Cool News
Bobby Dupea Chats With Walter Hill About THE WARRIORS On DVD And DEADWOOD!!
Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Walter Hill is underappreciated, plain and simple. People don’t seem to pay him the respect he is due when they discuss him, and it makes me crazy. He’s a legitimate cinema badass, and I’d love the opportunity to interview him about anything, or just to shoot the shit with the guy about his work. Bobby Dupea did just that recently, and here’s what he had to say about it:
A Run In with legendary Walter Hill - Warriors news & Deadwood chat
Hi there Harry or whoever’s minding the store:
Sorry for long break since last post, I just come and I go - as my wife says. Ran into the great man, here in Monaco, so figured you (as a movie producer now) could well be interested in his comments on The Warriors (old and new). Plus more on Deadwood – remember, he got an Emmy and the Directors Guild award for directing the pilot.
While Walter Hill has nothing to do with Tony Scott’s re-make of The Warriors, (“What’s worse,” says Hill, “neither does producer Larry Gordon”), he is more occupied in giving “my entire blessing” to a new, special edition DVD version putting much of his original concept - “missing material and ideas” - back into this first street gang movie.
So is this the director’s cut?
“You could call it that although in many ways it’s changed very little. The film was designed to be a comic book come to life and tell a futuristic story and due to my inability to get along with the studio they exorcised all of that. So we have restored that intention and that idea. Also, there were a lot of optical effects that got lost.”
Did you have all this stuff at home – studios are notorious for junking, losing or even selling off such footage, aren’t they?
“Yes, they are. Some of it has been re-created, some of it I had a record of from back then.”
One thing he can’t retrieve. A planned narration agreed to, but nver recorded by... Orson Welles.
The DVD is due out in September or October.
As for Scott’s re-mould, Hill says he did his version of Warriors and certainly doesn’t have any ambition to make it again. “If somebody asked my advice about what to do and not to do, I’d be happy to give it. Then, choosing his words with care, he adds: “I do think the idea that the project has been taken away from the producer is a lousy deal. Larry Gordon found the project, developed the project, brought it to Paramount as a partner and made a successful, profitable movie of it. The idea that 25 years later, or whatever it’s been, he is dismissed is, I think, shamefully wrong.
“As a director, you’re hired to do something. I did it. I did the best I could - and left! But I didn’t own it.
“The producer is a friend of mine, so obviously I feel strongly. I certainly don’t think that the treatment of him has been in the best traditions of Paramount Studios.
“In another sense, it’s none of my business... but as long as you’re asking!”
I found Walter heading the tele-film jury here at the 45th Monte Carlo Television Festival... where some Desperate Housewives Edie, Bree and the late Mary Alice... Lost survivors Jack, Kate and Charlie... Dick Wolf’s Law and Order cops... and Michael C. Hall and producer Alan Ball direct from the wrap-party of “the final final, ever, ever” Six Feet Under... are chilling out.
And, finally, the dastardly Ian McShane.
It was Hill who suggested him as Al Swearengen in Deadwood. “We’d never worked together before the pilot but Ian and I are actually old friends from back in the 70s. We kinda attended the same parties...”
Whoah, just trying to figure out what kind of parties you two would be attending?
”Alcohol was served as I recall... When we were getting ready to do Deadwood., Ian expressed some concern about doing a Western and I said: This is really closer to The Threepenny Opera than it is to John Ford and Howard Hawks.
“It’s a radically different approach. It goes out of its way not to become that usual frozen in amber, mytho-poetic Western. Plus really superb acting.”
And language – like the F Word 1.84 times per minute....
“The language thing has already been debated to death,”sighs Hill. “My comment is that it is dramatically but not idiomatically correct. A lot of the words wouldn’t have been used by the characters at that time, but David Milch uses more modern usage for dramatic power. He also uses many phrases of the time. Overall, he certainly gets more of the way they actually conversed than is generally true in Westerns.
“In the historicity of the thing, it’s partly correct that these people were enormously profane. What we perceive to be obscenities - “Oh fuck it!” – has less power then than now, and what we perceive to be profanities - “Goddamit!” - had greater power in the 19th Century than today.”
You can call me Bobby Dupea - if you call me anything at all.
Have a great summer one and all.
Thanks, Bobby. Always good to hear from Hill about anything, and now I’m more curious than ever about that WARRIORS Special Edition.
"Moriarty" out.
Readers Talkback
comments powered by Disqus-
+ Expand All
-
Ended up going through the first and second seasons in a under a span of 36 hours. Afterwards I almost drew down at the local 7 eleven when I thought I was short changed. "Dimestore cocksucker!"
-
Take Undisputed & Supernova off his list of achievements and you've got one of the true greats in Cinema. Hell he even Produced ALL the Alien Films. My personal favourites are Southern Comfort and Tresspass (Looters) although a lot of his work stands the test of time well. Just think about all the great character actors who came into the Limelight or cemented their place there, after working with Hill. Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Peter Coyote, Stacy Keach, William Sadler, Brion James (RIP), Fred Ward, Dennis Quaid, David Patrick Kelly, James Remar. I could keep going but i'm sure you get the point. Walter Hill Rocks.
-
Wow, thats some of the best DVD news I've heard lately. Hope the original cut comes with it, for comparison and nostalgic purposes.
-
Hope the remake of "The Warriors" happens. It
-
I'm up for this, just as long as Hill doesn't digitally alter it so that Cyrus shoots first
-
That movie is one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of man. No, I'm not joking. So help me if I see one rapper cast in the remake. For their sake it better be more Dawn of the Dead and less uhhhh... Car 54, Where Are You?
-
that the remake will be chock full of rappers and Destiny's Child-like hip hop acts. P Diddy as Cyrus, and throw in a wrestler or two for good measure.
-
So saying 'fuck' was no big deal back then, but taking the Lord's name in vain was. Now that is actually interesting. I don't recall hearing 'Goddamnit!' on the show...
-
I work at a restaurant around the corner from the Rockstar Games office, and have done some catering for them, and whilst delivering the food have seen them developing a game based on the movie, even got a nifty ballcap and t-shirt for my efforts! The Rockstar people love burgers!
-
If Tony Scott uses that horrendous editing "style" he developed for Man on Fire and Domino, then this remake will be a total piece of shit. As for the original, I remember TNT running a version of the Warriors in the late 90s that had alternate fottage added to the first ten or so minutes, including a a prologue that explained who each character was and what purpose they served in the gang. Hopefully, this will be one of the things restored in this new DVD.
-
I dig him. I don't like all of his flicks, but I like what he brings to them.
-
Deadwood kicks every other show's ass. Only other show that comes close in coolness is The Wire.
-
July 5, 2005, 12:56 p.m. CST
I wonder if in the SE DvD, if the Baseball Furies will still com
by Monkeybrains
I mean seriously, you work that hard on coming up with the best looking gang colors, and then you can't fight worth shit. The Lizzie's were much more terrifying. Waaariors, come out to play-ay
-
Streets of Fire, bitches!
-
But is there any word on Pat Battle's involvement yet?
-
listen to the thunder. This show is ginormous with attitude. I love it, every bit of it. That McShane won the Golden Globe for Swengin!! is proof enough of the future coming success.
-
...the kids in my small home town got really into it--so much so that they spray painted the name on the side of a Stop-n-Rob which was easily seen from a major street. Sadly, they weren't the best students, and misspelled it "The Worriers".
-
A rare but welcome occurrence when reading Talkback.
-
...you just know David Patrick Kelly would have gotten his fingers stuck in those bottles.
-
1. Not enough episodes a season. 2. Timeline doesn't work, 12 Episodes a season and the storyline feels like a month in Deadwood, season 2 starts a year after Wild Bills death.
-
July 5, 2005, 10:53 p.m. CST
Sweet news! Fire & Ice DVD in August and now Warriors in Septemb
by Orionsangels
-
Few directors have had a better run of classic movies early in their career. The first ten years of Hill's produced some of the finest action thrillers ever made. I say start with HARD TIMES and end it with his masterpiece, EXTREME PREJUDICE.
-
If there has to be a rapper cast please let it be Ali G.
-
you're fucking kidding, right? next three words, lick my nuts. might as well say Romeo and Juliet.
-
In a historical sense, or in the sense that each episode doesn't take place a week after the last? As far as I could see, most of the episodes in Season 2 were consecutive days - taking place over a 2 week period. (Though I think a few of them had longer lapses in time, but not much) Personally, I liked that format - gave it a little more urgency and tension. And Walter Hill is the man. I recently started re-watching (or watching for the first time - Streets of Fire) a lot of his flicks and what a talent. The Driver is one of the coolest 70s flicks ever, and I'm thinking I would be the envy of all if I had "Warrrrriors - come out and pla-aay" as my cell phone ring tone. That shit still gives me chills.
-
BINGO!!! Hill's initial stretch of films is impressive...HARD TIMES...THE DRIVER...THE WARRIORS...THE LONG RIDERS...SOUTHERN COMFORT...48 HOURS!!!!!! Love 'em all and as a fan, I'm glad Deadwood is introducing a new generation of fans to his resume' (and I'm happy to see somebody else give praise to EXTREME PREJUDICE...that film kicks all kinds of ass!)
-
July 6, 2005, 4:33 p.m. CST
The man turned "Fuck" into a household word....God Bless Him.
by cookylamoo
-
I saw the trailer while at E<SUP>3</SuP>.
-
THE WARRIORS is great but you guys have got to check out THE DRIVER. It's a lesser known Walter Hill about a getaway driver. And it's got the most amazing car chases. The storyline is sort of spare and arty, influenced a little by Melville and maybe Point Blank, but then with all the chases it's way more action packed. Now it's finally on DVD and it costs like ten bucks. Seriously, go rent or buy it. You'll thank me. If not that's kinda rude but I will forgive you because the joy of knowing I changed your life forever is good enough for a humble man like me.
-
Right after I moved to LA, I got to spend a day on the set of "Red Heat" and asked Walter about the running "gag" of bars in his films being named Torchy's. He told me that he and some friends used to frequent a bar called Torchy's, and when it came time to design the bar for "The Driver" he told the set designer to "make it Torchy's"; merely as shorthand for the look and feel he wanted. But the designer took him literally, and it just went from there.
-
July 9, 2005, 12:55 a.m. CST
THE WARRIORS SE is gonna rule! But Hill should insert Hulk Hogan
by thecat
"...can you dig it, BROTHER"
-
I remember watching this on CBS when it was the Friday night movie of the week. I grew up on this movie and cant wait for the SE. But when is the soundtrack/score going to be released? The Warriors has some of the best music ever created for a movie. I can't look at a ferris wheel without hearing that creepy music from the beginning of the movie. My personal favorite is the music for the Baseball Furies. They had to be the creepiest looking bunch of pussies I ever saw.
-
"I'm up for this, just as long as Hill doesn't digitally alter it so that Cyrus shoots first".............post of the year, milk came out my nose dude...............can't wait for this Warriors SE DVD, sounds great.............The Butcher, I assume you mean re-released on CD - I've got the original score on vinyl, and your right, its one of the greatest soundtracks of alltime
-
July 13, 2005, 6:55 a.m. CST
Hopefully, that infamous imbecilic "day opening" scene that can
by SalvatoreGravano
Horrible beyond words, it utterly destroys the film's "journey from night to day" motiff.
Top Talkbacks
- Nordling Reviews STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS! Spoilers Abound! You Are Warned! -- 402 total posts 170 posts
- The big screen adaptation of ASSASSIN'S CREED has been given a release date!!! -- 81 total posts 67 posts
- AVENGERS 2 might be filming in SOUTH AFRICA, does this mean that Black Panther is going to be a part of the action!?! -- 287 total posts 41 posts
- Harry gets seriously geeky on the very geeky cool STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS! Can't wait for the next one! & See this again! -- 1382 total posts 35 posts
- Capone reviews STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS and considers the art of messing with canon and why it doesn't bother him!!! -- 423 total posts 31 posts
- Did you guys like RED 2? Oh it's not out yet, well who cares?? Get ready for RED 3 anyways!!! -- 77 total posts 20 posts
- Christopher Nolan maybe, could be, might be, directing the next BOND film!?!?! -- 494 total posts 19 posts
- UPDATE The Friday Docback Calls 'The Name of the Doctor'!! DOCTOR WHO's S7 Finale Arrives This Weekend!! Now With Glen's Ultra-Brief, SPOILER FREE MiniReview!! -- 80 total posts 15 posts
- LAST THURSDAY OF SWEEPS!! The Last OFFICE Ever!! New HANNIBAL, WIPEOUT & ANGER!! Finales For ELEMENTARY, BANG, IDOL, GREY’S, SCANDAL, VAMPIRE & BEAST!! Kirk On KIMMEL!! Spock On CONAN!! Herc’s Thursday TV Talkback!! -- 151 total posts 12 posts
- EUROPA REPORT Trailer Imagines A Scientifically Realistic Trip To One Of Jupiter's Moons! -- 69 total posts 12 posts