Posts Tagged ‘The-Dark-Knight’
MTV recently sat down with director James Cameron, and the result is a bunch of interesting, but not necessarily newsworthy, bits. I’ve embedded some of the more interesting video clips after the jump.
Cameron talks about the Avatar Sequel, which he confirms will involve the same characters from the first film, including the humans, who he imagines will probably show with another fight:
Cameron comments of Wisher’s treatment for Terminator 5 & 6, and explains why he has no desire to return to the series:
Cameron gives advice to Marc Webb on shooting the Spider-Man reboot in 3D, which somehow evolves into Cameron’s feelings on the Batman film series.
Cameron talks about how Hollywood is “getting it wrong” with broadcasting 3D with red and blue glasses, and thinking the audiences won’t notice that a film was converted into 3D in post production as an after thought. It is refreshing to hear Cameron say this, as this is something I’ve been saying for over a year now.
Cameron talks about what extra scenes will be featured on the home video release, and how that will be presented. He also reveals that a 3D Blu-ray of Avatar will likely hit store shelves in November. This is a huge surprise as until now Cameron and Fox has said that a 3D blu-ray release would be years off.
And lastly, Cameron talks about his chances come Oscar night, and his response might surprise you:
In this week’s episode of the /Filmcast, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar, Adam Quigley and Russ Fischer discuss their thoughts on this year’s Oscar nominations, reflect on the novelty of 3D upconversion, assess Taylor Lautner’s career, show some love for Drew Barrymore’s Whip It, and share theories about the final season of Lost.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us next week on Monday night at 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST at Slashfilm’s live page as we review Wolfman.
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Shownotes
Introduction
What We’ve Been Watching
- Devindra (03:30): The Dark Knight, Whip It
- Adam (10:22): Lost, The House of the Devil, Triangle
News Discussion
- Academy Award Nominations
- Universal Casts Taylor Lautner in Stretch Armstrong
- District 9 and Ghostbusters in 3D?
Featured Reviews
- (1:02:00) From Paris with Love
Credits
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- Our music comes from Point 22 courtesy of the Podsafe Network, and Brad Sucks
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Remember a month ago when we were having conversations questioning if Avatar was going to earn its money back? If they film could cross $600 million worldwide? Would the movie be a success? Would audiences really go see this movie with ten foot tall blue cat people?
James Cameron’s Avatar has crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office in just 17 days, surpassing Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight to become #4 of all time. By the end of the week, the film is expected to surpass Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King to become the #2 worldwide release of all time. Of course, for now, Cameron’s Titanic remains seated at #1. James Cameron has become the first director to have two films earn $1 Billion. And by the end of the week, it should be up to $3 billion total between the two movies.
Cameron’s sci-fi epic made an estimated $68.3 million in the States during it’s third weekend out, destroying the previous record of $45 million set by Spider-Man 3. Looks like this baby has legs. If that wasn’t enough, Avatar is also setting records in Janaury: This weekend’s box office total of $68.3 million will be almost $30 million larger than the all-time record January opening weekend.
And what about yearly records? Transformers Revenge of the Fallen took 114 days to hit $402 million, becoming the highest grossing film of 2009 domestically. Avatar will surpass that figure in an estimated 20 days.
A couple weeks ago we ran a listing of the best reviewed films of the decade as compiled by Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. We followed that up by the top 20 films of the decade, as voted on by the users of FlickChart.
Today I decided to compile the top 25 films of the decade, as voted by the users of the Internet Movie Database. While it is very easy to discount any of these lists (or any best of list in general), and while it might be easy for many of you to just write off the user ratings on IMDb as fanboy voting, it’s definitely the largest sampling of movie-going opinion that exists today.
# American Film Title (year) IMDb rating # of Votes # on Top 250 of all Time List
1. The Dark Knight (2008) 8.8 410,450 9
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) 8.8 329,852 11
3. City of God (2002) 8.7 148,073 16
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) 8.7 355,929 20
5. Avatar (2009) 8.6 69,101 24
6. Memento (2000) 8.6 245,089 27
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) 8.6 298,750 30
8. WALL·E (2008) 8.5 155,314 43
9. Amélie (2001) 8.5 163,472 44
10. The Departed (2006) 8.4 234,372 50
11. The Pianist (2002) 8.4 118,831 53
12. Spirited Away (2001) 8.4 89,403 55
13. The Lives of Others (2006) 8.4 64,311 56
14. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) 8.4 198,424 59
15. Requiem for a Dream (2000) 8.4 166,343 62
16. Inglourious Basterds (2009) 8.4 111,441 68
17. Up (2009) 8.4 68,206 69
18. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) 8.4 135,834 70
19. The Prestige (2006) 8.3 178,413 74
20. Slumdog Millionaire (2008) 8.3 149,605 77
21. Downfall (2004) 8.3 73,214 81
22. Gran Torino (2008) 8.3 101,124 83
23. Sin City (2005) 8.3 233,043 93
24. District 9 (2009) 8.3 101,868 97
25. Batman Begins (2005) 8.3 246,001
Notable tidbits:
- Christopher Nolan is the only director to have four films on the above list, making him the director of the decade according to IMDb voters.
- Peter Jackson has three films in the top 25, the Lord of the Rings trilogy
- Only the two most recent Pixar releases of the seven released in the decade place in the top 25 films of the decade.
- Only Three sequels made the list: The Return of the King, The Two Towers and The Dark Knight.
- Avatar is riding high on the list at #5, #24 of all time with only 69,101 votes. As what often happens on IMDb, this film will float down the list as more votes come in, and probably won’t become stable until the home video release.
The teaser poster for Christopher Nolan’s Inception hit the web yesterday. There are a couple of observations that we didn’t include in our initial posting that I think some of you might be interested in. For instance, did you notice the similarity between the Inception poster and the Joker teaser poster for Christopher Nolan’s last film The Dark Knight? I believe Devin might have been the first to notice. For some reason I’m guessing that it was unintentional. More after the jump.
Jen Yamato mentioned to me on Twitter that Leonardo DiCaprio, on the poster, looks a lot like director Chris Nolan. Look at the images below.
A lot of people have also said the same thing about Leonardo when we posted set photos from Inception. The character, at very least, has the same hair style and fashion sense as the film’s director.
Batman’s beginning to wonder if his movie makes any sense at all. In music video form, the eighth video in the Key of Awesome series takes aim at the plot holes of The Dark Knight. Of course, if you’ve been in a hole somewhere and still haven’t seen Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins sequel, be aware this is spoiler filled. Watch the video embedded after the jump, followed by the lyrics.
The video:
Behind the scenes:
All characters played by Mark Douglas
Music by: barely jake
Lyrics:
KID
Batman! Why is he running, Dad?
GORDON
Because we have to chase him.
KID
Why?
GORDON
Because he can take it. Because hes not a hero, hes a silent guardian, a watchful protector, the Dark Knight
KID
I dont get it.
GORDON
Neither do I son, but it sounds cool.
BATMAN
As I ride on my bike at the end of Dark Knight
Theres a few plot points that just dont feel right
Like why the hell did I agree to take the rap
Harvey Dent killed those people. Who gives a crap?
And the Joker pulls crimes in such an orderly manner
He must write it down in an evil day planner
His henchmen are psycho and expendable
Yet somehow completely dependable
And why is Morgan Freeman all pissed at me?
He seemed to resign kind of randomly
Its OK to build me an armored tank-car
But ooh, tapping phones, thats going too far
Chorus
This movie of my life just doesnt hold together
At least is beats the crap out of Batman Forever
I enjoy car chases, explosions and suspense
Is it too much to ask that it all make sense?
ALFRED
No no Master Wayne, you dont understand
You cant kill a symbol, but you can kill a man
BATMAN
If I want to quit then thats my choice
ALFRED
Were alone you dont have to use that voice
And what about Ms. Dawes its like you just forgot her
BATMAN
In Batman Begins she was so much hotter
ALFRED
Joker, are you busy? Lets call a truce.
I need you to help explain the plot toBatman
JOKER
Call me insane, but I consider us friends
I brought the DVD so we can watch it again
ALFRED
Ill make the popcorn and pour the sherry
Ooh, maybe we could watch it with the commentary
BATMAN
How does Harvey Dent do total 180?
ALFRED
Well they barbequed his face and he lost his lady
BATMAN
When did you have time rig up both of those boats
JOKER
Does talking that way ever damage your throat?
BATMAN
Well at least they got rid of Joel Schumacher
JOKER
You know movie is really good the Hurt Locker
BATMAN
Oh I heard that was good. Ive been meaning to see it.
ALFRED
Whos in it?
JOKER
Anthony Mackie
ALFRED
I dont know who that is.
JOKER
He was in Eight Mile.
ALFRED
Oh, he the guy who hosted the rap battles.
BATMAN
No that was Mekhi Phifer.
ALFRED
Joker youre getting white makeup all over the popcorn.
JOKER
Sorry, Hey did I ever tell you how I got these scars?
BATMAN
YES! Several versions.
ALFRED
Maybe some other people would like to hear the story.
——
Thanks to /Film reader John C for the tip.
While it did break midnight and opening day records, The Twilight Saga: New Moon was unable to beat The Dark Knight’s huge opening weekend record, despite being the highest opening weekend of 2009.
The Summit Entertainment sequel took in an estimated $140.7 million domestically over the three day weekend, about $18 million shy of Batman’s record $158 million, and even shy of Spider-Man 3’s $151.1 million. New Moon will probably beat the life-time domestic theatrical gross of Twilight by the end of the week.
New Moon’s worldwide total is $258.8 million, the seventh highest worldwide opening of all time, behind Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
The header image via deathtoll1912, the comic above thanks to L16.
Summit Entertainment has announced that The Twilight Saga: New Moon has broken box office records, earning over $26.27 million in midnight screenings from 3,514 theaters. This destroys the $22.2 million midnight record held by Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince, and the previous second place, Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight, which earned $18.4 million in midnight earnings. Also, Summit’s re-release of the original Twilight on Thursday night on 2,057 screens resulted in $1.3 million in ticket sales.
But the real question is, what will New Moon’s numbers look like at the end of the weekend?
Here is a round up of predictions from the Box Office prognosticators around the web:
- Box Office Psychics: $114M
- Lee’s Movie Info: $111M
- Box Office.com: $110M
- Box Office Mojo (Derby): $98.4M
WERNER HERZOG BRINGS THE MUSIC BACK
By
Alex Simon
Academy Award-nominated German film director, screenwriter, actor and opera director Werner Herzog was born Werner H. Stipetić on 5 September 1942 in Munich. His family moved to the remote Bavarian village of Sachrang in the Chiemgau Alps after the house next to theirs was destroyed during bombing towards the close of World War II. When he was twelve, he and his family moved back to Munich. The same year, Herzog was told to sing in front of his class at school and adamantly refused. He was almost expelled for this and until the age of eighteen listened to no music, sang no songs and studied no instruments. He would later say that he would easily give ten years from his life to be able to play an instrument. At fourteen, he was inspired by an encyclopedia entry about film-making which he says provided him with "everything I needed to get myself started" as a film-maker. He studied at the University of Munich, despite earning a scholarship to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In the early 1960s, Herzog worked nightshifts as a welder in a steel factory to help fund his first films. He hasn’t put down the camera since. He is often associated with the German New Wave movement along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg and Wim Wenders His films often feature heroes with impossible dreams, people with unique talents in obscure fields, or individuals who find themselves in conflict with nature.
Herzog’s films have won and been nominated for many awards. His first important award was the Silver Bear for his first feature, Signs of Life. Nosferatu the Vampyre was also nominated for Golden Bear in 1979. Most notably, Herzog won the best director award for Fitzcarraldo at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival where, in 1975 his The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser won The Special Jury Prize (also known as the 'Silver Palm'). Other Herzog films nominated for Golden Palm are: Woyzeck and Where The Green Ants Dream. His films have also been nominated at many other important festivals around the world: César Awards (Aguirre, The Wrath of God), Emmy Awards (Little Dieter Needs to Fly), European Film Awards (My Best Fiend, a documentary about his legendarily tumultuous relationship with actor Klaus Kinski) and Venice Film Festival (Scream of Stone and The Wild Blue Yonder).
In 1987 he and his half-brother Lucki Stipetic won the Bavarian Film Awards for Best Producing, for Cobra Verde and in 2002 he won the Dragon of Dragons Honorary Award at the Kraków Film Festival.
Herzog was honored at the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival, receiving the 2006 Film Society Directing Award. Grizzly Man, his documentary of the life and death of Timothy Treadwell, won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Encounters at the End of the World won the award for Best Documentary at the 2008 Edinburgh International Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature.
Herzog’s latest might seem to be a departure from his usual fare, but if you look closer, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans bears many of the master’s signatures. Nicolas Cage stars as a drug-addicted New Orleans cop whose life is slowly coming apart in the changing world of the post-Katrina Big Easy. Although it shares half a title with Abel Ferrara’s 1992 cult classic Bad Lieutenant, the similarity begins and ends there, with Port of Call being every bit as much of a Werner Herzog original as Bad Lieutenant was all Ferrara. The First Look Features release, which co-stars Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer and Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner hits U.S. screens November 20.
Werner Herzog sat down with The Hollywood Interview in Los Angeles, where he has lived since 1995. Here’s what transpired:
When I first heard you were doing this film, I thought ‘What an unlikely marriage of subject and filmmaker.’
Werner Herzog: (laughs) What’s your thought now?
I loved it. I think it’s your funniest film.
It is, yes. There’s such an instant rapport with the audience in terms of the sort of wild, hilarious side of it. It’s humor that you cannot easily name, however, like when you look at slapstick, you know immediately what it is that’s so funny. You know where the jokes are. But here it’s very hard to figure that out, yet audiences have responded very strongly to it.
So there was no hesitation on your part in doing a sequel, or remake of sorts?
It does not bespeak great wisdom to call the film The Bad Lieutenant, and I only agreed to make the film after William Finkelstein, the screenwriter, who had seen a film of the same name from the early nineties, had given me a solemn oath that this was not a remake at all. But the film industry has its own rationale, which in this case was the speculation of starting some sort of a franchise. I have no problem with this. What the producers accepted was my suggestion to make the title more specific—Port of Call: New Orleans, and now the film’s title combines both elements. Originally, the screenplay was written with New York as a backdrop, and again the rationale of the producers set in by moving it to New Orleans, since shooting there would mean a substantial tax benefit. It was a move I immediately welcomed. In New Orleans it was not only the levees that breeched, but it was civility itself: there was a highly visible breakdown of good citizenship and order. Looting was rampant, and quite a number of policemen did not report for duty; some of them took brand new Cadillacs from their abandoned dealerships and vanished onto dry ground in neighboring states. Less fancy cars disappeared only a few days later. This collapse of morality was matched by the neglect of the government in Washington, and it is hard to figure out whether this was just a form of stupidity or outright cynicism. So we tried to incorporate those elements into the story.
Herzog with Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes.I thought it was a satire.
A satire, I think, is something else. I can’t explain it…there’s something more mysterious to it, something much darker and more subversive. A satire would be, it would try to imitate something and try to ridicule something, and here it doesn’t do it, so I don’t feel comfortable labeling it as a satire. Let’s be content with saying it’s hilarious. (laughs)
Okay, but tonally, it reminded me a great deal of David Lynch’s work.
It’s hard to imagine where you’d see that context. I think in David Lynch’s films you do not have that kind of humor. They’re much bleaker, and much stranger in a way…
I don’t know, a lot of this is pretty strange…
(both laugh) Yes, okay. We’ve got the demented iguanas…
And the dead guy’s spirit break-dancing in the middle of the floor…
(laughs) Yes, yes…
A lot of that, to me, is very Lynchian and while I’ve always found a lot of humor in the subtext of your films, you certainly aren’t known as a filmmaker who specializes in, or even utilizes, a lot of humor. Quite the opposite.
Well, over the decades people have laughed during films of mine, but the difference is, they weren’t sure whether they should be laughing or not. Grizzly Man, for example, has these very hilarious moments.
Well…uncomfortably funny, at least for me.
Yes, you feel uncomfortable, but for example when Timothy Treadwell is in the tent and he’s cursing all sorts of gods because of the rain, and then an hour later he’s flooded with rain, and his tent is crushed, and he continues recording from his crushed tent. He knew this was a hilarious moment, and he plays it dead-pan as a star in his own movie. So of course, there are very hilarious moments.
I understand, and I don’t disagree. I guess what I was referring to was the community of the so-called “film intelligentsia” that tend to label your work as very dark, very brooding…
It’s not the film intelligentsia that I object to. It’s more the kind of post-structuralist, post-modernists, vapid, academic babble that you hear quite often.
Most of the film professors in the world.
Yes, they’re all losers.
Herzog in the police station set, with Nicolas Cage in background.Yeah, they tend to be people who never made it in the business and then take their anger out on working filmmakers.
I do not postulate that they have to make a living in the film industry, but it’s an unhealthy attitude with which to watch films, because I think films should be viewed with an element of wonder, of surprise, of marveling at something, and they take all the notion of wonder away from you. They stifle it. That’s why I don’t like it.
I won’t use the word “satire,” but I saw your Bad Lieutenant as a commentary on American consumerism.
I became aware of how broken the American system of finance was when I realized you got punished for not owing money. What finally woke me up was a banality: when attempting to lease a car I was confronted by the dealership with the unpleasant news that my credit score was abysmal, and hence I had to pay a much higher monthly rate. Why is that, I asked — I had always paid my bills, I had never owed money to anyone. That was exactly my problem: I had never borrowed money, had hardly ever used a credit card, and my bank account was not in the red. But the system punished you for not owing money, and rewarded those who did. I realized that the entire system was sick, that this could not go well, and I instantly withdrew money I had invested in stock of Lehman Brothers while a bank manager, ecstatic, with shuddering urgency, was trying to persuade me to buy even more of it. So it’s not so much consumerism, as a system that couldn’t sustain itself in the long run. I see this as a noir film, really. We’re living through a great time of insecurity right now. Film noir always is a consequence of the Climate of Time; it needs a growing sense of insecurity, of depression. The literature of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett is a child of the Great Depression, with film noir as its sibling. I sensed something coming in the months leading up to the making of the film: a breakdown which was so obvious in New Orleans, and half a year before finances and the economy collapsed, the signs were written on the wall.
Is that feeling of depression that you sense what attracted you to this material?
I think so, yes. In a way, I was totally astonished by The Dark Knight because, on the one hand, it’s a huge, mainstream movie. But it also astonished me at how dark it was, as though it was a premonition of something coming at us. I went to see the film, and ran into Christian Bale, which was the only reason I saw the film: I wanted to see how Christian was doing, because I so love that man, as an actor. I ran into Christian and (director) Christopher Nolan, and said to Nolan ‘Congratulations, this is the most significant film of the whole year.’ He thought I was kind of making it up, or joking. And I said ‘No, no, no! This is a film of real substance. It doesn’t matter if it’s mainstream or not.’ And it’s wonderful that he made the film the way he did.
And you were seeking to bring that same flavor to Bad Lieutenant?
Yeah, but in a different way. I mean, The Dark Knight isn’t funny at all…
I have to disagree with you there: I thought Heath Ledger was hilarious—the same way Malcolm McDowell was in A Clockwork Orange.
Yeah, but scarier, really deeply scary, as was Malcolm McDowell. Whereas Nicolas Cage is more joyful. You see the bliss of evil with Nicolas in this film. As vile and as debased as he gets, you have to enjoy it because it’s these qualities that connect him and the film deeply to the audience.
Cage and Herzog confer on the set.Yes, because in a way, he was the purest character in the film.
Yes, it’s a wonderful part and the way Nicolas crafted it, it’s like he put his whole existence into it, somehow. You don’t see something like that often.
Did the screenplay have that same spirit when you initially read it, and did it change much during the course of the shoot?
Yes, it did. It is still (writer) William Finkelstein’s text, but as usual during my work as a director it kept shifting, demanding its own life, and I invented new scenes such as a new beginning and a new end, the iguanas, the “dancing” soul—and actually this is Finkelstein’s, who plays a very convincing gangster in the film—the childhood story of pirate’s treasure, and a spoon of sterling silver. I also deleted quite a number of scenes where the protagonist takes drugs, simply because I personally dislike the culture of drugs. Sometimes changes entered to everyone’s surprise. To give one example: Nicolas knew that sometimes after a scene was shot I would not shut down the camera if I sensed there was more to it, a gesture, an odd laughter, or an “afterthought” from a man left alone with all the weight of a rolling camera, the lights, the sound recording, the expectant eyes of a crew upon him. I simply would not call “cut” and leave him exposed and suspended under the pressure of the moment. He, the Bad Lieutenant, after restless deeds of evil, takes refuge in a cheap hotel room, and has an unexpected encounter with the former prisoner whom he had rescued from drowning in a flooded prison tract at the beginning of the film. The young man, now a waiter delivering room service, notices there is something wrong with the Lieutenant, and offers to get him out of there. I kept the camera rolling, but nothing more came from Nicolas. “What, for Heaven’s sake, could I have added,” he asked. And without thinking for a second I said, “Do fish have dreams?” We shot the scene once more with this line, and it looked good and strange and dark. But it required being anchored in yet an additional scene at the very end of the film, with both men, distant in dreams leaning against the glass of a huge aquarium where sharks and rays and large fish move slowly as if they indeed were caught in the dreams of a distant and incomprehensible world. I love cinema for moments like this.
Tell us about your impressions of post-Katrina New Orleans.
Well, I hadn’t seen New Orleans ever before, so I don’t know the pre-Katrina New Orleans, although I had a basic idea what it was about. I think it was the right location for the film. This was fertile ground to stage a film noir, or rather a new form of film noir where evil was not just the most natural occurrence. It was the bliss of evil which pervades everything in this film. Also, the people of the city understand that bringing people and life back into the city would come through music and culture, and would attract movie-making that would, in its wake, bring people back. I think it’s a wonderful concept. You wouldn’t find that if, let’s say, Omaha, Nebraska had been hit by a terrifying tornado, they would probably do something else to bring people back. In New Orleans, it’s about music. Bring the music back. Even the police department really supported the film, and I really admire the police in New Orleans for their sense of poetry.
How do you mean?
They knew it was movies. It was a beautiful figment of movie fantasy, the whole film. They had the nerve to go ahead with it after they had read the screenplay. They came back to me and said “You know what? We’re going to support you. We’re going to block streets for you. We want this filmed in our city.” And I bowed my head and said ‘This is unexpected and marvelous.’ You see, the city needs a police department of that caliber.
I was in New Orleans last exactly a month, to the day, before Katrina hit, and had been there several times prior as an adult. I always had the feeling that bad things were around you, but were being held back, both literally and metaphorically.
That’s a very good observation, yes.
Many people have compared post-Katrina New Orleans to Europe after WW II, which you grew up in. Did you see any parallels?
No, that was a different sort of thing. Germany was not hit by a natural disaster. Its wound was self-inflicted and a consequence of systematic barbarism during the Nazi regime.
Sure, but one could argue that Katrina’s causing the levees to fail was a consequence on institutional incompetence and indifference to those from a lower socio-economic status.
Yes, but it was not a criminal plot and industrialization of mass murder, of genocide, which you found in Germany during the Nazi time, so I have hesitation to compare it. The comeback for Germany was different than that of New Orleans. It was mostly the women. You see 1945-46 was the year of women in Germany. Most of the men were either dead, or in captivity. The women rolled up their sleeves, cleared the rubble and started the rebuilding. It was the women who instantly acted. So in that respect it is a different destruction and a different recovery. However for children, it was marvelous to grow up in the ruins! Those were our kingdoms and forts. We had whole cleared-out blocks to play in, that still had guns and live ammunition buried in the rubble. I found a sub-machine gun once and tried to shoot a bird with it. The recoil knocked me to the ground. My mother, to my surprise, was not angry. She knew how to shoot a gun and taught my brothers and I how to secure, unload and shoot the gun. She took us into the forest and shot a single round through this big, thick log. The bullet went straight through and all these splinters flew out the other side. She said “This is what you must expect from a gun, so you must never point even a wooden or plastic gun at anybody.” I was cured from that moment on with any preoccupation of guns or weapons, and I’ve never so much as pointed my finger at someone since that day.
It’s interesting you mention that because your attitude toward presenting violence in your films has been almost reverent, in a way. In this film, for example, the violence is certainly there, but you never linger on it.
Yes, and we never really show it happening, just its aftermath. There’s only one real shoot-out, and it’s completely stylized. I do not like violence, graphic violence on the screen, in particular when it is violence against the defenseless. So I do not want to see in graphic detail the murder of a child. I do not want to see in graphic detail the rape of a woman. That’s what I do not want to see, and in our film you don’t see the murder of the Senegalese family.
Tell us about working with Nicolas Cage.
A great joy. This relentless, high level of professionalism he has is really joyous. The work itself was actually very quiet, very focused, almost like open-heart surgery. You don’t rush it, but you focus on the essentials. This is how I like to work, and Nicolas Cage followed me in this regard with blind faith. We had met only once at Francis Ford Coppola’s, his uncle’s, winery in Napa Valley almost three decades ago when Nicolas was an adolescent, and I was about to set out for the Peruvian jungle in order to move a ship over a mountain, for Fitzcarraldo. Now, we wondered why and how we had eluded each other ever since, why we had never worked together, and it became instantly clear that we would do this film together, or neither one of us would do it. There was an urge in both of us to join forces.
Last week the online world threw a big fuss over DirecTV’s newest television advertisement, which features David Spade pimping the satellite service in an altered scene from Tommy Boy, which of course includes his dead friend, comedian Chris Farley. And you may remember, this isn’t the first time DirecTV has been accused of profiting off of the dead, as they came under fire last year for the same thing, with a similar ad altering Poltergeist, featuring Heather O’Rourke, an actress who died tragically in 1988 at age 12.
When is this disgusting trend going to end? LandlineTV have created a faux DirecTV commercial showing where these tasteless advertising stunts might lead if we don’t put a stop to it now — that’s right… Heath Ledger plugs DirecTV in a digitally altered scene from The Dark Knight. And it doesn’t end there… Landline has also produced a couple more DirecTV commercials featuring John F Kennedy and Jesus Christ, because… why not? Watch the advertisement after the jump.
Note: Some people seem to be taking this one too seriously… its supposed to be a joke. It’s funny, laugh. No, we never expected DirecTV to use Heath Ledger to promote their product in television commercials… or at least we hope not. And it seems like everyone in the comments are using “well Farley’s family approved it, so its okay.” Poor taste is not decided by the family of the dead actor, that’s just a ridiculous statement.
