Michael Winterbottom webchat – follow it live

Gretsch83 asks:

Who does the best Michael Caine in your opinion? Coogan or Brydon?

Haigin88 asks:

You always seem to leap from one project to another one so, to keep this going, how many projects do you have in development at any one time, on average?

unemployablegraduate asks:

When I watched In This World a few years ago, I was particularly struck by the ending. What I took from it was that the protagonist Jamal seemed merely to have exchanged one lot of shit for another lot of shit. To what extent would you agree with my interpretation?

darrenlollipopman says:

The Killer Inside Me was one of the best adaptations of Jim Thompson, but was mostly shot down by the critics. You must have developed some thoughts about this, defensive and/or apologetic, now that some time has passed? (I mean ‘laying out a defence’ rather than ‘defensive’.)

KHarvest asks:

Hollywood is more and more obsessed about ‘tentpole’ movies and sequels that can be spun off until the end of time. As an independent director, is it more difficult to find funding ‘outside the system’ now or just as problematic as ever?

Arthur Sternom asks:

Does the crew have to cater for themselves on The Trip, or do you all get a quality nosh up while working?

catchytitled says:

The Trip series are a relaxing treat (the UK in particular, has never looked so serene) but 24 Hour Party People is a cracker: Which of those bands from that era do you wish you had been part of and which would have been an absolute nightmare to be in?

MarkFilmgoer asks:

Your contemporary Danny Boyle came close to making a Bond film. Would you ever consider doing one of those tentpoles? Also, I remember Alan Parker saying you should make fewer films. Why do you like having a prolific output rather than going all David Lean or Terrence Malick on projects?

kjmsisa asks:

As the article indicates, there is tremendous variety in your projects. Do you think that your work has sometimes not received wider recognition partly because it cannot be easily pigeonholed in any particular genre or style; and do you see anything in your own works that links them together in some way, the ‘aroma of Winterbottom’!?

johnnysmooth asks:

Would you mind ranking your films in the style of the Guardian’s Ranked column? (Love your work, would put Wonderland top.)

Michael is in the building.

Michael Winterbottom has been making films for nearly 25 years, and in that time has earned a reputation as one of the UK’s most dazzlingly varied film-makers. Winterbottom’s work has encompassed the hypernaturalist migrant travelogue In This World and the bleak Thomas Hardy adaptation Jude; the committed hostage drama A Mighty Heart and the sadistic noir thriller The Killer Inside Me. Along the way he has developed an outstanding creative relationship with Steve Coogan: together they made the Factory Records comedy 24 Hour Party People, the metatextual Tristram Shandy adaptation A Cock and Bull Story, the breezy Paul Raymond biopic The Look of Love, and three series (to date) of restaurant-tour comedy The Trip.

Winterbottom and Coogan have another one coming up, the Philip Green-inspired satire Greed, but before that Winterbottom is releasing The Wedding Guest, a thriller set in Pakistan and India starring Dev Patel as a mysterious outsider who kidnaps Radhika Apte as she is about to be forcibly married off. The Wedding Guest is out in the UK on Friday, and now is your chance to ask the director questions about this – and anything else – in our webchat with him, which takes place at 13.00 BST on Thursday 18 July.

Post your questions now in the comment section below and follow the webchat live.