OPENING NIGHT SPECIAL
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in Rian Johnson’s Looper
gun who wrestles with a whopping existential dilemma when he is assigned to kill an older version of himself dispatched from the future. After Johnson and producer
Sci-fi Looper is a product of its time R
The team behind the TIFF opener tells Jeremy Kay about prosthetic noses and a last-minute switch to China
ian Johnson’s opening night film Looper stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a hired
Ram Bergman approached James Stern’s Endgame Entertainment to finance the film, China’s DMG came on board as co-financier and co-producer and FilmNation han- dled international sales. FilmDis- trict will distribute Looper in the US in partnership with Sony’s TriStar Pictures on September 28. Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt also star.
When did you get the idea for the screenplay and how did everything play out after you wrote it? Rian Johnson It was before Brick [2005] and I was frustrated trying to get money to make Brick, so I shot a few short films on video. Looper was one of the ones I’d written but never ended up shoot- ing and it sat in a drawer for eight years or so. I picked it up after The Brothers Bloom [2008]. Ram Bergman After Brick played Sundance, people asked Rian what he wanted to do next and he was talking about Bloom and Looper. He was really pitching
Looper and every studio in the room wanted to buy it. But I told Rian to write it and then we’d think about selling it — that way we’d control it and control our destiny, which is the way we’ve always done things. We showed it to Jim [Stern]. We got the sales agent [FilmNation] and began pre-sales [in Cannes 2010] based on a promo with a voice-over that Joseph recorded before we even shot the movie. We sold it to the US a year later in Cannes.
The movie is about a lot more than people might think. James Stern It’s both romantic and quite moving. What I love about this movie is it’s a character film that uses sci-fi; it’s not a sci-fi film that uses character. That’s a rare bird. I had the great fortune to produce The Brothers Bloom and I’m great friends with Rian and great, great friends with Ram. When they were satisfied with the script, they brought it to me and said if I wanted to do it we’d do it.
You shot inNew Orleans in early 2011 and slotted in an eleventh hour trip toChina after Endgame approached their friends at DMG during pre-
n 8 Screen International at Toronto September 7, 2012
production to co-produce.How did that come about? RJ It was a section of the film that was originally written to be in Paris, but we didn’t have the budget to go to France, so I was faced with the prospect of faking France in New Orleans. So when DMG came to us with the prospect of setting it in Shanghai and said they could pay, it made all the difference.
The cast is top-notch and works together seamlessly — and that’s quite a hooter on Joseph’s face. RJ I feel I had the best seat in the house watching Joe work. He had to spend three hours in make-up each morning for the nose and it was hot and itchy but he couldn’t scratch it and he couldn’t eat when he had that thing on. Bruce was fantastic and Emily is one of those actors I’ve wanted to work with for a long time. We have this group I’ve been working with on several films for a long time and Emily fit- ted in well. JS We had Joe and made the offer to Bruce and he went for it and I held my breath that it would work with Bruce and Joe playing the same guy. Then Emily came along — she is one of the great actresses of her generation. Ram is the best producer I’ve ever worked with, so
it’s Ram’s production and I am thrilled to be part of it. RB We clearly have a great time working with Jim and he has been a great, great partner for Rian and me. I hope we can repeat this. He did what he said he was going to do and he came through.
Rian Johnson
Looper marks the first time Endgame has committed its new p&a money to a production, splitting costs with the domestic distributors. It’s a big step. JS This is a real inflection point for the company. It’s a larger film that fits into the kind of thing we do really well, which is elevated mate- rial. I’m as excited about the com- pany as I have been since I launched it in 2003.
Ram Bergman James Stern
How do you feel about the independent space and what’s next for Rian Johnson? RJ It seems to me now is a particu- larly good time to make the kind of mid-range movies we make. Maybe it’s time to do a two-person, one-room drama [laughs]. I have a couple of ideas and am weighing things up right now. I love the sto- rytelling sci-fi allows you, where you can use big ideas to explore everyday themes. I might stick around in that world for a while. n
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