Lol Creme Goes Offbeat in ‘Lunatic’

Lol Creme, former member of the rock groups 10CC and Godley and Creme, has built a reputation in the music video and commercial industries as a director with an offbeat sensibility.

“I suppose I am trying to avoid mediocrity and the average,” Creme, 44, explains. “I look for things that are quirky in the right sort of way.”

With his ex-partner Kevin Godley, Creme directed such innovative music videos as Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit,” Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” and the Police’s “Every Breath You Take.” After the two went their separate ways in 1988, the British-born Creme moved to Los Angeles and began directing commercials.

For the past several years, Creme has been sifting through “hundreds and hundreds” of movie scripts looking for the perfect one for his directorial debut.

Creme chose the quirky “The Lunatic,” a low-budget comedy set in Jamaica about a good-natured madman (Paul Campbell) who talks to trees and cows and finds love with an overweight, oversexed German tourist (Julie T. Wallace).

“I read this script and as soon as the tree started talking I said: ‘Hello. This is interesting.’ This just suits my sense of humor. I did it because there is space for (these films) in our entertainment industry. We have got plenty of violence and sex in movies. There is some violence and plenty of sex in this but in a delightful way.”