John Moore - Flight of the Phoenix

IRISH DIRECTOR MOORE TAKES FLIGHT.

EXCLUSIVE John Moore/Flight of the Phoenix Interview by Paul Fischer in LosAngeles.

Irish director John Moore says he likes then great outdoors and does thoselocations proud in his faithful remake of Flight of the Phoenix, whichoriginally starred James Stewart and Richard Attenborough. In this updatedversion, a C-119 cargo plane full of oil workers crashes in Mongolia's GobiDesert during a sandstorm, and eventually, the survivors attempt to build anew plane from the parts they find in the wreckage to escape. The plane waspiloted by Captain Frank Towns [Dennis Quaid] , an employee of an oilcompany, whose job it is to go to remote oil rigs and shut them down whentheir productivity has decreased. Having accomplished his job with one suchrig, his plane crashes with all of the employees aboard on the way back toBeijing.

Moore's previous directorial film was the action film Behind Enemy Lines,another survival story. A former production designer and art director, Mooreseems to enjoy outdoor tales of survival, as he explained to PAUL FISCHER onthe eve of the film's premiere.

Paul Fischer: Let me start by asking you - how reluctant were you to take on the re-make of such a classic?

John Moore: I was hesitant - you know - because it does have a certain lineage and it seems to be one of those films - you know - that more peoplehave actually heard of it than seen it. I was nervous about it, I figuredit would be a small but pretty hard core fan base of the original, but youknow, in the end I got past that pretty quickly because I think the story isjust so Goddamn interesting and I love survival stories and this was kind ofone of the ultimate ones. I also love movies that are sort of - you know -limited to one location, like Twelve Angry Men or Key Largo, that have anintense implication to them. So I was pretty much sold because it was such agood story. A little daunted, but I past that pretty quickly.

PF: What are the challenges of creating a screenplay, or working on ascreenplay where you have several characters whose own character traitsneeds to be developed to make the characters seem interesting individuallyas well as part of a group?

J.M.: You know it's tough because everyone wants to be able to cast the movie - you know - in a paramedical structure, who is to star in the movie.So it's tough to get movies where the word ensemble is thrown around ratherliberally, - because unless you're in Oceans 11 or 12, you know, it's at thepoint of - stunt casting is at the point where - you know - it transcendsany chance of creating characters, I think personally. So it was tough,because we didn't have the budget to put $20 million players in there, so weneeded to get it right because I think a couple of wrong moves and we werevery much in teen movie territory in terms of cast.

PF: Now was Miranda Otto's character ever written as an Australiancharacter, or did she become Australian purely after she got cast?

J.M.: I was pretty determined that nobody would have an accent. I'm not a big fan of actors and accents, so when I cast Tony Curran, I asked him to play it in his natural Scottish accent and when I cast Miranda I asked ifshe'd do the same, if she would just play it in her own accent, because, youknow, towards the end, I think it helps with credibility of the storybecause lots of people are from so many different backgrounds.

PF: How did shooting on location , enhance your sense of story tellingfor this?

J.M.: Well for me - I don't know - maybe I'm just not that skilled at it,but I kind of believe in going to the place where you want to have the thinghappen. It certainly works for actors, because it's everywhere. There's noescaping it - I mean the place where we went to was exactly as you seephotographed. I mean it's not as if there was a resort over the next dune.It really is pretty bleak. I mean obviously we were based out of a smalltown and we had any and all the comforts that you need to get it done, butit certainly does help in form what you're doing. Sometimes detrimentally -I mean sometimes when your standing there - you know - getting the shitknocked out of us - losing half a day to the wind or whatever thinking whythe fuck don't we just kick off a sound stage, but I personally believethat it does help actors with their sensibility and their performance and itoutweighs any disadvantages. I don't like filming indoors. I don't likefilming in studios. I think it can become very monotonous.

PF: One of the things I really liked about this film was, it was a part action film, but it was also, partly a character study. Is it hard tobalance those two and also balance the needs of that kind of story with theneeds of what a studio wants an audience to see?

J.M: Well that's exactly it. The difficulty is in this thing you'retrying to sell later on. I mean more and more I think you'll find studiosbeing more and more reluctant to not know exactly what it is that they'regoing to be selling later on, and this character movie where like you say,you actually point out - it's probably more character than action, and yetif you look at the advertising material for the film, they pretty much hungtheir hat on the action hook because it seems to be a thing to sell to anaudience They don't make very easy bedfellows, that idea of action somehowbesmirches on the idea that this can be a valid character piece .

PF: What do you hope audiences will get out of the film?

J.M.: Actually I think - that they really enjoyed that story. You know, Ihope they get that Saturday afternoon feeling of coming out of the moviesgoing - I genuinely enjoyed that. You know, more and more I've recently goneto the movies and felt, just kind of bored and soul-less coming out of theexperience, almost to the point conversely psychologically where they are soaccurately casting on your expectation, that there's really no hope ofexceeding it, because the advertising materials, or the promise of the filmsare so overblown that it's kind of hard to walk into that dark room anymoreand then come out the other side thinking - God I really enjoyed that - ittook me away from something - that took me out of it for two hours. And I'mreally hoping that that's what people will like about this. I hope they go,you know, I enjoyed that story, it was a good old fashioned yarn - it was agood way to spend two hours.

PF: Now if you look at this movie and compare it to it's predecessor that you did for - also for Fox - I'm curious to know how an Irish guy like you is able to convey such an intrinsically American sensibility on film?

J.M.: Well I guess the geopolitical answer to that is unfortunate because - you know - certainly a homogenisation in terms of lifestyle culture andentertainment is not politics that pervades any western European nationnowadays. I'm sure you get a guy from Ireland, a guy from Scotland andMerrylands or whatever and probably do as accurate a job in conveying anAmericana or that sensibility. Probably because we all grew up in there - Imean I lament the fact that it is, or will be harder and harder to definewhat it is to be Irish.

PF: Both of these films are very cinematic - very visual films and very exterior films. Are you planning on a similar kind of film next, or are youlooking for something smaller?

J.M.: No I try to stay outdoors for as long as possible. I do enjoyphotography - I enjoy photographing the movies - I'd rather spend all mytime in Africa to bring a small crew to the top of a mountain, than spendall my time accurately re-creating the top of that mountain in a studiobecause I enjoy it, so that's why I'll continue. You know, believe me, myprocess works very simply - if I'm handed a script and it says open inManila, the first thing I'll be saying to my location manager is, when arewe going to Manila.

PF: what are you doing next year - anything?

J.M.: Well actually I've got two projects on the go - one is a true storyabout a hurricane and an oil barge in the Gulf of Mexico in 1996, which isanother - great survival story really. And then I've got a fictional piece,which is called the Last Mission, which is about a rescue mission to getsome hostages out of the Philippines.

THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX OPENS ON MARCH 17.