As you may be aware, we've been running exclusive columns from Michael Davis, the writer/director of the upcoming action flick, "Shoot 'Em Up." Last time, Davis introduced us to his behind-the-scenes players; today the filmmaker describes how he navigated the production's many challenges.
Time is a director's nemesis. There's never enough of it. In "Shoot 'Em Up," there are eleven action set pieces or more. A skydiving shoot out. Clive shoots down forty hoods while on the run. He rappels down a stairwell with an Uzi. Delivers a baby while picking off guys. A car chase gunfight. What saved my ass was having the brilliant Peter Pau on hand as the cinematographer. Read more...
For a few weeks now, we've been running exclusive columns from Michael Davis, the writer/director of the upcoming action romp, "Shoot 'Em Up," starring Clive Owen, Monica Belluci and Paul Giamatti. His first piece tackled his beginnings, his second revealed how Giamatti channeled Karl Rove, and now he introduces us to the cast of characters behind the camera who helped make his film possible.
In "Shoot 'Em Up,' our hero is the lone man who gets into every gunfight imaginable from a gun battle while he freefalls from an airplane to a shootout while he's making love.
But, to make a film it takes a real posse to get it done. Here the rogue's gallery that had my back: Read more...
So says director Michael Davis in his latest column for MTV.com, who reveals that Paul Giamatti channeled none other than Bush's ex-chief-of-staff for his turn as a baby-hunting villain in "Shoot 'Em Up," the balls-out action romp starring Clive Owen and Monica Bellucci.
"I tell him that I don't want to push him in a certain direction for this part," writes Davis. "Instead, I'd love for him to create a character beyond the page. He says he'd like his character to be based on Karl Rove -- a seemingly bookish guy who exercises power behind the scenes. I like it. His character turns out to be way more flamboyant than Rove ... but I like how our free-flowing conversation started making the character better than what is on the page."
Still no word if Owen's manic-gunslinger was based on Condi.
As part of MTV's Comic-Con coverage, we asked various celebrities to snap a few photos of their San Diego adventures and send them in with captions. We're happy to present the first of our contributors, "Shoot 'Em Up" director Michael Davis, who captured everything from an amputee model at the "Grindhouse" booth to backstage fan moments with Clive Owen (as seen below).
Click on the photo to see Davis' complete photo diary, and be sure to check in later this week for diaries from "Stargate: SG-1” lead Amanda Tapping and "Saw" co-creator James Wan.
For all the Vulcans, Stormtroopers and gladiators walking around at Comic-Con, the biggest geek in all of San Diego may very well be an invited guest.
"In high school, when I auditioned for 'Fiddler on the Roof,' " "Shoot 'Em Up" director Michael Davis told a packed crowd by way of introduction at the world premiere of his new flick, "my audition piece was Auric Goldfinger's speech. This is a dream come true."
Read more...
