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Richard Gere on Nights in Rodanthe
By Fred Topel | Image property of Warner Bros Pictures
Nights in Rodanthe is based on a Nicholas Sparks book. That's worked for many movies before, so it should be a well-oiled machine by now. Still, Richard Gere had to give notes before the script was in working shape.
Richard Gere Polishes Up Nights in Rodanthe
"In a way it didn’t give us space to let anything organic happen," said Gere. "It was trying to work it too much in an obvious kind of way. It was all kind of fluffy, out in the air somewhere. I think for me it was probably meeting [director] George [C. Wolfe]. I said, 'Okay, this is a smart guy.; We just talked about movies, story telling, he came over to my office. We spent quite a bit of time, just talking about things in general, just to see where we were coming from. I had a comfort level with him. I said, 'Look, I feel good with this guy. We’ll develop it, we’ll work on it. It won’t be easy, but we’ll find what there is in this material that resonates with us and try and bring something to it.' And it wasn’t easy, believe me. It wasn’t like, 'Here’s the script. Wanna do it or not? Yes, let’s go.' It really was a slow burner. It took quite a bit of time."
One major addition actually involved going back to the source material. In the third act of the film, the two lovers correspond by letters. "That’s interesting, because that’s not part of the original script. That was an addendum, and it was trying to figure out where the movie was in the editing process. In a way, it ended earlier than that. Not in terms of the time, but in terms of our story actually ended earlier. The letters were from a book. I think a lot of this is from the book. They kept us alive as a couple until almost the end of the movie. Which actually wasn’t part of the original structure. The novelist knew that. I guess when we were fashioning the script, I guess we didn’t think that was necessary, but in terms of story telling, the kind of mysterious ways that stories are conveyed."
 Nights in Rodanthe
 Nights in Rodanthe
 Nights in Rodanthe
Gere plays a doctor who comes to Rodanthe for a weekend, staying as the only guest at an inn. Throughout the film, the doctor's tragic past is revealed, and he bonds with the innkeeper. "I think it’s about people who have been through a lot. They know themselves enough. They know what’s emotionally and psychologically real and what isn’t. It’s very hard when you’re a kid to know that. You’re just floating on hormones, but I think these people have a certain sense of dignity and responsibility about them. They listen to each other, can be effected by each other. They’ll trust their basic instincts that they’re going towards the good."
This is the third collaboration between Gere and Diane Lane. It is only through force of will that there have been so few. "I keep trying to find things that I can't do with her. No, because it's so obvious that we should be doing everything together. Every time I read something, it's always Diane, isn't it? I read and go, 'It's Diane, isn't it?' We are both very picky also. We are very picky and don't necessarily work a lot. There was a movie we were going to shoot in Antarctica. Again, 'It's Diane, isn't it?' She was perfect for it. I said, we're going to go down and do a wreckie. Well, after we came back from the wreckie, I didn't want to do it anymore. It was so hard, everything about it. It was hard to get down there, hard to function when you are down there, we were trying to do camera tests. It was impossible and if a storm comes in too you can be stuck there for three months and not be able to work. Yeah, we didn't make that one."
Nights in Rodanthe is out in theaters now.
For the trailer, poster, review and more movie info, go to the Nights in Rodanthe Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Warner Bros Pictures
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