Izay: You’ve got quite a few writing
credits, as well as directing. Have you always been a writer or is just that
you wanted the control that comes with creating your own story?
Lee: Both are probably correct. I was
writing a lot before I started writing for films. I always enjoyed writing and
then when I started writing for films, I found the writing aspects, in many
ways, is the only true creative aspect of the process. The rest of the process
is quite interpretive. Actors interpret,
directors interpret, production designers interpret; we interpret the words on
the page. It’s one of the aspects of the process that you are left to your own
devices, and vices, so that you can actually work quite freely. It’s probably
the most liberating aspect of the entire process. Of course, there is control.
You can design a picture before you shoot. Or if you think of actors you’d like
to work with, or actors who can capture the moment that you’re envisioning on
the page. So, that very much is a control thing, but for me, I enjoy the freedom
of creating a vision. I very much enjoy that.
Izay: Do you have cast members you would
like as you’re doing the writing?
Lee: I definitely have archetypes in
mind. And from the archetypes, whether it’s subconscious or conscious, the
archetypes begin to manifest themselves in the articulation of particular
personas and names. But I think you write in archetypes first, before thinking
of particular actors, whether we consciously do it or not. Because the
archetypes represent a particular type of energy, or device, or momentum, and
that exists for the story. And if that device needs to be represented in a
human form, I begin to envision the particular face of an actor.
Izay: A
Dark Truth had political issues in the screenplay, and Breakout has environmental ones. Are these issues which have a
personal significance as you are writing? Do you intentionally integrate issues
into your genre films?
Lee: Very much so. What I like to do is
take issues of importance, be it spiritual, political, sociological, monetary,
whatever, and I like to find the heaviest issue you can deal with and then tell
it in the most physically dynamic way. For example, if you had a scene
discussing politics with a person, if you take the extreme dynamic level it
could be two officers interrogating, water-boarding, a member of Al Qaeda. Then
the political views are articulated as a physical thing within the scene. I
like to find those moments of friction, and explore what the film wants to say
in the realm of the frictional conflict.
Izay: What was the seed of inspiration for
Breakout?
Lee: I think there it was the idea of
ends versus means. To what extent are we willing to put ourselves. For example,
Nelson Mandela. How many years was Nelson Mandela in prison for? 27 years. He
had chances when he was in prison; if he had capitulated, in a signed statement
he was wrong, he would have gotten out. But he believed so strongly in what he
was doing that the objective justified the means in which he was suffering.
That was one of the themes in Breakout
that I wanted to explore. There was a great film called Witness with Harrison Ford, many years ago. That film started out
as an episode for “Gunsmoke.” Witness
started out as a single episode, but it was never made for “Gunsmoke,” and it
morphed into this Academy Award-winning film. Another film I’ve always really
liked, that I wanted to explore in this, was Deliverance. The thing I find interesting about that movie… the
rednecks, they weren’t doing anything wrong. It was acceptable morality in
their world, right? I love Dominic’s character in Breakout. When he’s trying to kill the kids and their father, he
sees it as God’s will. I really like he can embrace a religious philosophy that
no matter what they are doing, he thinks they’re right. Look at Islamic
extremism. Look at Catholic extremism! People think the Spanish Inquisition was
just a few years; it lasted almost 700 years. The final person put to death in
the Spanish Inquisition was in Mexico
City in 1850. It’s pretty amazing. So, anyway those
were the themes I wanted to explore in Breakout.
And stories I wanted to tell. Deliverance
is an amazing film, and that scene is
an amazing scene. And Witness is an
amazing film. So, those are themes I wanted to explore, and also the aspects of
‘ends-versus-mean.’ Those are all important to me, in terms of looking at this
film.
Lee: It was, just in terms of humping the
gear around. We were humping a lot of hills and rivers and stuff. Even if we
weren’t that far in, a half-a-mile or whatever over woods and rocks, it was
basically just the movement of gear that was difficult. And also having the
cast, in some of the shots, move over distances. It’s difficult to coordinate
moving the cast back into position ‘A.’ So, if I’m like “Let’s do that take
again,” if the canoes were at point ‘A’ and they’ve moved 500 yards down the
river, to get that canoe back up the river takes a lot of time and energy.
So…patience, patience, patience. There’s a lot of dead time when you’re doing
something like that. If you’re doing the big master take, you can’t hurry that.
Getting into position in the morning took longer, getting out took longer, and
the individual master takes took time themselves.
Izay: As far as casting goes, I noticed
that you worked with Dominic Purcell again in your upcoming film, A Fighting Man. Can we hear a little about that? It isn’t based on
your days as a bare-knuckle boxer, is it?
Lee: (laughs) No… I really like this
film. It’s basically all set in the ring. Dominic plays an older fighter, 43
years of age, whose been retired for four years. He’s not a very good fighter;
he’s just never been knocked down. And he’s proud of that one thing. He comes
back because he needs the money; his mother is dying and he wants to take her
back to Ireland
one last time. And he ends up fighting this young kid, 20 years of age, called
King Solomon. It’s a story of the old and the young meeting in the ring, and
what they come to mean to each other. It’s a story about them earning the
respect of each other in most brutal of circumstances.
Izay: What boxing films influenced your
making of A Fighting Man?
Lee: I like Raging Bull a lot. The boxing in that, at least from my
perspective, leave some things to be desired. But it’s a great boxing film and
very much influenced me in many ways. Also, The
Champ, a Jon Voight film, another great film. But again, if you look at the
boxing by today’s standards, seems to be lacking. But the heart is very
substantial. That was a big film, in terms of significance of heart and spirit
in the ring. The first Rocky was a
great boxing film, and then I think a lot of the other ones were less boxing
and something more of an event. The first Rocky
was influential in many ways, and Dominic Purcell’s character certainly has
echoes of Stallone’s Rocky.
Izay: What about your stylistic influences
when it comes to the actual boxing? Are there films in which you do like the
way they approached it?
Lee: I think I like aspects of the films.
I like certain aspects of Raging Bull;
I liked certain aspects of the first Rocky.
Those are films that I liked certain aspects of, stylistically. I wanted to
make the film quite real in terms of the coverage of the fighting. I had the
fighters training in the ring, learning the choreography of the boxing four
months out before the filming started. So these guys knew the boxing so well, I
could film this in its entirety in a wide shot and the boxing would actually
play. The trainer who was working with both fighters and acting as the primary
choreographer was a great fighter himself, and I used him as the referee in the
fight.
Izay: Any other projects you are working
on right now?
Lee: Yeah, there are a few films. A film
called Christian Soldier, which is in
development. It deals with ethics in extremely violent situations. I like the potential
of that, though not a lot of work has been done on that yet; and I think the
title is compelling. Also a film that David Peoples wrote, that I did the last
draft of. David Peoples, of course, who wrote Blade Runner and Unforgiven,
so that’s a pretty substantial film. There’s a film I’ve been working on with
the United Nations for the last four years; it deals with water deprivation.
The word ‘news’ comes from North, East, West, South, and so I took that as a
template for this film, in which there is water deprivation in different parts
of the globe that become interconnected. And we have A Fighting Man in the post stage right now and my editor is Bill
Steinkamp. Bill did Scent of a Woman,
A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Fabulous Baker
Boys; he was Sydney Pollack’s editor for twenty-years. I consider it a
great privilege to be working with him as my editor and co-conspirator.
Izay: When can we look forward to seeing A Fighting Man?
Lee: I would imagine next spring. We’ll be
finished before the end of this year. I think we start to mix it two months
from now, and then the picture should be completely finished and we’ll be
working with Sony for distribution. It’s a hell of film, really moving story.
Famke Janssen is in the film, Dominic is in there, of course, James Caan, Kim
Coates, Louis Gossett Jr., Adam Beach…It’s a pretty impressive cast.
Izay: I look forward to seeing that.
Lee: I want you to see it. And after you
watch it, call me and let’s talk about that film.
Breakout was
released on DVD on September 17th through Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment. Also, A Dark Truth is
available now on Instant Netflix, Redbox, and on DVD and Blu-ray.
