The chick to the right... terrified. The chick to the left... doesn't
give a damn.
Cruise and Spielberg Give More Worlds
Cruise and Spielberg were willing to take time out of their War of the
Worlds production schedule to sit down and shoot the shit about their
thoughts and progress on, well... War of the Worlds.
Here is the second dose of questions answered for Worlds. You can
also check out Part 1 of the
War of the Worlds interviews. Interview transcript posted by Joblo.
What attracted you to this, Tom?
Cruise: The story, The same things. I mean, for me, War
of the Worlds was always a book that I really enjoyed and I felt
that the story could be relevant, that the opportunity for character, it’s,
all the elements are exciting. Obviously to work with my friend again…
Spielberg: And you’re a dad in this…
Cruise: Yeah, I’m playing a father in this, you know. How
much of the story am I allowed to give away? (Laughs) All of it! You know,
to play a father, the things that are very important to me in my life. It’s
the biggest, smallest movie that we’ve made.
Spielberg: I agree, that’s very accurate.
Cruise: It’s, as an actor very challenging…
Spielberg: When I first saw Lawrence of Arabia, I thought
that was the biggest smallest movie I’d ever seen. It has the most intimate,
sensitive, personal, up-close story, and yet it was told against some of
the greatest sneaks we’d ever beheld in 70 mm. In a sense – I’m not comparing
our movie to that movie, because I’ve never made a movie as good as Lawrence
of Arabia…yet – but I’m just saying that we have a similar dichotomy of
points of view.
What’s going to be new and what’s going to be an homage?
Spielberg: They’re going to have to see it and figure it
out themselves.
Cruise: They’re going to have to experience it.
Spielberg: It’s nothing you can really describe. The whole
thing is very experiential. The point of view is very personal – everybody,
I think, in the world will be able to relate to the point of view, because
it’s about a family trying to survive and stay together, and they’re surrounded
by the most epically horrendous events you could possibly imagine.
Although the George Powelll version is considered a classic, a lot
of people today are bothered by the “God Saved Us” ending. What have you
thought about in terms of your own version of the ending?
Dakota Fanning is going to have a larger film portfolio than some of the
big actors.
How dark did you want to get?
Spielberg: It doesn’t have the…
Cruise: Gore...
Spielberg: …the sense of blithe adventure of Independence
Day. It’s not a wonderful kind of gung-ho…it’s not Starship Troopers and
it’s certainly not Independence Day, you know? We take it much more seriously
than that. The film is ultra-realistic, as ultra-realistic as I’ve ever
attempted to make a movie, in terms of its documentary style. But at the
same time, it’s full of the kind of Hollywood production values that the
audience is demanding these days. And I think it’s the combination, the
blend, of these huge events visually and this kind of documentary story,
personal story at the center of it, that gives it this very unique--
Cruise: ...very original.
Spielberg: -- approach to the material.
Cruise: Really exciting. I like stories. I like adventure
stories; I like stories that will take you somewhere personally, but also
will entertain you. It is--
Spielberg: This is funny, too. There are parts of it that
are very funny.
Cruise: I like movies, no matter how dark they are, I’m
always looking for humor and character, because I think when I hit those
moments, it’s like moments that affect me, because I find families and life
to be quite funny. Even though I’ve always had a life that…when I was growing
up, things were really tough but we always laughed. There’s always things
that you find, the darkest moment, humor. And I think that when I look at
Steven’s movies – you look at Close Encounters, you look at Jaws– that kind
of character, it just releases…I love a filmmaker when he does that, because
I can identify with it. I relate to it. And they’re not pushing it so far
that I lose an emotional connection with the film.
Spielberg: I felt that way about Jaws. When I made Jaws,
I felt that if I didn’t create the humor, the audience would find inappropriate
places to laugh. And I felt the same with this picture. We’ve created a
humor, but the humor comes out of the natural insanity of this family that’s
simply on an odyssey for survival--
Cruise: Now, maybe some people – here’s the thing: maybe
we’re the only ones who think that it’s funny. (laughs quite loudly) There
is those moments on the set where you’re going, “Maybe we are the only ones
who are laughing at this moment.” And that’s ok. We’ll always know.
War of the Worlds Super Bowl ad spot.
Spielberg: There’s a lot of little moments throughout the
film just like that one.
Are you a Yankees fan in real life?
Cruise: Yes, of course I am.
Spielberg: I’m a Boston fan.
Cruise: Yeah, of course I’m a Yankees fan.
Spielberg: But it’s very contemporary, the film. It’s very
much today’s news, I’m hoping.
Are the machines tripods?
Spielberg: Yes.
Aliens practical or CG?
Spielberg: That’s the only secret I’m going to give you,
because you know what?
Cruise: I was shocked that you said that.
Spielberg: I know.
Cruise: I was shocked. I went, “He just said that!”
Spielberg: I know.
Cruise: You and I had a conversation. You said, “Don’t
say anything (inaudible). Are you going to say anything to anyone? No, but
you tell me if you’re going to say anything to anyone. I’ll tell you if
I’m going to say something to someone.”
Spielberg: You know what? We have so many surprises in
this movie that that is just assumed. I’ve read on the internet that everybody
assumes there’ll be tripods anyway. There’s not one message (board) that
assumes we’ll be doing George Powell’s boomerangs with the green lights
on both wingtips, you know? There’s not been one mention that maybe there’ll
be flying saucers. Absolutely I wouldn’t do that, because that’s one of
my homages, certainly my respect to the forward-thinking H.G. Wells.
Tom, what can you tell us about your character?
Cruise: He’s a Yankees fan. (laughter) He’s a father. (To
Spielberg) What can I say here?
Is he a mechanic?
Cruise: Yeah. He’s a mechanic. He’s a dockworker; he’s
a mechanic.
Spielberg: He works with the…what was it called?
Cruise: Cranes. These big cranes. These huge, giant cranes.
Spielberg: They move the cargo containers off the ships
and into the trucks.
Tom, are you still doing Iron Man?
Cruise: It's not happening. Not with me, no.
Why?
Cruise: I don't know. It just...they came to me at a certain
point and...when I do something, I wanna do it right. If I commit to something,
it has to be done in a way that I know it's gonna be something special.
And as it was lining up, it just didn't feel to me like it was gonna work.
I need to be able to make decisions and make the film as great as it can
be, and it just didn't go down that road that way. It was two years before
we decided to make this. There’s a commitment.
Obviously, I trust Steven – he is the greatest storyteller, the most prolific
storyteller, cinema has ever known. So working with him, there’s a trust
and an excitement just in that. What is Steven gonna do with that? And I
want that with all my films. I’ve never just made a movie to make a movie.
I’ve always made it because I was really interested in the story. I wanted
to make that kind of picture and see what it would take. And it was an adventure
for me. And for that it just wasn’t panning out, so far. As of yet.
Steven, what’s with the “Beach” hat you’re wearing?
Spielberg: I graduated from Long Beach State and we call
ourselves Beach, so that’s, it’s my beach hat.
Transformers?
Spielberg: It’s happening. We’ll announce the director
in three weeks, three or four weeks…
For trailer, clips, movie stills, and synopsis, go to the War
of the Worlds Movie Page |
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