Screen January 31st

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Issue 1772 January 31, 2014

LEADER

Virtual reality check

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UK office MBI, 101 Finsbury Pavement, London, EC2A 1RS Tel: +44 (0) 20 3033 4267 US office Screen International, 8581 Santa Monica Blvd, #707, West Hollywood, CA 90069 E-mail: firstname.lastname@screendaily.com (unless stated) Please note our new London phone numbers Editorial Editor Wendy Mitchell +44 (0) 20 3033 2816 US editor Jeremy Kay +1 310 922 5908 Jeremykay67@gmail.com News editor Michael Rosser +44 (0) 20 3033 2720 Chief critic and reviews editor Mark Adams +44 (0) 20 3033 4213 Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray +44 (0) 20 3638 5060 Group art director, MBI Peter Gingell +44 (0) 20 3033 4203 peter.gingell@mb-insight.com Chief reporter Andreas Wiseman +44 (0) 20 3033 2848 Asia editor Liz Shackleton, lizshackleton@gmail.com Contributing editors Sarah Cooper, Leon Forde, John Hazelton, Louise Tutt Contributing reporter Ian Sandwell +44 (0) 20 3033 4212 Advertising and publishing Commercial director Andrew Dixon +44 (0) 20 3033 2928 Sales manager Scott Benfold +44 (0) 20 3638 5050 Sales manager Nadia Romdhani (maternity leave) UK, South Africa, Middle East Andrew Dixon +44 (0) 20 3033 2928 France, Spain, Portugal, Latin America, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Scott Benfold +44 (0) 20 3638 5050 Germany, Scandinavia, Benelux, Eastern Europe Gunter Zerbich +44 (0) 20 3033 2930 Italy, Asia, India Ingrid Hammond +39 05 7829 8768 ingridhammond@libero.it VP business development, North America Nigel Daly +1 323 654 2301 / 213 447 5120 nigeldalymail@gmail.com Production manager Jonathon Cooke +44 (0) 20 3033 4296 jonathon.cooke@mb-insight.com Group commercial director, MBI Alison Pitchford +44 (0) 20 3033 2949 alison.pitchford@mb-insight.com Subscription customer service +44 (0) 1604 828 706 help@subscribe.screendaily.com Festival and events manager Mai Le +44 (0) 20 3033 2950 mai.le@mb-insight.com Sales administrator Justyna Zieba +44 (0) 20 3033 2694 justyna.zieba@mb-insight.com Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam +44 (0) 20 3033 2717 conor.dignam@mb-insight.com Screen International is part of Media Business Insight Ltd (MBI), also publisher of Broadcast and shots

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WENDY MITCHELL EDITOR

he latest Film Policy Review report in the UK (see page 4) identifies resolving the virtual print fee negotiations as a priority. Well done to the panel for recognising just how important this is for the health of the UK’s independent film scene.

“The panel is disappointed that the VPF remains a significant issue that continues to limit audience access to a greater range of British and independent films,” the report states simply, bringing the issue back not to industry infighting but what’s best for audiences.

Two years ago in the original Film Policy Review report, the panel had left the VPF debate up to the industry itself. It rather optimistically charged “studios, third-party consolidators and exhibitors to find a new virtual print fee model”.

Since then the Film Distributors’ Association has facilitated discussions with the four aggregators (Arts Alliance Media, dcinex, DDL and Sony) without much progress; the BFI took it over and has at least now engaged the aggregators to talk about the issue.

The widest point of release (WPR) model advocated by the panel is a smart one, and a waiver for the VPF on smaller films is pretty much the perfect solution.

That way the aggregators don’t have to

change their entire businesses but can recognise that a small Chilean film is not Iron Man 3.

And the call for a sensible pricing structure to be agreed by all parties is rational, if a bit unrealistic given the parties’ unique interests.

The panel now recommends that the BFI leads a task force on the issue, with representatives from the industry and government. A tight deadline is set — if no agreement is set by March 31, then the panel suggests appointing an independent mediator.

The hope is that the aggregators will see that something like the WPR or waiver are not going to lose them huge chunks of money, and they will be willing to make some changes to better reflect the challenges of independent film distribution.

But the aggregators, protecting their own business interests, may not change if they don’t have to. And they probably already feel backed into a corner. So the idea that government sits on this task force is an important one as legislation may have to be the way forward for real change on the VPF; it might not be one of those issues that can be solved by a friendly meeting or two (but let’s hope s otherwise). ■

The Film Policy Review wants changes to the VPF relating to smaller scale releases

Out of the box I applaud the Berlinale for deciding to screen two episodes from season two of Netflix’s House Of Cards (pictured) on its closing day, February 16, this year (it goes online in the US and UK on February 14). Cranky old cinema purists may balk, but you can’t deny that some TV shows of today ((Mad Men, House Of Cards Cards, Top Of The Lake etc) are just as culturally important, and well crafted, as films. Several festivals have paved the way on this: Sundance 2013 showed the entire series of Top Of The Lake, Rotterdam featured a small-screen programme last year and this year included Channel 4’s magnificent Southcliffe. Writers, directors, actors and producers in the film world are increasingly eager to work in TV, and delivered some auteur-like series, so progressive film festivals are only right to include their work. No, we don’t need retrospectives of Two And A Half Men in Cannes, but a bit of Frank Underwood in Berlin is very welcome.

January 31, 2014 Screen International 1 ■

contents

International correspondents Asia Liz Shackleton lizshackleton@gmail.com Australia Sandy George +61 2 9557 7425 sandy.george@me.com Balkan region Vladan Petkovic +381 64 1948 948

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vladan.petkovic@gmail.com Brazil Elaine Guerini +55 11 97659915 elaineguerini@terra.com.br France Melanie Goodfellow +33 6 21 45 80 27 melanie.goodfellow@btinternet.com Germany

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Martin Blaney +49 30 318 063 91 screen.berlin@googlemail.com Greece Alexis Grivas +30 210 64 25 261 alexisgrivas@yahoo.com Israel Edna Fainaru +972 3 5286 591 dfainaru@netvision.net.il Korea/deputy Asia editor Jean Noh +82 10 4205 0318

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hjnoh2007@gmail.com nordic territories Jorn Rossing Jensen +45 202 333 04 jornrossing@aol.com

January 31, 2014

scotland Allan Hunter +44 (0) 7904 698 848 allan@alhunter.myzen.co.uk spain Juan Sarda +34 646 440 357 jsardafr@hotmail.com UK Geoffrey Macnab +44 (0) 20 7226 0516 geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk

Analysis

Awards countdown

4 Film Policy review: two years on

10 excess all areas

20 a Family Portrait

Costume designer and production designer Catherine Martin talks about upping the ante for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby

The August: Osage County ensemble is winning multiple nominations during this awards season. Director John Wells reflects on cast concerns ahead of the shoot and why he insisted they all live together

A new report issued two years after the UK’s Film Policy Review finds progress but still a lot of work to do

6 the talent Pool Set up in 2010, US outfit Red Crown Productions has an impressive production pipeline that mixes big names and rising talent

Ron Howard discusses the challenges and rewards of returning to independent film-making with Formula 1 character study Rush, and tells Screen about the adventure of his new film Heart Of The Sea

Regulars

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subscriptions Screen International Subscriptions Department, 3 Queensbridge, The Lakes, Northampton NN4 7BF tel +44 1604 828 706 e-mail help@subscribe.screendaily.com Screen International ISSN 0307 4617

All currencies in this issue converted according to

12 the ultimate rush

30 reviews Sundance titles The Trip To Italy and Laggies, plus new work from Anton Corbijn, Lenny Abrahamson and Marjane Satrapi reviewed from the festival

For The Desolation Of Smaug, the second part of his Hobbit trilogy, Peter Jackson had the tricky task of bringing the story’s raging, intelligent dragon to life

18 marine liFe Paul Greengrass was drawn to Captain Phillips not only to work with Tom Hanks, but also to pay tribute to his merchant marine father

22 the american way The hustling started a year and a half before David O Russell’s American Hustle hit cinemas. Screen speaks to the director and producers about the film’s high-speed, high-stakes production

26 in service oF the butler Pulling together the financing for a civil-rights movement epic was not easy, but The Butler has challenged conventional wisdom about audiences for African-American and political stories

exchange rates that applied in January 2014

n 2 Screen International January 31, 2014

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Film Policy Review two years on…

A new report issued two years after the UK’s Film Policy Review finds progress but still a lot of work to do. Geoffrey Macnab reports

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n 4 Screen International January 31, 2014

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Film policy review In FoCus

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wo years after the publication of the UK Film Policy Review’s A Future For British Film: It begins with the audience, the independent panel has delivered a follow-up report.

The new document, entitled It’s Still About The Audience, sets new challenges for the UK film industry, BFI and government — with some of the most crucial recommendations concerning broadcasters’ investment in film and a resolution to the clashes over the virtual print fee (VPF).

The report acknowledges the “significant progress” that has been made on a number of the panel’s original recommendations, such as the establishment of Film Nation UK (FNUK) to encourage young people to learn through and about film, and a number of initiatives to nurture new talent and skills, with the aim of ensuring the future success of the UK film industry.

While broadly supportive of the British Film Institute (BFI), the new report has some criticism of the BFI’s “tentative” embrace of the commercial side of its remit.

“I wouldn’t call it a kick up the backside.

It’s more of a nudge,” panel chairman Chris Smith said of the recommendations the report contains for the BFI. BFI chief executive Amanda Nevill stated that the BFI was “very comfortable with the report” and that it was “by and large a very accurate ref lection of where we are and where we would expect to be”.

The new report encourages the BFI to “find an optimum balance between providing strong industry leadership and truly collaborative partnership working that allows partners the necessary licence to deliver against their remit”.

Nevill accepted there is a “perception” the BFI is more comfortable with its cultural and archival work than with its commercial activities. “I don’t think it’s a reality on the ground but I absolutely accept it takes a long time to move perceptions.”

The broadcasters’ role The original Film Policy Review, published in 2012, pushed broadcasters to set out their agreed commitments to British film. Two years on, although the government accepted the recommendations, no action has been taken to implement them.

“There wasn’t a real effort at the time made by the government to sit down with the broadcasters and try and persuade them, possibly because other distractions came along. There were all the issues around Sky and News Corporation and the pre- and postLeveson issues,” Smith said of the failure to follow through on the recommendations.

“I think it slipped off the government’s agenda. One of the things we’re trying to do is put it back on again.”

Smith stated that “it would make a very real difference” if the UK film industry received the same “sort of investment from ITV and Sky in particular” that already comes from the BBC and Channel 4.

The panel has suggested that BSkyB should invest $33.2m (£20m), ITV $16.6m

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‘I wouldn’t call it a kick up the backside. It’s more of a nudge’ Chris Smith, Film Policy Review

‘[The report is] by and large a very accurate reflection of where we are and where we would expect to be’ Amanda Nevill, BFI

‘This is a really promising development that could help transform the distribution of independent films’ Rupert Preston, Vertigo Films

(£10m) and Channel 5 $8.3m (£5m) in British film.

“Remember, if you look across the Channel to France where there are compulsory provisions for broadcaster investment in movies, I think it’s running at over $663m (£400m) from French broadcasters into original movie production,” Smith said.

“There’s a reputational issue here, there’s a public service issue here and there’s the potential for a commercial return,” the Film Policy Review chair stated, citing Film4’s “investment in and championing” of Oscar front-runner 12 Years A Slave and its success with The Inbetweeners Movie.

A spokesperson for Sky said: “Sky continues to increase its investment in original British productions. As the fastest-growing source of investment in UK content, we’re on track to spend £600m on home-grown content this year. The likes of Moonfleet, The Tunnel and Fleming demonstrate the scale and ambition of our content origination.

“Beyond this direct contribution, we also support British production through our licensing deals with both film studios and independent distributors. When taken together with innovations such as ondemand, mobile TV and new services like Sky Store, we are proud of our contribution in supporting and distributing high-quality British content.”

Smith suggested that Netflix and Lovefilm were not yet “in a strong enough position in the overall marketplace in the UK to fall into the same category as the broadcasters” but added that this situation might change “in a few years’ time”.

Coming to terms with the VPF Another key recommendation of the followup report is for a new widest point of release (WPR) model, under which smaller distributors would not have to pay Virtual Print Fees for releases of 99 prints or less. Under this model, these distributors would also be given more flexibility regarding cinematic release windows.

“We’re not trying to protect the blockbusters here. That’s not where the great anxiety and concern is. It’s over the small movies that are struggling to get an airing and that audiences don’t get a chance to see because they

[the films] are deterred from going to a wider range of release points,” Smith said.

Distributors welcomed the push on the VPF debate. Rupert Preston, MD of Vertigo Films, said: “This is a really promising development that could help transform and reinvigorate the distribution of quality, but challenging independent films.”

StudioCanal’s head of theatrical distribution, John Trafford-Owen, added: “We at StudioCanal are committed to releasing a very broad range of films in the UK, including mainstream titles as well as more specialised and foreign-language titles. In recent years the VPF mechanism has adversely impacted on release plans in general, but specifically for the arthouse films. This latest recommendation from Lord Smith’s review will help to remove an important obstacle to achieving the greater flexibility of programming that digital technology was to have made possible. Hopefully, we can all achieve the ultimate aim of getting all types of film to a wider audience.”

Export duties Smith praised the work of the British Film Commission (BFC) in attracting inward investment to the UK. “What [the BFC] doesn’t particularly do, because it hasn’t up to now been a major part of its purpose, is to assist with the export of British movies.”

This is why the report recommends that the BFC now be moved under the umbrella of UK Trade and Investment (UKTI).

Adrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London and the British Film Commission, welcomed this proposal. “The BFC already has a fantastic relationship with UKTI and, as the panel has recommended, we would be delighted to explore how that can be extended so we can continue to best serve the industry and promote the UK to the US and other territories whilst working closely with our key stakeholders, especially the BFI,” Wootton commented.

Asked whether the Film Policy Review will be reconvening, Smith responded: “Who knows… with a bit of luck, in another two or three years’ time there won’t be a need to do a review because everything will have happened, but let’s see.” ns Additional reporting by Michael Rosser

Key Recommendations: it’s still about the audience…

The Film Policy Review panel of industry experts, initiated by the UK’s Department for Culture, Media & Sport and chaired by Chris Smith, issued its latest recommendations including:

teachers to achieve capacity and scale for film education interventions n A task force should be established to resolve

questions regarding virtual print fees

n The BFI should engage more with the

n Government should encourage broadcaster

larger commercial exhibitors and smaller distributors of British independent and specialised films to improve audience choice across the UK

investment in British film production

n Film Nation UK should engage with the

Department for Education, schools and

n Government should develop an enhanced strategic vision for international film activity that reflects the convergence of TV and film and the opportunities to promote the UK’s offer to a range of key markets beyond the US.

January 31, 2014 Screen International 5 n

INTERVIEW RED CROWN PRODUCTIONS

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he Sundance sensibility is in the blood at Red Crown Productions, the New York-based producer that boasts close ties to Park City favourite The Kids Are All Right.

Partner Daniela Taplin Lundberg produced Lisa Cholodenko’s family drama while at Plum Pictures — a frequent supplier to the Utah festival over the years — while head of production and development Riva Marker served as executive producer.

The Kids Are All Right premiered in Park City in 2010. Shortly thereafter Lundberg and her partners at Plum called it a day to pursue other opportunities. Later that year Lundberg established Red Crown with former Crown Theatres chairman Daniel Crown.

The hunt for talent Lundberg and Marker, a TV documentary veteran who ran post-production on most of the Plum films, were at Sundance earlier this month, shuffling through the snow and ice in service to the usual producer goals: tracking films, taking meetings and scouting fresh talent. “The Kids Are All Right was a real light-bulb moment,” says Lundberg.

“We [at Plum] had produced so many films that went to Sundance and Kids was the type of film we realised we should aspire to be making all the time.

“I approached Dan [Crown] and we set up this company to focus on films that felt like they were fresh and had a message. We also put money into development because we felt nobody was really doing that and people weren’t paying for interesting and unique stories.”

The result is a formidable early pipeline.

Red Crown produced the highly regarded Toronto 2012 world premiere What Maisie Knew and is preparing Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts Of No Nation to star Idris Elba.

The privately held company, backed by Crown and three other investors, has closed a deal to finance The Family Fang, which Jason Bateman will direct and star in alongside Nicole Kidman.

Red Crown will greenlight films in the $5m-$10m range and the partners will go higher if they can secure pre-sales on a project. They work with different sales agents and are under no obligation to produce a certain number of films.

“It feels like we’re being aggressive and going after the things that have real talent behind them,” says Lundberg. “On the other hand we’re pursuing new film-makers, so we started this micro arm a few months back to back scripts we feel have real promise with people who have not necessarily directed features before.

“It will be [for films] under $1m, but in this day and age you can make quality films for that money if you’re hungry and young.”

Two micro-budget projects are in post and Lundberg says both are likely to see festival launches, although the company is interested in exploring digital distribution: Life Partners, a Bridesmaids-esque comedy by Susanna Fogel, boasts an ensemble cast of

■ 6 Screen International January 31, 2014

Life Partners

The talent pool Set up in 2010, US outfit Red Crown Productions has an impressive production pipeline that mixes big names and rising talent. Jeremy Kay reports

Daniel Crown

Daniela Taplin Lundberg

Riva Marker

Leighton Meester, Gillian Jacobs, Adam Brody and Gabourey Sidibe; while Marker describes the drugdealer story Unreachable By Conventional Means from UK first-time feature director Rory Rooney as “Woody Allen meets Danny Boyle”.

Open to opportunity After years in exhibition, Daniel Crown had been looking to move into production.

“It was an opportunity to work with two incredibly bright, talented women who I respect immensely. They demonstrated a real feel for finding elevated material and executed it with great sensitivity,” he says.

Crown adds that the company has funded all the IP, acquisitions

and screenplays that have been developed there and, depending on the size of the budget, may seek supplemental financing. The partners will commit to a p&a spend if it makes sense.

But top of the agenda is an openness to opportunity.

“We were sent the script to Fruitvale [Station] by WME and the project needed some cash,” says Lundberg, “but at that moment we felt we were not ready to help and we realised we closed ourselves off and don’t want to do that.”

The company has agreed to underwrite the Sundance Producers Brunch for the next two years and just presented the Red Crown Producers Award to Elisabeth Holm.

“Dan was in theatres,” says Lundberg, “and tries to remind us that people want to see movies. We’re s trying to keep that in mind.” ■ (Left) What Maisie Knew

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7-10 April 2014 Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France

F O U R DAYS. 4,0 0 0 BUYE RS. A L L NEW CO NTENT. The truth is MIPTV welcomes more international buyers than any other content market of the new year. 4,000 buyers from 100 countries gather in Cannes to screen and acquire the freshest content for TV, digital platforms and every screen.

This April, MIPTV launches the MIP DIGITAL FRONTS, the NEW international screenings showcase for original online video and multiplatform content.

MIP TV. COM F E E D YOUR PASS IO N FO R FRES H CO NTENT To participate, exhibit, advertise or sponsor please contact Peter Rhodes on 020 7528 0086, peter.rhodes@reedmidem.com

Don’t forget to register for and , the weekend before together, they form the world’s largest gathering for the non-fiction community. experience.

Part of the whole

:

AWARDS COUNTDOWN Guild prizes point the way

Audio Society to honour Zwick

The US guilds have in recent weeks been crowning their winners, usually seen as the most accurate predictors of who will go home with Academy Awards.

At last weekend’s Directors Guild Awards, Alfonso Cuaron triumphed for Gravity.

At the Producers Guild Awards on January 19, 12 Years A Slave and Gravity tied for the Darryl F Zanuck award for outstanding producer of theatrical motion pictures (it marked the first time the vote was split). In other film categories, Frozen was named best animation and We Steal Secrets: The Story Of WikiLeaks prevailed in the documentary category.

At the Screen Actors Guild honours on January 18, Dallas Buyers Club star Matthew McConaughey won best actor

Veteran film-maker Edward Zwick (above) will receive the Cinema Audio Society filmmaker award at the 50th Annual CAS Awards on February 22.

while Cate Blanchett took top actress honours for Blue Jasmine. Both also won Golden Globes and are now confirmed as front runners in their Oscar categories.

Jared Leto also made it a Dallas Buyers Club one-two with his triumph in the supporting actor race for his role as Rayon, while Lupita Nyong’o of 12 Years A Slave prevailed in the supporting actress stakes for her performance as Patsey.

The cast of American Hustle took the SAG ensemble award in what could be a significant harbinger of Oscar success.

The same fate befell the cast of Argo a year ago and that film went on to claim the best picture Oscar.

The acting contingent forms a sizeable chunk of Academy membership.

Reunion tops Guldbagges Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club

Seven films vie for cinematography prize

Gravity and Slave earn ACE nominations

In a break from tradition, a three-way tie has forced the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) to select seven rather than the usual five nominees.

The nominees are Sean Bobbitt for 12 Years A Slave, Barry Ackroyd for Captain Phillips, Philippe Le Sourd for The Grandmaster, Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity, Bruno

American Cinema Editors (ACE) has nominated the following films ahead of the 64th annual ACE Eddie Awards on February 7 in Los Angeles.

Best edited feature film (dramatic): 12 Years A Slave, Joe Walker; Captain Phillips, Chris Rouse; Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron and Mark Sanger; Her,, Eric Zumbrunnen and Jeff Buchanan; Saving Mr Banks,, Mark Livolsi.

Best edited feature film (comedy or musical): American Hustle, Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten; August: Osage County, Stephen Mirrione;

Delbonnel for Inside Llewyn Davis, Phedon Papamichael for Nebraska and Roger Deakins for Prisoners.

The 28th Annual ASC Awards for Outstanding Achievement are scheduled to take place on February 1 in Hollywood. John Wells, director of August: Osage County, will collect the Board of Governors award.

Barry Ackroyd

Roger Deakins

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Phedon Papamichael

Inside Llewyn Davis, Roderick Jaynes; Nebraska, Kevin Tent; The Wolf Of Wall Street, Thelma Schoonmaker.

Best edited animated feature film: Despicable Me 2, Gregory Perler: Frozen, Jeff Draheim; Monsters University, Greg Snyder.

Best edited documentary (feature): 20 Feet From Stardom, Douglas Blush, Kevin Klauber and Jason Zeldes; Blackfish, Eli Despres; Tim’s Vermeer Vermeer, Patrick Sheffield.

Gravity is nominated in the best edited feature film (dramatic) category

The Reunion

Anna Odell’s feature debut The Reunion (Atertraffen) won best film and best screenplay at the 50th Guldbagge Awards in Sweden on January 20. The night’s other big winner was Per Fly’s Waltz For Monica (Monica Z), with four prizes.

Broken Circle wins at Springs

Felix van Groeningen’s Belgian foreignlanguage Oscar contender The Broken Circle Breakdown (above) won the Fipresci prize for best foreign-language film at the 25th Palm Springs International Film Festival on January 11.

January 31, 2014 Screen International 9 ■

AWARDS COUNTDOWN THE GREAT GATSBY

Pro

Excess all areas

Costume designer and production designer Catherine Martin tells Wendy Mitchell about upping the ante for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby

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ou could forgive Catherine Martin for wishing Jay Gatsby was a less popular guy. As costume designer on Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, she worked on as many as 600 individual outfits in some of the party scenes.

“Every time we do a movie, Baz is always upping the ante and getting bigger. It’s not an aim to make it bigger for its own sake, part of the process is just trying to do your work better,” she says.

And in making a film about the extravagance of the era, she had an especially daunting job serving as both production designer and costume designer (she is Oscar-nominated in both roles). “I did it before on Australia so I’d had some experience of that prior to embarking on this,” she recalls. “I do tend to bite off a great deal; that’s a character trait.

There were moments when I was hiding in the corner having a quick cry. But you get over it and pick yourself up and carry on.”

■ 10 Screen International January 31, 2014

‘I want it to feel as visceral and exciting as it did back in the day of Fitzgerald’ Catherine Martin, costume and production designer

Martin has worked with Luhrmann (her husband since 1997) for more than 20 years, so they have a strong collaborative history.

Her first feature film was Luhrmann’s 1992 release Strictly Ballroom and she won two Oscars for Moulin Rouge!.

Martin did not respond immediately to Luhrmann’s suggestion to tackle The Great Gatsby, however. She did not love the book as a teenager but “I re-read it and became its greatest fan. I felt incredibly impassioned about being part of telling the story.”

The Jazz Age period — the book is set in 1922 — also appealed to her. “I love the artdeco period,” she says. “It’s great to be able to explore our experience of the modern age through a period that’s just a little bit removed. It comes after the Great War when everything for so many people changed in an absolutely unstoppable way. It’s a particularly fascinating period; you’re travelling from the 19th century to the 20th century. You’re see-

ing a total evolution of the mores of the day.”

Luhrmann did update the story with some modern touches such as a hip-hop-inflected soundtrack executive produced by Jay Z. But the aim was never to reinvent The Great Gatsby for a contemporary world. Martin says: “We never approach things trying to make them feel modern. [Baz is] about source material. The first step is to go back to the source, to decode what one finds in terms of descriptions in the book — we very much started there.”

Elements of surprise Of the costumes she notes: “We needed to make the costumes feel familiar but also surprising. He said, ‘I don’t want it to look like a gangster and molls costume party.’ We needed to go look at the things we forget about the 1920s… Not everything was a flapper dress with fringe beading on it. That wasn’t to everyone’s taste.”

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Production designer Catherine Martin on the set of The Great Gatsby

Carey Mulligan’s lavender dress

The shoes underwent the most reinvention.

She explains: “Shoes from the 1920s tend to have quite a heavy heel and were stumpy. To a modern eye it looks matronly, and we wanted to give the audience a sense of excitement about the period and a sense of sexiness.

That’s one area where we strayed from what is expected.”

Partners for some of the looks in the film include the French lace house Solstiss, Brooks Brothers, Prada (Miuccia Prada is a friend of Luhrmann’s) and jeweller Tiffany & Co. In addition to the lavender dress of Carey Mulligan’s character Daisy Buchanan, which shows off a certain fragility, Martin says another key look was the pink suit worn by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Gatsby. “For me, it represents Gatsby’s innate romanticism… We needed desperately to find a period reference that justified to us how this pink suit could be. We went to Brooks Brothers and looked through all their catalogues. You couldn’t

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Designs for Daisy’s and Gatsby’s costumes

Leonardo DiCaprio in the pink suit

have him looking ridiculous, it had to be plausible but on the edge.”

All Gatsby’s suits had to be just so.

“Evening clothes were so important for Gatsby, the parties define the world he inhabits. We had perfectly tailored suits,” she says with pride.

With the production design, it was important the film felt vibrant, not a sepiatoned history lesson. Some 42 sets were constructed.

“I don’t want New York to end up being this sort of nostalgic city that is all about the good ol’ days. I want it to feel as visceral and exciting as it did back in the day of Fitzgerald,” Martin says.

As for designing those extravagant parties, she says: “You needed to give it that kind of feeling so everyone understood how lavish and inconceivable his wealth is and how quickly he gets it. He basically becomes that s rich in four years.” ■

January 31, 2014 Screen International 11 ■

AWARDS COUNTDOWN Ron HowaRd

The ultimate rush Ron Howard talks about the challenges and rewards of returning to independent film-making with Formula 1 character study Rush. He also tells Wendy Mitchell about the adventure of his new film Heart Of The Sea

Daniel Br端hl on the set of Rush with director Ron Howard

n 12 Screen International January 31, 2014

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R

on Howard has been acting since he was four and directing since 1977. So how could he come up with a new challenge? How about making his first independent film in 25 years, Formula 1 story Rush?

Getting away from the studio system was an invigorating experience for the veteran film-maker. “I enjoy working outside the US for the adventure of it, for the personal growth,” he told Screen in early December. “I didn’t bring my US crew with me beyond the editors, Dan Hanley and Mike Hill. I accepted the fact we were making an independent movie out of the UK and in co-production with Germany. I was the outsider. I was ready to aesthetically embrace what that means, and I think it was influential on the film.”

It wasn’t just the structure that was different. Rush marks a different kind of storytelling for Howard — delving into the rivalry between F1 drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda during the 1976 season. “Generally, I tend to make movies that are a little more about groups or units working together — families, astronauts and so on — and this was much edgier and much more singular,” he says. “This was about lone wolves and exploring a fascinating sport. But more than anything else, it offers an insight into the psyches of these two compelling and unusual characters.”

Structure for suspense Howard had previously worked with screenwriter Peter Morgan on Frost/Nixon in 2008.

“Peter built everything around the facts and found an interesting way to structure the movie so it would reflect the truth and yet also offer suspense and insight into the characters. He presents characters in a way that is emotional but unsentimental.”

The two leading men, Daniel Brühl as the uptight Lauda and Chris Hemsworth as the hedonistic Hunt, were pivotal in setting the tone. “Daniel was going to be the kind of fearless, dedicated talent that would tackle this without vanity. It’s a tremendous performance.” (Brühl was nominated for best supporting actor at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild awards and the Baftas).

As for Hemsworth, Howard says: “I wasn’t sure if he’d have this darker side for Hunt, that Raging Bull element. I knew he had the charm and the sexuality, but he also proved he had the darker side.”

The director and actors did research that aided the film’s authenticity. “The script was strong, but we then went through an intensive secondary wave of research to understand the world, the sport and to deepen our sense of these characters. We wanted to find the nuance that surprised us, the unexpected shadings,” says Howard.

The other key performers are the cars. “It was a big technical challenge, and we were on an indie budget, not a studio budget,” Howard adds of the reported $50m budget.

DoP Anthony Dod Mantle was key to the process. He told Screen: “What we were shooting had to marry with the archive so the footage didn’t ‘bump’. Aesthetically, I didn’t want it to bump — just like I didn’t want the

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Chris Hemsworth (left) as James Hunt, with Daniel Brühl as Niki Lauda

cars to bump.” Poring over countless hours of archive “subconsciously helped to develop the shooting palette”.

The editing process was also crucial in building the excitement of the races seen on screen — Hanley and Hill started their work pre-shoot by taking archival footage and editing together versions of key races, a technique they had done with boxing for Cinderella Man and flight scenes for Apollo 13.

“I wanted to differentiate the races and make them more compelling and intense,” says Howard. “If you can carry the emotion of the guys onto the races on the track, that would help differentiate each race. They had to look, feel, sound, unfold in slightly different ways. That influenced anything from the lens choices, the colours, through to the ultimate editing and the sound.”

Howard is also credited as one of the producers on Rush, alongside Revolution Films’ Andrew Eaton, Working Title’s Eric Fellner, Cross Creek’s Brian Oliver, writer Peter Morgan and producer Brian Grazer. The film is a production of Exclusive, Revolution, Working Title, Imagine, Relativity and Cross Creek Pictures.

The film premiered as a gala presentation in Toronto and then launched theatrically on September 13, with a big push from StudioCanal. Universal released it in the US. The film’s worldwide gross stands at more than $90m. It earned four Bafta nominations: best British film, supporting actor (Brühl), editing and sound.

Out to sea After surviving the racetrack, Howard is now tackling the oceans with Heart Of The Sea. Set in the winter of 1820, it tells the true story of

‘More than anything else, the film offers an insight into the psyches of these two compelling and unusual characters’ Ron Howard, director

the New England whaling ship Essex being shipwrecked by a whale — the real-life maritime disaster that inspired Moby Dick. Howard’s film, however, is not just about the whale — it also concentrates on the crew’s fight for survival after the tragedy.

“Moby Dick is fiction but it deals with the psychological ramifications of man versus the elements,” Howard says. “This film is about the emotional cost of that drive to hunt and kill whales. It’s a very modern industrial look at the whaling industry of that time, which was the energy industry.”

Howard adds: “This takes a very cleareyed, hard, industrial look at that world. It’s not a romanticised approach to the subject.

It’s a very moving, dramatic, inspiring and, in some places, tragic survival story.”

The film is being shot in the UK — at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden — and on location in the Canary Islands. The script by Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver and Charles Leavitt is based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s bestselling novel In The Heart Of The Sea. The film is a co-production between COTT Productions and Enelmar Productions, AIE for Warner Bros Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures.

The shoot wrapped at the end of 2013, with the project in post for a launch in 2015.

Howard so enjoyed working with Hemsworth on Rush that he has cast him in Heart Of The Sea as first mate Owen Chase.

The cast also includes Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Ben Whishaw, Tom Holland, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Riley and Jordi Molla.

Howard says the film has “action and adventure, but it’s also very much a characs ter piece”. n

January 31, 2014 Screen International 13 n

AWARDS COUNTDOWN PETER JACKSON

Enter the

Dragon For The Desolation Of Smaug, the second part of his Hobbit trilogy, Peter Jackson had the tricky task of bringing the story’s raging, intelligent dragon to life. He tells John Hazelton about how the second film brings certain freedoms

Peter Jackson with Evangeline Lilly, as Tauriel, on the set of The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug

â– 14 Screen International January 31, 2014

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W

hen the subject of trilogies comes up, Peter Jackson, whose The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug is the second part of a three-film version of the JRR Tolkien classic, cannot help chuckling to himself. “I still can’t quite believe I’m doing it again,” says the genial New Zealander, who a decade ago turned Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings into the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful film trilogy of all time.

Another Jackson-directed trilogy was not, of course, the original plan. It was only in 2010 when Guillermo del Toro passed on making what was planned as a two-part version of The Hobbit that Jackson, already a writer and producer on the project, decided to direct as well. He also opted to make the project another three-parter, using material from Tolkien’s appendices to The Lord Of The Rings to fill out the story of Bilbo Baggins’ early adventures in Middle-earth.

Telling the second part of that story was something Jackson particularly enjoyed because in a trilogy’s second film, he says, “you get a certain amount of freedom. Firstly, you don’t have to set things up. You don’t have that half an hour where you’re just introducing the characters and the premise.

Nor do you have the responsibility of ending the story, the climax and pay-off. The sole responsibility of this film is to just plant your foot on the gas and entertain people.”

Second nature In this particular part two, Jackson and his fellow screenwriters Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens (both The Lord Of The Rings alumnae) and del Toro were trying to add “further complications and dangers” to the tale of a company of dwarves out to reclaim their lost mountain kingdom — and its abundant gold — from the fearsome dragon Smaug. “Quite a bit of what we’re doing on the second film is ultimately leading into the third film,” Jackson explains.

“One way or another, every character was influenced by the fact that should something happen to the dragon that’s not the end of the story — because there’s a lot of gold in that mountain and there’s only 13 dwarves.

“Middle-earth is no different to our world today. You can’t have a mountain full of gold ripe for the taking without a lot of people being interested in that for different reasons.

So there’s the beginning of tension.”

As well as offering its makers creative freedom and dramatic scope, the second film also found Jackson hitting his personal stride, which maybe helps explain why The Desolation Of Smaug, with its grand-scale adventure, has been lauded by critics who were less admiring of last year’s more playful part one, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (which still pleased audiences enough for a $1bn worldwide gross). Though principal photography for all three films was completed over a single 266-day shoot that ended in July 2012, the story was filmed more or less chronologically so that the first film could be edited in time for a Christmas release.

And by mid-shoot the director and his huge New Zealand-based crew were getting better

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acquainted with some of the new technology they were using, such as state-of-the-art Red Epic digital cameras shooting in 3D at 48 frames per second (fps) instead of the usual 24 frames. “By the time we were into this stuff, we were getting a head of steam up and getting a degree of confidence with the equipment we had,” Jackson recalls. “Even as a director, I was beginning to get into my rhythm. I got into the groove and I think you can feel that bit of directing mojo on the screen.”

Not that making The Desolation Of Smaug was exactly a walk in the shire. For one thing, Jackson and co were keenly aware that fans of the Tolkien books would have high expectations of Smaug, who was glimpsed in the first film but is seen in all his raging — and talking — glory during the second film’s climactic sequence. “We knew we had the technology to do a dragon, that was no problem,” Jackson relates. “It was more of a storytelling, character thing — what is the character and how do we make this character memorable?

“Smaug is more intelligent than Bilbo,” Jackson adds, “so unlike Gollum, we wanted to have Smaug one step ahead and have his character and voice be as memorable as what he looks like.” So while the team at Weta Digital (the New Zealand effects house co-founded by Jackson) worked for two-anda-half years on building the creature’s body, actor Benedict Cumberbatch recorded Smaug’s dialogue on a stage wearing motion capture gear, giving animators a reference for the dragon’s facial expressions. “The nuances in his face, eyes, lips, all of that was motion captured,” Jackson says.

Then there was the two-and-a-half months of pick-up shooting done early in 2013 to get crucial scenes from both the second and third films in the can. “It was a very intense 10 weeks of shooting,” says Jackson, “about the hardest 10 weeks of my life. On a normal movie some days are easier than others, but this was full on. This was key sequences for two movies. I was exhausted by the end of it.”

In post-production on the second film, Jackson worked on eliminating the high-definition video look that some critics of the first film said resulted from shooting the trilogy at 48fps. While the director still asserts that high frame rate is a better way to experience 3D, on this film, he says, “I spent a long time exploring the way in which you could get rid of the HD look. I did a lot of work on the colour grading and I think people will see a noticeable difference.” Jackson also agreed with distributor Warner Bros to screen the film for critics at the traditional 24fps.

With An Unexpected Journey, Jackson suggests, “A lot of reviewers were reviewing both the frame

The dragon, Smaug, voiced — and mo-capped — by Benedict Cumberbatch

‘As a director, I was beginning to get into my rhythm. I got into the groove and I think you can feel that bit of directing mojo on the screen’ Peter Jackson, film-maker

rate and the movie and it was getting pretty muddled. We just wanted to let reviewers and press look at the movie as the movie.”

Audiences, by contrast, are getting more chances to see The Desolation Of Smaug in the new format, with Warner reportedly boosting the number of high frame rate-capable cinemas showing the film by almost 50% in international markets and more than 50% in North America. That, says Jackson, reflects “the message that never really got out [last year] — that among the paying public so many people said they loved it.” The director insists he is “not an evangelist for one thing or another.” But, he adds, film-makers have a responsibility to help keep audiences coming to cinemas: “I would rather people see this movie on a big screen than on their iPad. As film-makers we’re the ones harnessing the technology, we’re the ones who should be trying to think of how we get people into the cinema for a spectacular immersive experience.”

With the Hobbit trilogy now nearing completion — post-production on third episode The Hobbit: There And Back Again is all that remains to be done — Jackson hopes that in 2014 he will be able to move forward on his next scheduled directing assignment, The Adventures Of Tintin: Prisoners Of The Sun, the long-in-the-works sequel to Steven Spielberg’s 2011 animated/motion-capture adventure.

But he also admits that after two Tolkien trilogies — plus King Kong and The Lovely Bones in the interim — he now has a hankering to do some work on a smaller scale with subjects closer to home. “Heavenly Creatures was the last time I really told a New Zealand story,” says Jackson of his 1994 drama with a pre-stardom Kate Winslet. “So I do have a desire at some point soon — whether it’s next or not I don’t know — to do some smaller films than The Hobbit, to tell some other great stories from my own country.”

And those stories would presumably be told one film at a time, rather than with the epic sweep of the Middle-earth series.

Even for Peter Jackson, a trilogy of trilogies s might be a bridge too far. ■ (Left) Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins

January 31, 2014 Screen International 15 ■

NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED ON 8 JANUARY 2O14:

BEST FIL M 12 YEARS A SLAVE Anthony Katagas, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen A MERICAN HUSTLE Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon CAPTAIN PHILLIPS Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca GRAVITY Alfonso Cuar—n, David Heyman PHILOMENA Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan, Tracey Seaward

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FIL M GRAVITY Alfonso Cuar—n, David Heyman, Jon‡s Cuar—n MANDELA: LONG ROAD TO FREEDOM Justin Chadwick, Anant Singh, David M. Thompson, William Nicholson PHILOMENA Stephen Frears, Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan, Tracey Seaward, Jeff Pope RUSH Ron Howard, Andrew Eaton, Peter Morgan SAVING MR. BANKS John Lee Hancock, Alison Owen, Ian Collie, Philip Steuer, Kelly Marcel, Sue Smith THE SELFISH GIANT Clio Barnard, Tracy O'Riordan

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER COLIN CARBERRY (Writer), GLENN PATTERSON (Writer) Good Vibrations KELLY MARCEL (Writer) Saving Mr. Banks KIERAN EVANS (Director/Writer) Kelly + Victor PAUL WRIGHT (Director/Writer), POLLY STOKES (Producer) For Those in Peril SCOTT GRAHA M (Director/Writer) Shell

FIL M NOT IN THE ENGLISH L ANGUAGE THE ACT OF KILLING Joshua Oppenheimer, Signe Byrge S¿rensen BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR Abdellatif Kechiche, Brahim Chioua, Vincent Maraval THE GREAT BEAUTY Paolo Sorrentino, Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima METRO MANILA Sean Ellis, Mathilde Charpentier WADJDA Haifaa Al-Mansour, Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul

DOCUMENTARY THE ACT OF KILLING Joshua Oppenheimer THE ARMSTRONG LIE Alex Gibney BLACKFISH Gabriela Cowperthwaite TIM'S VERMEER Teller, Penn Jillette, Farley Ziegler WE STEAL SECRETS: THE STORY OF WIKILEAKS Alex Gibney

ANIM ATED FIL M DESPICABLE ME 2 Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin FROZEN Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee MONSTERS UNIVERSITY Dan Scanlon

DIRECTOR 12 YEARS A SLAVE Steve McQueen A MERICAN HUSTLE David O. Russell CAPTAIN PHILLIPS Paul Greengrass GRAVITY Alfonso Cuar—n THE WOLF OF WALL STREET Martin Scorsese

ORIGINAL SCREENPL AY A MERICAN HUSTLE Eric Warren Singer, David O. Russell BLUE JASMINE Woody Allen GRAVITY Alfonso Cuar—n, Jon‡s Cuar—n INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS Joel Coen, Ethan Coen NEBRASKA Bob Nelson

ADAPTED SCREENPL AY 12 YEARS A SLAVE John Ridley BEHIND THE CANDELABRA Richard LaGravenese CAPTAIN PHILLIPS Billy Ray PHILOMENA Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope THE WOLF OF WALL STREET Terence Winter

LEADING ACTOR BRUCE DERN Nebraska CHIWETEL EJIOFOR 12 Years a Slave CHRISTIAN BALE American Hustle LEONARDO DiCAPRIO The Wolf of Wall Street TOM HANKS Captain Phillips

LEADING ACTRESS A MY ADA MS American Hustle CATE BLANCHETT Blue Jasmine EMMA THOMPSON Saving Mr. Banks JUDI DENCH Philomena SANDRA BULLOCK Gravity

SUPPORTING ACTOR BARKHAD ABDI Captain Phillips BRADLEY COOPER American Hustle DANIEL BR†HL Rush MATT DA MON Behind the Candelabra MICHAEL FASSBENDER 12 Years a Slave

SUPPORTING ACTRESS JENNIFER LAWRENCE American Hustle JULIA ROBERTS August: Osage County LUPITA NYONG'O 12 Years a Slave OPRAH WINFREY The Butler SALLY HAWKINS Blue Jasmine

ORIGINAL MUSIC 12 YEARS A SLAVE Hans Zimmer THE BOOK THIEF John Williams CAPTAIN PHILLIPS Henry Jackman GRAVITY Steven Price SAVING MR. BANKS Thomas Newman

CINEM ATOGR APHY 12 YEARS A SLAVE Sean Bobbitt CAPTAIN PHILLIPS Barry Ackroyd GRAVITY Emmanuel Lubezki INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS Bruno Delbonnel NEBRASKA Phedon Papamichael

EDITING 12 YEARS A SLAVE Joe Walker CAPTAIN PHILLIPS Christopher Rouse GRAVITY Alfonso Cuar—n, Mark Sanger RUSH Dan Hanley, Mike Hill THE WOLF OF WALL STREET Thelma Schoonmaker

PRODUCTION DESIGN 12 YEARS A SLAVE Adam Stockhausen, Alice Baker A MERICAN HUSTLE Judy Becker, Heather Loeffler BEHIND THE CANDELABRA Howard Cummings, Barbara Munch Cameron GRAVITY Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, Joanne Woollard THE GREAT GATSBY Catherine Martin, Beverley Dunn

COSTUME DESIGN A MERICAN HUSTLE Michael Wilkinson BEHIND THE CANDELABRA Ellen Mirojnick THE GREAT GATSBY Catherine Martin THE INVISIBLE WOMAN Michael O'Connor SAVING MR. BANKS Daniel Orlandi

M AKE UP & HAIR A MERICAN HUSTLE Evelyne Noraz, Lori McCoy-Bell, Kathrine Gordon BEHIND THE CANDELABRA Kate Biscoe, Marie Larkin THE BUTLER Nominees TBC THE GREAT GATSBY Maurizio Silvi, Kerry Warn THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor, Rick Findlater

SOUND ALL IS LOST Richard Hymns, Steve Boedekker, Brandon Proctor, Micah Bloomberg, Gillian Arthur CAPTAIN PHILLIPS Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro, Oliver Tarney GRAVITY Glenn Freemantle, Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri, Chris Munro INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS Peter F. Kurland, Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, Paul Urmson RUSH Danny Hambrook, Martin Steyer, Stefan Korte, Markus Stemler, Frank Kruse

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS GRAVITY Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould, Nikki Penny THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds IRON MAN 3 Bryan Grill, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick PACIFIC RIM Hal Hickel, John Knoll, Lindy De Quattro, Nigel Sumner STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton, Patrick Tubach, Roger Guyett

BRITISH SHORT ANIM ATION EVERYTHING I CAN SEE FROM HERE Bjorn-Erik Aschim, Friederike Nicolaus, Sam Taylor I A M TOM MOODY Ainslie Henderson SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES James Walker, Sarah Woolner, Yousif Al-Khalifa

BRITISH SHORT FIL M ISLAND QUEEN Ben Mallaby, Nat Luurtsema, Emma Hughes KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES Megan Rubens, Michael Pearce, Selina Lim ORBIT EVER AFTER Chee-Lan Chan, Jamie Stone, Len Rowles ROOM 8 James W. Griffiths, Sophie Venner SEA VIEW Anna Duffield, Jane Linfoot

THE EE RISING STAR AWARD (VOTED FOR BY THE PUBLIC) DANE DEHA AN GEORGE MACKAY LUPITA NYONG'O WILL POULTER LƒA SEYDOUX All nominations correct at the time of going to press.

The Show Starts Here Congratulations to our nominees EE BRITISH ACADEMY FILM AWARDS SUNDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2O14 www.bafta.org // #EEBAFTAs

AWARDS COUNTDOWN Paul greengrass

Marine life

Paul Greengrass was drawn to Captain Phillips not only to work with Tom Hanks, but also to pay tribute to his merchant marine father. By Jeremy Kay

P

aul Greengrass was not overly familiar with the story of the 2009 Maersk Alabama hijacking that would inspire Captain Phillips, but he wanted to be a part of Sony’s movie as soon as he read Billy Ray’s first draft.

“I loved the two characters, [Captain Richard] Phillips and [Somali pirate leader] Muse,” says the UK director. “I loved the idea of working with Tom [Hanks].

“Also the world spoke to me because my dad was at sea all his life. He was a merchant mariner for a good chunk of his career and I always wanted to make a film of that world.”

However there had to be some changes before he could move forward the story of Phillips’ ordeal at the hands of four Somali pirates and his astonishing rescue by Navy SEALs. “There were a number of really important decisions in the evolution of the film… one of which was in the evolution of the screenplay, because Richard Phillips’ book is basically his first-person account interwoven with his wife’s first-person account of her experiences.

“Billy’s first draft really followed that paradigm… In the end we [decided to] keep the story on the ocean and that was [Hanks’] call and it was a very important one.”

The shipping forecast After the producers spent months negotiating with Maersk and the US Navy to use real ships on the ocean, production took place over spring and summer 2012 in Boston and Virginia Beach on the US east coast, Malta, London and Morocco doubling for Somalia.

It was often cramped on the boats but it

n 18 Screen International January 31, 2014

seems little fazes Greengrass. “I like to rehearse, because what you are trying to do is figure out a way of joining all these [screenplay] pieces. Then there’s this process of speaking to the real crew [on board the ships they used during filming] and asking what they would do in situations, which I call accommodating to reality.”

Greengrass is famously a fan of reality. As a former director on the ITV current affairs show World In Action, he is renowned for research. Piracy and global shipping gave him plenty to sink his teeth into. “The thing you have to understand about [merchant shipping] is the shipping lines underpin the global economy… Every single thing in this room, large amounts of what you are wearing, what you eat, everything, it all comes in container ships; it doesn’t go by air.

“So these pirates attacking that — it’s just fascinating because it goes to the heart of tomorrow’s global economy.

“These ships that come out of the Middle East and are coming into Europe are going past the Horn of Africa. Of course young men are going to come out.”

Over the past decade or so, hundreds of millions of dollars have been dropped by helicopter onto hijacked ships.

“The money’s not going to the kids who climb up the side of the ship. They’re making a score and they go and buy a flash car and you can be a big man around town for a few weeks.” The bulk of proceeds goes to tribal warlords, often based outside Somalia, whom Greengrass likens to the Mob of the 1920s.

“They have whole operations along the

coast now and literally finance entire communities. If you think about it, if you’re going to take a ship, you’ve got to be able to feed these hostages for years, sometimes. You have to house them, you have to cook, you need engineers to keep the [pirate] ships in working order. It’s an entire operation.”

‘The central character has got to be compelling and has got to sustain you for a couple of years’ Paul Greengrass, director

(Below) Captain Phillips

The captain’s integrity Late last year, nine crew members of Maersk Alabama brought law suits alleging negligence against the ship owners, Maersk Line Limited, and the crew’s employers, Waterman Steamship Corporation (the suits are not being brought against Phillips personally though it is pointed out he captained the ship into pirate-infested waters). While Greengrass cannot comment on specifics, the director is not short of an opinion. “I was entirely convinced of Phillips’ integrity,” he says. “He had conspicuous courage and saved his ship, his cargo and his crew’s lives.”

Greengrass’s admiration for Phillips is the film’s gain. “The central character has got to be compelling and has got to sustain you for a couple of years. There’s got to be something about the events that you cannot articulate; they seem to speak to larger themes.

“The key is not to try to articulate that and the film does become an expression of this theme and the underlying complexity… That is true of Captain Phillips, United 93 and Bloody Sunday.

“You feel those films have power and meaning. The process of making the film is to try to find a way of explaining what these s themes are.” n

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Paul Greengrass on location for Captain Phillips

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January 31, 2014 Screen International 19 n

AWARDS COUNTDOWN August: OsAge cOunty

A family portrait The August: Osage County ensemble is winning multiple nominations during this awards season. Director John Wells talks to Louise Tutt about cast concerns ahead of the shoot and why he insisted they all live together

A

ugust: Osage County was shot entirely on location in rural Oklahoma, in a remote, sprawling house on 50 acres that the production team bought for the film. During rehearsals some of the cast, including Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson, Juliette Lewis, Ewan McGregor and Sam Shepard, stayed overnight in their characters’ bedrooms and lived in the house.

During principal photography they stayed in the small town of Bartlesville, a 40-minute drive away. But as they approached the house each morning, the actors found themselves becoming increasingly anxious: this was the place where Meryl Streep was going to spend the day yelling at them.

“The experience of driving out to the house became one of driving home,” says director John Wells, chuckling about his cast’s mounting feelings of unease and dread.

Streep plays Violet, the emotionally violent, drug-addled, deeply depressed matriarch of the Weston family. August: Osage County — which picked up Oscar nominations for best actress for Streep and supporting actress for Roberts, as well as Golden Globe nominations for the pair, and a Bafta nomination for Roberts — follows their unhappy reunion after the mysterious disappearance of their father, played by Shepard.

The centrepiece of the film is a formal meal, a 19-page set-piece that sees the extended family, including Margo Martindale, Chris Cooper, Misty Upham, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch and Dermot Mulroney, gather for a lavish lunch that rapidly descends into a nightmarish, darkly hilarious scene of revelations and recriminations, thanks to Violet.

The pitch-black comedy is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by acclaimed writer and actor Tracy Letts, whose writing credits include Killer Joe, and whose own acting roles include a Tony-award winning performance in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf ? on Broadway. Letts also plays the smug senator, Andrew Lockhart, in TV series Homeland.

Wells and Letts spent two years working together on the screenplay for August: Osage County. Wells is a US TV veteran whose writing, directing and producing work includes the seminal series ER, The West Wing and the US version of Shameless while feature credits include The Company Men (as producer, director and writer) and White Oleander (as producer). Originally from a theatre back-

n 20 Screen International January 31, 2014

Around the dinner table

‘What you’re trying to accomplish is ensuring all the actors feel all the attention is on them’ John Wells, director (above, with Meryl Streep)

ground, Wells jumped at the chance to direct August: Osage County when producer Harvey Weinstein, who owned the film rights, offered him the role out of the blue over a lunch. The two had worked together previously on The Company Men and Weinstein had financed the stage version of August: Osage County when it premiered in Chicago, produced by Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

Respect the writing “I wanted to do a classic old movie that could have been William Wyler or Billy Wilder. Let the actors act and let the words come through,” says Weinstein of his decision to take it to the screen. “The reason I chose John Wells after talking to Tracy and [producer George] Clooney is that he respects the writing. He’s one of the best television writers, and he brought Shameless to America. That always makes me laugh. It’s so dark and twisted.”

Once Streep and Roberts had committed to the project as Violet and her eldest daughter Barbara, the film came together with ease.

George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures produced the film with Jean Doumanian of Jean Doumanian Productions and Steve Traxler of Jam Theatricals, who

Julia Roberts

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Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor and Meryl Streep

Benedict Cumberbatch and Julianne Nicholson

had produced the play during its Broadway run in 2007.

But Streep and Roberts did have questions for their director. “Meryl’s concern was that it was going to be a difficult part to play, simply having to be in that character,” says Wells.

“Meryl’s a lovely person and Violet, the character she plays, is not. She had to come to the set every day and attack people she’s actually rather fond of.”

A further complexity was the accurate portrayal of Violet’s drug addiction. “There was a constant concern about where Violet was in the cycle of the drug at that moment,” Wells explains. “How much effect is the drug having on her then? Is she coming down? Is she coming up? It was a very difficult thing to do.”

Roberts plays Barbara, the eldest of Violet’s three daughters and an embittered woman whose husband (McGregor) is on the verge of leaving her. “[Barbara] is 46, a beautiful 46 but still 46, and she’s not at that moment where you decide you’re going to get yourself together.

She’s at the depressed and feeling-sorry-foryourself moment,” says Wells. “Julia wasn’t wearing any make-up, we weren’t going to do anything with her hair, and she’s not wearing

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flattering clothing. Julia had concerns about how hard that would be.

“I told [Streep and Roberts] that it would be difficult but I would be there to try and help them through it. And that the material was good and this kind of opportunity to play these parts doesn’t come along often. It’s beautifully written, the roles are wonderful roles for women and you should embrace it.”

A company man Working with such a formidable ensemble cast was one of the elements that attracted Wells to the project.

“I love working with companies of actors,” he explains, pointing to his background in theatre and television. “You have to be conscious of giving enough time to each actor, and particularly conscious of having done all your prep work technically. You can then focus all your attentions on the actors. What you’re trying to accomplish is ensuring all the actors feel all the attention is on them.”

Thanks to the quality of the written material, neither Wells nor the cast felt the need to improvise. It is how Wells prefers to work, making time for his actors before principal photography.

‘I wanted to do a classic old movie that could have been William Wyler or Billy Wilder. Let the actors act and let the words come through’ Harvey Weinstein, The Weinstein Company

“I like to try and do a lot of the work with the actors before we actually get to the set,” the director explains. “I like to have read-throughs and just sit and talk about the material. The rehearsal period isn’t so much about blocking it all out, in fact I don’t like blocking at all. It’s about talking about the scenes and the back story and what the scene is about and what the context is so you’re not doing it with 100 people standing around and watching you.”

So prepared was the cast, many of whom are trained in the theatre, that Wells was able to shoot the dinner scene in just three days rather than the five he had planned.

The atmosphere of the rugged oil and cattle country that makes up this part of northern Oklahoma — and is also recognised as the Native American Osage Nation — seeps into the dynamics of the isolated and fragmented Weston family. To be able to shoot in Osage County itself was an unexpected delight for Wells. “I thought it was very important for the actors to experience the place,” he says. “The language reflects the specific rhythms of the life. The accents are not Southern. They’re kind of an interesting, middle-of-the-country, quiet drawl. When we were there, they got s why we were shooting there.” n

January 31, 2014 Screen International 21 n

AWARDS COUNTDOWN AmericAn Hustle

Jennifer Lawrence and David O Russell on the set of American Hustle

n 22 Screen International January 31, 2014

www.screendaily.com

The American way The hustling started a year and a half before David O Russell’s American Hustle hit cinemas. Jeremy Kay speaks to the director and producers about the film’s high-speed, high-stakes production

I

t is May 2012 and Sony has already planted its flag for American Hustle’s US release more than 18 months down the line. Annapurna Pictures founder Megan Ellison has just come on to co-finance with the studio and as her sales company Panorama heads to the Croisette, it is make-orbreak time for the FBI sting story then known as American Bullshit.

Ellison, Chuck Roven and his Atlas Entertainment producing partner of 20 years Richard Suckle and fourth producer Jonathan Gordon do not say it but must be thinking it: please do not let the title become a curse.

Where to begin with the variables? For starters, few of the international buyers in Cannes can be familiar with the subject matter of Abscam, the FBI public corruption operation in the 1970s and 1980s that put congressmen and a New Jersey mayor behind bars.

Secondly, there is David O Russell, the mercurial talent brought on to rewrite Eric Singer’s original screenplay and direct the piece.

It is too soon to tell whether The Fighter has signalled a renaissance for Russell, but as the rosé flows on the French Riviera one thing is certain: he is back in the US, kneedeep in post on an ensemble romantic comedy for Harvey Weinstein that nobody has seen called Silver Linings Playbook.

And he has not written a single word of American Bullshit.

But the producers and the savvy team at Panorama have aces up their sleeves: a compelling vision statement from Russell and a tasty actor package of Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper.

Bale was first to sign on, having worked with Roven on The Dark Knight series and with Russell on The Fighter, which earned him the best supporting actor Oscar earlier in 2012.

Cooper, despite being somewhat unproven outside the broad comedy genre, is blessed with A-list looks and charisma to burn. Let the Cannes games begin.

Hustle muscles in Fast forward to January 2014 and in one potentially game-changing week, American Hustle has claimed three Golden Globes including best film — comedy or musical, garnered 10 Academy Award nods (adding to its 10 Bafta nominations) and scooped the SAG ensemble cast award.

Panorama’s Kim Fox and Marc Butan pre-

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sold the entire world back in May 2012, including a slew of markets to Sony’s worldwide acquisitions unit.

Buyers loved the script and were drawn to the actors. After Cannes everything snowballed. Roven and Suckle will say it was a fun ride, but it was not in the slightest bit easy.

“It started back in 2005,” says Suckle. “Eric Singer and Chuck [Roven] and I had just finished The International. We were in New York talking with Eric about what to do next and I asked him to pitch me and he told me about Abscam.

“Eric and I tracked down Mel Weinberg, who was the inspiration for Irving [Rosenfeld, Bale’s character]. We flew to Florida to get the life rights and set it up at Sony for them to develop. Eric wrote the screenplay in 2009.”

The result was a Black List script that for a brief while attracted the attention of Ben Affleck. Roven notes that at that time the story was “more of a procedural”, dealing with the relationship between the lead FBI agent and the character based on Weinberg who worked with the authorities.

Russell got involved that same year.

“David and I had been trying to find something since Three Kings and we had remained friendly,” says Roven. “He read the script and called to say he wanted to get involved. When David gets involved, he’s one of those iconoclasts who makes unique signature films.

“David wanted to explore the character interactivity and this idea, this theme, that we all are con-people in our professional lives and sometimes in our personal lives, including ourselves. Also there was this idea of reinvention.”

Russell and his ideas excited the producers but he was a busy man and would not deliver the rewrite until the eleventh hour.

“We didn’t get a script from David until close to December [ 2 0 1 2 ] ,” s a y s Roven. “We got some pages. David wrote a long script because he likes to shoot a lot of dialogue and different versions. He knows what he is after but he is very spontaneous and he likes scenes to have a lot of range.”

After the pre-sale stampede in Cannes, the producers had busied themselves fleshing out the cast. The catalyst was Bale’s signature being first on the list.

“When David rewrote the script he had actors in mind,” says Suckle. “He called Amy [Adams] and she signed before even reading the script. So did Jennifer [Lawrence] and Jeremy [Renner]. It was great that there were so many David O Russell alumni and Jeremy fitted into that so naturally.”

‘When David O Russell gets involved, he’s one of those iconoclasts who makes unique signature films’ Chuck Roven, Atlas Entertainment

(Below) American Hustle

The heat is on By the end of 2012 everything was hurtling towards a mid-February production start in and around Boston. However, Silver Linings Playbook had become a critical darling and that caused a problem as Russell went from being immersed in post-production earlier in the year to being sucked up in the awardsseason brouhaha for that film.

“He [had done] this very extensive rewrite while he was promoting Silver Linings,” says Roven. “The good news about that was he was promoting Silver Linings with Bradley [Cooper] and Jennifer [Lawrence] and talking about this interesting script.”

“It was stressful,” says Suckle, “because when you’re getting ready to make the movie you want the film-maker’s undivided attention. David’s got incredible bandwidth but he had to be promoting Silver Linings.

“There was a tremendous amount of juggling because we were prepping the movie and he was working on the script. We pushed our start date from mid-February, which put more pressure on us because we knew we had the December release date.

“But time is always your friend and we knew in order to make the best movie we wanted to give David ample time up front.”

As far as Russell was concerned, que sera sera. “It was really meant to be,” says the director. “Movies get made when they’re supposed to get made. I wanted to make Silver Linings before The Fighter but I couldn’t get it made and I didn’t have the heat to get it made.

“Everything had this enormous momentous force leading us to make [American Hustle] at this moment.

The story was coming together.”

Production began finally in March 2013 and ran for about 40 days.

“We went with Boston, well really the suburbs of Boston — »

January 31, 2014 Screen International 23 n

AWARDS COUNTDOWN AmericAn Hustle

Worcester — because they have great buildings of the period,” says Roven.

“And with just the few days we had in New York, we were able to make [the whole shoot] look like Camden, New Jersey, Atlantic City and Manhattan.”

“I have made over 30 movies and I would say in general shoots are stressful situations because whether you’re a $10m movie or a $200m movie, every single day costs a tremendous amount of your budget on a comparative basis,” Roven says. “You are trying to get things done but sometimes the best laid plans … you can have all kinds of things go wrong.”

They had scheduled one day of shooting outside the city to allow for the Boston Marathon. As it turned out the events of April 15, 2013 would become more chaotic than anybody could have imagined.

Russell was shooting in Worcester when two bombs made from pressure cookers exploded at the city marathon and left three people dead and hundreds more injured.

“Obviously that was a very sad and frightening situation for the citizens of Boston,” says Roven. “We found out about it like everybody else did, because we had not been shooting in the immediate vicinity.

“But in the following days [the authorities] got close to capturing the [bombers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev] and they told everybody to stay inside for a day, so we could not shoot.”

The production made up time on what was already a tight schedule. Lawrence, winner of the Academy Award for best actress earlier that year for her role in Silver Linings Playbook, had to race through her scenes in two weeks as there were reshoots required for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire before she would zip off to do X-Men: Days Of Future Past for Fox. Robert De Niro, another veteran of Silver Linings Playbook, meanwhile had come on board just before the shoot and Russell rewrote his scene — a tense exchange between De Niro’s mobster and a fake sheikh created by the Feds — to allow the veteran to deliver his lines in a single day.

Living in the story For Russell, the interminable writing and rewriting is par for the course. “I love to write,” he says. “I’m always writing because that’s who I am. I’m happiest when I’m living in a story.

“I wanted to see Amy [Adams] create a character I had never seen her do; the same with Christian, Bradley, Jennifer, Jeremy, Bob. Every single one of them had to create momentum and affinity for it. We all jumped in and were very excited to be there together with each other. That was very exciting for the actors. I feel pleased it happened on this picture.”

So was everybody who got to witness the magic happen. “It was wonderful having all these actors in one film,” says Suckle. “As a producer I felt every day I was watching the all-star team. That was an incredible pleasure because I knew we were going to have some-

n 24 Screen International January 31, 2014

Jennifer Lawrence, David O Russell and Christian Bale on set

‘It was wonderful having all these actors in one film’ Richard Suckle, Atlas Entertainment

thing special.” The results speak for themselves. Starting with The Fighter and moving on to Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, Russell’s intimately personal trilogy of reinvention and survival has garnered more than $500m at the worldwide box office and 11 acting Oscar nominations. He is

David O Russell (right) with script supervisor Tracy Scott and DoP Linus Sandgren

arguably the greatest US director of actors working today — for the second year running, his film has nominees in all four acting categories. Plus Bale and Adams earned a supporting actor prize and a supporting actress nod respectively for The Fighter (while Melissa Leo claimed best supporting actress honours).

The fizz between the actors is almost palpable. “There was a tremendous amount of energy,” says Suckle. “David shoots an entire magazine of film and doesn’t like to shout, ‘Cut!’. He is talking throughout. He might walk into the frame sometimes, or you will hear him talking off-screen, giving directions. David shoots 360 degrees so he can go anywhere with it. Everything moves incredibly fast. David likes to keep things flowing.”

“We used the shortest schedules because you’re not given long studio schedules,” says Russell. “So I used that immediacy and knew we had to go with instinct and come from our hearts and shoot every scene like it was our last — like it was life or death.

“You build each character from the feet up.

People say [American Hustle] is a ’70s movie.

I never thought that. People said The Fighter was a boxing movie; Silver Linings a romantic comedy. No.”

www.screendaily.com

Amy Adams

Elisabeth Rohm and Jennifer Lawrence

“David is looking at his last three films as something of a personal trilogy,” says Suckle.

“The characters in these films have their reckonings. It’s really about characters who are trying to survive and figure out things in their lives. In some ways this is the completion of a trilogy of characters who are very salt of the earth; it’s all about reinvention.”

Russell considers the essence of this socalled thematic trilogy. He pauses — a rare event — and jumps back in.

“Part of it has to do with the cinema we have created Fighter he says. with The Fighter,” “That was the start of a period after I had lost my way and couldn’t get a story together and was helping my son with his bipolar issues.

“I got that clarity and that was the biggest gift and it had a propulsive energy to it.

The actors feel that energy and that’s why the Oscars and

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Amy Adams and Bradley Cooper

Bafta are very important because audiences react and people want to come back.

“I wanted to see Amy Adams like I had never seen her before and [the same with] Jennifer Lawrence,” Russell says of writing their characters. “It’s scary as hell but it’s a good scary.

“The underlying essence of [the last three films] is passionate people surviving and living. There are great catastrophes and romance in all their lives.

“It’s the reinvention.

The story of people surviving and reinventing themselves and the operatic range of behaviour, enchantment. I cannot put up with any of the heavy stuff in my own life unless I have things s to love.” ■

Christian Bale

AMERICAN HUSTLE’S ROAD TO AWARDS SUCCESS Academy Awards Ten nominations Costume Designers Guild Nominated for excellence in period film Baftas Ten nominations Art Directors Guild Nominated for excellence in production design for a period film American Cinema Editors — Eddie Awards Nominated for best edited feature, comedy or musical London Critics’ Circle Three nominations Writers Guild of America Nominated for best original screenplay Directors Guild of America Nominated for outstanding directorial achievement in feature film

Producers Guild of America Nominated for outstanding producer of a theatrical motion picture Screen Actors Guild Won for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture Broadcast Film Critics Association Thirteen Critics Choice awards noms, four wins including best acting ensemble Golden Globes Seven nominations; three wins for supporting actress, actress and best motion picture, musical or comedy AFI Awards Nominated for movie of the year Palm Springs Film Festival One win for ensemble cast award New York Film Critics Association Three wins for best film, best screenplay and best supporting actress

(Left) Jeremy Renner

January 31, 2014 Screen International 25 n

AWARDS COUNTDOWN THE BUTLER

In service of The Butler Pulling together the financing for a civil-rights movement epic was not easy, but Lee Daniels’ The Butler has challenged conventional wisdom about audiences for African-American and political stories. By John Hazelton

I

t took a village to make Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Actually, more like a town. With 24 credited producers and executive producers, many of whom were also investors, a populous cast including four Oscar winners and an unusually complex financing plan, this epic drama set against the backdrop of the US civil-rights movement required an epic effort to bring it to the screen — an effort that might help change industry attitudes towards black and political films.

It was just after Barack Obama’s historic 2008 election to the US presidency that Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal read an article in The Washington Post about Eugene Allen, an African-American man who had worked behind the scenes in the White House from the 1950s to the 1980s. Sony optioned the article for the late Laura Ziskin, the wellregarded Spider-Man producer and activist, who, together with her producing partner Pam Williams, took the idea to Danny Strong, writer of political HBO film Game Change.

Eager to tie the butler’s story into the civilrights movement and informed by six months of research, Strong hit on the idea of creating a composite central character — butler Cecil Gaines — with a son deeply committed to the movement, allowing the film to cut from scenes of sit-ins and marches to concurrent and emotionally connected scenes in the White House.

The radical son, Strong explains, “was the key device for putting the entire story together. The film is a father-son relationship that takes you through the history of the civilrights movement. All the history is true but the family dynamic is fictionalised so that the family can be a conduit to tell the true story of the movement.”

By the time Strong turned in his first draft, Lee Daniels was hot off the Oscar-nominated Precious, and his name was at the top of Ziskin’s list of potential directors. At the time, he was attached to Selma, a film about Martin Luther King’s role in the civil-rights movement, but Daniels was swayed by Ziskin’s reputation and by The Butler’s dramatic scope.

“The story was important to me because I’d never seen a film that chronicled the civilrights movement from the beginning into the Obama administration,” Daniels says. “This film puts a perspective on things that people went through, even in my lifetime, so that we could do things like vote.”

Also important, the director adds, was the fact the story “goes beyond black and white, because it’s a father-son story on top of being a civil-rights story. It transcends race, it transcends America — it’s universal.”

n 26 Screen International January 31, 2014

Though the producers also fielded interest from other directors — among them Steven Spielberg — when “forces of nature” Daniels and Ziskin met, recounts Pam Williams, “there was a love fest, and we knew who was going to direct our movie”.

Meetings with Sony did not go as well, however. The studio was willing to commit to a budget of only $20m, far short of the $35m (without talent costs) that Ziskin and Williams had calculated.

When Sony opted out, the pair shopped the project to other studios and independents but came up against the conventional wisdom that African-American-themed films do not work in international markets. “All of them said no, because the foreign value everyone was putting on the movie was pretty much nil,” Williams adds.

Attracting investors It was then that Ziskin, continuing to work on the project despite her ongoing battle with breast cancer, found the inspiration for a different approach.

Reading about the absence of black actors and film-makers from the 2011 list of Oscar nominees, the producer encountered the idea that in order to change the culture of the film industry, African-Americans needed to be more involved in making films.

“Laura was so inspired by the concept,” Williams explains, “that she said, ‘Great, we’ll go out to African Americans of wealth who care about the message of this movie and care on another level about this movie getting made.’

“So we made a list of wealthy African Americans who we knew had an interest in films and just started making phone calls.”

Sheila Johnson, co-founder of cable network Black Entertainment Television, was first on board, investing a reported $2.7m herself and bringing in several other AfricanAmerican entrepreneurs to contribute to what was then — after Ziskin and Daniels had taken major fee cuts — the project’s $25m target budget.

Former basketball star Michael Finley became another significant investor and Buddy Patrick, the white New Orleans native who founded that

‘The film is a father-son relationship that takes you through the history of the civil-rights movement’ Danny Strong, writer

Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker in The Butler

city’s Windy Hill Pictures, became the largest single provider of what ended up being the project’s $16m in equity backing.

Ziskin’s death from cancer in June 2011 was a blow to everyone involved with the film. But Williams was determined to go on with the project and, recruiting independent finance expert Cassian Elwes as another producer, she continued the effort.

In a deal brokered by Creative Artists Agency, Icon UK came in with a $6m guarantee against foreign sales, providing the project with valuable upfront finance.

Because the company was restructuring its own distribution division, Icon subcontracted international sales duties to IM Global, which, according to Williams, presold the film well above expectations at Cannes 2012.

Tax rebates from the state of Louisiana of $6m and gap financing of $2m made up the remainder of what was in the end the film’s $30m budget.

Casting The Butler involved another kind of commitment to the film’s story and message.

David Oyelowo, the UK actor who appeared in Daniels’ The Paperboy, was first in, getting the part of Cecil’s radical son Louis on the basis of his auditions for the role of Martin Luther King in Selma. Oyelowo says that when he first read the script, “I didn’t want to like it because I was hell bent on doing Selma.

Much to my chagrin, I loved it. I was amazed by how much history and family and racial politics had been crammed into one script.”

To play Cecil’s wife, Gloria, Daniels wanted Oprah Winfrey, who had been an executive producer on Precious but had not acted on the big screen since 1998’s Beloved. “I remembered her work in The Color Purple and I thought what a great comeback to the screen it would be,” says Daniels. Both director and star had their anxious moments about such a high-profile casting choice but, says Daniels: “Once I saw that she could disappear and become Gloria, I was OK.” She has gone on to acclaim for the role, including a Bafta nomination for best supporting actress.

Casting the part of Cecil was a lengthier process, with Cuba Gooding Jr, Terrence Howard (who both ended up with other roles) and Denzel Washington being linked at various points.

Casting some major white stars — including Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman and Robin Williams — in smaller roles was done partly to broaden the film’s appeal.

“We had been told by every studio that

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Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey and director Lee Daniels on set

no-one was going to see the film, that this was not a commercial film,” Daniels says. “So it was a very conscious decision to bring people in. But they also had to work creatively. I think they were really blown away by Danny’s script and they wanted to be part of a cause,” the director adds.

Moving Washington The Butler shot in New Orleans — triggering the Louisiana tax rebates — for what Daniels describes as a “very gruelling” 41 days over the summer of 2012, building a set of the Gaines’ Washington DC house at the city’s Second Line Studios and, for White House scenes, renting one of the several Oval Office sets available to film and TV productions.

Given the story’s four-decade time-span and wealth of characters, the shoot was always likely to be tricky logistically, even after the decision was made to substitute archival footage for some planned shots of civil-rights demonstrations.

But the shoot was complicated further when Hurricane Isaac hit New Orleans. Cast and crew had to be evacuated from the city for almost two weeks and when they returned had to deal with power outages and the unavailability of local government buildings that had been scheduled for use as sets.

The silver lining was the respite the weather gave to a hard-worked production. “Believe it

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or not, we were relieved to have a hurricane,” says Oyelowo. “It gave us two weeks off in the middle of the shoot and, honestly, I would have been seriously concerned for Lee’s health if we hadn’t had that two-week hiatus.”

Sometimes the film’s subject matter darkened the mood on set. “There’s no way of faking racial epithets being thrown at you all night or of re-enacting being hosed down,” says Oyelowo of scenes depicting black activists being abused by white opponents. “Those were days when it was definitely hard to shake the fact this actually happened to people and there was no-one there to call ‘Cut’.”

Other days, though, had lighter moments, as when Daniels, trying to shoot a scene of Gloria washing clothes, amused the crew by teasing Winfrey about the billionaire’s unfamiliarity with the details of doing laundry.

“She got the joke, but I think her feelings were hurt briefly,” says the director.

The film’s post-production period had complications of its own. First, The Weinstein Company (TWC), which during production had struck a deal to distribute in the US — on a gross corridor basis and with a reported $30m marketing commitment — brought the film’s release date forward from October 2013 to August, giving Daniels a much tighter editing schedule.

The Butler’s box-office performance, meanwhile, suggests that films with African-Ameri-

‘The myth that African-American and American political stories aren’t of interest overseas is certainly dispelled by this movie’ Pam Williams, producer

can or political content have more commercial potential than the studios and independents approached by Ziskin and Williams during their search for funding believed.

In the US, TWC positioned The Butler as an alternative to summer popcorn movies and used the story’s family relationships to appeal to both black and white audiences. “With a lot of big action movies coming out, there was a clear space for an adult drama, so we sold it that way,” says TWC president of marketing Stephen Bruno. “We knew from testing that we had a wonderful movie that people loved.

We weren’t sure [about crossover potential], but we were very pleasantly surprised that it was embraced by a wide audience.” The result was a chart-topping $24.6m opening on August 16 and a gross to date of $116.5m, with white movie-goers reportedly making up 55% of the audience and black movie-goers 35%.

IM Global sold The Butler for every remaining international market at Cannes in 2012 and TWC eventually picked up the film for the UK and Canada too, selling on rights to local distributors Entertainment Film Distributors and eOne. Now released in about two thirds of the international marketplace, The Butler has so far grossed more than $51m outside the US. “The myth that African-American and American political stories aren’t of interest overseas s is dispelled by this movie,” says Williams. n

January 31, 2014 Screen International 27 n

reviews HigHligHts of tHe week’s new films in Review. foR full Reviews coveRage, see screendaily.com

sundance reviews in brief The Skeleton Twins

Dir: Craig Johnson. US. 2013. 90mins

Caustically wry and cloyingly sentimental, The Skeleton Twins is a crowdpleaser. Its two leads — Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader — are comic pros and well-known enough from various hit films as well as Saturday Night Live to offer a huge audience to Craig Johnson’s tale of dysfunction, which lurches between laughs and despair. Despite some glaring script problems, this estranged brother-sister act should be a hit. Wiig finds a special uneasiness as Maggie, a married woman, fraught with the passing of time, who confuses practicality with surrender, while Hader’s Milo copes with failure by lying, drinking and hiding behind zinger lines. Cinematographer Reed Morano finds a look that complements the conflicted emotions of the film with the golden hues of autumn and the approaching chill of winter.

David D’Arcy CONTACT ICM PARTNERS

www.icmtalent.com

Dead Snow: Red vs Dead

Dir: Tommy Wirkola. Nor. 2014. 101mins

Gory and goofy, Dead Snow: Red vs Dead follows in the bloody footprints of the 2009 original, once again pitting humans against marauding Nazi zombies. For two films now, director Tommy Wirkola has found plenty of ways to make this cheeky franchise entertaining and irreverent, combining camp and horror in such a way that it feels fresh no matter how derivative its elements.

The first Dead Snow was a cult favourite, and Wirkola has since raised his profile by directing the 2013 Paramount release Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Nonetheless, this sequel will be of interest mostly to genre buffs.

Tim Grierson CONTACT (INT’L) ELLE DRIVER www.elledriver.fr (US) XYZ FILMS www.xyzfilms.com; CAA www.caa.com

A Most Wanted Man

Dir: Anton Corbijn. 2013. Ger-US. 121mins

From the classic 1965 film The Spy Who Came In From The Cold to the acclaimed ’80s miniseries Smiley’s People to more recent films such as The Constant Gardener and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, John le Carré’s novels have spawned superb, sophisticated entertainments filled with political intrigue and moral ambiguity. A Most Wanted Man is a smart contemporary spy drama, with a stellar lead performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman, and looks set to follow in the footsteps of its predecessors, helped by its internationally recognisable cast (Willem Dafoe, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright, Nina Hoss and Daniel Brühl). It is certainly not going to leave audiences uplifted, nor is it some fast-paced espionage thriller, but like the best works of le Carré, it takes you on a sly and acerbic trip, full of both triumph and failure.

Anthony Kaufman CONTACT FILMNATION

www.wearefilmnation.com

n 30 Screen International January 31, 2014

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

The Trip To Italy Dir: Michael Winterbottom. UK. 2014. 107mins

The second go-round is almost as much fun as the first in The Trip To Italy, a jolly sequel to the 2010 film and TV series The Trip. Perhaps predictably, director Michael Winterbottom and stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon cannot fully reproduce the novelty and emotional depth of the original. But the leads’ tart comedic rapport remains exquisite as they travel, eat and riff for our considerable amusement.

As in the first film, The Trip To Italy follows along as Coogan and Brydon — playing versions of themselves — hit the road to review glamorous restaurants. The faint tension between the two men has subsided, although both are again contending with personal issues around family and career.

Incorporating clearly improvised segments, The Trip To Italy replicates the first film’s winning formula of beautiful locales and funny conversation, particularly when Coogan and Brydon compete to see who can do the better impression of famous actors such as Michael Caine, Marlon Brando and Pierce Brosnan. There is familiarity in their back-and-forth banter, but it is churlish to nitpick when so much of their conversation remains delightful.

Much like a hip My Dinner With Andre, The Trip To Italy segues easily from intriguing talk about the legacy of Lord Byron to what it must have been like to work on The Dark Knight Rises with two intense actors — Christian Bale and Tom Hardy — whose characters’ dialogue was completely incomprehensible. This will probably be the only film this year in which the leads quote poetry

when they are not discussing why movie sequels just about never work.

Despite the plethora of verbal gems, The Trip To Italy’s missing element is the contentious dynamic that helped to make the first film so unexpectedly poignant and universal, touching on the ways that male friendships are almost always laced with a degree of competitiveness. We still see some of Brydon’s quiet jealousy of his more-famous friend — and of Coogan’s desire to remain alpha in their relationship — but since that previous edgy interplay is not a major component of Italy, the ribbing stays more on the surface, the jabs mostly for sport rather than getting at something deeper between them.

That’s not to say, however, that Winterbottom and his two actors eschew completely more emotional territory.

Brydon’s anxieties about fatherhood produce unexpected consequences during their journey. And Coogan’s difficulty connecting with his son provokes him to wonder if he really wants to continue on the television show he is filming far away in Los Angeles.

The two men’s comic timing remains flawless, with Coogan more of the deadpan wit and Brydon the gleeful joker and show-off. Of the supporting cast, Rosie Fellner is the standout as a tour guide whose sweet charm proves to be too tempting for one of our leads. Still, she is not as ravishing as the meals, which are lit gorgeously.

Tim Grierson CONTACT GOALPOST FILM

www.goalpostfilm.com

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sundance reviews in brief Frank

Dir: Lenny Abrahamson. Ire-UK. 2013. 95mins

An unapologetically idiosyncratic glimpse into creativity, ambition and mental illness, Frank falters more than it soars. But its portrait of a band led by a deeply odd frontman — based on eccentric UK comedian Frank Sidebottom — seems to have all the makings of a cult item. Starring Michael Fassbender, whose face is hidden inside a giant papier-maché head, this comedy from Lenny Abrahamson (What Richard Did) struggles to find its groove, but there is still some fascination in watching the film follow the beat of its own unusual drum. The mixture of genres — musical, quirky comedy, melancholy drama — may throw some viewers, but Frank seems geared for midnight-movie fans and other lovers of left-of-thedial strangeness.

Tim Grierson CONTACT PROTAGONIST PICTURES www.protagonistpictures.com

Marmato

Dir: Mark Grieco. Col. 2013. 87mins

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

Laggies Dir: Lynn Shelton. US. 2014. 100mins

A twenty-something woman who wonders whether her life was better in high school gets the chance to find out when she becomes the unlikely friend of a teen in Laggies, a very likeable, often funny comedy that cannot quite escape a certain conventionality. The latest from indie director Lynn Shelton — and the first film she did not write — contains her usual warmth and engaging, unfussy performances. And yet Laggies fails to dig deeply enough into its questions of maturity and commitment, resulting in a movie that is pleasant but slight.

Laggies boasts a cast topped by Keira Knightley, Chloe Grace Moretz and Sam Rockwell. Less noticeably microbudget than Shelton’s Humpday or Your Sister’s Sister, this comedy seems more of a niche play than a mainstream crowdpleaser, although the accessible storyline of mismatched friends might attract audiences who had previously resisted the film-maker’s intimate, insular character pieces.

Laggies introduces us to the lively, childish Megan (Knightley), who has been with her boyfriend Anthony (Mark Webber) since high school, never getting married and happy to watch her friends tie the knot and start families. But after seeing her father cheat on her mother at a party, the unambitious, unmotivated Megan begins to panic that she is helpless to stop her inevitable slide into a staid adulthood.

That changes after meeting Annika (Moretz), a highschool student who initially wants her to buy beer but who ends up viewing Megan as a cool mentor, an uncomplicated arrangement that Megan sees as a relief from her

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adult worries. Soon, Megan lies to Anthony, telling him that she is going away to a weeklong career-counselling retreat, when in fact she is going to crash at Annika’s house and decide whether she wants to marry Anthony.

As with Touchy Feely, though, Laggies suffers because of its smoothness. There is a sitcom-like sheen to the proceedings, which gives the film a breezy, confident slickness but lacks the edge and character insights that are the hallmarks of Shelton’s finest films.

Knightley intriguingly does not play Megan as an adorably screwed-up individual. Instead, Megan is seen as deeply immature, a condition that threatens to upend a long-term relationship she clearly treasures but is also beginning to view as a prison. There is a reckless restlessness to Megan that Knightley brings into focus, although she is less capable of showing other sides of the character’s personality.

Moretz and Rockwell, whose characters represent a fresh start for Megan, are both winning, especially Rockwell as a charismatic lawyer whose hip rapport with his daughter belies his loneliness. And although Laggies does coast along a fairly expected path, Shelton pulls out a shock in the third act that is gutsier than anything that came before it. One wishes the rest of the movie had been so willing to push into uncharted territory. A24 acquired domestic rights in Park City.

Tim Grierson CONTACT THE SOLUTION GROUP lisa@thesolutionent.com

The striking and vivid story of a Colombian mountain town and the $20bn in gold that lies beneath it, film-maker and photojournalist Mark Grieco’s documentary offers a fascinating glimpse into a tough and resilient community that is struggling to protect its way of life. Marmato is a town where families pray for the safety of their menfolk as they work in old-fashioned mines. Shafts have been sunk into the mountain over the years, with the miners still using shovels and sulphur lamps (as well as liberal amounts of dynamite) to unearth rich seams of gold.

Their mountain contains one of the last great supplies. But, as one miner states, “Our only sin is to live above one of the biggest gold reserves in the world.”

Mark Adams CONTACT CALLE FILMS

marmatofilm@gmail.com

The Voices

Dir: Marjane Satrapi. US-Ger. 2013. 103mins

A risky mix of tones pays off in The Voices, one of the more playful, compassionate portrayals of a serial killer you are likely to see. Led by a just-right performance by Ryan Reynolds, the latest from director Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) takes a slightly fanciful but largely straight-faced approach to externalising a tormented mind. Consequently, this is a dark comedy that doubles as a psychological horror movie, sidestepping either genre to be its own peculiar creature. More reminiscent of Reynolds’ indie work in The Nines and Buried than his mainstream fare, The Voices will need to find an adventurous distributor who will champion the film’s unusual mix of genres. Cult audiences will be a major draw, although a supporting cast that includes Anna Kendrick and Gemma Arterton should boost commercial appeal.

Tim Grierson CONTACT PANORAMA MEDIA www.filmpanorama.com

January 31, 2014 Screen International 31 n

AWARDS COUNTDOWN The people and The evenTs on The awards circuiT

Damien Chazelle (above) won the US grand jury prize at Sundance for his feature debut Whiplash (it also won the US dramatic audience award). Other winners included the world cinema grand jury prize: dramatic for Chile-France co-production To Kill A Man and the world cinema dramatic audience award to Difret from Ethiopia.

Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is The Warmest Colour triumphed at France’s Lumiere Awards on January 20, winning best film and best director, as well as best actress for Léa Seydoux (above left) and best female discovery for Adele Exarchopoulos (above right). Guillaume Gallienne won best actor for his performance in Me, Myself And Mum, which also won best first film.

12 Years A Slave’s Michael Fassbender (above far left) and Steve McQueen (left) were among the guests at the Bafta Los Angeles awards season tea party at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills on January 11. Others included Martin Scorsese (right), Cate Blanchett (far right), Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, David O Russell and Tom Hanks.

Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie and Leonardo DiCaprio attended the UK premiere of Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street in London’s Leicester Square on January 9. The film, released on January 17, took $7.5m (£4.7m) to top the UK box office in its opening weekend.

n 32 Screen International January 31, 2014

From left: directors Alfonso Cuaron and Paul Greengrass and stars Emma Thompson, Sandra Bullock and Amy Adams were among the guests at American Film Institute’s AFI Awards lunch on January 10. The event honoured the 10 outstanding films and TV shows that will be added to the AFI’s almanac. The 10 films are 12 Years A Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Fruitvale Station, Gravity, Her, Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska, Saving Mr Banks and The Wolf Of Wall Street.

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