Hey folks, Harry here... Seems Christopher McQuarrie is at work on a new Western which seemingly is being written for Benicio Del Toro and we've got the first details about this untitled project right here!!! All I know is any film starring Benicio is an absolute must see... and with McQuarrie involved, I'm there.... And btw, looks like the idiots at Universal are fucking up THE PRISONER feature film... they stopped using McQuarrie, MISTAKE NUMBER 1!!!! I'm sure many will follow with the invalided director Simon West in charge... The only thing that guy has created thus far is shit.
Hey Harry, I'm a U of Michigan student and tonight Christopher McQuarrie, the brilliant mind behind Way of the Gun and a little movie you might have heard of called The Usual Suspects, stopped by to speak to a group of mostly screenwriting students. He talked a lot about working with Bryan Singer and Benicio del Toro. McQuarrie does really great impressions of all these different actors he's worked with, and has really great stories about Benicio in particular who, it seems, helps a lot with the writing process. We heard all about how McQuarrie originally opposed del Toro for the role, but was voted down although Benicio never read for the part, and disappeared as soon as he was hired. Nobody associated with the film had heard one line of Fenster's dialogue delivered, until the first take of Benicio's first filmed scene (when Kobyashi approaches the crew in the pool hall). Needless to say, cast, director, and writer didn't really know what to say when they couldn't understand anything Benicio said.
Anyway Mr. McQuarrie told us that he's just been fired from the Prisoner project, and related also that he's writing a new western (!!!!) especially for Benicio (as he did with The Way of the Gun). I guess I'd be willing to give you some details if you're interested. He describes the first shot in the film: the main character in a prison uniform, barefoot, in the snow (his presence there is unexplained). He is freezing, and comes across a trapper at a campfire with warm coat, food, etc. The character decides he can't possibly explain himself to the trapper, so he sneaks up behind him and bashes his head in with a rock. Once he's taken the coat and looks through the trapper's belongings, he finds a wanted poster for the trapper, and some gruesome clues that this trapper was really a sort of serial killer of the old west. So our hero cuts off the trapper's head (as was the fashion at the time) and takes it to town to claim the bounty. That's probably all I should say about that.
There was a great moment of irony for me, sitting in the back of the auditorium, as Mr. McQuarrie discussed his idea of creating a totally unsympathetic character. With obvious pain in his voice, he complained dramatically about how Hollywood only wants characters who are sympathetic, or else will tell the writer to make a character more sympathetic. At this point, a woman sitting in front of me who had been taking notes on the writing process, wrote in big letters, "MAKE CHARACTERS SYMPATHETIC."
Anyway it was a beautiful evening with a guy who really knows how to tell a good story and keep an audience entertained, even if it's just with himself. And I want to thank Mr. McQ for signing my Way of the Gun DVD!!!
Thanks harry
-Evil Knievel
