Tobias Forge: "Everything with Ghost is difficult and expensive."

Metal Hammer issue 389 — (Image credit: Future (Cover shot: Travis Shinn))

Ghost mainman Tobias Forge has opened up on some of the challenges he has experienced in bringing his band to the big screen for new concert movie Rite Here Rite Now. The film, which mixes stunning footage of Ghost's 2023 shows at the Inglewood Forum in California with a fictional plot continuing the plights of Papa Emeritus IV, released to critical acclaim in cinemas worldwide last week.

Speaking exclusively to Metal Hammer's Paul Brannigan in their latest issue, Forge is asked whether what we see on the screen in Rite Here Rite Now is close to the vision he had for the project in the first place.

“It’s never, you know, 100%,” he answers, “but pretty damn close. A lot of things that I think scared people in meetings a year ago, are things that I know that we pulled off. As an artist, people want you to dream big, but I always try to come up with things that are actually doable.

“Everything with Ghost is difficult and expensive, but the records are getting closer to what I imagine, and this film turned out pretty close to what I envisioned," he continues. "And when I see the film, even I look at the show and go, ‘That’s pretty entertaining, that’s pretty cool.’ This is a film that you have not seen before."

Forge also points out that many film studios find it difficult to wrap their heads around any idea that isn't an obvious box office box-ticker. “A lot of film studios sometimes struggle to comprehend something that isn’t mainstream,” he explains. “Like, it’s not uncommon that you might want to make a film about, say, a historical event, and they would be, like, ‘Hmmm, it’s really depressing that the boat sinks in the end. Can it not do that?’ And you’re like, ‘Well, no, the story is about these two lovers that meet on the sinking boat, and yeah, he dies in the end.’ ‘But that’s so depressing! Can we make a different ending?’ ‘Er, No.’ ‘Well, we don’t want to pay for that.’ That’s the sort of shit you’re up against.”

In a glowing five star review for Rite Here Rite Now, Louder's Merlin Alderslade wrote: "Given Ghost's IP and the painstaking care with which Tobias Forge oversees it, it'd have taken a sizeable screw-up for Rite Here Rite Now to be anything other than a complete blast. As a concert film, however, it really is much more than that: it's an instant classic and an absolute triumph." The film's release was accompanied by a brand new Ghost song, The Future Is A Foreign Land.

Pick up the new issue of Metal Hammer to read more from Tobias Forge's special cover interview.

Merlin was promoted to Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has written for Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N' Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He has also presented and produced the Metal Hammer Podcast, presented the Metal Hammer Radio Show and is probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site.