0:00

When I finished Army of the Dead, I

0:03

finished Army, and the guys at

0:05

Netflix were like, what else you wanna do?

0:08

And I said, do you wanna do another Army movie? And I was

0:10

like, yeah, I kinda wanna do a sequel to Army, but I

0:12

have this other idea, and I don't know if you guys

0:14

are into it or not, but it's like a big space

0:16

opera, and it's kinda like

0:18

Seven Samurai in Space. But it was rated

0:21

R. I said, it's gotta be rated R.

0:24

There's no way around that.

0:26

And they were like, okay, but

0:28

what if it wasn't rated R?

0:30

Ha ha ha. Ha ha. Ha

0:32

ha. ["The

0:38

Star-Spangled Banner"]

0:50

Hello, and welcome back to The Director's Cut,

0:52

brought to you by the Directors Guild of

0:54

America. In this

0:56

episode, revolutionaries band together and defend

0:58

their land from total annihilation in

1:01

director Zack Snyder's sci-fi drama, Rebel

1:03

Moon Part One, A Child of

1:05

Fire. The

1:07

film tells the story of Korra, who crash

1:09

lands on a moon at the edge of

1:12

the universe and finds new life among peaceful

1:14

farmers. But when peace is

1:16

traded for bloodshed, newly formed revolutionaries

1:18

must learn to fight together to defend their

1:20

land and survive the war on their moon.

1:24

In addition to Rebel Moon Part One, A Child

1:26

of Fire, Snyder's other directorial credits include the feature

1:29

films Army of the Dead, Justice

1:31

League, 300, Sucker Punch, Watchmen, and

1:36

Dawn of the Dead. Following

1:38

a screening of the film at the

1:41

DGA Theater in Los Angeles, Snyder spoke with

1:43

director Louis Leterrier about

1:46

filming Rebel Moon Part One, A Child of

1:48

Fire. Listen on

1:50

for their spoiler-filled conversation. So, thank you for

1:52

sticking around and asking for more questions from

1:54

any of us. And unless

1:56

they're And

2:00

then people were running out of whole age

2:02

saying you have to come see come come

2:04

like they were literally saying come see something

2:07

Come see something. I've seen something amazing and

2:09

that was I walked in ran in and

2:11

saw The

2:14

trailer for 300 you kept remember this

2:16

thing they asked you to play it

2:18

over and over and over again Yeah,

2:21

that was actually yeah, I do remember that it was weird

2:23

because we the

2:25

tradition of playing the trailer twice I

2:28

Wasn't really familiar with or I didn't

2:30

even know if it was a thing,

2:33

but I do remember this like We

2:36

played it twice and everyone went crazy So we played

2:38

it again, and I was like three times still like

2:40

enough now Stop, and

2:42

then I think we played it one more time. Yeah. Yeah, it

2:45

was be that was fun it was actually really

2:47

fun because you know, it's

2:49

a rare thing to have

2:51

a Like

2:54

a piece of of work

2:56

that is you know where

2:58

your mainlining it to the correct audience You

3:01

know, it's hard to that's a hard thing

3:03

to do because normally people casual viewers or

3:05

whatever There was zero casual viewers in that

3:07

audience. Well at first but then yes

3:10

Well, I just mean

3:12

in general. Yeah, they people ran

3:14

in and we didn't have the power of

3:16

sex night No,

3:18

it's really we discovered, you know the great

3:21

director we'd seen, you know, we'd all seen

3:23

Donna the Dead But then this was completely

3:25

different. This was so powerful and

3:27

I think which you've just

3:29

experienced again today is You

3:32

know, it's the same thing. I've watched it at

3:34

you know I've watched it three times wants to

3:36

watch it another one to study it and then

3:38

my kid was watching it and I watched it

3:40

My kid and I watch it through the eyes

3:42

of a 13 year old and

3:44

this is incredible It's Zack

3:47

Snyder 1000%

3:49

Zack Snyder. It's it's fantasy. It's visual

3:52

characters that you love anti heroes. This

3:54

is this is Absolutely

3:56

amazing. So let's talk about it, right?

3:58

Sure. Yeah So where

4:01

did it come from? Is, you know,

4:03

when did you have the place? I think that,

4:06

you know, I've said, I don't know, famously at this point,

4:08

I've said it a hundred times, so probably not famously, but

4:10

to me it's famously because I've said it a hundred times.

4:14

But it comes from, there's a

4:16

window of time for me between

4:18

1977 when Star Wars came out

4:22

and probably in 1987

4:25

when I was a sophomore at Art Center

4:27

sophomore. I don't think they really do it

4:30

that way second term at Art

4:32

Center College of Design and Fascinating, you know, where I

4:34

went to film school. And

4:37

it really is all about, for me,

4:39

a comment on that window, sort of

4:41

cinematic window for me,

4:44

kind of the time that kind of

4:47

shaped my aesthetic and my, and a

4:49

lot of it, frankly,

4:52

I'm a huge fan of

4:55

the adult illustrated fantasy magazine

4:57

Heavy Metal. And

5:00

that magazine had a huge effect on

5:02

me because it was, my mother

5:04

had gotten it for me as a

5:07

child by accident. I

5:09

was way too young for this, but

5:11

she thought it was a comic book. And

5:14

so she got me a subscription to it

5:16

and I had it and it was like

5:18

full of sex and violence and insane and

5:20

nudity and just everything you'd hoped for as

5:22

a 13 year old. It

5:24

was like right on the money. And I kept

5:26

it completely secret

5:28

from her in

5:31

the sense that I didn't let her look

5:33

inside of it. Although every now and

5:35

then she would see a cover, it would arrive in the cover, she

5:37

would look at the cover and be like, what is this? This looks

5:40

pretty racy. And I'd be like, no, no, it's just, you

5:42

know, cover art, they go crazy. Don't, don't worry about

5:44

it. It's not whatever. Boring.

5:47

I'm going to throw it onto my bed. And

5:50

I, you know, and it was really, and then

5:52

when the movie came out, the Heavy Metal film,

5:54

the animated film, I was

5:57

just, I just thought that was like the coolest

5:59

thing ever. But in that

6:02

window of movies, you have Blade Runner, you

6:04

have Heavy

6:06

Metal, you have Star Wars, Empire

6:09

Strikes Back. It

6:11

really, Conan the Barbarian,

6:13

the meleus version, which is an amazing

6:15

movie. John

6:21

Borman's Excalibur had a huge effect

6:23

on me. I remember seeing that

6:25

movie and the scene where Uther

6:27

and Grane are making love and he

6:30

has his armor on still. I

6:32

just thought that was the coolest thing ever. It's

6:35

just stuff like that. They

6:39

really just

6:42

land hard on

6:44

you when you're at that sort of impressionable

6:47

age where it's still

6:50

in a weird way. The thing

6:52

I love about Conan and Heavy Metal

6:55

and John Borman's Excalibur is

6:58

they're not for kids. There's

7:01

something really cool about – I mean I saw them

7:03

as a kid and I really loved them but they

7:05

weren't really made for kids. It's

7:08

like American World from London or whatever. These

7:10

movies that you saw when

7:12

you were too young but

7:15

that aesthetically really

7:17

kind of rocked you because

7:19

it's a different experience

7:22

now because you could see movies

7:24

that are on streaming or

7:26

they're all over. You

7:29

can get them. When

7:32

it was a theater only experience, it

7:34

was much different. To get into a

7:37

movie, to sneak into a movie, an

7:39

R-rated movie, and see it was a

7:41

big deal. You

7:45

felt like you were stealing something from the

7:47

world or you were privy to

7:49

a mystery or

7:54

to a thing that other people weren't. I

7:57

think that's kind of where the idea certainly – Genesis

8:00

and then and of course

8:02

you know and in that window I

8:04

saw movies like Seven Samurai I became

8:06

a Kurosawa fanatic and I just

8:09

loved I remember I would have my parents I

8:11

think it was like Throne of Blood was

8:14

playing at our like local like

8:16

a retrospective theater you know in

8:19

Japanese with English subtitles and I

8:22

was like 13 years old and I like made

8:24

my parents take me and drop they dropped me off they were

8:26

like we don't want to go to this movie like you're insane

8:28

we don't it's like snowing and I was like no no it's

8:30

cool come back in three hours and get me so

8:33

it was just a cool you

8:36

know that was when you know I just really started

8:39

to just love movies and but

8:42

did you did you start jogging down ideas writing

8:44

down I had so when I was at Art

8:46

Center I had a class we had this one

8:48

class I was talking to Larry Fong

8:50

about it the other night because Larry was in my class and

8:54

it was a it was a pitch class where

8:56

you had to go in and pitch an idea for a movie

8:59

and I think I said like what if it was like Seven

9:01

Samurai in space and I

9:04

remember my teacher was like that's actually not a horrible

9:06

idea and he was pretty Mike

9:08

Onaman was pretty he was pretty tough

9:10

character when it came

9:12

to that sort of thing you'd pitch in movies

9:14

and he'd be like that's horrible get out of

9:17

here you know like he was really he's really

9:19

really rough teacher he would say you know like

9:21

you would if you were pitching him

9:23

an idea he was always very like

9:25

in a good way critical but in a really

9:28

sort of you could be

9:30

a slightly softer you know we're just kids you

9:32

know you know just a little bit of compassion

9:34

would be cool but now he did zero but

9:36

but you like this one every now and then

9:38

you go like you know what that's not a

9:40

horrible idea that idea is not

9:43

complete crap so all right

9:45

next who else you know and I remember

9:47

getting that little maybe that little piece of

9:49

encouraging that kept it alive and so I

9:51

had it kind of boiling for

9:54

a while and I would jot some

9:56

ideas down and then in we were

10:00

working on the editorial

10:02

of Man of Steel.

10:06

And I remember saying to I said

10:08

to Chris, Chris Nolan, and

10:10

the editor, I was like, you know what, I

10:13

had this idea where I was gonna call Kathleen

10:15

Kennedy and I'm just gonna say, I'm gonna picture

10:17

this Star Wars movie I have an idea for

10:19

because at that time that was before the sale,

10:21

it's kind of after the prequels.

10:24

Star Wars was kind of quiet.

10:26

It was kind of in a quiet mode

10:29

and I remember thinking like they need me like

10:32

this is it this is cool like

10:34

I'm gonna I'm gonna fix Star

10:36

Wars. Also

10:38

because I had some issues with some of

10:40

the decisions like I'm not gonna say what

10:42

it was but like I just felt like

10:44

they had gone astray a bit. You know,

10:46

I know that sacrilegious to say but that

10:48

was my feeling. How did that meeting go

10:51

though? It went well, it went well. Actually

10:53

it went really well at the time. I pitched

10:56

it and she was like that sounds really

10:59

cool. I remember

11:01

saying something like you know is there any way it

11:03

could be rated R? You know, is that

11:06

a thing? And she went, I'm

11:09

not sure. And I'm like

11:11

but it's you're saying there's a chance. And

11:14

she said well

11:16

let's just we'll

11:19

more and see how it evolves. And I

11:21

was like okay so I left the meeting

11:23

thinking like they're down for

11:25

an R rated movie for one and it's

11:28

just gonna be like some Jedi's

11:30

like going nuts. So that was

11:32

like so I was pretty up on the

11:36

the idea. I remember

11:39

I went home my wife is my producing partner

11:42

and she said you're crazy. They're never gonna do

11:44

this. You're completely nuts and

11:46

you're delusional because they're gonna you because

11:48

I got the time I was working

11:50

you know Superman as an IP

11:53

and I was having a little bit of a

11:56

you know it's a he's a

11:58

tough character. to

12:00

change and I wasn't trying to

12:02

change him. I was just I was trying to just

12:04

sort of push aspects of him around a little bit

12:07

and she goes you think do you know what Star

12:09

Wars is gonna be like it's gonna be a disaster

12:11

for you and

12:14

so in the middle of this whole thing I did

12:16

have a second meeting where ILM had done

12:18

all these paintings you

12:21

know sort of reflecting what

12:25

my idea would look like in the Star Wars universe and

12:27

I was like, oh see this

12:29

is cool and then

12:31

like I like two days

12:33

later I read in the trades that

12:36

they sold that

12:38

Disney now owns it and I was like, oh That's

12:41

weird but I no one said

12:43

anything about that and Heads up

12:45

would have been cool of some small amount and

12:48

then I and then of course They

12:51

were like look we love what you your idea,

12:53

but we have this we're gonna go in and

12:56

we're gonna do something else And

12:58

I was like, okay great and my wife was like see

13:00

this is the best thing that ever happened to you This

13:02

is great news You're

13:04

you're fine Plus

13:06

when were you gonna do that movie

13:09

if you have like? You're

13:11

busy And

13:13

so it just kind of fell back a little bit,

13:15

you know, I kind of disappeared for a while I

13:17

would always still think about I would talk to her

13:19

about it. I'd say, you know, you

13:22

know, what if This

13:25

and she'd say okay, you're still ranting

13:27

about that space movie But

13:30

you know and so it was tenacious and then it

13:32

ended up when I finished army of the dead

13:34

I finished army

13:37

and The guys at Netflix

13:39

were like what else you want to do? And

13:42

I said do you want to do another army movie? And I was like,

13:44

yeah I kind of want to do a sequel to army But I

13:47

have this other idea and I don't know if you guys

13:49

are into it or not but it's like a big space

13:51

opera and it's kind of like You

13:54

know, so it's it's seven

13:57

samurai in space, but he's rated

13:59

R But it was rated R.

14:01

I said, it's got to be rated R.

14:03

There's no way around

14:06

that. And they were like, OK, but

14:08

what if it

14:11

wasn't rated R? So

14:13

yeah, so anyway, those are the

14:16

conversations. That's where we came to

14:18

this. I mean, I will say

14:20

just in full disclosure, not that

14:22

it's not disclosed, but the sort

14:25

of the conversation I

14:27

had with the studio was that they

14:29

read the script obviously was an R-rated script. It was

14:31

200 pages. The first time I they

14:35

were like, you weren't kidding when I handed them

14:37

the phone book of the script and

14:39

they said 200 page script. OK, well,

14:43

obviously we're not making a 200

14:45

page script into a movie, especially

14:48

this crazy R-rated.

14:50

You basically made heavy metal

14:54

like live action heavy metal movie. This

14:56

is like everyone's naked. This is crazy.

15:00

And so I there

15:02

was a cool but but they

15:04

were really cool. Netflix was cool. I

15:06

look, I just finished Justice League. You

15:08

know, I'd had my Justice League experience,

15:10

my BBS experience. Watchmen,

15:12

I had done this. Look,

15:16

I have this career where for whatever reason,

15:18

I end up with a director's cut of

15:20

every movie. I have this idea that it's

15:22

not it's not. I

15:25

don't encourage it 100 percent as a career path,

15:29

except for it's worked for

15:31

me from an artistic standpoint.

15:34

I feel like my

15:38

relationship to the

15:42

studio was that I

15:45

would do a version of the movie. Now, you

15:48

really I had done a director's

15:50

cut for for Dawn of

15:52

the Dead, right? Because I was a

15:54

big Ridley Scott fan, of course, as everybody

15:57

is. And I said, well, Ridley

15:59

does director's cut. cut so that's what I'm gonna do.

16:02

And so I had

16:04

had an not

16:07

an issue but the things they there's things they wanted

16:09

me to cut the studio wanted me to cut which

16:11

is completely normal that I

16:13

just was like this a mistake like it's not

16:15

as good it's not as good. And

16:18

so they I realized there

16:20

was a part of the studio called home

16:22

video I don't know if you're familiar but

16:24

at the time home video was across the

16:26

street and they didn't care what was in

16:28

the movie. They actually liked

16:31

the weird parts of the movie and

16:33

they just were like more is more.

16:36

And so I walked across the street to them and

16:38

they I said hey I have this idea for a

16:40

director's cut is that a thing? And they

16:43

said absolutely we love that because that gives

16:45

us a second kick at the can and

16:47

it's a cool way to make

16:50

more money off the movie. Everyone you

16:52

know there'll be more opportunity. So I said

16:55

great and so we we did it. The funny

16:57

thing is I think Dawn

16:59

of the Dead was the last movie

17:02

that Universal Studios cut the negative for

17:05

you know now they don't cut the actual

17:07

negative they cut the negative. So there's actually

17:09

I couldn't do the exact

17:11

director's cut I wanted because the frames were

17:13

missing you know they when they cut

17:15

the neck when they cut the neck they

17:17

lose a frame right. And

17:19

so I couldn't restore it exactly.

17:21

I think in retrospect now we could make

17:24

the frame I could make that frame I

17:26

know how to make I could

17:28

fill it you know you could I could do it couldn't

17:31

do it then. But

17:33

so that was my first experience

17:36

then when I did

17:38

300 we just frankly didn't have the money to

17:41

do a director's cut of that movie.

17:43

Like literally we spent every dime that

17:46

was it. I shot everything

17:49

I shot is in the movie because it literally was

17:51

like a 60-day shoot and we just

17:55

we squeezed everything out of that thing. But

17:58

then when I went to do Watchmen The

18:01

movie was shorter than I thought

18:03

because the length of Watchmen was based on

18:05

IMAX at the time. The IMAX length for

18:07

a movie was like two hours and 26

18:09

minutes, something like that, I forget, but it's

18:12

something around there. And that's exactly

18:14

the length of Watchmen because it fit on

18:16

the reel. So it

18:18

was cut to the length of the reel.

18:23

And it was even so close that the guys

18:25

had said like if there was moisture in the

18:28

projection booth, the film would fall off

18:30

because it would be a

18:32

little thicker because of the moisture. So

18:34

the film would fall on the floor. And

18:37

so that was what the parameter, that

18:39

was my parameters for Watchmen

18:42

was literally the length that they

18:44

could do. So when

18:46

I went back to finish the movie, my

18:49

way again walked across to home video and they were

18:52

like, yeah, whatever you want to do, we'll do three

18:54

versions of the movie. I ended up, I think there

18:56

are three versions. And

18:58

so I was able to kind of, that was

19:00

really my first experience with like real like

19:04

encouragement from the studio. And then I

19:06

really got a cut of the movie

19:08

that I really thought was correct. So

19:12

it really was this, that

19:14

started the conversation for me with

19:18

home video or with the, and I really

19:20

think that, you know, for me, the

19:23

Watchmen cut, BVS,

19:27

Justice League course, those

19:29

were the real conversations that I

19:32

had had with this whole director's cut

19:34

notion of making a version

19:36

of the movie that's outside. Now, the thing that

19:38

Netflix has done is that they said to me

19:40

like from the beginning, and I've

19:43

never had this experience, well,

19:45

why don't we give you some extra money

19:48

and set scenes aside

19:50

and allow you to have the

19:53

director's cut run parallel to

19:56

the, not be a reaction. You know what

19:58

I mean? directors

20:00

cuts are just me reacting to like the

20:03

studio getting like noted and then

20:05

freaking out and then running to

20:07

the home video to save me and

20:11

so that so that's gonna be later

20:13

on you'll you'll in the summer we're gonna

20:16

you'll get to see what I pitched them basically and

20:20

then you'll get to be the you'll get

20:22

to pretend to be the studio executive and

20:24

go like oh geez yeah I see I

20:26

see what I see what I see what

20:28

they mean but so that's the

20:30

full odyssey I'm sorry about the rambling answer

20:33

nobody's actually very good that's very interesting so

20:35

so you just turn in the pages and

20:37

and the script and then just shoot right

20:39

you don't have a version that's like I

20:42

need to shoot my pg-13 version today and

20:45

maybe do I get my already it

20:47

was an interesting yes it was an

20:49

interesting process because basically also the 200

20:52

page script that is also problematic

20:57

there was a conversation about like well should

20:59

we just cut it the studio really wanted

21:01

a two-hour movie I understand it

21:03

it makes sense in some way I've

21:06

been pressured by every studio I've ever worked for my

21:08

entire career to make movies that are two hours long this

21:11

is the first time I think I really actually did it

21:14

but so

21:16

so the question was how

21:19

how to make the 200 page script

21:21

two hours

21:23

you know seems problematic and

21:27

it was I kind of knew I I

21:30

went with I have my two writing partners

21:33

Kurt and Shay are super great

21:35

guys I've known him forever Kurt I've known

21:38

Kurt was my in the commercial world

21:40

Kurt I met Kurt he was my

21:42

Dolly grip in the commercial

21:44

world and he's an amazing guy and I

21:47

remember like you know he would just

21:49

he would sit on the Dolly like

21:51

reading Aristotle's poetics and just being like

21:53

the coolest guy that I knew and

21:55

I just be like what's your deal

21:58

and he was like what like what's up you know

22:01

and so then so

22:04

I've known him you know literally since

22:08

like 19 I think 92 or 3

22:10

I met him so

22:12

yeah we've been I've he's been my

22:15

buddy for a long time but she's 12

22:17

and she is literally 12 years old he

22:20

comes over to my house and

22:22

like he'll like I'm drinking whiskey and he'll be

22:24

like I go on one of those I'm like

22:26

no you can't have whiskey you're a child children

22:28

are not allowed whiskey but

22:30

he's actually just a genius so and really

22:33

fun and super smart and I think he's

22:35

I think he's a little older than he

22:37

looks but he does look he does look very

22:39

young I don't know if he's here is he

22:41

here I don't I don't want

22:43

him to get mad at me but he's but so yeah

22:46

so I met with the two of them and I said

22:48

what do we do to the script

22:50

to make it you

22:53

know 90 pages and

22:57

we had a we had a roadmap to

23:00

we did on the dry erase like okay this is

23:02

what we'd have to do we have to cut this

23:04

is how we cut it and

23:06

I was like that's insane like that's what is that

23:09

I don't even know what that is that's like a

23:11

crazy movie it's it's you know what it is it

23:13

just like it what it does is it makes the

23:15

movie very much you

23:17

can just kind of beat it out like anyone

23:20

could do it if you could if you gave

23:22

you if I gave you a two-hour timeline and

23:24

said these are the events that need

23:26

to happen within that two-hour timeline you'd have

23:28

to go like okay so we have five minutes

23:31

to meet Cora we have

23:33

you know 18 minutes

23:37

I know another five minutes 12 minutes

23:40

for noble to come and then

23:43

we have like 40 minutes

23:45

left 30 minutes to collect

23:48

the team then be back because

23:50

you can imagine what happens in the second

23:52

movie they come back

23:54

and there's a huge war so

23:57

you know the third act is them fighting So

24:01

you have two acts to do, you know, what

24:03

we did basically in actually much, this

24:06

is like middle of the second act. So

24:08

wait, so the 200 page script is the

24:11

one movie? So we just took

24:13

the 200 page script and chopped it in half.

24:15

Okay, here we go. We made Gondevall, which

24:17

is that final scene, a little bit bigger. And

24:21

that's it. And did you have to

24:23

expand it or not? We expanded it a little

24:25

bit. Just Gondevall, we expanded a little

24:27

bit. Okay, good. So

24:29

that, you know, it had a bit of an ending.

24:32

But you know, it is a part one. It's

24:34

definitely, it's definitely episodic, you know, in that way.

24:36

So you have the script, everybody agrees, it's all

24:38

good. You have two movies, off we go. And

24:41

now you have to cast it. And you are one

24:44

of our greatest master casters. You

24:46

always find the people that, you

24:48

know, you always saw in movies,

24:50

but you make them into giant

24:53

stars. How did you find these

24:55

people who actually really fit like

24:57

they're the exact actors that fit

25:00

this in it? It's not like superstars,

25:02

they're known. But it's, yeah. How

25:04

did you find it? I mean, I

25:07

think probably Charlie and Jimin are the

25:09

two biggest stars. No, Andy Hopkins. I

25:11

mean, honestly, but that's just, that's

25:13

like a curve ball. I'll

25:16

tell you about that in a second. But

25:19

yeah, for me, casting is like

25:21

a real sort of, you

25:24

know, instinctive thing that I've always,

25:26

I've always really enjoyed. And

25:30

I, you know,

25:32

with this movie, I really wanted Sophia from

25:34

the beginning. I had seen Sophia

25:36

in, you

25:38

know, the movies

25:41

that, you know, sort of

25:43

her normal filmography. I

25:45

looked at a lot of interviews with her. I kept

25:47

watching her in interviews because, you know, when someone's in

25:49

a movie, you can't tell

25:52

100% who they are. So

25:54

he was, yeah. So

25:57

Sophia's... audition

26:02

really sort of I felt vindicated because

26:04

you know everyone was like I don't know about Sophia like you know

26:06

what she's kind of not yeah

26:09

like I mean we love her but like she's

26:11

not gonna carry the whole movie is she's never

26:13

really been in the star of a movie

26:16

and I said well she had trust me she's amazing and

26:18

then like when she did her fight choreography it was

26:20

unbelievable because she's a dancer and

26:23

she's like I

26:25

did one little trick to her in the audition

26:27

and it wasn't rude I promise I changed

26:31

one piece of them in the middle of the

26:33

choreography that we had her learn just

26:36

to see and she got it

26:38

on the first bounce and I was like whoa okay

26:40

that's crazy because I've been around a lot of stunt

26:42

guys and I've been around a lot of fight choreography

26:45

and that was not that was

26:47

not normal behavior and so I was

26:49

like okay that was that was that is

26:51

awesome you know you are yeah so the other

26:53

thing that she was jokes about is that

26:55

like you know when

26:58

she would get distracted I would just

27:00

go like five six seven eight you know and she

27:02

would like look at me like what and

27:04

I was like that's cool like you have a

27:06

trigger because you know it was like kind of

27:09

like like same or something you know like I

27:11

needed one of those sticks you know but yeah

27:13

it was cool she was cool and she was

27:15

great and then you know Chaim

27:18

and I had met at Art Center he came

27:21

I was in my

27:23

basics of photography class basically this guy Paul

27:25

Jasmine an amazing photographer taught this class up

27:27

at Art Center and he would get like

27:29

a mate like you know we had like

27:31

Bruce Weber and like all these people come

27:34

teach us Tar-Sim was in that no Tar-Sim

27:36

wasn't in that class but Tar-Sim was sort

27:39

of adjacent to that class I remember

27:41

because Chaim and ended up in one

27:43

of Tar-Sims commercials and

27:45

but I in my photography class they were like

27:47

oh there's this French model you should take a

27:49

picture of me just here from France

27:51

he's amazing and he doesn't you need some shots

27:53

for his book I was like I

27:56

took I was like I have the photo

27:58

I don't know it's on my phone I'll show it to you you'll see

28:00

it. But anyway, I have this photo

28:02

of him. It's black and white. He's the most

28:04

beautiful, you know, I was like, this guy's the most beautiful

28:07

guy I've ever, he's incredible. And

28:09

actually, he and I were gonna go up to art center

28:11

and recreate it because I want to like, shoot it again.

28:13

Because now it's like, you know, some years

28:15

later, as I say, 1989, I think that

28:17

was. But yeah,

28:19

so that and so I just always

28:21

wanted to work with diamonds. I was

28:23

like, What about diamond? He's tightest. And

28:25

Stas is, I just saw him on

28:28

an edition. I was like, Yeah, he's amazing. And

28:30

he was great in the movie, and it really a

28:32

great guy. Trained hard. You

28:36

know, and Ray, I known the

28:39

two raised Porter as well. Yeah,

28:42

I think it's like I mean, Charlie, of course,

28:44

is Charlie. And he's just literally

28:47

one of the nicest people I've ever

28:49

been around just a fantastic guy. And

28:51

Jenna Malone, and Malone, they're all from

28:53

the repertoire, the Repertory Theatre Group, you

28:55

know, we go on the road, give

28:57

us the Anthony Hopkins. Oh, and Hopkins,

28:59

I was I remember talking to the

29:01

I think it was like, she's talking

29:03

to Scott. And I said, What about

29:05

I go, you know, I need

29:08

like an English, I want an English actor like

29:10

really like someone with

29:12

some gravitas to play Jimmy.

29:15

And he goes, Why don't you

29:17

ask Hopkins? And I go, Why not ask Hopkins?

29:19

Why don't? Okay, yeah, why don't I ask Hopkins?

29:21

Yeah, that's, you know, ask Tony, he calls him

29:23

Tony, I didn't even know he was talking about

29:25

it. I was like, Who's Tony? And

29:27

he's like, Anthony Hopkins, like, when you talk to him, and,

29:30

you know, I'm friends with him, his name, he called,

29:32

you have to call him Tony. I was like, Oh,

29:34

I see, I'm not friends with him. So I did

29:37

not know that. And so they

29:39

go, we'll send him the script. And I was like, Okay,

29:41

go do that. So meanwhile, I'm looking at every other British

29:44

actor, like, you know, that

29:47

who I would be like, would be called Patrick Stewart, he

29:49

would be cool, you know, whatever. I'm doing my whole thing.

29:52

And they're like, Oh, Anthony likes the script. I'm like,

29:54

wait, Tony likes the script. So you're

29:57

saying, and so I got on the phone

29:59

with him and he was like amazing and he's like

30:01

yeah I love that this sounds fantastic and

30:03

what we did is we recorded him first

30:05

we recorded him before we recorded anyone and

30:08

he just read that he went in I explained

30:10

him what was happening and he just

30:12

read it like a radio play and was

30:15

amazing and then we brought him back in

30:17

when the movie was done so he could

30:19

see the performance and then he kind of

30:21

did he did his ADR over

30:23

again and he did a he did a great

30:26

shot he I mean it was amazing he was

30:28

actually really incredibly

30:30

we used a lot of the first version to

30:33

be honest yeah it was just

30:35

like you know instinctive and

30:37

but also you animated it yeah it's sorry so

30:39

short this is like we should stay here I

30:41

know I'm sorry I've been ranting about it too

30:43

much I want to ask about one

30:46

thing actually because this is pretty

30:48

amazing this is obviously could

30:51

be shot I mean if a movie like

30:53

this any studio you go with a movie

30:55

like this they'll send you somewhere in Eastern

30:57

Europe somewhere you know to find a tax

31:00

rebate you shut down

31:03

the block right yeah we shot

31:05

here we shot this movie here

31:07

sunset gower and yeah yes

31:09

you should applaud cuz I've never

31:12

shot a movie I've never shot a movie in LA

31:14

I didn't know you could I didn't

31:16

know that I didn't know the cameras worked here

31:18

I was like I thought they were like no

31:20

you gotta go to Bulgaria because that's where the

31:22

cameras work better cameras

31:25

will only shoot a TV show here if

31:28

you point at if you point them at a movie

31:30

they won't they don't work it's

31:32

crazy I was like what yeah we like we got

31:34

the rebate we got him we got the rebate you

31:36

know the California rebate so that was really cool and

31:39

yeah we stayed here we shot for 153

31:43

days so it wasn't a short movie

31:45

because we did shoot two movies and

31:48

yeah it was really incredible like

31:50

best crew it was

31:52

you know and correct incredible it

31:56

was a lot of the guys I've worked with over

31:58

the years but had to have dragged you

32:00

know, to Vancouver or

32:03

London or Chicago

32:05

or Detroit, you know, Vancouver,

32:07

you know, we went to quite a bit over

32:10

the years. But yeah, shooting here was

32:12

crazy. My bed at night, the only problem of

32:15

course for shooting at home is that, you know,

32:17

your life is right there,

32:19

you know what I mean? Like you go home

32:21

and then like the toilets clogged, you know, and

32:23

you have to fix it, you know, so it's

32:25

like not, it's not like living on the road

32:28

where it's, you know, you're

32:30

just a movie machine, you know, you

32:32

have the other things too, you have to

32:34

take the dog to the vet and stuff like that. Well,

32:37

sorry, we have to wrap but this, I

32:39

wanted to ask you a tons of questions.

32:41

You shot the movie, you, I mean, you

32:43

wrote, you directed, you, yeah, shooting

32:47

the movie is like, I don't know

32:49

about, yeah, I can do it quickly.

32:53

Um, I was a director cameraman for

32:55

years in the commercial world. And

32:57

when I went to do Dawn

33:00

of the Dead, they're like, they don't, that's not really a

33:02

thing in movies. You can't do that. You can't do

33:04

both jobs. And I was like, Oh, cool. It was like

33:06

shooting in LA. It was the same thing. Can't shoot in

33:08

LA, you can't do both jobs. And

33:10

I was fine. And I was fine with it. But the

33:12

truth is, you

33:15

know, after my experience on Justice League,

33:17

and just sort of, I felt

33:20

like I had gotten a little bit

33:23

just distant from the process, you know,

33:25

like, the bigger the movie is, when

33:28

you're doing a gigantic movie, you can

33:30

find yourself really kind of far away

33:32

from the actors. And

33:35

like, you know, I had my video village was like, it was

33:37

a hard table. It was like a full,

33:39

it wasn't like a, it looked

33:41

like an office, you know, that's how dug

33:43

in we were. And so it

33:45

was just cool to go when I did army, I

33:48

was like, I want to shoot it myself. Because I

33:50

just need to like, I forgot what the camera looks

33:52

like or what it feels like. And, and

33:55

so it was really beautiful. And really, I

33:57

felt incredibly re energized and

33:59

re connected. connected to the process

34:02

of making a movie because I

34:04

was lighting and directing and shooting

34:09

and it was really very

34:11

intense and really immersive

34:13

and incredible. And

34:15

also my proximity to the actors was really close because

34:17

it was a handheld movie so I just go like,

34:19

oh that was great. You should

34:22

reach with your left hand because I couldn't see it.

34:24

So is that cool? Okay, let's go. And

34:26

then we would just go and it was just really incredible. So

34:28

when it came to Rebel Moon I was like, okay, this

34:33

is a super technical job but I'm

34:35

down so let's do it. And

34:37

so it was really, it was super

34:40

rewarding. I love shooting and I love

34:42

the sort of director-camera-man position.

34:44

I know that that's what it's called in

34:46

commercials and I don't know what the, that's

34:48

what I sort of feel like it is.

34:51

I think, you know, I always say

34:53

like it's a moving picture so like

34:56

it, that's what we do and

34:58

so just making shots and like really, you

35:01

know, being just a

35:03

camera dork because I am a camera dork on

35:05

one hand. Like I built these, the lenses we

35:07

built from scratch, they're all bespoke, anamorphic

35:10

lenses based on like this, the

35:12

Leica range-finding series of lenses. It's

35:14

never been like a Leica anamorphic lens. Now there

35:16

are, I have them, they're at my house. And

35:20

so yeah, it's a really, it's really

35:23

incredible but, you know,

35:25

I highly recommend it. It's good fun. Wow,

35:28

this was amazing. We

35:30

have to let you go because you have another

35:32

movie to finish, two

35:35

director cuts. So

35:39

yeah, so yeah, I go back to work. I did

35:41

say the other day, I was like, you know, it's

35:43

cool. The one problem, the one downside of this is

35:45

that, of making two movies is that normally I'd go

35:47

on vacation right now. You know, the movie

35:49

comes out, I go to Tahiti and it'd be like amazing.

35:52

But instead I got to go to work

35:54

tomorrow morning. You

35:56

know, Dodie, who is my editor, like literally called me on

35:58

the drive. in and said, did you look at those cuts

36:01

I sent you? And she doesn't sound like

36:03

that, by the way. I made

36:05

her sound like that woman from Monsters, Inc.

36:07

She's not like that at all.

36:10

She's really cool. But yeah, but I said,

36:12

I'm going to get to it tonight, I

36:15

promise. So anyway, thank you guys. Appreciate

36:17

it. Thank you very much. Thanks

36:22

for listening to another DGA Q&A. The

36:25

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36:27

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36:32

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36:40

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36:42

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