Nerdly » The Filmmaker’s Podcast #492: Making ‘A Gangster’s Life’ with Tony Cook & Zak Fenning

16th Feb2026

The Filmmaker’s Podcast #492: Making ‘A Gangster’s Life’ with Tony Cook & Zak Fenning

by Phil Wheat

Here’s the latest episode of The Filmmakers Podcast, part of the podcast roster here on Nerdly. If you haven’t heard the show yet, you can check out previous episodes on the official podcast site, whilst we’ll be featuring each and every new episode as it premieres.

For those unfamiliar with the series, The Filmmakers Podcast is a podcast about how to make films from micro-budget indie films to bigger-budget studio films and everything in between. Our hosts Giles Alderson, Dom Lenoir, Dan Richardson, Andrew Rodger and Cristian James talk about how to get films made, how to actually make them and how to try not to f… it up in their very humble opinion. Guests will come on and chat about their filmmaking experiences from directors, writers, producers and screenwriters, to actors, cinematographers and distributors.

The Filmmaker’s Podcast #492:The Reality of Low-Budget Filmmaking: Making “A Gangster’s Life” with Tony Cook & Zak Fenning

In this special episode, host (and Executive Producer!) Giles Alderson sits down with actor/producer Tony Cook (Dune: Part Two) and director Zak Fenning to break down the making of their new British crime-comedy, A Gangster’s Life.Joined by fellow filmmakers Dom Lenoir the team reveals exactly how they pulled off a low-budget feature film that spans two countries (London and Greece) without breaking the bank. They discuss the “hustle” behind casting rising stars like Jonny Weldon (One Day, House of the Dragon) and Rina Lipa (in her feature debut), and the challenges of self-distributing a genre film in 2026. We discuss:

The “Two-Country” Shoot: Logistics of moving a low-budget crew from London to Greece.

Casting Coups: How to attach big names (Rina Lipa, Jonny Weldon) to an indie project.

Actor to Producer: Tony Cook on taking lessons from the set of Dune: Part Two into indie producing.

Visual Style: How Zak used his background as a DoP to give the film a “high budget” look.

The Reality of Release: Navigating the UK digital market and finding an audience.

A Gangster’s Life is out now on digital platforms.