In a college phone conference over his upcoming film “Flight,” director Robert Zemeckis discussed aspects of the film, influences in his life as a director and what the most important facet of any movies is.
The movie “Flight” revolves around the circumstances of an airplane miraculously lands by the pilot after it begins to fail and threatens to crash in a city. Pilot Whip Whitaker, played by Denzel Washington, was hailed a hero after saving the flight, but an investigation into the plane’s malfunctions reveals some troubling information about Whitaker on the day of the flight.
“Most people are imperfect . . . and those characters [imperfect heroes] lend themselves to the most drama and we can all relate to them because everyone’s imperfect,” director Robert Zemeckis said.
Washington is often associated with strong leading man roles. Frequently playing intense, independent and commanding, yet flawed, characters (“Man on Fire,”,“Training Day”), it is no surprise that Zemeckis picked Washington to play this character in “Flight.”
“I just felt that he was an actor who brought all the sort of power and the ability to reach down into his most inner self to pull this performance off,” Zemeckis said.
Although the director is known for award-winning films such as the “Back to the Future” series, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “Forrest Gump,” for the past decade, Zemeckis has been making animated films such as “The Polar Express” and “A Christmas Carol.” He returned to live-action film because he “was inspired by the screenplay” for “Flight.”
“I tend to gravitate toward the screenplay and start there and don’t put any restrictions on myself either in something that I’m looking for or something that I might be reacting to,” he said. The reason his films span several genres, he says, is because “there’s no agenda; it’s always based on the screenplay . . . I love all types of film stories.”
The screenplay for “Flight” was written by John Gatin’s (“Coach Carter,” “Reel Steel”) and found by Zemeckis with “a certain amount of luck.” Owing it all to being “part of the magic,” Zemeckis was able to find Gatin’s screenplay and put together a team of seasoned actors who, along with Washington, include John Goodman (“The Big Lebowski”) and Don Cheadle (“Hotel Rwanda”).
“A good screenplay falls into your hands and you’re able to say, ‘OK, yes. I think I know how to do this,’” Zemeckis said. “When you’re directing, you’re writing with images . . . everybody’s writing, the actors are writing, you’re writing . . . we’re all in there actually writing, for a lack of a better word, the final screenplay all the time,” he said.
In the theatrical trailer for “Flight,” viewers get a glimpse at what Whitaker does to save the plane from crashing. Zemeckis and his team had to do a lot of research before shooting this scene to make it as realistic as possible.
“Whitaker has to invert the airplane to try to pull this airliner out of a dive . . . that was the trickiest [scene] to do both from a cinematic standpoint and from a physical standpoint,” Zemeckis explained.
By watching other films that had inverted plane scenes, Zemeckis said he was able to see what was going to work in “Flight.”
“I, myself, am an instrument-rated pilot, so I’m familiar with a lot of it. We spoke to people at the airlines. We spoke to people at the NTSB and we studied many aircraft incidents,” he said. “I watched a bunch of films that had plane crashes in them. You learn a lot of things to do and you learn a lot of things not to do, so it’s always important to watch other movies.”
“Flight” has special effects, but “they’re not effects for effects’ sake, but they’re to lend texture and power to the story,” Zemeckis said. “Ultimately a good movie has at its core a compelling character that the audience is identifying with and is rooting for . . . whether that’s a cautionary tale or a heroic tale, that’s what I think . . . a good movie has to have.”
Most of Zemeckis’ films utilize new-technology and ideas, and keeping up with all the changes is a lot of work.
“Making movies has always been hard . . . and it’s getting harder because the audiences seem to be not as interested in movies, so it’s more difficult to get movies made now than it was before,” said Zemeckis.
The idea that movies are transforming, and audiences are expecting a greater spectacle every time they go to the theater can make a director’s job demanding.
“When you’re younger, you’re more accepting of basically the insanity that surrounds the [movie] business, but as you get older, it’s harder to do that . . . It’s always been challenging . . . You have to really love what you’re doing; you have to love the screenplay so that you’re excited to get up at 4:00 in the morning and get to work,” he said.
His film history shows that Zemeckis goes the distance with material that talks to him – that he maybe has found something of a method to the madness that is the film business.
“When I first got out of film school, I had an audience with George Lucas. I said, ‘How do I become a filmmaker? How do I do it?’ And he said, ‘Somehow.’ And I think that’s the best advice anyone ever gave me. Somehow you just do it,” said Zemeckis.
“Flight” opens in theaters Nov. 2.
