Iâm sitting in a Chinese restaurant outside the press theater at Sundance as I write these words. Why am I doing this? Because they have free wi-fi and mediocre Chinese food. Clearly this is the place I want to be updating Collider from....
Anyway. Arriving this Friday is a crazy action ride and itâs called Smokin' Aces. Itâs the first film from Joe Carnahan in almost five years and itâs a welcome departure from all the Oscar fare and award bullshit going on right now. Smokin' Aces is pure and simple a roller coaster of action and entertainment.
The premise is pretty simple. Jeremy Piven plays Buddy 'Aces'
What Joe Carnahan does differently and what will either make you love or hate this film is have the movie take on the personality of who is on screen while you are watching their character. When you have a someone serious on screen the film acts like a typical movie, but when you have some of the crazy hit men racing around, the film takes on their personality. He accomplishes this by altering the camera work and editing to reflect their personalities. For me it works, but Iâll admit it was a bit jarring at times.
If you want to see a fun action flick I suggest checking out Smokin' Aces. Solid performances and a hell of a cast will keep you entertained and amused. Also it has one of the funniest bit parts Iâve seen in a long time, youâll know it when you see itâ¦.
Now for that interviewâ¦
Most of the studios do roundtables, but Universal is famous for their press conferences. What that means is instead of eight or so people asking questions we have twenty or thirty trying to get their voice heard. And each person usually has an agenda. Thatâs why when you read a transcript of a press conference the questions can be extremely varied. Thankfully with Mr. Carnahan they gave us a lot of time so everyone was able to get at least a question in.
He talks about all the important stuff â like how he was attached to MI3 for awhile and how that went, how his brother is now an up and coming screenwriter, how he put this crazy cast together, what heâs doing next, all the usual stuff.
You can either read the interview/press conference or you can listen to it by clicking here. The file is an MP3 so it will be easy to put on your iPod or portable player.
And before reading or listening to this interview please know that spoilers are discussed.
Joe Carnahan: Gees, I feel like Iâm at the Watergate hearings. Yes, I was one of the original five! Do I do anything?
No, youâre all set.
Joe Carnahan: Okay, all right man.
Itâs good to see you again.
Joe Carnahan: Good to see you too man.
Almost more interesting than this project are all the ones that almost happened [along the way].
Joe Carnahan: That didnât happen? Ha ha! What are you talking about? I donât knowâ
Just tell us about why itâs been so hard for you to connect with something and what came together for this?
Joe Carnahan: Well, people in this town donât like me. Thatâs oneâno Iâm kidding there! No, thatâs going to go on, somebodyâs going to take that literally and be like, âThis asshole actually said no one likes him.â No, you know what? It was, you know, I had the fifteen months on
It wonât be another five years.
Joe Carnahan: It wonât be another five years, I promise you. In fact, Iâm doingâif things go well, Iâm going to do something almost immediately with Reese Witherspoon, which will be a lot of fun. And then I do White Jazz at the end of next year with George Clooney, which is again, my brother adapted it, I got to work with him on it. So, no, if this business will have me, I will continue to make films and not wait so long in between them. So, itâs a long-ass answer. That was really long, Iâm sorry guys.
Joe, when you were writing the script, did you have the editing in mind? And then afterâor while you were directing, was there something in the editing process that you saw?
Joe Carnahan: Yeah, I mean, Rob Frazen who cut Smoking Aces had come off of Nicole Holofcener, who I love, who, you know, like he had cut Lovely and Amazing and Friends With Money, so Rob is like a behavioralist, which is what I love, because Iâm not. So I knew, you know, a lot of sequences were designedâthey had to be because we shot that film in forty days. So if you go in there, and kind of go, âAh, Iâm not sureâput a camera up there in the corner,â youâre dead. So I was reallyâI had a real strong sense of what I wanted to do, because necessity kind of makes you. Iâm by nature, kind of lazy. I mean, you know, Iâll sit around for a long time if I can. So, Iâm going right back to this question over here, but no, I really did approach it with kind of knowing the way I was going to put it together. And also, which is what makes the movie either good or bad, or interesting or not interesting, I was really going for shooting characters and editing sequences according to the persona of those particular characters. You know, you look at the Tremor brothers, those guys watched The Matrix fifty times. So when I shot themâand they watched [Sir Guillioni] movies. So when I shot them I made them like this kind of like slow motion, and kind of overwrought, and you know, they want to shoot guys who are on fire. Itâs this cartoonishâbut youâre going from that back to Ryan Reynolds trying to resuscitate [Ray] and Taraji Henson in this tearful kind ofâso it was a conscious decision knowing that it was going to require an audience to go from first gear to fifth gear without necessarily feeling this big speed change, you know. But at the same time itâs like, well, Iâd rather do that than like go right down the middle and play it safe and say, âWell, you know, Iâm worried because people may not connect.â So there was a lot of those decisions made. And certainly that fell intoâI knew how I was going to cut it, you know, that some stuff that I would hold on because of the character, and other things I wouldnât. Good sir?
So letâs talk about how did you go about assembling this incredible ensemble of actors? And can you follow up telling us what youâre doing with Reese?
Joe Carnahan: You know, the actorsâI mean, listen, you know, this is the other thing I learned really, from
Joe, you grew up, or lived a lot around Tahoe.
Joe Carnahan: Yeah.
You chose that on purpose. I wondered, you scared some hotel patrons with âThe windows are going to blow out,â in the memo. Did you have to deal with any locals that you grew up with on this movie? And could you just talk a little bit about shooting it up there where you [were familiar with it].
Joe Carnahan: Yeah, I mean, listen, like I sayâitâs funny, Iâve alwaysâI love Tahoe, but when someone asks me, like, describe Tahoe, I say, well, you know, the south shore there itâs like, you know, if the gaming industry took a dump in godâs country, thatâs that section of Tahoe! It is a unbelievably, majestically, beautiful piece of real estate. And against it you have this array of kind of gawdy glass towers and high rises and stuff. But I thought it was such a uniquelyâit hadnât been filmed in a way that I think is, you know. Itâs like, and itâs funny because for being a place thatâs so you know, exquisitely beautiful, itâs like, considered the last stop in an entertainerâs career. You know what I mean? Like if you wind up in Tahoe, man, itâs over. You know what I mean? That means
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Joe, working with Ben Affleck, was that character originally conceived as sort of a Janet Leigh in Psycho? And where was he in this comeback trial that heâd been on while he was making the film.
Joe Carnahan: You know what? He wasâBen, just having spent time with him, heâs you know, one of the funniest, brightest, he really is. Just got this incredibly, kind of acerbic wit. And he understood like, the importance of dying, you know, for lack of a better word. He knew that it would be likeâthat it would be a shock and that people would actually almost kind of get off on this idea that weâre constructing the kind of the haggard, beleaguered bail bondsman who you think youâre going to ride the movie with. But what I wanted to do, you know, for you guys, or for the viewers is really put you on incredibly uneven footing. So you think, man, if he can go out, nobodyâs safe, you know what I mean? So, yeah, it was absolutely constructed. And then I remember talking to Ben, and thinking, god, what a greatâthat would beâand he completely responded to it. He just got it. He got that, you know, that he was going to be counted on to kind of narrate it, and youâre thinking, oh man, okay, whatever your feelings are about Ben, see, I love Ben, and I think he acquits himself so beautifully because there is that world weary thing to him. And you know, this idea of like, the comeback. You know, for me, you know, I wasnât aware that he was everâbeyond being disparaged at different turns and who isnât, you know, that he was on, that he needed to come back, because I think the guy is as vital and as viable now as an actor as he ever was. In fact I think even more so because heâs now a father and a husband and just, you know, wrote and shot his own directorial debut. So I think that if anything, heâs even more kind of energized, I think. And I think that, you know, getting the nod in
Hi again!
Joe Carnahan: Hey, itâs come back around!
Weâve seen so much gun violence on film, how did you conceive of different ways to portray that?
Joe Carnahan: You know, itâs funny, because I never want to, like I was saying earlier, this idea of the, you know, the characters kind of influencing the way that the film was shot and the way the violence that you depict and that. You know, I think that it has been done so much, so I think doing it in a way that was appropriate for each section. You know, itâs like, listen, to me itâs like having a thesis statement, you know. And I donât pretendâI can be a pretty dim bulb, man. I mean, Iâm not the smartest person walking the earth. So if I donât have a clear kind of mandate, or I donât create something for myself, to like, let me kind of guide the film by, then it gets very confusing and muddled. So when I went out I thought, well, you know, for Alicia and Taraji itâs very much aâthat is a very real situation as it is for Ryan. So you know, when that guy gets hit with that 50 caliber, you know, thatâs essentially whatâs going to happen. I mean, you actually fly apart. But I just couldnât, you know, it was such aâI wanted it to be really raw and nasty and have the sense of just absolute chaos, kind of exploding. And in the same way that thereâs a suddenness and a very violent, kind of vicious thing between Ray and Nestor Carbonell in the elevator, and then you know, you get the Tremor Brothers and that kind of you know, spectacle in the hallway with them and the security guys. And then you have the Tremor Brothers early in the film with Ben and those guys, and again, thereâs that, you know, of the handfulâIâve been lucky in my live that I havenât really been involved in a tremendous amount of violence. I mean, I can count the fistfights Iâve been in on one hand. You know. So Iâll never pretend itâs like some kind of hardass, you know, that went into bars looking for fights. But of those momentsâand so you know, thereâs been two of them that have been pretty extreme. You know, violence for me has this suddenness, and this immediacy, and then itâs gone. You know, very rarely is it something you linger on, or whatever. So, I just wanted the depiction of it to be that way. And itâs not, in a lot of ways itâs not dissimilar from the stuff in Narc, this very sudden kind of, you know, eruptions of that. You know. And this is the first time I think Iâve actually consciously stylized a gunfight, or gun, you know, which I normally wouldnât do because I just think itâsâthereâs part of it that I think is you know, it can border on irresponsibility, you know, because we do, you know, we have such a love affair with firearms, you know, and I think it, you know, it can lead to bad things if itâs done, you know, with this overly kind of glamorousâyou know. But you know, well, you say that, you say that youâre immediately a hypocrite. Well, Iâm fully aware of that, you know. So. Thatâs a hell of a way to end a question. Iâm a hypocrite. Next question!
Can you talk about how the concept of the ADD crazy karate kid came about?
Joe Carnahan: Itâs funny my brother is a screenwriter now. Heâs actually becoming very successful. He wrote this film called âThe Kingdomâ in which Jamie Fox just did for Universal and wrote called âLions for Lambsâ which oddly enough Tom Cruise is going to be in. My younger brother. That was really based on a kid that we grew up with. Iâm not going to name him for fear that Iâll get sued. But, no a kid that I grew up with and then my brother. My brother was an admitted freak when he was a kid. Listen, did he get an erection throwing punches at people, no. Was he on Riddlin? No. It was my need to kind of insert some desperate kind of comic relief in there. Also I was like what if this kid is throwing punches and he literally became aroused. That would be either really disturbing or really funny or both. When heâs walking away from Martin Henderson at the end doing that robot s**t, that was my brother when we were kids. Thatâs the kind of annoying stuff he would do when we were kids. I knew people would either go with it or really think it was funny as hell or it would bother the hell out of them and completely polarize people. Thatâs where that came from. When she calls him Boogie, that was actually the nickname of this kid that we grew up with that we knew was just a freak. I just remember him being a kid and always having nunchucks and his mother was nuts. I remember her running out one time, Iâll never forget, running out when we were playing street football and she yells to him to come inside and watch his brother because sheâs playing Burger
This is the first movie for Alicia Keys and Common. How did you get them to take the part and were they fast learners?
Joe Carnahan: They were really fast learners and really, really available and open to the process. I was a fan of Aliciaâs obviously musically and I went to see her in
The cinematography was great. Were the card tricks your idea?
Joe Carnahan: Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Itâs also the kind of the idea that when theyâre in that bathroom, Common and Jeremy, when those characters are in that bathroom having that kind of heart to heart. Itâs the idea of this illusion and slide of hand and of whatâs real. I always wanted to create this kind of impression that maybe what Jeremyâs character, what Buddy
You had James Ellroy at the screening the other night. Did he give you a reaction to the film?
Joe Carnahan: Iâm always dreading what Ellroy is going to say. Heâs such a nut. I have not spoken to him. Itâs funny because James canât bear to sit still. I think I got him in his outside limit of where heâs actually willing to sit in one place. I think my brother had to coral him a couple of times because they were sitting next to each to other. Like I was saying the other night, no one has had a bigger impact on me creatively, certainly writing wise as Ellroy. So to be able to participate in something like 'White Jazz' is extraordinary knowing that something is very dear and near to James. It obvious has legions of fans to those books and trying to honor that and at the same time knowing there are certain things you need to contemporize and certain things that are not sacred. I have not solicited his opinion. My brother said he really dug it and was mumbling something as he left so Iâm sure Iâm going to hit him up later for his definitive kind of opinion.
Can you talk about your approach to White Jazz?
Joe Carnahan: The great thing about it is that the script really deposits a complete antihero. George's [Clooney] decision to play a guy who murders an innocent man kind of wontedly and with a great kind of violence 10 minutes into the movie. To have a guy thatâs that much of a gamer as Clooney is. My approach to it is not going to be like '
Can you talk about your process for writing a script? Are you a 9-5 guy?
Joe Carnahan: Oh brother no. You know what it is, I have to get into a real rhythmic. I went to work on this â