When you decide to go "Full Frontal," you have to take off morethan just your clothes. The stars of the new Steven Soderbergh filmstripped off some zeroes from their paycheck.
"Everyone got paid scale which is about three grand a week,"Soderbergh says. "I think Julia Roberts made a total of about $3,500for the shoot and Brad Pitt only got $650 because he had to do less.Then again, Brad made up for it at lunch because he eats a lot."
The hottest director in Hollywood laughs while gazing at shotsfrom his upcoming sci-fi movie "Solaris" starring George Clooney.Calling from his office in Los Angeles, Soderbergh says that thereare days like today when he likes the idea of less being more.
Soderbergh follows up his $183 million grossing extravaganza"Oceans' Eleven" with a $2 million, three-week shoot that's only asequel-in-spirit to his 1989 feature debut "sex, lies and videotape."The plot concerns what's real and not real in the land ofmoviemaking. One plot has an actor (Blair Underwood) falling in lovewith a magazine writer (Roberts) assigned to cover him. Meanwhile, awriter for Los Angeles magazine (David Hyde Pierce) gets fired on theday his business executive wife (Catherine Keener) begins to freakout at work.
David Duchovny is an unhappy movie executive stuck in a $500-a-night hotel suite where he calls for a massage and something more. Pitt plays a movie star stuck trying to elevate a lame action flickto new heights.
There are other rumors to clear up. Yes, Duchovny does show thefull monty. "He's naked for one quick shot during a scene where he'slying face up in bed. David was totally game for it, but audienceswill have to go back and freeze frame it to see anything which shouldhelp with DVD sales," Soderbergh quips.
Soderbergh was also game for a new moviemaking experience. He shotthe film on 35mm for a "reality TV" look. "The short productionschedule and the 35mm look was my anecdote to 'Oceans Eleven,' "Soderbergh says. "That movie was this big monster. Afterwards, I wasdesperate to have an experience where all I did all day was deal withactors."
Soderbergh has ascended to a short list of a few elite directorsin Hollywood whom actors mention that they want to work with anyplace, anywhere, any time. Clooney, who has formed a productioncompany called Section 8 with Soderbergh, says the director's appealstarts with the fact that he only chooses cutting edge material.
"Steven is a film snob, so that gets rid of about 90 percent ofthe ideas," Clooney says, laughing. "As for the good ideas, Stevenwill call me and say, 'You know I don't like too many things, but Ilike this and I know how to do it.' I just say, 'OK. Great.' Two dayslater, you're usually scouting locations," the actor says.
Soderbergh adds, "I can't promise the big bucks, but I do giveactors a sense of joy about coming to work. People show up for mebecause they want to be there and I think that feeling comes acrosson the screen, too. You can't fake that emotion on screen.
"I think they like me because I believe in State of the Unionmeetings. Everyone gets to voice their opinion at my meeting,"Soderbergh says. " A lot of directors are like, 'Will you just f------ show up and do this thing the way it's written and stop hasslingme. There are a lot of directors who don't really like actors and I'mnot one of them."
Soderbergh, 39, was born in Atlanta Georgia, as the second of sixchildren. When he was a little boy, his family moved to Baton Rouge,La., where his father Peter worked as the dean of the College ofEducation at Louisiana State University.
After high school, Soderbergh immediately went to Hollywood wherehe worked as a free-lance editor. Discouraged that he couldn't findwork on film sets, he returned to Louisiana and continued to make hisshorts and also began writing scripts.
His first big break was in 1986 when he got an assignment to shoota full-length concert film "Yes: 9012 Live." It earned a Grammynomination which encouraged Soderbergh to write "Winston" in 1987, ashort subject film that later he expanded into his criticallyacclaimed "sex, lies and videotape" (1989), a film that earned himthe Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or Award and an Independent SpiritAward as Best Director. He also received an Oscar nod for BestOriginal Screenplay.
In 1998, he revived George Clooney's sagging film career with "Outof Sight" which was a box office smash. In 2000, he directed thecritically acclaimed back-to-back box office hits, "Erin Brockovich"(2000) and "Traffic" (2000). Both were nominated for Best PictureOscars and Soderbergh also received double Best Director Oscarnominations, winning a statue for "Traffic."
Soderbergh says that he isn't disgusted with the current state ofthe cinema.
"If the movies aren't interesting, I blame the filmmakers. I donot blame the people who are paying to see them. I don't expect theaudience to be visionary. That's not their job. The audience justneeds to show up," he says.
Distributed by Big Picture News, Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment