by Scott Weinberg
THE 'LUCK' PITCH: Set in the early 1970's, this film takes us into the world of a group of young, free-spirited underachievers who enjoy a good bet. A bit lost, and paralyzed by his own obsession with luck and destiny, one of the group members wonders if he's lucky enough to win Margaret, the girl of his dreams. It seems that luck is not on his side. Or is it?
Will this be your first time at South By Southwest? Any other film festival experience?
Yeah, this is my first time at SXSW, in fact it will my first time in the state of Texas. SXSW is to be the U.S. premiere of Luck. For my last movie, I was in a few Canadian festivals, plus one in Oslo and in Sundance.
Describe your film in seven words or less.
A movie about gambling, gambling always.
When you were 14 years old, if someone asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, what would your answer have been?
My answer would have been: ‘I don’t know, something professional and highly-esteemed and lucrative, let’s change the subject so I can enjoy the benefits of denial.’
How did you get started in filmmaking?
I went to film school in Montreal, because my older brother was there and he said it was fun, a university degree without a whole lot of book learnin’ involved.
How have things changed for you since your film was accepted into the festival?
I’ve decided to have children, maybe get a divorce.
When you were shooting the film, did you have SXSW (or other festivals) in mind?
I had Cannes in mind. They said no, but I think they erred. I had the Nobel Committee in mind, they said not a chance, and I agree with them. When I made the movie I was unaware that the SXSW was more than a music festival.
How did you get your film started? How did you go from script to finished product?
In Canada, one applies for a grant from the Canadian Government for half his funding. The rest came from Alliance, TF1 in France, and dribblings from a few other places. The script was a bit too ambitious for the budget we were allotted, so we compensated by preparing like madmen, getting a stellar crew and sacrificing things like health and balance.
What’s the single most important lesson you learned while making this film?
Put everything you have, every single thing, into the movie.
When you were in pre-production, did you find yourself watching other great movies in preparation?
I didn’t watch whole movies, but bits of movies that had elements of instruction or inspiration – The Gambler (with J. Caan, not K. Rogers), The Long Goodbye (for elegant use of zooms).
If a studio said ‘we love this, we love you, you can remake anything in our back catalogue for $40m’ – what film, if any, would you remake?
I wouldn’t remake anything. Remakes seem weird to me for some reason, and I can’t often think of one I like.
Two-parter: Which actor would you cut off an arm to work with, and which relatively unknown actor in your own film do you want the world to start recognizing sooner rather than later?
I would cut off my arm to work with an actor with the expertise to re-attach it – nice if he were Benicio del Toro. I want the world to start recognizing Luke Kirby (the hero of Luck) as soon as possible.
The festival circuit: what could be improved, and what couldn’t be?
I apologize for not having an answer to that question. The festival circuit seems fine to me.
Have you ‘made it’ yet? If not, at what point will you be able to say ‘yes’?
I feel as though I’ve made it, because I’ve done the projects I’ve loved, and am eligible to continue in that vein. I could ‘unmake it’ if I make an expensive film that turns out crappy, or if I get lured by money to spend 8 months of my life on a job with stars and that is boring, and get distracted away from my own work in the process, so that I lose momentum and become resentful.
A movie is made by a lot of people in addition to the director, but often films will open with a credit that says “a film by…” – Did you use that credit in your film? If so, defend yourself! If not, what do you think of those who do?
I did not do that. I forbade my distributor from having that credit on the poster. I think it’s okay if you’re famous and your name adds cache and/or box-office to the movie. Non-famous directors who do this, however, aren’t all egomaniacs; sometimes they’re just not sufficiently literate to notice poor taste when it’s expressed in the written word; others are just victims of the auteur theory, one of the most acutely dumb and damaging scams in modern culture -- one perpetrated most often, and most frustratingly, by journalists. If movie critics smashed this absurd myth, in thunder, in their writings, then no more poor slobs would be tempted to defile themselves in this way in credit sequences.
Luck, written and directed by Peter Wellington, starring Luke Kirby, Sarah Polley & Jed Rees, has its U.S. premiere at the 2004 South By Southwest Film Festival. Click here for more info!
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originally posted: 03/08/04 14:07:14
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