Posts Tagged ‘interview’

Woody and the gang are back this weekend in Pixar's "Toy Story 3"

ComingSoon.net recently conducted an interview with Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla Anderson. Unkrich has been the co-director for Toy Story 2, Monster’s Inc., and Finding Nemo and has been part of Pixar’s creative team since the company’s beginning, which was why he was given the job of directing the Oscar-winning and highly prestigious studio’s first “threequel.”

In the interview Unkrich and Anderson reveal some interesting tidbits about how Toy Story 3 got off the ground, and how the creative minds behind it were able to make it happen.

For starters, Unkrich and a few others tried getting the film started back when Toy Story 2 was released, ready to continue on to another story involving the characters they grew to love. However, legal troubles with Disney kept the film from being made and so the studio was forced to put the idea of a third movie on the back burner. When Disney eventually bought Pixar, the red tape was finally removed and the studio was free to pursue the project head-on.

Michael Arndt, who wrote the script for the film, was met by Unkrich and the others at Pixar after they looked at a copy of the screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine. They liked his work for that movie so much they immediately wanted to get in touch with him in order to maybe start working together. Later that same year Arndt was awarded an Oscar for Best Screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine, which helped give the studio more confidence that they were working with the right guy.

The interview covers a dozen other issues like these, which help paint Pixar as a company that redefines the word “harmony” when it comes to how its creative teams work together to create such memorable films. Definitely a good read for those of you looking forward to Toy Story 3 opening this weekend.

Legendary director/writer George A. Romero

For those of you who are into filmmaking, or are even in the filmmaking business, the latest edition of MovieMaker magazine (issue 86, vol. 17) contains a bit of information that should be fairly useful. That information is advice given by legendary horror director George A. Romero that comes from lessons he has learned over a 40 year career. The relevance of his words come from him recently releasing his newest film Survival of the Dead, which you can view via pay-per-view and video on demand, as well as at theaters in select cities.

His advice is split up into 10 tips that are applicable to anyone who is or is looking to be a director of movies. Here is a taste.

1. SHOW, DON’T TELL – “First drafts of my earliest screenplays always came in at 300-plus pages. I used to think that a thought unwritten was a thought lost. I learned that new and better thoughts come once you’ve had a chance to think about what you’ve written and then – rewrite. My producing partner, a wonderful editor, taught me that thoughts on the page should be precise and well contemplated, or they wind up wasting time and money.”

3. KNOW AS MUCH AS YOU CAN ABOUT EVERY CREW MEMBER’S SPECIALTY – “You will better appreciate a good job, and you won’t be ripped off by a DP [director of photography] who requisitions an outrageously expensive equipment package.”

9. COLLABORATE, DON’T DICTATE – Every department head has something to offer. Listen and gratefully accept their offerings. They’re moviemakers, too.”

For the full list of Romero’s tips, click here.

Oliver Stone

The Hollywood Reporter has published an interview it conducted with acclaimed director Oliver Stone about his newest movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps which will be Stone’s first official entry in the Cannes Film Festival. The longtime director has had several of his films shown at Cannes, but none had so far been in the running for any awards.

The first half of the interview talks about Stone’s involvement with the Cannes festival, the level of which has pretty much been simply showing a film once every several years minus a 20th anniversary showing of Platoon in 2006. The second half of the interview talks about Stone’s intentions behind making a sequel to Wall Street even though the original released back in 1987.

What the director goes on to detail are his research methods and reasoning for releasing the sequel at this point in time. He claims to feel that Wall Street 2 will symbolize a sort of bookend to the original in regards to the recent debauchery and history of the real Wall Street. The first film set things up by showing how out of hand stock market dealing was getting, and this sequel, set to acknowledge the news-breaking happenings on Wall Street over the past two years, will show what can become of such practices.

Through the course of his research, Stone tried his best to talk to banks, trading companies, anyone with inside knowledge that could help make the film more accurate and palpable. He had a good amount of luck, but couldn’t get as much information as he would have liked.

“We got the perspectives of some of the people who bet against, the shorts, some of the bankers who had worked there, we met with people who had worked with the old system and the new system, we met with a few people who worked at Lehman Brothers. Bear Stearns — we met with someone there. We got an overview. But the banks closed their doors, including locations. They did not want us anywhere close.” – HR

We recommend reading the whole interview to find out exactly what Mr. Stone went through to research the film, get it off the ground, and shoot it. For those of you interested in learning more about exactly what has been going wrong on Wall Street the past few years, Wall Street 2 should prove to be at least moderately enlightening. We’ll be sure to keep tabs on the movie and keep you posted. It opens September 24th.

Aaron Johnson (left) and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (right) in the upcoming "Kick-Ass," opening April 16th

SuperHeroHype.com got a chance to talk to two of the stars of the upcoming comic-book movie Kick-Ass, Aaron Johnson and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad, Role Models).

The discussion talks about the two actors and their characters, Kick Ass and Red Mist, and their experiences from before the principle photography stage to now. Interestingly, when the two had read the finished script and signed on to the project only the first 3 editions of the “Kick-Ass” comic had been published (there are currently 5). Mintz-Plasse’s character the Red Mist wasn’t introduced until the 3rd issue.

The costumes were designed by the same woman (Sammy Sheldon) who worked on Hellboy, Stardust, V for Vendetta, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. However, the two actors did not undergo any sort of physical training for the film in order to look any more like superheros. Rather, another co-star of the film, Chloe Moretz as Hit-Girl, received all the martial arts training from top-notch choreographers and specialists. Johnson and Mintz-Plasse were occasionally brought in to watch her go through her stunts, and were admittedly continually impressed.

The rest of the published discussion goes on to include various other details (including a juicy one at the end), most of which should prove to make an interesting read for those anticipating the film, which opens April 16th in theaters everywhere. For more information about the movie, we suggest visiting SuperHeroHype.com.

Jude Law and Forest Whitaker in the violent dark comedy/thriller "Repo Men"

ShockTillYouDrop.com has recently published an interview with the director of the upcoming sci-fi thriller Repo Men, Miguel Sapochnik.

The movie itself takes place in the future and is about a company that sells artificial organs at absurdly high prices. If a recipient of one of these organs ends up not being able to make the payments, though, said organ gets repossessed by Repo Men like Remy (Jude Law) and Jake (Forest Whitaker). Through an accident, Remy becomes an unwilling recipient of one of these high-priced organs and, because he can’t pay, gets pursued by the same men he used to work with.

The interview goes into a lot of detail about how the film came to fruition, from when the idea came about through Eric Garcia’s novel “The Repossession Mambo” to when Sapochnik was shopping the script around Hollywood trying to get financing. The director clearly recognizes that the tone of the material and subject matter are very much against the grain, but says that these factors are what drew him towards the project. With this being Sapochnik’s first feature film (his background is comprised of shorts), it would be an understatement to say that this was a learning experience.

Sapochnik claims that he got much of his inspiration for the movie from the British comedy group Monty Python, who often mixed violence with humor. “I love the humor of Monty Python. I always remember being so impressed by how violent Monty Python are actually when you look at what they do. Terry Gilliam has a great way of kind of proposing violence. Even Terry Jones in “The Search for the Holy Grail” when he’s kinda cutting the guy up into pieces and he’s saying, ‘You know, it’s just a flesh wound.’ They were very violent movies, but there’s humor in that violence and there’s irony in it.”

For those looking forward to the film or just interested in getting to know exactly what it’s about, this interview should prove to be both entertaining and informative.

Repo Men opens Friday, March 19th.

Antoine Fuqua, directing Richard Gere

ComingSoon.net has published an interview with Brooklyn’s Finest director, Antoine Fuqua (Training Day). The interview is a follow-up to one the site conducted with the director back at Sundance, so some references have been made that may not register without reading that previous interview.

“The way [the movie's] three stories are woven together is what makes it such a fine addition to the [street movie] canon, and it shows a lot of growth in Fuqua as a filmmaker in being able to tell these stories without judgment. It’s also his first movie made outside the studio system, which probably allowed him to focus as much on the characters rather than on the violence inherent to the genre.” – ComingSoon.net

The three stories they pertain to are that of the rookie cop (Ethan Hawke), the undercover cop (Don Cheadle) and his criminal friend (Wesley Snipes), and the 25 year officer about to retire (Richard Gere).

The interview is very informative and highly recommended reading for fans of Fuqua’s work.