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Post by architect on Jan 4, 2012 0:17:38 GMT -5
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Post by architect on Jan 4, 2012 0:18:32 GMT -5
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Post by architect on Jan 4, 2012 21:07:22 GMT -5
Tom Cruise drove 'Protocol' previs Tom Cruise has long been known as a leading man and action movie hero, but seldom has he been described as a technology pioneer.
Yet that's the role the actor played on all four "Mission: Impossible" films, said David Dozoretz, senior previsualization supervisor on Paramount's "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol," which has cumed more than $141 million domestically and $225 million overseas.
Dodoretz, who worked on three of the pictures (he skipped "M:I2" as he was occupied with the "Star Wars" prequels), said that 1996's "Mission: Impossible," which launched the series, "was the first movie that really used previs," a computer animation program that adds motion and graphics to the storyboard process and allows everyone on a picture -- from below-the-line department heads to top studio execs -- to get an advance sense of what a scene will look like in order to make informed production decisions.
Dozoretz, who was then with ILM, recalls that on the first "M:I" Cruise and the producers wanted to do a sequence in which a train pulls a helicopter into the Channel Tunnel.
"The studio wasn't really sure about it, so we all decided to do a rough computer animation to show what it can look like," said Dozoretz.
Since that early application, which Cruise encouraged, previs has been deployed on hundreds of big-budget movies to aid in the decision-making process and -- significantly -- to save money.
Dozoretz was working on the J.J. Abrams-directed "Super 8" when he got word that Abrams was was planning to produce the fourth "Mission" installment.
"They didn't have a script yet, only a rough treatment," Dozoretz recalled. "One sequence was going to take place on top of the world's tallest building" -- the 160-floor Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
By January 2010, Dozoretz and his team were on board and worked steadily on "M:I4" for the next 12 months.
"It was really early on," he said. "We were starting on the Burja previs even as J.J. was first talking with (director) Brad (Bird) in the other room."
Previs, he added, was particularly useful in such pressured circumstances in order to help Bird -- who had heretofore only helmed animated pics -- visualize difficult and complex live-action sequences.
Bissell and others fed data into the previs computers, helping Dozoretz build several "M:I4" scenes -- none more dramatic than the film's signature sequence, in which Cruise climbs up the Burj Khalifa's sleek surface 130 stories above the ground, rappelling from floor to floor in order to access a secure computer room from the outside.
More than six months before any shooting took place, Dozoretz created as many as "15 or 20" versions of the sequence for Bird.
"We'd show it to Brad, and he'd say, 'This isn't quite working.'?"
Bird would then make suggestions for picking up the pace in some areas, slowing it down in others. Then the team would show the previs sequences to the studio and decide how the shooting would take place.
At that point the previs also got disseminated to most of the film's department heads. "They'd put the previs on a large monitor and go through whole scenes, one shot at a time," said Dozoretz, "deciding how they were going to get certain shots, what they need to do at certain points during production and how to rig for safety."But there was one factor no one could have predicted. "When we spent those first six months working on the sequence, we thought it was all going to be visual effects work," Dozoretz said. "We figured they'll shoot plates and Tom will be put in digitally."
But Cruise had other plans: He wanted to do his own stunts, and to suspend himself in a harness 130 floors above the ground while helicopters flew around and Imax cameras recorded his vertigo-inducing moves up and down the side of the mirrored tower.
"When we were designing the sequence we thought we could do anything because it was going to be all digital," said Dozoretz, "But it turned out to be the real Tom." SOURCE
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Post by architect on Jan 5, 2012 22:02:33 GMT -5
Renner talks MIGP to Movieline In anticipation of this action upswing, Movieline sat down with Renner at the end of a long Ghost Protocol press day earlier this month to discuss the power of Tom Cruise, the rumor that Renner is being groomed to take over Cruise's Mission: Impossible duties and the surprising intimacy of his next action spy film, The Bourne Legacy.
Q: Hi Jeremy!
A: Hey there. Are those shoes uncomfortable?
Q: A little, actually.
A: But you had to wear them because they match?
Q: Totally.
A: You're put together, mama bear.
Q: Thanks. Do you feel cooler now that you've starred in a Mission: Impossible movie? . . . read the rest.
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Post by architect on Jan 5, 2012 22:05:41 GMT -5
Renner talks MIGP with ShortList.com Q: Tom Cruise famously performs many of his own stunts. Did you have to raise your game for Mission: Impossible?
A: Yeah, for sure, man. I’ve always liked to do everything myself as much as I can. But this is my first ‘spectacle’ movie, so obviously the stunts are a bit bigger and Tom sets the bar for that kind of stuff. I learned a lot from him. He helped me prepare physically. The thing I really took away from him was to treat it like you’re a professional athlete. Tom ices up at the end of the day — he sits in a big bath of ice.
Q: What were the toughest stunt scenes to film?
A: The Burj Khalifa [the world’s tallest building in Dubai] one was much tougher on Tom. He had a lot to do in that one but, physically, for me, it was the hanging-out part that was terrifying. Tom was on a couple of wires upside down [outside the building] while I had this little belt wrapped around me with a wire on it. It didn’t feel like it was the most secure thing. There’s some guy holding the wire at the other end, looking the other way, maybe taking a phone call [laughs]. I was like, “Have you got me? Because if you don’t, I’m done, dude.”
Q: What’s the biggest surprise about Tom?
A: He takes the p*ss out of himself. Also, I think what people don’t really understand is that he is a 14-year-old boy trapped in a man’s body. He has the same — I don’t want to say naivety — ‘wide-eyed view’ of life. He’s really optimistic about things — almost crazily so. He really cares about cinema, about films. It’s his life. And that’s the thing we have in common. Full Interview
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Post by architect on Jan 5, 2012 22:08:47 GMT -5
Renner on doing the 'Impossible' before he gets busy putting his superhero skills to go use, Renner takes on the impossible with no less than Tom Cruise, appearing alongside the Hollywood A-Lister in the upcoming “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.” As Renner has found out, being in a film with Cruise is no walk in the park.
Cruise (who reprises his Ethan Hunt role) seems to have a death wish and prefers to do his own death-defying stunts—including climbing the side of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. “And he pushes you to do it, too,” Renner relates incredulously.
“There was the opportunity to do so many things physically that I’ve never done. I had to get into really, really great shape and I was doing Filipino Stick Fighting—and I didn’t know what that was—and Muay Thai. I’m doing it for five hours a day, fighting, training and then doing all this stuff on a wire,” he shares.
Despite having no experience with wirework, Renner recalls learning a lot and having a blast on location. “[Burj Khalifa] is twice the size of The Empire State [building],” he exclaims. “It’s surrounded by proper skyscrapers with 70 floors—there’s a lot of big skyscrapers ‘round there—but they look like a little model of the city down below you. It’s the craziest, craziest thing and [quite an] amazing view. I hear they’re building one that’s going to be bigger than that in Saudi Arabia! Jeez is it high up there! It’s pretty spectacular.”
It is fortunate, then, that he isn’t afraid of heights. “That itself ain’t a big deal: it’s like standing on this coffee table and looking down. [But] if the fear of death starts creeping in and some jerk wants to play a joke on you, give you a little shove — that’s what I’m afraid of,” he relates.
When hanging out the side of a tall building exposed “pretty much to my lower groin” and having to catch Tom Cruise, the issue of trust becomes paramount. “I’m connected by a belt with a wire and all I have to do is trust this wire is not going to break, this belt’s not going to come off,” Renner recalls. “Doing that the first time was a bit nauseating for about 30 seconds. After taking deep breaths, and triple-checking, quadruple-checking my wire is safe, [it became] like, ‘Woo, this is awesome!’”
According to Renner, Cruise—who is also a producer in the film—has set “a really high bar that challenged me as an actor and as an athlete: he got me into a really great physical program that obviously he’s been on, got me in the right mind set to be able to do the things I needed to do. He would bend over backwards, do anything for any of his actors to make this the best experience.”
He likewise extols Cruise’s “collaborative” and “inclusive” nature, and describes him as “really, really gregarious and generous with his time; he just makes you feel like you’re the only person in the room.” Full Article
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Post by architect on Jan 5, 2012 22:11:00 GMT -5
Renner's Flicks & Bits Interview Q: How was it joining an already established franchise, with a recognisable lead? Does that give you an advantage, or is there a challenge in sort of distinguishing yourself, you know, when he’s sort of leading the charge?
Jeremy Renner: I think it’s great to be part of a franchise that is successful, and obviously a franchise, any franchise is successful, because there been a continuation of the people who see it. That’s kind of nice to be a part of when you’re on a world stage, a movie gets all around the world and you know that, because 80% of the movies I’ve done, nobody’s seen. So kind of going into that is pretty exciting. And getting the opportunity to work with Tom Cruise is really exciting. I thought it was complex enough to go do. I had a lot of fun.
Q: Tom Cruise seems pretty enthusiastic about doing his own stunts. Do you share that enthusiasm?
A: Jeremy Renner: Yes, I’m enthusiastic about it. I think if it’s required of me to do it, I think I’m attracted to challenges so there’s a great physical challenge in doing stunts. And also, there’s no ticket you can buy for that ride. The opportunity to do the stunts and to do the things that we were able to do on this movie – people don’t get that opportunity (laughs). So yeah, that’s exciting. And if it serves the story and the character, I don’t want to just do a stunt just to do a stunt to have fun. But it just becomes sort of icing on the cake to help Brad Bird tell the story.
Q: How was being high up in the Burj Khalifa and looking out the window?
Jeremy Renner: It’s one of those things, like if you get hit by a bus and you didn’t know it, that’s one thing. But if you see the bus coming and you can’t do anything, you get paralyzed and you can’t move, and you just watch it come at you – it’s one of those things (laughs). Tom is out there, running around, doing his thing all over the building. And we’re just standing there, sort of by the edge, and that is more terrifying. And then once we hung out, thirty seconds of near vomiting almost happened, but then once that went away…. Tom was laughing (laughs). He’s hanging upside down, he’s all red faced and he’s like, “Look at this view!!” I’m like, “What are you talking about?! I’m gonna vomit on you.” (Laughs) But once that went away, he was right. It was like, “This is beautiful.” I mean, it was just fantastic. And once all the fear went away and all that stuff, it became a really amazing experience. But before that, the anticipation of it all was terrifying. Full Interview
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Post by architect on Jan 5, 2012 22:14:59 GMT -5
>> How did you measure up to Cruise in the action stakes?
A: I've said it a few times, but I really believe it: Tom Cruise has 48 hours in a day, when we have 24. He may sleep ... every once in a while. Literally, he'll be up two hours before work, training, then put on the producer hat and make sure everyone's happy, then go home and be a dad for a minute, then he watches movies! How in the world? I went home and I passed out!
>> Can you get a bit lost on a big blockbuster?
A: It certainly had that feeling on The Avengers. Maybe I'm in the movie, maybe I'm not, I have no idea. The scale is out of this world. That's where I felt like a token, a little pawn chess piece.
>> Mission: Impossible director Brad Bird says there's a scene where you got angry - for real - and he left it in the film.
A: (Long laugh) Yeah, there were a few spots where it was a bit frustrating and I'm not shy about letting that out on myself. I'm not sure exactly what point that was in the movie - there's probably several moments (laughs).
>> There are some amazing locations in Mission ...
A: That's an amazing icing on the cake. You also travel to s---holes (laughs). I've shot a lot of heavy, intense stuff - that doesn't happen in Hawaii.
>> You've said of Tom that his life is movies. Does that also sum you up?
A: Yeah, my life is my job as a sort of primal hunter and gatherer.
>> On all these action films, what's your best injury?
A: It's probably to my ego (laughs). Full Interview
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Post by architect on Jan 5, 2012 22:18:51 GMT -5
Renner's West Australian Interview While Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol's number one star Tom Cruise was hanging outside the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, located in Dubai, for what some are calling the most dangerous stunt performed in film history, Renner and his other co-stars Simon Pegg and Paula Patton were safely tucked away inside the 829.84m structure.
"We just had to sit inside and sip on some tea," Renner laughs in an interview with AAP.
"We didn't have to do all of that."
Cruise demanded to perform the stunt on his own so when audiences buy their popcorn and sit down for the latest chapter of the Mission: Impossible franchise they will not be seeing a stunt double hanging off the Burj Khalifa.
It is Cruise risking his life.
"Oh yeah," Renner, when asked if Cruise was enjoying himself, responds.
"He was having fun. He was smiling from ear to ear between takes.
As the new face of the Bourne films, sharing the screen with Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The Avengers role and as the lead in Gretel: Witch Hunters, Renner finds himself being tagged as a movie star.
He is not sure about the label.
"If that's what that is, I have no idea," Renner shrugs.
"I have certainly enjoyed working. I can tell you that.
"There have been a lot of wonderful of opportunities I have seemingly stumbled across with Mission being the first big monster out of the gate.
"I enjoyed the heck out of that and ever since then it has been more action movies after that.
"Who knows what the future holds.
"Maybe a nap." Full Article
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Post by architect on Jan 5, 2012 22:22:54 GMT -5
Renner talks MIGP with Collider Q: Since your character is the new team member who thinks all of this IMF stuff is a bit crazy, is that a fun position to be in?
JEREMY RENNER: It was fun to play the character. It was a slightly different approach. It was a great, complex character to jump into. Nothing is as it seems, in a spy movie, and this certainly delivers that, I think. I’m attracted to those kinds of roles that could be good or could be bad, and you just don’t know. I guess I just have one of those resting faces that makes me look like I want to beat you up. I like those parts.
Q: Given the fact that each of these films is independent of one another and you have a new director, with Brad Bird, did you have to take a crash course in what’s involved with these movies, or did you create this from the ground up?
RENNER: I was a fan of the franchise, to begin with, so I was very aware of everything. And then, I re-watched it all again, which was informative, knowing that I’m a part of it. But, they’re all very separate movies. Tom never wanted to do a franchise, or to do a sequel to any movie, and he hasn’t, except for Mission, which is his baby. He’s always had directors come on that have a very specific vision for it, that keep them separate, as stand-alone movies on their own. If you didn’t see the first two, the third still all makes sense. The only through-line is Tom’s character, for the most part. There have just been characters that have trickled in and out. With this one, having Brad [Bird] come in and have his slant with the gadgets and the attention to detail with character, which brings tension, and cutting tension with comedy – and Simon Pegg is there for that, which is awesome – he is all over this movie. If you’ve seen The Incredibles, or any of his movies, you definitely see that in this.
Q: With the Burj Khalifa sequence, even though you don’t get to be the guy out on the building …
RENNER: And, happily.
Q: what’s it like to be up there, in that room, looking out the window and just be involved in that sequence?
RENNER: It’s one of those things. If you get hit by a bus and you didn’t know it, that’s one thing. But, if you see the bus coming, and you get paralyzed and can’t move and just watch it come at you, it’s one of those things. Tom was out there, running around and doing his thing, all over the building, and we’re just standing there by the edge. That was more terrifying. Once I hung out, 30 seconds of near vomiting almost happened, but Tom was laughing. He was hanging upside down, all red-faced, and he was like, “Look at this view!” I was like, “What are you talking about? I’m going to vomit on you!” But, once that went away, he was right. It was beautiful. It was fantastic. Once all the fear went away, it became a really amazing experience. But, before that, the anticipation of it all was terrifying.
Q: How much physical stuff do you get to have in this, and how much training did you have to do?
RENNER: Just stretching winded me, starting this movie, so I had a long curve to get ahead. After The Town, I didn’t do anything physical. I didn’t break a sweat for a year, until Mission. We had to make up for lost time and spent about five hours a day, learning certain disciplines, like Muay Thai and Filipino stick fighting, and all this random stuff that I never thought I’d learn, which was a blast. And then, there was stuff on a wire that you have to prepare your body for. There are certain trigger points in your body. I know much more about my body than I ever wanted to. But, it’s a very physical thing and you have to treat it like you’re a professional athlete. Full Interview
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Post by architect on Jan 5, 2012 22:26:13 GMT -5
Renner's Q&A with ComingSoon.net Q: Can you explain, in your own words, who Will Brandt is and the situation that we find him in at the beginning of the film.
Jeremy Renner: Will Brandt, he's the chief analyst for the secretary of the IMF. That's a guy who's always been a voice. You never saw him. He's the guy who handed out the missions and that kind of stuff. Now you see him in this movie. He's Tom Wilkinson and I'm his right-hand man. That's when our characters meet Ethan Hunt. Things go awry and IMF is shut down. This desk jockey sort of buttoned-up analyst is thrown together in the mix with superspy Ethan Hunt and two other rogue agents. We're all rogue at this point. We have no IMF. We're all left alone. It's Ghost Protocol. So these characters are thrown together in this mixed up sort of character drama comedy that comes out of this mix. Then we slowly reveal that Brandt isn't exactly who he says he is or shows that he is. That's pretty attractive to me as a character. Brandt has secrets and allegiances that can go either way. Whether they're good or bad, I can't speak to it, but it left it pretty wide open to slowly reveal parts of this character as the movie went along. I feel like having that happen in a big action set piece like "Mission: Impossible," that chance doesn't come along very often. I felt very blessed to have such an interesting role in that kind of world.
Q: Is it important for you as an actor to know your character's backstory even if it's not a part of the plot?
Renner: Well, that kept shifting. I told you how Brandt has secrets, but a lot of characters have secrets. I always try to have secrets with every character. It doesn't matter if it's part of the film or not. That's just part of my process and this case it happens to be a big part of my character. But the secrets kept changing and the script kept changing. The name changed! It doesn't really matter. It doesn't effect me too much. I think the real challenge is to keep it all specific. Even if it's a very ambiguous character, you've got to be even more specific about the things that you do later on and about what the payoff is or isn't.
Q: It seems like there's a bit of a comedy element, too, in terms of Brandt's straight-lacedness meshing with Hunt's personality.
Renner: Yeah, there's all that. Brad Bird did "The Incredibles" and played with the family dynamic. There's a lot of those same well-thought out characters and comedy that cuts the dramatic tension when there's too much drama or just for the pace of the movie. He's layered in a lot of funny stuff, whether it's in the writing or the character choices. I don't know if Brandt was written to be a funny character by any means, but when you get the four of them archetypically and structurally in the story, it becomes comedic because of situations. That's so great because you haven't had that in any of the other "Mission: Impossible." That's part of Brad Bird's big stamp on it. You take the "Mission" franchise and you take "The Incredible" or any superhero franchise and you have "Ghost Protocol."
Q: Can you talk about meeting Brad for the first time? This is his first live-action film and it seems he's quite good at it.
Renner: Yeah! I met Brad and Tom when they were pitching me. There was no script yet, but they knew what the story was and who the character was going to be. I think he was originally a smaller part and Tom was really adamant about it being more of a group picture than it just being he as a superspy running around. He wanted to really incorporate it as a team so they were writing it as they were going. Meeting Brad Bird, you're not sure what you're gonna get meeting an animator who maybe just stares at cartoons all day in a dark room manipulating their faces or whatever that is. But he's the most gregarious, friendly, funny guy in the room. It's the things that he said that made me really want to do the movie. Obviously, the chance to work with Tom Cruise, "D'oh!". Who doesn't? That'd be awesome. It's a franchise movie with a franchise that's already successful. I was a fan of them. What's the reason not to do this? Do I have to lose a limb or something? Full Q&A
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Post by architect on Jan 5, 2012 22:31:44 GMT -5
Renner talks MIGP with The Telegraph To have landed a starring role as the former spy Brandt alongside Tom Cruise in the forthcoming Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol would have been enough to propel Renner to new heights. Throw in his part as Hawkeye in The Avengers, an all-star superhero epic that has him battling alongside Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, his lead in the Grimm fairy tales update Hansel and Gretel, not to mention the role created for him within the Bourne franchise, where he is to take over from Matt Damon, and you’ve got yourself the new Tom Cruise. Not that you could say that to Renner; the merest hint of a comparison prompts protestations of humility.
“Tom’s been so giving with me throughout the process,” he says. “He’s much more of a collaborator than an adviser.” Hunched forward, with his legs apart and a professional urgency to his tone, Renner talks me through the meeting with uber-producer J J Abrams that changed everything. “We were discussing another film when suddenly he asked whether I might have time to meet with Tom Cruise about Mission Impossible that afternoon. Three hours later, I’m sitting down with them both – and something about it just feels right. So I get home and Tom calls straight away. Within the hour, I’d signed up to the next three MI films.”
“Half the guys I trained with on The Avengers were also on Bourne, so I didn’t have to work as hard to get in shape. Still, I owe my biggest debt to Tom because he taught me how to manage my body and avoid injury. He’s eight years older, so he’s had a lot more experience in knowing how to protect himself.” Of all three films, the training for Mission Impossible was by far the most gruelling. Besides leaping from a skyscraper in Dubai, Renner says it involved a lot of Muay Thai, a martial arts technique that involves boxing and kicking. Then he was taught “fast hands boxing”, “Filipino stick fighting”, and knife throwing. “Some of those techniques have a real balletic beauty — even if they are basically about taking someone out as quickly and efficiently as you can,” he chuckles. Renner would get home covered in bruises with a sprained neck, but when The Avengers came around, again he insisted on doing his own stunts. “I was never really into the comics when I was a kid, so it wasn’t like I was this diehard Avengers fan beforehand. But I found out that Hawkeye’s an archer,” he grins. “Usually archery is pretty focused and sniper-like, but this was about using the bow as a staff and a sword amid warlike chaos — all sorts of crazy s---.” Still, what he had to contend with, he jokes, was nothing compared to the daily ordeal of his co-star Scarlett Johansson — aka Black Widow — forced to winch herself into a skin-tight black leather catsuit for the duration of filming. “Every morning she had to get into that thing,” he laughs. “So she was on a strict diet and working her butt off learning all these fight moves that would normally be in her ‘house of pain’.” Full Article
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Post by architect on Jan 5, 2012 22:34:47 GMT -5
Renner's About.com Interview for MIGP On being the new, skeptical member of the team:
Jeremy Renner: "Well, I mean, it was fun to play the character. It is, I guess, a little, slightly different approach because I had no more information than you do at this point. [...]When you see the movie, there’s these other things [going on]. So it was a gray, sort of complex character to jump into. Nothing is as it seems in a spy movie, and this certainly delivers that, I think
On what happens to his character in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol:
Jeremy Renner: "I’m not going to tell you if I live or die, if I’m good or bad. I might create more questions than answers for you. But that’s what the character is, you know, it’s one of those hinge/fringe characters - you’re not sure what’s gonna happen. And that was the attraction for me. I can tell you that Will Brandt is a Chief Analyst for the IMF, the right-hand man to the Secretary, which is always the voice, now a face, finally, in this movie, played by Tom Wilkinson. He hands out all the missions. And this sort of buttoned up, sort of desk jockey, gets thrown into the mix of Ethan Hunt and two other agents, Paula Patton’s and Simon Pegg’s characters. And instead of having a mission sort of dished out, it became...circumstances kind of fall apart and we’re thrown together and have to be together. It doesn’t mean we like each other, but we have to unite and to overcome certain obstacles. And then within that spectacle of action and mission stuff, there’s an interesting character. You will see. Like, all four characters are very strong archetypes and how they play off each other ends up being really [interesting]. It's Brad Bird’s strong suit, if you’ve ever seen The Incredibles. I think you’ll see a lot of that within that sort of structure."
On his character's complicated past:
Jeremy Renner: "I think it’s what’s revealed throughout the movie. It becomes like a B or C plot, I don’t know - whatever number or letter you want to put on it. But it becomes a part of the character drama within the group. And then slowly revealed all the way, kind of throughout, the secrets that characters hold in general - and specifically Brandt."
On how this training helped with his other projects:
Jeremy Renner: "Oh, yeah, [it helped with] all of them. Tom has prepared me for, especially Bourne, but all of them: Hansel and Gretel and then The Avengers and now Bourne, for the sort of mental place to be to know when you’re doing an action sequence, that - like in any professional sport, in America at least, if you get injured or you hurt your knee or whatever, second string comes in. But it doesn’t happen on movies so you can’t get injured. So it’s sort of getting on this really great program to really just not be in shape, but just prevent injuries. And Tom introduced me to some really great physiotherapists and that sort of thing, to prepare my body for that sort of torture." Full Article
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Post by architect on Jan 5, 2012 22:40:52 GMT -5
Renner talks working with Cruise on MIGP Q: How were you offered the role of Brandt?
A: I met up with Tom Cruise and Brad Bird and Bryan Burk, one of the producers.
They all had their own sort of take on what the movie was and gave me a general sense of everything and why they wanted me to be a part of it.
I couldn’t say no. I mean I was a fan of Tom and the franchise. With the machine of Paramount behind it, the great support system that they give, and then Brad Bird sealed the deal for me; I love his movies. There was no reason not to do it.
Q: Would you say Brandt is a new kind of Mission: Impossible agent?
A: Yeah, definitely a new character. I think every character in this movie is new.
Even though Pegg was in the last one, his character has grown and continued on to be a field agent—not a guy behind the scenes.
There are so many things that are so different; I don’t want to draw a comparison to any of the other Mission movies. It being a Mission: Impossible is the only thing it has in common with the previous films – that and Ethan Hunt are the through-lines here.
There is great conflict and drama and a sense of humour within all the characters: That’s what separates it.
Of course it has the big action set pieces, and Mission: Impossible is known for those big action set pieces, but this has things even bigger and more intense and now it’s partially shot in IMAX, which is really more immersive visually.
But there’s time and care spent on the characters, as much as you possibly can in a big, fun popcorn movie like this so you get invested hopefully and then the ride becomes even more fun.
Q: What is it like working with Tom Cruise on this franchise? He is so much more than just its star. As a producer he is instrumental in bringing each new sequel together?
A: He is very inclusive, he makes you part of every stage of the process. I never felt left out in the cold.
I always felt like it was a collaborative effort, which is a wonderful thing to be a part of. You get to learn a lot and I learned a lot about him as a person. He couldn’t be more generous and giving of his time. But he also sets a really high bar that challenged me as an actor, and as an athlete.
He got me into a really great physical programme that obviously he’s been on, got me in the right mind set to be able to do the things I needed to do.
He would bend over backwards, do anything for any of his actors to make this the best experience, the best it could be, and I think he’d do it for anyone.
I certainly felt singled out, even though I know I wasn’t. He makes you feel that way. And Tom, he’s really, really gregarious and generous with his time. He just makes you feel like you’re the only person in the room.
Q: How would you say this Mission: Impossible is bigger than the other ones?
A: Bigger doesn’t always mean better. You could make this a really intimate story as well and I think it’d be fantastic.
But this one has a big scale, and the places we go and the things we’re doing, the action set pieces were big, like the Burj Khalifa.
That’s a really big set piece. And the story, the scale and the stakes are really high, much higher than they have been in the other ones. IMF is shut down, it’s coming at it from a whole other angle. How do you get bigger than this?
Q: With Tom Cruise so invested in the realism, doing stunts himself — including climbing up the side of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world — did you feel you had to do your own stunt work?
A: Absolutely, and he pushes you to do it too. There was the opportunity to do so many things physically that I’ve never done.
I had to get into really, really great shape and I was doing Filipino Stick Fighting and I didn’t know what that was and muay thai (a combat sport). I’m doing it for five hours a day, fighting, training and then doing all this stuff on a wire. I’ve never done anything on a wire prior to this and it was really great fun. I got to learn a lot.
That’s what makes the Mission: Impossible films wonderfully old-fashioned because they’re all the extremes of the real world, not green screen and computer effects. You’re going to go up the Burj Khalifa, and that reality sells it to an audience…
Right, right, the whole reality of it, and we’re all doing it. There is fantasy in it, in the circumstances of the plot: the Kremlin blows up, people die and their world’s ending.
But it is tied in with the reality of what we’re doing, and that is the great ride, the roller-coaster ride that hopefully we take the audience on for two hours.
It’s a really terrific film because of that sense of reality, the humanness of the characters. I know that when I go to the cinema, whether it’s a big movie or small movies, I’m an audience member too. I need to connect with somebody, or care about somebody or hate somebody. I need to get in there and I feel like they did a really great job with this one.
Q: How much is this Mission: Impossible focused on being a team game with Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt as their leader?
A: They’re always going to have that kind of Tom Cruise stamp on them because he’s a force to be reckoned with, but he was adamant about it being a bit more of a team, a crumbling team or terrible team or wonderful team, whatever we end up being or not being...
He certainly wanted it to be a bit more of a collective than him just going on this journey and the audience following. Now it’s a little bit more splintered out. Full Interview
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Post by architect on Jan 5, 2012 22:45:09 GMT -5
Renner talks (what else) MIGP Q. You say you also admire Tom Cruise and that it was great to work with him. So, do you want to be an action hero?
Jeremy Renner: Do I want to be an action hero? I don’t know. I’m an actor in some action movies. I like to be the reluctant action hero. How’s that? I like to be that. I don’t want to be an action hero. I don’t want to be a hero in anything. That, to me, has… I interpret that as something that seems very thin in character. A hero who calls himself a hero… I don’t know, that’s not the type of characters I gravitate towards or that I can connect with. For me, I like the idea of flawed characters and that’s all I look for – human qualities.
Q. How would you describe your character, Brandt, in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol?
Jeremy Renner: He is kind of a realist. He’s complex because there’s a lot of secrets that he’s holding and that he carries. He has a lot of weight. There’s conflicts that arise because of it. There’s a sense of… he’s kind of got an everyman quality about him that I think is really interesting. He’s certainly flawed.
Q. Is he a straight man for the humour?
Jeremy Renner: I suppose. The humour I think comes from the level of intensity of the action sequences and it inadvertently comes out that way. I don’t think they write it to be funny, otherwise it’ll seem campy and then that becomes cheap. If there’s any humour in the film I feel like it comes from real heightened circumstances with everyday sort of people inside of it.
Q. Well, a scene like the flare in the river being used as a distraction for the gunmen is self-mocking of the genre, isn’t it?
Jeremy Renner: Well, I think that’s a Brad Bird thing. He did that all the way through the movie with, like, the gadgets. Half of the gadgets don’t work. It takes the piss out of itself almost by not taking itself too seriously. But when it’s serious, it is serious with the action stuff – it’s high octane and it’s pretty intense and if you’re afraid, you should be afraid. But when there’s moments of humanity it’s free game and Brad Bird was a big, big influence on that. When you see the movie, there will be hints of The Incredibles all over it.
Q. Tom Cruise encouraged you to do your own stunts. So, which one was the most difficult?
Jeremy Renner: I suppose the stuff in the computer raid on the wire with the magnet suit… essentially, that was the longest and most enduring because I was hanging on a wire for a while. It got a little tiring. But I think what took the most timing and proved really the most challenging was doing all the physical fighting because for not a whole lot of screen-time it was months and months and months of hours a day spent fighting and learning something that I was so unfamiliar with. I’m not a fighter. I had to learn Filipino stick-fighting and Muay Thai and all these really interesting things that was fun. It made it fun to get in shape and we had to learn it in a very interesting way, too, because we had to be very flexible because there was no choreography. We weren’t sure exactly where the fight was going to take place… we just knew there was going to be a fight here somehow and some way. We’d learn it that day and have to get through it. So, we kind of learned the discipline of the fighting techniques that we all had. And we all had specific fighting techniques – Paula [Patton]’s involved more legs, Simon [Pegg]’s more judo and throws and I was more hands, fast-hands and things like that.
Q. Will that kind of preparation benefit you in your next movies?
Jeremy Renner: Yeah, I took it on into all of them.
Q. The Avengers? Are you still filming that?
Jeremy Renner: I did it. I’m in the middle of Bourne now. All that is tied into each other and Tom [Cruise] set a really great bar and gave me really sound advice on how to look at stunts and how to treat your body… what to do to prepare and how not to be injured. Full Interview
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