Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with our own Moon Yun Choi who conducted an interview via email with screenwriter (and director, but not on FLIGHTPLAN) Billy Ray. Enjoy the interview!!!
Moon Yun Choi reporting in from Hawaii...
After seeing FLIGHTPLAN, I had so many questions about the thriller starring Jodie Foster that I had to ask one of its screenwriters, Billy Ray, about the movie. He gives wonderful insight into the writing process and working on the film. Taking some time from directing BREACH in Toronto, Ray answers my questions by e-mail.
AICN: Did you and Peter A. Dowling have to do a lot of research about planes for the movie?
Ray: Peter and I didn't work together. He was the first writer on the movie, its originator. I was the fourth.
By the time I came aboard, the movie already had a director, Robert Schwentke. He and I went to L.A.X. and climbed around inside a jumbo-jet. That was a great education. And we (had) access to airport police who educated us in terms of procedure.
The plane itself was a riff on the airbus that will be the future of commercial aviation. Robert likes the movie "2001" a lot, and I think the design of the plane's interior reflects that.
AICN: One of the first questions on my mind after seeing FLIGHTPLAN was why was Jodie Foster (Kyle Pratt) sitting in coach? She was obviously a well-to-do woman and she even helped design the very airplane she and her daughter is riding on. So we were thinking she would at least be sitting in business class.
Ray: Engineers aren't paid all that much. And to be honest with you, the movie's believability would be stretched pretty thin if the kid disappeared from a smaller section like Business or First.
AICN: You've also written for Peter Skaarsgard (FLIGHTPLAN's in-flight air marshal) in "Shattered Glass," a film you also directed. Is it a coincidence that he's also in this movie? What was it like working with him again?
Ray: Peter is a brilliant actor. As a writer, I didn't really have a vote in terms of casting. But Robert and our producer, Brian Grazer, certainly knew how I felt about Peter and his talent. Happily, they both liked SHATTERED GLASS a lot - that helped get Peter the role.
AICN: How did you come up with the idea of the heart on the window?
Ray: That was Peter's idea. A great one, I think. That's why I kept it.
AICN: The movie seemed to show some sentimentality towards Arabs...that not all Arabs are hijackers. Was the Arab man Jodie Foster's character accuses of taking her daughter really one of the Arab men she saw from her window?
Ray: I'm very proud of the way the Arabs are treated in the movie - it's a comment on the post 9-11 sensibilities that we all now take on an airplane. So, no, those weren't the same men that were looking in her window. Jodie's character - under some serious stress - was doing some racial profiling there. So were many of the passengers around her.
AICN: Erika Christensen, one of the flight attendants, seemed underused. It would have been better if she was the accomplice because she seemed sweeter. What are your thoughts on that?
Ray: I think Erika's character provides a great misdirect for the audience.
AICN: Roger Ebert wrote: "FLIGHTPLAN delivers a frightening thriller with an air-tight plot." What did you and Dowling have to consider in order to make the story believable?
Ray: Some people think it isn't. I always tried to think of it as a really great episode of "The Twilight Zone."
AICN: A Hawaii newspaper wrote: "The clue that saves the day is a direct steal from Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES. Do you know what they are referring to and is this a fair statement?
Ray: I never saw that movie, but it may very well be a fair statement. I don't know.
AICN: Were the writers allowed to be on the set? If so, what was it like working with Jodie Foster?
Ray: I was on the set a lot. Robert always treated me like a partner. In fact, we became close friends.
Working with Jodie is a gift. She's such a pro, so smart, always pushing to make the script better. I like and admire her a lot.
AICN: I had also read that the role was originally written for a man but was changed for Foster to a woman. Were you involved in the change making and did that throw you for a loop?
Ray: When I first signed on, the project was being developed for Sean Penn. It was Brian Grazer's idea to make the lead a woman and bring in Jodie. Turning the character into a mother instead of a father changed every line of the script, but I liked that challenge.
AICN: Since you had directed before, did you ever feel tempted to give your input about the direction of the film?
Ray: I have lots of opinions, as everyone on a set does. Robert was open to them - the trick is developing a sense of timing, knowing when a director can be pulled aside and asked a question. I think I'm pretty good at that. But the truth is, most of the time that I was on that set, I was just learning, absorbing. Robert's a more accomplished director than I am - he knows a lot of things I don't know. So I was better served by keeping my mouth shut and watching him work.
AICN: I read that you were interested in a project about 9/11. Does that still hold true and what would your role be in it?
Ray: I'm adapting the book 102 MINUTES for Sony. It's the best book I've ever read. The definitive 9-11 movie.
AICN: Any other projects you're working on that you would care to share?
Ray: I'm in Toronto right now, directing BREACH, which is a script I wrote for Universal. Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillippe star.
That's all folks. FLIGHTPLAN is the number one movie its first weekend out so go check it out.
Moon Yun signing out...
moonyunchoi@aintitcoolmail.com
