WORLD WAR Z is easily the best time I’ve had at the movies so far this summer. Yes, I’ve heard all the stories about the huge production going over budget and all the reshoots and multiple script doctors, but for me, none of that was evident in the finished product.
Not being a fan at all of the zombie genre that has become so popular of late, I saw this more as a “global disaster” movie that had huge portions of the population affectedand infected by a worldwide pandemic.
Brad Pitt is Gerry Lane, a former UN field investigator that now enjoys life as a family man with his wife (Mireille Enos) and daughters. In a hot second he goes from that tranquility to having to save his family and basically the rest of the world from marauding zombies. The infected folks are quite frightening as they move with great speed and accuracy attacking the healthy.
As his family is temporarily holed up in the safety of an aircraft carrier, Gerry is persuaded into resuming his old job and heads out in search of a solution, as city after city is overrun with chaos and destruction. He first goes to a North Korean military prison under siege, where he meets a corrupt and recently imprisoned CIA agent (David Morse) who may or may not be deranged.
From behind bars, he tells Gerry an outrageous and possibly true tale of his own first encounter with the virus and the way one nation, Israel, chose to combat it.
He then travels to Israel where the famous walls of Jerusalem are one of the last things keeping the undead at bay. This doesn’t last long, in a spectacular sequence where the unstoppable mass of zombies eventually makes it over the walls, but not before Gerry gets a few pieces of the puzzle he needs to stop it.
This is also where we meet Segen (Daniella Kertesz), a tough as nails IDF soldier that becomes Gerry’s right-hand (literally) partner in zombie ass-kicking.
Once at the World Health Organization’s research facility in Wales where the cure for this crazy pandemic may be found, the action slows very effectively to a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat thriller that has Gerry and crew having to make it past the last of the infected staff to get to the room which contains the possible ingredients for a vaccine.
In keeping with its PG-13 rating, WORLD WAR Z isn’t overly graphic or gory, and doesn’t need to be. Some of the most frightening moments come from the sheer panic and fear at not being able to stop the impending disaster. The CGI sequences that have hordes of zombies scaling walls and leaping at helicopters mid-flight are very effective and downright cool. The score by Marco Beltrami is close to perfect, utilizing non-traditional instruments such as animal skulls and their clacking teeth to up the anxiety level.
Pitt is great as Gerry Lane. He’s not your typical hero. He can’t fly, he can’t beat up bad guys… he has no super-powers. He’s just a Dad, with a burning need to keep his family safe. Mireille Enos plays his wife Karen and she holds her own matched with Pitt as a Mom who must rise to the occasion of keeping her kids safe when Gerry leaves.
The supporting cast comprised of Fana Mokoena, Ludi Boeken, Fabrizio Zacharee Guido, James Badge Dale, and Matthew Fox (tv’s LOST) gives WORLD WAR Z a realistic global feel.
Of course, the most critical part of the film is the zombies themselves. These zombies, who have no intellect since they are walking dead, react in this swarm mentality and race around in a hysterical pitch. In WORLD WAR Z, the zombies are their most dangerous when tearing through the cities, but director Marc Forster’s film is at its best when he gives us horrific glimpses of the zombies when they are dormant.
When they are not provoked, they are stagnant, slow and wandering. When the feeding frenzy starts, they sense that there’s something to attack and they will just go for it. The film establishes very early, that the zombies are drawn to sound.
To create the zombie legion, the filmmakers turned to a combination of effects and artists – dancers, stunt people, prosthetics, make-up, CGI and carefully choreographed camera moves. This effectively translates to the screen through the work of cinematographer Ben Seresin, production designer Nigel Phelps, editors Roger Barton & Matt Chessé, visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar, choreographer Alexandra Reynolds, animation director Andy Jones and costume designer Mayes Rubeo.
The final result is an insect-y, jaw-driven creature.
Make no doubt. WORLD WAR Z is full-scale zombie pandemonium, but Forster also gives us moments that are intimate and human set against this massive apocalyptic crisis.
In the end, the film is a non-stop, scary action thriller, that is also really fun!
5 out of 5 stars
WORLD WAR Z is in theaters today!
Read my interview with the film’s composer, Marco Beltrami, HERE.
PG-13 for intense frightening zombie sequences, violence and disturbing images
If you’ve ever felt different, MONSTERS UNIVERSITY is the college for you!
Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) has dreamed of becoming a “scarer” since he was a little pupil. (Ha… see what I did there? Eh? Ehhhh?). Since the best “scarers” come from Monsters University, that is the only school for him, and nothing was going to stop him… that is, until he met James P. Sullivan, or “Sulley” (John Goodman), a natural “scarer” with a family history in the career. Now, it’s a fight of brains vs. natural, raw talent as the two compete to keep their spot in their “scare” school. Can Mike learn all he needs to know about scaring from books and hard work? Does Sulley have enough natural talent to make up for his lack of studying?
I really enjoyed the writing and humor of this film. I think Disney•Pixar was smart to do a prequel, and show us how Mike and Sulley first met. This film is not as heart-heavy as most Pixar flicks, but that isn’t a bad thing, in my opinion. It was kind of refreshing to sit through one of their films without bursting into tears. The story, instead, focuses on the pair’s relationship, and the friendships they made through the pivotal “self discovery” years known as college. On top of that, MONSTERS UNIVERSITY keeps things in perspective for young audience members. Mike and Sulley did not get along when they first met, but they managed to put their differences aside and work towards a common goal as a team. They also hide a few “when life hands you lemons” scenarios in there. They acknowledge that things don’t always work out according to plan, but with hard work, you can achieve anything. It’s a much better message to convey to audiences compared to the “everything will work out in the end” fluff stories that most films continue to shove down our necks. I honestly admire this new angle by Pixar. Did they stray from their formula a bit? Yes. Do I think the risk paid off? You bet! This film is funny! The little jokes and puns had me laughing throughout the film.
Billy Crystal and John Goodman know what they are doing when it comes to voicing these beloved characters. Over ten years has gone by, and the two still have a tremendous amount of chemistry. Randy, voiced by Steve Buscemi makes a comeback, but the cast is rounded out by mostly new faces. Helen Mirren, Joel Murray, Sean Hayes, Dave Foley, Peter Sohn, Bobby Moynihan and Nathan Fillion round out this incredible cast. The stand out, for me, is the new character Art, voiced by Charlie Day. He’s a great comic relief for the film, and embodies that one weird, art hippy that is in every college class. We all had one! College wouldn’t be the same without them. Heck, most of the characters in this film are less than popular, which makes them even more enjoyable. The characters tie in well to the “not fitting in” and “finding yourself” experiences that we all go through during those college years. Let’s face it, we can’t all be popular! I was far from it! Maybe that’s why I’m such a sucker for a good “underdog” story… Hmm.
From the visual appearance of Sulley and Mike, to the details of their beloved college campus, Pixar continues to set the bar for animation. The amount of attention they give to the design and look of a film is unsurpassed by any other animation studio. When they first released MONSTERS INC. in 2001, audiences were blown away by the way they animated fur and hair. It’s mind-blowing to see how much they have already improved on those skills. I had to continually remind myself to admire the animation because it was so easy to get lost in. They are masters of their craft, and this film is no exception.
Disney•Pixar has done it again! MONSTERS UNIVERSITY is a fun film for any age.
So what do you after you direct the third biggest box-office grosser of all time? Well you make your own cinematic take on a centuries old Shakespeare romantic farce. In modern dress. And shoot it in black and white. In your own home. Over twelve days. That’s what the man behind last Summer’s blockbuster behemoth MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS, Joss Whedon, has done with MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Over the last few years I ‘ve read interviews with Whedon and several of his cohorts who spoke of leisurely Sunday brunches at his home which would conclude the reading of a Shakespeare playing while enjoying fine wines. Finally Whedon thought the time was right to commit one to film and so he has assembled (kinda’ like those superheroes) actors from all facets of the “Whedon-verse”: TV shows (“Buffy, the Vampire Slayer”,”Angel”,”Firefly”,”Dollhouse”), internet series (“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog”), and feature films (SERENITY, CABIN IN THE WOODS, MARVEL”S THE AVENGERS). But can he bring the same movie magic he brought to the works of Stan Lee (and Jack Kirby, etc.) and make the words of the great bard come alive for modern moviegoers?
MUCH ADO mostly concerns itself with one long weekend at the opulent estate of Leonato (Clark Gregg). A group of soldiers (hmmm, they’re dressed in black packing shoulder holsters-are they FBI, CIA, or, perhaps, SHIELD?) along with three prisoners led by the nefarious Don John (Sean Maher) have come to relax over said weekend. One of the young men, Claudio (Fran Kanz) is immediately smitten with Leonato’s beautiful young daughter Hero (Jillian Morgese). A wedding for the two is quickly planned. But, it turns out that Hero’s cousin Beatrice (Amy Acker) had a past romantic fling with Claudio’s superior Benedick (Alexis Denisof). Their split was not amicable and has left Beatrice bitter and Benedick a boastful avowed bachelor. Over the next two days Don John and his aides plot to break up the nuptials while the others conspire to bring the former lovers back together. After much partying and many misunderstandings will love prevail and (as Will S. used to say) “all’s well that ends well”?
The cast appears to be having a wonderful time reciting the classic dialogue. Being a big fan of the “Angel” TV show I was delighted with the pairing of Denisof and Acker as the reunited lovers (their tragic TV love affair as Wesley and Fred was one of Whedon’s greatest series moments). The two relish lobbing insults at each other, but when they hear through friends that the other may still be infatuated, these two transform into energetic and agile slapstick clowns. Speaking of clowns. leading man Nathan Fillion (currently TV’s “Castle”) steals every scene as the pompous buffoonish head of security Dogberry with Tom Lenk as his sycophant sidekick Verges. They’re a superb comedy duo. Gregg also score laughs as the easily distracted master of the house while Maher exudes sinister menace as the mastermind determined to cause havoc. The Whedon vets really pull this film together.
But the guy that really keeps things moving is Mr. Whedon himself. He stages the proceedings naturally with his camera almost a fly on the wall. Joss comes from a long line of media writers (Dad and Grandpa’ wrote for radio, TV, and iconic stand-up comics) and has directed feature films from his own scripts. But here Whedon is serving one of the all-time greatest writers and respects the material while giving it a modern sensibility. Filming in his own diggs gives the audience a little chance to indulge in “architectural porn” and wonder about this real abode (did he get this with “Buffy” money or “Marvel” Money?). But this never distracts from the charms of this tale. Midway through a Summer filled with constant 3D explosions, it’s nice to sit back and watch these talented actor really exercise their craft. A wonderful respite. Thanks Mr.W! Now, about that “super-team’….
CRYSTAL FAIRY & THE MAGIC CACTUS AND 2012, which won this year’s Sundance Festival Directing award, was premiered on June 15th at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Before the films premiere, I had the chance to sit down with filmmaker Sebastian Silva and star Michael Cera in a roundtable discussion about filming this entertaining drug-fueled adventure. The film was almost entirely improvised and shot in 12 days in Chile while Silva was waiting for production to start on another movie.
Jamie (Cera) is a boorish, insensitive American Twenty-something traveling in Chile, who somehow manages to create chaos at every turn. He and his friends are planning on taking a road trip north to experience a legendary shamanistic hallucinogen called the San Pedro cactus. In a fit of drunkenness at a wild party, Jamie invites an eccentric woman—a radical spirit named Crystal Fairy (Hoffmann)—to come along. What is meant to be a devil-may-care journey becomes a battle of wills as Jamie finds himself locking horns with his new traveling companion. But on a remote, pristine beach at the edge of the desert, the magic brew is finally imbibed, and the true adventure begins. Preconceived notions and judgments fall away, and the ragtag group breaks through an authentic moment of truth.
It was very exciting to learn that Chilean cocaine is not great cocaine. [laughs]
CERA: Now you don’t have to try it.
Thank you very much for enlightening –
SILVA: [joking] I can hook you up with good cocaine. [laughs]
How did this project come to you Michael? This is out of the realm of what we’d normally expect to see from you.
CERA: I guess I kind of sought Sebastian out, actually, after seeing THE MAID. We met out here. We kept in touch over the next year or two. We were going to do this other project together, which I had gone down to Santiago for. We were just waiting around for funding for that to come in. After a little while it, kind of, felt like we were not going to be able to make it – we might not get the money for it. So, I went home, and a few months later Sebastian called me and said “Hey come back and we’ll go make this thing in two weeks, with like no crew, and no script. We’ll just make a movie so that we can work together on something.”
In the desert, on the beach… sun shining…
CERA: Yeah. He told me the whole story and it just sounded like a great adventure.
In what way has this experience expanded your understanding of the Hispanic world?
CERA: Well, I learned Spanish while preparing for this other movie. I only really learned about Chilean culture. My Spanish vocabulary is totally useless in any other country. [laughs] Almost, even in Chile. My vocabulary is so specific to his (Silva’s) family.
SILVA: Yeah. People from the next block over would not understand you. [laughs]
CERA: It’s really limiting.
Sebastian, where did this story come from? It’s so fascinating – and then you cast your brothers. You direct your brothers.
SILVA: It’s based on a true story. Twelve years ago I went with my best friend to – we were planning on going to the desert to take mescaline – to that specific national park that they end up going to (in the film). I was at this concert – The Wailers – and I bumped into Crystal Fairy, this woman from San Francisco with hairy armpits and – went by the name Crystal Fairy. We became instant friends, and we were really high [laughs] and then, yeah, I invited her to join us to this trip to the desert, and then I, sort of, regret that I had invited her so we took off without her. Then she was waiting for us, in that square. She got robbed by a gypsy, and then we had to adopt a fairy. [laughs] We went down with her to this national park, and took the San Pedro, and we went to the little town… everything is based on a true story. The only fictional part, I guess, is the confrontational aspects of the relationship. I was actually a fairy myself, so we got along just right – with Crystal. We were never fighting, or never really judging her as much as Jamie does in the movie. But, yeah. Its based on a true story.
How it came to happen is we were waiting to make MAGIC MAGIC, a bigger, more planned out movie, and finance fell through. We just had to wait more. Michael was there, staying with my family, and I had this story that was on my computer desktop for ages. Since it happened, I thought it was a good story of, like, the birth of compassion. I feel like that’s the core of this story, for me, is what happens to Jamie and how he comes to terms with accepting, and being compassionate towards Crystal Fairy. I thought that that story was beautiful, and worth sharing.
Does the real Crystal Fairy know that there’s a movie about her?
SILVA: I hope she does. She’s in San Francisco. We went to the San Francisco Film Festival, and we put a shout out – “Crystal Fairy, where are you? Fly to us!”.
You’d think with social media today you’d be able to find her…
SILVA: I mean, not really. If you Google “Crystal Fairy” [laughs] fairies made out of crystal pop up. It’s not her.
CERA: It’s a dead end. Don’t Google “Crystal Fairy”. [laughs]
You talked about not really having a script for dialogue with this. How did you approach your scenes?
CERA: Well, everything was really broken down. All of the beats, all of the dynamics in every scene, and what we were talking about were all in the outline that Sebastian made. Basically, it was never just inventing something on the spot, or like “What do we talk about?”. It was more “How do we express these ideas?”, which is pretty natural, I think. If it wasn’t totally comfortable conversationally, that was ok because we were all in such a strange circumstance, and there’s this incompatibility happening. That fed into it actually.
What were your takeaways from the experience on a production level? What did you learn, or walk away with? Also, from the experience of being in Chile, and getting a sense of that culture?
CERA: Well, I mean, doing a movie this way is, really, unlike anything. We shot in two weeks, and we were all sleeping on top of each other in bunk beds, and eating bread and cheese – for two weeks. It was fun, from a production standpoint. Also, you’re living the work. We’re traveling around, and shooting, and thinking about it, and having fun. It’s totally immersive, which is a nice way to work unless you have a problem with that, which nobody, I think, did. I was very excited by that.
Just being an alien is really humbling – being somewhere where you are completely out of your comfort zone, and speaking a new language where you are not fully in control of how you are projecting yourself. You’re just really basic. You try to convey humor, but you’re really not in control, and you, kind of, are a child. That’s a nice experience to have, I think.
What’s the craziest thing you guys saw, or did while you were in Chile?
SILVA: Shooting?
CERA: I got mugged.
SILVA: The lady we stole the cactus from. She lived in that house, and –
CERA: – that is her life –
SILVA: Yeah. That is her life. How she holds a teddy bear… that’s how she lives, and that’s how she speaks.
… and you got mugged?
CERA: I got mugged. Not when we were working, but when I was in Santiago, I got mugged.
How did that go down?
CERA: There had been a big soccer game that Chile had won, so there was pandemonium in the streets, and hooligans, you know? It was about 1 am, and I was walking in Providencia. I guess you’re not really suppose to walk home alone in Providencia at one in the morning. I had never had a problem with it. I was told that afterwards, when I told people the story. They were like “Why were you there?”. I was taking pictures of dogs in the street with a disposable camera [laughs] which I had started a collection of, because there were a lot of dogs on the streets. Millions of dogs…
SILVA: … stray dogs…
CERA: … on the streets. So, I had a major target sign on me, and I’m wearing a coat with deep pockets with my iPod, and, like, my birth certificate. [laughs] There was this group of seven people – I don’t even think they were thieves. I think they were just out drunk, and like “Why not mug this guy?” They were with a woman, a young woman, and I guess she was “a distraction”. She came up and was in my face, dancing, and going “Chi-Chi-Chi-Le-Le-Le” [laughs]. It’s, like, a soccer chant. The next thing I knew, before I even registered that, there was this circle of guys around me. They were reaching into my pockets, and I was like “I’m really about to get hurt by these people.”. I really thought “There’s nothing I can do. There’s nobody around. I’m such a victim.” [laughing] I just reacted, and went “No! No! No!” and swatted them away. They all turned away, and got really nervous about that, and one guy went “Tranquilo. Chill out.” [laughs], and I was like “Yeah, cool.” and I walked away. He started walking with me and talking very casually, like “Why are you in Santiago?” like it didn’t happen. Like, “Hey, what’s up?”. My defense mechanism was to just meet him on his level. I was just like “Yeah, I’m just here for a while, and just hanging out.”. Then, he goes “You got the time?”, and I took out my cell phone, which was Sebastian’s mothers old phone – from 10 years ago. I took it out, and go “1:15” and, really exaggerated, he grabs the phone, and that was it. It was a very fortunate mugging. There was not even a threat of violence.
SILVA: It was not even your phone.
CERA: … not even my phone… Although, I did feel really angry afterwards. Just the schoolyard aspect of it… like I could have just gone and told on him, or something. It’s just not fair.
So Michael, did you do all of your own cactus splintering and peeling?
CERA: No. I did not get a feel for it. It’s tricky business. [laughs]
How much research did you do to the drug-trip side of this story?
CERA: I went on this website I actually have a friend – I think everybody has a friend that we grew up with that gets pretty heavily into drugs, and is very academic about it. [laughs] It’s their thing. It’s their – It’s almost like trading cards. They just do them so they can have a collection of experiences. So, I kinda knew that guy. And, there’s this website, Erowid, (www.erowid.org). It’s like a forum where people go on and talk about their experiences with every single drug. I just did a lot of reading on there, just to get the terminology and stuff. Like “the onset is 120 minutes”. That’s how people talk on there.
SILVA: … instead of two hours, it’s 120 minutes.
CERA: … just because. You could say two hours. [laughs]
You’ve been trying on a lot of different creative hats, like you said you sought out him (Silva) for this film, and you worked in the writers room on “Arrested Development” – what has that experience been like, stretching outside of the acting job and trying on these different roles?
CERA: It’s just various opportunities. I think it was really lucky to meet, and work with Sebastian, and get to go into new worlds with him. With the writing on “Arrested”, that was just a nice opportunity – to be invited to do that. You know, right time… at the… right place. [laughs] A spin on how to say that.
CRYSTAL FAIRY & THE MAGIC CACTUS AND 2012 will be released in theaters on July 11
Helena Bonham Carterhas been cast as the fairy godmother in Disney’s upcoming live-action feature CINDERELLA, directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh (THOR).
Carter and Branagh co-starred alongside Robert De Niro in the 1994 version of FRANKENSTEIN.
Branagh is currently helming Paramount Pictures’ JACK RYAN prequel due in theaters this Christmas.
Disney previously announced the casting of Cate Blanchett as the wicked stepmother, Lily James as Cinderella and Richard Madden as the prince. The film is scheduled for a 2014 theatrical release.
On Wednesday (June 19), I had the great pleasure of talking to Marco Beltrami, composer of WORLD WAR Z. It was really a thrill for me to speak to him because I am such a fan of composers and film scores.
A prolific, Italian-born film composer who had his start with the teen horror franchise “Scream,” Beltrami was raised in the U.S. and underwent intensive musical training both abroad and at Yale University, composing music for symphonies and dance ensembles before entering the world of film and television scoring with projects like “Hellboy” (2004) and blockbuster sequels such as “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” (2003).
Outside of his genre work, Beltrami held that contemporary film music should include a variety of musical styles and instruments, which he put to use with his critically acclaimed work on the Scandinavian film “I am Dina” (2002) before returning to mainstream films with his traditional sweeping music for “3:10 to Yuma” (2007). After writing the scores for the long-awaited sequel “Live Free or Die Hard” (2007) and the comic book actioner “Max Payne” (2008), he penned the Oscar-nominated music for “The Hurt Locker” (2009), which propelled him onto the upper tier of Hollywood composers.
During our conversation, Beltrami and I discussed how he was brought onto the film by Brad Pitt and Marc Forster, his collaboration with the star and director, the unique percussion instruments used for the movie and how he was influenced by the great Jerry Goldsmith.
Marco Beltrami, WWZ, Abbey Road, London April 2013
WAMG: So I saw the movie on Monday night, and loved it. And the score was fantastic!
MB: Yeah I actually just saw it last night. I wasn’t able to go to the dub in London, so I wasn’t sure how it all fit together, so it was a nice surprise.
WAMG: What drew you to this project, initially?
MB: Well, I read the script. I went in and had a meeting with Marc, the director, when we started…this was about a year and a half or so, two years ago. And I was just blown away by – they showed me some of the footage – by what a unique take it was on the whole zombie thing. The whole notion of them being like a force of nature, and how they swarm and all that, and I thought it would have neat music applications and I just thought it would be a blast to work on.
WAMG: Now is that sort of your basic approach when you’re doing a project or a film, that you read the script first and get ideas, or do you have ideas in your head already?
MB: Well, the script is good, to know what the story is. You can usually tell from the script if it’s gonna be problematic or not. But you really can’t put musical ideas together from a script. It really is deceiving and you need to see some of the footage or you need to see the movie. I have, in the past, worked on ideas just from scripts and I’ve always been wrong with what I…yeah it was important to see. I mean reading the script was really intense, but it was really important to see the thing.
WAMG: And would that be the same approach to something, say like, Wolverine?
MB: Yeah Wolverine, I didn’t even get the script. (James) Mangold asked me about doing it before he even shot it. We had done another movie, 3:10 to Yuma together so I knew what an amazing director he is, so I didn’t hesitate at all. And just knowing a little bit about the project, I thought it would be really cool, which it is.
(c) 2013 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
WAMG: Now getting back to WWZ, some tracks like “They hear the singing” and “They’re coming over the top”…how did you decide what that should sound like, to create that sense of utter panic and anxiety?
MB: It’s there in the picture, the way its cut and shot and edited…so I was just enhancing what was already there. Like the notion that these zombies are imminently threatening the safety of the enclosure there. One of the things, score-wise, that I thought was important was being able to have a lot of quick, off-beat, odd-metered rhythms, because that type of stuff seems to provide a real unsettling feeling in the audience when they are watching it because it’s something you have a hard time grasping on to.
WAMG: Oh it was absolutely unsettling! You mentioned meeting with director Marc Forster – what was the extent of the collaboration process with him and Brad Pitt – I mean did everyone want to have their input with you or did they just leave you alone and say do your thing?
MB: It started out working with Marc when I came on, and my idea with him was that I really wanted to try experimenting. The first time I saw the movie – it’s not in it now – after the Philadelphia sequence, the picture cuts to black and you hear the emergency broadcast system tone and I thought that would be a really neat place to start, musically, for a basic idea for the score. And also, another big story point in the film was the way these things propagate, through biting, and so there’s the sound of teeth.
So I began to experiment with that and Marc was very encouraging, he came up to the studio with his editor Matt (Chesse) and listened to some ideas that we were putting together and playing around with and they were extremely encouraging and it was a great process. And then the film shut down for a little bit because they went to (re)shoot the whole last third of the movie – I think it may have been a little on the dark side. I think they wanted to make it more of a family film.
(c) 2013 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
After that I worked closely with (President of Motion Picture Music) Randy Spendlove at Paramount and they had music editor John Finklea who was really instrumental in sort of leading the charge on how to…I mean there’s a lot of different factions, there’s the studio, and Brad Pitt’s company…so Brad actually came to the studio and I played him some stuff and he had some really helpful comments about keeping it experimental, but then also balancing that with the notion that it’s a big epic movie and “we have to keep this in the world of summer blockbuster” type of thing.
You know we ended up…in the end what we did was we recorded over in London and we actually had a large orchestra recording some of the big epic stuff at Abbey Road and at the same time had a smaller group at British Grove studios in London and there we recorded more of the chamber, intimate, gritty, rosin-on-the-bow type of stuff, which was unique. I don’t know of any other scores that have done that and the mixers were able to blend it all together and create something that was, that satisfied everyone.
WAMG: I read that you used non-traditional percussive instruments, like animal skulls, and teeth. Was that a first for you? Had you done that before?
MB: Never with the animal skulls. We found that there are these feral pigs in…I’m not sure where they’re native to, maybe Texas, called javelina, and they have big jaws. So we got some skulls and miked them up. Then I have a friend of mine who is a hunter and he gave me a lion skull, and we had some raccoon skulls – yeah it looked like a taxidermist. We just played around with that and it became elements that we later used as percussion elements and you can hear that stuff in the score. We experimented in the studio and then we recorded everything when we went to London. You can hear in the score, in a few different places, these sounds. Sometimes it’s covered up by orchestral percussion and all, but sometimes it stands out and I think it helps add to the tension.
WAMG: You’ve done so many different types of films, from action and sci-fi to dramas and thrillers. Do you have a favorite genre that you like to compose for?
MB: No, not really. To me, if I find the material inspiring then I come up with stuff. I found that the only thing that I think I’m not that good at is romantic comedy, I don’t know, maybe I just take myself too seriously. You know I think it’s because a lot of that stuff becomes like you’re playing musical sound effects, like musical gags type of thing and I tend to like to write longer lines, I think maybe that’s why. Stylistically they all present different challenges and I think that’s part of the real fun of being a film composer is that you’re constantly putting on different hats and working in different areas.
WAMG: Speaking of composers, I also read that among the many places you studied, you studied at USC under Jerry Goldsmith. What was that like, and what did you take away from that?
MB: That was when I first moved here and that’s why I moved here, why I came out here to learn about film scoring and I had the opportunity to study with him at USC. And you know what was really amazing working with him was that I had come from a world that sort of embraced…the concert music world really embraces complexity and sometimes it almost hides behind that, taking ideas that are not only hard to play, but also sometimes hard to appreciate. When I met Jerry, it was a complete contrast because he really focused on simplicity, on being as succinct as possible, on making things as simple and easy for the players as possible. The music in a film should all come from a simple idea and from there should blossom out and that is what has really stuck with me over the years, and I think it was a very valuable experience.
WAMG: Thanks to Marco Beltrami for taking the time to talk to us!
Here’s a look at the WORLD WAR Z recording session at Abbey Road, London – April 2013.
Shakespeare’s classic comedy is given a contemporary spin in Joss Whedon’s film, “Much Ado About Nothing”. Shot in just 12 days (and using the original text), the story of sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick offers a dark, sexy and occasionally absurd view of the intricate game that is love.
Joss Whedon, along with stars Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion, and Clark Gregg sat down recently at an LA press conference to talk about the film, as well as their experiences in the Whedonverse. I was there, and I must say that things got pretty silly, as you can expect. It was, by far, the best (and most entertaining) press conference that I’ve attended to date. Check it out below.
Joss, this is absolutely beautiful in black and white. What considerations did you and D.P. Jay Hunter have in doing this in black and white, and why types of challenges did it present to you – shooting the beautiful palette and tonal bandwidth that you have?
WHEDON: Well, black and white was my contribution. Beautiful was Jay’s. I felt very strongly that it if fit the narrative. It’s a noir comedy. The dramatic and the comedic elements are very much a mix, and that it had an old-fashioned feel to it that I wanted to capture. And I couldn’t afford costumes, so it seemed like black and white was the way to go. And then, Jay was very influenced by French and Italian new wave cinema, and also the older stuff. So, even though it was a very light lighting package, he made sure he used the sun and what little we had to give it that old-fashioned kind of glamour, besides the fact that it makes everything pretty and takes away a lot of problems. Anything that doesn’t fit the palette, you don’t know about it. If someone shows up in an aquamarine dress in the background and you didn’t see it in time, it’s fine. You’ll never know. It gives the movie a little bit of a remove. It’s very casual and it’s very intimate, but at the same time, it’s film. That allows for the language to settle in, in a way that, if it had just looked like a home movie, it wouldn’t have.
You shot this before the monochrome came out, correct?
WHEDON: Yes. We shot in color. We just turned the color off on the monitors.
Mr. Whedon, of all of Shakespeare’s plays that you could have chosen, what attracted you to this one.? Also, for the actors, you’ve all worked with Mr. Whedon before. In some way his work is very Shakespearian – his words. Could you compare working on his projects, with his words to working with the words of Shakespeare?
WHEDON: [To cast] I see a lot of opportunities for you guys to piss me off. [laughs] I love Much Ado. It’s hilarious and it’s accessible, but it’s also very dark and it has a lot to say about love, not all of it good, and how we behave. It poses a lot of interesting questions. It doesn’t resolve all of them, even though it has a happy ending. It’s this open debate about the way we behave and the way we’re expected to. It’s fascinating to me. But, the short answer is [Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker]. That’s why I wanted to do it.
FILLION: I don’t want to say that Joss Whedon is the Shakespeare of our generation. It’s true, but I don’t want to say it.
DENISOF: I’ve been saying that Shakespeare is the Joss Whedon of his generation. [laughs] I’m trying to let people know. They’re confused on that point.
FILLION: I think there’s a real poetry to Joss’ words. In the same way that you do not paraphrase Shakespeare, you do not paraphrase Joss Whedon.
WHEDON: I’m just gonna sit here. [laughs]
ACKER: Also, what Joss was just saying about this play has that perfect blend of comedy and tragedy, and Joss does that so well. That’s what makes being in his stuff so much fun, as an actor. He’s not afraid to take it in different places that you don’t expect it to go.
DENISOF: In the same way that Shakespeare was writing very much for his time, he was also unearthing observations that would last for generations beyond him. I hope I’m here to see that happen with Joss’ work. It’s true that he has got his finger on the contemporary pulse of American youth, but his finger is going a lot deeper than that. [laughs]
WHEDON: That is the one that’s gonna get quoted!
What was your gateway drug into Shakespeare, the particular time in your life, and that drew you in?
WHEDON: There are a couple of specific moments for me. Much Ado really was the gateway drug. I saw a beautiful production at the Open Air Theatre at Regent’s Park in London. They just nailed it, and it was hilarious. I was stunned by not just how funny, but also how contemporary and accessible it was. I had read Shakespeare and I was interested in Shakespeare, but it had never just opened itself to me, in that way. In that moment when Benedick says, “This can be no trick!,” with such authority, after the most obvious trick that’s ever been played, I was just like, “Really?! Shakespeare will do that? He’ll go that far?!” Something just clicked. I saw that production three times. Also, there was the Derek Jacobi Hamlet on the BBC. He is the Hamlet by which they’re all compared, for me.
GREGG: Much Ado was my gateway to the whole thing, the whole shebang. I was playing soccer at a small school in Ohio. I was a goalie and I dislocated my thumb, and they banned me from practice. I was walking past the theater and I saw some very attractive students walking in. [laughs] I followed them, and there was an audition for Much Ado About Nothing. They fool-heartedly gave me the role of Benedick, and I delivered them a legendary Christmas ham. [laugh] But I was hooked, so I immediately dropped out of that school and moved to New York, just ‘cause I loved it so much.
Joss, how difficult was it to make a film as huge as The Avengers, and then switch gears and do such a small film as Much Ado? Coming off of THE AVENGERS and everything that came with it, and then coming back to something so straight forward as this, did you ever have to hit reset on the brain?
WHEDON: It’s all the same job. It’s about, “Why is everybody here? What is the most emotionality and the most humor I can get out of this moment?” You’re in the moment you’re in, and then you’re in the next one. Trying to adapt Shakespeare is certainly as daunting as trying to make a superhero movie, but for different reasons. But for me, the level at which things are working doesn’t matter. It’s only about right now and, “Is this the most I can get out of this?” There isn’t really a difference. Although god knows it was lovely doing this after The Avengers, just because it was all so compressed. We accomplished so much, so quickly that you were fed back. It wasn’t like, “Oh, I’ll spend three weeks on one-third of a shot, and then give it to a house for six months, who will send it back complete.” With this, it was like “BOOM”, and we just did it. It was like theater.
Nathan, last summer at the LA Times Hero Complex Film Festival you talked to the crowd about how scared you were to do this. You had asked Joss if there was someone else who could replace you. I was wondering if you could elaborate on that. Why the fears, what did it take you to get over them, and did rest of you had any of those types of fears?
FILLION: I was afraid to do this project for much the same reason that I’m afraid to watch Shakespeare, which is that I will not understand it. That was stopping me from literally learning my lines. I didn’t understand what I was saying, until I sat down and studied, like back in school, what was being said, and what the pictures were that he was painting, was I able to comprehend what I was supposed to be doing. In much the same way as when I watch Shakespeare being done well – I’m gesturing to these people down here – I got it. It’s so easy. I get it. [laughs]
WHEDON: – and I have my finger deep in the youth of America. [laughs]
DENISOF: The pulse.
Why do you think Shakespeare is or should be relevant to today’s audiences?
WHEDON: The stuff he’s talking about is universal. I relate to it, as much as anything I’ve ever seen or read. The poetry of the thing is extraordinary, and it’s lovely to be able to interpret through that. What we’re talking about is love, identity, jealousy, pain and all the things that we still need to talk about. And, you know, Amy [Acker] falling down the stairs, so it’s a win-win.
What was your rehearsal process like for this?
ACKER: Some of us more than others.
GREGG: I came in a bit late. They had these Shakespeare brunches that I heard about. I came in quite late because of an issue with my schedule that then beautifully cleared up. I don’t know. I was quite daunted by the process. I had remembered, in that production that I was in, that this was not a big part, but I was wrong. I had a lot of lines to learn quickly. At the same time, it felt perfect to me, that way. If I had had time to think about it, I probably would have over-thought it. There was something about the way things were just getting out of control for poor Leonato that really was served by just standing there. I also felt that the words are so magnificent. Not just because they’re pretty, because that misses the point, but they’re so active. You say them, and stuff starts to happen. I wasn’t really prepared for any of that, or where it was going. In film, a lot of people don’t want to rehearse too much. I wouldn’t have normally approached Shakespeare that way, even in a film, but I’m really glad it worked out that way.
DENISOF: The last thing Joss said to me when he proposed this crazy idea was, “You’d better know your lines.” That seems like simple advice, but it was fantastic advice. Looking back on it, I wouldn’t have wanted to waste any takes on not knowing my lines because we didn’t have very many takes. And he afforded us the opportunity to play these scenes from the beginning to the end, all in one take, which is such a rare treat on film. Anyone will tell you that you shoot a master, maybe, but who uses it? It gets chopped up with various angles and close-ups. The rehearsal process was about getting together in the same place, at the same time, for long enough to make it worthwhile. If you could get two people, then there was a rehearsal. If Joss could be there, great. If he couldn’t, he would give you permission to carry on the process, and then he would meet with you, individually. And then, there was a lot of stuff being worked out on the fly, right before shooting it. But, it’s his home and he had a vision of what he wanted to achieve. We all have complete trust in him. You could try something out, knowing that if it didn’t work, Joss would fix it.
WHEDON: And publicly humiliate you.
Was it more difficult to use an American accent reading Shakespearian English, and not falling back into a pseudo British accent –
DENISOF: Who has one of THOSE, may I ask? [laughs]
FILLION: Ridiculous!
DENISOF: How dare you!
FILLION: How dare YOU sir!
– and also Joss, did you your house go on lockdown after having complete cast and crew (in your house)? Did you just completely shut people out for, like, a month afterwards?
WHEDON: You know what, no – more and more people were coming. We were rehearsing. On an afternoon, we’d get four or five people and go to where we were going to shoot. Block it. Figure it out. Talk about the characters. All that good stuff… Tech guys were coming in, figuring out how they were going to set up the lights. Then, you sort of have to clean it up afterwards. Before that, the house was designed for art to flow through it, all the time. You know, my stepmother coming over to paint, or someone coming over to use the pottery wheel, or dance, or whatever. That’s sort of how it works. It never shut down entirely, no. I may – at some point very soon.
What was it like working with Nick (Kocher) and Brian (McElhaney), and what was it like welcoming them into the Whedonverse family?
FILLION: I still don’t know who they are. [laughs] I have a couple of these friends in my life where – wherever they invite me, whoever they introduce me to – I know they’re going to be good people. They are the center – they are the hub of a wheel of amazing people. Anytime I’m coming to Tuc Watkins place, or Joss Whedon’s place, I know that whoever’s going to be there is going to be fantastic people and I’m going to walk away with some new friends. Case in point, Brian and Nick. I did another little project with them called Sexy Pool Party after this. There both wonderfully talented.
[Side Note from Melissa:] It’s so funny that I couldn’t resist. Check out “Sexy Pool Party” here:
Joss, how did you decide how much of Shakespeare you could trim, and did you do all of that ahead of time, or is there a complete version of the text somewhere?
WHEDON: Oh, I made all of those decisions before shooting. I think there are three lines that we cut. We did not have time to shoot anything we weren’t going to use. Also, I wanted to know the flow of the thing, as a film. I don’t like to create films in the editing room. Obviously, you learn something. That’s part of the process. But, I like to go in with very exact intent. It’s a very long play, and there’s a good deal of redundancy in the explanation of things. If I couldn’t find the heart of something, I would cut it out. For example, there’s Antonio, the brother of Leonato. I couldn’t find a reason to keep him in. He really would just come up and say, “So, here’s what’s happened so far, brother . . .”
DENISOF: Elizabethans must have been so noisy and had such terrible ADD because it’s repeated frequently.
WHEDON: “Look! People are just entering and they’re drunk. So, let’s talk again about what just happened!”
DENISOF: Prelap. Prelap. Prelap.
WHEDON: It’s like a Chinese menu. Everything is delicious, but you can’t use it all. It’s really, really long. It’s also very compartmental. You really can just lift whole bits. Obviously, you want to keep as much as possible of the stuff that’s the reason you showed up, and then only add, visually, what helps explain the emotionality of the thing. That’s what the very small, wordless scenes that I added were for.
Now that you’ve done Much Ado, if you ever have the chance to do another Shakespeare play, what would you want to do?
WHEDON: Most people don’t see Hamlet as an old bald guy, but – [laughs]
DENISOF: I pitched that this morning!
WHEDON: Hamlet is the text that I’ve studied the most. No alienated teen ever gets over thinking that he is, on some level, Hamlet. There are others. Twelfth Night is the first that comes to mind. Hamlet, much like Much Ado, has that unity of place, where you’re trapped.
How was it to do something where nobody died?
WHEDON: It was fucking weird! [laughs] I don’t know. I was like, “I don’t have any death. I’ll add sex!”
ACKER: Well, someone died and came back to life. You’re familiar with that.
WHEDON: That’s true. Hero died, if you’re some of the characters.
Apart from the dialogue, how much did you have the scenes planned out ahead of time and how much did you have to just do on the fly?
WHEDON: Everything was pretty well locked in. The one great thing was that the sets were built way before. When we rehearsed, we’d read it through, and then we’d go rehearse in the space, exactly how the space was going to be. We knew, “Oh, he’ll run down and try to do a balcony scene with her,” and “We’ll go from here to here.” Some of the physicality, we dialed in very specifically. A lot of it happened on the day, and that all came from these guys. Obviously, Amy didn’t say, “I’m gonna try something,” and then throw herself down the stairs. [laughs] We did actually plan that one. We had the major parameters set up completely, and then within that space, we’d see what would happen with a shrub or a cupcake or a coat.
You mentioned earlier, Clark, that you joined this project later on. With casting, how much did you have planned out when you finally decided that you were going to do Much Ado?
WHEDON: Well, I started with my leads. They were deal-breakers. I called them, even before I had finished [the script]. I wasn’t going to do it without them. I called them before anything because I wasn’t going to do it without them. The next person I called was Nathan [Fillion]. I didn’t have a second choice on that one. I have this extraordinary stable of people. I wanted to make sure that I could find people who were available and who were right. I didn’t want to go to five guys and say, “Hey, you wanna play this part? Oh, you all do?! Shit!” It was a delicate process. There was a lot of me asking questions about where people were going to be for the next month, on specific dates. Clark [Gregg] was obviously the most torturous because we wanted to make it work, and it wasn’t going to work. I went through three other Leonato’s, and then two days before production, I was like, “Are you still busy?” In every case, I got the person that I wanted the most to play the part. Honestly, you could do a Woody Allen in September and re-film this with another troupe of extraordinary people. I wouldn’t. I don’t want to. But, it’s an embarrassment of riches. I just had to make sure I didn’t piss anybody off. There’s not one person where I was like, “Well, they’ll do.” I got my dream cast.
Nathan, what was it like to do your scenes with Tom Lenk? Towards the end of the film I felt like I wanted to see a buddy cop spinoff.
FILLION: What I’ve learned is that, if you want to be funny, stand next to Tom Lenk. I’m not a big prop actor, but if I could only have one prop for the rest of my career, it would be Tom Lenk.
DENISOF: I would watch that show. That spinoff you’re talking about.
What did you learn about yourself, or take away from making this particular project?
DENISOF: Maybe because of the short time we had, it was really an exercise of instinct. For me, it was a great chance to trust my instincts and hope for the best. I already trust Joss and Amy, and the rest of the cast, so in myself, that’s what I learned.
ACKER: It just reiterated how lucky we are that we have such great friends and we all got to do this together. We have this amazing friend (Joss Whedon) who has introduced us all and made it all possible.
GREGG: I have to say, I feel like it was a profound gift. I just went over to Joss’ house for dinner to see if he was okay, after shooting The Avengers. A couple of days later, it was, “Oh, you’re playing this guy.” To have someone not ask to see your Shakespeare license, or ask if you’d even done it in 20 years, it gives you a trust. I feel like the ripple effect that that caused made me go, “Well, I must be able to do it. He’s so smart. He wouldn’t ask me to do it, if he thought I was going to blow it, I don’t think.” It’s so deliciously empowering. You’re there and you’re like, “I don’t really know how to do this. There’s Amy. Look at what she’s doing. That’s just riveting and charismatic and simple. If I can just look at her, then I can do it.” I just felt like this whole organism was like a weird group hug, which was ironically the nickname that we had for The Avengers, on all of the secret documents. There was this weird Elizabethan group hug going, with this energy that was created. It was really magical. I feel like it’s a gift that stays with you and makes people want to do something like this for other people.
What was it like to work with this Shakespearian language? Can you share a warm and fuzzy story about taking to the language?
GREGG: Can they involve fingers? [laughs]
DENISOF: A lot of the stylistic approach had its roots in the Shakespeare readings that we were doing at Joss’ house, which were so relaxed and natural. Thank goodness he chose a play that’s primarily in prose. It’s not in iambic pentameter or rhyming couplets, so that allowed us to find our own rhythms and interpretations, and to have as much fun as possible and not feel that we were responsible for a poetry recital.
ACKER: Once you’ve learned the words, then you get to chew on these amazing words and they bring out the emotion and take the scene to places that, when you’re reading it, you would never think it was going to go. But, as that dialogue comes out and the poetry comes out of it, it really influences the scene.
Joss, what are the pressures of doing pop culture TV versus the classics of literature?
WHEDON: The shooting schedules are very similar. Everything is the story. Everything is, “How much can I get- how much can I squeeze out of this?” They’re very similar because with TV, as soon as you’re locked in, you have a text, you have your sets, you have your cast. You know so much going in that you have the confidence to experiment in the structure of a very short shoot. That’s similar to this. Obviously, we all knew the text from various productions, and the actors knew it because they had learned it to say it. I had been studying it, so I felt very comfortable with it, and knowing that Shakespeare wrote it is a great comfort factor. At the same time, I knew the sets intimately and I knew that this cast was not only going to give me exactly what I needed, but they were all going to surprise me on the day, and make this thing alive in a way I couldn’t predict. It’s very easy- if you’re doing a TV show that goes on and on and on, or you’re doing a play so famous that it could easily be presented as a stately home- to forget that spark. The intent behind this, and the way I like to shoot anything, is to get the space ready, and then give it to the actors and let the electricity of a stage performance happen between them, in the moment. And that happened, all the time.
Is it true that you’re not an actor until you do Shakespeare?
GREGG: Sometimes you can do Shakespeare and you’re still not an actor. [laughs]
FILLION: I say you’re not an actor until you’ve done Whedon… and I mean DONE… [laughs]
GREGG: -until you’ve had your finger- [laughs]
WHEDON: I knew it was coming to that! [laughs]
GREGG: -deep in the Whedonverse. [laughs] Fuzzy feelings.
Amy and Alexis, what do each of you like most about working with the other?
ACKER: That’s awkward!
DENISOF: Well, the holy trinity for me is Joss, Amy and myself, in a scene, so to get the chance to work with them is always my favorite day at work. With Amy, all you have to do is watch and listen, and it’s the same with Joss. That’s my approach. They’re so good that I’m just happy to be there, really.
WHEDON: Okay, Ringo! [In Ringo voice] “I’m just happy to be here!” [laughs]
ACKER: I’m pretty sure that anyone who’s done a scene with Alexis feels like he’s their favorite person to work with. I don’t think I’m special, in that way. There’s such a trust. He’s so smart and handsome and nice. Should I go on?
DENISOF: Yes, please!
WHEDON: I don’t think I’m like Shakespeare. Can we please make sure that that’s very clear?! [laughs] Or if I am, it’s like he’s Frank Sinatra and I’m Frank Sinatra, Jr. That’s how we relate.
From high above come 4 new character posters for Disney’s PLANES.
“Disney’s Planes” is an action-packed 3D animated comedy adventure featuring Dusty (voice of Dane Cook), a plane with dreams of competing as a high-flying air racer. But Dusty’s not exactly built for racing – and he happens to be afraid of heights. So he turns to a seasoned naval aviator who helps Dusty qualify to take on the defending champ of the race circuit.
Dusty’s courage is put to the ultimate test as he aims to reach heights he never dreamed possible, giving a spellbound world the inspiration to soar.
Before you see the movie in August, here are some fun coloring sheets to print out. Now that the summer is here, share them with your friends.
“Disney’s Planes” takes off in theaters on Aug. 9, 2013.
A few weeks ago, WAMG attended a special press conference for Disney•Pixar’s frighteningly fun “MONSTERS UNIVERITY,” featuring Billy Crystal and John Goodman. The pair have an incredible chemistry, and were quick on their feet as press members asked them questions about their MU days. Check it out below!
Ever since college-bound Mike Wazowski (voice of Billy Crystal) was a little monster, he has dreamed of becoming a Scarer—and he knows better than anyone that the best Scarers come from Monsters University (MU). But during his first semester at MU, Mike’s plans are derailed when he crosses paths with hotshot James P. Sullivan, “Sulley” (voice of John Goodman), a natural-born Scarer. The pair’s out-of-control competitive spirit gets them both kicked out of the University’s elite Scare Program. To make matters worse, they realize they will have to work together, along with an odd bunch of misfit monsters, if they ever hope to make things right. Screaming with laughter and oozing with heart, Disney•Pixar’s “Monsters University” is directed by Dan Scanlon (“Cars,” “Mater and the Ghostlight,” “Tracy”), produced by Kori Rae (“Up,” “The Incredibles,” “Monsters, Inc.”) and features music from Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and award-winning composer Randy Newman (“Monsters, Inc.,” “Toy Story 3”).
Can you talk about working with Dan Scanlon, this director?
BILLY CRYSTAL: Dan is a hipster. Dan is like – he had totally different energy than Pete Docter had, who was great. Dan is like a cool – not that Pete wasn’t –
JOHN GOODMAN: Yeah.
BILLY CRYSTAL: – but Dan is different. Dan is like – he’s a hipster. He’s like a –
JOHN GOODMAN: Yeah, yeah.
BILLY CRYSTAL: – a young guy –
JOHN GOODMAN: He had great sensibility, and he’d read with you.
BILLY CRYSTAL: Yeah.
JOHN GOODMAN: If the other characters weren’t there, he reads with you. He’s got a good energy to feed off of.
BILLY CRYSTAL: Yeah, he was funny, too. He’s a funny guy.
JOHN GOODMAN: And when you do something he don’t like, he gets a funny little look on his face.
BILLY CRYSTAL: Yeah, and we’d know not to do that.
JOHN GOODMAN: – do this again.
BILLY CRYSTAL: Yeah, I like Dan a lot.
What do you find to be the great touchstone about the friendship of Mike and Sulley and what it is that makes them so beloved to everybody around the world, and for each of your individual characters, what is it about the character that resonates with you?
JOHN GOODMAN: The fact that he’s a blowhard. No, I think the reason they work so well together is that they complete each other, in a way. I think Sulley really, really needs Mike Wazowski. It makes him complete, lets him know – lets the air out of him a little bit. Especially in this film, when they’re not completely formed monsters yet, they learn from each other. They learn how to adapt, how to let go of their pre-conceived notions of themselves and of the world. They’re good for each other.
BILLY CRYSTAL: For me, Mike is fearless. He just – he’s really the favorite character I’ve ever played in anything I’ve done. I’ve really missed doing him until Lasseter, at a party, came to me – it was at John’s 50th birthday party – and said we have the idea. It’s a sequel, but it’s a prequel. They’re in college. And he just walked away, but he left an idea, and I went oh, this is gonna be great. It was so fun to revisit them at this time in their lives. It was such a brilliant idea to put them in that time period where they’re about to become who they’re gonna become. That’s what was so interesting to me.
I love this guy to play, and playing it with John is phenomenal because we work together in the studio, and we can act together. It’s not just – we’re not just reading lines; we’re performing them, and we’re playing them, and we feel them. I think that’s why their relationship on screen is really great because it’s a real thing.
When you were both college age, did you each feel that you fit into the world around you, or were you a little bit of a misfit at that age? Do you remember?
BILLY CRYSTAL: I have to admit, I was a little bit of a misfit. I was a film-directing major at NYU when – I’m still not sure why I became a directing major when I was really an actor and a comedian, but there was something that drew me to doing that. I had made a few films on my own, and I loved it. So I felt like I was a misfit, in a way, and out of it because all those other people – it was Oliver Stone, Christopher Guest, Mike McKean. It was a class of film people. Our professor was Marty Scorsese. So he – Marty was a graduate student – Mr. Scorsese, which is what I had to call him – which I still do, when I see him, ‘cause he gave me a C.
He was an intense – it was 1968-9 and ’70, and he was an intense guy, with hair down to here, a big beard and granny glasses. Who liked like that then? So I – he was so fluent in movies and passionate, and I really felt like I wanted to be in front of people still, so I was a little out of it.
JOHN GOODMAN: I ain’t never been in no college with famous people like Billy here. I was a drifter for a while. I just was desperate to fit in with a group. Really, I was swimming. I was lost, treading water, trying to find my way. I wanted to play football. It didn’t work out. I didn’t really know what I wanted until I found acting in a theater department, and then it just – everything fell into place, and I had a passion about something. Then, I started living my life.
BILLY CRYSTAL: Yeah, that’s how it was for me, too. Once I found a theater group, then you’re just – like a gym rat, but you’re a theater rat, and then that becomes your fraternity house. That becomes your family – extended family. I still see a lot of those people to this day because they owe me money. No, that really becomes your thing. In this movie, they find out who they are. That’s the most important element of this movie to me is well, Mike has a dream, and the dream may not work out, and then he has to readjust and recalibrate. He does that with the help of his friend, who tells him who he thinks he is, and he starts to believe it himself. So for me, that really happened then.
Picking up on that, what kind of obstacles did you guys face to get where you wanted? ‘Cause we see these two characters have that right in their face. Did you have those moments of doubt, like this dream that I know I’m destined for might not happen?
BILLY CRYSTAL: I still have them. You still do.
JOHN GOODMAN: Yeah.
BILLY CRYSTAL: Every time we finish doing something, we don’t have something else – except him. He did 14 movies last year. You’re the new Michael Caine.
JOHN GOODMAN: Thank you very much.
BILLY CRYSTAL: I’m just a guy who can’t say no.
JOHN GOODMAN: A whore … uh-hum.
BILLY CRYSTAL: You constantly – we all do. We all have things, and we all – that’s what is so fascinating and frustrating and great about life is you’re constantly, in some ways, starting over all the time, and I love that. All right, I did that, but now – I don’t have a job now. Then, something happens, or you make something happen. This starts for them in this movie.
My question is for Mr. Goodman. Almost 30 years ago, you started in Revenge of the Nerds, where you played the head coach to the jocks.
JOHN GOODMAN: How’d that go?
It’s a good movie. It seemed sort of influential on this, so my question is how does it feel to be on the other side of that equation, and did you re-watch the film before making this?
JOHN GOODMAN: No, I haven’t seen it for a while. I was pretty loose while I was making it. I had a lot of fun. It’s a great way to revisit college because obviously, I couldn’t do that in a non-animated way. It’s a good way to reflect back on how I was then and my wants and dreams and everything, which – and how you adapt to everything that changes you and which roads you take. I’m babbling like a fool right now, but that’s what I’ve always done is babbled my way through life.
Hi, guys. I was just wondering – obviously, you made Monsters, Inc. kind of – it must’ve been about ten years ago now. How has the experience of working with Pixar changed, or has it – is it just as cool as it was ten years ago?
JOHN GOODMAN: Before, we were talking – Billy was talking about – we were just flabbergasted by the fact that they could animate fur –
BILLY CRYSTAL: On the first one.
JOHN GOODMAN: – and animate hair. That was a big deal then. It just seems like they’ve gotten so much better with their technique. It’s constantly amazing. So the thrill is still there because they’re such wonderful storytellers, great writers, and everything is reality-based and grounded, so you can believe in it, and it makes it fun.
BILLY CRYSTAL: The difference was it’s maybe a little bit faster than before. They can do things a little quicker.
JOHN GOODMAN: Yeah.
BILLY CRYSTAL: But the imagination is even broader because they can do even more. I first saw the movie two weeks ago, and I was – sometimes, you just forget what you’ve done. Because we started about two years ago, I guess, and the imagery is phenomenal in this movie. The art design on the first movie was astounding, with the door sequence and the chase sequence. This has moments in the scare games that are – you almost take it for granted, but it took years for them to think these things through. The fact that they can do it – that obstacle course is a phenomenal segment.
Then little things, like the dramatic scene with us at the lake, when Mike goes into the real world at the camp and is not scary – when he’s at the lake, that’s – we acted that scene together in the booth. For a movie to have room for those two segments alone is kinda epic, I think.
After creating these great characters for the first film – Mike and Sulley – could you talk about going back now and re-creating them, but younger versions of them? Was that challenging for you, and did you have to do anything differently with your voices?
BILLY CRYSTAL: Well, we – the first day that we reported to work together, they showed us renderings of the guys. We just started laughing because oh, sure, make us look younger, given what we look like in the movie, and they do. He’s a little trimmer and a little slimmer. I’ve got this retainer, but there’s a little more youth in his eye. They just carry themselves differently. I don’t know what – it’s just subtle, but it’s there.
JOHN GOODMAN: With the voice thing, I thought I was gonna come in and talk like the kid from Our Miss Brooks – oh, hello – and it just happened – through a couple of passes, it just kinda happens organically. You pick up on other energies and the characters’ focuses, and it just happens. It’s a subtle difference, but it’s there.
So in the movie, Sulley isn’t exactly the most prepared student on the first day of school. I’m sure while he was training with Mike; he had many times where he came up with excuses not to train or not to go to class. So as a student or parent or grandparent yourself, what are some of the best excuses you’ve heard not to go to school?
JOHN GOODMAN: Well, I used to – I was very elaborate. I would go to the nurse’s office and fill up a glass of water and – I was really good at fake vomiting, so I’d go to the nurse’s bathroom, do that, and then slam the water into the toilet bowl.
BILLY CRYSTAL: Do it now.
JOHN GOODMAN: Yeah, okay.
BILLY CRYSTAL: You gotta see this. It’s really amazing.
JOHN GOODMAN: That was an immediate ticket home. Marlon Brando used to take a thermometer and rub it on his leg, and then put it back in his mouth.
BILLY CRYSTAL: I just would fake the sore throat thing. I can’t – Ma, I can’t – I don’t know how this happened. Yesterday, I was fine. Then, she’d go okay, and I’d go thank you – oh.
JOHN GOODMAN: I really wanna go to school, though. Well, I don’t think you should. All right; it’s up to you.
How did you both enjoy sharing the story of the Oozma Kappa characters, turning them from rejects into winners?
BILLY CRYSTAL: Well, it’s a story that you’ve seen in other movies. It’s the underdog, and it’s great, and it works, and I loved that Mike sees something in them, but at the same time, he finds out something about himself. That happens also through Sulley. You’re the one who did this. You’re the one. So they’re endearing, lovely characters, beautifully voiced. I have to tell you something. I saw it two weeks ago with the cast. I didn’t know a lot of these people were in the movie. Sean Hayes is fantastic in the movie. Charlie Day is great in the movie. Alfred Molina is great. Helen is phenomenal. They didn’t tell me that all these people were in the movie, so it was like going to college on the first day and having all these new roommates. It was fantastic.
JOHN GOODMAN: I can’t compete with these people.
BILLY CRYSTAL: It was great. They’re beautifully animated, and they’re really appealing. The great thing about this movie, too, is that – in my opinion – the first one came out 2001. John and I – I remember we hosted several screenings for kids who had just lost their parents or uncle or a father or something. Remember, in New York, we did all these screenings –
JOHN GOODMAN: Yeah, at the –
BILLY CRYSTAL: At the theaters on 33rd Street. They kept – round the clock. We would go out and introduce the movie and so on. All of those kids, and kids throughout the world, were 6 or 7 years old when that movie came out. They’re now the same age that Mike and Sulley are now, so they look at it in a totally different way. I was at USC a couple weeks ago, and we screened the movie for about 400 film students. They went berserk because it’s them. It’s them. They’re making decisions in their lives, like Mike and Sulley are in this.
These guys are – they’re very important characters to them – to students – and now to little kids. It’s really interesting, of all the things I’ve been fortunate to do, that this guy, Mike, is my favorite character I’ve ever done, but he also has a toe-hold – a claw-hold in people that they mean something to them.
Wanted to ask each of you what used to scare you under the bed or in the closet when you were little, and what scares you now when you go to bed?
BILLY CRYSTAL: My Aunt Sheila was terrifying because there was the napkin in the mouth, you’ve got something on your face, dear – that thing. Let me just scratch that off your face.
JOHN GOODMAN: [LAUGHING] Earl Scheib.
BILLY CRYSTAL: Let me sand your cheek. I still don’t love the darkness, though I’ve learned to smile in it a little bit now and then. I’m just sorta – the unknown has always been a little scary when you think about those things, especially as you get older. Boy, that got heavy.
JOHN GOODMAN: Yeah. I was just run-of-the-mill Frankenstein.
Frankenstein?
JOHN GOODMAN: Yeah, scared the heck out of me.
BILLY CRYSTAL: Oh, and then when Psycho came out.
JOHN GOODMAN: But I love those movies. I love those old Universal movies, especially when they’d switch off and Bela Lugosi would play Frankenstein.
BILLY CRYSTAL: They’d switch up.
JOHN GOODMAN: It’s just not a fit.
BILLY CRYSTAL: They just got bored that day.
JOHN GOODMAN: It just didn’t work, yeah.
BILLY CRYSTAL: Beware the hour of the wolf. But Psycho – Psycho was the – that was – Mr. Hitchcock knew what he was doing.
Definitely.
BILLY CRYSTAL: That was really – to this day, it’s still terrifying. It’s that music; it’s the lighting; it’s the shooting. It’s all of that. It’s a genius just genius.
For Mr. Crystal, the young actor who played Mike as an even younger – did you work with that actor at all, and how did you think he pulled it off?
BILLY CRYSTAL: I wasn’t even – I didn’t even know that that was in the movie ‘til I saw it. No, because I had filmed – I had recorded three different openings, so I wasn’t sure what they had used. The first version I did without John was I played my parents and Mike and his bored sister in the car – see, it’s funny – in the car, going to drop him off at college, something I guess we’ve all experienced at some point. So I wasn’t sure what was in the opening movie ‘til I saw that. I would love to meet him ‘cause he did a great job. It’s a beautiful sequence.
JOHN GOODMAN: I wonder if they animated that with what you did?
BILLY CRYSTAL: Oh, man, I would love to see that, yeah.
JOHN GOODMAN: Yeah, no kidding.
BILLY CRYSTAL: That would be cool.
You guys were characters, obviously, that carry over from the first film. There are a ton of new characters in this film. What would you say your favorite new characters are?
BILLY CRYSTAL: They were all great. I think they’re all terrific. Charlie Day’s character is really funny. He’s the – I don’t know his – the purple guy that –
Art.
BILLY CRYSTAL: – Art. I don’t even know their names. So Charlie was great. Sean Hayes is hilarious. That’s hilarious – the two-headed guy. Helen is terrifying. She’s really – I’ve worked with her before and she’s the most fun, hip, great, down-to-earth lady, and she’s really scary in this movie. They’re all – it’s great. It’s a very great cast.
Kinda continuing off of what you were saying, I was curious what you thought that Helen had brought to the movie and the kind of gravitas that she added?
BILLY CRYSTAL: Well, she’s aristocracy. She is Dame Helen, and she’s – I wish we also had been around her when she was working. She’s just fantastic. She gets it. She gets the – she’s a great actress, so it’s easy. She commands – even in a strangely animated woman – a dragon, whatever she is – there’s a regalness to her, and her voice is perfect. It was great casting.
So John, you gonna have another 14 this year or –
JOHN GOODMAN: Another what?
Another 14 films.
JOHN GOODMAN: It looks like I got three opening in a row here. It’s just the luck of the draw.
That’s great.
JOHN GOODMAN: Yeah, I’ll be back as an unemployed drifter soon.
On Monday, June 17th, 2013 WAMG attended the the WORLD PREMIERE of Disney•Pixar’s frighteningly fun “MONSTERS UNIVERITY,” featuring the voices of Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Helen Mirren. The event was held at the El Capitan on Hollywood Blvd. and featured the ESPN College Scareday hosted by Lee Corso and Desmond Howard as they provided play-by-play commentary on the blue carpet, a photo ID station where guests could create their own student ID, the MU pep squad drum corps and cheerleaders, as well as the Disneyland All-American college band, appearances by Mike & Sulley, a monster obstacle course, games like Eye Ball, Sulley’s Shuffle Air Hockey and EEK ball, temporary tattoos, opportunities to design a monster head piece, Build and Growl replica race cars from Lowe’s Build and Grow, and MU team spirit accessories.
Attending the event were Billy Crystal, Sean P. Hayes, Charlie Day, Bobby Moynihan, John Ratzenberger, Noah Johnston, director Dan Scanlon, and executive producer John Lasseter. Also, guests Gwen Stefani, Gavin Rossdale, Alessandra Ambrosio, Ed Begley Jr., Wayne Brady, Kate Flannery, Melissa Joan Hart, Oscar Nunez, Tito Ortiz, Scottie Pippen, Karina Smirnoff. From ESPN: Lee Corso and Desmond Howard. From ABC: Molly Ephraim (“Last Man Standing”), Isabella Cramp and Max Charles (“The Neighbors”), Rico Rodriguez (“Modern Family”), and Eden Sher (“The Middle”) were there to show their MU team spirit. Check out some photos from the event below.
There are more photos below for your viewing pleasure. Simply click on the thumbnails to enlarge.
Ever since college-bound Mike Wazowski (voice of Billy Crystal) was a little monster, he has dreamed of becoming a Scarer—and he knows better than anyone that the best Scarers come from Monsters University (MU). But during his first semester at MU, Mike’s plans are derailed when he crosses paths with hotshot James P. Sullivan, “Sulley” (voice of John Goodman), a natural-born Scarer. The pair’s out-of-control competitive spirit gets them both kicked out of the University’s elite Scare Program. To make matters worse, they realize they will have to work together, along with an odd bunch of misfit monsters, if they ever hope to make things right. Screaming with laughter and oozing with heart, Disney•Pixar’s “Monsters University” is directed by Dan Scanlon (“Cars,” “Mater and the Ghostlight,” “Tracy”), produced by Kori Rae (“Up,” “The Incredibles,” “Monsters, Inc.”) and features music from Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and award-winning composer Randy Newman (“Monsters, Inc.,” “Toy Story 3”).
