Imagine you’re George Lucas. Imagine that you’ve just watched a weird experimental, black-and-white movie called Eraserhead. It doesn’t make sense, but it perfectly captures the anxieties anyone faces right before becoming a parent. Also, there’s an unbelievable baby monster creature that looks unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Then imagine you watch another movie by the same director, called The Elephant Man. It’s still black and white and has its surrealistic touches, but it tells a deeply humanistic story about a man with debilitating physical deformities asserting his dignity.
What do you do next? If you’re the real Lucas, you say, “I want this guy to make Star Wars!”
As strange as it sounds, Lucas admired David Lynch so much that he tried to get the famously idiosyncratic filmmaker to direct the third entry in the Original Trilogy, Return of the Jedi.
Why George...
Then imagine you watch another movie by the same director, called The Elephant Man. It’s still black and white and has its surrealistic touches, but it tells a deeply humanistic story about a man with debilitating physical deformities asserting his dignity.
What do you do next? If you’re the real Lucas, you say, “I want this guy to make Star Wars!”
As strange as it sounds, Lucas admired David Lynch so much that he tried to get the famously idiosyncratic filmmaker to direct the third entry in the Original Trilogy, Return of the Jedi.
Why George...
- 11/8/2023
- by John Saavedra
- Den of Geek
Exclusive Q&A: It arrived too late to factor in guild and critics awards, but the Clint Eastwood-directed American Sniper has established such a connection with American movie audiences that its dark horse chances of upsetting the Oscar status quo cannot be ignored. It passed Saving Private Ryan to become the highest domestic grossing war movie ever; it even shot past the U.S. gross of Bradley Cooper’s previous biggest hit, The Hangover, and trails only The Passion Of The Christ for biggest-ever R-rated domestic grosser. This, for a hard R film about the wartime exploits and horrors faced by the most dangerous sniper in U.S. military history, and the price paid by Chris Kyle, wife Taya, and his fellow soldiers tasked with door to door searches in Sadr City when it was the most dangerous place in Iraq.
Nominated for Best Actor for his spare portrayal of the Navy Seal sharpshooter,...
Nominated for Best Actor for his spare portrayal of the Navy Seal sharpshooter,...
- 2/11/2015
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline
The vast column inches and pixels dedicated to Clint Eastwood's American Sniper of late may have questioned its celebratory portrayal of a man who took hundreds of lives and how it racked up an astonishing $90 million box office debut, but one aspect of the film's fallout has been overlooked entirely: Bradley Cooper is now a bona fide A-list movie star.
American Sniper's financial records keep stacking up. Best ever three-day opening for a Best Picture Oscar nominee, biggest ever January opening, an IMAX bow that beats 2012 blockbuster Prometheus and a career best for its 84-year-old director.
All this is vindication for Cooper, who picked up the film rights to Navy Seal sharp-shooter Chris Kyle's memoir in 2012 with a view to producing a film starring Chris Pratt in the lead role. Warner Bros backed the project on the proviso that Cooper himself play Kyle, while the star's Silver Linings Playbook...
American Sniper's financial records keep stacking up. Best ever three-day opening for a Best Picture Oscar nominee, biggest ever January opening, an IMAX bow that beats 2012 blockbuster Prometheus and a career best for its 84-year-old director.
All this is vindication for Cooper, who picked up the film rights to Navy Seal sharp-shooter Chris Kyle's memoir in 2012 with a view to producing a film starring Chris Pratt in the lead role. Warner Bros backed the project on the proviso that Cooper himself play Kyle, while the star's Silver Linings Playbook...
- 1/20/2015
- Digital Spy
Director Peter Bogdanovich.
Interviewing Peter Bogdanovich for the April 2002 issue of Venice Magazine was a thrill for me. Like Francis Coppola, John Frankenheimer, and William Friedkin before him, Bogdanovich was one of those filmmakers whose one-sheets hung on my bedroom walls growing up. Plus the fact that he himself had a renowned career as a film historian and interviewer of his own childhood heroes, such as John Ford, Howard Hawks, Orson Welles, and dozens of others, made our talk a real feast.
Not long after the article was printed, I received a letter with a New York City postmark. The note enclosed said simply: “Dear Alex, thanks for doing your homework so well, and thanks for the good vibes. All the best to you of love and luck, Peter Bogdanovich.”
Our chat remains one of my favorites during my 15 year tenure as a film writer. --A.S.
Peter Bogdanovich’S...
Interviewing Peter Bogdanovich for the April 2002 issue of Venice Magazine was a thrill for me. Like Francis Coppola, John Frankenheimer, and William Friedkin before him, Bogdanovich was one of those filmmakers whose one-sheets hung on my bedroom walls growing up. Plus the fact that he himself had a renowned career as a film historian and interviewer of his own childhood heroes, such as John Ford, Howard Hawks, Orson Welles, and dozens of others, made our talk a real feast.
Not long after the article was printed, I received a letter with a New York City postmark. The note enclosed said simply: “Dear Alex, thanks for doing your homework so well, and thanks for the good vibes. All the best to you of love and luck, Peter Bogdanovich.”
Our chat remains one of my favorites during my 15 year tenure as a film writer. --A.S.
Peter Bogdanovich’S...
- 5/28/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
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