Post by Kumar on Mar 10, 2004 3:02:47 GMT -5
I found this interview - it's old but I still found it really interesting! I've been wondering about Wes and Owen's writing style and also when and if they would write together again
Here is an excerpt:
In the States, the film [The Royal Tenenbaums] has already grossed more than twice Rushmore's final tally. This success is due, in part, to his continuing working friendship with his fellow Texan Owen Wilson, who has co-written all of Anderson's films to date. Together, they have been nominated for this year's BAFTA award for best Original Screenplay. Anderson attributes their success to a simple formula: "We find the same things funny."
There is, though, some trouble in paradise. "It doesn't work as well as it used to," Anderson confesses. "When we did Bottle Rocket we worked together on the whole movie, but when we did Rushmore it started to fall to me a little more since he was being cast in all these movies." Since then, Wilson's rise in the Hollywood ranks has been meteoric. He is shooting I Spy in Vancouver with Eddie Murphy, and will then rush off to join Jackie Chan in Prague on the set of Shanghai Knight, the sequel to the enormously successful Shanghai Noon. When it came to writing The Royal Tenenbaums, Anderson took the lion's share of the work. Wilson was just too busy.
That said, Wilson does a lovely turn in the film (as Eli, a drug-addled author), and will be putting his acting skills to use in Anderson's next project. They're still friends. "Even on this last one," says Anderson, "when I was writing on my own most of the time, our unified approach was something I was conscious of the whole time." Anderson has already begun work on his new film, set in France and Mexico. This time, he'll be flying solo.
Anderson admits, though, that in most things it is Wilson who takes the upper hand, especially at games. He remembers a vicious bout of chess while they were students together at the University of Texas. "Owen bet me he was going to beat me in three moves – and I was like, there's no way you're gong to beat me in three moves. But he had some really great gambit that he'd read about – and he did, he won! I was stunned." They haven't played chess since. "He's also a terrible winner and a terrible sport – winner or loser. He's very well known for welching on bets, for not paying debts and trying to do anything he can, double or nothing until it goes away... I'm his perfect opponent because I'm going to lose and it's gonna mean a lot to me that I lost."
In that respect, Wilson is rather like Royal Tenenbaum, the estranged family patriarch of the film, a charming rapscallion, the lovable rogue who somehow always wins, if only by denying that he has lost. These are men at ease with themselves, who have their own odd kind of authority. "I like those type of guys," Anderson explains. "The guys who can make the dog sit right off the bat." (In the film, Royal has an uncanny power over canines.) Anderson sees the same quality in his friend Hampton Francher, who directed Wilson in the indie sleeper Minus Man. "It's something sort of animal... It's somehow being sincere on some level where people know you are not faking it."
In light of Owen's comments in the recent timeout Interview about not understanding Wes' vision for TLA and the humor not being his kind of humor. I am less optimistic now that Owen and Wes will write together again soon. That said you never know they are close friends hopefully they will find a way to make it work. I feel they have both had the opportunity to learn so much in the last decade and a project they could both equally weigh in on would be fantastic. It is interesting that Owen's involvement on Bottle Rocket was greater than on Rushmore and TRT. Because BR has always been my favorite and for me is by far the funniest and at the same time most touching pic they have done.
Click here for the whole article
Here is an excerpt:
In the States, the film [The Royal Tenenbaums] has already grossed more than twice Rushmore's final tally. This success is due, in part, to his continuing working friendship with his fellow Texan Owen Wilson, who has co-written all of Anderson's films to date. Together, they have been nominated for this year's BAFTA award for best Original Screenplay. Anderson attributes their success to a simple formula: "We find the same things funny."
There is, though, some trouble in paradise. "It doesn't work as well as it used to," Anderson confesses. "When we did Bottle Rocket we worked together on the whole movie, but when we did Rushmore it started to fall to me a little more since he was being cast in all these movies." Since then, Wilson's rise in the Hollywood ranks has been meteoric. He is shooting I Spy in Vancouver with Eddie Murphy, and will then rush off to join Jackie Chan in Prague on the set of Shanghai Knight, the sequel to the enormously successful Shanghai Noon. When it came to writing The Royal Tenenbaums, Anderson took the lion's share of the work. Wilson was just too busy.
That said, Wilson does a lovely turn in the film (as Eli, a drug-addled author), and will be putting his acting skills to use in Anderson's next project. They're still friends. "Even on this last one," says Anderson, "when I was writing on my own most of the time, our unified approach was something I was conscious of the whole time." Anderson has already begun work on his new film, set in France and Mexico. This time, he'll be flying solo.
Anderson admits, though, that in most things it is Wilson who takes the upper hand, especially at games. He remembers a vicious bout of chess while they were students together at the University of Texas. "Owen bet me he was going to beat me in three moves – and I was like, there's no way you're gong to beat me in three moves. But he had some really great gambit that he'd read about – and he did, he won! I was stunned." They haven't played chess since. "He's also a terrible winner and a terrible sport – winner or loser. He's very well known for welching on bets, for not paying debts and trying to do anything he can, double or nothing until it goes away... I'm his perfect opponent because I'm going to lose and it's gonna mean a lot to me that I lost."
In that respect, Wilson is rather like Royal Tenenbaum, the estranged family patriarch of the film, a charming rapscallion, the lovable rogue who somehow always wins, if only by denying that he has lost. These are men at ease with themselves, who have their own odd kind of authority. "I like those type of guys," Anderson explains. "The guys who can make the dog sit right off the bat." (In the film, Royal has an uncanny power over canines.) Anderson sees the same quality in his friend Hampton Francher, who directed Wilson in the indie sleeper Minus Man. "It's something sort of animal... It's somehow being sincere on some level where people know you are not faking it."
In light of Owen's comments in the recent timeout Interview about not understanding Wes' vision for TLA and the humor not being his kind of humor. I am less optimistic now that Owen and Wes will write together again soon. That said you never know they are close friends hopefully they will find a way to make it work. I feel they have both had the opportunity to learn so much in the last decade and a project they could both equally weigh in on would be fantastic. It is interesting that Owen's involvement on Bottle Rocket was greater than on Rushmore and TRT. Because BR has always been my favorite and for me is by far the funniest and at the same time most touching pic they have done.
Click here for the whole article