Nick Cave and John Hillcoat Reveal Lawless: Their Ultra-Violent, Rule-Breaking “Gangster- Western” Which Scared Off Half of Hollywood
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
GANGSTER SPECIAL WORDS NICK DE SEMLYEN NICK CAVE AND JOHN HILLCOAT REVEAL LAWLESS: THEIR ULTRA-VIOLENT, RULE-BREAKINg “GANGSTER- WESTERN” which scared off half of HOLLYWOOD 76 EMPIRE AUGUST 2012 empireonline.com subscribe at www.empireonline.com/sub AUGUST 2012 EMPIRE 77 GANGSTER SPECIAL t’s fair to say that Nick Cave, (score by Cave) and the former has singer, songwriter and latterly penned a couple of books, including screenwriter, did not have The Death Of Bunny Munro, the story an average childhood. As a of a sex-addicted salesman. Both saw 12-year-old living in Victoria, Wettest County as the perfect starting Australia, he and one of his point for their second team-up. But the mates would occasionally path from page to screen wouldn’t be easy. be driven miles out into the “The period it’s set in was the end of bush by the mate’s dad, the West and the beginning of the gangster given a six-pack of beer period,” considers Hillcoat. “So for me, this and a pair of shotguns and told to kill film is the intersection of the two great as many living creatures as they could. American genres: the Western and the At a similar age, the budding Bad gangster movie. A ‘Wangster’, if you will! ISeed dabbled in brewing his own liquor. But it’s not conventional: the gangsters here “It’s easy,” says Cave, reclining near don’t all die so we can feel good at the end. BRIEFING a bar in Cannes’ Hotel Martinez, midway And that was just one of the reasons why through the film festival where his film studio people had a tough time with it.” LAWLESS is in competition. “You can do it with The film’s complicated pre-production a rubber tube. I had this friend who had includes four title changes: it began as a little still out in the country. We’d boil up The Wettest County In The World, RELEASED: September 7 potato peel, then blow air so it’d go down changed briefly to The Promised Land, DIRECTOR: John Hillcoat the tube, through some sugar and drip out reverted to The Wettest County, then the other end. You’d drink a bit of it... finally settled on Lawless. Ryan Gosling, WRITER: Nick Cave and then throw up all over the gum trees.” Michael Shannon, Scarlett Johansson ‘If you set this in a city, we’ll greenlight STARRING: Shia LaBeouf, It’s likely that these icky experiments in and several other stars expressed interest it.’ But the things that made the story Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, mixology played out again in Cave’s mind before passing. In 2009, meanwhile, the unfamiliar were what I loved about it.” Jessica Chastain, Jason a few years back, when he sat down with a whole endeavour looked doomed when “They want to make happy films Clarke, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman copy of Matt Bondurant’s 2008 novel, The Sony dropped the film from its schedule. and this is not a happy film,” adds Cave. Wettest County In The World. The based- “At least Sony and other studios were “But it feels relevant now as Western BASED ON: The Wettest on-fact tale of three brothers who earned very upfront,” says Hillcoat. “They were civilisation is in rapid decline and slipping County In The World, by Matt Bondurant. notoriety home-brewing and bootlegging very straightforward with us: ‘We can’t into the icy water like that character at moonshine in the forests of Prohibition- make these films anymore. We can do the end of Lawless. It’s not long now ’til STORY: Three bootlegging era Virginia, it’s a bleak, brutal, witty a franchise, we can do comedy at a price, it crawls out and dies of pneumonia...” brothers (Hardy, LaBeouf, Clarke) in Prohibition-era yarn. Perfect bedtime reading, then, for with the right ingredients, and that’s it.’ Franklin County, Virginia, the man who once jotted down the lyrics, Plus, this was before True Grit, when or almost two years, Lawless find their operation under “I’m marked by darkness and by blood/ everyone was saying, ‘Westerns are box- remained cashless. But finally extreme threat when a And one thousand powder-burns.” office poison.’ At one point we were told, it leapt back into life as an indie freaky Special Agent from Chicago (Pearce) sets “It’s beautifully written, an picture, financed by three small himself against them. absolute stone-cold American classic,” production outfits: Annapurna Cave enthuses of the book, which was Pictures, Red Wagon Entertainment and IS TOM HARDY WEARING F WHAT I THINK HE IS? Yes. penned by the grandson of one of the Benaroya Pictures. Shia LaBeouf was the That is a cardigan. protagonists. “Matt, being a Bondurant, “studios wANT only actor who had remained on board must be very happy that his bloodline from the beginning; along the way Hillcoat is the coolest three motherfuckers on had recruited a roster of rising stars, the planet. I just wonder why someone including Tom Hardy, Mia Wasikowska didn’t have a go at adapting it before us.” TO MAKE HAPPY and Jessica Chastain. “We lost some and “Us” being Cave and Australian • Here: Gary Oldman gained some along the way,” the director as slick Chicago director John Hillcoat. In 2005, the pair gangster Floyd reflects, “but I was absolutely blessed collaborated on Outback Western The FILMS. THIS IS Banner. Above right: because I ended up with a perfect combo.” Proposition, with Cave on Good girl Bertha The bootleggin’ Bondurant boys are a (Mia Wasikowska) writing duties and Hillcoat meets-cute with study in differences. The eldest, Howard, as behind the camera. Since then, bad boy Jack played by Australian actor Jason Clarke, the latter has released Cormac NOT HAPPY.” (Shia LaBeouf). is a war-scarred ruin who frequently McCarthy adaptation The Road NICK CAVE gets high on his own supply. The > THE TOM CARDIE EFFECT Big man Hardy rocks the cardigan look in Lawless. We see how it works for DWAYNE JOHNSON! ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER! HUGH JACKMAN! BRAD PITT! THE HULK! other movie beefcakes... VERDICT: We can smell what The Rock is knitting. VERDICT: It’s Crochet The Barbarian! VERDICT: From Wolverine to Wool-verine. VERDICT: The curious cashmere of Benjamin Button. VERDICT: You won’t like him when he’s Angora. 78 EMPIRE AUGUST 2012 empireonline.com subscribe at www.empireonline.com/sub AUGUST 2012 EMPIRE 79 GANGSTER SPECIAL youngest, Jack, portrayed by LaBeouf, is an ambitious whippersnapper who falls for a Quaker’s daughter (Wasikowska). And the middle brother, Forrest, is the driving force of the family business — a fearsome, brooding slab of a man. Considering he’s played by Hardy, it’s tempting to think of the character as a backwoods Bane. But according to the star, who meets Empire clad in a pro-war-veterans T-shirt and is later sighted shadowboxing a hotel-lobby pillar, it’s the gentlest role he’s played. “Bottom line, Forrest is a mum,” he says. “Even though I’m physically the most dangerous of the three, Forrest is there to clean, cook, wear the apron, stash the LAND OF money, look after his brothers. None of this stuff is tough-guy shit, y’know? I’ve got my brass knuckles and a cigar in my THE SPREE hat and a Clint Eastwood beard, plus Coast to coast: how organised crime I’ve got the muscles growing from Batman, ’cause I’m working on another job at the spread across the United States same time — instead of moonshine I’m WORDS KIM NEWMAN ILLUSTRATION CATH LEVETT moonlighting. But I’ve also got a cardigan. I’m not ashamed to wear that. It’s soft. 1. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS from the 19th century on, corruption of LA was 4. FRANKLIN COUNTY, had their own film biopics 7. PHENIX CITY, ALABAMA Many films have followed, The cardigan is a flag of maternal instinct.” During The Roaring Twenties, with Irish (Gangs Of New there from the city’s VIRGINIA in 1959 and 2008. When the The 1955 ripped-from-the- often mixing in drug Despite the cardie — and Hardy models the hub of Al Capone’s York), Jewish (Once Upon A founding, as demonstrated The illicit, still paradise city became famous for car headlines movie The Phenix smuggling: Borderline, The a natty range throughout — this is one mum bootlegging operation and Time In America), Italian- by the 1920s water-rights of Lawless — where the manufacture, it also became City Story blew the lid off Border, The Three Burials you wouldn’t want a ticking off from. the site of gang wars — the Sicilian (The Godfather swindles of Chinatown moonshine distributed known for its corrupt, a small city run by Mob Of Melquiades Estrada, No most famous incident being Part II), African-American and the 1940s demolition by Chicago gangsters Mob-run unions — as interests who operated Country For Old Men. Forrest is capable not only of inflicting a the Capone Mob’s hit on (Hoodlum) and underage of public transport in originates. Other backwoods featured in Blue Collar. brothels and clip joints world of hurt, but of surviving injuries that Bugs Moran on Valentine’s (Bugsy Malone) factions Who Framed Roger Rabbit. bootlegging outfits, from and murdered any solid 9. LAS VEGAS, NEVADA would put most people in the ground. It all Day, 1929. See: Al Capone, getting a foothold in general The entertainment industry the ’20s on, feature in The 6. SAN FRANCISCO, citizen who complained. As seen in Bugsy and Casino, The Untouchables, The St.