Original-Cin Q&A: Roland Emmerich talks Sony balking at making Midway, and chimes in on Marvel movies (not cinema)
Known for end-of-the-world-minded box office hits such as Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, film director and producer Roland Emmerich is no stranger to making large scale special effects blockbusters.
His latest is a World War II action-drama Midway which features big-budget effects and an ensemble cast including Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, and Nick Jonas. The film centers around the American sailors and aviators who bravely fought against the Japanese in the 1942 Battle of Midway.
Director Roland Emmerich refights the war in the Pacific in Midway
Our Bonnie Laufer sat down with Roland Emmerich to discuss the film, his all-time favourite actors to work with, and his thoughts on Marvel movies and what is cinema.
ORIGINAL-CIN: The battle of Midway took place more than 75 years ago. Why did you decide that it was important to bring this piece of history to the big screen now?
ROLAND EMMERICH: “I’ve been wanting to tell this story for a long time. Twenty years ago I saw a documentary and I immediately knew it would make a terrific movie. I knew that there was another movie about Midway with Charleton Heston which I saw as a kid in 1976. But all I remember about it was that it was very loud. So I decided to do it after I finished Godzilla and at that time I had just negotiated a huge deal with Sony Pictures.
“They were super excited about it, and I had even spoken to William Goldman who had written my favourite war picture, A Bridge Too Far.
“But then all of a sudden someone at the studio asked me, ‘How expensive is this movie going to be?’ I told them that nothing existed and we would have to create everything from scratch so we were looking at least $130- to-$140 million. Needless to say, it didn’t get approved especially for the fact that Sony was a Japanese company. So because I was at Sony, they had a really great script called, The Patriot and I went ahead and directed that.”
OC: That didn’t turn out too badly for you.
EMMERICH: “Not at all. However, even though I went on to make several more films, I never forgot about Midway and wanting to bring it to the screen.
“Whenever a young writer would come into our office I would always first ask them, ‘What is a movie that you really want to write?’ So there was a young man named Wes Tooke who I met about five years ago, and he said Midway. So we discussed his outlook on how he wanted to tell it and we developed a script together.”
OC: You’ve made so many big budget special effects movies, what ultimately ended up being the biggest challenge with this one?
EMMERICH: “There were actually a few major challenges. First of all, absolutely nothing existed, so we had to start from scratch to recreate this time in history and be as accurate as possible. Sure, you can shoot a few scenes on land there are still some homes existing in Hawaii, but none of the aircraft carriers are existing, none of the planes are around. Some of the planes that actually do exist are different colours and trust me, the people who own them won’t let you go anywhere near them, let alone change their look!
“So that was a huge problem for us, and we had to be really clever to make this all happen. We made the film pretty much how I envisioned it 20 years ago, but it cost us $98 million to make it opposed to the original budget of $140 million. Because we shot some of it in Canada and Hawaii, we only had to raise $76 million in cash.”
OC: Plus, you ended up getting financing from an independent studio as opposed to a major studio.
EMMERICH: “Yes, it was the way to go and it’s funny because 20 years ago when we approached the Japanese for financing they wouldn’t touch it. When we showed them the film this time around, they paid double.”
OC: Not surprised, as you do show some empathy towards the Japanese in the film, and you dedicate it to both the American and Japanese who risked their lives during the war.
EMMERICH: “That was most important to me, I wanted to show compassion for both sides. It has a very honest look at both the Americans and the Japanese. There are no winners or losers , at the end a lot of people lost their lives. So we know that war is bad but I tried to show that normal regular everyday people fight wars.”
OC: I understand that you created the entire aircraft carrier on a soundstage in Montreal. That had to be one huge soundstage!
EMMERICH: “We used a double sound stage so that it was really long and it was perfect for what we needed. We built everything indoors because we couldn’t rely on the weather. We built part of the island and all the planes.
Woody Harrelson is Admiral Chester Nimitz in Midway.
“It was a huge undertaking and there is no way 20 years ago I could have done it as well as it turned out with today’s technology.”
OC: You’ve assembled quite an impressive cast for this film. From Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Patrick Wilson to Nick Jonas and Ed Skrein. I was quite taken with Ed who plays a real life dive bomber, who ultimately was one of the key pilots who helped win the battle for the Americans.
EMMERICH: “He was a daredevil and didn’t think twice about what he had to do for his country. Truly, there is not much known about these guys. Some dive bombers like Dusty Kleiss wrote a book about his experiences. So I always told the actors to read as much as they could about these men and what they did.
“With Ed, I think he saw a little of himself in Lieutenant Dick Best. He’s a bit of a daredevil himself and always has a twinkle in his eye. Nothing stops that guy and I really enjoyed working with him.
“ I always try to cast actors where the quality of a character is a little bit in themselves. For example, with Woody Harrelson he is Texan, and has a really strong character. And I knew immediately he would be perfect as Admiral Chester Nimitz, a man who commands authority but also has a soft spot. He’s versatile and I worked with him before, I know him very well, so it was a no-brainer.”
OC: What about someone like Nick Jonas who doesn’t have a lot of acting experience?
EMMERICH: “With Nick, he actually came to us and said he wanted to play Aviation Machinist Mate Bruno Gaido. He told us that he felt a connection to Bruno because they were both from New Jersey, and so that's how it sometimes happens. I have to tell you, for me to cast a movie I have sleepless nights because any mistake you make can ruin your movie. It is the thing about movie making that has always and still does stress me out the most!”
OC: You have made huge blockbuster films and then movies like Anonymous and Stonewall, which course were smaller budgets and more personal films. How do you find the balance in your career, and how do you decide what kind of movies you want to make? Is there a comedy on your horizon?
EMMERICH: “Well I am planning for my next movie something much bigger than Midway, a movie called Moonfall, a disaster film in which a mysterious force knocks the moon from its orbit, sending it on a collision course towards Earth.
“Then I am going to do a smaller movie, which I am calling my love letter to filmmaking about silent movie shooting. I wrote a script 20 years ago and recently rewrote it extensively. It’s called Shooting Star and is a very comedic movie, but it also delves into a movie shoot taking place in the Californian desert in 1919, 1920 or 1921. It’s about filmmaking. It’s totally an invented story that’s probably closest to my heart these days. And I know I have to do one or two other movies before, but I’m looking forward to doing that.
“It’s fun and has some comedic elements to it. Everyone who has read the script, their reaction is, ‘Oh my god, you want to do that?’ In private, I’m well known for not being very serious, so I am looking forward to sharing that side of myself. I think it’s about time.” (Laughs)
OC: Of all the actors you have worked with over the years, who has impressed you the most?
EMMERICH: “Oh god, so many. Jonny Beauchamp in Stonewall was absolutely fantastic. Rhys Ifans who starred in Anonymous really impressed me. When I worked with Mel Gibson in The Patriot I honestly didn’t know what to expect and he was fantastic.
“Speaking of The Patriot, I was the one who insisted on casting Heath Ledger. No one knew who he was, and the studio didn’t want to take a chance. They were all against him, and I said, ‘No this guy is getting the role.’ The same thing happened with Will Smith for Independence Day. No one wanted Will to star and I put my foot down on that one! It turned out pretty well.”
OC: That's an understatement! You listen to filmmakers today, for example someone like Martin Scorsese, who says Marvel films are not real cinema. That caused quite a stir. What is your take on all of this ?
RE: “ Well, Scorsese is a filmmaker who has really high standards and I completely understand that. Maybe he’s a little bit sorry that he said that, but he doesn’t want to take it back. Look, I’m not a fan of the Marvel movies either, they just don’t interest me. Out of professional interest I do watch them all but most of the time on planes.” (Laughs)
OC: Where do you see filmmaking going now especially with streaming services like Netflix in the game?
EMMERICH: “That’s a good question because I think nobody knows right now. The interesting part is going back to these huge Marvel movies and Star Wars movies or all the Disney movies. They are all super successful but they are destroying something else.
“Even their own directors like the Russo brothers they have a hard time making anything else besides these types of movies. They had a hard time getting their own 50 or 60 million dollar movie financed and that is bad.
“They are great filmmakers and they are still having a hard time? In my opinion, the art of making films today is going down and I find it all very frightening. And I feel for poor young directors who are just starting in this business. It’s not easy at all.”