http://www.latinoreview.com/news.php?id=2317
Exclusive: On Set Interview With Clive Owen On Shoot 'Em Up
Date: July 3, 2007
By: Kellvin Chavez
Source: Latino Review
Clive Owen kicks some major ash in his new flick,
Shoot Em Up. The title kind of speaks alone, but this
movie is one hell of a ride with some scenes full of non-stop guns a-blazin for 5-10 minutes!
Writer/director Michael Davis came up with the idea, drew some animation for the action scenes, pitched the story to producer Don Murphy; they then went to New Line
Cinema and just hounded and hounded them until finally the studio agreed.
Last year, I was invited on the set up in Toronto to witness some of the mayhem and carnage but also to have a chance to speak with stars Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti, as well as Michael Davis.
Check out our exclusive interview with Clive Owen from the set of
Shoot Em Up:
Latino Review: This film has a mixture of John Woo's 'Hard Boiled' character and your BMW character. Is that one reason why you were attracted to doing this script?
Owen: I was pitched this script and when they brought it to me I thought that it sounded like sort of crazy and I wasn't sure about it. And Michael hadn't done a big movie before. I saw the
animation then and I rang up my agent and I said, 'That is the wildest thing that I've read in a very long time. If this guy can pull it off it'll be absolutely extraordinary.' And my big concern is like it's one thing to write in the animation that this is John Woo's wet dream, but John Woo is a master at putting action together and it's incredibly time consuming and you have really have to have your **** together to put together those action sequences together. They're not easy to do. So I said, 'I'll meet Michael and it's just about whether or not he can pull it off because as a script it works amazingly.' It's just so wild, irreverent and crazy.
Latino Review: Michael Davis said that he showed you the animation we had posted on the site....
Owen: Right. So I met up with Michael and every question that I had for him like, 'How are you going to do that, and how are you going to do this?' and he had an answer for everything. It's like I felt like the guy didn't doubt his movie, and that if he didn't do this movie he was going to explode. He was so ready to do it and he had every angle covered. He was like, 'No. I can always do that, and if I'm running out of time there I can do this.' So he seemed terribly prepared. You know, if you have someone who seems very loose it could be disastrous because action sequences are about putting very tight cuts together and being very organized about what you need. If you sort of very loose about it it's the sort of thing that you can get into trouble with very quickly. I rang up the agent and said, 'This guy can do it. This guy can definitely, I think, pull this off.' And so far he's been incredibly disciplined and organized and completely on it from the minute that we started.
Latino Review: What's so different about this character from the ones that you've done before, and are you starting to get pickier when choosing a character?
Owen: It's just such a wild and irreverent script. It's like the thing that is special about this script is that it has very ingenious action. It's not action for the sake of action. It's not just sort of pounding the streets. It's ingenious. There are spins on every piece of action that you haven't seen before. It's like, 'Where did that come from?' It's got great wit about it. It's funny. It's very hard to come down a
film that isn't taking itself seriously. So there's this crazy, irreverent wit to it and I think that at the end of the day if he pulls it off it'll be just such an enjoyable romp. It'll be so wild and extraordinary and it's tongue will be firmly in it's cheek.
Latino Review: Mr. Smith, your character, seems like he could kick the **** out of Bond. He makes Bond seem like a wuss.
Owen: That's a very dangerous thing to say.
Latino Review: There is a bit of a gun control element to this, and I'm curious as to how you satisfy an audience with all that violence going on in the film?
Owen: Well, I think that it's part of the script and is set in the midst of one of the craziest gun fights ever. It's called 'Shoot 'Em Up' for a reason. There is a lot to have against guns and this just has a very wicked sense of humor [Laughs].
Latino Review: How were your days of shooting with Paul [Giamatti]?
Owen: He's fantastic. I was very excited when he said he was going after Paul because, again, Paul is just such an enjoyable person. He's doesn't worry about a thing and he's such an enjoyable actor and he'll be very fresh and witty. So he's very good, very good, and we're so physically different that the standoffs are really funny. It's good.
Latino Review: I have to see him with the comb-over. How is going with Monica [Bellucci]?
Owen: Oh, she's fantastic. She's done some really fantastic things. Monica. Again, that's perfect casting. I said to him when he pulled those two together that that's just about as good as you can get for those parts. It was like a really fantastic beginning to the whole preproduction, getting those two cast, I think.
Latino Review: Michael seems like he would like to have this succeed as it should and have it become a franchise, not like a sequel, but more of a stand alone film after this one. What about you?
Owen: I mean, you have to just wait and see don't you. The thing about Michael is that no one can come up with the stuff that he comes up with. It takes like an original, particular person to come up with this stuff. Like, I don't know how he thinks of some of it. He rang me up with an idea and I thought, 'How did that guy even think about that?' But it's hilarious and funny and ingenious. To take the premise of a guy being put into a series of situations that look impossible to get out of and then come up with these incredibly witty, wild ways of getting out of them is a very ingenious and enjoyable because that's how the film works and if the first one came out and was a big hit I have no doubt that the guy could just keep on thinking up this crazy stuff because he's a one off. He is a genuine original. I honestly sort of think that about him. He's sort of taken a very traditional formula and he's put a very, very fresh spin on it.
Latino Review: Did you do any research for this on assassins and stuff like that?
Owen: No. I just watched a lot of action stuff, and I knew John Woo's work anyway. But I just watched a lot of action stuff, a lot of films that had a lot of gun stuff in it to try and see what looks cool and see what I thought worked, but nothing more than that.
Latino Review: Are you doing most all your own stunts? I just saw you climb the wall on that one.
Owen: Yeah. I mean, I just do what needs to be done, but I've got pretty good with it. I just give everything a go and it's all very well organized and very well put together, but I keep thinking that Val is going to be doing more, but he doesn't. I keep saying, 'When's Val going to get to do some of this?' Michael always prefers me to do it and I always want to deliver for him. So we've done a lot.
Latino Review: You've got some upcoming projects after this. I spoke to Rosario Dawson and she said that you two were going to do 'Sin City,' but now I hear that Robert [Rodriguez] has said that he's going to wait off until Angelina Jolie gives birth. So I guess he's waiting for her to continue. Is that anything that you know about?
Owen: No. I don't know. I haven't spoken to Robert for a long time, and as far as I know he was planning to do '
Sin City' two and three, but I haven't heard anything about it.
Latino Review: And 'Elizabeth,' the sequel?
Owen: Yeah. I'm going straight from this to do that.
Latino Review: What do you play in that one?
Owen: Sir Walter Raleigh. It's quite different from this one [Laughs].
Latino Review: And what's it entail?
Owen: It's set like fifteen years later than the first one.
Latino Review: Do you have a love interest in it?
Owen: Yeah, or well, I mean, sort of.
Latino Review: How original is the book 'Children of Men,' that you're now doing the movie of?
Owen: It's a highly original film. I know that. It's very original and a hugely ambitious project. It's a very big film set thirty years in the future with a very particular vision of the future. It's certainly going to be unlike anything else.
Shoot 'Em Up opens in September 2007
t:
I sincerely apologize
