Set Visit: Next

I
really thought I had seen everything when it came to on-set visits.
But my recent visit to the set of the science fiction action
thriller NEXT
(release date: September 28, 2007), which is based on a Philip K.
Dick short story called “The Golden Man”, definitely
proved me wrong. If the film,
which is about a man with the unique ability to see future events
and affect their outcome, is half as dynamic and unpredictable as
the visit was, moviegoers will definitely be in for a real treat.
I was already jazzed about the fact that I was going to meet
the stars of the film, heavyweights Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore,
and Jessica Biel, but it wasn’t even the icing on the cake.

To
help you fully appreciate what a unique visit this was, let me start
right from the beginning. I
drove to San Pedro, California, the home of many cool looking piers, complete with giant ships and
tons of miscellaneous cargo equipment.
The day was beautiful and sunny, but with a cool breeze, with
the sky clear and blue. I was
greeted by the publicist for Columbia Pictures, who promptly took me
past a heap of security and onto the dock where they were shooting.
The first thing I noticed, was a multitude of cameras, some
on dolly tracks, others on cranes or being handheld.
Our view was straight down the middle of the action, between
two large cargo containers, where a white helicopter sat, its blades
running going full force.

There
were various crew members running around, so I waited and talked
with some of the other reporters. Then
out of the corner of my eye, I saw two dark military helicopters on
the horizon, coming towards the set. As
they got closer, one proceeded to swoop down towards the white
copter on the ground. The grey
door slid open and two gunmen dressed in tack uniforms with M-16’s
started to shoot at the parked chopper.

That’s
when all hell exploded, as the group of us found ourselves facing a
barrage of gun toting terrorists, who were all shooting their guns
in our direction. I wasn’t
even worried, until I saw that other crew members were running
behind the cargo containers for cover.
In a mix of bullets, squibs, explosions, and flaming sparks,
I did think at one point “should I really be standing here?”
I mean, after all, the publicist wouldn’t put me in the
line of fire, would she? (Maybe she read my last review!)
Before I could answer the question, a large horn sounded,
everyone stopped shooting and I heard, “Cut”.

Forget
Universal Studios Tour, I was in the middle of a frigging war
between terrorists and military men and it was…the coolest thing I
had ever seen! The energy from
the scene was so palpable, so real, that my heart was racing a mile
a minute. And not knowing that
it was going to happen, only made it a million times sweeter.
I looked about ten feet in front of me; the ground was
littered with empty shell casings, and I thought…”I love the
smell of napalm in the morning!” (Can
you blame me; the terrorists were pointing the guns and shooting
directly at us!)

It
really was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen and
did give me more of an appreciation for all the fantastical elements
that go into an action sequence of such magnitude.
The director of this film is DIE ANOTHER DAY and XXX: STATE
OF THE UNION’s Lee Tamahori (who walked around the set in a very
distinctive Hawaiian shirt checking everything!) and he is
definitely upping the ante in terms of action; it was highly
impressive to watch his work live.

There
were a few other scenes, a close up on the stationary helicopter
when it’s attacked and the aftermath of the whole sequence, where
military guys clear the way for Cage and Moore to cross over to a
large nearby ship that awaits them, all of which were cool.
But for sheer adrenaline and ambush factor, they paled in
comparison to the first thing I saw. Not
that the whole day wasn’t a totally cool experience, I’ve just
never encountered anything as staggering as that before; it was
something I will never forget.

Julianne
Moore

Julianne
Moore is an actress with amazing range.
Her ability to go from indie films like SAFE and BOOGIE
NIGHTS to bigger budget fare like HANNIBAL and THE LOST WORLD:
JURASSIC PARK has made her one of the most sought after actress
working in film today. Her
collaborative work with Director Paul Thomas Anderson alone is
something to be hailed. Like
in HANNIBAL, Moore once again plays an FBI Agent in NEXT, a role she
freely admits was not hard to play. Her
candid and honest answers were a refreshing change, a truly rare and
unique interview to say the least. So
with her dog Cherry in tow, Moore talked about playing an FBI Agent
for the second time, the challenge of playing a role with not that
many challenges, and going from indie films to big budget movies and
back again.

So
you’ve played FBI agents before…

One!
(laughs)

Did
you draw on any of those experiences to play the character in NEXT?

Certainly
the gun training. I mean
the funny thing is that with HANNIBAL I did extensive research at
Quantico and stuff. The
nice thing was cause I’d already done it (she laughs), I didn’t
have to do it again. And
this is all fun; I think we took many more liberties with in a movie
like this then we did in HANNIBAL.

Is
there any stretching yourself as an actor in this film?

Umm,
no. (laughs) You know
what? Its fine to
actually play somebody who doesn’t…the nice thing about playing
a character who is the pursuer is I don’t have the responsibility
of making my character the emotional center of the movie.
With this, I’m almost the bad guy; I’m the person who is
pursuing the emotional center of the movie who is Nic.
So I’m going after Nic, so for me, I had a lot of
permission to be the bad guy, be like well I don’t care, well
let’s go get him, it’s just sort of fun to do because it’s a
different way to approach things.

What
has been the most challenging part of your role so far?

The
challenging aspect has been to make the dialogue sound reasonably
normal. (laughs)

Do
you have many scenes with Nic and what was it like working with him?

We
have a few. We have a
good time together, you know? We
had a scene that we got there at seven in the morning and sat on set
for an hour and a half trying to figure out how we are going to say
it, how are we going to work it out so that it seemed reasonable for
his character and my character.
But he’s a lovely person to work with.

How
does your character find out about Nic?

It
was because he rose to the top of a gambling fraud wish list,
that’s how I know. If
you’re in the FBI you’re tracking criminals.

What
appealed to you about the character?

I
thought it would be kind of fun to play sort of the bad guy, a
little bit.

So
compared to other roles you’ve done, is this a lot easier for you?

Yeah,
I mean it’s not backbreaking work by any stretch of the
imagination. I mean,
it’s a very specific kind of movie.
It’s an action movie with a sci-fi kind of edge and its
very, very plot driven, but it’s a lot of fun.
I also think it’s kind of timely, you know it’s dealing
with terrorism.

Are
you going to be in Paul Thomas Anderson’s next film?

They
are shooting it now, no.

What’s
it been like zigzagging from big budget plot driven films to more
character driven indie films?

It’s
good, you know, I mean nobody wants to see the same thing all the
time, so it’s nice to have the opportunity to do both.
You can’t make a living doing independent films, you have
to do commercial films literally to make a living and the film I’m
doing after this, I think I’m maybe making scale on.
But you know, you have to go back and forth just as a
practical.

What
film is that?

SAVAGE
GRACE. It’s based on a
true story on a book that was published in 1985, about a woman named
Barbara Daly Baekeland.

What
has been your most challenging role to date?

I
don’t know, they all have different kinds of challenges.

What
was it like working with the Director Tamahori, versus someone like
Paul Thomas Anderson?

Well,
when someone has written something, they have a different
relationship to it. And
Lee’s been terrific…

(At
this point there is screaming noises outside and we clearly see a
few men armed with guns doing a scene.)

…hey,
wait a minute, that’s my boyfriend, don’t shoot!
(laughs) That is
funny. It’s a
different kind of film, clearly, as you can see.

(Julianne
exits and says “Don’t get caught in sniper fire!” – too
late!)