IPOD
RADIO
Paul Schrader
By Daniel Robert Epstein
May 26, 2005
Even though Paul Schrader came up in the 70’s with filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and many more, due to his not being allowed to see a film until he was well into his teens, he is not considered one of their generation of “movie brats.” That outsider status has allowed him to create his own niche in directing with such films as Light Sleeper, Affliction and American Gigolo.
Over the years Schrader has flirted with the mainstream mostly with screenplays such as Raging Bull and The Mosquito Coast. After the critical success of Auto Focus, Schrader decided to again work within the studio system and direct the Exorcist prequel, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.
After finishing his movie Morgan Creek, the production company, decided to not release it and make the movie again with [The Adventures of Ford Fairlane director] Renny Harlin. After that movie tanked both Morgan Creek and Schrader saw the chance to get his version out there.
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist is a wild film that tackles many of Schrader’s prominent themes such as religion, violence and death. It stars Stellan Skarsgård as Father Lankester Merrin and his first encounter with the devil in Africa.
Check out the official site for Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist
Daniel Robert Epstein: The situation that happened with the release of the Exorcist prequel is unique.
Paul Schrader: Yeah but it would be a much better story if it happened to someone else.
DRE:
[laughs] Are you a magnet for this sort of thing?
PS:
Well I don’t know. Every film has its horror tales. Some are just more unique than others and this really was unique. It was the first one.
DRE:
How do you feel about it finally getting out?
PS:
The dominant feeling is really just one of relief. Once you’ve made a film that has been discarded you cannot convince anyone that it was any good. You spend the rest of your life trying to explain what you had done. I just dreaded doing that. So more than anything else it feels like a millstone has been removed from my neck.
DRE:
Is this any kind of admission of guilt from a Hollywood studio?
PS:
No I don’t think so. This would not happen at a studio per say. This was from a one man company, Jim Robinson at Morgan Creek International. When you have a studio you have a system of checks and balances and a board of executives. So if one person says, let’s remake a whole thing, another person would say, if you do that I’ll be here to take your job when you’re finished.
Whereas with a one man company, he’ll just reach into his other pocket and pull out another $40 million to make it again. I think that Jim feels that he made the right decision once he was stuck there. I think that he feels we should have never gotten into this whole situation in the first place three or four years ago.
So the decision to release my film is not an admission of having made a mistake but it is simply a way to make money.
DRE:
It’s always that way.
PS:
I would have been foolish to appeal to anyone’s altruism or artistic sensibilities. My goal last year to try to create an environment where there was a financial incentive to release the film and the DVD.
DRE:
When you do studio work it’s usually in terms of a screenplay or a contribution to a screenplay.
PS:
It was really for Morgan Creek who has a deal with Warner Bros. They do higher budget films but Warner Bros has no say in the films they do. Warner Bros doesn’t pay one penny at any point in the process, they just take a distribution fee.
DRE:
I could not think of a more polar opposite of a filmmaker to you than Renny Harlin. Have you ever seen a Renny Harlin film?
PS:
Oh yeah, I’ve met Renny and in fact we almost did something together a few years ago. But Mario Kassar’s company Carolco went under and it never got done.
DRE:
Did you see Renny Harlin’s version of the Exorcist prequel?
PS:
Yes. It was interesting because I went down to Bethesda and saw it with William Blatty [writer of the original Exorcist novel and screenplay]. We watched it together on opening day. He had directed The Exorcist III which was taken from him, another ending was added and his original version was lost. He still had a lot of sore feelings about. As Renny’s film progressed he was getting more and more upset because it was all coming back to him. Whereas I was sitting next to him feeling better and better because as I watched Renny’s film I realized how bad it was. I figured if it got any worse there might be curiosity about the film that I made. When the Linda Blair makeup showed up it did get worse and so I figured there was a way to bring my film back from the dead.
DRE:
You started your film career during a time when William Friedkin was huge so you must have met him.
PS:
My goal when I came to this film was to stay as far away from Friedkin and Friedkin’s Exorcist as possible. I didn’t think you could compete with it because it is such a classic and icon in film history so if you try to compete with it you will lose. I tried to make a film that looked different, felt different and works different. The fact that it was set in the 40’s enabled me to create a film that felt more old fashioned.
DRE:
That’s interesting because you aren’t known for doing that. Were you trying to do a noir?
PS:
No I was trying to do a western. I had that landscape, the military outpost and the natives. I had Shane there who had given up the cloth then the bad guy comes into town and Shane has to put his guns back on [laughs].
DRE:
As someone who was once a film critic, how do you feel the Exorcist prequel fits in with your other work?
PS:
I guess one of the reasons I wanted it to come out was to let history judge that.
DRE:
Has this sent you back to wanting to do films independently again?
PS:
Basically I do films anyway I can. I was presented with the Exorcist script when they were already in preproduction. From the time I read the script until the time I started shooting was only three months. So one of the great attractions of it was that it was a go picture, it was classy and it had done right then. I did not conceive of the idea for this script, I don’t think it’s the kind of idea I could have come up with. Maybe in retrospect if it hadn’t been so tempting and so immediate I might not have done it. It was just an irresistible temptation.
DRE:
I got to speak to Willem Dafoe in the past year and since he starred in the film you wrote, The Last Temptation of Christ so he always gets asked if he has seen The Passion of the Christ. Have you seen it?
PS:
Yeah, in fact Mel [Gibson] was shooting that right across from us In Cinecitta when we were shooting the Exorcist prequel. Occasionally our devil and their Jesus would cross paths.
DRE:
What did you think of that film?
PS:
I thought it was medieval. It was quite extraordinary for what it is but I don’t particularly care for that notion of Christianity. That medieval notion of blood. Mel says he doesn’t like Sebastian 2 but I think he has a problem with the enlightenment. It is a kind of 14th century movie.
DRE:
I read that next you are working again with [City Hall director] Harold Becker on Torch.
PS:
I did that script and that was supposed to be for Pacino. But it’s already gone away.
DRE:
What are you working on then?
PS:
I’m working on something but I’m going to keep it to myself.
DRE:
The term Auto Focus has become some synonymous with a sex party. On Curb Your Enthusiasm Larry David used it as a term when he and friend were going to look for women. He called it an Auto Focus party.
PS:
[laughs] I like that film a lot and I’m very happy with it.
DRE:
Do you think you would do another biopic in the future?
PS:
I don’t think I would come up with one. But then on the other hand if someone offered it to me I would consider it.
DRE:
You’ve had so many great collaborations with Martin Scorsese and recently he’s been working with screenwriters half your age.
PS:
That’s the way it is in this business. You eat your young.
DRE:
Have you and he talked about doing something else?
PS:
I don’t think so. I think that collaboration has run its course.
DRE:
Did the collaboration run its course naturally?
PS:
I felt it ran its course after The Last Temptation of Christ then Marty asked me to write Bringing out the Dead. That didn’t do that well commercially so I would be surprised if we worked together again.
DRE:
What do you do when you’re not making films? What’s a Paul Schrader day like?
PS:
As I’ve gotten older I’ve been watching less and less television and reading a lot more.
DRE:
What are you reading?
PS:
I just finished the new Ian McEwan [Saturday] and now I’m reading the novel Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr.
DRE:
When you are reading does it come into your mind that you might want to make the book into a movie?
PS:
I just read for curiosity.
DRE:
Is it tough to be curious when you reach a certain age?
PS:
That’s a great blessing to be eternally curious about how things work and why people do things, including yourself.
DRE:
Do you have any tattoos?
PS:
No I don’t.
DRE:
If you ever got a tattoo, what would it be?
PS:
I don’t think I would ever get one. Unless I tattooed on my forehead in reverse “Go back to bed.” I could get up in the morning, look in the mirror and have a reason to turn around [laughs].
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Even though Paul Schrader came up in the 70’s with filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and many more, due to his not being allowed to see a film until he was well into his teens, he is not considered one of their generation of “movie brats.” That outsider status has allowed him to create his own niche in directing with such films as Light Sleeper, Affliction and American Gigolo.
Over the years Schrader has flirted with the mainstream mostly with screenplays such as Raging Bull and The Mosquito Coast. After the critical success of Auto Focus, Schrader decided to again work within the studio system and direct the Exorcist prequel, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.
After finishing his movie Morgan Creek, the production company, decided to not release it and make the movie again with [The Adventures of Ford Fairlane director] Renny Harlin. After that movie tanked both Morgan Creek and Schrader saw the chance to get his version out there.
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist is a wild film that tackles many of Schrader’s prominent themes such as religion, violence and death. It stars Stellan Skarsgård as Father Lankester Merrin and his first encounter with the devil in Africa.
Check out the official site for Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist
Daniel Robert Epstein: The situation that happened with the release of the Exorcist prequel is unique.
Paul Schrader: Yeah but it would be a much better story if it happened to someone else.
DRE:
[laughs] Are you a magnet for this sort of thing?
PS:
Well I don’t know. Every film has its horror tales. Some are just more unique than others and this really was unique. It was the first one.
DRE:
How do you feel about it finally getting out?
PS:
The dominant feeling is really just one of relief. Once you’ve made a film that has been discarded you cannot convince anyone that it was any good. You spend the rest of your life trying to explain what you had done. I just dreaded doing that. So more than anything else it feels like a millstone has been removed from my neck.
DRE:
Is this any kind of admission of guilt from a Hollywood studio?
PS:
No I don’t think so. This would not happen at a studio per say. This was from a one man company, Jim Robinson at Morgan Creek International. When you have a studio you have a system of checks and balances and a board of executives. So if one person says, let’s remake a whole thing, another person would say, if you do that I’ll be here to take your job when you’re finished.
Whereas with a one man company, he’ll just reach into his other pocket and pull out another $40 million to make it again. I think that Jim feels that he made the right decision once he was stuck there. I think that he feels we should have never gotten into this whole situation in the first place three or four years ago.
So the decision to release my film is not an admission of having made a mistake but it is simply a way to make money.
Whereas with a one man company, he’ll just reach into his other pocket and pull out another $40 million to make it again. I think that Jim feels that he made the right decision once he was stuck there. I think that he feels we should have never gotten into this whole situation in the first place three or four years ago.
So the decision to release my film is not an admission of having made a mistake but it is simply a way to make money.
DRE:
It’s always that way.
PS:
I would have been foolish to appeal to anyone’s altruism or artistic sensibilities. My goal last year to try to create an environment where there was a financial incentive to release the film and the DVD.
DRE:
When you do studio work it’s usually in terms of a screenplay or a contribution to a screenplay.
PS:
It was really for Morgan Creek who has a deal with Warner Bros. They do higher budget films but Warner Bros has no say in the films they do. Warner Bros doesn’t pay one penny at any point in the process, they just take a distribution fee.
DRE:
I could not think of a more polar opposite of a filmmaker to you than Renny Harlin. Have you ever seen a Renny Harlin film?
PS:
Oh yeah, I’ve met Renny and in fact we almost did something together a few years ago. But Mario Kassar’s company Carolco went under and it never got done.
DRE:
Did you see Renny Harlin’s version of the Exorcist prequel?
PS:
Yes. It was interesting because I went down to Bethesda and saw it with William Blatty [writer of the original Exorcist novel and screenplay]. We watched it together on opening day. He had directed The Exorcist III which was taken from him, another ending was added and his original version was lost. He still had a lot of sore feelings about. As Renny’s film progressed he was getting more and more upset because it was all coming back to him. Whereas I was sitting next to him feeling better and better because as I watched Renny’s film I realized how bad it was. I figured if it got any worse there might be curiosity about the film that I made. When the Linda Blair makeup showed up it did get worse and so I figured there was a way to bring my film back from the dead.
DRE:
You started your film career during a time when William Friedkin was huge so you must have met him.
PS:
My goal when I came to this film was to stay as far away from Friedkin and Friedkin’s Exorcist as possible. I didn’t think you could compete with it because it is such a classic and icon in film history so if you try to compete with it you will lose. I tried to make a film that looked different, felt different and works different. The fact that it was set in the 40’s enabled me to create a film that felt more old fashioned.
DRE:
That’s interesting because you aren’t known for doing that. Were you trying to do a noir?
PS:
No I was trying to do a western. I had that landscape, the military outpost and the natives. I had Shane there who had given up the cloth then the bad guy comes into town and Shane has to put his guns back on [laughs].
DRE:
As someone who was once a film critic, how do you feel the Exorcist prequel fits in with your other work?
PS:
I guess one of the reasons I wanted it to come out was to let history judge that.
DRE:
Has this sent you back to wanting to do films independently again?
PS:
Basically I do films anyway I can. I was presented with the Exorcist script when they were already in preproduction. From the time I read the script until the time I started shooting was only three months. So one of the great attractions of it was that it was a go picture, it was classy and it had done right then. I did not conceive of the idea for this script, I don’t think it’s the kind of idea I could have come up with. Maybe in retrospect if it hadn’t been so tempting and so immediate I might not have done it. It was just an irresistible temptation.
DRE:
I got to speak to Willem Dafoe in the past year and since he starred in the film you wrote, The Last Temptation of Christ so he always gets asked if he has seen The Passion of the Christ. Have you seen it?
PS:
Yeah, in fact Mel [Gibson] was shooting that right across from us In Cinecitta when we were shooting the Exorcist prequel. Occasionally our devil and their Jesus would cross paths.
DRE:
What did you think of that film?
PS:
I thought it was medieval. It was quite extraordinary for what it is but I don’t particularly care for that notion of Christianity. That medieval notion of blood. Mel says he doesn’t like Sebastian 2 but I think he has a problem with the enlightenment. It is a kind of 14th century movie.
DRE:
I read that next you are working again with [City Hall director] Harold Becker on Torch.
PS:
I did that script and that was supposed to be for Pacino. But it’s already gone away.
DRE:
What are you working on then?
PS:
I’m working on something but I’m going to keep it to myself.
DRE:
The term Auto Focus has become some synonymous with a sex party. On Curb Your Enthusiasm Larry David used it as a term when he and friend were going to look for women. He called it an Auto Focus party.
PS:
[laughs] I like that film a lot and I’m very happy with it.
DRE:
Do you think you would do another biopic in the future?
PS:
I don’t think I would come up with one. But then on the other hand if someone offered it to me I would consider it.
DRE:
You’ve had so many great collaborations with Martin Scorsese and recently he’s been working with screenwriters half your age.
PS:
That’s the way it is in this business. You eat your young.
DRE:
Have you and he talked about doing something else?
PS:
I don’t think so. I think that collaboration has run its course.
DRE:
Did the collaboration run its course naturally?
PS:
I felt it ran its course after The Last Temptation of Christ then Marty asked me to write Bringing out the Dead. That didn’t do that well commercially so I would be surprised if we worked together again.
DRE:
What do you do when you’re not making films? What’s a Paul Schrader day like?
PS:
As I’ve gotten older I’ve been watching less and less television and reading a lot more.
DRE:
What are you reading?
PS:
I just finished the new Ian McEwan [Saturday] and now I’m reading the novel Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr.
DRE:
When you are reading does it come into your mind that you might want to make the book into a movie?
PS:
I just read for curiosity.
DRE:
Is it tough to be curious when you reach a certain age?
PS:
That’s a great blessing to be eternally curious about how things work and why people do things, including yourself.
DRE:
Do you have any tattoos?
PS:
No I don’t.
DRE:
If you ever got a tattoo, what would it be?
PS:
I don’t think I would ever get one. Unless I tattooed on my forehead in reverse “Go back to bed.” I could get up in the morning, look in the mirror and have a reason to turn around [laughs].
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
