In any case, his new movie is once again a spectacle like his other films, but this time, instead of a modern adventure, heâs voyaged back 10,000 years to tell his story. Hereâs the synopsis:
In a remote mountain tribe, the young hunter DâLeh (
Driven by destiny, the unlikely warriors must battle prehistoric predators while braving the harshest elements. At their heroic journeyâs end, they uncover a lost civilization and learn their ultimate fate lies in an empire beyond imagination, where great pyramids reach into the skies.
Here they will take their stand against a tyrannical god who has brutally enslaved their own. And it is here that DâLeh finally comes to understand that he has been called to save not only Evolet but all of civilization.
So to help promote the movie, yesterday I attended the international press day as a representative of our partner website Omelete. While I was also able to interview stars
However, while you wonât get to read what the stars said, I do have the transcript for Director Roland Emmerich.
During the roundtable interview, Roland discussed the difficulties of making 10,000 BC and of course I asked many questions about his next âdisasterâ film 2012. In case you havenât heard, Roland just made a deal for the film at Sony and according to Roland, âit will be very expensive, you see the whole world go to shit.â
What was also cool about talking to Roland was asking questions about whether or not heâll get into 3D filmmaking or even digital filmmaking. He was actually quite funny and had a lot to say. While Roland does have a pretty strong German accent, I think youâll understand everything he said. You can click here to listen to the interview as an MP3.
Finally, if you missed the movie clips that we posted a few days ago, click here. And with that...here's Roland.
Roland Emmerich: Hello.
Question: So how was this working in all these fabulous different locations? Did you ever worry aboutâ¦especially in
Roland Emmerich: No. When thereâs a film crew you know all animals leave theâ¦even snakes, you know they are like kind of by the noise from so many people they kind of run away. But actually the most fun was actually finding all these locations, you know becauseâ¦but I also have to say shooting there was not so fun because you never, ever count on something called weather. And so it was nearly like kind of revenge of somebody because on the âDay After Tomorrowâ we had like the worst luck with the weather. Really bad. And for example, in
Q: But you needed snow at least.
Roland: No, I didnât. It was not planned so I was like actually---it was a blessing in disguise. We fought ourselves through it. I would never, ever dared to kind of like do scenes in the snow because we said we have enough problems, and then it was actually great for the look of the movie. Itâs just at the end of the ice age look and itâs very, very cold and thereâs a great contrast to
When youâre directing are you a storyboard person or are you the person to design on the fly?
Roland: You know what? I do it always like I always do a storyboard and this time even did very, very detailed pre-vis and then when I shoot, I throw everything over. Otherwise it becomes very mechanical and it will not work. Itâs also great for the actors so they can see a little bit the scene how it will unfold. But then when you work with actors, they come up with ideas. You come up with ideas and you just wing it.
And with the film, were there any scenes that you cut out due to time or pacing or where there any�
Roland: Thereâs only 1 scene we cut out due to pacing. It was in the village. There was a scene where all these people hide on the rocks and we see how theyâre all like kind of down. Thatâs the only scene which was lost.
And about the story, did you make some kind of historical investigation?
Roland: Well, you know that was a very long journey. It was just started 15 years ago. I saw a documentary about mammoth hunting that interested me and I said this is a very, very cool idea for a movie. But then I worked with Harold on it and it was just a little bit one dimensional at first and then only when I discovered this theory of the lost civilization that I really thought, oh my God, I have a real good story now because it was like a travel in time, you know. And that was kind of like for me the kicker and then we had more or lessâ¦I think itâs more a concept movie than itâs a historical movie. But what we did you know all the animals and all the costumes and settings are all incredibly well researched, but, naturally, the story has a sort of fantastic or fantasy element to it.
You always had interestingâ¦historic images to your writings something about Mayan civilization? I read this on the internet, is that right?
Roland: Yeah, the Mayan calendar ends in 2012 thatâs what itâs about.
What was the most challenging aspect of the visual effect work?
Roland: I actually attempted 7-8 years ago to make this movie and I did some research and we learned itâs not possible yet. So we actually had to wait until now and I can tell you Iâm really very proud of these visual effects because I convinced the studio to give us enormous amounts of time. You know for a studio itâs a big risk because not only itâs expensive itâs like they want to have 2-1/2 years. But Iâm happy that I did it because it took nearly a year to build a mammoth in the computer. A year. And then you have no shot. You have only like a turntable and some sort of software and then you apply this to the shot and that took another year. And when we had our first mammoths we were really, really excited about how it looked but there was good news and bad news. There was the good news, but the bad news it took 12 hours to render one frame. And I said, well what does this mean? I said like anybody good in math? We were really like with a calculator calculated that we cannot finish this movie in time so we had to do something. It was really kind of funny because at one point we said, what could we do? What could we do? Then somebody in the room said maybe less hair. I said what? Then we tried it out you know like 10% less hair, 20% less hair and we realized 40% less hair, you started to see it. So we did like 35% less hair. You know and that made it possible but we still I think 6-8 hours of rendering time per frame. So we had to work really, really carefully that we rendered every mammothâs extra and then whatâs left sometimes the only way to not re-render, you know?
The problem with the hair?
Roland: Yup.
Iâm curious, the films are moving into the 21st century with 3D filmmaking, with Chris Nolan doing some IMAX for âBatmanâ, as a director are you looking forward to taking some of these innovations into your future films?
Roland: Iâve always like tried to be on the forefront of innovation. I think that â10,000 B.C.â has the most real looking hairy animals youâve ever seen. But for example, my new movie you know, I was asked do you want to do this in 3D and I said no, because I looked at the system Cameron developed for Avatar and for me the problem with 3D is I have to wear glasses, and I get roughly about ½ hour or 45 minutes into the movie I had a headache. And then I always say thereâs no real composition. Everything is like in the room and I always have the feeling itâs a certain big object looks like models. For example, in the T3 ride thereâs like a huge truck coming towards you and it looks a model but I know it was real. So Iâm very, very skeptical aboutâ¦and also in the 50âs there was already 3D and this new 3D is the same just done digitally. IMAX, I love because itâs just a bigger format and that is great. Also, especially when you shoot digitally you can have it so that itâs like no grain, which I also really like. I love for example digital projection. I think itâs brilliant.
So would you consider shooting your future films with digital and going away from film and would you consider doing an IMAXâmaking a whole movie in IMAX?
Roland: Yeah, absolutely, because you can do this now with digital. Iâm just a little bit skeptical shooting digital. I would only do this with a film like shot mainly on stages. For â10,000 B.C.â it would have nearly impossible. Then they still have to come up with something to do slow motion.
I have one more question for you but itâs about â2012â. Youâve made a lot of disaster movies. Youâre famous for blowing things up. How are you going to raise the bar with â2012â with blowing things up?
Roland: Well, its like Iâm not blowing up anything there.
Okay. I heard it was a disaster movie.
Roland: It is.
Right. So?
Roland: It will be a natural disaster.
Okay.
Roland: Itâs not blowing up, itâs something else. Explosives, right. You put into a building or an alien shoots something inâthatâs blowing up.
Right.
Roland: This time thereâs no blowing up. Itâs a natural disaster. Well, actually yeah like aâ¦Iâm not saying it! Iâm giving things away.
What kind of historical investigation about the Mayans are you making?
Roland: Well itâs just a fact that the Mayan calendar ends 2012 on the 21st of December, but thatâs only like a side thing. This is only like a part of the story. There are a lot of other people that also said itâs going to end in 2012, you know the I-ching, Nostradamus, a lot of people, the Bible by the way, anyhow.
Did you watch the Raquel Welch film with the similar title?
Roland: Yeah.
What did you think? Is there anything that youâve taken from theâ¦?
Roland: Yeah, when I said I kind of â¦thereâs a warning thatâs what cheesy isâ¦try to avoid cheesy after this movie. I said itâs a little bit like â1 Million BCâ but itâs alsoâ¦look itâs like thisâ for me it was an example and also in âClan of the Cave Bearsâ that when you have a famous actress in a movie or famous actor in a movie it becomes cheesy inevitably and thatâs why I avoided having known actors in this movie and opted for like discovering new actors. Because also when you look at George-Jacques Lewis, âQuest for Fireâ which I thought was a brilliant movieâhas no known actor in there.
When you were casting for this was it a priority to find a blue-eyed actress or did you always thinkâ¦
Roland: I knew this was a contact lens thing, you know, but I was inspired by this very famous photograph of this girl in
Did you look at a lot of actresses before arriving at Camilla?
Roland: I looked at quite some but when I saw Camilla I knew I have my girl. I had actually seen her act 2 or 3 times when she was a girl. And all of a sudden this beautiful woman walks in and I said, wow. She grew. I tested her with Steven and the chemistry was right and I cast them both.
Also on the Internet, I noticed that youâre referred to as the little Spielberg. How would you feel about that one?
Roland: Derogatory term. I told this one to Spielberg and he kind of cracked up laughing. I said they call me the little Spielberg. I mean come on, you know? But you know how this came because somebody in Spiegel (Germany) after my first student film which was a feature film, said oh my God itâs like a Spielberg growing in our homeland.
It just stuck with you.
Roland: What?
On this title.
Roland: Yeah, but itâs taken a lot how the press works. You know what itâs like I mean, I donât want to criticize you guys but thereâs a lot of kind of research going on on the internet and everybody is like copying from everybody else. Sometimes it happens like this, somebody puts something out there for example, Roland Emmerich does Fantastic Voyage, just everybody believes because itsâ written. Nobody asked me and yes it was one of my projects but I have many projects. I have many projects, you know. I have like 10 projects but it was just one. Also wasnât this movie already 15 years ago or 12 years ago. Nobody kind of remembered that, you know, but everybody keeps not asking so your movie is âFantastic Voyageâ thatâs next. I said no. Itâs just this whole thing that yeah, I mean you know and I have to say I like kind of get a lot out of the internet too, for example this whole movie Iâm doing next was inspired by just the phenomenon of the Internet when you kind of like type in Google 2012, you get 240 million hits. Thatâs a lot. And itâs just so many people write about it, believe it that like our world comes to an end 2012. I said wow. This is like kind ofâ¦and then even I kind of said before I will never do a disaster movie again. I said for this idea I have to do it again.
What is the myth based on now the 2012 world?
Roland: Itâs just a coincidence of many very peculiar things, you know. And itâs just a lot of things kind of culminate 2012.
And whatâs the main thing thatâs linked to 2012 that would make people believe that?
Roland: It started with the Mayan calendar. That was like the main thing.
Iâm curious. Is your movie â2012ââwell first of all when are you going to be doing casting for that or announcing casting and are you going big A list or are you going for unknowns?
Roland: No, I donât go real Aâno, actually, why am I saying that? I donât know yet. I mean, I really donât know yet.
And is this going to beâ¦
Roland: Iâm actually meeting on Monday with my casting director.
Are youâ¦is this a mega-budget kind of film or is this aâ¦Iâm just curious the scale of what this is going to be?
Roland: Well, itâs really hard to say. Yes, it will be very expensive, but I think it will be for a price because people who read the script said this is undoable. And I said, well but weâll do it. I mean itâs one of these things that everybody says its undoable because itâs like you know you see the whole world go to shit and itâs kind of one of these things when I write a script and I wrote it again with Harold together, we just said no, weâll not think is itâs doable or not, weâll just write it. Weâll just come up with it. And then weâll figure out how weâll do it. I think itâs worth doing it because itâs also when you have something where you have adrenalin because you are like nervous about it thatâs good. Thatâs a little bit likeâ¦itâs good when actors have this adrenalin when they go on stage. I think they do their best work, you know and for us itâs the same thing, you know.
I know the script went out and there was a lot of people thinking about making it. I believe you ended up with Sony. What was it about Sony that made you pick them?
Roland: Well, itâs always kind of like about release schedule. Thatâs what itâs mainly about.
It seems like you have the perfect formula for the perfect poster, I mean, what do you have in mind when you write the stories because you always have like the children, the romance, the big fatherâ¦
Roland: Well, I have like a computer program at home. I only put in like âstone ageâ you know and â10,000 B.C.â comes out. Itâs a lot ofâ¦first of all as a director you have certain things, you know. Look itâs the same thing when Woody Allenâlook at all his movies. Theyâre very similar. Or like an Alfred Hitchcock had very similarâ¦you know? A certain language you have and you canât escape your own personality. You always come back to the same themes. For example, Iâm obsessed about father/son relationships because I had a very, very good relationship with my dad. He was some sort of mentor to me. And because of that I have a lot of father figure and then you know this wholeâ¦I always wanted to do a hero myth. And just the fact that I know so much about it and tried to re-create it and itâs really, really difficult so we worked very, very hard and very long on the script because it all seems very simple but then when you look at it very careful thereâs a lot of themes in it and everything had to somewhat interact. You know, there is no formula itâs just my taste. Itâs not that I say okay, letâs take this element, this element, this element and boom we have a successful movie. Thatâs not how it works.
(inaudible) new mythology if you like it?
Roland: Yeah, Iâd love to. I mean, Iâm always kind of like saying to everybody whoâ¦thereâs always these distracters who say this is totally unrealistic, you know? And I say, so is âLord of the Ringsâ. Middle earth is not existing, you know. Weâre like artists. I see myself as an inventor of stories and not trying to do documentaries, you know? I also think historical movies are always wrong. Look at a movie I absolutely love is âGladiatorâ. At the end of âGladiatorâ they re-install the Senate. They return to
Donât you think thatâs why people want to go to the movies for nowadays anyway is for escapist entertainment?
Roland: Well it does. I think on one hand escapist but on the other hand I also think films have to have something to do with our life. When they donât reflectâ¦for example Iâm very, very proud, as our hero is actually a hero who unifies. You look very carefully; there are no heroes in this world anymore who unify. Thereâs no Gandhi anymore and thatâs one of the true heroes. People who brought people together.