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David the Ghost Boy reports from the set of ANY GIVEN SUNDAY
Now here's a comprehensive set report from Oliver Stone's ANY GIVEN SUNDAY which was shooting up in Dallas. I hope you folks like this, personally I'm a big Stone fan, and always look forward to what he's going to pull... either in the writing or in the editing arena... His films usually shine in some area, if not in all areas... Enjoy...
The following is a comprehensive report on the April 10th shooting of
Oliver Stone's 'Any Given Sunday' at Texas Stadium.
It was extra day; anybody could show up, just like in the previous
reports from Miami. The shoot was supposed to last from 10 to 6. I got
there at 9, and was there until nine. Luckily for us extras, the stadium
is an enclosed and air conditioned one, and so we were saved from the
glaring sun and muggy weather that has been plaguing Dallas lately. Most
of the stars were there; Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J,
Bill Bellamy...there was also some guy named Andrew Bryniarski, who plays
a football player named Madman Kelly. He talked to the audience a lot,
and they told us some of the movies he was in ('Batman Returns' and
'Street Figher,' among many others). I was kind of dissapointed that
James Woods and Cameron weren't around.
During the course of those twelve hours, from start to wrap, about eight
shots were filmed, with at least three takes for each shot, all taking
place during the final climactic playoff game between the Miami Sharks
and the Dallas Knights (the whole stadium was completely repainted with
the Knights logo, and its red and gold colors; the extras were given a
multitude of Knights products to wave around and wear, and even the fake
beer vendors had the Knights insignia painted on their coolers). From
what was filmed, I can tell you that (SPOILER) the Sharks win the game
with four seconds left--of course, during the final play they are only
two feet from the goal post, so it wasn't that hard of a move. Jamie Foxx
kind of just jumps over about three other players into the inzone--it
looked pretty cool. As far as I could tell, all of the actors did their
own stunts.
Anyway...the first shot was of Dennis Quaid's character, Cap Rooney,
running out onto the field and joining a huddle. We were told that Rooney
is a legendary football player, kind of like Roger Staubach, and that we
should give him respectful applause. This game was his first in several
weeks, after having suffered a bad injury (I guess that was another
spoiler, huh?) The shot was a tracking shot following Quaid out from the
sidelines into the huddle, waving at the audience all the while. Some
dialogue followed, but we were too far away to hear anything.
The next shot was the aforementioned touch-down scene. Al Pacino came
out for this one; it was a big crane shot. As soon as the touchdown was
made, the whole cast rushed the field in a big nicely choregoraphed
victory melee. This shot took a while because of some sunlight continuity
issues (there is a small opening at the top of the stadium). The crowd,
which was mostly supposed to be Dallas fans, were told to throw any
light, soft objects onto the field in anger. It was pretty neat looking,
and should be a great shot in the final movie.
The next couple of shots were some carefully choregoraphed plays, all
filmed with a steadicam. They were really nicely done; the actors
occaisonally fumbled the ball, but because they were steadicam shots,
second takes could be done pretty quickly.
During these shots, Andrew Bryniarski got in a fight with some other
player and stormed off the set. I'm pretty sure it was for real; he
didn't come back for quite a while.
Then they re-did the touchdown scene, only this time with multiple
steadicams, rather than a crane. It was much better this time, and the
shot went on for much longer, as all of the Miami Sharks and Al Pacino
and pretty much everyone ran across the field towards the locker rooms.
They did this one three times.
The last shot of the day was of one of the Sharks laying injured on the
field. All of the other players rushed up to him, followed by Pacino.
Whatever dialogue occurred escaped all of us extras. A small ambulance
cart drove up and put the player on a stretcher and carried him off. As
they did, he gave a weak wave and the whole crowd cheered. They had to do
this shot four times, and it seemed to take forever to set up. One of the
problems was that the crowd was cheering at the wrong cue.
Tons of prizes were given away, but that stuff isn't really interesting.
All of the stars took turns giving them away and talking on the
microphone. Dennis Quaid was the nicest; he gave away an autographed
football, and kissed the girl who won it; you could see her blush all the
way back in the stands. A bunch of guys kept yelling 'Attica,' in
reference to 'Dog Day Afternoon,' and Al Pacino was gracious enough to
acknowledge them. Oliver Stone was out on the field frequently enough,
and paused once to wave to all of us extras. For all of the time spent
shooting, he stayed in a little black tent, watching the footage on a
monitor as it occurred.
All in all, it was quite an experience, although being in the stands
made the long wait between shots extremely boring. It looks like it will
be a fantastic movie (it's Oliver Stone, so how can it be bad?)
One last thing: here is the plot synopsis, as printed in the extras
program we received:
"When a devastating hit knocks a professional football player legend and
quarterback Cap Rooney (Dennis Quaid) out of the game, a young, unknown
third-stringer is called in to replace him. Having ridden the bench for
years because of a string of bad luck stories, and perhaps insufficient
character, Willie Beaman (Jamie Foxx) seizes what may be his last chance,
and lights up the field with a raw display of athletic prowess.
His stunning performance over several games is so outstanding and fresh
it seems to augur a new era in the history of this Miami franchise, and
forces aging coach Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino) to reevaluate his time tested
values and strategies and begin to confront the fact that the game, as
well as post-modern life may be passing him by. Adding to the pressure on
D'Amato to win at any cost is the aggressive young President/Co-Owner of
the team, Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz), now coming into her own
after her father's death. Christina's driving desire to prove herself in
a male dominated world is intensified by her focus on the marketing and
business of football, in which all coaches and players are merely
properties.
'Any Given Sunday' is a behind the scens look at the life and death
struggles of these modern day gladiators and those who lead them."
And all I got for this was a Dallas Knights key chain.
--David the Ghost-Boy
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Oliver Stone wanted 'U-turn' to be a hit, and it wasn't. Now, working with Pacino and Diaz, the premisse is better but isn't he losing his identity?
At first he was making personal movies and now, comercial movies.
I believe Sliver Stone is the greatest american director from the 80's but what happened to Francis Coppola might happen to him as well ... like, can you believe that the same man who made 'The Conversation' and 'Apocalispse Now' also made 'Jack'? -
Oliver Stone wanted 'U-turn' to be a hit, and it wasn't. Now, working with Pacino and Diaz, the premisse is better but isn't he losing his identity?
At first he was making personal movies and now, comercial movies.
I believe Sliver Stone is the greatest american director from the 80's but what happened to Francis Coppola might happen to him as well ... like, can you believe that the same man who made 'The Conversation' and 'Apocalispse Now' also made 'Jack'? -
How can you say Stone is "losing his identity"?(huh huh huh, I said "titty" huh huh huh) The man has made his mark exposing corrupt institutions (turk prisons, US army, the media, CIA) and now he's going to show us the NFL--is there any more corrupt institution in America other than Hollywood and Washington than professional sports? I only hope the message doesnt get lost in the delivery like in NBK (well, I got it, but most critics didnt). I cannot wait to see what Stone has to say about the spoiled, drug-addicted, egotistical, dead-beat father rapists otherwise known as football players--not that basketball players are any better. Or boxers! Dont kill me, Tyson, I didnt mean it!
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It would of been funny if someone ran down the stairs from the bathroom in only blue jockeys chanting Attica! Attica! Attica! Everyone rent Saturday Night Fever this weekend! Anyway, I have been a skeptic to why Stone did this film about football. North Dallas Forty uncovered all of the dirty side of the sport. And the team lost at the end, which led to one of the best scenes after the game in the locker room, it really shows that Hollywood had balls in the 70's! If Stone really wanted to show corupt sports at its best he should of done a film about basketball, this is the rock and roll lifestyle of today, or boxing a sport laying motionless on life support, until that judge pulled the plug when she jugedthe Holyfield Lewis fight. The dive over the top to win the Super Bowl, we all knew this was coming. We will get some fine performances and a couple of key shots from Stone, but its nothing really new.
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One of Stone's best films is SCARFACE. He wrote the screenplay to the Brian De Palma (my fave director) cocaine/crime epic. As for the "official" Stone films (i.e. a film he directed), my favorites include PLATOON, THE DOORS, JFK, NIXON, and U TURN (mostly because it adhered very closely to the novel STRAY DOGS, on which it was based). Stone and Pacino go back a long way. In the late 1970s Stone wanted Pacino for the lead in BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY. It didn't work out, and a few years later Pacino starred in the Stone-scripted SCARFACE. In the early '90s, Stone wanted Pacino for a film based on the career of Manuel Noriega, but this fell through as well. ANY GIVEN SUNDAY sounds like a very interesting pic (anything with Al Pacino, James Woods, and football in it is definetely worth a look). I'm also wondering if the movie is based on a book? The plot sounds familiar to me, but I can't place it...
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PACINO is the most over the top actor in HOLLYWOOD.His acting is so unintentionally funny he's become a joke.IN the 70's he was really good,but after the disaster REVOLUTION,His acting has become like the COOKIE MONSTER on SESEAME STREET.Time has come to put PACINO out to grass.The same goes for DE NIRO and SCORSESE,these two are the most overrated people in HOLLYWOOD ever.MEANSTREETS,RAGING BULL and KING OF COMEDY were good,but the rest has been complete CRAP.GOODFELLAS and CASINO are 6hours of mindnumbing boring VOICEOVER!!!!!!!.HEAT was boring crap as well. WOO pisses over SCORSESE!!!!!!!!!!
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What was it that you were so brilliant to get in NBK that most critics missed? Was it the fact that it was an overrated piece of crap with a cop out ending?
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I'm not quite in the mood right now (It's early in the morning), but maybe I can get into it more later. I think a lot of the critics not only overlooked the real message (there are actually many of them), but also the pure beauty of the film, as a work of art. A lot of movies can be seen and dismissed as eye candy (I bring it up because I have seen that done to NBK), but NBK goes far beyond that. I mean, it's just beautiful to look at, and there are always things going on that you may not even pick up on until your tenth or twentieth viewing. I can understand that some people don't like that, and that they just want movies to have straight camera shots of the action and nothing else (like every other movie in the world), and it's fine to do that, but NBK is practically a whole new art form. It's not just a movie. It's sort of a moving, shifting collage of images. I love it, even if most people are turned off by it. A cop out ending? That's crazy. They killed the media person and then escaped altogether. They could have gone on and become giant international stars, but they chose not to. They decided to just go and live a tiny, humble life where to the rest of the world they would only be a memory. The ending is perfect. Maybe you just don't understand, in which case, you should watch it a few more times (unless, of course, you're a misguided alienated teen predisposed to violence).
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Bombay? I agree that Pacino and DeNiro dont act anymore, they just perform. But GOODFELLAS was a great film--one of the most influential of the ninties. Without GOODFELLAS, there would be no TRAINSPOTTING or BOOGIE NIGHTS. The way Scorsese wrapped up a few decades into a 150 minute movie while keeping the whole thing fast-paced and documentry-like was amazing. Maybe its been done before (someone say so), but I cant think of any films like it that came before. Rocqueja? I was complaining about the way that the media constantly criticizes Stone for his various over-indulgences. My opinion is that the media hated NBK because NBK hates the media. Most critics said that NBK was over-the-top. I say NO FUCKING SHIT! That was the point. NBK was trying to capture the insane cartoonish idiocy of the 90s media. He did so wonderfully, i think. I admit, i think the perfect media-bashing movie would have to be in a tone that didnt allow people to call it a hypocrite, but then it wouldnt be a self-parody, which is what NBK was. But then again, some critics said the same about the PG-rated TRUMAN SHOW, which is also a stupid critique, because both of these films are SUPPOSED to elicit feelings of guilt in the audience. Thats what gets these critics' panties in such a bunch. The media is Tom Cruise and Stone is Jack Nicholson--"YOU CANT HANDLE THE TRUTH!" So when i say that the critics are morons, i guess what i really meant is that theyre cry-baby cocksuckers who cant admit the integrity of a work of art that shows them the truth about themselves.
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Some guy named BOMBAY posted above me that Pacino and De Niro should retire. He then went on to say that GOODFELLAS was a piece of crap. I think this guy BOMBAY is the piece of crap. You are a freakin' moron. GOODFELLAS is one of the best movies of the past decade. And De Niro? Fugged about it. De Niro is the greatest living actor in the business. And, while I will concede that Pacino often overacts, he's brilliant at it and loved for exactly that purpose. But the guy can act too. You say these guys are washed up? Has anyone seen ANALYZE THIS or DONNIE BRASCO? Certainly Bombay has not.
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