Bryan Singer
The “Jack the Giant Slayer” Interview
with Kam Williams
The Life of Bryan
Bryan Singer has consistently entertained audiences between
a bold visual style and richly drawn characters ever since his making a
noteworthy feature film debut in 1993 with the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand
Jury Prize-winner "Public Access." He gained widespread attention a
couple years later with the crime thriller "The Usual Suspects" which
won Academy Awards for Kevin Spacey (Best Supporting Actor) and Christopher
McQuarrie (Best Original Screenplay).
Singer’s
subsequent film was an adaptation of the Stephen King novella "Apt
Pupil," followed by the wildly successful "X-Men" and "X2:
X-Men United.” He was next tapped to helm "Superman Returns," the
first blockbuster shot on the Panavision Genesis digital camera, and the first
live action film to utilize the post-conversion 3D process.
Most recently, Bryan made the World War II
drama "Valkyrie," starring Tom Cruise. And he is currently in
production directing "X-Men: Days of Future Past," which reunites numerous
cast members from the franchise’s previous films.
For television, Singer
directed the pilot and was executive producer on the Emmy and Golden Globe
Award-winning series "House," starring Hugh Laurie. He also produced the ABC series "Dirty
Sexy Money" and the HBO documentary "Vito," about author and
1980s AIDS activist Vito Russo.
Bryan has directed and/or produced a myriad
of other projects through his Bad Hat Harry Productions, a motion picture and
television production company formed in 1994. To date, his projects have
grossed over two billion dollars worldwide.
Here, he talks about his latest
film, “Jack the Giant Slayer,” a big screen version of the classic
fairytale.
Kam
Williams: Hi Bryan, thanks for the interview.
Bryan Singer:
Sure. Not at all, Kam. My pleasure.
KW:
Guess what? I met your mom in a waiting room last year. We happen to have the
same dentist.
BS:
Oh really? That’s cool. Are you from Princeton?
KW:
Yep.
BS:
How random! That’s funny. How did you know it was my mom?
KW:
I struck up a conversation with her, and mentioned I was a film critic.
BS:
And I bet it was the first thing that came out of her mouth.
KW:
Just about. She’s a very proud mama who’s very knowledgeable about film in
general. We had a great chat!
BS:
That’s so nice, since she’s a big movie fan, herself.
KW:
I invited her to attend the screening of the film the studio set up for me
locally, but she declined.
BS:
Yeah, she’s flying out to join me at the premiere here in L.A.
KW:
What interested you in making Jack the Giant Slayer?
BS:
At the time, there were no fairytale movies in development that I was aware of,
so I thought it would be a great opportunity to do something different that I
hadn’t seen before and that I hadn’t done before. A product existed called Jack
the Giant Killer, which I kind of rewrote from scratch with Chris McQuarrie and
Dan Studney, who are also Jersey kids. So, it began with that and my desire to see
beanstalks and giants in a way they’ve never been portrayed before.
KW:
I was familiar with Jack and the Beanstalk, but I don’t
remember reading Jack the Giant Killer as a child.
BS:
Jack the Giant Killer was from the 1700’s, and kind of an Arthurian character
who went around slaying giants and sending their heads back to King Arthur.
This film takes some inspiration from both fairytales but, frankly, it’s its
own original story.
KW:
Larry Greenberg asks: Can you tell
me about how you directed the relationship between Jack [played by Nicholas
Hoult] and Isabelle [played by Eleanor Tomlinson] with all the chaos going
on around them.
BS:
How do I put this? By basically making sure there was enough material that
could build between them. But one of the key things was something I shot very
late in the game, namely, the opening scene. I still didn’t feel that their
destiny was cemented, so I went to New Zealand to shoot the opening where you
see them being read to as little kids, and designed it to be intercut, much the
same way the next scene is intercut when Jack’s uncle and Isabelle’s father are
scolding them. By doing that you set them on a path of romantic destiny. So, that
setup not only gave the history of the giants, but put the idea of the two
characters being on a trajectory to be together in the audience’s mind. By the
way, I used some of [director] Peter Jackson’s stages and crew from the Hobbit
for that. And I got to go to the Hobbit premiere while I was down there, which
was a lot of fun.
KW:
So you shot some of the film in New
Zealand?
BS:
Only those scenes where the parents were reading to the children. Those scenes
also established who Jack and Isabelle were meant to be had his father and her
mother not died. Now, Jack is fatherless and trapped on the farm, while
Isabelle is motherless and trapped in a castle by an overprotective father who
is afraid of losing the only other woman in his life. So, that opening tableau
sort of sets the characters up in a fun way, and we shot it in New Zealand
over a couple days. The rest of the movie was completely shot in London.
KW:
Is there a message you want people to take away from the
film?
BS:
No, I don’t think of it as that kind of film. It’s just supposed be
entertaining. Awards season is over, so it’s time for an adventure.
KW: Documentary filmmaker Kevin Williams says: I’m from Trenton and almost everyone I meet from Princeton says they know you or your mom. His question is, how do you fight off complacency, and do you look at scripts any differently today versus earlier in your career?
BS:
Well, early in my career, I really wasn’t look at scripts. I was developing
them from scratch. Now, I look at them for inspiration but, ultimately, I’m
driven to a kind of movie I want to make, knowing that eventually I’m going to
bring aboard my friends, some of whom I grew up with, like Chris, and others
whom I met later in life, like Dan. So, initially, I’m just looking for an
idea, for a kernel of a story.
KW:
Have you met Damien Chazelle out there in Hollywood
yet? He’s an up-and-coming young director also from Princeton
whose short film just won at Sundance.
BS:
No, I haven’t, but it would be great to meet him.
KW:
Erik Daniels, who teaches at West Windsor High School South, your alma mater, says:
We all know how formative the
high school years are. How influential was your high school experience in
shaping your desire to direct?
BS:
It was very fostering. I had a communications teacher named Denise Mangani who
really opened up my mind to the cinematic arts in general. And I also had a
creative writing teacher, Mr. Berridge, who was very inspiring in terms of
thinking about stories. Another was my social studies teacher, Ms. Fiscarelli.
She was very influential because she taught a comprehensive unit on The
Holocaust. That material has found its way into many of movies, from Apt Pupil
to X-Men to Valkyrie to X-Men: First Class, as well as into some of the
documentaries I’ve produced. That subject-matter has been very important to me.
KW:
Editor/Legist Patricia Turnier asks: Is
there a new genre of film that you would like to tackle for the first
time?
BS: Yes, horror. Something supernatural. I always enjoy a
good horror film, and there hasn’t been a great horror film like The Exorcist
for awhile.
KW:
Patricia also asks: What director did
you admire the most growing up?
BS: Steven Spielberg.
KW:
The bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book
you read?
BS:
I’ve been reading a lot of David Sedaris lately. I recently finished “When You
Are Engulfed in Flames”
and
his “Holidays on Ice.”
And
I’m currently reading “Barrel Fever.”
KW:
Harriet Pakula-Teweles notes that you produced the TV series “House” which is
set in your hometown, Princeton. She asks: Were
you also involved in the writing?
BS:
No, the original script which was written by David
Shore, was set in Boston. I moved it to Princeton
because I didn’t want it to be just a city hospital. I also felt Princeton was a perfect location to have a diversity of
patients.
KW: When you look in the mirror, what
do you see?
BS:
Time moving forward, not backwards. [LOL]
KW:
What is your favorite dish to cook?
BS:
I don’t cook, but I love eating sushi.
KW:
If you could have one wish instantly granted, what would
that be for?
BS:
Eternal good health.
KW:
The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest
childhood memory?
BS:
My father reading a storybook to me at about the age of 2. It had a fly on
every page, and whenever we saw the fly, we’d fall back on the bed together and
laugh.
KW:
Thanks again for the time, Bryan, and best of luck with the film.
BS:
Sure thing, Kam, and if you see my mom in town, tell her I said “Hi.”
KW:
Will do!
BS:
Thanks!
