Part one of the interview.
Did your screenwriting experiences influence the way you wrote novels?
It
cut both ways. With my novel of The Last Detail, some of the critics
said ''This isn't so much a novel as it is a screenplay. '' They
probably said the same thing about Last Flag Flying. It's because I
wrote them in the present tense. They're short books and I thought
having them in the present tense would be a more dynamic way to tell
the story. As you read them, you do sense that they are cinematic.
They're a lot easier to visualise being set in the present tense. I
think I brought a cinematic stance to the books, rather than the
other way around.
The
way screenwriting affected my novel writing is that it really taught
me the discipline of rewriting - doing serious demolition and
changing a lot of things. When I wrote some of my first novels, a lot
of the work was from my first drafts and I didn't change things at
all. But things are different now. I've been working on a novel for
four years now and I have been constantly rewriting it.
You
wrote a series of mystery novels under the pseudonym of Anne Argula.
Was that a freeing experience for you, writing under a different
persona?
It
was really accidental. I had an idea that I thought was great and by
that time I hadn't been working on films for a few years and I didn't
want to do the idea as a screenplay, so I did it as a novel. But I
didn't think it was a literary novel. I felt it fell into the mystery
genre, which I know very little about. I wasn't particularly a
mystery fan and I wasn't well versed in how to write one. As I
started writing it, it wasn't my plan but I found myself writing in a
woman's voice. She was a minor character to begin with, and that
kind of changed. I published the book (Homicide My Own) with a small New York
publisher, and this was the first time they had ever published a
mystery. They had been doing non-fiction, poetry and short stories.
The book got nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award, and that was
how it got revealed that I was the real author. I was then pressed to
do another one, and I ended up doing four, but I'm done with them
now. I enjoyed writing them, and when I re-read them I'm kind of
happy with the way they turned out. Unfortunately, they had no
distribution and no advertising and so they pretty much fell through
the cracks. I don't think many people have read them but I am hoping
that somewhere down the line they'll find a second life.
I
wrote a lot of screenplays but nothing really got that close. There
were directors attached but we didn't have people cast. During that
time I wrote four novels, including 'Tom Mix Died for Your Sins',
for which Fox owns the film rights to. I would have liked to have
seen that produced but at the time it turned out way too expensive
and there was no way to reduce the cost. Economics are always central
to making movies.
You
made a number of films with Harold Becker, starting with TAPS. What
was your working relationship like?
It
was sometimes great, sometimes contentious. The only directors I
didn't have fights with were Rick Linklater on LAST FLAG FLYING and
Robert Mandel on SCHOOL TIES. Harold and I had a long relationship
and we did a number of movies together. It was similar to the
relationship I had with the producer Stanley Jaffe – it was a
love-hate relationship. He would hate me until I did something that
he loved, and then all would be okay. I ended up doing three pictures
with Stanley.
 | |
| Harold Becker |
We
were going to do it with Al Pacino. I worked pretty intensely on it.
Al wasn't part of the development process and didn't have a whole lot
of input. He would read the script as it came in. We met several
times and I liked him very much. He's a very nice guy. He hung with
it for a while during development but eventually he just decided it
wasn't right for him. Harold and I fell away from the project, and it
ended up getting made with Mickey Rourke and Walter Hill.
Was
your version of the story a lot different than Walter Hill's?
It
was a lot different but I don't remember any details. I was very
disappointed in the final film when I saw it. I felt the material had
much better potential.
 |
| VISION QUEST. |
No.
I was a teacher for several years, so I was in touch with young
people and I saw them in a different way to Hollywood, which saw them
as superficial and always on the town and carousing and all that kind
of stuff. I saw the kids as serious in nature. They dealt with the
same big problems that everybody else did. I think I had a greater
respect for them than was seen previously in movies. TAPS, VISION
QUEST and SCHOOL TIES treat kids with respect and grant them
intelligence and character.
VISION
QUEST, for example, was sweet and inspirational, but never succumbed
to sentimentality. Was avoiding sentimentality something on your
mind?
Yes,
it was. It was based on a book and was just a very decent, sweet
story, which is so rare to find. Nothing was manufactured. There
wasn't any imposed conflict or anything. It was a rite of passage in
the best possible way. It's not easy becoming a man and to watch a
guy take it on like that was really something. As I told Matthew
Modine at the time ''This is the closest we're ever going to get to
Catcher in the Rye. '' In many ways Matthew's character was as open
as Holden Caulfield. The picture didn't do well but has more fans
now.
I got a direct call from Bud Yorkin, one of the producers, with whom I had worked on a project called Lethal Gas, an absurd look at the prison system. (His new assistant was a nervous kid just out of Harvard named Andy Borowitz, who is now one of the country’s major humorists.) Lethal Gas was another project I wish could have been made. Bud and I became friends, and he was calling as a friend in need. So of course I didn’t think twice about going into LA and helping. He told me the situation and led me into the screening room. He never said a word about what the movie was about, or anything else about it.
What
was felt to be the problem with the film? What did you think of the
cut they showed you?
The
producers felt it was too opaque and that nobody was going to
understand it. Ridley Scott said ''If you give me the money to shoot
two more scenes, everything will become perfectly clear. '' They said
''No, we're already over budget. There's no more money. '' So they
brought me in and I took a look at it. I loved it. I thought it was
fantastic. It was such eye candy to begin with, and I loved the
characters. I thought that if there was any confusion, maybe a
voice-over would help. I don't feel that films normally require
narration, but I saw BLADE RUNNER as being in a long tradition of
noir and even futuristic or imaginative fiction and they have a
tradition of first-person narration. I also used it in VISION QUEST,
but you have to use it where it works and not as a crutch.
I
worked on it I think for about a week or ten days. I left after my
father died.
Is
the voice-over in the theatrical cut all your work?
Who
knows if anybody messed about it with it after I was gone. I watched
the film again and again, and we tried to pinpoint where a voice-over
would add to it. I did the same with the script in front of me. There
were some technical issues as well. I would suggest to Ridley little
transitions that we could do to help the picture that didn't involve
reshooting anything. It was all done with sound. There was something
with an intercom I remember.
Did
you attend any of the looping sessions with Harrison Ford?
No,
I did my thing and went. I'd never been involved before with anything
like that. I don't how long after the movie was released, but it
didn't do well and it wasn't until later that people discovered it.
Now it's considered a classic. It's happened before. I don't think
anybody was crazy about CASABLANCA (1942) or CITIZEN KANE (1941) when
they came out.
I
saw the rough cut alone in a screening room. I was blown away. I was
sure it would become a classic. I thought the voiceover was a good
idea. When the film was released I was invited to the premiere where
I flirted with Joanna Cassidy, who was so memorable in that movie.
Her running away from Ford is a classic cinema moment. I thought the
voiceover worked fine. Many disagree.
What
was it like working with Ridley Scott? Did you speak to Scott about
the finished voice-over? Was he gung-ho about the voice-over when you
came on?
I like Ridley and I liked his brother, with whom I spent a lot more time. Ridley was not happy. He didn’t want a voiceover, he wanted more money to shoot a couple more scenes, and he told me so. But we made the most of it. I never spoke to him after I did my work, so I have no idea what he thought about the VO.
Did you ever speak to Harrison Ford about his experience recording the voice-over?
I like Ridley and I liked his brother, with whom I spent a lot more time. Ridley was not happy. He didn’t want a voiceover, he wanted more money to shoot a couple more scenes, and he told me so. But we made the most of it. I never spoke to him after I did my work, so I have no idea what he thought about the VO.
Did you ever speak to Harrison Ford about his experience recording the voice-over?
Years
later I was invited to Harrison Ford’s home in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
to confer on a script I was rewriting. He was to star in the movie.
Over dinner I told him I’d done the VO on BLADE RUNNER. He told me
matter-of-factly that he hated it and deliberately did his least on
it. I’m not sure how his best would have made it different.
How do you feel about the arguments between fans about which cut of the film is best?
How do you feel about the arguments between fans about which cut of the film is best?
I’m
amused by it when I pay any attention at all. Rick Linklater called
me after he read an interview I’d done and said, “Hey, I didn’t
know you did the voiceover. I liked it, and I’ve seen every cut.”
So with that I’m ready to put the matter to rest.
Part three of the interview.
LAST FLAG FLYING opens in the US on November 3rd.
The trailer to the film.
Interview by Paul Rowlands. Copyright © Paul Rowlands, 2017. All rights reserved.
Part three of the interview.
LAST FLAG FLYING opens in the US on November 3rd.
The trailer to the film.
Interview by Paul Rowlands. Copyright © Paul Rowlands, 2017. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment