Can you talk about adapting your own book for the screen?
They initially approached Dan Fogelman, who’s a very established screenwriter. And he actually flipped it back to me and said he thought I should do it. At that point I just assumed I was talking to someone who was insane, and that this would be a terrible mistake.
Can you talk about the work you did to develop your roles and form your bond on screen?
Jeff Bridges: Actors approach their work in different ways. You get some that say, “please, just call me by my character’s name… I like you, you’re a nice person, but let’s not hang out too much.”
Can you tell us about the evolution of this film?
Jayro Bustamante: Well, you know, at the beginning we were thinking about making a triptych, and that that triptych would be about three insults that are common in Guatemala.
How did you go about conceiving two characters who would ultimately converge?
Jason Reitman: I always thought of the movie as being like those lenticular posters, where if you look at the poster and you kind of move your head two inches, the image changes.
Can you talk about writing this film and bringing these characters to life?
Rian Johnson: It all started with me loving Agatha Christie growing up.
Was there an importance to telling this story at this particular time?Jamie Dack: I was writing this script at a certain time in my life where I was starting to look back on some relationships I had when I was younger—one in particular. I think due to my age, and time passing, I had started to look back on it differently.
Can you talk about what it was like to craft these characters?
James Mangold: I’m a big believer in hanging out. I am not a big believer in rehearsing.
How did you decide that co-directing this film was the best approach?
James Lebrecht: I’ve had the good fortune to have worked with Nicole on three of her films in the past, and we became friends over the years. I just loved her work!
Your film is set in the near future, which makes sense given that there are currently plans being formed to transport humans to Mars. What did you learn in your research about such efforts?James Gray: I’m a little skeptical that they’d make it, but that is their dream. Mars can be either 80 or 160 […]
How did you come up with this idea, and learn about this world?
The original idea came when I was exposed to the world of Weegee, the New York crime photographer.
The following questions and answers are excerpted from a conversation that followed the NBR screening of The Guilty. There are many constraints built into this film… you’re in a call center, on the phone, there’s limited space to move. What drew you to that? Jake Gyllenhaal: I guess I’m a fan of creating a certain type […]
Can you talk about how found this story and why it’s important to tell now?
Richard Linklater: I read Darryl Ponicsan’s book and just loved the characters twelve years ago.
Why did you want to be in this film?
Redford: Because he asked me! In all honesty, I’ve spent many years building an organization to promote independent film, and yet no one has asked me to work in their film.
Mr. Chandor, why did you want to bring this story to the screen?
It was sort of two ideas that ran into each other. There was this core story that I had been working on for many years – probably six or seven years, actually – about a husband and wife who ran a business together.
You are such a quintessential New York Filmmaker, Mr. Sachs, but now you’ve made this film set in Portugal. I was wondering how the story came to you and how you worked with your writing partner, Mauricio Zacharia, to develop this film?
Ira Sachs: Probably around fifteen years ago, I saw a film by Satyajit Ray, the Indian master Filmmaker, called Kanchenjungha. It’s about a family on a vacation in the Himalayan mountains, and it takes place in one day.