ScreenCrave.com » Hugh Jackman

‘The Wolverine’ To Begin Shooting In August

Travis Woods — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:23:34 +0000

For about two seconds there, The Wolverine seemed interesting—the sequel chronicling the bushy-haired hero’s pre-X-Men time in the Far East was set to be directed by Black Swan auteur Darren Aronofsky and filmed in Japan. Then Aronofsky quit (perhaps because he realized he was set to direct a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and an earthquake rocked Japan. Now, however, Hugh Jackman let it slip on Twitter that The Wolverine is back on, and begins shooting in late summer.

When a fan asked Jackman when he would reprise his role as Wolverine, Jackman exclaimed “Starts shooting in August!!!,” which makes sense, as the film has to meet a July 26, 2013 release date.

On-set filming for The Wolverine will take place in Australia, while location shooting will still take place in Japan, as had been originally planned. Fox CEO Tom Rothman had previously stated that the film will take place in Japan, and that “A great number of Japanese actors will be in it and it’s based on the very famous run of the comics… I can just tell you on behalf of [Jackman], his goal is to make the ultimate, bad ass, berserker rage Wolverine.”

Aronofsky has been replaced by director James Mangold (Knight and Day, Walk the Line), with a script by Christopher McQuarrie and Mark Bomback. Mangold is a competent director, but is no Aronofsky; expect The Wolverine to be a solid, but likely not world-changing, comic book film.

What do you think about The Wolverine?

Source: Coming Soon

‘Rise of the Guardians’ Trailer Assembles Santa Claus, The Tooth Fairy and More

Damon Houx — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:27:52 +0000

In what amounts to a fairy-tale version of The Avengers, DreamWorks new film Rise of the Guardians assembles The Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher), Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), The Sandman, and The Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman) to fight against the Boogeyman, Pitch (Jude Law). There’s no word if The Skrulls are involved, though Star Trek‘s Chris Pine is also in the cast. Check out the trailer below…

Though this preview doesn’t show it, Pine plays Jack Frost, who – at least to start – is the least well known of the bunch and is invisible to humans because of it. From the footage presentation that DreamWorks recently had, it sounds like the character goes on some sort of hero’s journey to discover himself and his full powers. He’s also the new team member to the fantasy squad, which makes me think that the filmmakers took to heart that Red Letter Media review of The Phantom Menace.

The film is due out November 21, and this sells a very serious tone. It also cuts through a lot of the film’s set up to to deliver a strong narrative (and – to be fair – the easiest way to do that is not talk about Pine’s newcomer character). What’s striking about the trailer is that there’s no real comedy in it. DreamWorks has made a lot of silly animated movies, and though the footage showed had jokes, they’re playing this pretty straight here, perhaps to hook older comic-book fans.

Are you sold?

Wolverine Pirate Does Jail Time

Damon Houx — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:04:11 +0000

When 2009′s Wolverine was about to hit theaters, a workprint hit the internet. Though the effects were incomplete it became a news story, and it was the biggest film to hit the pirate circuit pre-release. Piracy is still a huge problem for the industry, and those involved speculated that the leak cost the film untold millions of dollars. Now the person who leaked the film has been sentenced to a year term in federal prison, according to Deadline.

The standard pirator is usually considered college-aged and immoral, so it’s worth nothing that the guilty party, Gilberto Sanchez, is 49. Even with the two years since the film’s release, there’s no getting around the idea that this person doesn’t fit the usual descriptions. But that also points out that piracy is not just a young man’s game.

Part of the recent move of big films to 3-D and Imax has to do with inflated ticket prices, but also it’s to combat piracy issues like this. There hasn’t been as high profile a leak since Wolverine, but with trailer companies and interviewers sent copies of films – not to mention screener season, where films that haven’t hit theaters are available for academy members – it’s a constant threat that suggests that this won’t be the last time.

Did you take a peak at the leaked copy of Wolverine?

Box Office Predictions: Real Steel to Win in the End

Damon Houx — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:57:26 +0000

And that’s not a spoiler (or is it?) After a couple of weekends of older pictures, either in days (Dolphin Tale took the #1 slot a week after release) or years (the reissue of The Lion King), the first week of October promises to deliver new movies can top the box office. Shawn Levy‘s Real Steel is a genuine crowd pleaser, while George Clooney‘s The Ides of March is a smart political thriller. Both use star power (Hugh Jackman, Ryan Gosling) to their advantage. But both also have strikes against them.

I wrote the review of Real Steel, and I think there are people who are going to embrace the movie, but I think it’s hard for the critical community to give a film like this a pass. It’s derivative, it’s directed by someone who’s made a career of crappy (and successfully crappy) films. It’s an easy film to dismiss, partly because with a concept as out there as they have with the fil, they didn’t want to put it in the summer or winter big money seasons. And yet that may have hurt perceptions on the film. Timing is everything.

I once got into an argument with Drew McWeeny about the placement of movies and how people received Thor versus The Green Lantern. As they are basically similar origin tales, with similar problems (unnecessary love interest, interesting supporting characters with little to do) and strengths (the villian, the special effects), I felt if they had switched release dates, The Green Lantern might not have gotten such a thumping critically, because Thor had the first “official” weekend of summer (the first week of May), while The Green Lantern came out in June after a number of loud and not that great genre efforts. I mention this not because I think I’m right or wrong, but to a certain extent the number of movies made in a certain genre or lack thereof can really be beneficial to it’s relative “goodness.”

I don’t know if Ridley Scott‘s Gladiator is one of the best of the sword and sandals films (it probably is, the genre’s not that great to begin with), but when it was released it was the only one made with a decent budget since the 1960′s. Just as 30 Minutes or Less came in the unfortunate position of being the last R-rated “raunchy” comedy in a summer with Bridesmaids, Horrible Bosses, and Bad Teacher - all of which passed the hundred million dollar mark. That’s not to say that people didn’t respond to the movies themselves, but you may not want to have a pizza every night you go out to eat.

What may drive Real Steel is that there hasn’t been a good underdog story in cinema since the last Rocky movie. The problem that DreamWorks and Disneyare going to run into with the film is that they need a respectable opening weekend, and that’s $30 Million-ish. That means they will make it to $100 million, and possibly $150. Word of mouth could play with this film, and tracking shows it a little above $20 for the weekend- so the big question is “how are the ads playing to kids?” That could drive this film more than adults, and it works as a family picture in a way we haven’t seen in a while. Though perhaps the key to this film is international. Jackman established himself with the X-men franchise, but outside of that his biggest film is the disaster Van Helsing (which did $120 domestic). Which then makes this film itself an underdog.

The Ides of March runs into that pizza problem by being the third movie in as many months to top-line Ryan Gosling. And though he’s a well respected actor, he’s never driven the box office. Drive is nearing a $30 Million dollar total, after being critically respected and winning big at Cannes. Gosling is working, but there’s no sense that he’s made an indelible impression on audiences outside of The Notebook, where he was one of the leads. The only films of his that have outperformed it are Remember the Titans and Crazy, Stupid, Love. The latter reecently passed those numbers, though it could also be called Steve Carrell’s picture. That doesn’t change the fact that Gosling has been giving interviews and has been on magazine covers, etc. for three months straight.

What’s going to help the picture is the presence of George Clooney, but as a director he’s made some very respected films that haven’t managed to do much more than $30 Million at the box office. Another problem is that it looks like a failed Oscar-bait picture – no one’s saying that the picture has much of a shot at anything, so there’s no building interest in that side of the critical community. This looks to be his strongest performer, but that’s not saying much.

So let’s do the numbers:

Real Steel - $29.5 Million

The Ides of March - $13.7 Million

Dolphin Tale – $9.9 Million

Moneyball – $8 Million

Courageous – $6 Million

We could see 50/50 or The Lion King sneak into the top five. I may be going high on Real Steel, but it’s tracking the best to have the top slot and I think it plays. Everything else seems about right.

Real Steel: Review

Damon Houx — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 21:00:00 +0000

When it comes to embracing a movie as superficially stupid as Shawn Levy‘s Real Steel, liking to loving it is almost like going through the stages of grief. Watching talented performers like Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, and newcomer Dakota Goyo make you invest in the tale of a boy and his robot boxer does lead to denial (“wait, how can I like a Shawn Levy Movie about boxing robots?”), anger (“This movie is manipulative!”, bargaining (“it works in spite of itself”), depression (“maybe it’s just the state of the industry, that the bell curve has been so lowered that Shawn Levy makes better movies than most now.”) and acceptance. Real Steel works, and it works the audience over in a crowd-pleasing way.

The Players:

Written by: John Gatins (screenplay), Dan Gilroy (story) and Jeremy Leven (story)
Director: Shawn Levy
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo, Anthony Mackie, Hope Davis, Kevin Durand
Original Music by: Danny Elfman
Cinematography by: Mauro Fiore

The Plot:

Charlie Kenton (Jackman) was once a contender, but boxing has changed in the distant future, and now he operates boxing robots in state fair and underground settings. He had a girlfriend that he got pregnant, and when she dies he’s left a son – Max (Goyo) – he wants nothing to do with. After basically selling the kid to Max’s aunt and uncle, Charlie’s stuck with the kid for the summer. And when Max finds a robot named Atom, Max wants to use the robot in boxing contests. Atom is an older model, but is built to take a beating and learns through “shadow mode” which involves repeating the actions of its owners. You’d never guess how far they can go with the bot.

The Good:

Utter Shamelessness: Though arguably the theme that drive the film (the idea that Atom works as a proxy for Max to grow to love his father) doesn’t hit you over the head, virtually everything else is spelled in capital letters. When the first act happens it must show that Charlie is a mess of a person, and so he fails in really dumb ways. When the villains of the piece are introduced, they come close to having mustaches to twirl, and when the rich uncle gives Jackman money he’s wearing an ascot. But after a while that the film is written in capital letters works for the film. It’s a formula picture, but it squeezes everything out of that formula to get you invested in the material, but you always know where you are in the picture, and you anticipate the next victory or change of heart because of it.
Hugh Jackman: Though Wolverine turned him into an A-lister, this is the first film since X-Men where Jackman gives a real star performance. The film rests on his shoulders, and it’s as if the material was tailor-made for his strengths. And his transformation from self-centered prick to loving father works because he’s fully committed to it.
Dakota Goyo: When introduced to this little moppet, you immediate get Jake Lloyd-chills as he looks exactly like the sort of child actor who doesn’t know how to act so much as deliver poorly written bon-mots. But the kid is good, and he works well off of Jackman.
The Robot Fights: With a mix of practical and CGI effects there is always weight to what’s happening on screen, and that it looks mostly real (only early on, when Jackman’s character has a robot fighting a bull, does the CGI stick out painfully) makes you invest in the reality of metal hitting metal. Where often effects-driven movies feel weightless because of the sheer amount of CGI, here you get characters reacting believably to the spectacle around them.

The Bad:

It is what it is: All Real Steel wants to do is entertain you, but it does so by building cliches into characters, and it follows the boxing movie structure that was laid out by Rocky. There is very little happening under the surface, and it offers little commentary on anything. But with so many movies (especially this summer) offering empty spectacle and with so many filmmakers preferring to beat you over the head with “cool” it’s great to see a film that gets to the heart of why it’s fun to go to a popcorn film. This is good trash.

Overall:

Like the underdog movies that it emulates, Real Steel feels like a film worth defending – albeit with the caveat that it is exactly what you paid for. But that in itself is an accomplishment. It’s not a film where you have to apologize for the parts that don’t work, it doesn’t fall apart in the third act, and it doesn’t set itself up as a franchise to the point that it doesn’t feel like a complete thought. This is what Hollywood entertainment should be like: rousing, involving, with heart and a compelling story and performers.

Rating: 8.5/10

Stills:

Interview: Hugh Jackman on Real Steel

Damon Houx — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:00:23 +0000

Hugh Jackman was – at first – the replacement Wolverine. Stepping in for the contractually tied-up Dougray Scott, Jackman got the key role in the X-Men franchise that would come to define his career. Now with Real Steel, Jackman’s star-charisma is being used outside of Wolverine for a feel-good robot-boxing movie, that is an against-the-odds winner of a movie. Jackman has a repuation of being a class act, and he couldn’t have been more gracious in our interview, as he talked about the film, his continuing role in the X-Men franchise, and more. Check it out…

In Real Steel I was reminded of Iron Giant for a minute when he first realizes that maybe Atom knows what’s going on.

Is that what you think? That’s interesting to me.

When Dakota’s character is looking at Atom and then Atom just starts moving around.

But he has the shadow function so whenever he moves the robot moves.

Yeah but he’s like ‘You understand me?’

That says a lot about you. See there’s some journalist in me now. (Laughs)

So what’s your take on it?

My take is no, no it’s a robot but it does have some kind of like — it has a version of heart. Even the way my character says “He takes a lot of hits,” that way that he keeps getting up. It never is conclusive, I really applaud the way Shawn — I’m sure for a movie that does play for such a broad audience it’s very tempting to make a clear choice, especially for kids. Ironically what has happened is kids like my daughter, my son will tell you until the cows come home that that robot’s alive, that it knows what’s going on.

And for people who are “young at heart” shall we say want it because that boy sees Atom as his life-line. He’s lost his father, he’s essentially not there, his mother’s dead, that robot to him represents everything until his father comes back to life. So emotionally you can understand why he does that and so Shawn is allowed some people to go through that journey as well or other people there’s nothing conclusive about it which was a huge decision by the way making the movie.

Now in the movie they used actual robots because Steven Spielberg thought it was a good idea. You’ve done the green screen, you’ve done all the action stuff, what do you prefer?

First of all there was no green screen. Even when it wasn’t real robots, all the robot boxing had been choreographed, shot and partly kind of rendered before we did it so I could watch it and knew exactly what it was. Having the real robots meant for me, in particularly for Dakota (Goyo) there was no leap of imagination on “what’s this going to look like.” We had the robots on set there and the guys in green suits up there doing it.

The most difficult scene that I had was a scene where I’m shadowboxing with Atom outside the lawn of the motel so I’m actually doing that with Eddie Davenport – who’s wearing a green suit with sensors all over him and stilts pretending to be a robot. I was told that if we were not in complete sync that it’s very very difficult to change the visual and very expensive, so we worked on that like we were a synchronized swimming team.

How does it feel being taught by Sugar Ray Leonard?

Great, I was a little star-struck meeting him and I had to say — last February we went to the Superbowl to promote the movie with Sugar Ray. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the Superbowl, they have a ballroom that’s filled with press, they camp out there all week. There are some of the biggest football stars around and you go around with Sugar Ray and these guys just turn into mush, they just turn into little kids.

He’s helped me so much with the boxing, and what it’s like to be a boxer. I was trying to trace through what it would be like for someone like (my character) Charlie whose livelihood has always been boxing – I always thought of Charlie as not educated, a little kid who thankfully found boxing at the right time otherwise he would’ve been in jail. That was his life and now it’s rendered useless, he’s been discarded from that and he’s trying to make a living in this new kind of world. I said to Leonard “You were the champion of the world, what it’s like when you give it up? How do you find that? What happens?” He talked about the sacrifices he made as a boxer family-wise and the loneliness, the difficulty. He talked about being a corner man – which is essentially what my part is – and he really gave me a lot of gull, pure gull.

Was the experience of making the film different than you thought it would be?

Yeah, better. As I read it I was like “Is this going to be cumbersome? Is this going to be slow?” Generally with visual effects everything slows down and I saw that last fight, I read that and I loved it on the page but thought “We’re going to be there for six weeks shooting this.” It’s so complicated and there’s so much with the shadowboxing on the outside, the fighting in the ring, and the crowd. But we never felt bogged down. Then – to be honest – the biggest things I had with the film was that I didn’t think the film would work at all if there wasn’t a connection between me and whoever played Max. That was Dakota (Goyo) and he’s one of the greatest actors I’ve worked with. Shawn (Levy) became one of my closest friends, and that’s rare. He’s a great director.

That’s what I was going to ask you about the chemistry between the kid, how do you feel about the beginning how it was and –

It was always good. He’s a very polite boy, very well brought up and hopefully I’m a little nicer to kids than I appear in this film. So both of us needed to be needled by Shawn and we hung out together a lot. The thing for me was that I had to remind myself and him that I’m not an adult, we’re like buddies. Not even buddies, we’re just contemporaries, so I never wanted him to feel overwhelmed or like “I better let him decide” if he wanted to ad-lib something. I would say to him “Do you want to do another take? Is there anything you want to do?” and he’d say “Yeah I thought maybe we could do this” and I’d say “Let’s just do it!” I wanted him to feel like he was as much in charge of the scenes as me and Shawn, well – I helped him but really Shawn mentored him. That boy’s life is forever changed with working with Shawn because Shawn is gifted with younger actors and really brought out the best in him.

Anthony Mackie called you the captain of the team, is that something you’ve chosen to do when you make a movie?

Yeah I’m a little old school in that way. I do think you need someone to marshal the troops, set a tone, set a way of working and normally I would probably be more of that if it’s not someone like Shawn because a lot of directors are not how you would imagine. They’re not Cecil B. Demile at all, they’re quiet as they stare at their monitors and some of them – like Woody Allen, for example – never says a thing. You would believe he was the second grip’s assistant the way he sits off the side in the corner. So Shawn is old school, he is the leader, he’s producer. I was a studio head he’d be a dream. He’s never over time, never over budget, he communicates a hundred percent, he’s right by the camera = his energy. So I had to be less of a captain.

So when did you know or did you ever feel that this project was special?

Probably two or three weeks in. We didn’t really shoot the fighting sequences, those big fighting sequences, till the end. So it was pretty much just all drama. It’s relationship story or a road movie between this father and son and the stuff with Bailey (Evangeline Lilly) and I was drawn into it. Watching it back I would find it would bring a kind of tear to my eye. I find it hard to watch myself but I was drawn into that relationship of father and son.

How related do you feel to Charlie?

In many ways we’re very different, Charlie’s a “put all the chips on one number” all-or-nothing kind of guy and I’m not. I’m much more even balanced and as my wife says I’m very even-steven. I’m much more of a pack horse than Charlie is, Charlie’s like just go for it all the time. I think, however I always feel empathy in a way for Charlie because Charlie takes big risks and there’s been points in my life where I’ve taken big risks which have kind of worked out for me. But if those things had not worked out for me…

The very first time I sung publicly I was asked to sing the national anthem at a big Rugby game in Australia, millions of people watching it, a hundred thousand people in the stadium and I had a panic attack the night before, I was terrified because I had in my head, right or wrong, if I screw this up it’s over and I was terrified. I had seen people booed off singing the national anthem badly and never work again because Australia’s a small place. So it was like our Superbowl and I was petrified.

Now if I had been booed off, if things had not gone well, I know I wouldn’t be here today, I know it. Life is fragile, you have to really never take anything for granted. Charlie is someone who has good intentions. He’s tried his best, he kept failing at the wrong time and eventually it hurt too much so he shuts down. And all of us are prone to that at some point in time and I think it’s good to remember that.

You were talking about how nervous you were when it came to singing the national anthem. Do you still have that kind of nervousness?

No, I’ve never been that scared again.

No?

No, that was fifteen years ago. July 26, 1996, I still remember it. My wife we’d planned a month’s holiday and it was the worst holiday of my life because the entire month I was just petrified of this day. It’s great to have those moments, to get through them, and that’s why I’m saying if that had not gone well I may never have had the confidence to do other things. Without that moment I would have never hosted the Oscars, wouldn’t have had that confidence.

In Hollywood nothing’s ever for sure but do you get nervous when a project like say Wolverine has these obstacles and then things don’t happen. Do you ever get nervous on that?

Frustrated. I get frustrated.

Do you get nervous that maybe this shouldn’t happen, that it’s an omen or something like that?

No, my experience particularly with X-Men, I don’t know why but there’s never been an easy ride. And one thing I learned in Australia is when you first get on a horse, first impressions don’t matter. Sometimes the most uncomfortable first ride can end up becoming the best ride of your life so you’ve got to just stick with it and trust your instincts about why you’re doing it and know that any movie that gets made is a miracle. Somehow, I mean I can’t tell you how many reasons or potholes that could derail any movie and it’s so miraculous it gets made and gets out there. So I never really take it for granted, it’s an exciting business to be in and I’m glad I’m on this side of the camera cause the other side I’d want to slit my wrists.

What was it like working with Evangeline Lilly?

I don’t know if you guys know but she’s famous for saying no to things in Hollywood, she turns down almost anything. Lost was the first audition she ever did and I think she did it as a joke or a laugh.

Some joke.

Right. (Laughs) Now she’s been in this show for seven years and has done one other movie, The Hurt Locker and she said yes to this because she really loved the emotion. She brought so much to it. There was a lot more to that part and that relationship and often you hear people talk saying “You know we’re going to create something where you guys are kind of at each other’s throats but we secretly see that you’re in love with each other” and you go “Yeah, yeah.” I’ve heard it before but it’s rare to actually kind of achieve that and I think she was a big reason why we did.

Do you think there’s going to be a sequel?

I don’t know but it’s not the right time to be talking about it. We need to concentrate. It’s kind of like the week before the Superbowl saying “You think you’ll be in the Superbowl next year?” I know it’s being written and I know in a way it’s planned and it’s been always there. I have signed on for one if there is but none of us involved are thinking beyond October 6th. That’s not the mentality you have.

So if there was a memorable moment for you what would it be from working on this project?

I always remembered that moment of standing with Shawn at the monitor watching Dakota in that final scene. It’s in slow motion of the film but when we were shooting live obviously it wasn’t in slow motion where he’s watching Atom and suddenly he looks over at Charlie his father. I was already always kind of in love with this kid, with Dakota and I have such affection for him. A tear rolls down his eye and all of us were like — because that proved to me what this movie was about. In a way this kid is putting all his hopes into Atom but really what he wants is a dad. He sees his father coming to life in that moment and it melts him. I’ll never forget that moment, it was great.

Is that really you on Twitter?

I’ve started on Twitter recently. I’ve come to it like a commitment-phobe, so yes I have been doing it now for the last four months or so. I started on Twitter and I started posting things and my publicist rang me one Sunday night and said “You just posted your home address on Twitter.” I said “What do you mean?” and she says “Look at that picture you just took” because my daughter’s swimming in the fountain outside my house with her friend, and I didn’t want to show her face because it was so cute to me and I didn’t realize I put my street name. So she said “From now on you must send me everything you post.” So what I do is I do a tweet and I send it to her and then she forwards it on.

What’s next for you?

I’m going to Broadway to do a one-man show for ten weeks, do some real sweating. Then I go and do the movie version of Les Miserables, the musical that Tom Hooper’s directing. Russell Crowe, myself and I can’t tell you who some of the others are. It’s very close, I think it’ll come out tomorrow and then Wolverine. I have an eclectic year ahead.

Are you particularly excited for The Wolverine because it seems like Wolvie’s more or less an extension of you at this point because you’ve been playing him for practically a decade. You are Wolverine at this point.

I play it at home obviously. (Laughs) For parental control it really helps, trust me. So yes I’m very excited for it and I’ve always thought the Japanese saga was the ultimate backdrop for a movie. From X-Men 1, when I first started reading the comics, because I’ve never read them before… I don’t want to give away too much. You know, by the way, that saga is quite disparate. There are some that have got the wedding and the X-Men involved. And I’ve been waiting to make this movie all year so there’s been many reasons why I’m so ready to make it.

Speaking of Wolverine, you worked with Kevin Durand there. Were you instrumental in getting him cast?

No, it just happened and I was so thrilled because he’s fantastic in the part. The way he follows it through the end and he’s such a great actor. We first knew of each other on Broadway because he was doing Tom Sawyer when I was getting ready to do The Boy from Oz. In a way we have similar backgrounds, we have a kind of bit of a kindred spirit and I think he is a phenomenally talented actor that is yet to get the roles he deserves so I’m really happy to see him. Everything he does he’s great and I’m happy to see him in this but hopefully next time I see him in a movie he’ll be the lead.

You work on movies and you do a lot of stage work, do you feel like it’s a different gear?

It’s a slightly different gear for sure. But for me each one sharpens the other. It’s like — it’s essentially acting is the same thing, but it requires slightly different muscles and there’s something about theater with the discipline of the theater that no matter what’s going on in your life, eight times a week that you need to be on. They pay eight hundred bucks for a ticket, they don’t care what’s going on with your day, they don’t care about that. You need to be at a hundred percent, it’s one take effectively and that’s always great for film. I find that if I’ve been on stage and I go back to a film and I’m much more on it.

Just curious, did Steven Spielberg or Robert Zemeckis have a lot of input with you on this film?

Zemeckis I personally never spoke to at all. I rarely spoke with Steven because that would be wrong for him to talk with me, particularly he just needed to talk with Shawn and he mentored Shawn. Have you interviewed Shawn yet?

No.

You should ask them what is the one intervention Steven did that made the most difference to this film. Like there’s a number and I don’t know why one he’ll tell but it’s a great example of co-producing. What Steven saw was this was, in fact I heard him quote it. He said “Shawn has made many, many successful movies but this is his first film.” It’s a big step up and it takes someone of Steven’s brilliance and his trust and ability to know a director to know what’s in them.

Did you watch any boxing movies as inspiration for this film?

I watched Rocky again, I watched Raging Bull.

Did you put a little Jake LaMotta in your performance?

(Laughs) No, it’s more — what’s always surprising about Rocky is first of all how little of fighting is in it and still how engaging it is, how inspirational it is and how far you can take a character and still be rooting for him. He’s not a great guy at the beginning of that movie.

Real Steel opens October 7. Check it out.

Interview: Director Shawn Levy on Real Steel

Damon Houx — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:00:02 +0000

Shawn Levy has made a number of commercial successful films, all leading to this point in his career. He’s taken the seemingly ridiculous idea of robots fighting each other, and turned it into a rousing, Rocky-fied night at the movies, and uses Hugh Jackman‘s star power at its highest wattage. Levy sees this movie as a turning point in his career, and he talks about the advice given to him by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis in our interview. Check it out…

Hugh Jackman said to ask what was Steven Spielberg’s most important interaction with the film.

There were many, but the two possible ones. In the first meeting Steven Started talking about Jurassic Park, and said “everyone does everything CG now cause you can, back on Jurassic Park, we didn’t have the luxury of this so we built real dinosaurs, animatronic real dinosaurs. I suggest you build real robots. And it’s a throwback idea, an unconventional idea in 2011, but we did. Atom is real, Noisy Boy is real. Ambush is real. And what you get from real robots is so much – you get a visual reality for the movie and you get unbelievably more authentic performances – especially from that boy. The reason why the scenes between Dakota (Goyo) and Atom are so magical is because Dakota loved that robot – that was real. He was shadowing him. He can’t believe a robot is following him like that.

It had a little bit of an Iron Giant feel.

If it does it’s because of the humanity. We’ve seen boys and robots, but only in animation movie have we robot movies with big-heartedness – Iron Giant’s one, Wall-E is the other. But in live action it’s rare. I’m not conscious of any design inspirations, but the soulfulness of Brad Bird’s movie was definitely something we were going for.

Talking to others, Rocky has come up, Paper Moon has come up, were there any reference points for you?

Those, The Champ, Raging Bull as far as just looking at the shot selection. How Scorsese covered it.

When you cut the robot POV was that an homage to Raging Bull?

Yes. There was also a shot I did where we did a steadi-cam down a hallway where it steps on to a crane. I was absolutely inspired by that. But as much as the filmmaker should revere – and does revere Raging Bull – it was the Rocky movies, because they were the ones I watched as a kid and a younger man, and even as they got pulpier and sillier, I was still with them. Whether he was fighting Apollo Creed, or Clubber Lang or Ivan Drago, those movies were rousing in a way that was pre-irony and pre-cynicism. And in 2011 I appreciate that unabashed underdog story that’s still meaningful. My brothers would re-enact those movies, try to do pull ups on ropes like Mr. T could do, I love that shit. And that’s the kind of underdog sports movie I wanted to make more than a robot movie.

Hugh Jackman told us that Spielberg said to you “You’ve made some successful movies, but this is your first film.”

I think his exact words were “you’ve made a lot of great movies, but this is your first film.” And I think that’s probably fair. I’m proud of those movies, and they were successful, and they earned me this shot. But Real Steel is the most thoroughly designed, it’s the most beautiful, I think the aesthetics, and the faithfulness to my vision is this movie. And part of it may be me getting better – I’ve certainly tried to get better, but part of it is that every decision you make is about the laugh. Composition, pacing, camera movement, lighting, you must get laughs, that’s the job. You have to service that $20 Million dollar comedy actor, and find the way to bring the funny. In drama, action drama you’re making those decisions only according to your own gut, and your own vision. So in that regard there’s a detail and depth to the filmmaking that is a different kind of thing.

With that quote, do you feel like you’re working different muscles?

Yes, this movie is the first one to really have my aesthetics. I really feel like there was an element of this movie I didn’t micro-manage. So I did you use different muscles, but if you look at some scenes in Night at the Museum or Date Night you can tell there are moments where you can tell I want to make a warm hearted moment, but they are moments. But you can’t acquire the building blocks to build to that third act. I mean, I still love comedy, and I’m producing a big comedy now, Neighborhood Watch, so I still keep up with it.

Was the experience of making this film different than you’d thought it’d be?

Yes and no, but mostly no. I have made films before where I had to take a crash course in special effects, so this is like the first Night at the Museum I didn’t know anything, so I had to go to a tutorial session every day so I could speak the language. Real Steal was more dense in its complexity, and I just made myself learn, so that was the same. I also wondered if drama was more serious business because we had scenes that were emotional, blah blah blah, I still try and run the set in an enthusiastic way, I’m open to improvisation, and I think some of the moments that are most honest in Real Steel are the results of me encouraging Hugh, or Evangeline (Lilly) or Dakota to do their own stuff.

The producers said they started darker, and Spielberg made it lighter with the father-son stuff. Where did you fit in the spectrum?

Well I definitely came abroad with a very clear agenda to make the movie heartfelt. I don’t know if that’s lightness or darkness, but I know it was critical to me, I didn’t want a movie that was only style, action and technology. That’s been done really, really well. We’ve seen dystopias, and we’ve seen visions of nihilism, we’ve seen staggeringly staged action movies with robots. But I was inspired by more traditionalism, whether it’s Paper Moon, or Rocky or The Champ, I wanted the movie as emotional as it was spectacle. Someone said it’s Sci-fi with sentiment, which I think is fair. I think in terms of warm hearted and fun. I guess that’s more light than dark. I think movies should be crowd pleasing, I like to please the crowd. That’s not for everyone, some movies are to be dissected or debated, but I like a rousing engaging time at the movies.

When did you think you might have something with this?

The first time I read it, and it’s not that the script was super awesome right away it was good. And the third act was completely different. I read it and I turned to my wife and said “I have had the best idea of my career, I know how this movie should end, we’re going to bring back shadow mode, and put Atom in Shadow Mode. None of that was in the script, and I even knew the specific scene where I would make everything slow motion. In the first meeting with Steven I said “The boy is going to shift his eyes from the robot he reveres to his father has returned to his good graces.” When I came up with that scene, I knew the movie I was meant to make.

The Shadow technology, would the WRB frown upon that?

Good question. I have to say in two years no one has asked that question, not once.

I wanted to ask about product placement, because with doing an arena film it gives you certain opportunities.

I have to say the one everyone assumes is a partner – which is Dr. Pepper – gave us nothing. Nothing. Not a deal, not even free soda. The joke of the scene is the boy is hyper-caffeinated. So it’s Mountain Dew or Dr. Pepper. So I got Dr. Pepper. But… I finished the movie and we had the two arena fights, and I said the effects are amazing, why doesn’t this look real? And I realized it’s because we did not have enough signage in the arenas. If you got to an international soccer game or you go to a boxing match, it’s wall to wall monetized sponsorship. Late in the process we had to get permission from another forty companies to put their stuff on our banners. Not because they gave us money, but because they made the venues look real.

I do like the X-Box 720.

There’s another one: Virgin Intergalactic.

We’ve heard about Steven Spielberg, what influence did (executive producer) Robert Zemeckis have?

His influence is ingrained in our approach using mo-cap. Bob was distantly involved but I remember there was a moment where I was anxious “could we make this ballsy choice to have our hero be the only one without a face?” Bob Z. came in and said “that screen, that we can’t see that face is what the audience is going to project on to.” We are going to project our feelings of what the robot’s thinking on to the absence of anything. That stayed with me. One of the craziest things from the earliest screenings we’ve had was that Atom scored as high as Dakota and Hugh. The machine, and that’s when I realized people love Atom.

How long then did it take to come up with the right scar?

Three months. And we even built five different face masks with different densities. Atom does have a face but no one’s ever seen it, because when you see it it’s very troubling. It’s like seeing Darth Vader, so we experimented with different face meshes. And Tom Meyer, our production designer, he designed the whole movie – Atom was his baby. A lot of the other robots had help from other illustrators, Atom was Tom Meyer. And this idea of a welding scar to suggest a nose and a mouth is brilliant. And it looks like a smile.

And a little bit of a fencer’s mask.

Yeah, It’s a titanium fencer’s mask and there’s a moment at the end of the Zeus fight where we push up on Atom and I think “that dude looks proud of himself!” Like Zemeckis said, you really project your feelings on it.

It’s the Kuleshof effect, not to be pretentious. Anthony Mackie said most directors he’s worked with are dictators, and when he talked about you he said that you’re one of the good ones. How do you feel about that?

I think that’s fair. I do believe people want a leader on set, so I’m not looking for a placid democracy, but I’m also looking for contributions from everyone. In fact – I’ve got to tell that guy the entire thing he says during that fight we made up that day while we were shooting. Everything on that loudspeaker, I’d just come up with lines and throw them at him, and he would say his own version of that. Maybe I’m a friendly dictator, I think every team needs a leader, and I try to lead with energy and enthusiasm and respect.

How many kids did you audition?

Between three and four hundred? It took months and months. At one point, after a month and a half I said “If I don’t find the kid we can’t make this movie.” Because if we did everything else great, if the kid isn’t great, it won’t work.

You talked about improv with Mackie, did you do that with Dakota’s dance?

No, the dance is completely choreographed because Dakota didn’t want to dance. He’s like a regular ten year old boy – he did not want to dance.

It’s the equivalent of cooties.

Yeah, he said “My friends are going to see this movie, do I have to do this?” But he learned the choreography, and I thought the choreography was a good balance between dance moves, but not too professional.

It’s not like he’s breakdancing, it doesn’t turn into Step Up.

It’s a credit to Anne Fletcher, who did the choreography, of doing the robot with a robot. That was a great idea. It’s so funny we have prejudiced against kid actors. You need a kid actor who’s good enough to carry a movie, but you don’t want to see them acting.

It’s TV and stage moms I think.

But when you get it right, and I think that’s The Champ, Kramer Vs. Kramer and E.T. That’s where there’s an authenticity to those boys – and I know there’s a resemblance to Ricky Schroder. But they can sneak up on you.

Are you going to start looking for darker dramatic films?

Two of the movies I might be doing next have dark themes, so yes. But not doing something I don’t think I could the me version of. I don’t think I could do something with porn violence. I don’t think I could do something with too much cynicism or nihilism. The internet has changed everything, I feel like everyone knows the six movies I’m considering. But there will probably always be an element of wish fulfillment, some element of feel-good, but I hope to keep pushing myself.

Can you talk about your Frankenstein project?

My Frankenstein is really inspired by the screenplay Max Landis wrote, it’s a radical retelling of the legend about a young twenty-something Victor Frankenstein and his friend/assistant Igor, and it’s more about their friendship and betrayals than about what we’ve seen before. It’s about a guy figuring out the science that will make him famous, it’s about these two men finding themselves. Like Real Steel is about more than punching robots, Frankenstein will be about much more than the monster. That and Fantastic Voyage are being budgeted and cast, we’ll see which one comes together.

One of the things that separates Real Steel from a lot of futuristic movies, from the clothing and products, no one’s flying around in hovercrafts, was that your decision?

Yes. I knew the movie would live or die with how the audience connected to the characters, so I needed the future to not be way out there. I needed the world to be familiar so the characters would be relatable. And let’s face it, I use a different cell phone than I did a few years ago, my lap top looks different, but a diner is still a diner. A landscape is still a landscape. And I feel there’s a false conceit in how the future is represented in movies and I wanted to have a different take.

Slight Spoiler Alert

With this movie it is feel-good, but there’s a slight edge to that. Did you give yourself wiggle room, did you shoot some scenes happier or sadder to make sure you had that balance, especially with the ending, were you fully committed to the ending?

I was fully committed, but if we put it in front audiences and they were too heartbroken by the ending… I knew I could recut a different ending. I mean Zeus hits the mat, and I could always end the movie right there. But I felt like Rocky that the victory we were craving was not in the ring. It’s between the characters. So hopefully I’ve made a feel-good ending without making a feel-good ending.

Real Steel Opens October 7. Check it out.

Real Steel 2 Script Commisioned

Damon Houx — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 20:09:56 +0000

Real Steel, the Shawn Levy-directed, Hugh Jackman-starring, Robots-fighting movie comes out October 7, and is still deep in post-production. But DreamWorks executives are so thrilled with what they think they have they’ve hired the original writer – John Gatins – to start work on a second, according to Deadline Hollywood. they are also already contacting (according to this report) the main cast and crew for their possible return.

There are two ways to look at it. the less cynical version is that they think they’ve got a winner. Early reports from the set visits were positive, and it seems the film melds live action and digital effects in a way that’s as effective (perhaps more so) than the Transformers movies. As such, they’re just waiting for the film to come out and make so much cash that they have no choice to make another.

The more cynical version is this: scripts are cheap in the scheme of things, and negotiating now before release means they have more control over how much of a bump in salary everyone gets. Likely, the studio was not convinced that the film would be a franchise, and would have rather have deals settled now if they do go back. If the film performs like they think it will (and studios have some control over the final totals), then the deals are in place, and there’s no post-success headaches.

If a movie’s a huge hit, the talent’s asking prices usually go up, and they always goes up with a sequel. With superhero films and with anything studios think might be franchise-able, they often put options on performers and behind the scenes talents to make sure they will return for those films. It looks like DreamWorks didn’t cover their bases on this one, so they’re striking before the iron is too hot.

As we wait to see if the film delivers, check out the film’s trailer:

Are you excited to watch Hugh Jackman train robots?

Hugh Jackman Talks Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Wolverine’ Departure

Travis Woods — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:57:05 +0000

After getting hit with a double whammy—his upcoming Wolverine sequel was set to be directed by Darren Aronofsky and filmed in Japan before Aronofsky quit, and Japan was besieged by an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor leaks—Hugh Jackman recently spoke with Coming Soon about losing the director and, potentially, the shooting locations.

From Coming Soon:

“We need to find another director and once we’ve found that, we’ll be able to know… It’s too early to call on Japan, I’m not sure where they’re at, so now we’re finding another director, but Fox is very anxious to make the movie and we’re moving ahead full steam to find another director.”

Wolverine fans, rest easy—the bushy-haired character and his attendant franchise is too big a cash cow for Fox to let slip through their fingers. So there will be Wolverine 2—the Law of Endless Sequels Featuring Comic Book Characters demands it, really. It’s just that, without Aronofsky, it probably won’t be anywhere near as weirdly badass (or badassly weird) as it could have been.

As for not nabbing Aronofsky (who previously directed him in The Fountain), Jackman had this to say: “This one didn’t work out but hopefully there’ll be another one.”

How do you feel about an Aronofsky-less Wolverine film?

Darren Aronofsky Drops Out Of ‘Wolverine’ Sequel

Travis Woods — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:23:48 +0000

Today has been a tumultuous day of news for comic book fans—in addition to finding out that Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot will ignore the cinematic mythos and aesthetic of the Richard Donner version, Darren Aronofsky announced that he has backed out of directing The Wolverine, the sequel to 2009’s X-men Origins: Wolverine.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Aronofsky said that it all came down to family:

“As I talked more about the film with my collaborators at Fox, it became clear that the production of The Wolverine would keep me out of the country for almost a year… I was not comfortable being away from my family for that length of time. I am sad that I won’t be able to see the project through, as it is a terrific script and I was very much looking forward to working with my friend, Hugh Jackman, again.”

Well, that’s a pretty good reason—dude’s got to be there for his family. But one must also wonder if he backed out of directing the sequel to X-men Origins: Wolverine… because it’s the freaking sequel to X-men Origins: Wolverine. After directing Black Swan and The Wrestler, I’m willing to wager Aronofsky can aim a little higher (for instance, my script for Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper: A TGIF Movie! is still out there, Darren!).

Fox has also released a comment on the matter:

“While we are of course disappointed that Darren can’t do The Wolverine, we also understand and respect his reasons. Having done both The Wrestler and Black Swan with Darren, we know he is an extraordinary talent and we look forward to working with him on other projects in the future. Hugh Jackman and Fox both remain fully committed to making The Wolverine. We will regroup and move forward aggressively.”

What do you think Aronofsky will do next?

Hugh Jackman Says New Wolverine Will Be A Bulldog

Krystal Clark — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:07:58 +0000

When it was announced that Darren Aronofsky had signed on to direct the upcoming sequel The Wolverine, one of his first orders of business was to put Hugh Jackman on a diet. The actor bulked up for all three X-Men movies, and the previous Wolverine spin-off but that’s not going to be enough. Aronofsky wants him to be bigger, bulkier, chunkier, scarier. The actor recently spoke to the folks over at the LA Times about the intense diet he’s on and the new look that he and the director are going for.

Jackman says:

I don’t know how much I want to give away about it, but Darren said with the last one, ‘Hey you looked great, but you’re so tall that in those long shots you looked kind of like Clint Eastwood, and that’s not Wolverine.’ He said that Wolverine, in the comics, is powerful, stocky, you know, he’s short and thick. So he said, ‘I want you to go there, get bigger.’ He’s going to come down after he gets done with all the black-tie events over and done with.

In the first X-Men, he was a little on the lean side, but in Wolverine and X2, he looked pretty bulky to us. If you’re afraid of what Aronofsky is going for, here’s what else Jackman had to say about the character’s makeover.

Yeah, he’s thick and it’s chunky and it’s powerful. I always think of Mike Tyson when he first came on the scene. Sometimes, he was a full foot shorter than his opponents and bent over [with this] massive build. There’s real power. You said bulldog, and that’s it exactly. Exactly. That’s what I’m going for, and if I have a massive heart attack first, well, you tell everyone what I was going for.

It sounds like they’re going for the primal, Hunchback of Notre Dame feel from the comics. Jackman is currently on a 6,000 calorie a day diet, and we don’t even want to know what his work out regimen is like.

Do you think that Jackman can pull off this new look?

Four New Photos From Real Steel

Krystal Clark — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 00:14:31 +0000

Earlier today the first trailer for Shawn Levy’s latest film Real Steel was released. It was surprisingly better that what we expected and gave us an idea of what the Transformers would look like if you stuck them into a boxing ring. DreamWorks has just released four new images from the film, some of which were taken directly from the trailer. Take a look…

Official Synopsis:

A gritty, white-knuckle, action ride set in the near-future where the sport of boxing has gone high-tech, “Real Steel” stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up fighter who lost his chance at a title when 2000-pound, 8-foot-tall steel robots took over the ring. Now nothing but a small-time promoter, Charlie earns just enough money piecing together low-end bots from scrap metal to get from one underground boxing venue to the next. When Charlie hits rock bottom, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) to build and train a championship contender. As the stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred arena are raised, Charlie and Max, against all odds, get one last shot at a comeback.

Real Steel opens in theaters everywhere on October 7, 2011.

What do you think of the photos for Real Steel? Are you interested in seeing the film?

ScreenCrave.com » Hugh Jackman

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