Premium Rush is about speed. So let’s not pussyfoot around and get right to the action. The action flik, which led this week’s box-office newcomers with a reported $6.5 million take, features Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Wilee, a bike messenger being pursued through the streets of New York City on his brake-less “fixie” — fixed-gear — rig. Among those chasing Wilee is corrupt detective Bobby Monday, played by Michael Shannon, who is hell-bent on intercepting the package that Wilee is carrying.
In advance of the film’s release, Movieline sat down with director and co-writer David Koepp and his writing partner John Kamps (Ghost Town) to talk about writing a white-knuckle action movie without killing anyone and how cyclists are the most responsible travelers on the street.
Why did Premium Rush need to be told?
David Koepp: It needed to be told because John and I have seven children between us and they’ve got to go to school. [Laughs] I had had this idea kicking around in my head for a while because I live here and see cyclists. I wanted to do a chase movie on bikes, which I hadn’t seen. You follow the idea, and see how long it lasts. I realized at a certain point, Well, I’ve had this idea in my head for a while now. The only way to get it out of there is to just do it. So, for peace of mind, this had to become a film.
Did you write this script with Michael Shannon and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in mind?
DK: No, we always try to keep the characters the characters at first.
Did either of them surprise you in terms of their performances?
DK: I was pleasantly surprised by Joe’s fearlessness. Not because I’d heard he was a…
Full Story »Don’t tell David Koepp that scandal is good for box office.
The screenwriter (Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones: The Return of a Legend) and director of this week’s Premium Rush told Movieline that speculation that the media scandal involving Kristen Stewart, her Twilight co-star and reported off-screen beau Robert Pattinson and her Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders is somehow good for business is “a cynical response” to the situation.
“The people involved in any kind of scandal like that might want to respond, Who gives a shit? I didn’t say you could eat my head. You know?” Koepp told me.
John Kamps, his writing partner on Premium Rush, agreed: “I think historically scandal has never done well for movies.” (Movieline will post an interview with both regarding their new film on Friday.)
When I asked Koepp what he made of the media frenzy surrounding Stewart, Sanders and Pattinson, he replied: “I think it was sad for all involved.”
Koepp was hired by Universal to write a script to Snow White and the Huntsman but explained that he departed the project on friendly terms because the producers wanted to pursue a different direction. “I felt like there was a good path with her, but they wanted to explore a different thing I had no ideas for,” said Koepp, who told me he couldn’t picture SWATH 2 without Stewart and, therefore, “couldn’t follow through.”
Koepp observed that the proliferation of social media has made it difficult for just about anyone, not just Twilight cast members, to maintain privacy. “In the past — in the long past now — actors were able to keep their private lives much more separate,” the filmmaker said. “Now, no one really has a private life. I don’t think it’s just actors. I…
Full Story »David Koepp couldn’t envision a Snow White and the Huntsman sequel without Kristen Stewart — which is one reason he says he’s no longer involved in the project.
Koepp — who scripted Jurassic Park, the original 2002 Spider-Man movie and co-wrote and directed this weekend’s new bike-messenger thriller Premium Rush — tells Movieline that he departed the project because he had worked on a script idea “that I really liked” involving Stewart’s character. “And you know, their situation, I hear, changed a little, so they weren’t interested in pursuing that idea anymore.”
Koepp says that was a sign for him to move on. ”I felt like there was a good path with her, but then, you know, they wanted to explore a different thing that I had no ideas for,” he says. ”If you don’t have any ideas, you should probably put your pen in your backpack and go home.” As a result, he says, “we agreed to part ways and stay friends.”
Stewart’s involvement in a Snow White sequel has been hotly debated since reports broke in late July that she cheated on her on- and 0ff-screen Twilight love interest Robert Pattinson with SWATH director Rupert Sanders and apologized for it.
On Aug. 15, Deadline reported that, internally, Universal is discussing whether to focus the next movie on the Huntsman character played by Chris Hemsworth, who is fast proving himself to be leading-man material. Universal also bought a crime drama called 90 Church: The True Story of the Narcotics Squad from Hell for Sanders.)
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Take it from Jennifer Aniston — working as a New York City bike messenger is neither glamorous nor exciting. Unless you’re Joseph Gordon-Levitt in David Koepp’s upcoming bike messenger thriller Premium Rush, in which case transporting packages across town is a fast-paced career option with hot co-workers, adrenaline rushes and the occasional highly dangerous assignment.
Here, we see Gordon-Levitt as a passionate bike messenger who waxes poetic about riding fixed speed and flirts with a gorgeous colleague (Dania Ramirez) who bashes in side-view mirrors for fun. They take pride in the timeliness of their deliveries and happen to get a rush from their job. It seems kind of great! Until Michael Shannon shows up as a dirty cop who will do anything to get his hands on one a mysterious package that JGL has picked up from Columbia University.
Premium Rush was written and directed by David Koepp (Secret Window). Look for the thriller in theaters Jan. 13.
To see the trailer in HD, head on over to Sony.
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The Mad Magazine comic strip Spy Vs. Spy — where two identical creeps in hats and trenches outdo each other’s sneaky antics — is coming to life thanks to director Ron Howard, screenwriter John Kamps (who wrote Sony’s upcoming Premium Rush), and producer and script overseer David Koepp (who directed Rush and co-wrote the new Jack Ryan movie for Paramount). Shouldn’t be long until the Goofus & Gallant movie washes ashore. More details follow.
According to Deadline, the Spy Vs. Spy movie will happen a long time from now, if Ron Howard’s schedule is any indication. He’s close to signing on for the previously reported Rush — provided that can start shooting by the fall — and there’s still the matter of The Dark Tower. Per Mike Fleming:
In an interview I did with Howard and Grazer to commemorate Imagine’s 25th anniversary, they told me in no uncertain terms they are determined to make The Dark Tower early next year, whether at Universal or elsewhere. I believe them.
I think I’d have preferred another board game title over this. A Jenga disaster movie? Is that happening yet? Maybe Tom Hanks can play a moral, but self-deprecating plank of wood.
· “Ron Howard, David Koepp Team Up For ‘Spy Vs. Spy’ [Deadline]
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