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(June 10, 2002)
*** MY SET VISIT ***
I have been maintaining this Paul Hunter fansite for almost 4 years
now (4 years as of June 21, 2002). Through the years I have made
many connections with people in the industry: people who work on the video
sets, people who have worked with the directors in the past, and people
who currently work with the directors. It is through these
connections that I was fortunate enough to be invited to the set of
Bulletproof Monk in Toronto 2 weeks ago. The movie is shot on a
large soundstage in downtown Toronto, on-location shoots in downtown
Toronto (Nathan Philips Square, Yonge/Bloor subway station, as previously
mentioned) as well as shoots in nearby Hamilton and Oshawa. The sets
themselves were massive. It was my first visit to a set/soundstage,
so imagine my surprise to have my first set visit be to one of the largest
ones in Canada, and to the set of one of the most anticipated movies to
hit theatres next year. Now, I don't want to reveal too much about
the sets at the risk of giving away too much of the plot and getting
certain people in trouble. The first thing I noticed when I entered
the soundstage was green. Lots of green. Apparently some
scenes of the movie are shot in front of green-screen, with the background
to be digitally added in post-production. Oh, did I mention I also
saw Chow Yun Fat? Yep, I saw Chow Yun Fat, in full "Monk"
attire, in action. Pretty cool stuff. But the highpoint of the
visit had to be meeting and shaking hands with the director, Paul Hunter,
the only reason why I was on set in the first place. Really cool
guy. I've wanted to meet him for quite a long time, but never got
the chance to until now. Huge fan of his work (thus the fansite).
Being my first time on set, I never realized that they
actually built all the sets from scratch. I always
thought they would find an interior (ie: a house) and use it. The
sets we visited were quite elaborate. They went all out with the
sets. This one in particular, an underground lair-ish type of set,
totally blew me away. The set designer is someone that Paul Hunter
has worked a lot with in the past, in his video and commercial
projects. Of course I cannot say what the role of the set was (in
relation to the plot of the movie), but it's going to look WICKED on
screen. I believe the shoot in this particular set was the final one
to be shot in Toronto (they finished filming this past week; heading back
to the U.S. for postproduction and editing). From what I picked up,
the movie will NOT be completed in time for a Christmas 2002 release (post
production is scheduled til early 2003), so a Spring 2003 release is
probably more realistic (opening around the same time as other
comic-turned-movies X-men 2; The Hulk; & Daredevil). Now, I have
read several sources on the internet describing the movie as a
"Matrix" type of movie. Although the movie has some
supernatural elements in it, it is NOT anything like The Matrix. No
slow-mo bullet type of effects, no robots, nothing like that. If
anything, the action sequences might rival that of The Matrix. A
martial arts choreographer (who has worked on The Matrix) trained the
actors intensively since late 2001. The actors do some of their own
stunts. If anything, the movie might be more supernatural elements,
like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", but with a modern day
"edge" to it.
(thanks to "you-know-who-you-are" for arranging this for me
:o) and thanks for Migs for coming with me)
(June 10, 2002)
INTERVIEWS WITH SEANN & JAMIE FROM CANNES ON REEL 2 REEL (CANADA)
Canadian cable station Rogers 10 has a weekly movie review show called
Reel 2 Reel where the two hosts review the week's newest movie
releases (similar to Ebert & Roeper in the U.S., but on a lower
scale). This past week's episode had pre-taped footage from the
Cannes Film Festival, where they reviewed some movies that were part of
the film festival, as well as interviews and a preview from Bulletproof
Monk. They interviewed with Seann William Scott and Jamie
King, as part of the BPM press conference that was held there on the
weekend of May 19. Each of the actors revealed how they got the
roles (Jamie King auditioned 5 times and went through physical training
tests before getting the role). In the background for each interview
hung a poster for Bulletproof Monk portraying each actor in their
role. These were probably just promo posters used for the
interviews/press conference, and NOT the official movie poster.
Jamie King's poster had a side profile image of her as "Bad
Girl", looking down and the title "Bulletproof Monk"
scribbled in white letters at the bottom. Seann William Scott's
image was more of a candid shot of him as "Kar" in the movie, in
an alley surrounded by gang members. The Reel 2 Reel segment also
showed footage from the movie shoot in Toronto: a subway scene where Chow
Yun Fat as "The Monk" is running through a subway station,
chased by guys in suits (bad guys, similar to in The Matrix ).
Another scene had Seann William Scott as "Kar" walking through a
crowded subway station (a different part of the station as the Monk scene)
and pick-pocketing some guy who catches him. Actually, I'm not too
sure if it was Kar's character to does the pick-pocketing or the other
guy, but the "Kar" character is described as a
"pick-pocket" in the movie... (Director) Paul Hunter is
also shown in this footage, instructing Seann William Scott and the other
guy in the subway scene. Other footage showed Jamie King as
"Bad Girl" doing a jump-spin kick (with the aid of wire-cables),
quite Matrix-like, knocking down "Kar". Another scene
showed "Kar" pinning down "Bad Girl" on a desk , with
her saying something like "You're a pick-pocket. I didn't
'lose' my necklace, did I? You 'stole' it.", then proceeding to
kick him off her. The final footage showed "The Monk"
training "Kar" in (what looked like) an abandoned warehouse of
some sort. The entire sequence reminded me of another part of The
Matrix, when Laurence Fishburne's character is training Keanu Reeve's
"Neo" character in the Japanese fighting room sequence.
Similar interview and filming footage aired in Belgium on the music
station TMF (The Music Factory). I'm assuming this is the same
footage that aired on MTV's Movie House 2 weeks ago.
(thanks to Spike4000, Christl, JenJen for the Reel 2 Reel info; thanks
to Cihan for the TMF info)
(June 10, 2002)
BPM PRODUCER CHARLES ROVEN TALKS ABOUT SEANN WILLIAM SCOTT
Bulletproof Monk producer Charles Roven recently discussed with
Sci Fi Wire about
Seann William Scott's training for his role as Kar in the movie.
click
here to read interview
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