Sgt. Angle Reporting For Duty!

There were two recent stories floating across Movie-News outlets that I wanted to focus on this week and hopefully drum up some conversation and thoughts on the topic of collaboration.

Film is a collaborative process, through and through. You might be the type to point directly to Hitchcock, Truffaut, or even Scorsese and Antonioni, and talk until you’re blue in the face about the Auteur Theory and what it means to be a filmmaker. Well, it’s true that the writer/director maintains a good amount of creative control, some of the time, when it comes to the finished product. But that dude can’t hold a camera, clap the slate, roll sound, and act in the film all at the same time. It just cannot physically be done. Once you bring in that second entity, whether it’s a sound dude with a boom mic, or a girl who can load a mag in record timing, you’re film has become a collaboration.

I’ve talked before about famous pairings throughout film history (Steven Spielberg and John Williams, for one) but the two recent articles have to do with fresh pairings in the name of creative rebirth.

The first actually addresses the auteur theory, as this director has been associated with the premise since his movie The Sixth Sense skyrocketed him to fame over a decade ago. I’m talking about M. Night Shyamalan and today’s announcement that he’ll be collaborating with Will Smith and Jaden Smith on an upcoming Sci-Fi flm. Shyamalan co-wrote the script with Gary Whitta (Book of Eli) and at first Will Smith was only on-board as producer. Until recently.

What developments occurred to convince Smith to star alongside his son? No one knows, but the best guess involves a special deal giving Smith final cut over Shyamalan. Given the performance of Last Airbender and most of the director’s latest films, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if this power setup drew Smith in front of the camera. Then again, M. Night does tend to craft an attractive image and visual style (when not adapting Airbender tales), and his clout with such talents as Bruce Willis, Paul Giamatti, Mark Wahlberg, and Mel Gibson prove that he’s got quite a way with bigger names, making them all look somewhat great on-screen.

Here’s hoping the writing contributions of Whitta can outweigh any undesirable aspects of the story. But the bigger question out of all of this is the effect the movie’s performance will have on the Smith family’s career. Jaden is only just getting started, but his first two bigger pictures (The Pursuit of Happyness and The Karate Kid) nabbed hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide, and he’s got the confidence his father gained when his was three times the kid’s age. And Will has only really starred in blockbuster successes, currently in the middle of filming Men in Black III. He’s not hurting for cash, and I would bet that, should the next Shyamalan opus totally bomb, Will would land on his feet and hit the ground running. I mean, look what happened to Mel Gibson after Signs…

The second piece of collaborative news to hit the Nets today is that Shane Black will only be directing Iron Man 3. The script will be penned by Drew Pearce, best known for creating the British TV Series No Heroics. In that series, superheroes meet in a bar where no uniforms or powers are allowed. Pearce has also apparently turned in a script for the adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s brilliant Runaways comic series, so he apparently has a grasp on the superheroes with snarky attitudes genre.

Still, is having a separate writer a good or bad omen for Shane Black’s involvement in the series? Here’s a guy who was known for his writing in the late 80s and 90s, virtually rebooting action films as we know them with Lethal Weapon, and even redefining Robert Downey, Jr.’s career with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. But take the writer out of the creator equation, and what do we have? Could be good (remember The Wrestler? Didn’t need Aronofsky’s original hand for that to succeed…) could be terrible. Either way, what Iron Man needs, more than any other comic book movie, is a creative overhaul on the filmmaking side. They’re not trying to rush it out before the Avengers movie, so that could work in its’ favor actually. Iron Man 2 was hindered by the lack of a script and an agenda by Marvel execs that was not made clear to Favreau until immediately before filming began. By giving part 3 over to someone like Shane Black, who’s style is a better fit for RDJ, the world of Iron Man changes a few varying degrees and becomes a larger part of the action genre, which is where it belongs.

Thoughts? Difficulties with either of the above scenarios?

You are dismissed!

Sgt. Angle

Sgt. Angle reporting for duty!

The news, as recently reported in The Hollywood Reporter, is that “Fight Club” director David Fincher and dark childhood memory thriller writer Andrew Kevin Walker (both of Se7en and Fight Club fame) will be joining forces yet again, this time for a remake/new adaptation of The Reincarnation of Peter Proud. Story centers on a dude who starts to have visions of one of his past lives, and the dark places these visions lead him. The concept and powerhouse duo got me thinking of some other great film collaborations. I’ve compiled a list below, in no particular order.

1. Steven Spielberg and John Williams (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List). Spielberg’s always hitting audiences with the semi-fantastical yet always grounded in reality stories of human wonder, whether involving children or hopeful adults. John Williams has composed the musical scores of nearly all of Spielberg’s films (notable exception being “The Color Purple”). Without his melodies and memorable themes we might all still be able to enjoy swimming in the ocean.

Don’t steal his sandwich.

2. Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten (Citizen Kane, The Third Man, The Magnificent Ambersons) A kind of bizarre choice for a filmmaking creative team, but when you look at their films together, Welles and Cotton — both part of the same radio performance group who brought the world to its’ knees when they broadcast War of the Worlds — dominate every scene together, and apart. Welles as Harry Lime has one of the best character introductions, anticipated through the first half of “The Third Man,” and the impact is felt when looking at Cotten’s reaction to seeing his childhood friend alive.

Ride the Stache.…

3. Tom Selleck and his Mustache (Quigley Down Under, Mr. Baseball, Three Men and a Baby) Don’t whine how this doesn’t qualify. Sure, it’s a mustache. Sure, it goes where Selleck goes, all the time. This team is inseparable — and unbeatable. Nobody messes with the stache, and, therefore, you do not mess with the Selleck.

It’s the secret ingredient.

4. Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon (The Apartment, Some Like it Hot) In film, Comedies are always hard to make funny. It’s a fact. You have to worry about the shot you’re getting, what you’re going to show the audience, the characters in the scene, and the timing of the actors. Wilder gets it right nearly every time, and it certainly doesn’t hurt to have Jack Lemmon, one of film’s greatest physical and verbal comedic actors, every step of the way. Lemmon is believable and sympathetic as an average schlub in love in The Apartment. We root for him to win Shirley MacLaine’s heart, and our own hearts break as she falls for the jerk instead. Despite the tugs on the heartstrings, nothing relieves an audience more than the comfort of Lemmon straining spaghetti through a tennis racket.

The Western’s western makers.

5. John Ford and John Wayne (The Searchers, Stagecoach, The Quiet Man) Men, and Westerns, and women. John Wayne and John Ford collaborated on 20 films (at least), defining an American film genre, and crystallizing the mere idea that our landscape and the stories it tells can be captured and remembered on celluloid.

6. Sylvestor Stallone and Montages (Rocky III, IV, V, and Rocky Balboa) You cannot — and should not — have a Sly film without a montage. It’s a law, I believe.

I watch. You read.

7. Humphrey Bogart and John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre) This duo helped define Film Noir, and if there’s a detective movie out there without at least one reference to The Maltese Falcon, I dare you to show me.

8. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) Male-themed bonding over finger-guns may be the all-time favorite collaboration here. Wright’s slick editing style, along with Pegg’s wit and quick-thinking, make for a perfect team for the not-so-perfect 20s crowd.

Nom-Nom-Noms.

9. Woody Allen and various young women under the age of 35 (including Diane Keaton, Mia Farrow, Mira Sorvino, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz) The Wood-ster is a jack-of-all-trades, leading ten of his actresses to Oscar nominations since the 70s (four of them won).

The dude playin’ a dude.….

10. Robert Downey, Jr., and himself (Tropic Thunder, Chaplin, Iron Man, Zodiac) There is no other actor working today who has as much on-screen chemistry when he is alone as he has when he is acting with other people. Check out this scene for an example.

Sound back in the comments below with your preferred filmmaking team, with recommendations.

Until next time,

Sgt. Angle