CraveOnline: This was your first movie since doing a lot of television. What brought you back to the feature world?
Gary Fleder: Well, I did The Express that came out four or five years ago.
Yes, I mean after five years of steady television work.
I think there’s a myriad reasons why films happen. There were a number of things I tried to get going and have had in preproduction. I’ll tell you, more and more, there’s movies, the kind of movies I like to make, the thrillers and these mid-range budget thrillers, they’re fewer and fewer getting made. Every week that a movie like Thor sweeps the marketplace, these tentpole movies, it’s harder to get movies made that are these adult thrillers or action thrillers. It’s harder and harder, and these are the kinds of movies I like to make. It’s not because I haven’t been trying.
The thing is, my TV business, essentially doing pilots, affords me the ability to hold off and do things I want to do versus just taking a job in the movie world. I do stuff I want to do. Believe me, I’ve turned down things. At one point I was talking to them about doing the Alex Cross sequel to my movie Kiss the Girls. I didn’t think the elements came together in a way that I wanted them to so I didn’t pursue that. I could have but I didn’t really feel I wanted to.
By the way, I think right now every filmmaker should, and you look at what’s going on, every filmmaker’s going back and forth between doing cable and television and doing movies. No director, maybe Spielberg [doesn’t do TV], but David Fincher did “House of Cards.” You’ve got people like Bryan Singer and Brett Ratner and many others all doing tons of television, doing pilots and creating shows. That’s my big thing, I’m also producing television. I think right now, we’re in this golden age of television. The stuff right now on cable is brilliant.
Speaking of Alex Cross, was it always going to be Along Came a Spider as the second one?
Well, that was made. I wasn’t referring to that one. I did not want to do the sequel at that point in my life. I just didn’t want to pursue that because I wanted to do something else. I thought I’d already done that movie. I met when they did the reboot last year. That was the one they were talking to me. Jim Patterson, the novelist, liked Kiss the Girls and wanted me to come back and do the reboot. For a number of reasons, I didn’t pursue it.
Were you surprised it became a Rob Cohen action movie?
Not surprised. That’s kind of Rob’s strength. I think that’s what he favors. I think also in fairness to Rob, since I did Kiss the Girls in 1997, I think that television has taken the place of those kinds of movies. The mystery/suspense, if you look at shows like “CSI” and “SVU,” I think that TV’s now taken the place of those adult mystery detective shows. There are so many cop shows that I think Rob Cohen probably was trying to outdo what you see in television by making a bigger spectacle. I get it. I totally get that. I don’t criticize him for that at all.
No, we’re fans of that movie here. When you talk about the kind of thrillers you like to make, a lot of those go to VOD, even some of Statham’s movies. Why do you think that shifted to video, and there are fewer guys like Statham who are a brand for action movies?
I think you have to ask the question: who’s going to go see a movie Friday night, that first night? Is it going to be a suburban family, maybe parents in their 40s or 50s who have kids? Or is it going to be an 18-year-old kid going to the mall? I think that’s what you’re dealing with now. Look at a movie like Last Vegas which my friend Jon Turteltaub directed, which is a good movie, and that movie made a lot of money its second weekend because the audience of that movie, they don’t go opening night. They go the second week, the third week. I think that’s a great testament to the fact that if you have a movie that’s an adult film that plays to that audience, you have to be patient. The audience will show up but they won’t show up the first hour of the box office. A movie like Ender’s Game, they all show up that first night. That’s just kind of the process.
I used to, when a new Van Damme or Seagal movie came out, I was the first one to go see them.
[Laughs] Right.
Well, before we go, you were part of an interesting experiment when Impostor went from a short film to a feature. They were going to expand the other two shorts but they never did. What was your take on that?
Actually, what happened was Danny Boyle did do a short film with Courtney Cox. He did do a short and I think Guillermo del Toro did Mimic. He never shot the short. That became a feature version of the short he was developing. Ultimately, the bummer is that Impostor was a really, really good short film. The only thing I’ll say is I wish it had stayed a short film. It was fantastic and I loved it. I think the idea of cannibalizing the short into a feature, I take 100% responsibility for that. It probably wasn’t the best choice.
That’s very modest of you to take full responsibility. I’m sure there were other factors involved.
No, basically I could’ve been the one to say, “It’s not going to happen.” I heard a great quote once, “You can talk yourself into anything.” I think that’s one of those moments where I wish I could get a time machine and go back. Again, I loved the experience of making the film. I loved Gary Sinise and Vincent D’Onofrio and Madeleine Stowe. It was a great cast and it was fun. Just ultimately I probably should have said, “You know, it’s a really good short. Leave it alone.” You know, if you don’t learn every day, then you should quit. Yes, that was definitely my bad.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
