re on a time limit, so I’m just gonna have to jump right in. You wrote and directed this one. What inspired you to write a war movie with a shark theme?

Kiah:
My producer called, had access to a tank, and asked if I had anything set on water. And that was my inspiration. I was like, alright, I’ll try and work something out on that one. And so, yeah, I was just like, yeah, it’s gonna be a shark film.

And, oh god, as a filmmaker I’ve always been scared of the idea of a shark film because you grow up reading about Jaws and how much difficulty Spielberg had making that. But I thought, if it’s on water, it’s gotta be sharks.

One of my favorite parts of Jaws is the SS Indianapolis speech that Quint gave. Oh man, somebody has to make that film. And I thought, well, it’s probably gonna have to be me.

They’d already done a version of that with Nicolas Cage a few years ago, so I couldn’t really do that anyway, and I didn’t have the budget for it. So I wondered if there was a smaller Australian context version. A couple minutes of Google research led me to the true story of the HMAS Armidale, which sank in 1942 between Darwin and Timor. That’s a real story—guys went into the ocean, warship sunk by Japanese Zeros, a lot of them eaten by sharks, some drifted into the abyss never seen again.

I thought, oh, that is an epic story. I didn’t base it directly on that, but I was very much inspired by those true events. A lot of the research I did on the sinking of the Armidale made its way into the film.

Jeff:
That’s unreal. And do you know what I really liked that you nailed? Sting was unreal—it was great. But I’m always apprehensive when it comes to shark movies, because sometimes you know what you get. But your shark looked on point. Did you actually build a shark? Because that wasn’t the CGI one I’ve seen copied and pasted into most movies.

Kiah:
No, man. No. We built a real shark. And part of the reason for that is—everybody loves Jaws. Some of those shots of the real animatronic shark are phenomenal. Some haven’t aged well, but even today you could augment them digitally.

The point is the baseline: when that huge thing explodes out of the water, you feel the weight of it. That’s what digital sharks don’t have. You don’t feel the weight. Half of it is water displacement—they can never get that right.

When a shark breaches, there’s an explosion of water. You sense underneath that head is a creature weighing a ton lurking under the water.

So we built a real animatronic puppet that weighed half a ton. When it burst out of the water, we had giant CO₂ canisters exploding waves under it. Then we released a tank of blood and the water went red. It was interacting with the actors—they were screaming, batting at it. You could see it was real.

Even in the giant tank—basically a huge submersible—when the fin moved around, nobody wanted to get in. It looked real, like there was actually a shark in there. Something primal about seeing a real object moving through dark water with a fin. I just wanted it to be real, so we built it.

Jeff:
Did you also study shark behaviors to get that realism? Because some moments really creeped me out—like when the character tries to reach the half raft to get the engine off the boat, and the shark is just beneath him, watching.

Kiah:
Yeah, I call that the “floor is lava” sequence.

Jeff:
Yes!

Kiah:
And, yeah, the shark is just beneath him, watching. I did study sharks. The biggest example—there was a shark eating a whale, and the footage showed how much water was churned up by the tail. That surprised me most. So I thought, we need big exploding water to show this thing weighs a ton, thrashing its tail while biting at the same time.

That shot you’re talking about—it’s so good to have a cameraman there with the puppet head, filming an actor’s foot in the water. He can film above, then dip the camera under, and we just push the puppet head toward his feet. It’s all real.

And it doesn’t move too quickly. With digital, you’d see eyes spinning 360, clever movements. But I liked the animatronic being a bit clunky—because in real life, these things are giant floating buses with teeth. The puppet wouldn’t over-move. Sometimes its slow, deliberate motion is more terrifying than whipping around like a gymnast.

The restrictions of the animatronic were good for the film—they made it more menacing.

Jeff:
And the budget—was it decent? Because it looks like you had a really strong budget to work with.

Kiah:
It’s somewhere around ten, which is an American seven. So we didn’t have a lot. Some people think $10 million is a lot, but when you have to build a 40-meter water tank yourself, three giant animatronic shark sections, the interior of a warship, a World War II camp in the jungle, hire actors, extras, costumes, special effects, fill a studio with fog for five weeks, explosions, machine guns, Japanese Zeros strafing people, set extensions—man, it adds up quick.

The fact we pulled it off for seven or eight million American is pretty cool. I think it feels a bit indie—hyper stylized and arty—but also epic in scale. To make something epic for that kind of budget is difficult. But we pulled it off, I think.

Jeff:
You definitely did. I’ll pinpoint one quote from my review: “The best shark movie since Jaws.”

Kiah:
Is that a quote in your review? Wow. That’s an amazing quote, man. Thank you for saying that.

Jeff:
My seal of approval.

Kiah:
Wow. Because there are good shark movies—47 Meters Down, The Shallows. Dangerous Animals I hear is amazing. But nobody has come close to Jaws. Nobody. Jaws is a perfect film.

Jeff:
And your shark, like Jaws, is the kind that you just want to go away. When it’s going after someone, you’re just shouting, “Leave them alone! Go away!” That’s exactly what your shark did. You nailed it.

Kiah:
Oh, that’s fantastic, man. I really wanted to live up to that monologue—“when he comes at you with his black eyes, like doll’s eyes.” I wanted to make that movie. And it was fun.

Jeff:
Before we wrap, Kiah, I’ve got to ask—it’s been a year. Any chance of a Sting 2?

Kiah:
I don’t think so. It’s really irritating too, because I wrote a treatment that’s so fun. It was called Children of Sting. Sting’s children end up in a multi-tiered science lab with different spiders on each level. Almost like the “back rooms”—dark corridors, spiders everywhere.

If Sting is Gremlins, then Sting 2 would be Gremlins 2. Just insanity. A giant spider like Shelob in the basement. Charlotte ends up there with her little brother to protect. I so wanted to make that film, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen. Maybe if the movie makes enough money, I can get it off the ground. We’ll see.

Jeff:
Fingers crossed. I hope it blows up for you, because it’s a brilliant shark movie and deserves all the recognition.

Kiah:
Oh, thanks so much, dude. That quote just made my day. I’ll be putting that on a toaster. That’s a good quote.

Jeff:
Thank you so much, Kiah. It’s been awesome speaking with you. Don’t be a stranger at Action Reloaded, and as always, I’m looking forward to the next one. Keep making them.

Kiah:
Thanks, Jeff. I’m shooting the next one hopefully early 2026. Another war film—more action, more madness, more machine guns. I’m looking forward to it!