Saturday, June 16, 2012
007 Legends Impressions (PS3)
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the James Bond brand, Activision will be releasing 007 Legends, a new shooter that has Bond fighting his way through some of his most popular classic films. Set to hit store shelves the same day as the next Bond movie: Skyfall, this October 15th could leave fans with one action packed day.
007 Legends will star Daniel Craig as James Bond, in a modern take that will intertwine stories from the classic films over one single story-arc. On the disk there will be 5 Bond movie narratives that will take Bond to familiar locations around the world. Yet, set to release day and date of the game will be a free DLC pack, consisting of a 6th mission set in the world of Skyfall; which is rumored to be the finale of the game – something that if true could be problematic for those without internet access.
In the build shown at E3 2012, Bond was faced with taking down familiar foe, Jaws, in a recreation of the classic film, Moonraker. Using his trademark watch to temporarily detect all nearby enemies, and a dart pen that shot either a tranquilizer or distraction dart, Bond was able to quietly dispatch and sneak past groups of guards. In addition, players will be able to spend experience points to personalize their Bond, which can help him move undetected or improve his ability to dispatch countless foes. This level of customization has the potential to make this the most personalized Bond experience yet.
As the preview was not hands-on, it’s hard to specifically state how well 007 Legends handled, but for an alpha build it seemed to just meet expectations for a modern shooter. Frame rate ran stable with little to no jitter or texture pop in, and there were no signs of clipping issues. Although, once detected all enemies on the map would be instantly alerted to your presence and location. While not mandatory for all shooters, a game that includes stealth mechanics needs to include more than fundamental AI. Such a low reaching standard, is a problem that seems to inhibit this Bond shooter from all angles. Graphically, this game didn’t appear to be a showcase title, at all, as things like level design did not appear to be pushing the current hardware on many levels. With this generation coming to close within a few years, its hard to not notice games that just have not been able to produce the visual fidelity we have been spoiled by.
With this being a title set to celebrate the history of world’s greatest spy, the core aspect that could make this a must own title is dependent on how well the story is handled. Eurocom, in association with EON Productions Ltd., and MGM, the studios behind the Bond movies, have stated that this will be as authentic of an experience as possible. Yet, based on the build shown, it is difficult to tell if the story will be able to appease more than the die-hard James Bond fan. Given that the story will cover movies that millions have been watching for years, it is hard to get excited about old being the new – new.
As 007 Legends and its DLC will take place in an alternate world covering 6 movies in total, this could be a title for fans who have been left wanting to put on a tux for years. Yet, for anyone who barely knows who the MI5 are, this title has yet to show that is more than a standard FPS. Although, with months left on the development time, there is hope that this Bond title will end with a mission successful, and not just come and go without anyone noticing.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
What Is Will Smith's Best Performance?
It's been four years since Will Smith starred in a film, which means we've gone an entire Presidential administration without the presence of the world's biggest movie star. Smith has been hugely famous for 20 years now, and ever since establishing himself as a movie star in 1995's Bad Boys, he's taken nothing but leading roles, establishing a string of star performance more than earned his status as the biggest modern box office draw.
No one can deny Smith is a movie star. But is he a great actor? He's starred in a lot of movies that would have crashed and burned without his charisma, but how do you pick which one of them makes a great performance, and which was his best? We debated this amongst ourselves and each of us found a performance we wanted to defend as his best. Check out our picks below, vote in the poll, and let us know what you think is Will Smith's best performance-- or if you're waiting to see that Men In Black III turns out to be his best yet.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
by Kelly West
Before Will Smith went on to fight crime and aliens, he played "Will Smith" in the TV sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Set up as a sort of fish-out-of-water story, the NBC comedy took a kid from West Philadelphia (born and raised) and put him in a wealthy household in Bel-Air where he was set to live out the rest of his adolescence. The fictional version of Will Smith was funny, confident and very cool. Smith demonstrated these attributes with humor and a natural ease, and they've served him well in later roles. But what worked so well for Fresh Prince wasn't just Smith's sense of humor and cool-factor, but also the contrast of his character to the people around him. Set among his peers, Smith might have been just another tall, funny guy. But set among a family of rich people, including a very serious and often disapproving uncle, a dorky cousin with very little cool to call his own, and another cousin whose snobbery and vanity was always good for a laugh, Will was almost the normal guy of the group, with a bit more grounded, relaxed perspective on life. Smith's performance not only proved vital to the success of the series, but also served to bring out some of the best and funniest attributes of the other characters by contrast.
Bad Boys
by Sean O'Connell
Will Smith walks the razor-thin line between “confident” and “arrogant.” That’s what he does. Mostly, it’s for action/sci-fi roles, carrying big-screen blockbusters like Independence Day, Men In Black or I, Robot. Every once in a while, he’ll apply the skill to a rom-com like Hitch, but he remains the brightest light in any room. For the majority of Smith’s movies, he leans on 90% personality, and 10% performance … and the A-list Oscar nominee has carved out an extremely lucrative living with this unique balancing act.
But it was never better employed than when Smith teamed with Martin Lawrence and Michael Bay for the brash, ballsy Bad Boys back in 1995. Cocky Miami detective Mike Lowery was Smith’s natural ego dialed to about an “8,” a lethal ladies man quick with a handgun and a comeback line. Smith’s larger-than-life persona gelled perfectly with Lawrence’s frazzled, frustrated Marcus Burnett, and the package was contained to a relatively precise 119 minutes (Bay’s shortest film to date). Bad Boys established the blueprint of a Will Smith blockbuster: Equal parts stand-offish humor and eye-popping special effects. And the bloated, gratuitous, unchecked ego of Bad Boys II only proved how streamlined and effective the original actually was. Maybe it’s not his “best” performance, but it certainly is the quintessential Will Smith performance.
Independence Day
by Kristy Puchko
Will Smith is more a movie star than an actor. His A-list status and box office prowess undoubtedly come from his winsome screen presence, not his acting technique. He's a true showman, and his cocky charisma has drawn us into a bunch of wild adventures. But his trademark blend of bravado and sitcom-spawned mugging has never been so on point as it was as Captain Steven Hiller in Independence Day. Here he's a modern everyman and plucky pilot whose big plan for the fast-approaching July 4th holiday is to propose to his ladylove, a single-mom/stripper with a heart of gold. Of course, that's all put on hold when massive alien ships crowd the skylines of major cities across the world. Turning his bravado into bravery, he faces down this extraterrestrial threat with a solid right hook. (Welcome to Earth, indeed!)
A more restrained or layered performance would have been out of place in the midst of Roland Emmerich's over-the-top love letter to American heroism, and that's why hurricane-punching Smith is perfect for the part. It harnesses his unrelenting energy and amped up acting style into the driving force that pulls audiences through this crowded ensemble piece that's peppered with some deeply sad sequences. He's our hope and our hero; but above all else, he's the man.
Men in Black
by Eric Eisenberg
With actors like Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger you know exactly what you’re going to get out of an action film, with big muscles, big guns, and the occasional crafty one-liner. And while Will Smith has played those kinds of roles before, what makes the first Men in Black movie stand out is that it serves to challenge him as a comedian first and an action star second.
Strong, smart and cool as Agent J may be, what makes Smith’s performance in Men in Black so great aren’t the scenes where he is handling a gun and blasting aliens, but when he is learning the ropes as a new recruit and performing against the overly-gruff Agent K, played by Tommy Lee Jones. Smith is amazing as the fish out of water as he is exposed to a world he had no idea was surrounding him his entire life and all of it is gold. He shows himself as an agile physical comedian – trying to fill out his test form in an oval chair or trying to help an alien give birth while being tossed around in the process – but also has terrific verbal chemistry with both Jones and Linda Fiorentino, arguing about the proper application of the neutralizer with the first and failing to flirt with the latter. No other film in Smith’s career has allowed him to play to his strengths so perfectly.
Ali
by Katey Rich
Will Smith always makes it look easy. The man born with enough charisma and innate skill to star in a TV show as himself at the age of 22, he seemed to coast his way to movie stardom, with the superhuman ability to turn absolute disasters into blockbusters (see: Wild Wild West) and turn his children into superstars (see: The Karate Kid, "Whip My Hair") simply by pointing them to a spotlight. But 11 years ago Will Smith let us see him work, pouring himself into the challenge of playing boxing's self-appointed greatest hero, Muhammad Ali. He doesn't shrink into the role the way you might expect in a biopic, but that becomes part of the performance's brilliance-- the brash, confident public figure Will Smith is stepping in the shoes of the brash, confident public figure Muhammad Ali, and revealing new layers of each men simultaneously. Smith has always had a way of seeming like he's playing himself onscreen, but with Ali's haircut and verbal tics and biographical details, he's changed just enough so that we don't just see a new side of The Greatest, but of Smith himself too.
The Pursuit of Happyness
by Mack Rawden
Will Smith is remarkably good at playing assholes. He’s great at being the loudest guy in the room and out alpha male-ing everyone around him. His voice naturally conveys a self-assured swagger, which is actually why he’s uniquely suited for a rags-to-riches story. Chris Gardner might not be his usual asshole, but deep down, he’s convinced with hard work, determination and the right opportunity, he will succeed. The Pursuit Of Happyness is about making that opportunity. It’s about working tirelessly to put yourself into a position in which you’re given the chance to stand on your own two feet.
Throughout the film, Smith pushes himself dramatically as his world threatens to cave in, but that inherent Big Willy Swagger is never lost. As an audience, we root for Chris Gardner precisely because he’s not a charity case. Another actor might have conveyed too much sadness or too much grief, but through Smith’s eyes, we never lose hope, not hope that he’ll win the lottery or find a million dollars on the ground but hope that he’ll earn his fortune one footstep at a time. He may have made more money making wisecracks about aliens, but I prefer to watch him out-alpha male stockbrokers.
I Am Legend
by Jesse Carp
Francis Lawrence’s I Am Legend is certainly not Will Smith’s best film, but the Fresh Prince’s performance as Marine virologist Robert Neville is absolutely captivating. The third cinematic adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic novel is two-thirds of a fantastic film and even when the butchered ending unfolds, Smith never stops being compelling as the sole (maybe?) human survivor of the viral outbreak. And let’s not forget that the excellent first acts of I Am Legend rely almost exclusively on Smith to carry the film Cast Away-style with his only companion being a German Shepherd named Sam.
Okay, so a dog may offer a bit more to play off than a volleyball, but there is still no denying the kind of performance and presence needed to sustain the audience’s attention as the only human on screen for the majority of a movie. And these early scenes of Smith alone with Sam are also the film’s strongest and showcase all the reasons why he’s a huge star; the actor’s undeniable charisma chatting up his canine and hitting golf balls down empty NYC streets, his action chops hunting game and/or the creatures, and also his dramatic side, cowering in the bathtub as the world screams outside or losing his only companion. His Robert Neville is a broken man trying to hold on to the last remnants of his sanity and humanity, I wish we got to see him stick the landing and say (and mean) the words “I am Legend.”
No one can deny Smith is a movie star. But is he a great actor? He's starred in a lot of movies that would have crashed and burned without his charisma, but how do you pick which one of them makes a great performance, and which was his best? We debated this amongst ourselves and each of us found a performance we wanted to defend as his best. Check out our picks below, vote in the poll, and let us know what you think is Will Smith's best performance-- or if you're waiting to see that Men In Black III turns out to be his best yet.
by Kelly West
by Sean O'Connell
But it was never better employed than when Smith teamed with Martin Lawrence and Michael Bay for the brash, ballsy Bad Boys back in 1995. Cocky Miami detective Mike Lowery was Smith’s natural ego dialed to about an “8,” a lethal ladies man quick with a handgun and a comeback line. Smith’s larger-than-life persona gelled perfectly with Lawrence’s frazzled, frustrated Marcus Burnett, and the package was contained to a relatively precise 119 minutes (Bay’s shortest film to date). Bad Boys established the blueprint of a Will Smith blockbuster: Equal parts stand-offish humor and eye-popping special effects. And the bloated, gratuitous, unchecked ego of Bad Boys II only proved how streamlined and effective the original actually was. Maybe it’s not his “best” performance, but it certainly is the quintessential Will Smith performance.
by Kristy Puchko
A more restrained or layered performance would have been out of place in the midst of Roland Emmerich's over-the-top love letter to American heroism, and that's why hurricane-punching Smith is perfect for the part. It harnesses his unrelenting energy and amped up acting style into the driving force that pulls audiences through this crowded ensemble piece that's peppered with some deeply sad sequences. He's our hope and our hero; but above all else, he's the man.
by Eric Eisenberg
Strong, smart and cool as Agent J may be, what makes Smith’s performance in Men in Black so great aren’t the scenes where he is handling a gun and blasting aliens, but when he is learning the ropes as a new recruit and performing against the overly-gruff Agent K, played by Tommy Lee Jones. Smith is amazing as the fish out of water as he is exposed to a world he had no idea was surrounding him his entire life and all of it is gold. He shows himself as an agile physical comedian – trying to fill out his test form in an oval chair or trying to help an alien give birth while being tossed around in the process – but also has terrific verbal chemistry with both Jones and Linda Fiorentino, arguing about the proper application of the neutralizer with the first and failing to flirt with the latter. No other film in Smith’s career has allowed him to play to his strengths so perfectly.
by Katey Rich
by Mack Rawden
Throughout the film, Smith pushes himself dramatically as his world threatens to cave in, but that inherent Big Willy Swagger is never lost. As an audience, we root for Chris Gardner precisely because he’s not a charity case. Another actor might have conveyed too much sadness or too much grief, but through Smith’s eyes, we never lose hope, not hope that he’ll win the lottery or find a million dollars on the ground but hope that he’ll earn his fortune one footstep at a time. He may have made more money making wisecracks about aliens, but I prefer to watch him out-alpha male stockbrokers.
by Jesse Carp
Okay, so a dog may offer a bit more to play off than a volleyball, but there is still no denying the kind of performance and presence needed to sustain the audience’s attention as the only human on screen for the majority of a movie. And these early scenes of Smith alone with Sam are also the film’s strongest and showcase all the reasons why he’s a huge star; the actor’s undeniable charisma chatting up his canine and hitting golf balls down empty NYC streets, his action chops hunting game and/or the creatures, and also his dramatic side, cowering in the bathtub as the world screams outside or losing his only companion. His Robert Neville is a broken man trying to hold on to the last remnants of his sanity and humanity, I wish we got to see him stick the landing and say (and mean) the words “I am Legend.”
What is Will Smith's best performance?
Will Smith Says He Probably Won't Be In I Am Legend 2, Doesn't Want To Be The Sequel Guy
Back in February it was reported that Warner Bros. and Overbrook Entertainment (the production company owned by Will Smith) had begun working with producer Akiva Goldsman to craft a sequel to the 2007 winter blockbuster I Am Legend. What was interesting about the report, however, was that it said Smith would likely return to the film as Robert Neville, despite the fact that the character met an unfortunate end at the finish of the first movie. This was explained away by saying that I Am Legend 2 wouldn't be a direct sequel, but instead would just tell a different story in the same universe, but now it's looking like Smith may not be involved at all.
In an interview last month with the BBC (via Movies.com), Smith revealed that he actually doesn't have a hand in the development of I Am Legend 2 and isn't contractually obligated to return for the sequel. Said Smith, "Producers are working on it. I'm not actually working on it. If it's great, I'm into it." When asked directly if he would be in the film the actor responded "Probably not."
According to Smith, the issue comes down to doing sequels for the right reason. Last month, of course, saw the release of Men in Black III, which saw modest success but was also seen by many as a simple cash grab. And that's not the only potential sequel for Smith in the works. Over the years there have been whispers of sequels to movies like Hancock, Independence Day, and I, Robot, not to mention a potential third Bad Boys. While he hasn't ruled out the projects entirely he has no desire to become "the sequel guy." Said Smith, "I figure I’ve got about six or seven more years where I can run and jump a little bit and then I’m going butt and gut for the rest of my career. Butt and gut."
There haven't been any quotes from Smith on the subject since the interview or really any news about I Am Legend 2 or the other projects, so hopefully this is a career concept that he sticks with. Men in Black 3 wasn't the disaster it could have been, but it wasn't a great movie and we all know that the star is capable of much more.
In an interview last month with the BBC (via Movies.com), Smith revealed that he actually doesn't have a hand in the development of I Am Legend 2 and isn't contractually obligated to return for the sequel. Said Smith, "Producers are working on it. I'm not actually working on it. If it's great, I'm into it." When asked directly if he would be in the film the actor responded "Probably not."
According to Smith, the issue comes down to doing sequels for the right reason. Last month, of course, saw the release of Men in Black III, which saw modest success but was also seen by many as a simple cash grab. And that's not the only potential sequel for Smith in the works. Over the years there have been whispers of sequels to movies like Hancock, Independence Day, and I, Robot, not to mention a potential third Bad Boys. While he hasn't ruled out the projects entirely he has no desire to become "the sequel guy." Said Smith, "I figure I’ve got about six or seven more years where I can run and jump a little bit and then I’m going butt and gut for the rest of my career. Butt and gut."
There haven't been any quotes from Smith on the subject since the interview or really any news about I Am Legend 2 or the other projects, so hopefully this is a career concept that he sticks with. Men in Black 3 wasn't the disaster it could have been, but it wasn't a great movie and we all know that the star is capable of much more.
The Production Nightmare Of World War Z
From release date shuffling, to extensive reshoots, to a last-minute hustle for a third act rewrite, it's no secret that Marc Forster's World War Z adaptation has been plagued with problems. But as this dystopian drama trudges toward five weeks of "complex reshoots," THR has unveiled some more of the shocking missteps that appear to have marred the Brad Pitt-fronted—and produced—zombie drama that's had fan boys buzzing since its earliest announcement.
First off, it should be said that with all the bad calls Plan B has made thus far in the film's production, Pitt has been dedicated to making this movie something extraordinary, outlying his hopes to the magazine:
Perhaps it was his high dramatic aims that inspired Pitt to pick Kite Runner director Marc Forster, who despite having helmed Quantum Solace, is not well reputed for his management of major, effects-heavy productions. Because of this gap in experience, Pitt's Plan B banner brought in more seasoned crewmembers to surround Forster, cutting out Forster's usual collaborators. Several sources say this undercutting of Forster's input caused in-fighting, which led to crew shakeups, morale-sucking discontent, and a lag in many creative decisions including the look of the movie's zombies. One insider explained, “The director was not empowered. There was nobody that steered the ship. … When you get [a director] who can’t do it all … you get a struggle as to whose is the singular voice.”
But with Plan B bringing in Damon Lindelof to rewrite the screenplay's final act months after wrapping principal photography it's clear the production was jumbled before it even began. Second-unit director Simon Crane is said to have requested at least 60 days to capture the film's extensive second-unit shot list, but was ultimately given only a third of that. This kind of planning—or lack thereof—led to tensions on set which spurred widely heralded cinematographer Robert Richardson (who shot Inglourious Basterds, Hugo, and JFK just to name a few of his incredible credits) to attempt to wrangle the crew himself. It's also rumored this celebrated DP repeatedly asked to leave the project all together.
But despite all of this, Paramount is insisting World War Z can be salvaged. Paramount film group president Adam Goodman insists, "The footage from this film looks fantastic, but we all agreed it can have a better ending. Getting the ending correct is essential, and we are in that creative process. World War Z is a giant summer movie and we are confident it will be a global hit when it’s released June 2013."
While the film's originally proposed trilogy seems to be a pipe dream after all this, it is still possible for Forster and Plan B to salvage World War Z. After all, there are several wildly successful movies that overcame their notoriously troubled productions, including The Bourne Identity, Apocalypse Now and my all-time favorite summer movie: Jaws. Plus, the very fact that Paramount is pouring more money into this production—that is already over the $170 million mark—suggests they and Plan B are still trying to get this right. With a little luck, and some solid script changes and reshoots, World War Z could still be saved.
First off, it should be said that with all the bad calls Plan B has made thus far in the film's production, Pitt has been dedicated to making this movie something extraordinary, outlying his hopes to the magazine:
"Can we take this genre movie and use it as a Trojan horse for sociopolitical problems, and what would the effect on the world be if everything we knew was upside-down and pulled out from under us?”
Perhaps it was his high dramatic aims that inspired Pitt to pick Kite Runner director Marc Forster, who despite having helmed Quantum Solace, is not well reputed for his management of major, effects-heavy productions. Because of this gap in experience, Pitt's Plan B banner brought in more seasoned crewmembers to surround Forster, cutting out Forster's usual collaborators. Several sources say this undercutting of Forster's input caused in-fighting, which led to crew shakeups, morale-sucking discontent, and a lag in many creative decisions including the look of the movie's zombies. One insider explained, “The director was not empowered. There was nobody that steered the ship. … When you get [a director] who can’t do it all … you get a struggle as to whose is the singular voice.”
But with Plan B bringing in Damon Lindelof to rewrite the screenplay's final act months after wrapping principal photography it's clear the production was jumbled before it even began. Second-unit director Simon Crane is said to have requested at least 60 days to capture the film's extensive second-unit shot list, but was ultimately given only a third of that. This kind of planning—or lack thereof—led to tensions on set which spurred widely heralded cinematographer Robert Richardson (who shot Inglourious Basterds, Hugo, and JFK just to name a few of his incredible credits) to attempt to wrangle the crew himself. It's also rumored this celebrated DP repeatedly asked to leave the project all together.
But despite all of this, Paramount is insisting World War Z can be salvaged. Paramount film group president Adam Goodman insists, "The footage from this film looks fantastic, but we all agreed it can have a better ending. Getting the ending correct is essential, and we are in that creative process. World War Z is a giant summer movie and we are confident it will be a global hit when it’s released June 2013."
While the film's originally proposed trilogy seems to be a pipe dream after all this, it is still possible for Forster and Plan B to salvage World War Z. After all, there are several wildly successful movies that overcame their notoriously troubled productions, including The Bourne Identity, Apocalypse Now and my all-time favorite summer movie: Jaws. Plus, the very fact that Paramount is pouring more money into this production—that is already over the $170 million mark—suggests they and Plan B are still trying to get this right. With a little luck, and some solid script changes and reshoots, World War Z could still be saved.
Total Recall Set Visit Interview: Colin Farrell And Jessica Biel
Part of what makes the story of Total Recall so great is its ambiguity. While the audience is happy to go along with the ride and see Douglas Quaid become a super spy and a hero, at the back of your mind you’re always questioning if what we’re seeing is actually happening. Is Quaid actually living the life of a spy or is he just experiencing an implanted memory? It’s a fun and confusing question, and not just for the audience, but the cast as well.
Last summer I was invited as part of a small group of journalists to travel to Toronto, Canada and visit the set of the new Total Recall, directed by Len Wiseman. In between watching them film scenes (you can read all about that HERE) both Colin Farrell and Jessica Biel were kind enough to talk with us about their experience making the film. Check out the interview below in which they discuss not just the big question behind the film, but also performing their action scenes, playing around with futuristic weapons, and finding the emotion behind it all.
How challenging is it to do take after take of that scene that we were just watching?
Colin Farrell: You guys aren’t recent arrivals, right? You have been here for an hour or two I’m assuming based on that question. That was rather…we flew through that disappointingly quick I must say. It doesn’t usually go so swimmingly. It must be the hangover.
Jessica Biel: We talk about it all the time. It’s these little pockets of real passion, emotion, and connection in the midst of a big, huge, wild journey where we are running for our lives all of the time. Firing those big weapons are such bits of just deliciousness. It is a pleasure.
Farrell: There are not a lot of them. I mean, the film is…
Biel: There are only a few. It is pretty nice. I think I just always try to make everything into a love story. That is my problem. [laughs]
Farrell: I think you probably beat us to the punch there. I’m not even signed on for that very last scene you just saw. It is the only reason why I am doing the whole fucking picture. There is so much…this film is kind of extreme in its portrayal of the chaos of action and the cause and effect of violence. There are only these little pockets and windows, as Jessica was saying, where the emotional truth of each of the characters is allowed to creep in and make itself a home. Generally, in my experience, you treat Total Recall the same way you treat anything. It is the same way you treat a stage play, a piece of Greek theater, In Bruges, or whatever it may be. You approach it all the same regardless of the action. You really do. It is not just a lie. You approach it all from the standpoint of your character and just from a human being with whatever human being you are playing. You are just a human being and why are you there? What has them there? What do they want from the situation? So, with that in mind, it is the most fun part. The violence and the action does get repetitive by its very nature, whereas human emotion and thought never gets repetitive. It is very hard, as a human being I find in my 35 years, to experience the same thought in the same way twice. I’ve had the exact same thought about the exact same thing, but it is never the exact same. It is in a different container when it comes a second or third time. So, with that in mind, those scenes that we just did; each take is a little bit different and it continues to grow. I don’t think I would like to experience it but I understand some directors doing….you can get out of hand as a director and do 60, 70, 80, or 90 takes. People may say that is out of hand, but there will always be something new if the emotion and the intellect are engaged. The action does get repetitive. It is fun at the beginning, but it is fucking huge. You just saw 30% of my dialogue in the film [laughs] No, it is not that bad. I take it back.
Do you feel you are able to infuse the same amount of emotion into those action scenes? Do they give you the opportunity to do that?
Biel: That is the key.
Farrell: I try to. They can be so easy to get kind of robotic about it all. It can be very easy. You kind of have to remind yourself.
Biel: Constantly. But that is what Colin was saying about how you have to look at this particular type of material as if you were breaking down a drama with what emotion, thought, and feeling is behind everything whether it is picking up your gun, pointing it, aiming it, or jumping off a building. We are always doing all these crazy things, but you really do have to implement all of these thoughts behind it. Otherwise, it really is just vacant. Your eyes are dead and you’re like, “I jumped, fell, and I made it.” Then you watch it later and you see it. I see it and I catch myself. I’ve done it before in films. I’ve seen my work and I’ve been really embarrassed. Nobody else can really tell, but I see little bits where I didn’t connect it.
Farrell: Because everyone else is going, “She jumped and she made it.” That is kind of only me, but for you inside it…
Biel: I see it in my own work. So I really work very hard to try and fill those moments where it is hard to connect to anything that you are really doing because we are in such a vacuum sometimes. One day I came on set and you said, “I’ve been doing seven seconds of screen time and I don’t even know what I am doing anymore.” It just gets to a point where it is so…
Farrell: It is so fragmented.
Is that particularly challenging on this film, though? At least from what I know from the short story and the previous film there is a lot of us not knowing what is real and what is not real. Is that difficult for you as well? For example, is it persona A or persona B and what does the audience know at this point?
Biel: It is constantly confusing for us.
Farrell: This is a pretty good argument for none of this shit being real [laughs]. This is like The Matrix, man. I am looking for grids above your head.
So is there a system at place that you have when you are, let’s say, at a certain point in the movie where the audience knows X?
Biel: Now it is really getting creepy. What is happening now?
Farrell: Seriously. That is Laurence Fishburne.
Can you talk about the level of physicality that you both go through? You look kind of beat up here and I believe this is towards the end. Can you talk about the physical things that you are both doing on the set?
Farrell: I get a few slaps around the head and on various parts of the body throughout the film. I inflict a bit more damage than I receive. Otherwise, it would be a short film. They are doing a good job of taking care of business and making sure that I am suitably battered. There is…from the get go. I mean, the opening section of the film starts in a kind of pacifistic place. It is just going to work, the business of living, being on the treadmill, and something of a decent marriage, which isn’t dealt into too deeply. Then I’m assuming 20 minutes in, as soon as I get into the chair, the proverbial hits the fan. Then there is a lot of violence in the film. There is a lot and it goes from one chase to another. Violence is…I think people are propelled towards violence, and what propels them is much more interesting than the actual act of violence itself. With regards to your question about how to differentiate between this scene and that scene so that it doesn’t all become one blind chase and one blind need to escape or one kind of nebulous pacing; hopefully the ante picks up and up and it gets more and more desperate as it reaches the end of the film and as you get closer to some inevitable truth that needs to be experienced, which is kind of the saving of the world I suppose. The world is in a bit of a bad place and Cohaagen is not the autonomous leader that he claims to be. But the violence is fun and it really is a part of it.
Biel: What we have been doing a lot lately is that we are in our harnesses doing wire work, but we are lifted on this big elevator that moves in all of these different directions and we are dropping onto it. I roll off by accident, he grabs me, I am dangling, lifting, and climbing back on to this box that is floating in space. Are we 30 feet up or so?
Farrell: Yeah, about 30 or 40 feet up.
Biel: It is that kind of physical stuff as well. There is a lot of hand to hand combat. Kate [Beckinsale] and I have a cool fight where we do that. Colin does a lot of that. Then we fire a lot of weapons and do a lot of running.
Farrell: She has a great fight with Kate. It’s actually a really cool fight. I was a bit jealous and had a bit of envy.
Biel: It is really cool because it is not a girly fight at all. It is quite a…it’s just like two warriors fighting. We are about to get into some really interesting wire work, which is all of our anti-gravity stuff when we are trying the China Fall, which is this amazing transporting system. So it will be lots of floating physical stuff, which I have never done before. I don’t know if you have ever done it before.
Farrell: Me neither. Not even in my dreams.
Are you nervous?
Biel: I’m not nervous. It is always really fun. I really enjoy that kind of stuff. I think maybe I’m concerned about…
Not falling on your head?
Biel: I honestly don’t feel worried about that. Once you are on the rig and the guys have you in your harness…I’m sure things can go wrong, but I don’t really feel it. After we do it one time; the first time the adrenaline is pumping and it feels kind of nerve wracking.
Farrell: Yes, until your cherry has been popped, it is a little bit nerve wracking.
Biel: But I think the idea of moving in slow motion is...I’m trying to figure out how that goes exactly and if I can do it now.
Farrell: We were doing it yesterday and it was fun. It really was. Yesterday was the first day. Did they show you around all of the sets? The scene we were just shooting now – that is a people carrier. It is a very futuristic notion of this China Fall concept. Did they explain it to you and how you fall through the earth? So when it traverses the earth’s core, there is a shift in polarity and traversing in anti-gravity for a while. So it was the first time that we did it. It was 50 people, myself, Bokeem Woodbine, and a bunch of day players trying to figure it out. It took a while. Some people had their legs floating lovely, half of them had them like a child, and one guy was cycling. The director was like, “Cut! No cycling!” [laughs] But it was a lot of fun. About two hours in there we were just saying, “Get ready!” and everyone was just doing it. It was so much fun. That kind of stuff after doing reams and reams of action, because we had just come off lots of action, was really fun. It was so pathetic and it was like, “I get to engage the brain and body a bit.” It was a challenge and it was something to do. Then, of course, after a while of doing that you’re like, “Okay. Can we do something else?” This film is all of these little chapters. Some of these set pieces take eight or nine days to do. They are fucking huge!
You guys did a 15 day hover craft chase sequences from what I understand.
Farrell: That is including second-unit.
Biel: Second-unit is still doing that.
Farrell: Really? Wow.
Can you talk about how you think that scene is going to look like?
Farrell: It should look really cool.
Biel: It’s going to be so cool. The hover cars were literally built on top of race cars.
Farrell: They really did customize it. It is like something from Mad Max. It is this fabricated thing with massive engines, cages, and then they mounted on top the hover craft.
Biel: So we are actually moving and not just sitting there with four grips shaking the thing, which is kind of what I expected. [laughs] I’m not used to these big budget films anymore.
Farrell: Me neither.
Biel: So these things are literally massive adult series bumper cars. Kate is in one and we are in another one and these guys are slamming us. Our heads are rocking and it is so cool.
Farrell: It is so cool! Honest to god, just reacting to it…
Biel: It is going to look amazing. It was a real kind of experience. It was scary.
Farrell: It was an instantaneous response. It was a very immediate and very physical. It was kind of shocking a couple of times. Plus, these things were built and they took a while to build to great expense up until time and time again. But the hover part at the top is a little bit plasticy, even though you will never see it in the film. So in the middle of a take a fucking screw would go. [laughs]
Biel: There is one point where we first got in and they said, “So the door doesn’t shut so you can roll out. So you have to strap yourself extra in.” I had to wrench my own door close at one point. [laughs]
Farrell: But it does so much of the work for us. I mean, with all of the green screen that is prevalent in the studios. If you have a look around, I am not feeling like I am stuck on this kind of unhuman island where I have to communicate with an idea, which is good because I have actors around me and stuff. But the actual space we are shooting in; the practical sets are really fucking magnificent. Then, this greater notion of how the world is topographically different will be put in green screen. But while we are shooting, even if it’s a lift, we are shooting in it and behind the lift outside you will see this big chasm. I saw the artwork that is going to be designed and put in post, but the lift is beautiful. The designer has designed it so magnificently and Len has helped draw a lot of the concepts as well. That stuff is so…you always bring your own imagination, of course, but the environment is helping me certainly do a lot of the work. The sets are amazing. So there is a lot of green screen, but I am not having to talk to Jar Jar Binks. I don’t feel that I’m having to…
So Jar Jar Binks is not in this movie?
Farrell: Well, there might be just a cameo, but I don’t want to ruin it for all of those many Jar Jar Binks fans that are out in the world.
There are all of these action movies like Inception and the Matrix movies. The primary drama is the intangibility of memory, reality, and what is real and what is not. But they are action movies. Do you think it is inherently cathartic to deal with an existential crisis by hitting and shooting something? Is this something that you can bring to your performance?
Farrell: [laughs] I think so. Someone once told me that in Japan there is a place or places where you can go and buy like a hundred plates and fucking throw them against the wall.
Biel: Really? That is a great idea.
Farrell: It is a great idea, whether it exists or not. I think that touches into what you are saying. I much prefer for people to go to shooting ranges and shoot at two-dimensional paper targets than to have to go out in the street or to foreign territories and do the same. I think, as human beings, we at times overvalue the intellect and we undermine the body. I don’t mean a body externally and the shape of a body. I mean the intelligence of a body, the memories that a body can store, how a body feels emotion, and how a body processes emotion. So I think with that in mind, I think you are possibly right. I love a good bit of discourse myself. I love a good existential conversation when I don’t get too in over my head and feel like a dipshit. At the end of the day, I think it is really good to get it on its feet. I had a really cool time talking about all of these scenes with you and with Len. At the end of the day, there is a literally a moment where I go, “Can we just get up now, talk about it, and move through it?” So, yeah, I think you are right.
What is it like dealing with the weight of working on a film that is a science-fiction staple? Is there anything from the original film where you were like, “I demand we include this!” or is there anything that you were excited that they included?
Farrell: No. Not really. I really came to this as a fan of film and as a fan of the original as well. I really engaged with this script and with the concept of the whole story – the idea of the world that is created. As a film fan I was just like, “Wow!” When I saw that artwork I was like, “Fucking hell! I can really be in that frame?!” When I sat with Len I didn’t say it to him because I was really having a nerd moment where I was like, “Oh my god. I can be in that? That is really good and interesting.” So, no, I don’t feel that anything…I am trusting Len’s vision and I am trusting that there is enough. You know, the frame work of the story is the same. If anyone has read the short story….the original is not so much like the short story, and this is not so much like the short story. The short story is really fucking dark and fucking genius. What he achieves in 18 or 19 pages is so astonishing in how he can bend my cerebrum and have me guessing what is real and what is not. But that is a different film. That is Kafka and this is not that. I just trust and hope that there will be enough because it is a weird thing with remakes. I am having a bit of an experience now with remakes because of Fright Night and then this. Part of me wants to apologize, part of me wants to win over all of the old fans, and part of me wants to go “Fuck everyone!” [laughs] I don’t know what to do. You are dammed if you do and you are dammed if you don’t. There seems to be this thing where it is like “Why do a remake if it is just going to be the same exact thing?” So then you do a remake, reimagining, or a reinvestment in a story and it is different enough. Then they are like “They didn’t even put that thing in!” So you are dammed either way. I just hope that this will be an individual cinema experience. I really do. I hope that, like how I do with Fright Night, that fans of the original, like myself, will go watch it and say “Oh, we fucked up.” I am not beyond criticizing myself and my own work. But I hope the fans of the original enjoy it and I hope it finds a new audience. Maybe some people will go back and watch the original. Who knows?
Is there something in this movie that you can compare to the original in that sense where people are going to take away from it? Is there something that is really going to stick out?
Farrell: Conceptually there are some really cool things that we are filling in and there is the human aspect too, but that will be put in later. As far as a character stuff goes, there are a couple of really interesting…I wouldn’t even know what the fuck to talk about. It is so weird because we are right in the middle of it with 5 weeks left. I mean, the three breasted lady is in there. I know you wanted to…she was on the tip of your tongue. I could see [laughs]. I know where you were like. “The lady with the mask and the three…” [laughs] But you have to at the same time I think consciously have a nod of the head when you can have a bit of fun based on something that was offered up from the original and take that in. But as far as new stuff goes…I don’t know. The whole thing felt…the fact that it doesn’t go to Mars. There might be a little less extremeisms. There is not the scene where the eyes are exploding. There are no Martians and there are not…
Biel: I don’t know. I think the weapons, the hover crafts, and the other ways of transportation. I that is going to be pretty…it feels to me more intellectually mind blowing than it is like “Whoa! We have never seen this particular kind of effect before!” It is not necessarily that anymore. That was such a specific time where it was really still a challenge to do those types of things. Now we have such an opportunity and possibility to create those kinds of things. So it is more about weapons and things. Some of the weapons that we shoot…my gun is a 9mm Beretta, but it is automatic. It doesn’t exist. It actually would explode if we shot real bullets out of it.
Farrell: She is like fucking RoboCop on set. It is ridiculous.
Biel: It is amazing. It is an incredibly sexy and beautiful 9mm that shoots like a machine gun. It is kind of intense.
Farrell: Then there is this futuristic Bolo weapon that shoots a Bolo web that wraps around the body. As soon as it makes impact it lights up in a white flair and it wraps around like an octopus taking a body.
So that is what you were shooting…
Farrell: Yes. I was shooting someone and there is a magnetized system on it. So there are loads of stuff that are kind of cool.
This question is for Ms. Biel. Colin is out point of view character and his head is memory soup. So if he is our point of view character the reality of the movie is constantly changing. Do you feel that you are playing different characters each time we are entering a different phase of his memory salad?
Biel: Memory salad? That sounds delicious. What kind of dressing do you have on there? Is that vinaigrette?
Farrell: It was a two course meal. It started with memory soup and went to salad. [laughs]
Biel: That is a good question, but no. I don’t feel like…even though Quaid is our point of view and he is taking the audience along on his journey, which is quite confusing. I think an important element to my character is that she is very consistent. She is pretty consistent in what she believes in. There are many times where it is confusing, but I think she knows what they experienced together. She remembers it. She is a little bit unsure about how he feels about things a lot of the time, but she is aggressive in her consistency about “I need you to come with me and we need to do these things. I am crossing my figures that you will eventually remember.” Then when all of this different information starts coming at her and all of these different possibilities of Quaid maybe having been a part of this infiltration and the stealing of ideas and actually getting Cohaagen to find out where my father is – that gets a little confusing. But we are still maintaining this idea that Melina is very clear and more than anything believes in what this person remembers. It is kind of what were you saying about physically…we deal a lot with this idea of “Does he remember or does he just feel it?” Like you said, the brain is a memory soup. It can’t really be trusted but that feeling of “I know. I just know for some reason.”
Farrell: Yes. She represents the truth I think. I think Melina in the film is kind of the emotional anchor of the story. I really do. She represents the truth and Quaid represents the audiences’ disorientation as a result of an inability to grasp what is truly real and what is not and what is a construct of the mind and what is a construct of the cause and effect of experience. The whole thing, with all of the action, really comes down to “If you don’t give a fuck about what the characters are going through; the film just won’t work” It really won’t even with all the gadgetry and all of the wonderfully conceived and creative visions of the future and what it may hold – if you don’t care about the journey of Melina, Quaid, or side with Cohaagen the film doesn’t work.
Biel: The scenes we did today are so important for those reasons because we only have three or four moments. If we haven’t gotten to you in your heart this first time we have two or three more to make you really want these people to be together. You really want him to remember her or you really want her to convince her.
It sounds like you are doing most of your own stunts, but is there anything that they won’t let you do?
Biel: There is always something. There is always…
Farrell: What is it? I want to do it now!
Biel: It is always plate glass or sugar glass. If you have to bust through glass…they never let you bust through glass because someone always gets cut even though it is sugar. So we are always requesting to do that kind of thing. So there is that, but pretty much everything else. We were talking about rolling off the elevator and that was really cool because we got to do all of that stuff.
Farrell: The insurance costs must be huge on these kinds of things. It was a lot of wire work from pretty high up. But I feel pretty safe and there is a lot of fighting. Those cars, while they were slamming into each other, were about as unsafe as I have felt in the 15 years of doing this shit. I am talking about 20 elephants, 80 horses, and 400 extras going on “Action!” and that was a bit safer.
Last summer I was invited as part of a small group of journalists to travel to Toronto, Canada and visit the set of the new Total Recall, directed by Len Wiseman. In between watching them film scenes (you can read all about that HERE) both Colin Farrell and Jessica Biel were kind enough to talk with us about their experience making the film. Check out the interview below in which they discuss not just the big question behind the film, but also performing their action scenes, playing around with futuristic weapons, and finding the emotion behind it all.
How challenging is it to do take after take of that scene that we were just watching?
Colin Farrell: You guys aren’t recent arrivals, right? You have been here for an hour or two I’m assuming based on that question. That was rather…we flew through that disappointingly quick I must say. It doesn’t usually go so swimmingly. It must be the hangover.
Jessica Biel: We talk about it all the time. It’s these little pockets of real passion, emotion, and connection in the midst of a big, huge, wild journey where we are running for our lives all of the time. Firing those big weapons are such bits of just deliciousness. It is a pleasure.
Farrell: There are not a lot of them. I mean, the film is…
Biel: There are only a few. It is pretty nice. I think I just always try to make everything into a love story. That is my problem. [laughs]
Farrell: I think you probably beat us to the punch there. I’m not even signed on for that very last scene you just saw. It is the only reason why I am doing the whole fucking picture. There is so much…this film is kind of extreme in its portrayal of the chaos of action and the cause and effect of violence. There are only these little pockets and windows, as Jessica was saying, where the emotional truth of each of the characters is allowed to creep in and make itself a home. Generally, in my experience, you treat Total Recall the same way you treat anything. It is the same way you treat a stage play, a piece of Greek theater, In Bruges, or whatever it may be. You approach it all the same regardless of the action. You really do. It is not just a lie. You approach it all from the standpoint of your character and just from a human being with whatever human being you are playing. You are just a human being and why are you there? What has them there? What do they want from the situation? So, with that in mind, it is the most fun part. The violence and the action does get repetitive by its very nature, whereas human emotion and thought never gets repetitive. It is very hard, as a human being I find in my 35 years, to experience the same thought in the same way twice. I’ve had the exact same thought about the exact same thing, but it is never the exact same. It is in a different container when it comes a second or third time. So, with that in mind, those scenes that we just did; each take is a little bit different and it continues to grow. I don’t think I would like to experience it but I understand some directors doing….you can get out of hand as a director and do 60, 70, 80, or 90 takes. People may say that is out of hand, but there will always be something new if the emotion and the intellect are engaged. The action does get repetitive. It is fun at the beginning, but it is fucking huge. You just saw 30% of my dialogue in the film [laughs] No, it is not that bad. I take it back.
Do you feel you are able to infuse the same amount of emotion into those action scenes? Do they give you the opportunity to do that?
Biel: That is the key.
Farrell: I try to. They can be so easy to get kind of robotic about it all. It can be very easy. You kind of have to remind yourself.
Biel: Constantly. But that is what Colin was saying about how you have to look at this particular type of material as if you were breaking down a drama with what emotion, thought, and feeling is behind everything whether it is picking up your gun, pointing it, aiming it, or jumping off a building. We are always doing all these crazy things, but you really do have to implement all of these thoughts behind it. Otherwise, it really is just vacant. Your eyes are dead and you’re like, “I jumped, fell, and I made it.” Then you watch it later and you see it. I see it and I catch myself. I’ve done it before in films. I’ve seen my work and I’ve been really embarrassed. Nobody else can really tell, but I see little bits where I didn’t connect it.
Farrell: Because everyone else is going, “She jumped and she made it.” That is kind of only me, but for you inside it…
Biel: I see it in my own work. So I really work very hard to try and fill those moments where it is hard to connect to anything that you are really doing because we are in such a vacuum sometimes. One day I came on set and you said, “I’ve been doing seven seconds of screen time and I don’t even know what I am doing anymore.” It just gets to a point where it is so…
Farrell: It is so fragmented.
Is that particularly challenging on this film, though? At least from what I know from the short story and the previous film there is a lot of us not knowing what is real and what is not real. Is that difficult for you as well? For example, is it persona A or persona B and what does the audience know at this point?
Biel: It is constantly confusing for us.
Farrell: This is a pretty good argument for none of this shit being real [laughs]. This is like The Matrix, man. I am looking for grids above your head.
So is there a system at place that you have when you are, let’s say, at a certain point in the movie where the audience knows X?
Biel: Now it is really getting creepy. What is happening now?
Farrell: Seriously. That is Laurence Fishburne.
Can you talk about the level of physicality that you both go through? You look kind of beat up here and I believe this is towards the end. Can you talk about the physical things that you are both doing on the set?
Farrell: I get a few slaps around the head and on various parts of the body throughout the film. I inflict a bit more damage than I receive. Otherwise, it would be a short film. They are doing a good job of taking care of business and making sure that I am suitably battered. There is…from the get go. I mean, the opening section of the film starts in a kind of pacifistic place. It is just going to work, the business of living, being on the treadmill, and something of a decent marriage, which isn’t dealt into too deeply. Then I’m assuming 20 minutes in, as soon as I get into the chair, the proverbial hits the fan. Then there is a lot of violence in the film. There is a lot and it goes from one chase to another. Violence is…I think people are propelled towards violence, and what propels them is much more interesting than the actual act of violence itself. With regards to your question about how to differentiate between this scene and that scene so that it doesn’t all become one blind chase and one blind need to escape or one kind of nebulous pacing; hopefully the ante picks up and up and it gets more and more desperate as it reaches the end of the film and as you get closer to some inevitable truth that needs to be experienced, which is kind of the saving of the world I suppose. The world is in a bit of a bad place and Cohaagen is not the autonomous leader that he claims to be. But the violence is fun and it really is a part of it.
Biel: What we have been doing a lot lately is that we are in our harnesses doing wire work, but we are lifted on this big elevator that moves in all of these different directions and we are dropping onto it. I roll off by accident, he grabs me, I am dangling, lifting, and climbing back on to this box that is floating in space. Are we 30 feet up or so?
Farrell: Yeah, about 30 or 40 feet up.
Biel: It is that kind of physical stuff as well. There is a lot of hand to hand combat. Kate [Beckinsale] and I have a cool fight where we do that. Colin does a lot of that. Then we fire a lot of weapons and do a lot of running.
Farrell: She has a great fight with Kate. It’s actually a really cool fight. I was a bit jealous and had a bit of envy.
Biel: It is really cool because it is not a girly fight at all. It is quite a…it’s just like two warriors fighting. We are about to get into some really interesting wire work, which is all of our anti-gravity stuff when we are trying the China Fall, which is this amazing transporting system. So it will be lots of floating physical stuff, which I have never done before. I don’t know if you have ever done it before.
Farrell: Me neither. Not even in my dreams.
Are you nervous?
Biel: I’m not nervous. It is always really fun. I really enjoy that kind of stuff. I think maybe I’m concerned about…
Not falling on your head?
Biel: I honestly don’t feel worried about that. Once you are on the rig and the guys have you in your harness…I’m sure things can go wrong, but I don’t really feel it. After we do it one time; the first time the adrenaline is pumping and it feels kind of nerve wracking.
Farrell: Yes, until your cherry has been popped, it is a little bit nerve wracking.
Biel: But I think the idea of moving in slow motion is...I’m trying to figure out how that goes exactly and if I can do it now.
Farrell: We were doing it yesterday and it was fun. It really was. Yesterday was the first day. Did they show you around all of the sets? The scene we were just shooting now – that is a people carrier. It is a very futuristic notion of this China Fall concept. Did they explain it to you and how you fall through the earth? So when it traverses the earth’s core, there is a shift in polarity and traversing in anti-gravity for a while. So it was the first time that we did it. It was 50 people, myself, Bokeem Woodbine, and a bunch of day players trying to figure it out. It took a while. Some people had their legs floating lovely, half of them had them like a child, and one guy was cycling. The director was like, “Cut! No cycling!” [laughs] But it was a lot of fun. About two hours in there we were just saying, “Get ready!” and everyone was just doing it. It was so much fun. That kind of stuff after doing reams and reams of action, because we had just come off lots of action, was really fun. It was so pathetic and it was like, “I get to engage the brain and body a bit.” It was a challenge and it was something to do. Then, of course, after a while of doing that you’re like, “Okay. Can we do something else?” This film is all of these little chapters. Some of these set pieces take eight or nine days to do. They are fucking huge!
You guys did a 15 day hover craft chase sequences from what I understand.
Farrell: That is including second-unit.
Biel: Second-unit is still doing that.
Farrell: Really? Wow.
Can you talk about how you think that scene is going to look like?
Farrell: It should look really cool.
Biel: It’s going to be so cool. The hover cars were literally built on top of race cars.
Farrell: They really did customize it. It is like something from Mad Max. It is this fabricated thing with massive engines, cages, and then they mounted on top the hover craft.
Biel: So we are actually moving and not just sitting there with four grips shaking the thing, which is kind of what I expected. [laughs] I’m not used to these big budget films anymore.
Farrell: Me neither.
Biel: So these things are literally massive adult series bumper cars. Kate is in one and we are in another one and these guys are slamming us. Our heads are rocking and it is so cool.
Farrell: It is so cool! Honest to god, just reacting to it…
Biel: It is going to look amazing. It was a real kind of experience. It was scary.
Farrell: It was an instantaneous response. It was a very immediate and very physical. It was kind of shocking a couple of times. Plus, these things were built and they took a while to build to great expense up until time and time again. But the hover part at the top is a little bit plasticy, even though you will never see it in the film. So in the middle of a take a fucking screw would go. [laughs]
Biel: There is one point where we first got in and they said, “So the door doesn’t shut so you can roll out. So you have to strap yourself extra in.” I had to wrench my own door close at one point. [laughs]
Farrell: But it does so much of the work for us. I mean, with all of the green screen that is prevalent in the studios. If you have a look around, I am not feeling like I am stuck on this kind of unhuman island where I have to communicate with an idea, which is good because I have actors around me and stuff. But the actual space we are shooting in; the practical sets are really fucking magnificent. Then, this greater notion of how the world is topographically different will be put in green screen. But while we are shooting, even if it’s a lift, we are shooting in it and behind the lift outside you will see this big chasm. I saw the artwork that is going to be designed and put in post, but the lift is beautiful. The designer has designed it so magnificently and Len has helped draw a lot of the concepts as well. That stuff is so…you always bring your own imagination, of course, but the environment is helping me certainly do a lot of the work. The sets are amazing. So there is a lot of green screen, but I am not having to talk to Jar Jar Binks. I don’t feel that I’m having to…
So Jar Jar Binks is not in this movie?
Farrell: Well, there might be just a cameo, but I don’t want to ruin it for all of those many Jar Jar Binks fans that are out in the world.
There are all of these action movies like Inception and the Matrix movies. The primary drama is the intangibility of memory, reality, and what is real and what is not. But they are action movies. Do you think it is inherently cathartic to deal with an existential crisis by hitting and shooting something? Is this something that you can bring to your performance?
Farrell: [laughs] I think so. Someone once told me that in Japan there is a place or places where you can go and buy like a hundred plates and fucking throw them against the wall.
Biel: Really? That is a great idea.
Farrell: It is a great idea, whether it exists or not. I think that touches into what you are saying. I much prefer for people to go to shooting ranges and shoot at two-dimensional paper targets than to have to go out in the street or to foreign territories and do the same. I think, as human beings, we at times overvalue the intellect and we undermine the body. I don’t mean a body externally and the shape of a body. I mean the intelligence of a body, the memories that a body can store, how a body feels emotion, and how a body processes emotion. So I think with that in mind, I think you are possibly right. I love a good bit of discourse myself. I love a good existential conversation when I don’t get too in over my head and feel like a dipshit. At the end of the day, I think it is really good to get it on its feet. I had a really cool time talking about all of these scenes with you and with Len. At the end of the day, there is a literally a moment where I go, “Can we just get up now, talk about it, and move through it?” So, yeah, I think you are right.
What is it like dealing with the weight of working on a film that is a science-fiction staple? Is there anything from the original film where you were like, “I demand we include this!” or is there anything that you were excited that they included?
Farrell: No. Not really. I really came to this as a fan of film and as a fan of the original as well. I really engaged with this script and with the concept of the whole story – the idea of the world that is created. As a film fan I was just like, “Wow!” When I saw that artwork I was like, “Fucking hell! I can really be in that frame?!” When I sat with Len I didn’t say it to him because I was really having a nerd moment where I was like, “Oh my god. I can be in that? That is really good and interesting.” So, no, I don’t feel that anything…I am trusting Len’s vision and I am trusting that there is enough. You know, the frame work of the story is the same. If anyone has read the short story….the original is not so much like the short story, and this is not so much like the short story. The short story is really fucking dark and fucking genius. What he achieves in 18 or 19 pages is so astonishing in how he can bend my cerebrum and have me guessing what is real and what is not. But that is a different film. That is Kafka and this is not that. I just trust and hope that there will be enough because it is a weird thing with remakes. I am having a bit of an experience now with remakes because of Fright Night and then this. Part of me wants to apologize, part of me wants to win over all of the old fans, and part of me wants to go “Fuck everyone!” [laughs] I don’t know what to do. You are dammed if you do and you are dammed if you don’t. There seems to be this thing where it is like “Why do a remake if it is just going to be the same exact thing?” So then you do a remake, reimagining, or a reinvestment in a story and it is different enough. Then they are like “They didn’t even put that thing in!” So you are dammed either way. I just hope that this will be an individual cinema experience. I really do. I hope that, like how I do with Fright Night, that fans of the original, like myself, will go watch it and say “Oh, we fucked up.” I am not beyond criticizing myself and my own work. But I hope the fans of the original enjoy it and I hope it finds a new audience. Maybe some people will go back and watch the original. Who knows?
Is there something in this movie that you can compare to the original in that sense where people are going to take away from it? Is there something that is really going to stick out?
Farrell: Conceptually there are some really cool things that we are filling in and there is the human aspect too, but that will be put in later. As far as a character stuff goes, there are a couple of really interesting…I wouldn’t even know what the fuck to talk about. It is so weird because we are right in the middle of it with 5 weeks left. I mean, the three breasted lady is in there. I know you wanted to…she was on the tip of your tongue. I could see [laughs]. I know where you were like. “The lady with the mask and the three…” [laughs] But you have to at the same time I think consciously have a nod of the head when you can have a bit of fun based on something that was offered up from the original and take that in. But as far as new stuff goes…I don’t know. The whole thing felt…the fact that it doesn’t go to Mars. There might be a little less extremeisms. There is not the scene where the eyes are exploding. There are no Martians and there are not…
Biel: I don’t know. I think the weapons, the hover crafts, and the other ways of transportation. I that is going to be pretty…it feels to me more intellectually mind blowing than it is like “Whoa! We have never seen this particular kind of effect before!” It is not necessarily that anymore. That was such a specific time where it was really still a challenge to do those types of things. Now we have such an opportunity and possibility to create those kinds of things. So it is more about weapons and things. Some of the weapons that we shoot…my gun is a 9mm Beretta, but it is automatic. It doesn’t exist. It actually would explode if we shot real bullets out of it.
Farrell: She is like fucking RoboCop on set. It is ridiculous.
Biel: It is amazing. It is an incredibly sexy and beautiful 9mm that shoots like a machine gun. It is kind of intense.
Farrell: Then there is this futuristic Bolo weapon that shoots a Bolo web that wraps around the body. As soon as it makes impact it lights up in a white flair and it wraps around like an octopus taking a body.
So that is what you were shooting…
Farrell: Yes. I was shooting someone and there is a magnetized system on it. So there are loads of stuff that are kind of cool.
This question is for Ms. Biel. Colin is out point of view character and his head is memory soup. So if he is our point of view character the reality of the movie is constantly changing. Do you feel that you are playing different characters each time we are entering a different phase of his memory salad?
Biel: Memory salad? That sounds delicious. What kind of dressing do you have on there? Is that vinaigrette?
Farrell: It was a two course meal. It started with memory soup and went to salad. [laughs]
Biel: That is a good question, but no. I don’t feel like…even though Quaid is our point of view and he is taking the audience along on his journey, which is quite confusing. I think an important element to my character is that she is very consistent. She is pretty consistent in what she believes in. There are many times where it is confusing, but I think she knows what they experienced together. She remembers it. She is a little bit unsure about how he feels about things a lot of the time, but she is aggressive in her consistency about “I need you to come with me and we need to do these things. I am crossing my figures that you will eventually remember.” Then when all of this different information starts coming at her and all of these different possibilities of Quaid maybe having been a part of this infiltration and the stealing of ideas and actually getting Cohaagen to find out where my father is – that gets a little confusing. But we are still maintaining this idea that Melina is very clear and more than anything believes in what this person remembers. It is kind of what were you saying about physically…we deal a lot with this idea of “Does he remember or does he just feel it?” Like you said, the brain is a memory soup. It can’t really be trusted but that feeling of “I know. I just know for some reason.”
Farrell: Yes. She represents the truth I think. I think Melina in the film is kind of the emotional anchor of the story. I really do. She represents the truth and Quaid represents the audiences’ disorientation as a result of an inability to grasp what is truly real and what is not and what is a construct of the mind and what is a construct of the cause and effect of experience. The whole thing, with all of the action, really comes down to “If you don’t give a fuck about what the characters are going through; the film just won’t work” It really won’t even with all the gadgetry and all of the wonderfully conceived and creative visions of the future and what it may hold – if you don’t care about the journey of Melina, Quaid, or side with Cohaagen the film doesn’t work.
Biel: The scenes we did today are so important for those reasons because we only have three or four moments. If we haven’t gotten to you in your heart this first time we have two or three more to make you really want these people to be together. You really want him to remember her or you really want her to convince her.
It sounds like you are doing most of your own stunts, but is there anything that they won’t let you do?
Biel: There is always something. There is always…
Farrell: What is it? I want to do it now!
Biel: It is always plate glass or sugar glass. If you have to bust through glass…they never let you bust through glass because someone always gets cut even though it is sugar. So we are always requesting to do that kind of thing. So there is that, but pretty much everything else. We were talking about rolling off the elevator and that was really cool because we got to do all of that stuff.
Farrell: The insurance costs must be huge on these kinds of things. It was a lot of wire work from pretty high up. But I feel pretty safe and there is a lot of fighting. Those cars, while they were slamming into each other, were about as unsafe as I have felt in the 15 years of doing this shit. I am talking about 20 elephants, 80 horses, and 400 extras going on “Action!” and that was a bit safer.
Bill Paxton May Join Mark Wahlberg And Denzel Washington In 2 Guns
Bill Paxton recently received rave reviews for his turn as Randall McCoy in the History Channel miniseries Hatfields & McCoys and he's not missing an opportunity to keep the positive buzz going. According to Variety, Paxton is now in talks to join the cast of 2 Guns, a new film from director Baltasar Kormakur.
Based on the comics by Steven Grant, 2 Guns follows a DEA agent and a Naval Intelligence officer who unknowingly go undercover to investigate each other. The pair find themselves involved with a heist and are told they are stealing from the mob, but the truth is that they have actually stolen from the CIA. Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington are already on-board to star as the two main characters while it was also recently reported that Paula Patton will play the project's female lead. The trade says that Paxton, should he sign on will be playing a "high ranking CIA operative," and one can guess that he probably isn't very happy about the actions of Wahlberg and Washington.
The project will be the second time that Wahlberg has worked with Kormakur, as the two were paired on the action film Contraband that was released this past January. Marc Platt, Andrew Cosby, Ross Richie, Randall Emmett and George Furla are all serving as producers on the project and the script was written by Blake Masters (Law & Order: LA, Brotherhood). Paxton recently completed work on Jeff Renfroe's The Colony, which co-stars Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Zegers and Charlotte Sullivan.
Based on the comics by Steven Grant, 2 Guns follows a DEA agent and a Naval Intelligence officer who unknowingly go undercover to investigate each other. The pair find themselves involved with a heist and are told they are stealing from the mob, but the truth is that they have actually stolen from the CIA. Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington are already on-board to star as the two main characters while it was also recently reported that Paula Patton will play the project's female lead. The trade says that Paxton, should he sign on will be playing a "high ranking CIA operative," and one can guess that he probably isn't very happy about the actions of Wahlberg and Washington.
The project will be the second time that Wahlberg has worked with Kormakur, as the two were paired on the action film Contraband that was released this past January. Marc Platt, Andrew Cosby, Ross Richie, Randall Emmett and George Furla are all serving as producers on the project and the script was written by Blake Masters (Law & Order: LA, Brotherhood). Paxton recently completed work on Jeff Renfroe's The Colony, which co-stars Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Zegers and Charlotte Sullivan.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
First Official Iron Man 3 Pic Online
It may not be the juicy, what-can-it-mean rush triggered whenever those
random paparazzi set pics from a big film in production hit the web, but it’s
something… The first official picture from Iron Man 3 has
arrived and you can check it out in the gallery below.
We’re in familiar territory here, with Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark back in his workshop. Seemingly the security of his sanctum sanctorum has been breached and Tony is unaware that brand new Marvel nemesis Clapper Man is striking!
In reality, it’s a chance to pore over the suits standing in their usual
places to see if any clues can be found as to what we can expect from Shane
Black’s first stab at the Iron Man universe.
Returning veterans Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle are joined this time by Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, James Badge Dale, William Sandler and Ashley Hamilton.
Iron Man 3 will rocket onto our screens on May 3 next year
http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=34173
We’re in familiar territory here, with Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark back in his workshop. Seemingly the security of his sanctum sanctorum has been breached and Tony is unaware that brand new Marvel nemesis Clapper Man is striking!
|
Returning veterans Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle are joined this time by Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, James Badge Dale, William Sandler and Ashley Hamilton.
Iron Man 3 will rocket onto our screens on May 3 next year
http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=34173
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