“Tim Blake Nelson is about to shoot a “spectacular” western in Spain, “Shoot”, directed by Guillermo Navarro. Guillermo del Toro’s regular cinematographer, who already won an Oscar for “Pan’s Labyrinth”, will be behind the camera.
“We have a great cast and a script written by British writer Ian Wilson. Westerns change, they reflect the cultural moment in which they are made. ‘Yellowstone’, ‘Power of the Dog’… each generation needs to bring its own vision to film genres. This one is about the power of guns as a corrupting force,” he reveals.
“It’s a script that is absolutely current, but 100% faithful to its time. We will start shooting in November. The good thing about westerns is that they require big landscapes, but good westerns don’t have to cost $100 million. We made ‘Old Henry’ for $1.2 million. It’s a way to make a superhero movie with natural settings and without visual effects.”
However, there will be no way to avoid visual effects in “Captain America: A Happy World”, where Nelson will finally reprise his role as Samuel Sterns after 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk”.
“I was very saddened by the prospect of not being able to return to the MCU. All I wanted to do, as an actor, was to find out what happens to this guy. 18 years later I was able to do it and I was not disappointed,” he said.
“It was a great challenge and I was wonderfully guided by Julius Onah, who is an independent director. They are real directors who want to work with real actors and give them opportunities to play extravagant characters. Marvel supports that.”
Despite some recent voices saying otherwise and prematurely predicting its demise, according to Nelson, one should never “count out Marvel”.
“Marvel is an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of cinema. Kevin Feige and his studio created dozens of interconnected films that exist in a cinematic universe, to use their term. There is no comparable achievement. So, no, I don’t think it’s over,” he points out, calling “Captain America” the “strongest franchise” in the MCU, along with “Logan.”
“This will be a wonderful movie,” he insists.
“I couldn’t respect Martin Scorsese more, he has his own genre, but I disagree with him when he mocks Marvel. I agree that Marvel movies are absolutely cinema. They bring us back to being children again. When they are really good, and often they are, you get lost in them. Are they deep? Are ‘One of Our Own’ and ‘Crossing the Door’, ‘Bicycle Thieves’, ‘Schindler’s List’ or Kieślowski deep? No, but they don’t aspire to be. They are entertainment and there is art involved in them.”
“That’s my Marvel speech.”
Nelson, who is currently serving on the jury at Locarno, will not forget his independent roots in the near future and will present the intimate drama “Bang Bang” at the Swiss festival out of competition. Directed by Vincent Grashaw, in the film he plays retired boxer Bernard “Bang Bang” Rozyski, determined to make amends for past mistakes.
Randomix Productions, Traverse Media produce, with Red Barn Films as a co-producer.
“It demanded from me what no other role has demanded, both in physical terms and mentality. In a way, I am also a fighter; if you do what I do, you have to be, but I am not a confrontational person and this character is. He is a man who keeps in shape to fight. I have no experience as a boxer, so I underwent quite extensive training.”
After observing Daniel-Day Lewis on the set of “Lincoln”, he doesn’t mind preparing for roles.
“Working with Daniel changed my approach to what I do and I am not the only one in that sense. You improve just by being around him. I almost wanted to go back and re-play all those roles I had when I was 17,” he laughs.
“I don’t do what he does: if I had to try to stay in character all day, it would be exhausting. He is extraordinary in that respect, I am not. At the same time, another wonderful actor, John C. Reilly, told me that every role is a ‘custom job’. It is a combination of developing a lasting process for oneself and being open to changing it based on the role.”
In “Bang Bang”, he has his own speech of “I could have been a contender”. A la Brando in “On the Waterfront”.
“I love that scene. It effectively talks about what happened to him and what made him the wreck of a man he is. I have to give all the credit to Will Janowitz, the screenwriter. It’s a speech that doesn’t sound like a speech. What a spectacular moment for an actor.”
Throughout his career, he had a couple of moments like that.
“One was ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’, of course. Another was ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’. When they told me ‘Come back to the MCU’ and when Damon Lindelof asked me to play Looking Glass in ‘Watchmen’,” he recalled.
“As actors, we often limit ourselves and our own shortcomings, to how the industry and the public perceive us. I have been given roles that required silliness, foolishness, extravagance. And very few times, if ever, moderation. Suddenly, I was offered a character that was all about moderation. He only shares what he has to share. I see ‘Watchmen’ the same way I see Nolan’s ‘Batman’ movies. You enter this world and never want to leave.”
He is also gearing up to direct his next feature film this year, the first since 2015’s “Anesthesia”.
“The grandfather of all this was Cassavetes, but there is certainly more tolerance for actors who direct. With ‘O’, I resisted doing it. All those Shakespeare adaptations for teenagers were proliferating at that time and I didn’t want to join that, because I love Shakespeare, but it was a tragedy set in a high school, not a comedy, and instead of being repulsive, it was an opportunity to make a statement about what was, and still is, happening with guns in American schools.”
A modern adaptation of “Othello”, it featured Julia Stiles, Mekhi Phifer, and Josh Hartnett.
La película tocó una fibra sensible demasiado fuerte. Mientras estábamos editando, ocurrió Columbine. La película se archivó y se estrenó un año después. Shakespeare escribió sobre el antisemitismo, sobre el racismo. Estos temas persisten, lamentablemente. Pero las películas no deberían intentar complacer a todo el mundo. Incluso ahora, cuando el futuro del cine independiente parece estar amenazado.
Cuando las películas empiezan a intentar agradar, estamos en problemas. En ‘Bang Bang’, este personaje es casi desagradable. El truco estaba en asegurarse de que el público quisiera ver qué hace a continuación. Las películas de los hermanos Coen no intentan agradar. ¿’El gran Lebowski’? Hay violencia, tienes las cenizas del mejor amigo de Jeff Bridges volando hacia su cara… quiero decir.
Esto es lo que sé: en Estados Unidos hay un apetito por las películas de autor. Lo que falta es una capacidad para que las plataformas ganen dinero con ellas. Con Apple, por ejemplo, se podía ir al icono de ‘Películas’ y buscar ‘Películas independientes’ y ‘Descubrimientos recientes’. Ahora han incorporado eso a Apple TV+, de modo que pueden poner en primer plano su propio material. Otra respuesta es hacer que la experiencia de las películas de autor sea más especial. Hay lugares como Alamo Drafthouse, la película que hice con mi hijo [Henry Nelson]’Asleep in My Palm’, se agotó allí durante una semana. Necesitamos cine independiente en todas las grandes ciudades estadounidenses. Y necesito estar en grandes películas. y “Hacer grandes películas”.
Cortesía del Festival de Cine de Locarno