ky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is one of the most audacious and ambitious films to come along in a while. A retro SF adventure with a visual look that's part comic book come to life, part animation and part live action, Sky Captain spins a raucous tale that follows the exploits of Joe Sullivan (Jude Law), better known as Sky Captain.
It's 1939, and he's a heroic fighter pilot whose skills, smarts and élan come in handy when a scientist plots the planet's demise, sending in swarms of robots and kidnapping elite scientists. Also caught up in the action are Dex (Giovanni Ribisi), Joe's buddy and gadget guy; Franky (Angelina Jolie), a one-eyed aviatrix and former paramour of Joe's; and Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), a fashion-savvy and ambitious newspaper reporter who's hot on the scientist story and even hotter for Joe. In fact, they used to date, but now seem to prefer trading barbs that can barely mask their attraction.
Anyway, other than the actors, none of it—the zeppelins, Shangri-la, Radio City Music Hall, the robots—is actually real. Writer-director Kerry Conran shot his actors against blue screens and digitally animated all the rest. Law, Paltrow, Ribisi, Conran and Bai Ling, who plays a mysterious woman aptly referred to as Mystery Woman, recently sat down to talk with Science Fiction Weekly about Sky Captain, which opens Sept. 17.
Jude Law, what so excited you about Sky Captain that you wanted to get involved not only as an actor, but also as a producer?
Law: I saw an incredible filmmaker in those six minutes. I saw an incredible understanding of filmmaking in the script that he had written. It seemed clear that he had amazing vision and also an understanding that a vision isn't enough to carry a film through, because in the script there was this hilarious, though strong, central relationship that was harking back. So the film as a film was harking back, not just in its visual, but also in its heart, to these films I'd always loved.
It had the banter of His Girl Friday or Bringing Up Baby, but also the visual [sense] of Metropolis or Citizen Kane. And because I knew that world and loved that world, and because I understood all those references, whether it was those films or the comic strips or the serials like Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers, I felt like I had an opinion. Then I was told for the first time that my name would help enable this film to be made and empower this young director to make his movie. That's a huge compliment, and, to me, if it's something that you really recognize yourself in or really think, "OK, I can do this, I can offer an opinion here and help heighten something," then do it. I took that as something I hold very dear to me, actually, still, and am very proud of.
It sounds as if making Sky Captain was like living in the world of eXistenZ.
Law: That's really true. That's funny. [Laughs.] It's all a game. It's all a game.
What comic books are you reading now?
Law: At the moment? I haven't collected for a while. I'm still a big fan of Strange Days and Parallax and anything that Alan Moore writes.
You're a comics fan and you like genre films, so why haven't you played a superhero or a vigilante yet?
Law: I suppose nothing felt right until this came along. It felt more exciting creating our own.
Does getting this one done make you willing to do more action-adventure roles?
Law: It's funny, even though you can put this in the genre of action-adventure, there was a hell of a lot of action in Cold Mountain and Enemy at the Gates. I've always considered those as action roles as well, swinging guns around and running and riding and climbing mountains. I enjoy working on things that have an eye on their content, so I'd never do something just for the indulgence of the genre, really. I like the challenge more than the thrill.
How open would you be to Sky Captain sequels?
Law: I'd certainly do it again, absolutely. We spent a good part of the production imagining what would happen next and what happened in the past. I think there's an equal portion of both. It would be nice to start in the past and go into the future.
Gwyneth Paltrow, how much inspiration did you take from Lois Lane?
Paltrow: It's a funny, classic archetype in a way, this woman reporter who has lots of guts and wants to get her story.
You can go back throughout cinema and find this type of character.
So, when you're dodging robots, what was really there?
Paltrow: It's me and a blue screen and a blue floor, and pretty much nothing else.
How did Kerry Conran direct you in those scenes?
Paltrow: He says, "Run this way. You go from here to here to here. And then we'll scream when the robot is coming over your head, and then you fall." So it's like a dance. Occasionally there would be a tennis ball on a stick, on a big pole, and they would say, "OK, there's the robot moving." It was hilarious.
How meticulously did Conran have to choreograph everything?
Paltrow: Well, the thing is, because it was all kind of done already in the animatics—which was the kind of very rough computer animation of this—you could watch the scene, and say, "All right, this is what I have to do." It was a weird composite figure of myself doing it, and walking like this, and stuff like that. But you could see the robots and you could see what was going to happen. So in that respect you felt like you were pretty informed as to what was going on.
It's pretty ironic that the latest in digital technology was used to tell a tale set in 1939.
Paltrow: Well, that's what was so amazing about it to me. Because it took place in 1939, and then it was kind of a retro idea of what the future would be, I thought that that was very appealing. And that it would have a very interesting look to it. Kerry would show us drawings of robots, and I just thought it was so imaginative, because he really captured that retro-futuristic look.
Giovanni Ribisi, was there any hesitation on your part about doing a big studio film—even though it feels like an independent film?
Ribisi: That's what was so great about it. I think that's why it's going to be really popular and predominant in filmmaking to make movies like this. The architecture was there to make this movie for [$60 million], which is nothing compared to what films are being made for nowadays. There are films which cost $200 million. For me that makes me feel it's about an ego. The craft services on those movies must cost more than most independent films. On Sky Captain we were doing something like 60 setups a day. I could be wrong, but it felt like 60. On a normal film you do like 12 setups a day, which is a still a lot.
You weren't much an SF or comics fan growing up, right?
Ribisi: When I was younger I think I had comic books, and I was into collecting them a little bit. For me, I think what was appealing was the style of filmmaking which is the noirish Orson Welles, Metropolis feel.
Did you find it easier to reach exotic locales without ever leaving the soundstage, or would you have preferred to travel to the real locations?
Ribisi: In the middle of doing Lost in Translation I realized I did five films in a row overseas. I went from Romania to Japan to Australia, with just a one-day break to go home to my family. It was all back to back. It's nice to go to a soundstage because you can concentrate. It depends on the film. Every film is a brand-new enterprise, so you're going into something and each time it's like a new life. It's not like you're working in an office with the same people all the time. Sometimes it's nice to go out of town, to leave your life and do something different. But recently it would be nice to do a film in Los Angeles.
Did you get to keep any of the Sky Captain props?
Ribisi: The only thing there was the laser gun. I wanted one of those!
Bai Ling, did you ever find yourself thinking, "Hey, I want some lines?"
Ling: Actually, I never really thought about it. That's an American thing, you know? Acting is louder than words [laughs].
How did you deal with performing in front of the blue screens?
Ling: Once I read the script, the only thing I was thinking was, "I would like to play Gwyneth Paltrow's part." I think that's a beautiful part. I always like a romantic love story. It was in the script very strongly when I read it. I said, "It's beautiful and romantic, and plus all that science fiction."
But I love my role. I think she's very cool and very stylish, very powerful and, in her own way, kind of mysterious. But somehow she enjoyed her life. She does everything the best. I feel like, for me, I have a free spirit. I don't have many concepts in me, that I should be this and that, but of course I do lots of dramas, comedies, different realistic stories, but I feel like as soon as you accept that it's a blue screen, then you have all the freedom you want, because you're not thinking about it anymore. You just say, "That's a blue screen."
Actors [are] supposed to take care of an emotional part of it, of the part. And for me, it's the physical. A little training. When I got there, they were training me. And I run pretty fast. I learned ballet, gymnastics and sports when I was in Tibet for three years; training, all these things physical. Finally, they start creating all these complicated things, to see if I can handle it, and to train. I said, "Wait a minute. No matter how hard I train, I can never be Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. They're experts." I said, "You know, it's not important, the fighting's good, but you can use a stunt double if you really care about the fighting." I said, "If I'm going to play it, I'm going to give her my own persona."
[So] I made her very elegant and sexy, how she moves and walks. I think those are much more important, because that's a person, this image, and atmosphere around her that I can do, instead of just sharp fighting. I think no matter how good technically, still you have to look human. And there is something unique about her, so that's something I'm more curious [about].
Kerry Conran, from everything we've heard your producer, Jon Avnet, was your mentor, sparring partner, protector. Sounds like he was the Yoda of Sky Captain.
Conran: He's no Yoda! First of all, there is only one Yoda. Let's just establish that.
Actually, there are two: the digital one and the puppet. But go on.
Conran: That's possible! But what Jon did, which is kind of amazing, is that when I first met him and showed him this little short film I'd made, he extrapolated to where we are now, not knowing really how I went about it and what was going to be involved. He just sort of had the belief in that film and presumably in me, and that somehow it would turn out. And he really thought the entire way to just keep people away and to give me that chance, when every rational thought would lead you to say, "Get rid of him," me. So he was a great shield and the single biggest supporter of the whole project.
Sky Captain seems to be a very personal film. So besides yourself and your brother Kevin [the production designer], who is this movie for?
Conran: That's about it, so! [Laughs.] You hope there are kindred spirits out there that like the same sort of things you do. But, to some extent, I don't think this was solely made for people that are only interested in science fiction. I think that a lot of the films I drew from, films like The Third Man [are not genre films]. That film was a heavy influence for me and probably the biggest in that regard. But I think it was sort of made for just anybody that wants to kind of lose themselves for an hour and a half and just have fun at the [movie theater], in a way that you almost feel has gone away a little bit. It's just sort of naïve fun.
Is it just us, or does Sky Captain look like a black-and-white film that Ted Turner went and colorized? The colors appear as they've been added into a black-and-white film.
Conran: Which is exactly what they were! The film was originally supposed to be black and white. That's the way I watch it! No. [Laughs.] It started out that way more from a technical perspective. It was easier for me to blend black-and-white images together as opposed to color. Later on, when I was told they actually wanted to make money off of the movie, we moved into color. Instead of pouting, I kind of tried to embrace it. But what we tried to stay true to was the way it was being made initially, a black-and-white movie all the way through. We put together a separate team, a color department, and we attempted to mimic the two- and three-strip Technicolor processes. We looked at films, like White Narcissus, that were sort of the pinnacles of that era, and developed the method of laying color over the top of the black and white. And that's why you think it looks the way it looks, because that's exactly what it is. In that regard, I tried to do something unique with it, a little bit different than the way you would normally see films.
You're in the process of prepping the DVD. What will we see on that?
Conran: You'll see the animatics. We have assembled everything. So if you ever wanted to watch the feature-length version of the animatics, we have it. I don't know if that will be out initially. It's fascinating! Actually, to this day, I enjoy watching it. It's just a marvel of this lunacy. The six-minute [short film that prompted Avnet to produce the feature] will, sadly, be on there. It will be the most disappointing thing anyone has ever seen, but it was made 10 years ago.
Word is you're directing A Princess of Mars. Are you?
Conran: It would appear I'm doing Princess of Mars.
You say "would appear." Is it signed and done?
Conran: Ah, it's well ... signed ... hmm. Yeah, we're kind of mounting the forces to go about it. So, probably in the next couple of weeks that's where the energy will be.
Going back to Sky Captain, as you were making it, were other Sky Captain adventures rattling around your head?
Conran: You know, there were. I actually had to whittle it down when I had made this thing. Given the serial nature of these films, you literally can go to the center of the Earth and into space, or wherever you want. So it was sort of settling on just this one aspect. And the movie itself is almost like the continuing adventures of Polly and Joe. So in that regard [there are more stories to tell].
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Also in this issue:
Mamoru Oshii, director of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
and
J.J. Abrams, creator of Lost
