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Home , Christian Bale, Tobey Maguire

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The actor turned tough films into acareer filled with 'Prestige,' '' and now '' BY MICHAEL GILTZ

his is how it works in the new Hollywood: Smart few weeks back. was able to make a movie in that case that This Friday, he returns to tough stuff I really like. young actors like and with "Harsh Times," wnter-director "So often with [bigger movies]. details make well-received blockbusters like "Spider-Man" 's action drama about an Iraqi go out the window, and that's disappoint· war veteran who meets up with an old pal ing," Bale continues_"Why, when it has a and "The Bourne Identity," and that box-office suc­ () and pulls them both higher budget, do [moviemakers] have to cess powers their ability to make challenging mov- into shady deals, violence and despair. eradicate what makes stories so interest­ For Bale, 32. the role is both another ing? I love blowing stuff up as much as the iesT that solidify their status as serious guys (see Damon in "The De­ chance to show off his acting chops, and a next person, But after awhile, you just feel parted" and Maguire in the upcoming ""). return to risky business. like you're watching somebody else playa " 'Harsh Times' was a perfect antidote video game." Christian Bale is following this game vet Goldmine" (1998), "" to working on movies for seven months," True to form, Bale hasn't followed his plan - though he wasn't afraid to get se­ (2000), "Laurel Canyon" (2002) and "The says Bale, speaking of labor-intensive commercial breakthrough simply with rious he got a superhero. One of Machinist" (2004) . But last year's hit "Bat­ before flicks like "," "" more blockbusters While "The Prestige" the few stars to jump from (in man Begins" has taken him to a new lev­ and the 2005 epic "The New World." had director Nolan, "X-Men's" Hugh Jack­ 's 1987 wwn drama el: "The Prestige," in which he and Hugh "Coming off of things like that. and then man and starlet Scarlett Johansson at­ "") to adult roles, the Jackman play dueling magicians, was doing something like 'Harsh Times' in 24 tached, and he's about to go behind the fa­ Welsh actor strutted and scared in "Vel- tops at the box office when it opened a days - and on top of it, doing it with some­ mous mask again for the Bat -sequel "The one like David Ayer, who [did] Dark Knight" (co-starring as what everybody says you should the ), doing "Harsh Times" and direc­ never do, which is fund the movie, tor 's upcoming war film "The movie came out of his own "" are projects Bale says he's pocket," Bale continues, "He had been eying for years. ' the opportunity to go through stu­ As Ayer, who earned his bones as the dios. But he didn't like what they screenwriter of the Oscar-winning "Train­ were telling him, the changes he'd ing Day," put it, "Christian actually picks have to make. So he remortgaged roles. He's not chasing business situatIOns his house and stuck the money up. - he's chasmg material," That's what I loved." A few of the projects Bale will chase in,- , Bale's take on "Batman," oddly, clud€ a remake of the 1957 Western "3:10 seems to fall into that category of to Yuma," and the musical drama ''I'm Not doing what he loves, precisely be­ There," which will co-star , cause his approach was very un­ , Michelle Williams and Juli­ studio. After almost a decade of anne Moore. And while the latter film will edgy, indie or out-there roles, Bale utilize the music of , and Bale . ~ ~ and director plays a follne who finds God, he asserts it's ii , both knew the actor had what it not a biopic. Nonetheless, it's the first time, ~ took to re-energize the franchise. Bale will sing on -screen since the 1992. ,Y ,i: "I didn't try to talk Chris No­ Drsney musical "," an early part ., lan into giving me that role," Bale he good-naturedly mocks before admitting' , says. "It was more like, 'Look, this that he'll "try anything once" is what I wantto do, what do you Which may explain his eagerness (0 think of that? Is it going to fit with work with the notoriously adventurous your rdea of the film?' ... And so, I German director Herzog ("Fitzcarraldo," "Grizzly Man") The actor says "Rescue Dawn" was exactly the outrageous experi­ Bale, clockwise ence he was hoping for from above, as "That wasn '( a standard film shoot," CD Bruce Wayne in laughs Bale 'We were ill a j lIngle in Thai­ o o "Batman Begins"; land, and would find ourselves many a WWII POW in mornmgs with half the movie's crew gone '"cD "EmlJire of the_ So everybody took on different .lobs to get Qj n Sun"; the titular by for a few days. Hall the bloody crew E j't\merican Psy~ walked out, and we .lust kept going' ~ o clIO"; and all Iraq "But there were toenails beirrg e}"1:ract­ Z war vet in uHarsh ed and people being washed down rapids ~ Times" (with half-drownmg, and at one point I had to co pick up live snakes in the middle of a river 3 Freddy Ilouriguez) (j) "You know. it didn't disappoint" ¢>