TALK ‘N SHOP: Our exclusive chat with director Raja Gosnell!

We here at JoBlo.com are thrilled to bring you another edition of Talk N’ Shop. If you don’t remember, this segment offers up a unique and candid interview, one which takes place inside one of our favorite joints in Hollywood, Amoeba Records. (Episode #1 was with SCREAM 4 director Wes Craven.)

This time out, we had the opportunity to have an extended and candid chat with director Raja Gosnell. Mr. Gosnell is one of the kings of family friendly entertainment. After all, his films include SCOOBY-DOO, BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA, NEVER BEEN KISSED and most recently, he took on THE SMURFS.

Raja started off as an editor with such films as MRS. DOUBTFIRE, HOME ALONE and many more. He then moved into directing with his first feature HOME ALONE 3. Since then, he has continually walked the line mixing animation with live action and while some of you may not be a fan of the SCOOBY-DOO flicks, there are a ton of young ones that found a whole lot of fun in the big screen version of the crime fighting dog.

In part one of our interview with Raja, we chat all about The Smurfs. We find out who is Raja’s personal favorite blue dude, and we also converse about Katy Perry playing ‘Smurfette’. Personally, it was a blast to hear him talk about the film and how much fun it seems he has making a movie like that.

Part two takes us into some films that both he and I agree on. From THE STUNT MAN to SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, Raja opens up about his influences and how he would like to move into something a little heavier than your typical family flick.

Either way, Raja is a great guy without the BS of some directors. The first thing that we noticed about him was the fact that he showed up without a posse. It was Raja and that’s it. He arrived, introduced himself and from there on, cameraman extraordinaire Rusty Eltringham, Raja and I hit it off big time. Frankly he was able to make me excited to see THE SMURFS, even if it is mostly just nostalgia. Either way, I’d like to thank Mr. Gosnell for taking the time to TALK ‘N SHOP with us and we hope that this talented man will get a chance to move past just family friendly material.

THE SMURFS opens this Friday at a theatre near you.