An Interview With Bryan

So, I'm participating in this thing I found at this blog I've started trolling... You post this interview and you offer to interview anybody who comments that they want to be interviewed... So, the rules are below, and my interview is below the rules.

The rules are:

1) Leave me a comment saying "interview me".
2) I will respond by emailing you 5 questions (I get to pick the questions)
3) You will update your blog with answers to the questions.
4) You will include the explanation and offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5) When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them 5 questions.

1) Someone tells you the Star Wars movies are overrated and boring - especially Empire. What is your reaction?

To be completely honest, if somebody told me that the Star Wars movies were overrated and that The Empire Strikes Back was boring, I would most likely wonder what they would find exciting? I mean, what would it take? A film opening with a dude getting punched in the stomach, having his intestines pulled out and have him tossed out of a train dragged by his entrails?

I wouldn't get offended. I would certainly silently think far less of them, though.

2) You're from Utah, a place famous as a Mormon state. What, if any, impact does religion have on life there?

It means I can't buy a six pack on a Sunday, which is really annoying when you want to spend a leisurely Sunday drinking a Guinness. Also, the beer is all 3.2% which really, really sucks.

Other than that, everyone is really nice, despite my atheism. And liberalism. In fact, watch the trailer for This Divided State and you'll have a great idea of the community I live in and how it affects me.

3) You have to remake Taxi Driver, but give the role of Travis Bickle to a female actress. Who would you choose and why?

I think I would hate myself for having to remake it, but I think I would pick Scarlett Johansson. She's gruff and great and can be incredibly socially awkward in a good way. I would also like to see her shoot Sport in the stomach after saying, in that sultry, Lauren Bacall voice, "Suck on this!"

The thing is, Taxi Driver can't work with a girl in the Bickle seat... At least not for the Cybill Shephard subplot, anyway...

4) Oliver Stone - genius or past his sell-by date?

You know, W. was pretty good, but not anywhere near as good as Nixon, Platoon, U-turn, or Salvador. But when the man is on, he is on. Seriously. I wrote up something about Salvador not more than a few months ago (check that here) and it hit me right between the eyes, both as a filmmaker and politically.

I don't know what he's got planned next, if anything, but he's certainly been a genius. Maybe he's peaked, but we'll see.

5) Utah is the home of the Sundance Film Festival - what are your thoughts on the festival and has it ever helped you personally as a film maker?

I'm pretty sick of the festival. I've been most years in the last eight or ten years to see films and do various marketing activities (*cough*The Misbehavers*cough* (here's the trailer)) but I'm not sure how much good it's done. We have lots of meetings with industry people during the festival since they're all in town and good things have come of that. Sure.

In fact, last year, under the nose of the festival, we rented a condo and bought a giant bigscreen TV and screened Killer at Large to a bunch of distributors.

The problem with the festival though, is that it's too big for it's britches and a lot of the films really aren't that good. I've watched so many Sundance movies, documentaries, shorts, features, etc. and a lot of the time they aren't that good. And the ones that are good already have agents and distributors and studios behind them. At that point, why do they need an independant film festival?

Overall, though, I think the festival has had a positive effect.