If you look back at the first features of some of today’s greatest directors–Christopher Nolan’s Following, Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste, George Lucas’ THX-1138 or Steven Spielberg’s Duel, for instance–you can get a pretty good idea that these were going to be filmmakers with a long and successful career making movies. One could say the same for Rian Johnson’s first movie Brick, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival seven years ago where it won a jury prize for “Originality of Vision.”
Johnson only made one other movie, 2007’s The Brothers Bloom, since then but that “Originality of Vision” has carried through to his latest movie, Looper, which combines science fiction, gangster noir and action, as well as reuniting him with Brick star Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
This time JGL plays a hitman assigned to take out targets sent back in time from 30 years in the future. When he’s confronted by his future self, played by Bruce Willis, he’s ready to fulfill the mission and “close his loop,” though future Joe has other plans. If you’ve already heard about the movie then you probably already know that much and you know what? We’re not going to say too much more, since you’ll want to discover some of the film’s other intricate twists and turns for yourself.
ComingSoon.net has talked to Johnson a number of times over the years, including the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival where The Brothers Bloom premiered before being delayed six months. Things are very different this time around with Looper being picked at the Opening Night Gala for the Toronto International Film Festival just weeks before its release. ComingSoon.net sat down with Rian to talk more about his new movie the day after the prestigious premiere.
In the video interview below, we spoke about:
* How the idea for Looper was around from even before Brick and how he picked it up again after The Brothers Bloom to develop it
* Working with production designer Ed Verreux, who worked on Raiders of the Lost Ark and others, to design the look of the world
* How the story always came first over the typical sci-fi world-building
* The way the movie drastically changes in the second half in terms of look and tone
* Casting Emily Blunt in a very different role for her
* We tell him about how the actors were raving about his work
* We get a bit techie as we talk about developing the music for Looper with Rian’s brother Nathan
* Whether people may be able to see parallels between Looper and his earlier work
And More!
