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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 21 April 2013

Song For Marion was chosen to close the 2012 Toronto Film Festival and is now getting a cinematic release here in Australia.  I had a quick chat with British director Paul Andrew Williams about his film…

Matt:  I believe this story is a personal one for you.  Is it based on something in your own life?  Can you tell us how this story came about?

Paul:  It’s personal to me in lots of different ways.  It’s not necessarily the whole story but there are elements that relate to my grandparents and observing the way they dealt with cancer – the love of a different generation is much stronger and determined and respectful.  That’s what really made me want to tell the story.  The idea of a choir was something that would bring an old man out of his shell.

Matt:  With the success of films like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel there seems to be a sudden interest by studios in projects that look at the lives of the elderly and they’re targeted at the same demographic.  Do you think there’s a void in that area?

Paul:  I actually wrote this film 6 years ago when I’d never heard of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Quartet.  For me, it’s about a family.  Yes, the central characters are of a certain age but I wasn’t really thinking about what audiences are looking for at the moment.  If I can make a film and people go and see it, I’ll be happy.

Matt:  You mentioned that you wrote the script 6 years ago.  Was it difficult to find financiers to help get it off the ground?

Paul:  There were lots of difficulties.  There were times too when I was busy.  I wrote it just before I started another project.  There were a number of reasons why it took a little longer to come to fruition.  That’s just the world of film. 

Matt:  You’ve got a quality cast here headlined by Terrence Stamp and Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave.  How did you get your script in front of their noses?

Paul:  The script when to Terrence via someone else and I didn’t realise it had even gone to him.  The fact that he read it and both he and Vanessa really wanted to do it was great.

Matt:  There’s a large group who make up the choir that we see in the film.  Are they actors or do they form part of an actual choir?

Paul:  There were some actors but the majority were just from local choirs in the area.  We tried to find people who just enjoyed singing as opposed to those who were great singers or great actors.  We just wanted real people who could string a tune together.

Matt:  It’s an interesting group of songs that you’ve picked for the choir to sing.  Was that your choosing or did they have a little input to the songs?

Paul:  It was always the idea that they would sing more unconventional choir songs.  That said, these were the sort of songs that we saw choirs singing when we were auditioning. 

Matt:  The film screened at the Toronto Film Festival.  Is that right?

Paul:  Yeah.  It was chosen to close the Festival so we were very fortunate.

Matt:  I went there a couple of years ago and I remember it being such a busy, insane place.  What was the experience like for you in Toronto? 

Paul:  It’s the second time I’ve been there with a film.  The first time was with my first film and no one had heard of me.  It was actually more hectic then because so many people wanted to meet me and offer to represent me.  This time, we went for a few days and we got to enjoy it a little bit more.  Closing the Festival and having a film that the audience really liked… we were really lucky.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 21 April 2013

Guy Pearce is one of Australia’s most accomplished actors with a wide range of credits including two films which won the Oscar for best picture – The Hurt Locker and The King’s Speech.  There’s also Prometheus, Memento, L.A. Confidential and Animal Kingdom.  He can currently be seen in Iron Man 3 and I recently had a 10-minute chat with Guy to talk about the movie and some other stuff he’s been working on. You can listen to / download an audio by clicking here. My review of the film can be found here.

Matt:  We saw you Prometheus last year, well, we kind of saw you beneath all the make-up, but this is about as a big a blockbuster as it gets.  How did you get approached about the role of Aldrich Killian?

Guy:  I’m not sure to be honest.  I don’t know if they were keen on me or my agent pushed me onto them.  By the time I heard about it, it was an offer so someone must have thought it was a good idea.

Matt:  What’s it like inside Hollywood in the sense that you are already an accomplished actor but do you still have to audition for a role like this?

Guy:  I didn’t in this case, no but it does depend on the situation.  I’m sure if Martin Scorsese was interested in me or something he may want to do an audition.  With the majority of roles though, if people realise that you’re capable of doing something then you’re in.

Matt:  You’ve made some wonderful low-budget films and Memento comes to mind but here you’re working on a film with a big $200m budget.  Does it feel any different on set or is just another movie?

Guy:  It only feels different on set because you’re filming at the studio.  You’re there in a big studio with 20 visual effects artists behind you who are creating images on their laptops.  It feels bigger in that regard but on the other hand, you’re there with the same group of people – a bunch of actors, the director, the cinematographer, the camera team and the prop guys.  So there are times when it doesn’t feel all that different at all.

Matt:  Once upon a time, comic books where things that nerdish kids read at school.  Now days, movies based on comic books seem to be all the rage.  Audiences are flocking to them, they’re pulling in billions at the box-office and studios are making more and more of them.  What’s going on here?  Why are comic book / superhero movies suddenly so popular?

Guy:  I don’t know.  I never read comic strips as a kid.  They did nothing for me whatsoever but I can imagine for a lot of people they are a wonderful fantasy.  To see that stuff come to life on screen is exciting for a lot of those comic book nerds out there.  It’s not just nerds though.  There are many people looking for a bit of escapism.  Some comic book films are done in a standard kind of way and then you have some like the recent Christopher Nolan Batman series that are very dark, cerebral and powerful.

Then you’ve got something like Iron Man which I think treads a beautiful line between campy humour and serious story, primarily because of Robert Downey Jr.  He brings something to this character and these films that most other actors could not.  He avoids the typical serious, “clenched jaw” hero that is out to save the world.  You kind of never know what he’s going to do next and it’s exciting to watch.

Matt:  I’ve only had a chance to see part of the film so far.  Do you interact a lot with Robert Downey Jr in the film?

Guy:  We had a few scenes together but I haven’t seen the finished film myself so I don’t know how much of what I did is still in there.  We have a bit to do with each other but we spend much of the film trying to track each other down.  I also worked with Gwyneth Paltrow and Rebecca Hall.

Matt:  We’ve mentioned the comic books already and you said you didn’t read them as a kid but with this particular role, did you have to do some background reading of the comic books or are you more relying on the script and director for inspiration?

Guy:  I was just relying on the script as I feel that’s someone else’s job to pull the best bits from the source material and make a great script.  If I read the script and it works for me then great.  If it doesn’t work for me and I still want to do it, then I might go and do a bit more reading to see if there’s something missing about this character. 

I did have a look at some of the comic books, not because I thought the script was bad but just out of interest.  I was curious to see how he appears and how Aldrich Killian looks while trying to get a sense of his manor and demeanour.  What we’ve put in the film is a mix of the best bits and pieces of his life.  If you stick too closely to the source material, you’re only going to get confused and disappointed because things aren’t there. 

Matt:  A lot goes into the promotion of a Marvel movie.  Do you have to do a lot of travel in the next few weeks to talk up the film?

Guy:  Not a lot.  I’ll go to the States to do the opening and press over there but that’ll probably be about it.  Robert’s already in Asia now promoting it.  I don’t have a really big role in the film to be honest but I have worked on films in the past where you’re travelling non-stop around the world for about 18 months trying to get something off the ground.

Matt:  I’ve been reflecting over the past few days about the life of Roger Ebert, the world’s most influential film critic who passed away last week.  As an actor, are you someone who reads a lot of reviews?

Guy:  I don’t read a lot of them.  I used to but then I got burned really badly once and it left me thinking that I don’t really need to see reviews.  Having said that, I watch David and Margaret all the time.  If there are reviewers like Siskel & Ebert that have a great credible history, then sure, I’m curious to know what they have to say but I won’t necessarily rely on them when determining whether to see a film or not.

Matt:  Much is made about the state of the film industry here in Australia and how we struggle to come up with many of our own big hits at the box-office?  Do you get approached with a lot of scripts from Aussie filmmakers?

Guy:  Not a lot.  There are not a lot of films that get made in Australia unfortunately.  I’m always trying to seek things out.  I think sometimes I don’t get approached because people think “oh, he’s a Hollywood actor now and we wouldn’t be able to afford him so don’t bother” or they’ll go “we want someone who is unknown and bring a bit more mystery to a role”.  I hate the fact that I might get overlooked for a role because they think it’ll be difficult for the public to believe that I am this simple Aussie character.  I’d love to do more Australian stuff than what I actually do.

Matt:  And where can we expect to see you next?  What projects are in the works?

Guy:  I’ve got a couple of things in the can.  I’ve just finished David Michod’s film, The Rover.  I did a film in New Orleans after Iron Man with Kristen Wiig which I think is now called Hateship Loveship.  I also did Drake Doremus’ movie which we took to Sundance this year called Breathe In.  Those films all need to come out.  In May this year, we’re going to shoot the third Jack Irish film.
 

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 18 April 2013

The 2013 Gold Coast Film Festival kicked off tonight and a few stars are in town for the opening weekend of films.  I caught up with writer-director Jason Trost and star Lucas Till (X-Men: First Class) to talk about a film they've put together, All Superheroes Must Die, which screens on Friday night.

Matt:  Jason, this is your baby – you wrote it, directed it, produced it and starred in it.

Jason:  It’s definitely my bastard child.  It’s my fault one way or the other.

Matt:  You’ve come all the way to Australia.  What’s the purpose?  What are you trying to get out of the experience here at the Gold Coast Film Festival?

Jason:  It’s to raise awareness for the movie and to get our Australian DVD release in order. 

Lucas:  And we get a free Australian trip too! (laughs)  This film is the little engine that could and we never really had any huge expectations.  It had such a low budget.

Matt:  So when you’re making a film like this do you know that this is the path you’re going to take – trying to build a bit of interest through the film festival circuit and hope to get a bit of cash out of DVD sales?

Jason:  Yeah, you never really know what’s going to happen until it happens.  It never happens the same twice – that’s the best way I can sum up independent movies.

Matt:  What budget were you working with on this film?  How much did you raise?

Jason:  We shot it for $20,000.

Lucas:  I don’t know what the union laws are like here in Australia but you can get into some real binds with low-budget independent filmmaking that make it impossible to shoot.  $20,000 would be your craft service budget on any other film.  This was a bare bones, “money in our pocket” movie.

Jason:  The term “sweat equity” comes to mind.

Matt:  Lucas, you’re a producer on this film as well.  For someone who’s 22, that’s pretty impressive.  What did that entail?

Lucas:  Not to toot my own horn but I was actually 19 at the time. (laughs)

Matt:  Well that shows how long it’s taken for us to see this film.

Lucas:  It’s been a hell of a journey.  Back then, I was frustrated with where my career was going.  I was auditioning for a lot of superhero things and not getting very far.  Jason then came to me with this idea and the rest moved from there.  We got a release in America and we were able to pay ourselves back so I guess the gamble paid off.

Matt:  Comic book and superhero movies are so popular the moment.  There are so many of them.  What’s happened?  Where has the sudden interest come from within Hollywood?

Jason:  I think there’s always been an interest in them.  The reason they make so many now is because they make money and are marketable.  There’s a huge demand out there and they’re still only making a small number each year.  It’s not a lot if you’re a huge comic book fan.  I think that’s why there’s such a thirst, even when they happen.

Matt:  So what are the plans with the film going forward?  Are there other film festivals you are trying to target?

Jason:  I wish I had a firm answer.  We’re trying to lock up our distribution deal at the moment for Australia, New Zealand and the UK right now.  Beyond that is all up in the air.

Matt:  Lucas, I have to ask a question about Stoker.  I heard a lot of raves coming out of the Sundance Film Festival and the film has a big Aussie connection with Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska and Jacki Weaver.  Can you tell us a little about the film?

Lucas:  Is it not out here?

Matt:  No, we don’t get it until August.

Lucas:  Wow, that’s insane.  Are you a fan of Park Chan-wook’s movies?

Matt:  Everyone keeps telling me to watch it but I’ve never seen Oldboy.

Lucas:  Oh man.  Don’t watch it with the dubbed English.  Make sure you put yourself through the hard work of reading the subtitles.  The performances are phenomenal.

As for Stoker, it was fantastic to be a part of it.  I worked with Mia but I didn’t have a lot to do with Jacki Weaver or Nicole Kidman.  How can I describe it without spoiling it?  A lot of people will assume that it has something to do with Bram Stoker but that’s not the case.  It’s about a girl who loses her father and her mysterious uncle comes to town and helps her out.  I’ll be honest – the less you know, the better.
 

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 07 April 2013

I awoke at 6:45am last Friday and a text message was waiting for me from a good friend.  It said “EVERT’S DEAD! :o” followed by “Ebert!”  The delivery may not have been perfect but the shock was still tough to take.  The world’s most notable film critic, Roger Ebert, had passed away at the age of 70.

My first job was in a video store back in 1995 and that’s where my love of movies began.  Within a year, I was grading all the films I’d seen and keeping the details in a spreadsheet.  I’m still using that same spreadsheet today.

Back then, I didn’t have access to the internet.  The only film critic I read regularly was Des Partridge in The Courier Mail.  I’d also check out reviews in magazines like Who Weekly when I found the time.

While my access to the world was limited, I still knew the names Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.  They were regular guests on The Late Show With David Letterman and their quotes could be found on many film posters and in many trailers.

Since 1986, they were the two guys who headlined a successful television show in which they reviewed the latest movies each week (similar to what Margaret and David do today in Australia with At The Movies).  Their grading system was simple – a film either got the thumbs up or the thumbs down.  There was no in-between.

I never got to see their show (since it didn’t air here in Australia) but once the internet finally arrived in my household, I was able to read transcripts of their on-air reviews at a particular website.  I even kept clippings of my favourite Siskel & Ebert reviews in a scrapbook (I’m a nerd, I do realise that).

These guys were the pinnacle of film criticism.  While you could argue that other critics were better writers, these guys were the most influential.  They had a sizeable audience and hence could do huge things for a small film.  I remember reading their raves for Fargo back in 1996.  Ebert called it the best film of the year.  Siskel said the same of The Ice Storm in 1997.  It’s possible many would not have heard of these two remarkable films if not for the glowing praise of Siskel and Ebert.

Sadly, Gene Siskel died in 1999.  I remember reading a news story stating that he was taking a short break from the show to recover after surgery to remove a brain tumour.  He died a few weeks later at the age of 53.  It was sad news and at that year’s Academy Awards, host Whoopi Goldberg paid a nice tribute by raising her hand in the air and giving him the thumbs up.

The television show carried on with Ebert using guest critics each week.  I’ve watched a few clips on Youtube and I’m particularly fond of this one from late 1999 – see here.  It features Ebert staunchly defending Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia – a film I regard as one of the greatest of all time.

Ebert was never afraid to be forthright and honest.  This video is popular on Youtube and shows Ebert voicing/yelling his opinion to refute someone else in the audience at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.  There was also a humorous incident at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival when Ebert called The Brown Bunny the worst film to ever screen at Cannes.  Director Vincent Gallo responded by calling Ebert “a fat pig with the physique of a slave trader.”  Ebert’s retort – “one day I will be thin but Vincent Gallo will always be the director of The Brown Bunny.”

Ebert battled thyroid cancer for a number of years and in 2006, nearly died during surgery.  He lost the ability to speak and would require a feeding tube to be able to eat and drink.  It didn’t slow him down though.  While he no longer appeared on his television show, Ebert kept churning out reviews for The Chicago Sun-Times, where he had been the film critic since 1967.  In fact, he became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism back in 1975.  All of these reviews were available online and his website had a permanent place in my Favourites folder.  If I ever wondered if a film was any good, the first review I’d read would be that of Roger Ebert.

In 2011, I attended the Toronto Film Festival for the first time.  On the Wednesday afternoon of the second week, I heard that Roger Ebert was doing a book signing for his recently released autobiography, Life Itself.  I cleared my calendar, got a taxi uptown and made sure I was there.  I would finally get the chance to see my “idol” in person.  I listened to his stories for about an hour (told through his wife, Chaz) and bought a copy of his book which he later autographed for me.  It was one of the highlights of my trip and the book will forever sit on the shelf in my living room.

Roger Ebert was very active on Twitter and amassed over 800,000 followers.  That’s not bad for someone who critiques film and only further highlights his influence and popularity.  Early last week, he announced he was scaling back the number of reviews while he was undergoing radiation treatment for cancer in his hip.  In his final blog, he finished by saying “Thank you for going on this journey with me. I’ll see you at the movies.”  Then came the sad news of his passing last Friday morning.  His final review was posted over the weekend – for Terrence Malick’s To The Wonder.

Twitter has been flooded with tributes and retrospectives.  President Obama said that “The movies won’t be the same without Roger”.  Albert Brooks noted that “the importance of Siskel/Ebert to independent filmmakers like myself cannot be overstated”.  Fellow critic Leonard Maltin said “he had indomitable spirit and was one of the gutsiest people I knew.”

While I never knew Roger Ebert personally, he has been a big influence in my life.  I’ve always been jealous of his reviews and they’ve made me strive to be a more insightful critic and a better writer.  His legacy will live on and his past reviews will always be there to read.  It’s just sad to think that we’ll never get to hear his thoughts on any future releases.  I’m particularly moved by this photo of Roger’s favourite chair at a theatrette in Chicago.

There was so much more to admire about Roger Ebert (such as the way he founded his own film festival) and I could write another 10,000 words but alas, time is pressing.  I need to keep following his footsteps and do the best I can to promote the movies I love.  RIP Roger Ebert.

Roger Ebert signing autographs at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival.

Roger Ebert telling stories at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival.

My autographed copy of Roger Ebert's autobiography, Life Itself.