William Friedkin

Started by MacGuffin, April 17, 2013, 11:23:14 PM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

The Ultimate Badass

Quote from: OpO1832 on August 19, 2015, 11:13:50 AM
EXCELLENT NEWS
He hasn't done a compelling movie in 30 years. What's so excellent about it?

Alexandro

Bug and Killer Joe, particularly the former, are certainly "compelling".

03

don't feed the tuba, alexandro.

Reel

Most memorable excerpt from that 2 1/2 hour interview^^

"She sits down, her mother sits next to her. I say "Linda, do you know anything about 'The Exorcist'?

Linda Blair: Yeah! I read the book.

William Friedkin: Well, what's it about?

LB:  A little girl who gets possessed by the devil and does a whole bunch of bad things.

WF: What sort of 'bad things'?

LB: She pushes a man out of her bedroom window, she hits her mother across the face, and she masturbates with a crucifix.

So, I looked at her mother, who was smiling and then said:

WF: Do you know what that means, Linda?

LB: What?

WF: To masturbate?

LB: isn't it like, 'jerking off'?

I look at her mother, still smiling and ask:

WF: Have you ever done that?

LB: Sure! Haven't you?

And that was it. That was her audition. I knew this wasn't going to hurt her. She was comfortable with the language, comfortable with the ideas, and I made it a game everyday."




The Ultimate Badass

Quote from: Alexandro on February 28, 2016, 12:06:11 PM
Bug and Killer Joe, particularly the former, are certainly "compelling".
LOL. Bug and Killer Joe? Did those movies say something interesting, or novel, deeply thought-provoking? Did they do so something cinematically or audiovisually interesting, or novel, or new and innovative? While I was watching them, did i feel i HAD to finish watching them? Was there anything extraordinary about the acting, or the cinematography, or any other technical aspect? Did these movies stick with me?

No to all.

So I disagree.

Alexandro

interesting, novel and deeply thought provoking?
I would say yes to interesting.
Novel, don't think so.
Thought provoking? yes. Wouldn't say "deeply".

They both did "something" cinematically interesting, but I'm not your personal guide to appreciate films so let's say that's your problem. novel again, or innovative...I'm sorry, but how old are you? Because usually people that put down films because they are not "innovative" are younger than 20.

And yeah they both had tremendous acting and technical chops, and played around with narrative and expectations enough to be "interesting". But I already think you are way too smart and advanced for me to possibly comprehend the heights from where your film notions of value are coming from, so I will agree to disagree.

wilder


Alethia


wilder

Hadn't heard this, BEE mentioned it on his podcast


@9:25 on the perceived failure of Sorcerer:

QuoteFriedkin: How much time are you gonna spend on this, Nick? I mean, I've told you, the film was a disaster. How better can I put it?

Refn: Well I want to know what goes through your mind—

Friedkin: Ohhhh you feel like dancing! You actually feel like going out and celebrating! Buying the best bottle of champagne--you feel terrible!

Refn: So what did you do? Like, what goes through someone's reactions when they have reached what you have reached. That's what I'm interested in.

Freidkin: I'll tell you what I did. I commit suicide. I killed myself. And THEN, I was miraculously returned to life for the purpose of this interview.

:rofl:

WorldForgot


wilder

William Friedkin Directing Kiefer Sutherland In Update Of Herman Wouk's 'The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial' For Showtime & Paramount Global
Deadline

Kiefer Sutherland will star as Lt. Commander Queeg in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, using a 50-year-old play script written by Herman Wouk from his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It is being plotted for a January start, and casting is just getting underway. Annabelle Dunne and Matt Parker are producing. Sutherland's deal is being finalized.

"I've looked at a lot of scripts in the last 10 years, and I haven't seen anything I really wanted to do," said Friedkin, who most recently directed 2011's stylish noir drama Killer Joe starring Matthew McConaughey. "But I think about it a lot, and it occurred to me that could be a very timely and important piece, as well as being great drama. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is one of the best court-martial dramas ever written."

The original novel, the 1954 film with Humphrey Bogart as Queeg and a Robert Altman-directed 1988 telepic of the play that starred Midnight Run's Brad Davis as Queeg were set during World War II. A naval officer stands trial for mutiny for taking command from a ship captain he feels is acting in unstable fashion, endangering both the ship and its crew.

"The original piece was written for WWII, and Wouk included all the pent-up anger in this country over Pearl Harbor," Friedkin told Deadline. "I've updated it so that is no longer Pearl Harbor. I've made it contemporary, involving the Gulf of Hormuz and the Straits of Hormuz, leading to Iran."

Hormuz provides the only passage between the Persian Gulf and the open sea, making it a critical shipping route that long has been a hotspot because of continuing tensions with Iran. The update was made easier in that even the original was an invention of the late author, who also wrote The Winds of War and War and Remembrance.

"There never was a mutiny in the United States Navy," Friedkin said. "Herman Wouk virtually created the first and only mutiny in the United States military. His dialogue is terrific, right to the point. It's set at a trial, but it's all really by the book, in terms of accuracy. But there never was a mutiny in the United States military. He invented it and all that would take place around it, based on the laws that cover it."

Friedkin, who altered Wouk's script himself to reflect a timelier timeline, said he long had admired Sutherland and sought him out for the tense courtroom thriller.

"I think he is one of the best actors in America, one of the very best," Friedkin said. "I saw every episode of his show 24. I thought he was just great but that he could do a lot more, and this gives him an opportunity to stretch."

Denise Chamian, coming off Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis, is his casting director, and they are lining out the cast for the early 2023 start.