Sundance 2008 Interview: Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist)

IONCINEMA.com is proud to feature the rookie and veteran filmmakers showcased and nurtured at the 2008 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. This is part of collection of emailer interviews conducted prior to the festival – we would like to thank the filmmakers for their time and the hardworking publicists for making this possible.]

Rupert Wyatt

Can you discuss (in a nutshell) your filmmaking/directing background (your previous short film experiences) that have led you to where you are today…
I’ve made about fifteen short Films, all varying in budget, length and outcome. Some I’m very proud of, others I would consider very good training ground but nothing more. Writing, setting up and finding finance for all of the Shorts was predictably hard but tt was the best and possibly only way I was able to cut my teeth in directing drama on a regular basis. Back in 1997 I set up a Film production collective called Picture Farm for this very reason. As I was finding it very hard to break into Television Drama and Advertizing. My partners include the actor and producer Damian Lewis, fellow writer / directors Marc Singer and Gareth Lewis and Producers Adrian Sturges and Ben Freedman. We’ve all gone on to make Features within and produced by the company so it’s proved to be a success and a very worthwhile business endeavor, not to mention a fantastic way to nurture and develop one’s own work from script to screen and retain that all important creative control.
 
Can you discuss the genesis of this project – how did the initial idea come about, Daniel Hardy’s participation and how did this become a story you wanted to tell?
I’ve always loved Prison Films: LE TROU / PAPILLON / THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION / BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ / LONELINESS OF A LONG DISTANCE RUNNER / COOL HAND LUKE…There’s so many and there’s something about the restricted landscape of the genre and how it invariably pits human beings against one another as well as against their environment and the system itself in such a dramatic and scaled down way. I think the genre also taps into my love of the ‘lonely man’ stories which were so common in the heyday of 70’s American Cinema. Films like THE CONVERSATION, THE PARALLAX VIEW, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEXT. Great movies with great protagonists who invariably fail in their ‘rage against the machine’ but provide for great drama in their efforts. So the inspiration those stories provided, combined with an incredible opportunity to work with the actor Brian Cox again after we’d
successfully collaborated on a Short Film called GET THE PICTURE got me thinking about the possibility of making my first Film within the contained environment of prison and with a very strong but emotionally spare protagonist, which a consummate and nuanced actor like Brian is perfect for. Brian and I had always spoken about our mutual love of the brawny, stripped-back acting styles of the likes of Spencer Tracey, Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando etc. and so I set to work writing the first draft of THE ESCAPIST solely with him in mind as FRANK PERRY. I had no idea whether he’d respond to it but thank God he did! Daniel Hardy my co-writer came on board soon after the initial pass. We’d worked together before and he’s an
extraordinary collaborator as besides a common taste in Films and Literature and music we both I think respect one another’s opinions enough to know when something is working or not. Very rarely have we reached an impasse when writing a script together as we know that if one of us isn’t happy with something then there’s something wrong. The other extraordinary strength Daniel has is in his structural ability. Whereas I’d written the initial pass of the script with various scenes in mind that I was wedded to purely
from a visual point of view, he was able to ruthlessly and very effectively cull and reshape the Film so that it ultimately became a script which was getting a unanimously positive response. That, combined with dogged perseverance, and the ability and tenacity of my two producers Adrian Sturges and Alan Maloney got us through the four times the Film fell apart and ultimately it’s what bullied the Film into production.
 As far as the story is concerned. The inspiration came from a short story written in the 19th Century by Ambrose Bierce which narratively is completely different (it’s set during the American Civil War) but it was the first narrative to use a structural technique that is the bedrock of our two parallel time lines. (JACOB’S LADDER also drew from this source, I’m sure)  

Can you elaborate on what kind of work went into the pre-production process (how long you’ve been working on this project prior to pre-production and what specifically you did to prepare, and were there specific people involved in this process that are worth signaling out?
The first draft of the script was written just under two years before we went into production which is relatively swift, especially for a first Film, however I’d been working ten years prior to that on numerous other projects which fell apart! This one just happened to stick. The window presented itself and with Brian’s support and then the other cast from the lead ensemble we managed to assemble a group of very loyal actors who stuck by the project and if nothing else I’m very proud of the fact that their faith in me and the Film paid off. Adrian Sturges ands Alan Maloney were also the two principle stalwarts behind the production. Adrian I’ve worked with as a partner in Picture Farm and we’ve collaborated on three short Films as well. Alan we met on a recce trip to Dublin when we were scouting Kilmainham Gaol which ultimately became our master location. I could tell from the first time I met Alan that he has the guts and wherewithall to go after something he likes and he knows what he likes! As such as he makes Films rather than talking about making them, which is rare. I think Adrian and I can safely say that without him we wouldn’t have necessarily made it into production last January. As always, getting that elusive greenlight was fraught with tension, especially when 2 of the attached cast who were quite big names
dropped out at the 11th hour. Both Alan and Adrian did a huge amount of financial juggling and risk-taking during the pre-production process and for me I was exceedingly lucky to be shielded from the majority of it and allowed to concentrate on making the Film.

How did you manage to get such a wonderful array of acting talent? What was the consensus feedback that you got from the actors that made it a priority to join the project?
 Well as I said, Brian boarded from first draft stage. Steve Mackintosh came soon after and they both stuck by us through a good three or four collapses. They share a US agent – Ilene Feldman – who read the script at an early stage. I remember meeting her in a London hotel. She very flatteringly said that she had the same reaction to it as when she first read the Usual Suspects for her client Benicio Del Toro. She also said that even though I’d written a script which she thought was stellar, I hadn’t ‘made’ it yet and I could still quite easily screw it up! Hopefully that’s not the case. Her support and enthusiasm for it created a very important ripple effect and I think other agents started to take notice. I cast Seu Jorge as I’d loved him in City of God. It was a bit of a punt whether we’d actually be able to get him the script but I know a script editor who’d worked on Constant Gardener and she very kindly passed it onto Fernando Merielles who in turn winged it over to him in Sao Paulo. We heard nothing for a good three months but then out of the blue we got a call from his camp with a big thumbs up and after a hilarious first meeting where I joined him on his tour bus from LA to the Coachella Festival near Palm Springs in the desert, we got on wonderfully and he was in. Daniel and I then had the opportunity to mould Viv Batista into a character which fitted him like a glove. My aim was to avoid cliché in the characters as well as the prison and casting a Brazilian actor like Seu Jorge and chucking him in with a rag tag bunch of Escapists and ruthless crims I think achieved just that. Damian Lewis is a partner in Picture Farm but although that might infer he was a definite, that certainly wasn’t the case. He’s an extraordinary actor and is already a major force to be reckoned and as such he’s very careful about the roles he’s takes on. Fortunately he felt it would be a good crack to play the Prison’s ‘Daddy’ villain – RIZZA. Joe Fiennes came in, ultimately through Brian. They’d worked together on RUNNING WITH SCISSORS and I remember Brian raving about Joe soon after. I met Joe soon after that Film’s Premiere. He read the script, then grilled me very efficiently for about two hours on the phone, asking exactly the sort of questions an actor should ask, especially when considering a low budget
Film. He’s a very thoughtful man and I ultimately really enjoyed working with him because of that. He was also quite brave as LENNY DRAKE isn’t a particularly likeable soul and he had no qualms about shaving his head and roughing himself up a bit. Liam Cunningham I met through Alan Maloney. They’d worked together and probably done a bit more besides! Liam’s an extraordinarily natural and instinctive actor who made my job very easy and what’s more he’s precisely the kind of guy you want as part of your ensemble. By that I mean he created a wonderful atmosphere on set. Dominic Cooper joined only days before shooting. I’d seen him in HISTORY BOYS. He came into the casting, knocked us flat with a really powerful
improvisation of one of the hardest scenes in the Film to get right which is his character LACEY’S emotional and physical breakdown moments after killing a fellow convict. He was cast purely from that and managed to pull off a very tough character to play who features very heavily within the narrative
and each scene but hardly says a word. Like Liam he’s a natural.  Finally Steve Mackintosh. As I said he joined the project very early and stuck by it, as well as enthusiastically dropping 3 stone to play the
drug-addled psychotic TONY who is along with his brother RIZZA – The Escapists nemesis. Steve’s one of the best character actors in Britain so to have the opportunity of working with him on one’s first Film was just brilliant. I learnt a huge amount from him, not least the cliché of ‘less is more’ which when tackling a villain like Tony was vital if we were to avoid the pitfalls of pantomime performance. As to why they stuck by the Film through thick and thin, well that’s a question only they can answer!

What aesthetic decisions did you make prior to shooting?  
I’ve always found it immensely helpful to reference photographs and paintings which help to inform the writing as well as the actual making of the Film. Over time I’ve built up a great library of images and in the weeks leading up to production was able to collate it with my shot lists and story
boards.

My other major aesthetic decision is working with DP Philipp Blaubach and Sound Designer Theo Green! Both are collaborators I’ve worked with on shorts and we’ve built up a great short hand. As with Daniel Hardy, we share a mutual taste in Films and although we’re all at an early stage of our careers they’re phenomenally talented and real craftsmen who don’t like to comprimise.
 
If you could name just one – what stands out as your most favorite experience you had during filming?
In all honesty, it was calling a cut at 5am on the final night of shooting when we all emerged literally and figuratively from a very dark and cold train tunnel. That and seeing Brian Cox pushing the Dolly on one of the last set ups with time rapidly running out. You don’t get many actors who are prepared to do that!
 
Anatomy of a scene: What was the most difficult sequence during production? 
There were many on an emotional level, not least because dialogue is so sparse and everything needed to be conveyed through nuance and physical gesture. Obviously having my cast really helped that as they instinctively jumped on the opportunity to speak volumes with the twitch of an eyebrow as opposed to a two page monologue. So for me I’d say the hardest scenes to shoot were the ones which required the most in terms of physical interaction with each other, or with their environment. For example, covering
effectively five actors descending a real-life Air sump, without wires, with artificial rain drenching them and the ladder, with a two hundred feet drop onto a concrete below and no stunt co-ordinator through lack of budget, that’s hard!

What was the most challenging aspect of the production?
In a nutshell – having to shoot on average 25 set ups a day on a 25 day schedule.
 
What are you hoping that future audiences will take away from this film? 
I really hope we’ve made a Film which succeeds within it’s genre and by that I mean a prison escape story which thrills and intrigues, but also I really hope we reach the audience by way of Frank’s story and his ’emotional escape’. 

At what part in the timeline did you consider submitting the film to Sundance?
I think from the word go we always considered submitting it but I for one always considered getting selected to be the longest of long shots. It’s really a dream come true to have my first movie given such a brilliant platform. It means we stand a real chance of breaking out into a much larger arena and I think for a low budget British movie that’s just great.

The Escapist is part of the Premieres section at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. It is currently seeking distribution.