Neil Marshall: 'I like to blend genres'

Neil Marshall has said that he likes to blend genres in his movies.

The writer-director told Metro that he does not consider himself part of the 'Splat Pack' group of horror filmmakers.

Marshall said: "I see myself more as an action director. All right, I do enjoy intense, bloodthirsty action but I like to blend and cross genres. I don't want to be too predictable.

"I always say Dog Soldiers is a siege or a soldier movie with werewolves, not a werewolf movie with soldiers. The primary element is making the soldiers authentic - then we can add fantasy on top of that reality."

He added of his new movie Centurion: "It's like Braveheart from the English point of view. Or like The Last Of The Mohicans meets The Warriors - or like Gladiator meets Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid.

"I used to watch Westerns on TV with my dad and to me Centurion is very similar to an old John Ford cavalry movie, with the Romans as the cavalry and the Picts as the Apaches.

"Those movies would now be seen as incredibly un-PC. We're all rooting for the cavalry who are committing genocide on the Native Americans. I'm doing the same kind of thing in that I'm telling the story from the invader's point of view but I want you to root for the individuals not their politics."