N8 N9 Movies A NEW By Tom Russo [we know]. We were talking GLOBE CORRESPONDENT about the second film, and we f “Harry Potter” fans left it with her to write an out have been hungering line, maybe 12 pages. Within CHAPTER IN for Friday’s opening of two days, she had delivered a the new bigscreen 102page treatment. She can’t spinoff “Fantastic help herself. She has ideas just IBeasts and Where to Find flowing out of her. Them,” British producer David WIZARDRY Heyman has been feeling pretty Q. What figured into choosing darned peckish for the movie 1920s New York as the movie’s himself. The franchise vet has setting? J.K. Rowling collaborator been teaming with J.K. Rowl A. I think America in 1926 had ing to bring her books to the a lot of parallels to our world to offers a look into the birth screen since “Harry Potter and day. It was a time of incredible the Sorcerer’s Stone” in 2001, decadence and disparity be of ‘Fantastic Beasts’ and and admits that it was tough tween the haves and havenots. letting go after the seriescap It was just before the crash of where it fits in the world ping “Deathly Hallows.” 1929. It was postWorld War I, of Harry Potter Even after moving on to oth preWorld War II, and extreme er projects — most notably movements were on the rise. Hogwarts alum Alfonso Cua We’re not making a political ron’s “Gravity” — Heyman still film with a capital P here, we’re found Rowling’s work occupy making an entertainment, but ing his thoughts. So, naturally, as with the “Harry Potter” films, he was part of the brainstorm there are themes that are very KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES ing process that ultimately ex rich and resonant lying near the “Nocturnal Animals” director Tom Ford (left) in LA last month with costars Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal. panded “Fantastic Beasts” from surface. And New York is a a slim “Harry Potter” tiein place where you can feel such published for charity into an ef possibility and imagination and fectsfilled feature casting Ed creativity. The city that New die Redmayne as adventure York is today was being built at They only come out at night some “magizoologist” Newt the time of this story. That’s re Scamander. Heyman discussed ally exciting. It was a great place the movie by phone during a for an Englishman abroad who promotional stop in New York. was out of step. Tom Ford talks about directing ‘Nocturnal Animals’
Q. How did you, Jo Rowling, Q. What made Eddie Redmayne By Ed Symkus ner], ‘Every day, from 8 o’clock until 1 o’clock, I’m going to be and the other filmmakers de the right choice to play Newt? GLOBE CORRESPONDENT writing this screenplay. Do not bother me. Do not call me. No cide on this particular idea for A. Eddie is quintessentially Brit TORONTO — Tom Ford remains a new player in the Hol one can disturb me.” revisiting the wizarding world? ish, and he’s great at playing lywood movie game. While still creating and presenting in Ford finished in five weeks, showed it to friends, sent it to A. The Potterverse meant so outsiders, slightly naughty char ternational fashion shows, the Texasborn, Manhattanbased Adams and Gyllenhaal — his first choices — and got a yes much to my life personally and acters, and people who are a lit clothing designer has directed two films: “A Single Man” from both within 48 hours. professionally, I did sit around tle bit awkward. Yet he makes (2009) and “Nocturnal Animals” (opening Friday). There was Of Adams, Ford said, “I didn’t want people to hate her with [fellow producer] Lionel these characters sympathetic, a time, though, when he had designs on being in the movies, character. Susan is rich, glamorous, has everything, is unhap Wigram after it ended trying to and you enjoy spending time not making them. py, does this terrible thing. We could easily hate her. I wanted think of what else we could do with them. [His look] fits very Lounging on a couch at the Toronto International Film us to look at her as a victim. I wanted us to empathize and in this world. Lionel had the well into 1926. And he’s also Festival, having just returned from Italy where “Animals” sympathize with her. Amy has a quality in her eyes that for idea of doing a faux documen just a fine actor and a hard won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, Ford, me is sad and soulful. tary about Newt Scamander, worker. He spent six months 55, wore a black Tom Ford suit and a mostly unbuttoned, “Jake has lately been taking some very dramatic risks with where we follow him on this ex prepping for this part, working glistening white shirt. Talking at a rapid clip, he recalled his acting,” he added. “His character Tony goes from somebody pedition. We pitched that to Jo, with animal coaches and study days at New York University. who is sensitive, good, honest, charming, seductive, to some and she said, ‘Gosh, that’s so ing. And he mastered the script “I was studying art history,” Ford said, “but I was also tak one who has had everything taken away from him, and has funny, I was going to come to wonderfully — a bit like Dan ing an acting class. My teacher sent me to an agent who got suffered great pain. His character arc is huge.” you with an idea about Newt Radcliffe, actually. He’s at the me some television commercials, and I had enough work so Then there was Michael Shannon (“Boardwalk Empire”), Scamander.’ She told us what center of the film, but he knows that I was able to quit school and just do that. But I hated it. I who plays Bobby, a smalltown police officer who gets hers was, and it was immeasur how all the other people fit in was too shy and nervous to be in front of the camera. So I wrapped up trying to solve the film’s horrific central crime. ably better than what we had. around that. quit acting, went back to school, at Parsons [School of De “Ah, Michael,” said Ford. “Everyone in the film is an arche sign], and studied interior architecture.” type. In his opening shot” — Shannon is alone on the Western Q. How would you most hope Q. Samantha Morton’s character That career path eventually led Ford to the world of fash plains, cigarette in one hand, gun in the other — “I wanted the movie sets itself apart from leads an antimagic fundamen ion design, where he made a name for himself, but he never him to be the aging Marlboro Man or I wanted him to be “Harry Potter”? talist group called the New Sale abandoned his show business dreams; he just rerouted them. Gary Cooper in ‘High Noon.’ Michael got so into character, ev A. Well, I think that one of the mers Army – which of course “It wasn’t till around the mid’90s that I realized I was go eryone on set was afraid of him. Even I was afraid of him. In pleasures of this is that it triggers our radar for sequel ing to be a director,” he said. “By that time I had become a between takes he would sit by himself and smoke more, stands on its own. You get to prospects, since Salem is right successful fashion designer, and I love fashion, but it doesn’t smoke more, smoke more. Whenever I would give him a see connective tissue, and some in our backyard. Any chance last. You can look at a beautiful dress, and say, ‘Wow!’ But the comment about a scene, he would argue with me because he of the echoes resonate, but I Newt could head this way? power that dress had, the very first time you saw it, and it had it so worked out in his head. So he would go back and do think you can enjoy it every bit A. The next place we’re going is was on a beautiful woman, and it walked into the room and it the same way again, but then on the next take, he would do as much if you haven’t seen the Europe, and beyond that I don’t everyone in the room gasped, is gone. Whereas film is so per whatever I suggested.” “Harry Potter” films. really know. We’re on the eve of manent. You can watch an old movie, and you’re immediately The laidback Shannon, also at Toronto, recalled the back World War II, so the specter of sent back in. You’re crying with the actors, you’re living with andforth with Ford a little differently. Q. This was Jo’s first time writ that looms large. What I think is them. But they’re all dead. The director is dead, the actors are “I met Tom a few months before we shot the film,” Shan ing the script for one of her interesting about Salem [as it’s all dead. But it’s alive! It is sealed forever.” non said. “We had a delightful talk, and I could tell right movies. What was that process referenced here] is that it keys Ford maintains that though acting classes and acting away that he was really smart about cinema and that he like? so closely to themes running coaches didn’t make him a great actor, it helped him under knew what he was talking about. Later, when we were mak A. She delivered a first draft, through all of Jo’s writing. The stand how they work and what they need. He directed Colin ing it, we rehearsed a little, but Tom’s main thing was being and you read it with trepida Salem witch trials were about Firth to a best actor Oscar nomination in “A Single Man,” and encouraging, just saying, ‘I appreciate how you’re looking at tion because she’s a novelist [by stigmatizing people, calling he put a great deal of thought into character development this.’ ” trade]. But from the very first them witches because they were while working on the script for “Nocturnal Animals,” adapted Shannon was thrilled with his opening shot. page she pulled me in. The different, and in so doing, per from Austin Wright’s 1993 novel “Tony and Susan,” before he “When we were doing that, Tom said to me, ‘You’re going characters were vivid and the secuting them. That’s what hap thought about casting. to be very happy with this.’ And yeah, it’s one of the better in Eddie Redmayne (top and above story was great. That doesn’t pens with Newt’s beasts; that’s The story, which Ford transferred from the Northeast to troductions I’ve had in a movie.” right with Dan Fogler, Katherine mean that she didn’t learn on what happens with people. West Texas, tells of a successful but empty art gallery owner Both men have slightly different interpretations of what Waterston, and Alison Sudol) plays the job, as it were. Her first That’s what happens, alas, in (Amy Adams) whose exhusband (Jake Gyllenhaal) sends her the film is about. “magizoologist” Newt Scamander, draft was quite light and whim our world today if you are gay, if a manuscript of his disturbing first novel. She reacts to it by “I think one of the main things it’s about is responsibility,” who encounters many strange sical. The next draft, under our you are black, if you are in any picturing herself and her ex as two of the main characters. A said Shannon, “about people being responsible for their lives creatures in “Fantastic Beasts and guidance, became really dark. way different. And I think that’s friend of Ford’s turned him on to the book a few years ago. and for what they do to other people.” Where to Find Them.” Then over the course of the really the heart of Jo’s work. It’s “It was a total page turner, and I loved it,” he said. “I “It’s about loyalty,” said Ford. “Jake’s character says it: next month or two, she found about tolerance versus intoler wasn’t sure how I was going to turn it into a film, but I’ve ‘When you find people in your life who you love, you don’t her footing tonally, which was ance. learned, during my short time in the industry, that when you throw it away; you might never get it again.’ That’s what it’s really the great challenge. Once find something you love, you option it. So I did. I thought about: Hold on to people in your life.” that was done, she got into the Tom Russo can be reached at about it, on and off, for two years. When I finally figured it JAAP BUITENDIJK/WARNER BROTHERS film like the voracious writer [email protected]. out, two summers ago, I said to Richard [Buckley, his part Ed Symkus can be reached at [email protected].
every one of Paz’s fights said it felt like for the first time, after the accident, lift she was watching the real boxer in the ing weights even though his upper body Biopic ‘Bleed for This’ recalls Vinny Paz’s comeback tale ring. is trapped by the apparatus. It’s uncom The biggest challenge when it came to fortable — and seemingly impossible — realism was the halo. Teller had to film and makes it clear just how much Paz u‘‘BLEED FOR THIS’’ stayed immobile as he healed. Even the movie is less a sports film than it is big films were “Divergent,” “The Spec Paz’s interviews are edited together. many of his scenes with a fake version of defied all medical advice and the odds. Continued from Page N1 though he was told he’d never fight about a man overcoming physical ob tacular Now,” and the comedy “That Younger was proud that in screenings the medical contraption not quite at “Technically, I don’t know how he did At its core, Younger’s Vinny Paz again, Paz defied doctors’ orders and stacles. Paz just wanted to keep Awkward Moment.” it’s hard to know whether you’re lis tached to his head. Younger joked that it it,” Teller said, still in disbelief, even after biopic — which stars Miles Teller — is lifted weights. He trained, recovered, punching. “I thought it would be a really good tening to the real Paz. might have been easier to have the thing playing the part and acting out the not a boxing movie about inner de and went on to become junior middle It’s also a Providence film, they part for somebody else,” Teller said. “I Teller, along with Aaron Eckhart, screwed in. If the prop moved, the scene scene. mons or family politics. There’s some weight champion — just 13 months said. Paz represented the spirit of the knew that I could get into that kind of who plays trainer Kevin Rooney in the was a bust. “There’s only one person in the world of that, as well as the familiar tale of after the accident. smallest state. Fans felt like they were shape, but I thought that he would film, also spent time with locals, “If we see [the halo] move, I can’t use who can explain how that happened, the intense bond between a fighter In “Bleed for This,” there’s no look a part of his comeback. cast somebody who walked into his which helped them understand the the take,” Younger said. and we had access to him,” Younger said. and trainer. There’s also a lot of over at Paz’s humble beginnings or even “Rhode Island doesn’t have a pro room with a little more physical pres culture of the community and the ac Teller said at times it was deeply frus That’s what Teller and Younger — confident talk, and some scenes that the years after his big wins. He starts fessional sports team. Vinny was their ence. A little more of a resume. It took cents. When it came time for Teller to trating to perform while making sure the who debuted the film in Providence on show how Paz earned the nickname the movie as lightweight champ, al franchise,” Younger said. “He was the a lot of foresight from Ben.” gain weight (the actor had to put on halo didn’t budge, but maybe that stress Thursday night — hope rings true — just The Pazmanian Devil. But mostly it’s ready a superstar in his hometown. heartbeat of that city and that state for Younger said it was Teller’s layered 15 pounds in 10 days to jump two added to the realism. The burden of the how unlikely it was for Paz to come back the story of a boxer who, after break Younger narrows the focus of the film such a long time.” performance in the comingofage sto weight classes during the 24day film device is clear when Teller’s Paz tries to as a champion. ing his neck in a 1991 car accident, to Paz’s quick recovery and how he Teller said that when he first read ry “The Spectacular Now” that won shoot), he went to Providence’s Feder get out of a car, the halo in the way of ev “He took it very seriously. Very profes manages to get back into the ring — managed to fight after the halo was the script for “Bleed for This,” he him over. al Hill neighborhood, known for its erything. sionally,” Younger said, of his star. “I because he’s too stubborn not to. removed. didn’t think he’d be Younger’s first He wasn’t surprised that after Tell Italian restaurants, to eat. “Your spine is compressed,” Teller think that’s why local people will appre After being pulled from the wreck At the Toronto International Film choice. “Whiplash,” a 2015 best pic er was cast, the actor was committed Teller said the best compliment said. “You’re just like this [stiffens his ciate the film.” age on Route 1 in Warwick, his home Festival in September, Younger and ture Oscar nominee directed by to training and studying Paz’s old came during one of the fight scenes, body] for 12 hours.” town, Paz had to wear a metal halo star Teller said their main goal was to Damien Chazelle and starring Teller, tapes and recordings. At several filmed at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/AP The real Paz was on set to help Teller Meredith Goldstein can be reached at brace, screwed to his head, so that he get Paz’s motivation right. They said had yet to be released. At the time, his points in the film, Teller’s voice and in Providence. An extra who had seen Director Ben Younger with Miles Teller at the Beverly Hills premiere of “Bleed for This.” film the scene in which he bench presses [email protected].