Truthgame With Q&A Reports On Curtis Hanson and Paul Thomas Anderson!!

Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.

So far, Truthgame’s just sent us a few reviews, but today, he’s got something else for you. Check it out...

Mori...

Here is something a little different - but a lot of chatters were requesting... Info about the Q+A's I've been too in the past few days with Curtis Hanson and Paul Thomas Anderson...

Film Fans of the World

One of the perks of my job – I am a film producer – is that I get to go to numerous screenings… Screenings often occur as part of the preliminary marketing of a film and don’t happen until just before the films release. This means I often go to screenings and am the first in England to a see a film – only to know that my American and international friends have all seen the films in question months before as there releases are often months ahead of UK…

BUT…

Around November every year it all changes… It’s award season. Every distributor wants us (members of various film groups) to vote for their releases and therefore receive awards and therefore add cache’ value to a marketing campaign for films that rely on that sort of kudos to attract its audience…

In an attempt to excite us and better inform us of the wonderful films around – we also get appearances by key crew and cast members – normally on hand to participate in Q+A sessions… (we also get buffets, free drink receptions, tapes and DVD’s of most movies and in America up and till a few years ago when things got way to intense… even limo’s to drive us to screenings! …)

In the past few weeks I have met up with Jason Patrick and Ray Liotta for Narc, Samuel Jackson for Changing Lanes (its just come out in UK), Lee Tamahori for Die Another Day, Nicole Kidman for The Hours and many, many more…

2 recent Q+A’s were with Paul Thomas Anderson and his Line Producer – Danny Lupi and with Curtis Hanson on hand to talk about 8 Mile… These are the things I am going to write about today…

I am not going to write about the films at length as there are plenty of reviews both in here and in mainstream media…

Please note that when you see your favourite action hero or most sexy leading lady give an interview – he/she has probably done another 50 interviews that day… All with the same questions and for themselves still having to be interesting, witty and or course, be able to sell the movie and maintain there own image… this process is called a Press Junket… They’re very hard work for the actors and directors who endure them… When you hear that some actors are boring or dull or even hostile – think how you would feel being asked 50 times a day the same question! I have actor friends who partake in this process and they ALL hate it. They accept it as part of the process and most are contracted to do it… But it’s a fucking hard part of the job… The Q+A sessions I’m privy too are different in that they are for a professional audience with a slightly different agenda – but still a rehash of the same questions and answers…

8 MILE

The film

If you’ve seen Rocky you get the idea… Underdog hero who is on verge of being a loser – makes good in the end…

In this case we get Rabbit… Eminen… A trailer park boy living under the poverty line and with dreams of being a Rapper… I didn’t like the film. A lot of people twice my age (I’m 27) loved it and some of them don’t even like or even heard of Hip Hop) (personally I like Synth Pop, Electronica and Indie – but I do have hip hop in my CD collection and am not immune to its charms)

I didn’t buy it… Eminem is not a great actor… He gives a one note performance and doesn’t smile until basically the last shot – even when he fucks his new girlfriend (in a refreshingly honest scene)… His character shows no charm, warmth of even skill and made it hard to justify to the audiences why his friends had so much faith in him and kept pushing him into rapping contests…. I asked a good friend of mine this and she said because they are his friends… That answer is not good enough for me… Nor is the finished film.

Curtis Hanson is intelligent, a little taller than he comes across on TV and a very articulate speaker… A very good Q+A… The questions were all obvious ones… Mostly about Eminem and how he was to work with, how he handled the process – how Curtis handled him and the other cast members… Here are some interesting things that were said…

Curtis was offered the movie with Eminem attached but not signed… They spent a few weeks together where they both “checked” each other out before both agreed to make the movie…

Eminem went into the film with a very professional attitude and worked very hard to achieve the results…

Eminem struggled with process but made good in the end (can you imagine a director saying anything else to this audience?)

The pieces of paper that Rabbit writes lyrics in on film are actually Eminem’s real notes for his songs…

Apparently he was asked Kim Bassenger to sign his DVD of 9 ½ Weeks! (cute)

Most of the cast were unprofessional.

Curtis likes to cast crews just like he does actors. In this case a new DoP, Designer and Editor. (I wonder if this was because people like Dante Spinotti were unavailable – Dante was shooting Pinocchio at the time – although his replacement did a fine job)

PUNCH DRUNK LOVE

The Film

I’ve just seen this film about 8 hours ago… I’ve since been clubbing and I need time to get my thoughts clear about the actually film… At this stage I don’t think I like it… I loved Magnolia with all my heart and Boogie Nights like Blow were flawed stylistic movies (ripping off Goodfellas) about interesting subjects… I didn’t like Hard 8 aka Sidney very much and I’ve never seen his shorts…

Barry Egin – Adam Sadlers character in the film comes over like Forrest Gump but with need to hit things and people. I didn’t understand Emily Watson’s characters attraction to him. And Philip Semour Hoffman is, as always, in a class of his own… As my friend said Adam Sadler should kiss Philips ass just for being on the same set as him! Personally I like Adam Sadler… I think his weakest film is The Wedding Singer! Most people disagree but hey… so what!

The Q+A was hosted by Mark Kemode (a well known UK critic who did excellent work championing the reissue to The Exorcist back in the late 90’s and the release of its special edition) The Q+A began with Paul Thomas Anderson and his Line Producer Daniel Lupi taking seats… Mark Kemode then asks questions to the three for about 10 minutes… It was boring as fuck. It was like watching a private conversation that we were not privy too! Mark was a lousy host as he was obviously in awe of his guests – a fatal mistake! After 10 minutes of conversation about the music and how film came about – all stuff everyone knows a member of the audience shouts out to Mark saying this is OUR moment with PTA not his and if want to talk he should do so in the bar afterwards… 300 people then cheered this guy and Mark, a little embarrassed gave the floor to us…

Information Gained…

The film shot for 4 ½ months initially and then shut down (this was scheduled as this was done around the times of the threatened actor strikes and many key cast members were contracted to other films…) The film was then assembled and a further shoot was undertaken similar to the way Woody Allen or George Lucas work in which the results were polished and refined… This information received gasps from the audience and from me. 4 ½ months is a long time for a big shoot in its entirety… We’re talking 100 shooting days! The film is 95 minutes long! That’s less than a page per day! How did they spunk all that time?

Adam Sadler enjoyed the process of being directed by PTA as his other films he takes on far more responsibility and as PTA called him “an auteur of his work.”

Adam Sadler signed on to this film so be part of a PTA movie – not one of his own and did relinquish control to PTA…

PTA abandoned the clich̩d process of giving the actors too much back story (where their characters come from Рtheir inner monologues) Emily Watson was very pleased to do it that way. PTA even said he has got a little too caught up in that process on other films.

The 7 sisters were mostly related and most had never acted before… In fact PTA said they pretty much played themselves which is terrifying as personally would disown my family if I had those women to put up with.

The 4 Brothers are real brothers in real life… They’re Mormon’s from Utah. One of them is a professional actor and when the casting director found out PTA adapted the script from 2 brothers to 4 brothers.

PTA obviously has high regard for his Line Producer and it was refreshing to hear as Line Producers are often the unsung hero’s of film productions.

PTA is currently “just writing” and has no plans at the moment to direct anything in the near future… Although when someone asked if he wants to direct in England himself and Danny Lupi looked at each other, smiled and gave one of those cheeky looks directors give to me when we’re 2 shots away from finishing a day and we then go 4 hours over because of the additional shots they suddenly need!

I asked one question… It was to Daniel Lupi – who was the Line Producer on this and the last 4 PTA movies… I asked what the difference is working with PTA and Spielberg… Lupi has just finished Co Producing Catch Me If You Can… The answer was interesting… Apparently Spielberg was “curious” to how his films cost 3 times as much as others and Danny has a track record for doing films in the $20 - $30m range with decent production value and ultimately critical acclaim, hence he was chosen… Danny felt a little uneasy answering it and so did Paul… The answer was very diplomatic… Steven shoots fast and Steven gets everything he wants. That was the extent of his answer. Any other comment on this is purely speculation…

PTA came across a little bit spoilt and too used to people saying how much they love his work. By I’m one of these men – I love Magnolia and his others films are far from bad… Magnolia transcends and deserves our utmost attention and respect… I know Punch Drunk Love has not done too well a the US Box Office and although it won the directors prize at Cannes – which mystifies me – I cant see many people raving about it… None of this surprises me...

But you must remember that PTA has probably done 50 other conversations like this today so perhaps it’s only the films we should judge…

A little indulgence…

As we’re not exactly talking about films that are so new, no ones seen them – I’m gonna list a few films that have inspired me over the years… Some of them I think are the best films ever made… some I saw at times of my life in which I was totally inspired by them or simply amused and others are great film that it appears no one has seen… So in no order of merit or justification – here they are… in order I think of them…