Rian Johnson, the writer/director of the upcoming sci-fi film ‘Looper’, has a new interview with Screen Rant talking about the film and its early conception.
He says he came up with the idea for the film almost ten years ago – “You know…it was a long time ago now that I wrote the idea, it was about 10 years ago, and I was trying to think what kind of spurred it on and I really cannot remember. The only thing I can grab onto is, at the time, I had just discovered Philip K. Dick and I was reading all of his books. I would read one and two days later go to the bookstore and get the next one. I was literally doing them one by one. I’m sure that had an influence in terms of my head being in that soup of sci-fi ideas. But honestly, it was 10 years ago so I can’t remember if I saw something on the street that made me think something.”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, his leading man, also talks about the things that make Rian Johnson such an ‘actor’s director’, saying, “There’s a number of things. First of all I just really like the movies that he makes. I think he has a great way with words, which is something I really like. He has a great sense of timing. He’s an editor. I find that a lot of the directors that have actually been editors are often times the best ones. And he’s a real collaborator. He’s done his homework and has a very thorough idea of what he wants, but he remains open to spontaneity and people contributing ideas that differ from what he had originally thought of and, right there, you have the crux of a good director is, when do you let go of your preconceived notion and go with something new that’s being suggested by one of the many other artists you’re working with – and when do you have to say, “No. I appreciate that idea, but I think it’s better that we stick to what I thought we were gonna do.” He walks that line really really well. And I think all of the directors that I’ve worked with who I will call excellent filmmakers do that.”
