Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here.
This is Brendan’s franchise. Period. He’s the guy each film has been built around, and this one in particular should have been his, considering Rachel Weisz isn’t returning. It’s not, which is one of the things I’ll be discussing in my review, which I’ll have up after you guys take a look at the last interview I did in that long day of phone calls with Team Mummy:
Brendan Fraser: How are you?
Moriarty: Good. Haven’t seen you since INKHEART.
Brendan Fraser: That was a while ago.
Moriarty: Yeah it was. We were there the day after Helen Mirren got her [Oscar] nomination.
Brendan Fraser: She won it and came back and let people pose with it in the parking lot. All the drivers were sitting there with their cellphone cameras. She was such a good sport.
Moriarty: She was awesome. It was nice to see her in that mood. You know, Joe Dante speaks well of you, as do many of your directors...
Brendan Fraser: Hey! How’d you see Joe?
Moriarty: He’s directing a film I wrote this October.
Brendan Fraser: Congratulations.
Moriarty: I couldn’t be more excited. I love him and his movies dearly.
Brendan Fraser: You’ve got a good man in him. He’s done every job on the set. That’s the truth.
Moriarty: You know, we’re doing it for a fairly low budget, so when you start talking about that and he gets into the practicalities of it, you know it’s coming from experience and not some abstract thing.
Brendan Fraser: He’s employing what Roger Corman taught him. [Laughs]
Moriarty: What a great school to come out of for those guys.
Brendan Fraser: Sure. You get your movie’s worth.
Moriarty: Like I said... many of your directors speak well of you. For example, Stephen Sommers, who you did the first two films with, and you actually made an appearance in G.I. JOE for him?
Brendan Fraser: Yeah, I did a cameo for him.
Moriarty: ... and then how is it to work instead this time with Rob, who this is your first time working with?
Brendan Fraser: Well, they’re very similar in many ways. They both have nothing short of, like, bottled enthusiasm for what they do. And Stephen’s a kid from Minnesota, started out as a pediatrician because of his family, went overseas in college, went to USC film school, met Bob Duscay, hooked up there as a producing partner, and he just has unbridled enthusiasm for what he does.
And literally ten years ago, when we were doing the first movie, I was like “This is one positive guy,” and it’s just infectious. And you have to have that kind of energy. It’s not affected in anyway. If you’re going to be courageous enough to move around set pieces like he does, he does it really well. Like I’ll give you an example, he set up a sequence where the whole house basically falls down, and when I say house we’re talking about the whole house. Columns, cars come crashing down, alarms going off, and horses, chasing, special effects, stunt doubles doing things while on fire and all that crap. And he’d set it all up, then he’d put the poncy actors in at the last second. He’d go, “Ready, aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnddddddd... DON’T SUCK! ACTION!”
That’s basically Stephen in a nutshell right there: fun, enthusiasm, don’t suck, get it right.
Now... Rob, he’s kind of a... they’re opposing styles for sure, as with all directors, but Rob, who was... I want to get this right... he was an archaeology major at Harvard, with a particular interest in Chinese history and studies. And this is before he had anything to do with movies or music, or any of the studios he ran. He’s had a colorful career, and his life has been lived that way too. He has courage, he really does, and a knowledge base that is up-to-the-moment with what’s available, navigating things from the page to the screen, navigating studio politics, just taking things to task and having the courage to do it.
And you have to have that as a director, especially if you’re gonna be following up a franchise piece that was two pictures and seven years ago that was wildly popular. And now we’re gonna go out and take the premise of the movie and relocate it logistically and let the characters age in real time, and tell the story of how the O’Connell family has come along since we’ve seen them last. You know, there’s been problems, and the war happened. They sent their kid off, we learn... we touch on that lightly with a feather. Alex has grown up to be not exactly a chip off the old block, but he’s kind of arrogant. He made an important find, and a dangerous one, too. He doesn’t know that he’s playing with fire. Needless to say, he’s been locking horns with the old man, who isn’t being very gracious, and a little hot-tempered himself, so there’s a real serious rivalry on a kind of Freudian level there. Then of course, there’s nothing like vanquishing the undead to bring a family back together.
So that’s what we’re trying to do with this story, and there are huge set pieces and lots of special effects involved, so you need somebody who believes in that, has actors who believe in what they’re doing, has nothing but passion for what he does. To go to mainland China, mount and shoot the largest production ever shot on Chinese soil, a Western one at that, with the cooperation of the Chinese government, in the year that the Olympics are happening... for god’s sakes. I mean, it’s no small feat.
Moriarty: And that’s one of the most interesting things about the movie, is the transposition from Egypt to China now. When I spoke with Rob, his love of China, his enthusiasm for it, was obvious, and the grounding of this in real history and genuine Chinese mythology is an interesting way to go. It helps, I think, that you have sort of the elder statesmen of Asian cinema, with Jet Li and Russell Wong and Michelle Yeoh.
Brendan Fraser: Yeah. That’s like the prize fight that I’m told China has been waiting for. Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m not that well-versed in all of their films, but I know they worked together before, but I don’t think Jet and Michelle were onscreen in any sort of adversarial role.
Moriarty: That’s right. This is the rumble.
Brendan Fraser: Yeah, so it’s kind of like a prize fight in Vegas or something. It’s like “Michelle Yeoh vs. Jet Li!” They’re almost billing it there like that, like the fight they’ve all been waiting to see. And I was kind of like “My god, it’s Jet Li. He’s the guy!” He’s dignified really, in so many ways, in his homeland. He’s a humble man for sure. I mean I promise you that.
Moriarty: It was fascinating today speaking with him. The grounded way he approaches the martial arts as a part of the performance rather than as a stunt.
Brendan Fraser: It’s true. It’s like he tells a story with his moves. That’s what it’s about, and that’s why he’s so good at what he does. Otherwise it just turns into so much flinging and flailing of arms, and sound effects, which is okay for a while, but then it just sort of turns into white noise, right? He has that sensibility of what a good stunt coordinator would do, no matter what your movie is. It could be Shakespeare, and there are certain scenes that were written by Shakespeare, at least from what I can remember from my days in college, where you kind of can’t speak the dialogue and do it properly unless your characters are holding weapons pointed at each other.
Moriarty: Yeah.
Brendan Fraser: So he gets that for sure. There’s no “gilding the lily,” so to speak. He’s not just showing off unless the character is meant to be showing off. But he doesn’t in this particular role, because he’s playing the Emperor. He brings a great deal of power and force to it by virtue of the fact that he’s performing. And it helps as a native speaker who doesn’t have to worry about affecting his performance in English.
As with casting Maria, who replaced Rachel’s Evie... she’s beautiful, she’s got moxie, she’s funny, she’s totally enthusiastic. And she was game to just do this from the get-go. In her screen tests it was just obvious. I’d be remiss to not admit that I couldn’t not think of hearing or seeing what Rachel would have done when I read the script for the first time. And I thought, “You know, I’m gonna feel her absence a lot if she doesn’t sign on,” and she chose not to. But I respect her decision completely, because, hey, that shoe’s been on my foot before, and it makes you go back and think, well, you know, it’s just a role, and the last movie was 6 or 7 years ago.
It’s a new movie, it’s a new day, a new director. You don’t really have to have seen the first two to understand or appreciate the third. It stands up on its own. It’s kind of like we’ve got a whole new cabinet of tools and toys to play with, and putting all of these elements together this time out makes it a film that’s unique in and of itself. That’s what Rob always set out to do, rather than to just consider it a sequel.
Moriarty: And it helps that if you’re recasting someone as substantial as Rachel, you get someone as substantial as Maria.
Brendan Fraser: I know. She’s a brilliant actress, and even though the character’s different, like... okay, she was a British national, but Maria didn’t let herself fall into that trap that we have so often seen actors do, where they wind up affecting a dialect, usually with dismal effect. And you forget what the scene is about, what the movie is about, if you’re just constantly trying to nail cut-glass vowels, and she just stuck with the movie, stayed true to the spirit of it, which is exactly what this required of her, and she just excelled at it. So we were all really pleased.
Moriarty: Now with Jet and Michelle, obviously they come from a tradition of doing some of the craziest stuff I’ve ever seen on film themselves. Michelle’s jump onto the moving train on a motorcycle in SUPERCOP is still... I can’t believe they let her do it. And then you guys on this film, you had Vic Armstrong as your stunt guy and your second unit guy, who is, I think, the best in the business...
Brendan Fraser: Yeah, to me, too. I mean, c’mon, he was 007.
Moriarty: So did you work closely with him to sort of push how much you got to do in this film?
Brendan Fraser: Well the thing is, when you get into production, the scale... I mean, I know you’re working with Joe right now, you don’t have that... but we didn’t have a second unit, we had a whole action unit which is, you know, off making a whole nother movie which is incorporated into this one. So he was off doing the big explosions, working with the crowd scenes, that kind of thing.
There’s sort of this misunderstanding, and it’s taken me a while to figure this out myself, but doing stunts is actually about safety. It’s about creating the illusion of peril. And that’s the way it should be done, but there’s kind of this, I don’t know, misconception about these guys, that they’re adrenaline junkies or would be off jumping cliffs with parachutes if they weren’t doing this for a living. That’s not necessarily true. I mean in some cases it is, but they come from family backgrounds where they’re trained, they’re athletes, they have acting skills in and of themselves. But, hey, they want to be able to work the next day, just like any old actor. So what they do is dial in what you need to do, make sure you’re safe doing it.
Depending on how comfortable you are with it, you can make a suggestion, like hey, can I have another crash mat over here or whatever. They’re there to help and assist you, and that’s what Vic was all about. And for me, having worked in that genre pretty heavily, there’s a set of films with a lot of stunt work, which may not be entirely apparent on the surface when you watch the film. You ever watch a movie and at the end there’s a credit crawl that says “Stunts by,” and you’re like “God, I can’t even remember any stunts in this movie.” You know what I mean?
Moriarty: Yeah.
Brendan Fraser: That’s good. You shouldn’t. They shouldn’t be that on-the-nose, and what this does do is it allows for a lot of the performers to be doubled. There’s a nod and a wink when they first re-introduce Evie, and it also goes “Hey, we’re doing some pretty cool stuff.” Actual stunt performers did this, and it’s just so crowd-pleasing. And that’s what Vic does so well. I don’t know if you’ve ever met him, but he’s just a gentleman. He’s just the most lovely, honorable man.
Moriarty: No, I’ve never met him.
Brendan Fraser: If you can, go check out his website, because he keeps in touch and he lets people know what he’s up to. And, you know, speaking of elder statesmen in the business. God, we were gifted to have him.
Moriarty: Yeah, it is pretty remarkable. Well, Brendan, I know it’s been a long day of press. I want to thank you so much for taking the time.
Brendan Fraser: Can I ask you a question?
Moriarty: Sure.
Brendan Fraser: I’m curious... you’re working with Ain’t It Cool News?
Moriarty: Yeah.
Brendan Fraser: I gotta say, I just asked because when we did the first Mummy picture, Jim Jacks brought Harry over to London. And I think that was the first time I ever met him.
Moriarty: God, that must have been ’98?
Brendan Fraser: They brought a little armada of press over, and we put on our little dog and pony show for everyone. So they let them visit the set, visit the trailers, that kind of thing, have lunch with them, hob-nob, give them souvenirs, because they were afraid people would be thinking that this was a movie about a guy who shuffles slowly down the street, you know. Arms outstretched, going “Errrr,” wrapped up in bandages. But yeah, that was not the vision of it, it was sort of like the Terminator of mummies.
Anyway, Harry was there, and when I met him then, he was very quiet. Jim brought him up into editing and showed him some cut footage he had done. Then later, I met him again when he came onboard to do what I like to call Hollywood’s most expensive art house movie...
Moriarty: MONKEY BONE. Yep. I actually have a Polaroid of the two of you sitting in the makeup trailer.
Brendan Fraser: You do! YOU have that! [Laughs]
Moriarty: I do. I still have it. It’s in a box of stuff in my garage, still unpacked after one of my moves. It’s a great picture of you two.
Brendan Fraser: You should try to put that up online. Anyway, I’m really pleased to see how this has all gone forward for him.
Moriarty: Well, it’s really hard to believe. This is my twelfth year at the site, and I kind of can’t believe that it’s been that long.
Brendan Fraser: Congratulations to us all then. Say hi to Harry for me, and say hi to Joe too. If you can, tell him that I think Daffy Duck is still an asshole.
Next up, I’ll have my review of the film, which might stand in marked contrast to the coverage so far. This is one of those times where I can see all the good intentions everyone had, and all the support in the world for the filmmaker, but...
... well, we’ll get into that in a few. See you then.
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
