{"id":29566,"date":"2016-10-25T12:13:27","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T12:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/?page_id=29566"},"modified":"2017-09-21T10:29:15","modified_gmt":"2017-09-21T10:29:15","slug":"special-dreamcatcher-interview-met-lawrence-kasdan","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/specials\/dreamcatcher\/special-dreamcatcher-interviews-recensies\/special-dreamcatcher-interview-met-lawrence-kasdan\/","title":{"rendered":"Special: Dreamcatcher | Interview met Lawrence Kasdan"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"dreamcatcher\"<\/a>The Bigger Chill<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Mike Russell<\/p>\n

So get this: Lawrence Kasdan \u2014 the writer-director behind \u201cThe Big Chill,\u201d \u201cGrand Canyon,\u201d and \u201cThe Accidental Tourist\u201d \u2014 always wanted to helm an action movie.
\nYou know, with special effects. And helicopters.
\n\u201cI love the hardware,\u201d he says. \u201cI like action movies like that, and I haven\u2019t gotten to do it.\u201d
\nThat is, until now.<\/p>\n

Yes, the man who conceived \u201cWyatt Earp\u201d as a three-hour, character-driven epic just wrapped up his adaptation of Stephen King\u2019s \u201cDreamcatcher.\u201d The movie (which Kasdan co-scripted with King-adapter par excellence William Goldman) marks the director\u2019s first stab at fantasy filmmaking since helping write \u201cRaiders of the Lost Ark,\u201d \u201cThe Empire Strikes Back\u201d and \u201cReturn of the Jedi.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d written movies like this and not gotten to direct them, you know?\u201d he says. \u201cThis one has elements that are familiar to me from my other movies\u201d \u2014 most notably, that it stars four character actors (Jason Lee, Thomas Jane, Damian Lewis and Timothy Olyphant) as angst-driven pals \u2014 \u201cbut then that story runs head-on into this alien invasion.\u201d It also runs head-on into a crazed military officer (Morgan Freeman) who will go to insane lengths to stop the body-snatching spacemen.<\/p>\n

In Focus snatched an hour of Kasdan\u2019s time as he put the finishing touches on \u201cDreamcatcher,\u201d which opens March 28; here\u2019s what the director had to say about monster moviemaking, Morgan Freeman\u2019s gravitas, William Goldman\u2019s \u201cruthless clarity,\u201d Stephen King\u2019s \u201cretirement,\u201d and Hollywood\u2019s mysterious lessons.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n

I. ON \u2018DREAMCATCHER\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

On your earlier fantasy films, you were answering to Lucas and Spielberg. How are you approaching the material differently now that you have a little more control over how it\u2019s presented?<\/p>\n

Being a screenwriter is so different from being a director\/writer, where you have total control over everything. I always feel that when you write for somebody else \u2014 no matter how good they are, and I\u2019ve had some of the best directors in the world doing my stuff \u2014 it\u2019s always different in tone than what you would do.
\nTone is everything. You know, you could give the same script to five different directors and you\u2019d end up with five very different movies, and it always has to do with tone \u2014 with what they think is funny, with what they think is realistic, with what they consider to be important human behavior, with what they consider to be irrelevant. And when you\u2019re the writer\/director, you get to make all those decisions. It\u2019s what I always wanted to do.
\nI feel fortunate to have directed 10 movies. It\u2019s a gift.<\/p>\n

On the “Dreamcatcher” Web site, there\u2019s a clip where Timothy Olyphant\u2019s trapped in the snow\u2026.<\/p>\n

Yeah \u2014 he\u2019s sitting out in the snowstorm all alone, and this creature has escaped from the body of the woman they saved, and is making its way toward him, but he doesn\u2019t know it because it\u2019s under the snow.<\/p>\n

It looks like it hearkens back to the days of “Jaws,” when you didn’t see the monster until the payoff.<\/p>\n

You know, there are people who think you should never see anything \u2014 it\u2019s all implication. And I suppose that has its virtues \u2014 but that\u2019s not what I go to a horror film for. I want to see something, you know? [laughs] And this is more \u201cCreature Feature\u201d \u2014 you do get to see the creatures. But in that sequence, you know it\u2019s there, and it\u2019s gonna jump out at any moment \u2014 but you don\u2019t know when.<\/p>\n

My favorite horror films are \u201cAlien\u201d and \u201cExorcist.\u201d Even \u201cSilence of the Lambs,\u201d which is a human story. But I like seeing this stuff. Psychological suspense is great, and it should be mixed in there all the time \u2014 but I sometimes feel a little cheated when I come out and I haven\u2019t seen anything.<\/p>\n

Well, you must love having the new digital toys to play with.<\/p>\n

One of the advantages of waiting so long to do an effects movie is that the tools are SO great now, and you can do things that you couldn\u2019t have done three years ago. It just changes every day.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been working with ILM, and it\u2019s fascinating. With other movies, you finish production and you\u2019re cutting the movie. With an effects movie, you\u2019re making a second movie after you\u2019ve finished the shooting, because so much is being added to what you\u2019ve shot. We\u2019re dealing right now with effects that will have a huge impact on the movie \u2014 and we\u2019ve been done shooting for six months.<\/p>\n

Barry Sonnenfeld said directing special effects was kind of like trying to teach acting to a bunch of guys who are good at math.<\/p>\n

[laughs] Barry\u2019s a good friend of mine. I\u2019ve never been technical; I\u2019m sort of in awe of people who can do this stuff at all. And there is a good bit of explaining \u2014 sort of right-brain meeting left-brain all the time \u2014 but I\u2019m always amazed at what they eventually come up with if you keep pushing and keep pushing and you keep saying, \u201cNo, that\u2019s not it \u2014 this is what I want.\u201d They will come to you, finally, and they will do something that you could never do on your own in a million years.<\/p>\n

Like many of your films, \u201cDreamcatcher\u201d has a large, ensemble cast with a lot of character actors. Is that just something you\u2019re attracted to in the material?<\/p>\n

You know, I think it was coincidence in this case. Who knows why this particular Stephen King novel appealed to me so much? There\u2019s no question that I must have felt some familiar resonance by seeing a story about four friends who aren\u2019t particularly happy with their lives. That\u2019s just sort of subject matter that I\u2019ve been dealing with for 20 years. But the fact that it then turns into this sort of horror film \u2014 that\u2019s what made it for me.<\/p>\n

But you\u2019re sort of \u201csmuggling\u201d pet themes into the material.<\/p>\n

Exactly. You know, I think all horror movies are about metaphors. That\u2019s the main thing that\u2019s interested me: How do you find a dramatic metaphor for the issues that concern you? Whether it\u2019s raising children or dealing with life choices, you want to find something that dramatizes it. And horror films are the most explicit, in a way, because they find a metaphor for our deepest fears.<\/p>\n

You know, \u201cAccidental Tourist\u201d \u2014 which couldn\u2019t be any more different, and is the other book I adapted \u2014 is about similar things: the fear of chaos that is in the universe. We\u2019re trying to control our universe, and everything around us shows us we have no control. \u201cAccidental Tourist\u201d dealt with that in an emotional, literary way \u2014 and \u201cDreamcatcher\u201d deals with it in a very visceral way.<\/p>\n

Which leads nicely into my next question, which is about Morgan Freeman\u2019s character. He\u2019s playing this kind of complex, Col. Kurtz-ish lunatic, right? He\u2019s someone who tries to aggressively control his environment.<\/p>\n

Yes. He has a mission. He\u2019s not even evil; it\u2019s that he\u2019s gone \u2019round the bend, really. He\u2019s very good at his job, but he\u2019s been doing it too long, and he\u2019s lost perspective. He\u2019s a black-and-white strategist: \u201cYou have to wipe out the whole thing \u2014 there\u2019s no middle ground.\u201d That doesn\u2019t leave much room for human consideration, you know?<\/p>\n

And his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 is Tom Sizemore, who sees that his hero and mentor has lost it and is no longer considering any other options. It sets up this kind of father\/son betrayal business \u2014 because Sizemore has to choose for life instead of the rigid militarism of Morgan Freeman\u2019s character.<\/p>\n

How do you make that black-and-white, messianic worldview compelling?<\/p>\n

Well, it helps if you get one of the greatest actors in the world.<\/p>\n

Yeah. That would help quite a bit.<\/p>\n

It goes a long way. I love actors \u2014 I think it\u2019s a miracle what they do. I went to Morgan right away for this part, even though he\u2019s generally played more benevolent characters. I thought he would be fascinating as a slightly crazed guy.<\/p>\n

I would imagine he gets sick of playing \u201cdignity\u201d all the time. People forget that the role that broke him out as an actor was \u201cStreet Smart.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right \u2014 in which he\u2019s really scary. You know, when we were in rehearsal \u2014 I guess he would be all right with me telling this \u2014 he said, \u201cYeah, I\u2019ve got gravitas out the ass.\u201d [laughs] He\u2019s very funny. He\u2019s as great a guy as I\u2019ve ever worked with. During the rehearsal process, he was a model for a lot of these younger actors, who have barely ever seen rehearsal, because movies don\u2019t rehearse much any more. Morgan loves rehearsal himself; he\u2019s a theater actor.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting that you cast actors in lead roles who would be character or supporting actors in any other film.<\/p>\n

I always look at it like they\u2019re just a picture away from being leads \u2014 and it\u2019s always been true. That was certainly true with Costner and Kline, and Hurt when he did \u201cBody Heat.\u201d If you pick great people, they\u2019re going to go on to other good things.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve always been pretty adamant about writing your own screenplays \u2014 but now you’re adapting (with William Goldman’s help) best-selling material.<\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019d adapted \u201cAccidental Tourist\u201d before, and I found it a very satisfying experience \u2014 we got a lot of nominations and Geena won an Academy Award \u2014 so I was familiar with that process.<\/p>\n

Bill Goldman and I have known each other a long time; we were both in the Soviet Union together 10 years ago on a Writer\u2019s Guild trip, before the whole thing fell apart. Bill had been an idol of mine: When I was in college trying to become a movie director, and thinking that I would become a screenwriter to make that happen, Bill was selling \u201cButch Cassidy,\u201d he was writing \u201cAll the President\u2019s Men\u201d \u2014 he was the greatest screenwriter, the most famous screenwriter, in the world. He\u2019s an amazing character and a great thinker about story structure. This is a 600-page novel, and he did a lot of the work of breaking it down before I came on and started writing.<\/p>\n

What is it Goldman understands about Stephen King, anyway?<\/p>\n

I think Bill has a ruthless clarity about what can be in a movie and what can\u2019t\u2026. Sometimes you can underestimate what can be in a movie. There were things in the book that I wanted in the movie that Bill felt maybe couldn\u2019t be in \u2014 and I sort of added them back. But he\u2019s wonderful in terms of breaking it down to the simplest elements.<\/p>\n

You know, if you look at the track record, basically every good Stephen King movie has snow in it.<\/p>\n

[laughs] You think so?<\/p>\n

Well, sure. \u201cMisery,\u201d \u201cThe Shining\u201d\u2026.<\/p>\n

What about \u201cStand By Me\u201d?<\/p>\n

Well, \u201cStand By Me\u201d is the exception, and \u201cCarrie,\u201d also \u2014<\/p>\n

\u201cCarrie,\u201d which I love \u2014 and think is one of Brian\u2019s greatest movies.<\/p>\n

\u2014 but in the last 10, 15 years, the best King adaptations have featured snow-bound characters.<\/p>\n

[laughs] Well, there\u2019s something creepy about snow. I love it. We have a place in Colorado; for me to go out walking in a snowstorm, that\u2019s about as good as it gets. And this movie was cold. We were shooting it in British Columbia, and it was 27 below sometimes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always interesting to work in weather that can kill you.<\/p>\n

Yeah. I\u2019ve done a lot of that. Working on Westerns puts you in some pretty severe weather.<\/p>\n

So you still don\u2019t mind snow after this shoot. How about fake snow?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a pain. You have to wear a mask because it\u2019s hazardous material. We had one really big set that was supposed to be outside, and that was my least favorite shooting. It\u2019s kind of a mix of plastic material and paper, and it\u2019s much more slippery than real snow. It\u2019s like walking on ice all the time. The actors find it difficult, you have fans blowing the fake snow into the air, everybody\u2019s wearing masks\u2026. I much preferred being out in the cold up north.<\/p>\n

Are the actors wearing masks until you say \u201cAction\u201d?<\/p>\n

Yeah. That\u2019s why I take my mask off \u2014 because if they\u2019ve got to breathe it, I\u2019m gonna breathe it. I can\u2019t direct with a mask on my face, anyway.<\/p>\n

Now, there\u2019s a review of your \u201cDreamcatcher\u201d screenplay online \u2014 and it was really positive.<\/p>\n

Good. It\u2019s so funny, isn\u2019t it? That\u2019s new in the world. I was writing for a long time before there were reviews of screenplays before the movie came out.<\/p>\n

The screenplay\u2019s very different from the book. The book is 600 pages long, and was written after Stephen\u2019s accident. There\u2019s a lot about the accident in the book, because one of the main characters is hit by a car. I think he wrote it in a lot of pain; he couldn\u2019t even sit at his computer. He wrote it longhand in six months \u2014 a 600-page novel.<\/p>\n

I think Stephen is interested in human frailty: In what ways are we vulnerable? We can be vulnerable from outside forces \u2014 from mysterious sources, from monsters. We can be vulnerable from inside \u2014 from disease and addiction. A lot of his stories are about those issues.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of fever dreams in the novel. That was part of the difficulty of the adaptation: A lot of things take place in people\u2019s heads.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a big subplot in the film where \u201cMr. Grey,\u201d the alien, is trying to take over the mind of one of the main characters.<\/p>\n

Damian Lewis plays that character. The alien has entered his body, but hasn\u2019t consumed him \u2014 so the entire movie is a kind of battle of dialogue between the human, Jonesy, and Mr. Grey, who\u2019s using his body to get around.<\/p>\n

How do you depict that onscreen?<\/p>\n

You get a great actor. [laughs] Have you ever seen Damian? He\u2019s in \u201cBand of Brothers\u201d; he\u2019s a wonderful British actor, and he does a wonderful American accent \u2014 but when he\u2019s Mr. Grey, he speaks with a British accent.<\/p>\n

t\u2019s fun. Part of the drama of the movie is: Can Jonesy be saved, or does he have to be destroyed because Mr. Grey is in him?<\/p>\n

And Mr. Grey is starting to gain an affinity for human culture.<\/p>\n

Actually, Stephen King \u2014 who\u2019s been fantastic about this whole process, and really loves the movie \u2014 told me the one thing he missed was that, in the book, Mr. Grey gets a craving for bacon. But Mr. Grey doesn\u2019t understand that you have to cook it, and he eventually eats a whole package of uncooked bacon, which makes him sick. And none of that is in the movie [laughs] \u2014 I just couldn\u2019t fit it in.<\/p>\n

In the online screenplay review, the writer said you were really faithful in translating the dialogue \u2014 but did express great disappointment that you truncated a chase in the book that involved Kurtz following a car that was following yet another car.<\/p>\n

In the book, that chase was 300 pages long; in the movie, it\u2019s about a half-hour long. What we did is, I think, much better than the book \u2014 because it\u2019s much more visual and dramatic, really, the way Kurtz goes after them. In the book, it becomes very confused about just who\u2019s chasing whom, and why. Hopefully in the movie we\u2019ve clarified all that. I don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s gonna be unhappy.<\/p>\n

One of the lit-crit trends we’re seeing these days is that Stephen King is kind of getting his due \u2014 he\u2019s being re-appraised as a weightier writer.<\/p>\n

Yeah. I think he\u2019s an amazing stylist. Because his books have been so popular, and because almost everything he\u2019s written has been turned into some kind of popular entertainment \u2014 TV or movies \u2014 in the old days, they used to dismiss it. But the fact is, he\u2019s a terrific writer. The fact that he\u2019s so prolific is sort of mystifying.<\/p>\n

Yeah. He says he writes 2,000 words a day.<\/p>\n

He says he\u2019s gonna quit, but no one believes him.<\/p>\n

Do you believe him?<\/p>\n

I think he may take a pause. I mean, his idea of \u201cquitting\u201d is, \u201cAfter the next four books, I\u2019ll quit.\u201d For most people, it\u2019s, \u201cI don\u2019t think I can write another word.\u201d [laughs] I don\u2019t know what he\u2019d do if he didn’t write.<\/p>\n

Maybe he\u2019s in too much pain.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure any near-death experience has you evaluating your priorities.<\/p>\n

I read somewhere that he calls every day of his life after the accident \u201cThe Bonus Round.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wrote a wonderful thing about the accident that\u2019s in his book On Writing. That may be one of the scariest things he\u2019s written.<\/p>\n

Now, on the “Dreamcatcher” Web site [dreamcatchermovie.com], you\u2019ve been contributing an unusual amount of behind-the-scenes material.<\/p>\n

Oh, yeah. Because I\u2019ve made all these movies, and you always have the \u201cElectronic Press Kit\u201d \u2014 people come in for 10 days over the course of a huge, long shoot, and they want to shoot the actors and something flashy. But what I always miss is the filmmaking.<\/p>\n

See, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s been much stuff done about what\u2019s really involved in the filmmaking process. What you see on these \u201cmaking-of\u201ds is about movie stars \u2014 and directors, to some extent. But I\u2019m interested in the whole crew \u2014 the various skills and crafts that have to be applied to making something this huge. And I think that\u2019s what you see on the Web site. When we started the Web site right at the start of production, we actually had a guy shooting on the set every day.<\/p>\n

I must say, I love the phrase you say in one of the Web-site videos: \u201cWe\u2019re doin\u2019 it the way D.W. Griffith used to do shitweasels.\u201d I don\u2019t even know what that means. [Kasdan laughs] Now, you’re known for working with a sort of rolling ensemble of actors and crewmembers. Did that sort of shorthand come in handy on \u201cDreamcatcher\u201d?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always helpful when you\u2019ve worked with people before. In addition, I had John Seale shooting the movie. John and I had been trying to work together for 10 years. He\u2019s one of the most amazing people in all of movies \u2014 a great spirit, you know? He\u2019s Australian \u2014 the harder the conditions, the happier he is. We shot two or three cameras all the time \u2014 which a lot of cinematographers don\u2019t want to do, because it\u2019s harder to light. But it makes for enormous energy on the set and a lot of forward momentum \u2014 you get to spend your time shooting instead of waiting.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting that the Australians have emerged as a sort of hardy filmmaking force.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a rough country, and they\u2019re very \u201cbutch,\u201d as John Seale always says. The tougher it is, the better.<\/p>\n

Only a New Zealander could have filmed the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d trilogy, eh?<\/p>\n

Yeah. That\u2019s a beautiful job that guy did.<\/p>\n

How do you tackle the sort of well-worn trope about an angelic, retarded man-child and make it interesting and fresh?<\/p>\n

That concerned me a lot.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll bet it did.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one element that sort of saves it, I think \u2014 which is that he\u2019s not what he appears to be. Some of the fun of the story is that you see that he\u2019s the most powerful figure in the movie.<\/p>\n

I absolutely fell in love with the Donnie Wahlberg take on Dudditz. He has a very kind of open, sweet face. When he finally comes into the movie \u2014 which is really at the end \u2014 it\u2019s not like a retarded person; it\u2019s something much more ambiguous \u2014 and it turns out to be something truly strange.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n

II.ON OTHER MATTERS<\/p>\n

You must be incredibly proud of your son, Jake. [Jake Kasdan\u2019s directorial debut \u2014 at age 22 \u2014 was the underrated comedy-mystery \u201cThe Zero Effect.\u201d]<\/p>\n

Very. I love the work that Jake\u2019s been doing \u2014 not only the two movies that he\u2019s directed, but also his fabulous work on \u201cFreaks and Geeks\u201d \u2014 he directed the pilot and a lot of those episodes. And I actually have another son who\u2019s working in the business already. He\u2019s writing for television now. He\u2019s 23 \u2014 so they\u2019ve both come along a lot faster than I did. Jake directed his first movie at 22, and I was 30 when I did mine. And the only help I\u2019ve given them was giving them a household in which they saw their dad was happy in his work.<\/p>\n

Both \u201cZero Effect\u201d and \u201cSilverado\u201d found pretty large audiences on video, didn\u2019t they?<\/p>\n

\u201cSilverado\u201d is a gigantic video \u2014 I know, because I get the accounting.<\/p>\n

\u201cSilverado\u201d would have been a gigantic hit if it had been released a little better. It tested through the roof \u2014 better than anything Columbia had ever tested at that point, which included \u201cGhostbusters.\u201d The Coca-Cola Company had taken over Columbia at that time and didn\u2019t know what they were doing, and when they saw these huge test scores, they rushed the release \u2014 and it opened on the weekend of \u201cLive Aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve sort of gotten over all that disappointment, because the movie has such a huge following around the world. It plays constantly on television around the world and on cable. It\u2019s on HBO about once a month.<\/p>\n

Kevin Costner is unhinged in that movie.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s great in that. He was really young and full of juice.<\/p>\n

Now, since \u201cMumford,\u201d you\u2019ve been laying kind of low.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a luxury of being comfortable \u2014 you can pick your spots. I took a little time off after \u201cMumford,\u201d but now I\u2019d like to not take any time off \u2014 and do something else.<\/p>\n

Our magazine did a survey last year asking readers to name the best films of all time, and both “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Empire Strikes Back,” unsurprisingly, made the top 10. Is it wrong of us to wonder why your talents weren’t utilized on more “Indiana Jones” and “Star Wars” movies?<\/p>\n

No. It couldn\u2019t be simpler. [laughs] George and Steven asked me to do the second one; I didn\u2019t want to do it. I was directing movies at that point; I was really proud of \u201cRaiders\u201d \u2014 it was an incredible movie \u2014 and I really didn\u2019t want to go back there.<\/p>\n

I had done the sequels to the \u201cStar Wars\u201d movies because George had asked me to do it. You know, I had finished \u201cRaiders,\u201d and he asked to come in and help him out with \u201cEmpire\u201d \u2014 he was in a spot. And it was great fun, and it was over relatively quickly. Then I went off and I made \u201cBody Heat\u201d \u2014 partially with the support of George \u2014 and I had a directing career that was going pretty good. He asked me to come back and just write \u201cJedi\u201d because he was really desperate at that point. We did it together, and we did it really fast; I felt like it was a job of work. But I\u2019m not a huge sequel fan, and I didn\u2019t see any reason for me to be working on the \u201cIndiana Jones\u201d series.<\/p>\n

You know, when I was hired to do \u201cRaiders,\u201d I\u2019d only been in the business a couple of weeks. Steven had actually bought \u201cContinental Divide\u201d to produce, and what he really wanted was for me to write \u201cRaiders.\u201d And he introduced me to George, and in 10 minutes George gave me the job \u2014 and I found myself working with the two hottest people of my generation. A few weeks later, we were outlining the story, and then I went away for six months and wrote it. It couldn\u2019t have been much more satisfying. But to me, that\u2019s never an excuse to do another one \u2014 you put it in the bank and you do something else.<\/p>\n

Now, you told Starlog in 1981 about your \u201cRaiders\u201d script rewrite: \u201cA little bit of my script’s logic and character development fell out along the way.\u201d What was missing? And will it show up on the Indiana Jones DVDs?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think so. [laughs] Actually, I ran into Frank Marshall over the holidays, and he\u2019s working on that [DVD] collection. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s going to be a lot of\u2026. I don\u2019t know what they have planned. They obviously made a lot of smart decisions about what should be in the movie and what shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re a beginning writer, you know, you hurt for everything that\u2019s lost. After you\u2019ve directed 10 movies, you see that you cut stuff for a reason.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not afraid to be blunt about what you perceive as flaws or things you wish hadn\u2019t been cut in your \u201cclassic\u201d films. Has time tempered this instinct, or made it stronger?<\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s tempered it \u2014 no question. You know, Akira Kurosawa, I think, is the greatest director that ever lived \u2014 he\u2019s the most important influence on me. And I saw him at the Directors Guild when he was 80 years old; they were giving him a life-achievement award. And he said, \u201cI\u2019m just beginning to understand what movies are.\u201d And it wasn\u2019t false modesty; it wasn\u2019t blowing smoke. He really meant it.<\/p>\n

And I believe that all the filmmakers in the audience understood. Because movies are mysterious; you never really master them, you know? It\u2019s a surprise every time you put two pieces of film together. Something happens that\u2019s a third thing. It\u2019s not the shot that\u2019s coming in, it\u2019s not the shot that\u2019s going out \u2014 it\u2019s what happens when you put them together.<\/p>\n

I think as you get older, you realize movies are not simple in any way, shape or form \u2014 and the decisions that are made are made for what seems like a good idea at the time. I sort of think that\u2019s what life is about: You don\u2019t make the right decision, necessarily \u2014 you make the decision that you made at that time because it seemed right.<\/p>\n

Did you enjoy participating in the Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays book?<\/p>\n

Laurent [Bouzereau], who wrote that book, is working on the DVD for \u201cDreamcatcher,\u201d and he did a great documentary about \u201cBig Chill\u201d that\u2019s on that DVD. He works full-time for Steven, pretty much. He\u2019s an amazing scholar of these current movies. When he was doing the research, I\u2019d written two of the three [\u201cStar Wars\u201d] scripts \u2014 and I couldn\u2019t remember any of the stuff he was asking me. He knows so much more about it than I do. I could never have put that book together \u2014 what was in, what was out, and what changed.<\/p>\n

I would like to speak for many film fans in thanking you for your reported efforts in encouraging Cameron Crowe to make \u201cAlmost Famous.\u201d His mother, in an interview, has said that you were one of the people really kickin\u2019 his butt to get it written.<\/p>\n

He told me about it long before he wrote it, because I always thought his personal story was so amazing. Cameron\u2019s a friend and an amazing talent. I really thought he should stop fartin\u2019 around and get it done. And he did. It\u2019s hard to write your most personal story.<\/p>\n

Was it weird to see one of your first scripts, \u201cThe Bodyguard\u201d make it to the screen so long after you wrote it \u2014 and starring an actor you helped make famous?<\/p>\n

Kevin read \u201cThe Bodyguard\u201d while we were doing \u201cSilverado\u201d in 1985 \u2014 and he was not a movie star. But he had it in his mind that he was going to play that part and he was going to become a movie star. And he did.<\/p>\n

He wanted me to direct that movie. I was just starting on \u201cGrand Canyon,\u201d which I was writing with my wife, and I was a bit burned-out on \u201cBodyguard.\u201d We had gone through several drafts \u2014 my brother had done a couple of drafts \u2014 and there were problems with the script that I thought were big and that I didn\u2019t know how to solve.<\/p>\n

nd Kevin didn\u2019t think they were problems at all [laughs] \u2014 and he turned out to be right, I think.
\nWe hired Mick Jackson to direct the movie, but I did produce it. And the script is almost exactly what I wrote in 1975. The tone is very different from what I had in mind, but the movie was so successful \u2014 and it was a total shock to me, really.<\/p>\n

You always stress the importance of story and character. Do you feel those two elements are being forgotten in today\u2019s Hollywood?<\/p>\n

I think this turned out to be a really good year in movies, surprisingly. They\u2019re always back-loaded toward the Academy Awards, so you can get very discouraged about movies during the summer, and then in December everything perks up.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a certain kind of Hollywood movie that\u2019s obviously not very good any more. What used to be the staple of \u201cpopcorn movies\u201d has been denigrated into just effects and cutting and noise. But there have always been good movies in the midst of that, you know? There are people who really love what movies can be, and they\u2019re still making good movies.<\/p>\n

Your parents were reportedly very supportive of your writing efforts. How much of a priority has it been to you return that favor to your own children?<\/p>\n

I think that\u2019s a great gift that you can give your children. I think that what my parents did was not so much specifically encourage me to write, but just that they treated it like it was a legitimate thing. I think that that\u2019s half of what we need \u2014 for someone to validate what you\u2019re doing, so you know you\u2019re not crazy.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re doing creative work, it can get very lonely, and you can think, \u201cThis is all fantasy.\u201d There\u2019s not much validation from the outside world for a long time. But if you\u2019re in an environment where people say, \u201cNo \u2014 keep at it. Keep writing. You don\u2019t have to show anything \u2014 just keep at it until you\u2019re ready to show it. And once you show it, don\u2019t give up because someone doesn\u2019t like it.\u201d Those are the things that you\u2019re hoping to give to your child.<\/p>\n

Do you think you\u2019d be writing today if your folks hadn’t been that supportive?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if I would have started if the environment at home didn\u2019t say, \u201cThis is a real thing.\u201d Because I was growing up in West Virginia, and no one there thought that movies were made \u2014 they just sort of happened: The actors sort of made up the dialogue, and it was mysterious. But I was in an environment in which it was said, \u201cThings are created out of nothing.\u201d That\u2019s very encouraging.<\/p>\n

What were your parents\u2019 occupations?<\/p>\n

My father \u2014 who had written plays in college, but was completely stymied and sort of gave up writing \u2014 ran a electronics store in West Virginia. This was back when every TV had to have an antenna on the roof, and he sold the antennas and the vacuum tubes and everything. He died when I was relatively young, so he didn\u2019t get to see much of my life. But he was a huge influence on me.<\/p>\n

You started out as an advertising copywriter.<\/p>\n

Mm. I did that out of desperation. I\u2019d gone to UCLA in the film school, but I couldn\u2019t get in the Directing program. I was accepted in the Writing program. I\u2019d been going to school at the University of Michigan, and when I got to L.A., I was very lonely and I had no money \u2014 and I didn\u2019t understand why I was in a writing program when I could write on my own.<\/p>\n

So I went back to Ann Arbor, and I worked in a record store and continued to write screenplays. And then I decided to get a Master\u2019s degree in education, thinking that I could be a high-school English teacher and write, you know, in my free time \u2014 I\u2019d have all the summers off and everything. But in the early \u201970s, there were no high-school English-teaching jobs \u2014 it was just as hard to become a high-school English teacher as it was to become a screenwriter. And so I got offered a job from someone I met in an advertising agency \u2014 and so I ended up working in advertising for about five years, but I only enjoyed it for about six months. I had about four-and-a-half years of really being unhappy \u2014 writing all day in advertising and writing all night in movies.<\/p>\n

Is it true that you vowed not to have a second child until you escaped the industry?<\/p>\n

[laughs] That\u2019s true. I was so miserable. This goes back to the idea that you want your children to see you happy in your work. My father had never been happy in his work, and it made a huge impression on me. I already had one son, and I was really happy with him and proud \u2014 but I didn\u2019t want another one while I was so miserable.<\/p>\n

How do you interface with the advertising people in the movie business \u2014 from a position of sympathy or rebellion?<\/p>\n

Sympathy. You know, advertising and promotion and money and hype, they\u2019ve all become more and more important. You can sell almost anything if the concept is not deeply flawed. Enough money and promotion can get anything opened. You can\u2019t necessarily get a second weekend out of it, but if you start big enough on your first weekend, you\u2019re going to do all right.<\/p>\n

When I made \u201cThe Big Chill,\u201d it didn\u2019t open to that much money, and we weren\u2019t in that many theaters. But it played for six months. And you can\u2019t do that now.<\/p>\n

The general public now watches opening-weekend box-office statistics like it was a sporting event.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s awful, really \u2014 because that becomes the only standard by which people decide what they\u2019re going to do. They want to see what everybody at the office is seeing. It\u2019s unfortunate, because it narrows the kinds of movies that can be widely seen.<\/p>\n

There was this brief period in the late-\u201880s\/early-\u201890s \u2014 specifically, with \u201cThe Big Chill\u201d and \u201cGrand Canyon\u201d \u2014 where you sort of became regarded in the media as the director laureate of boomer angst.<\/p>\n

I always thought it was a bit of a misidentification. In the last 20 years, there\u2019s been a slight prejudice against the middle class in Hollywood movies. And those movies were not really about boomers \u2014 they happened to be about middle-class people of a certain age. \u201cGrand Canyon\u201d is actually full of all kinds of characters \u2014 some of them are \u201cbaby boomers\u201d and some of them aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t bother me that much, because when \u201cThe Big Chill\u201d was such an enormous success, it was validation to me of the idea that you could write a personal story and have it be entertaining enough to play all over the world. Young kids identified with it and people who\u2019d been in college in the \u201950s identified with it. And that\u2019s all you really want to do as an artist \u2014 just speak to people in a relevant way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The Bigger Chill By Mike Russell So get this: Lawrence Kasdan \u2014 the writer-director behind \u201cThe Big Chill,\u201d \u201cGrand Canyon,\u201d and \u201cThe Accidental Tourist\u201d \u2014 always wanted to helm an action movie. You know, with special effects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":29488,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-29566","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29566"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39956,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29566\/revisions\/39956"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}