The Creators of Brian and Charles on Bringing Their Quirky Sci-Fi Comedy to the Big Screen
By Cheryl Eddy
The world can be a dark and awful place. But as Brian and Charles so delightfully explores, the power of friendship can perform miracles, even when that friendship gets stormy at times—and even when that friendship is between a lonely inventor and the awkwardly bulky robot he crafts from random parts.
io9 has been a fan of these characters dating back to 2017, when we first posted director Jim Archer’s short film of the same name. Earlier this year, the feature adapted from that short debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. (Read io9’s review here.) This week, Brian and Charles is making its theatrical debut, and we got a chance to speak over video chat with Archer as well as scriptwriters David Earl (who plays Brian) and Chris Hayward (who plays Charles) ahead of its release. The trio became acquainted through what Archer describes as “the comedy TV world in the UK, it’s all very kind of close knit,” with Earl actually developing the Brian character on stage and on an internet radio show—where the character of Charles first appeared—well before the short film came to be.
