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Post by iluvtexas on Apr 4, 2012 22:10:54 GMT -5
locke hi ...thanks for asking, so here goes I just don't
see what your seeing that is wrong with this movie and
the way it was cast.
I think Luke is perfect and so is SJ. They both look very good in
the movie trailer so far... The subject matter is sort of mundane
because stories like this have been told before. Even so I am
looking forward to seeing this movie and I don't usually go for
scary type movies. What specifically is wrong with it if
you don't mind me asking? Just curious...
#raisedbrow# #raisedbrow# #raisedbrow#
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Post by iluvtexas on Apr 4, 2012 22:12:49 GMT -5
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Post by iluvtexas on Apr 4, 2012 22:20:40 GMT -5
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Post by iluvtexas on Apr 23, 2012 18:36:41 GMT -5
Interview on "Meeting Evil" BTW This movie is on AT&T U-Verse TV saw it newly listed last night. Am going to brave a scary movie and watch....  " The crime drama Meeting Evil, (currently available through Magnolia Ultra VOD here prior to the film’s theatrical release on May 4th) follows John (Luke Wilson), a depressed suburban family man and recently fired realtor, who offers to help a stranger named Richie (Samuel L. Jackson) with his car. Upon doing so, John is quickly sucked into a nightmarish murder spree that forces him to go to any length he can to protect his family.During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, writer/director Chris Fisher talked about how this project came about, why it was important that the characters live in a grey area, what led him to Luke Wilson as the lead, and how intimidating Samuel L. Jackson’s professionalism is. He also talked about being the producing director on the Syfy series Warehouse 13 (he’s directing six of the 20 episodes for the next season), how he’s going to direct a couple episodes for Season 2 of Person of Interest, and how he would sell his soul to direct an episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Check out what he had to say after the jump: Collider: How did you first come across this novel by Thomas Berger and what made you decide to turn it into a film? CHRIS FISHER: It was actually brought to me from another director, who is not a writer. He approached me and asked me if I would consider adapting something for him, way back in 2005. He had seen my movie, Dirty, and said, “I have this neo-noir that I want to adapt. Would you consider doing it?” At that time, I was mostly just looking to do my own thing, so I said, “Probably not, but I’ll read the book.” Then, I read the book and it just got totally underneath my skin, so I said, “Yeah, I’ll take a stab at it.” Ironically, I found out that, after working for free for a couple months, he didn’t even own the rights to it. So, I was like, “Oh, sh*t, man! Pretty much all I’ve accomplished, at this point, is copyright infringement.” I did something that was not the safest thing to do, but I wrote a letter to the novelist and just said, “Hey, I’ve written this script and I don’t have the rights, and I’m a struggling independent filmmaker. I’m not going to have the money to option this in a legitimate way. Would you read my script and work with me on this?” That was before I started doing my TV work. And, he responded super-positively. He liked the script and he liked the direction I took it in. It was quite different than the novel, and he was very generous, as far as allowing me some creative breaths to expand and change some of the themes. That’s how the project happened. It was awesome. I sent him my letter and the script, and I’m a little bit more eager than my agents. When I called them and told them I had done it, they were like, “No, you didn’t! He’s just going to hate it! They always hate it!” Like most great things in life, his response was unexpected. Was it important to you that the hero had anti-hero elements and the villain had heroic moments, to have the story live in that grey area? FISHER: That was the part of the novel that I fought for the most, in making this movie. I loved the point of view of an average, everyday guy, at best, who’s been hit with the fate stick. I wanted to keep that down-and-out, loser point of view, and I had to fight really hard for that. People always say, “Why doesn’t John do this? Why doesn’t he just get out of the car? Why doesn’t he tell Richie to F-off?” And I’m like, “Well, he’s a spineless wimp. He makes compromises, all day long. He has no integrity. He has no backbone. He cheats on his wife. He can’t stand up to anybody.” My argument to keep it the way it was, was circular in the sense that I was just saying, “Look at the way it is. That’s the character.” And, Richie was this villain that flew off the page. I was like, “I know everybody is going to relate to this guy. The audience is going to be so drawn to this guy, just as I was, when I was a reader of the novel.” I haven’t talked to Thomas [Berger] since he was sent the movie, but I’m hoping that those are two of the things that he’s going to enjoy, as well. We were able to keep this anti-hero point of view, and we never, ever let John become anything remotely heroic in the movie, which has frustrated a lot of audience members. And, our villain was absolutely this charismatic superhero. He really was a messenger of truth to John’s world. He appears to be evil, and to John he is, indeed, evil. Certainly, he’s not the most altruistic of entities, but he is of John’s own creation. In a very real sense, John conjured this being. Richie and John are very symbiotic. What was it that led you to Luke Wilson for the role of John?
FISHER: He was somebody that I thought about when I was writing it. I’ve always been a huge fan of his. He’s just so innately likable. I knew that, to create a character who was going to be making the sort of mistakes that John was making, people had to like him. He had to be a guy they’d want to go get a beer with or go throw a baseball with. Speaking to Luke as a human, as much as an actor, he had to have an innate likability. So, Luke was always in my mind, for that reason. And then, the practical side of things was that he and Sam [Jackson] were friends and they’ve always wanted to work together. Sam was cast before Luke. When we got a shortlist from the financier, of people that they thought would get the movie made, he was, by chance, on that list.
We didn’t make formal offers for that character. We went to agencies and said, “Here’s the shortlist we have, do you think any of these people would be interested in doing this?” I was expecting him to say, “No, I’m not interested in this.” But, in my mind, he was someone that I was very interested in, and he was really excited about it. I felt really lucky to have him. The only thing I would have thought would have been more interesting would be to have the roles switched. I would have been interested in seeing Sam playing the sad sack and Luke playing the maniac. If I had pulled that off, then that would have been brilliant. But, as is, the attributes of the actors really played well into the characters, as written in the novel.
What was it like to work so closely with Samuel L. Jackson? Was he intimidating, at all?
FISHER: He was intimidating, in so far as his professionalism is at such a high level. He showed up for the read-through and he was off-book. The first time I spoke with him, he had read the novel multiple times and he was so inside the script. He was ahead of me, as far as creating the backstory and the subtext for this character. I had heard that. Clifton Collins is an actor I’ve had the fortune of working on a few different movies with, and he and Sam are very close friends. He said, “Just be on your A game with him,” so I was. But still, to have someone of Sam’s caliber show up for a read-through and be off-book was mind-blowing.
Do you have any idea what you’re going to do next? Are you looking to continue to balance a film and TV career? FISHER: I’m booked on television for the next year. I’ve really lucked into this amazing job as the producing director of the Syfy show Warehouse 13, which is this goofy steampunk show that shoots up in Toronto. It’s been an amazing experience for me. It’s a really visually exciting show. It’s a really fun show to work on. The cast and crew is exceptional. I’m directing six of the next 20 episodes, until mid-November. I know people always get excited about this stuff, but it’s just one of the most fun shows to work on. The light-heartedness and the humor of the show really translate to the floor. We ruin take after take because we’re laughing so hard, behind the monitors. The uniqueness of that show lies in the ability to both be visually exciting science fiction, and then tonally just be a really funny thing to watch. And then, I go direct a couple episodes of Person of Interest, the J.J. Abrams show. So, I’m knee-deep in sci-fi television. Except for being knee-deep in sci-fi film, it’s the best place I could live. I’m really enjoying myself. Is there a show that you watch, that you’d love to direct an episode of? FISHER: I would kill to do Game of Thrones. I’ve already sold my first child, so I can’t do that, but they can have my soul, for sure. I can’t imagine how amazing that would be! What led you to want to be a director? Did you just always want to be a storyteller? FISHER: I did, but I really just wanted to be a writer. It was my dream to be a writer. For my undergrad, I studied film writing and philosophy at USC, and then I went to law school after that. Law school gave me an extra three years to grow up and, I hope, develop a voice, as a writer. I sold my first script when I was 28, and it was getting produced when I was 29. I attached myself to it as a producer, just with the intention of being a writer and producer, and not being a director. Once I got to the set, it just seemed like it was so much fun. I also realized that nobody was going to care about my scripts as much as I was. If I could learn the skills and learn the craft, I thought it would be a fun thing to do. I went had my own little film school and bought every book on directing I could and studied the films of directors who I admired, and then I found myself directing a movie for Sundance, the next year. I definitely lucked out." |
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Post by iluvtexas on May 8, 2012 19:39:34 GMT -5
Good Luke Interview:  Luke Wilson On 'Meeting Evil,' Gene Hackman And Richie Tenenbaum's Attempted Suicide Luke Wilson stars in 'Meeting Evil.'Luke Wilson knows he plays the boyfriend a lot. It's one of the reasons for taking on his newest acting role in the indie thriller "Meeting Evil." In the film, Wilson plays a depressed and cash-strapped family man whose simple act of kindness for a stranded stranger, proves to be a terrible mistake. That mysterious man happens to be a maniacal killer played by none other than ultimate movie bad-ass Samuel L. Jackson -- and he decides to repay Wilson's gratitude by dragging him along a grisly, gothic joyride that wracks up a seriously bloody body count. Moviefone spoke with Wilson about taking a break from the light, romantic roles by doing something incredibly dark with an actor who's scary in real-life. During the conversation, Wilson reflected on the devastating failure of his and brother Owen's first movie collaboration, why he considers "The Royal Tenenbaums" to be the work he's most proud of and his realization that America already resembles the bizarre society in his cult sci-fi comedy "Idiocracy." "Meeting Evil" opens in theaters on May 4, but you can watch the film today on Magnolia Picture's Video OnDemand service.
"Meeting Evil" is a dark serial killer thriller; it’s a real departure from most of your trademark roles. Is that what drew you to the movie? I always think about it in terms of the kinds of movies I like to watch, and I like all kinds of movies. I appreciate when people ask me to do something different, cause when I first started out -- I wouldn’t even be thinking about it -- but people would say "Boy, you sure play a lot of boyfriends!" I was doing that for years it seemed. It was one of those things I didn’t even think about until people mentioned it, and I was like "Dang, I guess I have done that a lot!" I just like to work so I was doing whatever came my way. I liked the idea of doing this; it had a film noir feeling to me, "bad news shows up at the doorstep." I liked the melodramatic aspect of it.
What's more fun to play: the boyfriend or the man on the run from a killer? I certainly have more fun doing a comedy because you go to work and the goal is pretty clear: you’re trying to do a funny scene and build a funny movie. Whether it’s doing something like "Vacancy" or this, I was like "sh*t, this is not a comedy, this is emotionally draining." It’ll be a Tuesday morning at 8am and you’re trying to act scared and you have to focus and you want it to be believable; you want the fear to be palpable. It’s just not as, for lack of a better word, fun.How intimidating is Samuel L. Jackson in real life? Very [Laughs]. We first met playing golf in this tournament down in Palm Springs and we wound up winning the thing together. When this came along it was nice to already know each other; you know a lot of actors, but Sam lives up to his screen image. I really respect his work ethic and he’s one of those actors that really knows how to make movies. He wants to know what the shots are, he's definitely a filmmaker and a real focused guy. He’d be trying to kill me during the week and on our days off we’d be out there playing golf.
When I worked with him, it reminded me of Gene Hackman. They’re both big guys, so when a guy like that that comes up and gets into your space, it’s daunting. For this movie, it worked really well. He’s a great actor, and it makes it fun where you are. He is as much of an icon as Hackman; the intensity brings you into the moment, so you forget who they are.It’s funny you mentioned Hackman because that gives me the perfect segue to talk about "The Royal Tenenbaums." How did it feel to start in the movie business with your brothers on "Bottle Rocket" and stick together, moving on to that movie with that cast? It's probably the movie I’m most proud of, in terms of doing it with Owen and Wes [Anderson] and then having all those great actors in it. It was quite a change from "Bottle Rocket." I was working on the Sony Lot last week, and I walked over to Gracie Films where we got started, and it was like going back to high school. I just got this wave of uncertainty and that’s all we ever felt in terms of getting the green light on "Bottle Rocket." When we were making the movie, all we ever heard was, "The studio hates it, you guys are strange, you look strange, you talk strange."
Then the movie came and went in two weeks. It did get a couple good reviews and we started to hear from different people we respected; we heard Scorsese had it as one of the ten best movies of the 90s. We had it all with that movie, but it was a failure and I was devastated. I don’t know about the other guys, but it’s hard to be proud of something that fails. No matter how good it was or how hard we worked on it, it was a failure when it came out, so that clouds everything. We did "Bottle Rocket" in Dallas and then they filmed "Rushmore" in Houston; that had Bill Murray in it, so it felt like a step up. But to be in Manhattan, making a totally different kind of movie -- not kid-related or juvenile, not about fumbling criminals or a crazy kid -- to be doing a more mature movie definitely felt like things were ramping up.
Regarding more mature filmmaking: Richie Tenenbaum's attempted suicide, the "Needle in the Hay" scene, is probably the most iconic moment for that character. What went into the preparation of that scene? The hair guy on the movie quit because I cut my own hair and cut my own beard off, so I remember that. I don’t remember talking to Wes about it that much, it was one of those things where you just do it. It definitely felt strange, just looking in the mirror. But I do remember feeling shaken up. Again, that’s one of those things where you don’t finish the day feeling good. It's not like doing a comedy where the goals are so clear. All you can do is tell yourself that you either did or didn’t accomplish what you were trying to do, but I felt like I had gotten it.Looking back on the the struggles of getting "Bottle Rocket" made, will you and your brothers do another small indie together? I would definitely love to do it. We’ve always got a bunch of ideas; I did this movie, "The Wendell Baker Story," where I wrote it, my brother Andrew and I co-directed it and Owen was in it. It was definitely small, but it was made by this shady company that didn’t give it much of a chance. But it’s out there, people can get it. We always want to do something together again, it’s just a matter of getting it written and doing it. With Owen being a bankable star, you got to do it while you have the ability to do it. [Laughs] You can get scattered and go your own ways making different movies, but you have to make the effort to do something together.
Another one of your most under-appreciated projects is "Idiocracy." It's a sharp, funny film. Have you encountered people who have seen it and actually learned from it? Mike Judge and I have become good friends. He’s just a funny guy and he definitely gets a kick out of, you know, dumbness. From "Beavis and Butthead" on, he just gets a kick out of people that aren’t thoughtful. I would always kid around with Mike saying "There’s nothing more fun than a dumbass making fun of another dumbass." We had so much fun making that, and it really is strange the people who love it. I had a weird thing happen where Guns N' Roses were in town and I got an email from Axl Rose’s assistant saying that Axl had wanted me to go the show and I was like, "That’s weird, I've never met him." But I've been a fan since 1986, so we went to see the show. I was too embarrassed to go backstage, but Owen did and he said Axl was talking about how much he loved "Idiocracy."
Mike is real clued into stuff that I’ll see but it won’t register with me -- like the size of Big Gulps being so huge or when you watch the news in L.A., there are these really busty weather girls. It takes somebody like Judge whose got a real writer's mentality to make a social commentary on it. It made me think, "This really is like 'Idiocracy' where the woman's doing the news topless."
It’ll just sneak up on us. Exactly,and I feel like society's definitely moving in that direction, where everybody's got a voice with Twitter and things like that; it’s instantly getting your views out there no matter how skewed they are.
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