RAISING KANE

Archive Interviews: Joe Wright

 
 

At the 2007 Toronto Film Festival, I had a chance to sit down with Joe Wright, a filmmaker I've admired since first praising his loose and lively adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice in 2005. His adaptation of Ian McEwan's Atonement, which managed to make an emotionally compelling, visually inventive film out of one of the most dense, intellectual modern novels, proved to be one of my favorite films of 2007. During our conversation, Wright and I talked about his unique directing style, which among other things utilizes some clever stream-of-consciousness techniques and overt stylistics such as complex tracking shots, and we talked about the challenge of adapting a novel that was shortlisted for every book prize imaginable. We began by talking for a few minutes about what we've seen so far at the festival -- he recommended Control -- but eventually we got down to business.

Archive Interviews: Frank Darabont

 

As someone who practically learned to read by inhaling the Stephen King hardbacks my parents had lying around the house, interviewing long-time King collaborator (and respected filmmaker in his own right) Frank Darabont for The Mist in 2007 was one of the most fun experiences I've had on the job. Darabont was very gracious with his time and unguarded in a way that few filmmakers are, and we talked about the many pitfalls of adapting a beloved King story, as well as the overall partnership that Darabont and King have cultivated in order to continue bringing high-quality adaptations of the maestro's best books to the big screen. Darabont's time in Hollywood is already so storied that I couldn't possibly ask everything I wanted, but for an under-30-minutes interview, it's not bad.

Archive Interviews: Rosamund Pike



As mentioned in the post below, I want to archive some of the pieces I've enjoyed doing over the years, and to a large degree that means interviews conducted for various film outlets. A good place to start, I think, is an unpublished interview that has lived only on my desktop since it was conducted. In September 2007 I did a semi-long 1.1 with Rosamund Pike, one of my favorite actresses, at the Toronto Film Festival. This was for the Holocaust guilt film Fugitive Pieces, and as I recall I had a hard time selling the piece because everyone lost interest after the film had trouble picking up distribution. The interview naturally covers Pieces, as well as Pike's partially self-stoked reputation as a neo-Hitchcockian blonde and her ambitions for the future.