But what I really want to do is direct

[gwyn]

One of my favorite shows on the TiVo season pass list is Sunday Morning Shootout on AMC. It's a half-hour show (it used to stream on Yahoo, but I'm not sure if they still do that or not) about the film industry, hosted by Peter Bart, Variety's editor and a former studio guy, as well as an author, and Peter Guber, who probably has more hits on his resume as a studio chief at Sony and as a producer than Bruckheimer and Silver combined (though unlike those two, he has some fairly high-brow fare in his history). They have really creative guest lists, and usually spend the first few minutes talking about some hot topic or other (though their format seems to continually evolve) before bringing on an interesting guest. This past Sunday they had Melissa Gilbert on why she will not run for SAG president again, and I was shocked at what a thoughtful, intelligent woman she was, how well spoken and knowledgeable about the political issues of Hollywood she seemed. Bart and Guber asked her pointed questions about events and she answered them directly, never obfuscating or launching into polemics.

Their "big" guests for the second part were Rob Cohen, who directed The Fast and the Furious, and Josh Lucas, who stars in Cohen's new movie, Stealth. Now, I have listened to Cohen talk on the commentary track for F&F and I didn't think he was all that smart, but Guber talked about his history and where he came from, and I was kind of gobsmacked to hear him this time -- because he was a very articulate, thoughtful, interesting man with a much more varied and worldly history than I had realized. Before he got into filmmaking, he was running Motown! Who knew? I sure didn't. And I hadn't realized, either, that he had made such varied films; what came out of his remarks, at least what I picked up on, was that he enjoys action pictures for the challenge of trying to insert character and story into something that is more about kinetics, and that he also enjoys the challenge of figuring out what to do with the kinetics.

I was glad to hear him talk, very briefly, about his work on Miami Vice, because he directed some of my favorite eps of that show. I really do think that he is a better director than he's allowed himself to be; by that I mean, I understand the attraction to action films (I have it, myself), but I think that the scripts he works with are often beneath what he can do as a visualizer, and so he has frequently relied on the same tricks over and over. As stupid as F&F is, it is a gorgeously shot movie, and it has very rich characters for something that's essentially shallow. He smartened it up a lot with his flair for visuals and his cinematographer's eye; it is way better than the B movie its genetic code set for it. He seems to be a very interesting man, too, who really is energized by working with young people. All in all, I came away with a lot different feeling for him, and wish that it was him and Vin Diesel and Paul Walker working together again on another project, because I would bet they really could recapture that magic. I think they have the mad skilz. (mlyn, I can keep it on the TiVo if you want for the next time you're around; I still have that docu on the set designers waiting for you.)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I consider Cohen the "King" of the popcorn movie. (Had he directed The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, they would've been watchable instead of gawdawful.)

But yes, I would like to see him try something new. Not a period drama, but perhaps an action-adventure swords and sandles kind of movie, or perhaps a western. I'd like to see what he could do with a *good* script.

My San Diego Con fantasy is that somehow, someday, Rob Cohen comes down and I bump into him. After about 45 seconds of fangirl gush, I've got a lot of questions I'd like to ask him about his choices/style/influences and dream projects.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

dammit, I forgot to login.

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

I saw that too and was also impressed by Melissa Gilbert. I remember the 2000 SAG election between her and Valerie Harper that was such a squeaker. Valerie Harper gave a long hateful speech accusing Melissa Gilbert of being a space alien and conspiring with the Canadians to destroy America.

I really wish I had a video file of that speech.

It gave me the meta-vid-bunny of doom. I could use "Blame Canada" and have clips of Stargate folks corrupting the children interspersed with Valerie ordering various LA people to stop them. I think I could use the footage of Melissa from B5 with all of the Shadow creatures.

It seems like an awful lot of work to go through for a joke that no one would get but me.

But I can dream.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Ooo, keep it please? I will most definitely come down this weekend to watch them both and let you take them off TiVo, if you have the time.

Thank you so much. I wasn't sure if you'd done anything about the set designer docu at all. I'm so touched you kept it all this time.