Back before 'Brick,' I wrote a short film that I never ended up shooting: hit men in the present who work for a mob in the future who send their victims back in time. A guy is sent his future self, he lets him run, and the whole short was them chasing each other across the city. That sat in a drawer for 10 years until after I made 'Brothers Bloom.
I'd love to do an action movie. Something with lots of stunts. Anything fast and dangerous and involving guns.
I used to pretend that I was Tom attacking Jerry, who was drawn on the ball.
I spent a lot of Saturday night on BBC television, being chased around by yellow rubber balls.
If I'm a genre writer, I'm at the edge. In the end, they do work like genre fiction. You have a hero, there's a love interest, there's always a chase, there's fighting of some kind. You don't have to do that in a novel. But you do in a genre novel.
I got in trouble in film school at USC because one of my Super-8 movies there, in the first semester, involved a snowmobile chase scene. I made an action scene, and they were like, 'That wasn't what you were supposed to be doing.'
What the hell did I do in the 80's? Midnight Run. A perfect movie. Just a perfect movie.
When you have Liam Neeson in a film, no matter how good everyone else is, it's a Liam Neeson film. And if there's wolves, and you're running, it's about Liam Neeson running from wolves.
I'd love to do a cop film in America. That's a genre I absolutely adore.
I like crime thrillers. I like heist movies.
The first act is the easiest to plot. The second act is always the hardest to plot. Generally a good, you know, sometimes the third act can be difficult because you can get into a rut in the third act - everybody runs to their Corvette, has a chase, and you catch the bad guy.
The challenge in most car chases is you're trying to hide the fact that it's not the actor driving.
It's a balance. Like, we are shooting the big car chase at the end and it's me with everybody. And I got my stunt coordinator who shot some stuff and I'm like, you are right next to me, why don't we do it together.
I had to learn how to drive a cement truck because there is a whole car chase with cement trucks, so I had to learn how to drive a cement truck. I don't like these things, but I'm not an idiot. I can do it.
If you're going to make a science fiction movie, then have a hover craft chase, for God's sake.
