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http://lookingcloser.blogspot.com/2007/02/ralph-winter-on-upcoming-comic-book.html
Ralph Winter
How can you not be a fan of Ralph Winter? He gets to make all the cool movies! Here he chats us up about the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer, the future of the X-Men, and gives us The Screwtape Letters scoop! And did somebody say "Galactus"?
Robin: It's been a few years since we last talked. How are things? What are you working on now?
Ralph: Good, good. I just got back from Vancouver, working on Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. We're getting started with post-production on that. We've got other stuff going on, like getting [Ted Dekker's] Thr3e out. And I'm working on a lot of development, getting other projects up and running.
How's Fantastic Four turning out?
Very well. We finished shooting on December 20th. We're thick into post-production right now. It comes out June 15th. Silver Surfer is the new addition to the story, and he's getting a lot of attention. We had a teaser trailer attached to Night at the Museum, and we got a lot of positive response from that. Now we've just got to deliver the darn thing. (Laughs.)
You know, there's a moment in that trailer, where if you freeze it on a close-up of the Surfer's face, you can catch a bit of a resemblance to Doug Jones. [Editor's note: Doug Jones is the actor who portrays the effects-driven Silver Surfer.]
Yeah, yeah, a little. We're using Weta, who did Lord of the Rings, to do the CGI work for the Surfer, and Doug is heavily involved with providing motion capture and all that stuff.
So is the Silver Surfer being visually achieved entirely through CGI?
It's a combination of CGI, and some on-set motion capturing of Doug. Pulling this whole thing together is what Weta is charged with doing, and they'll be putting the final product into the scenes.
This one's for all the Doug Jones fans out there, myself included: Will Doug's voice be the voice of the Silver Surfer?
We don't know yet. We're not sure. That was clear up front, as part of Doug's contract. We don't really have a clear direction on that at the moment. We listened to a lot of different voices, and there's a possibility we may go with what Doug provided on-set.
In the first draft of the script, the Silver Surfer wasn't going to speak at all. It was thought that that might make him more mysterious, and maybe he might say one or two words, or one or two sentences. And it's grown from that, but not that much. There's an air of mystery about him that we want to keep. That would be a decision that we're going to make in March or April.
I can see how that would fit with the character. He's got kind of a standoffish, super-other-worldly power vibe, when we first meet him.
Truly less is more. [Director] Tim Story is cutting the movie together now, so we'll see how all of that comes together. I think once we've seen the whole sweep of the movie -- how it plays, how it feels -- then we'll probably dig in and say, "What's the best way to handle Surfer and his arc? Does he talk more or talk less? Is it Doug's voice or someone else's voice?"
I fully expect you to say no to this question... (Laughs.)
(Laughs.)
Can you tell us, in this version of the Silver Surfer's story, if he is still the herald of Galactus, as he is in the comics?
Yeah. That is part of the story. That is part of what we talk about in the story. That is something our characters will discover along the way. But how that plays out -- whether we see Galactus, how much of Galactus you'll see -- I can't answer that question at the moment because we truly don't know. I'm not being coy, we just haven't made a decision yet. We want to cut the movie together, play it out, and see if that's necessary or needed, or if it's something we can play in another movie. There is no specific plan mapped out about Galactus right now, but that is definitely the reason that the Silver Surfer comes to earth.
Sounds like the perfect setup for a third movie.
Yeah, and that's what we want to play out. How well does this play without Galactus?
There will be some fans who feel cheated if they don't get at least a glimpse of Galactus in there somewhere.
Maybe. And we understand that. We don't want to disappoint anyone, but it is a tightrope. June 15th is coming quickly. We've sketched out ideas of what Galactus might look like, but we really have not yet made any decisions. We have to see the movie put together first, which should happen very soon.
Galactus would be a whole other challenge in his own right, in how to pull off visually without being completely cheesy.
That's right. Less is more with that as well.
Okay, switching gears... Are you happy with how X-Men 3 turned out?
I am. We struggled with changing directors at the last minute, as you know. But I was thrilled with Hugh Jackman's performance, Famke Janssen's performance -- I think she turned in her best performance out of all three movies. Ian [McKellan] and Patrick [Stewart] are steady, in terms of what they deliver. And the story was a good climax to the three movies. I feel good about it. There are things we would have changed if we'd had more time or different resources. But yeah, I'm happy with it.
There's been talk of various spin-offs from the X-Men films. Are you involved with any of those?
We're talking about the Wolverine movie, which would be a prequel telling how he came to be at Alkalai Lake and all that stuff. Hugh Jackman is in Australia right now doing a big movie with Baz Luhrmann titled Australia, so he probably won't be available until later this year. So we may not know exactly what we're doing until summer or something like that.
But there's lots of talk. The X-Men world is rich with different characters, so there are lots of spin-offs that could happen. There's talk of a "young Magneto" movie, there's talk of "the young X-Men," and of course Wolverine. There's plenty of places you could go in that world. I think as long as we could continue to make interesting, compelling movies that people want to see, then it could play out for a long time.
Yeah, there's no shortage of characters in the X-Men universe.
And there are lots of new characters who we haven't even talked about, like Gambit, for example.
A major player in the comics right now is Emma Frost, and we've never seen her on film.
We haven't played her out yet, yeah. There's plenty of room to grow in those movies, and I think Fox is trying to be smart about making the most of this.
Okay, for all the X-Men fanboys out there, which I again count myself among -- sorry, Ralph -- I just have to ask. [Spoilers ahead for X-Men 3: The Last Stand.] The final, post-credits scene in the movie showed us that Xavier wasn't quite so dead after all. As much speculation about that among fans as there's been, there's been an equal amount that maybe Cyclops didn't really die, either, since we never actually saw his death on film. I'm not asking for an official word on that; I'm just curious what your personal feelings are. Could Cyclops still be alive?
In terms of the story, killing Cyclops was about demonstrating the enormous power that Jean Grey came back with, and this conflict that was raging inside her. I can't recall any discussion we've had about Cyclops coming back. But hey, it's science fiction, it's fantasy. Anything could happen.
Nobody ever stays dead in comics.
(Laughs.) Hey, nobody stays dead in the Star Trek movies I made! We were blasted with, "You can't kill Spock!" And we were sort of like, "Well, if you do it right, you can. Because then you can bring him back."
Were you witness to any major backlash about killing those two prominent characters in X-Men?
Not much, really. It was shocking, so we tried to keep it a secret so you wouldn't know about it before the movie came out, though a summary of the script was leaked online pretty early on.
But I'll tell you this about that final scene. We went around opening night and visited a bunch of theaters, and it was very interesting. We went to some of the suburban theaters, and there were ten or fifteen people who would stay until the final scene, and they were kind of laughing and scratching and poking each other, saying, "I told Harry he should have stayed! I knew there was more!" Then we went to Mann's Chinese Theater, which is sort of the height of fanboy geekdom. And that theater was packed at the end! They sat through every credit and they made everybody be quiet, and when that final scene came up, they were cheering.
(Laughs.) Let's talk about the movie Thr3e. This has been a long time coming. The last time I talked to you, a couple of years ago, you were still figuring out the logistics of how to make it and where and with who. And now it's done. What are your thoughts on how it turned out?
We're making these kinds of movies on a small budget. So for what we have to spend, and the resources we have, we feel very good about it. We make a special effort on these movies to stay close to the author. Ted Dekker was involved every step of the way, to ensure that the story translates the integrity of what he wrote.
We're happy with the movie, and how it came together. Hopefully it will stimulate those ideas of good and evil, and how they come together inside of people. And maybe stimulate some discussion afterwards when people see the movie.
And you're working on Dekker and Peretti's House now, right?
House is done shooting, and in post-production. That will probably be out in October. Both of these movies were shot in Poland, where we can extend our budget. They did a really good job for us, and I don't think anybody's going to notice that it was shot there. That will also be released by FoxFaith.
How involved are you at FoxFaith? Are you an executive, do you work there...?
I'm an independent producer on the lot. I have a relationship with the FoxFaith guys. I'm an outside supplier, but we stay in close contact and work together frequently. I'm sort of a consultant for them, but I have no official capacity with them. I've got my hands full trying to get my own movies made. (Laughs.)
What rating are you shooting for with House? Because it's definitely an 'R' book.
We're not afraid of an 'R' rating.
Really? Because I would like to see that. That would really push the envelope.
We'll probably push the edge of the envelope for 'PG-13'. Our first edits on The Visitation and Thr3e both came back from the MPAA as 'R'-rated. But we felt like especially with the "FoxFaith" label, we should keep it to a 'PG-13' rating. I think an 'R' rating might confuse people. They're trying to build a brand at FoxFaith. But we'll see. We're trying not to make it 'R', but we'll see.
I don't know, I'd probably be pushing for it if it was me. I mean, The Passion was 'R' and that didn't keep anyone away.
No no, you're right. The horror audience definitely wants an 'R'. And even in making Fantastic Four and X-Men, the true fans would love an 'R'-rated movie. But I think even on the Fantastic Four movies, we felt we needed to go no higher than a 'PG-13', so people would realize that we're serious about this and we're serious about talking about these issues. We're not just catering to kids.
Frank Peretti has been talking a lot lately about his desire to direct some of his own books as movies. Are you involved in any of that?
I'm not as yet. I've seen that he's working with North By Northwest in Spokane, and possibly, he's going to write and direct Monster. They've asked me to be involved, but I don't know if I have the time. We'll see.
How is In My Sleep turning out?
Haven't seen it yet. [Director Allen Wolf] has got it wrapped and cut, so we'll see how that turns out.
What's happening with C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters?
It's in development with Fox and Walden Media. Fox has owned the property for decades. They bought it in the 50s. There was management at Fox that wanted it and bought it, and they've owned it for decades.
So what's the current status?
We're signing deals right now. We're finishing the Fox option deal, we're finishing my deal with Walden. Doug Gresham's deal is done.
Does the movie have a green light?
Not yet. We've been talking to Randall Wallace about writing and directing. We need to have more discussions with Fox and Walden about that, and make sure that Randy's still available. Everybody wants to make this movie; I think it's going to happen, I just don't know what the timetable is right now.
We're very excited about that. With the right script, dealing with temptation and that whole upside down world, it could be a very, very interesting movie. And it's going to be dark. This isn't a light, happy, Narnia piece.
The C.S. Lewis name alone should be enough to draw people into the theaters.
We've been telling people that for years, and they wouldn't believe it. And now that Narnia has happened, they're a lot more open to it. (Laughs.)
That's everything on my checklist. Do you have anything else new and interesting on the burner?
The only other thing right now is that we're talking with Rick Warren about making The Purpose-Driven Life with Fox Searchlight.
I remember hearing about those rights being sold. How would that even work? How do you make a story out of something like that?
Well, you've got to create a narrative. We've been talking with a lot of A-list writers in town, who are very interested. The book has a wide readership -- both Christian and non-Christian. So the challenge would be to find the right A-list writer to pair up with Rick, and develop some good stories that would begin to illustrate some of those principles. You couldn't take all of that stuff and pile all of those principles into one movie. But the idea we've been operating off of is doing something structured like Crash, where you have a bunch of different stories that intersect in interesting ways.
That's still in an early development stage. Rick's a very busy guy, so it's moving somewhat slowly. But I think it could be very fun, on down the road.
The last time we talked, I asked you what you thought about The Passion, because it had just come out. Now I'm wondering what you thought about The Nativity Story.
Well, I liked The Passion a lot more. I liked how The Passion was mysterious, was darker, and how it had this sort of transcendent quality to it. Being brought up a Protestant, I couldn't tell you how many stations of the cross there are in the Catholic tradition. But it didn't matter to me. All of that stuff was interesting, value-added pieces, that they used to make the story more interesting and more compelling.
I didn't find any of those things in The Nativity. I know those filmmakers, they're nice people. I like them, I don't want to say bad things about them. But it's a straight-ahead retelling of the story, and there's a lack of mystery to it. I think they toned down some of the violence, afraid that some Christians would be turned off by it. Some of that is exactly what that time was -- it was a very violent period in history. And to soften that and take the edges off, I just wonder if that doesn't make it less appealing to non-Christians, and maybe that's why the movie hasn't expanded out any further.
Ultimately, it's just not transcendent enough to inspire me. My wife liked it more than I did. And I hope to see it again, so maybe I'll feel differently. It's got all the right production values, but it doesn't have that mysterious missing element that takes it to another level.
I have one last question. It seems like there's a shifting climate taking place in the politics between Hollywood and Christianity. From what I understand, Hollywood once wanted nothing to do with Christians, and then The Passion came along, and now we've got Nativity and Screwtape Letters and Paradise Lost, and we're seeing some actual success stories in this unlikely marriage. What are your thoughts on where we are at right now?
Certainly The Passion opened the door in getting the studios to think about how, from a business point of view, they can reach that underserved market and make money. That's not a bad thing for us. If that means better stories, and we have the opportunity to do that, then good. If the audience responds to those kinds of stories, then good for the studios for recognizing it and funding it and getting it out there.
But I think you can't just slap the "Christian" label on something and put it out there, and expect the audience to show up. Maybe The Nativity is an example of that. You still have to make it entertainment. People want to be entertained, they want to laugh and cry and feel. They've got to be good stories, first and foremost.
I've read a couple of scripts lately based on Old Testament stories. One of them is about David, and his rise from a shepherd to becoming the anointed king. And it's gritty. It's brutal. It's reflective of the time. And it's not written by a Christian. But it's a compelling story, and that's the kind of movie I want to make!
But I think it's still going to be a while before you see one hundred million dollar movies made for Christian audiences. It's still perceived as a niche audience. Studios are going to be cautious until they can build a strategy to get there.
I can't help wondering if this notion of creating movies for Christians and marketing them to Christians is the wrong tactic. I don't have any problem with great "general audience" movies that just happen to have strong underlying values in them. Like the Spider-Man movies or Superman Returns. There have been a lot of these kinds of movies lately. Maybe Hollywood is finally waking up to the fact that it's not so bad a thing to see those classic archetypes play out with themes of redemption and our longing to be rescued and that sort of thing.
Yeah, I'm not sure about the marketing aspects of that, though. They may be stretching it in trying to market every movie in some unique way to a Christian audience. And I don't think that Christians or big communities are going to stand for being a marketing center for film studios. There needs to be some caution about that.
But as far as the audiences go, audiences want to see movies that are entertaining. It's that simple. They don't want agendas, they want entertainment. But maybe we can open their eyes a little while they're being entertained.
