Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...

The first time I met Richard Donner was back in 1993. I was a tour guide at Universal Studios, and one of the perks that came with the job was the occasional seminar they would throw where the guides would all have the opportunity to chat with a filmmaker about his craft. When they told us they’d be bringing in Donner, I was excited. He was one of those guys who seemed to be ubiquitous when I was growing up, having worked in every genre with ease and having had some monster hits that were simply part of the fabric of my childhood. At that particular moment, he was Richard LETHAL WEAPON Donner more than anything else, but over the course of almost two hours, he spoke candidly to the ten or twelve of us who showed up, talking about everything from his days on GILLIGAN’S ISLAND to how you direct Mel Gibson or Bill Murray to why the Salkinds were the purest form of evil on the planet. He was remarkably entertaining and generous, and there wasn’t even a hint of ego to the way he treated us.

So when Warner Bros. asked me if I wanted to spend an afternoon in the sound mixing room with Donner while he put the final touches on his new film, 16 BLOCKS, which opens today, it was a genuine pleasure to take the time and head over to the Disney Studios in Burbank. The 16 BLOCKS team had set up camp in the main mixing theater there, and when I arrived a few minutes early, I stood outside waiting for my contact to arrive. Right on the dot, I was escorted inside, where they were taking a brief break.

I was first introduced to Richard Wenk, the screenwriter on the film. In what seems to be an increasingly rare scenario in Hollywood, Wenk was the first writer on the film and the only writer on the film. He was involved all the way through production, and Donner made sure that he stayed involved, all the way through post and even into the mixing room. As we spoke, they kept running a little snippet of dialogue, the closing lines of the movie, over and over, tweaking something. There was no image onscreen, though, so I wasn’t sure what it was that we were listening to.

Wenk and I talked first about the Millennium Fund, which is the production entity that paid for the movie. Evidently, it’s a privately-managed development fund that is made up of a board of people who read scripts and vote on what they’ll make. When they called Wenk in to discuss his 16 BLOCKS script with him, they told him it was the first film to be unanimously approved for production. They then handed him 14 pages of notes that they wanted addressed. He laughed it off, though, as one of the few speed bumps along the way. He talked about how exceptional Donner’s been as a collaborator, how involved he’s made Wenk, and how great that’s been. We started talking about Mos Def and Bruce Willis and how they both ended up in the film, and as we were discussing Mos and his previous work, Donner walked in.

Frankly, I find it amazing that Donner is 75 years old. He was born in 1930, for God’s sake, and he looks like he’s in better health than I am. There’s this aura of total contentment that just pours off the guy when he walks into a room. “That’s one of the benefits of being married to a teeny-bopper,” he said at one point, referring of course to his wife Lauren Shuler-Donner. When he walked up to join us, he had a handful of peanut-butter-filled pretzels, and he put out his hand towards me. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I put my hand out palm up. “No,” he said, “I’m not giving you one of these.” Then he laughed and handed me some and gave Richard some. He told us to finish up our chat, and he walked down to his seat at the mixing board.

We followed him down, and took seats in the theater row directly behind the mixing board. The final scene of the film, the coda after everything wraps up, was playing repeatedly on the screen in front of us. Donner told the sound editing team what he wanted to work on next, then turned to face me, spotting the tape recorder as he did:

DONNER: Uh-oh. Are we ready?

”MORIARTY”: We are.

DONNER: So you met Richard Wenk? He’s taking the credit for the writing of this one.

”MORIARTY”: We did meet. Just spoke up there.

DONNER: You write, don’t you?

”MORIARTY”: I do.

DONNER: Yeah. You made something, right?

”MORIARTY”: Yeah. It was on the air last Christmas.

DONNER: What was it?

”MORIARTY”: John Carpenter shot a horror film of ours.

DONNER: That you wrote?

”MORIARTY”: Yeah.

DONNER: Good going, man.

”MORIARTY”: Thanks. Richard said something earlier that I totally agree with about his experience with you. He said that it’s a totally different experience for a writer when you’re working with a filmmaker, and that’s who you answer to instead of a studio.

DONNER: He doesn’t answer to anybody. Don’t let him fool you. Some people are just a pain in the ass.

They got the footage cued up for Donner, so he went back to it, and Wenk told me how hard they all fought for Mos Def, and how they had to ask him several times until his schedule worked out right. We talked for another 20 minutes or so while Donner worked, and Wenk told me pretty much the whole story of the film, explaining everything leading up to the last shot that we were watching. He told me about the evolution of the script and how encouraging Donner was the whole time.

As we were chatting, I mentioned how much I enjoy the work of David Morse, who also stars in the film, and I said I was a fan of his “from way back.”

That got Donner’s attention, and he swung around in his chair again to face me.

DONNER: How far back?

”MORIARTY”: I started noticing him on ST. ELSEWHERE.

DONNER: No. Further back than that. INSIDE MOVES. You ever see it?

”MORIARTY”: I have now, certainly. He was great in the film. At the time, it was ST. ELSEWHERE that first clued me in. He’s just so immediately likeable.

DONNER: He was so great to direct in INSIDE MOVES. He’s brilliant.

”MORIARTY”: He’s one of those guys who, whenever he shows up, audiences recognize him and they know he’s always good in whatever he does.

DONNER: Absolutely. You can count on him.

”MORIARTY”: And I love Mos Def. I’m excited to see you working with him.

DONNER: Me, too.

”MORIARTY”: He’s so gifted, so versatile.

DONNER: He’s one of those guys who, um, he’s not a rock star who wanted to act. He’s a very internal man who happens to express himself by rapping. It’s all very internal and very dramatic and he’s just a great natural actor.

”MORIARTY”: Anybody who can hold their own onstage opposite Jeffrey Wright, who I think is one of the best guys we have working at all right now...

DONNER: Oh, yeah. Me, too.

”MORIARTY”: ... you know he must be an actor of some weight. And then to take Mos and bounce him off Bruce Willis... and I have to say, I love seeing him play age like this. I love seeing him play... squashed...

DONNER: That’s a good word. Squashed.

”MORIARTY”: It looks like he’s really reaching for the Bogart thing in this one.

DONNER: That’s great. I’m going to use “squashed.” Do you mind?

”MORIARTY”: No. Not at all.

DONNER: I’m not going to give you any credit. But I will tell Bruce you compared him to Bogart. He’ll like that.

”MORIARTY”: I love when actors reach a certain age and they can really embrace that rumpled thing and play these characters.

DONNER: Harrison Ford should be doing this right now.

”MORIARTY”: That’s exactly what [Wenk] and I were just talking about. He drives me crazy because I love him, I’ve grown up with him. For my generation, he was the movie star. And I’m not as engaged by what he’s doing now, and that’s a drag.

DONNER: I’m dying to work with him. Because first of all, I think he’s got a wild sense of humor. I’ve met him a few times, and he’s got... he’s wicked. And then, you’re right, he should play his age.

”MORIARTY”: And if we’re comparing these guys to old Hollywood, calling Bruce our Bogart, then I think Harrison is our Spencer Tracy. He’s got unlimited curmudgeon potential.

DONNER: Can you imagine putting those two guys together?

”MORIARTY”: I’d love to see him play that. Just embrace that grump that we’ve seen glimpses of. He’d be hilarious.

DONNER: Wow. Write it.

”MORIARTY”: That would all be about the chemistry between them.

DONNER: Write it. Think about them and write. Think about them playing a couple years older than they really are...

”MORIARTY”: That’s the fun of it. Willis isn’t quite as old as you’ve got him playing here, so he gets to stretch, but he’s finally within range of it.

DONNER: They get to act. Man, that would be funny as hell. Both of them would have to work for a modest budget. Nowadays, with both of them...

”MORIARTY”: That’s the dare I want someone to make to Harrison Ford. Make a movie that’s just about performance. No high concept. Just all about a character.

DONNER: Well, that’s why Bruce wanted to do this. He wanted to play... what was it he said to us? “I don’t want to play John McClane.” Bruce came in with the idea of the hair... you know where he got the idea for that hairpiece he’s got in the film?

He pointed at the top of Richard Wenk’s head, and Wenk started laughing and shaking his head.

DONNER: He just pointed at him one day and said, “That’s the hair. I want a wig just like that.” And it was his idea for the moustache. He knew it would make him look older. And everyone was quite upset by this. They didn’t know he was going to wear a moustache until they saw the dailies. I think it works so well for him.

”MORIARTY”: Oh, it’s a total soup-catcher.

DONNER: (laughs) Oh, man, you just convinced me to never grow a moustache with that term. So it’s Bruce... and it’s Mos, this amazing kid... and it’s David. They’re all great.

Onscreen, the climactic showdown in the film started playing, and we all fell silent as Donner listened to the mix, listening to the background sounds behind the conversation between Bruce Willis and David Morse. I was surprised at how the climax of the film appears to be a quiet conversation in a nondescript parking garage. Not what you’d expect from a Bruce Willis thriller.

They ran through it twice, then backed it up to make a couple of quick adjustments. Looking up at Willis, wobbling on his feet, battered and worn at the edges, I laughed.

”MORIARTY”: I’m always a big fan of films where the lead actor gets more and more abused over the course of the movie until finally...

DONNER: He looks like shit. (laughs)

”MORIARTY”: Is that cruel?

DONNER: Well, our guy starts out looking like shit. He actually gets a little better in some ways as he goes. His head clears, but his body isn’t quite able to keep up.

We watched the scene again, speaking almost in whispers.

DONNER: David commands your attention when you look at the screen, doesn’t he?

”MORIARTY”: Absolutely. He’s very honest. Very pure about the way he plays it.

DONNER: When Bruce first came into my office and I first met him, he said, “I really want to let myself go. I want to be that guy. I’ve wanted to play this role for a long time.” So he did it.

”MORIARTY”: That’s so seductive for an actor. Like Clooney, when he did SRYIANA last year...

DONNER: Yeah. They get to really act. That isn’t always the case. Although in some ways, it takes more acting to play that other person. To play youthful and do that hero thing... that’s a lot of work. But playing a character like this, they can really vanish into themselves. It’s liberating.

”MORIARTY”: Looking at this ending, this isn’t what the trailers are selling. They make it look like another big action movie.

DONNER:We’ve been talking about that, getting ready for the Super Bowl spot. What do you go with? An action trailer? Or do you tell the story of the relationship between the two men, this reluctant thing that evolves. In 30 seconds, how do you sell that to an audience? How do you show the action? The anger of their first meeting? The frustration of how it develops? And then the way they finally connect. I’m sure they’ll cut different spots to try to catch different people. How do you get people in theaters for anything today?

”MORIARTY”: I think it’s more about finding your niche and being honest about it than it is about trying to be everything to everybody. It’s really appealing to me that this film looks like a character-driven triangle, especially with this cast.

DONNER: Hold on. My wife’s on IM.

He turned back around to his computer, and then they moved on to the next scene, the one after Willis faces down Morse. It’s a tense scene that sort of reminds me of the scene in the airport at the end of MIDNIGHT RUN. In fact, there’s a real strong MIDNIGHT RUN vibe to the last ten of fifteen minutes of the film, right down to the fact that Willis’s last name is “Mosely” in the movie.

While they worked on bringing in the score exactly the way Donner wanted, he turned back to face me.

”MORIARTY”: Did this come together quickly for you?

DONNER: Three years. About that. Originally, Wenk wrote this other script, and I was going to direct it with Joel... (spits on the floor)... Joel... (spits on the floor)... excuse me... Joel... (spits on the floor) Silver.

”MORIARTY”: (laughs)

DONNER: And for some reason, that never happened. It was something Joel did. And it just sort of died on the vine. And then I remember one day, you came over to the house, and you said, “I have this idea.” You pitched it, and it was about halfway there, and I called Lauren in, and she heard it, and we just said, “Okay. Let’s do it.”

”MORIARTY”: And was that pretty much the movie you made?

DONNER: Well, what was the next step? First we went to Millennium. They turned out to be great. They just gave us the money and left us alone. And Avi Lerner said, “Can you help me? We need someone we can use to sell it.” And Wenk said he wanted Bruce, and we called him up, met him, and he loved it from that first meeting. He wanted to play squashed. (laughs) I love that word. (laughs) And then it was Mos, and then David, and then we ran off to Canada and we just did it.

”MORIARTY”: At this stage in your life as a filmmaker, what is it that motivates you to get off the couch?

DONNER: You know... with action films... there was a point where I didn’t want to do them. I had never done one. I got sent tons of them. And Mark Canton over at Warner Bros. gave me LETHAL WEAPON, and when I read it, it was totally character-driven. There was a reason to do this film that had action. This script was the same sort of thing. It’s the story of these three men and the way they connect to one another. Everybody evolves. Mos is this catalyst who comes in and saves Bruce’s life in one way, and Bruce saves his life in another way. It was just extremely well-written, character-wise and dialogue-wise. I was committed to it from the first time Wenk pitched it to me. And you read so much shit these days...

”MORIARTY”: I think it’s interesting how at 75, you’re making this. An original. It’s not based on a comic book or a video game or another movie, and it’s not a sequel. It’s just this. It’s just an original. Meanwhile this summer, we’ve got guys remaking your films or making semi-sequels that use everything you established. There’s the OMEN remake and the SUPERMAN homage this summer, and you’re still turning out originals. Hats off.

DONNER: It’s the only point in making a movie for me.

”MORIARTY”: How does that affect you when you see someone remaking your stuff or when you see what Singer’s doing with SUPERMAN?

DONNER: Ummm... uhhh... it’s strange. It started for me with TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE. You know... the guy on the wing? That was a remake of my episode [“Nightmare At 20,000 Feet”], and when I looked at it, I felt a lot more confident in myself and my abilities. I’m all for them, I guess. With THE OMEN, I wish somebody would have called me, and I could have given them some thoughts. They could have thrown them out and disregarded them, but it would have been nice to have talked about it. I’m sorry they didn’t.

”MORIARTY”: I’ve always loved what you did to Gregory Peck in that film. You totally perverted his image with the casting of him in that film.

DONNER: You know how that happened? I asked him if we could talk before he read the script. He said, “Over the phone.” So I called him up, and he answered in that voice of his. “Yeeeeessss?” And I said, “When you read this, the one thing I would appreciate you doing is read it as the story of a man who is literally having the worst day of anyone’s life. Ever. It’s about what can happen to one person in such a short period of time that might drive them to be able to raise a knife and kill a child.” And he said, “Wow. That’s in this?” And about noon or one the next day, I got a call that said, “Mr. Peck would like you to come over to his house.” I got an audience. And he said, “If I had read this cold, I would not have seen what you said.” I just had to attack him on a different level, try to convey to him the reality of that film the way I saw it. There’s no way it works literally. It’s all just circumstance that comes together. What are they really seeing with their eyes at that point? Is it more about someone pushed past the point of insanity. I wonder how they’re doing this new one.

”MORIARTY”: It’s strange as a fan of the first two SUPERMAN films to hear rumors about how this one sort of picks up where they left off, and to see images that so clearly take inspiration from what you did.

DONNER: They’ve tried so many people, tried so hard to make a new SUPERMAN. They’ve spent millions and millions of dollars.

”MORIARTY”: I think there’s a book in there. There’s never been a development process like it.

DONNER: You bet. Unbelievable. And when Lauren was doing X-MEN 2, and Bryan was directing it, Dan and Mike, the two writers, were with him all the time. And they told me that they would sit in their trailers all day, watching SUPERMAN, and they told me how much they loved it. So when Bryan got offered the job, he called me to ask if he had my blessings. And to me, there’s nobody better. He’s not just a gun for hire. He and those two guys, Mike and Danny, they wrote it with a passion. And I understand he directed it the same way. With that passion. I’m thrilled.

”MORIARTY”: Well, it’s just odd the way it folds back into your movies.

DONNER: Makes me feel like an old fart. I’ll tell you that. When you’re married to a teeny-bopper, though, it makes life worthwhile.

We discussed SUPERMAN II and the new DVD cut, as I mentioned in an earlier article, and then he had to go back to working on the scene again, but just for a moment, turning back around to face me as soon as he could.

”MORIARTY”: There are things you did in that first SUPERMAN that I think set a template that is still closely followed by everyone making superhero films.

DONNER: The first SPIDER-MAN, I saw it and I couldn’t believe it. That guy’s amazing, the director, Sam... but I couldn’t believe it. There’s so much. The family stuff, the first flight, and on and on and on.

”MORIARTY”: I think he’s mentioned that. He really loved the first SUPERMAN and I think it’s obvious... he knew what he loved about it.

DONNER: He’s so good. But you think he could give me 10% of the film? (laughs) Actually, he gave me two trees.

The rest of the time I spent there that afternoon, Donner was pretty much just running through scenes, joking around, doing his best to keep the editing team’s energy up. He had a laptop open on the mixing board, and on the screen, there was a real-time image being fed from a camera overlooking Donner’s own private beach, updating every few seconds to show what he could be enjoying if he was there. He tapped the screen at one point and just said with a wistful sigh, “Next week.” When I finally left, he invited me to join him at a screening of the film a few days later. “It’ll still be rough,” he said, but he gave me the details on when and where.

It was indeed a rough cut, but it was finished enough that I’m comfortable reviewing it. I’m sure it hasn’t changed much since that screening. Basically, 16 BLOCKS is a thriller shot in almost-real-time, unfolding over 90 minutes or so one New York morning. Bruce Willis is Jack Mosley, a joke of a cop who is just getting off a shift when his captain asks him to transport a witness to a courthouse nearby. The witness is Eddie Bunker, played by Mos Def. Eddie’s supposed to be testifying about police corruption. On the way to the courthouse, Mosley stops to buy some liquor. Some armed men approach the car where Eddie sits cuffed, and just when it looks like they’re going to kill him, Mosley walks out and blows one of them away. That first gunshot, the moment afterwards as Mosley realizes what he’s done... it’s a lovely grace note by Donner as a director, and it does a nice job of approximating what it must be like in a moment like that. Mosley and Eddie take refuge in a nearby bar and call for help. When back-up arrives, it’s in the form of Frank Nugent (David Morse) and his team. Frank’s an old partner of Mosley’s, and at first, Mosely relaxes. But then it becomes clear that one of the guys on Frank’s team is the guy that Eddie was about to testify against, and Mosley realizes that he can either be true to his friends or be true to the job. He can either be the piece of shit everyone thinks he is, or he can be a cop. The choice he makes even appears to surprise him.

That’s pretty much it for plot. Everything that takes place after that scene in the bar is just about getting Eddie to that courtroom. Donner squeezes the most suspense he can out of every set-up, and Wenk’s script is solid. He leans on some conventions of the cop movie genre pretty hard, but every time you think he’s going through the motions, he throws in something that invigorates the picture. And through it all, he’s helped by the fact that Willis, Mos Def, and Morse are all damn good in the film.

If there’s any performance that will divide audiences, it’s Mos Def, but I think that’s going to be a signature of most of his work. I guess I understand why people hated his interpretation of Ford Prefect, but I don’t agree with them, and I can already imagine some people’s reaction to the mush-mouthed jabberjaw that is Eddie Bunker. I really responded to it, and I found his work quite touching at times. Willis and Morse both do very good work, and they’ve got a great give-and-take in their scenes together.

The film cheats its real-time premise a bit, but Donner shows a sure hand in how he keeps turning up the pressure, little by little, until the film finally reaches that scene in the garage... two old friends face-to-face, no more illusions between them. It’s a genuine ending, and I bought it. It’s not a twist. It’s not some big explosion or action set piece. It’s just a well-earned ending that seems like the only way this thing could wrap up. Interestingly, they shot it two different ways, and I think Donner made the right call in terms of which one he used.

Thanks to Darren at Warner Bros. for putting me in a room with Donner, and thanks to Richard Donner for being such an amiable, approachable guy. He was so willing to discuss the work of others, like when we talked about KISS KISS BANG BANG, which I brought up because Donner was the guy who put Shane Black on the map in the first place. That’s one of the ways I judge filmmakers... how they discuss the work of other people. You can tell when someone’s generous, without any of the ego-driven bullshit that so many people in Hollywood thrive on. Donner’s the very definition of an old pro, and 16 BLOCKS is a solid reminder of why he’s mattered for the last 50 years.