It amused me to take a downtown 6 train before attending a roundtable conversation with director Tony Scott. That’s the very train that gets hijacked in The Taking of Pelham 123. Wait, why is a downtown 6 called 'Pelham 123'? See the movie.
Scott appeared at the head of a conference table in a gray hoodie and eyeglasses almost as slick as Denzel Washington’s from the film. He answered a barrage of questions from the online NY press.
Did they really shoot in the New York City subway system? Absolutely. The Taking of Pelham 123 had unprecedented access, with night shoots lasting months with “real toys.” Every other film you’ve seen in the NYC subways, says Scott, uses fake sets, but the MTA gave him incredible cooperation, “probably because they all love the original movie so much.”
Scott talked a lot about his “extended family” – the crew people he’s worked with time and again. One such fella is named Don who he “sent underground” to find real New Yorkers to round out the cast. The character Denzel Washington plays may have its blueprint in Walter Matthau from the original picture, but much of his essence is taken from a 65 year old retired Albanian MTA worker named Ike.
This is the fourth time he’s worked with Denzel Washington. Does this make the filmmaking process easier or quicker, working with someone he knows so well? “No.” But there is a shorthand they share and, as he calls it, an old fashioned word called respect.
Also, Denzel wanted to play the bad guy originally, he said. He is tired of playing cops and good guys.
Did Tony Scott get jealous when his brother Ridley “borrowed” Denzel for American Gangster? Very. Regarding "Rid", he said they are fantastic business partners, but if they were ever to shoot a movie together they’d kill each other on set.
When asked about his unique visual style (e.g. cameras swooping around in 360 degree arcs during moments of simple conversation) he said this is always dictated by the emotions of the characters. If James Gandolfini runs up a staircase to the mayhem of the city and his head is a whirlwind, that’s what we’ll see. When pressed, though, he admitted he does shoot traditional coverage. For that sequence, specifically, in addition to the swooping 360 shots, there were two additional cameras with long lenses (one hiding behind a garbage can.) Optimally, he shoots with four cameras at all times.
A concept Scott repeated was “New York City as the bad guy” from John Travolta’s point of view. Scott took inspiration (he used the phrase “stole from” multiple times) Godfrey Reggio’s Koyanisqqatsi. He refered to the transcendental non-narrative masterpiece as a "classic stoner film."
What’s next for Tony Scott? A sequel to his first film The Hunger is in the works for him to produce, but not direct. Also a project called Potsdamer Platz, from a script from the guys who made Sexy Beast (Louis Mellis and David Scinto), about New Jersey mob guys involved in post-Wall German construction. The project that he’s most amped about is a re-tooling of The Warriors.
His vision is to set The Warriors in LA, to dig deep into the very real (but evaporating and, he says, homogenizing LA gang culture.) He has reached out to real gang members who have all pledged to be there, one hundred thousand strong, for the opening peace treaty scene. He wants to set that on the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Long Beach, California . . .setting sun in the background and then – pow! – shot goes off, bodies fall from the bridge and chaos ensues. The Warriors then have to make their way back to Venice Beach.
To me it sounded like he’d be ready to start production tomorrow, but, he says, they just can’t nail the script down yet. It seems like it would be simple, he admits, guys trying to escape from here and trying to get there, but they haven’t gotten it right yet. Bully for him, I suppose, for waiting til he’s got a screenplay he’s happy with.
Regarding a prequel to Alien, he wouldn’t say a word. “Time out!” he said when a bold journalist pressed him further. It is “in process” is all he would say.
Another project he’s been carrying around for quite some time is an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels that Stephen Gaghan (of Syriana fame) is adapting.
He wants to get to all of these projects, he says, but he also has two 9 year old boys, likes to go rock climbing and is 64 years of age. In an offhand way he mentioned that Man on Fire, which came out in 2004, was originally going to be his follow up to The Hunger which came out in 1983.
