That was my approach to the adaptation of it was that I kind of tried to crystallize the emotional essence. Once I’d done that, then I just built the plot around that.
When you read a book now for your own enjoyment, do you automatically start thinking of how to turn it into a feature film?
(Laughing) Yes.
Does that change your reading enjoyment level?
No! It really doesn’t. It’s kind of just in the back of my brain that it keeps working that way. The little engines turning there, while the main motors working.
Have you read anything since reading “House of Sand and Fog” that’s grabbed you the same way?
Good question. First time for that question – that’s a good one. The answer’s “No comment.” (Laughing) I’m kidding. I’m just trying to remember because I read like 10 novels a week.
That’s crazy.
Yeah, it is crazy. I just read a really cool biography of J. Edgar Hoover that I like. That would make a cool story. His whole life, his whole cross-dressing secrets and all that The man was running the biggest law operation in the world and he was like so anti-Communist and so staunchly government, and here he is with male lovers and hiding out in closets – literally.
Now that’s a story I’d like to see on the screen – something different.
That’s why, again, what I was talking about that little switch just tripped and I said, “Oh, this would make a good film.”
Coming from such a nomadic background, have you ever felt a connection to a physical place or property like the subject of this movie and the book?
You know it’s funny because I just went to Europe, I just shot a commercial in Vienna and France. We landed in Vienna and I, as soon as I landed, and this is not a place where I grew up or anything, but just Europe has such a real connection. I have a real connection with that place. I just kind of felt it through my feet. It’s strange. Like here I feel like I’m kind of in the wind. I still feel like an immigrant even after all these years.
When you adapted this book and being a first-time feature film director, was there ever a point the studio said nice script but let’s get someone else?
No, never.
If that would have happened, would you have turned over your script?
Never. It was a case where I wasn’t selling the script, I was just selling the whole project. Actually it kind of presents this extreme situation where I optioned the book with my money, I wrote the script, and then I cast it myself without any studio involvement whatsoever, before they even knew this existed. That’s the interesting part of the story. I even got the foreign distribution part of it before I went to the domestic studios.
That’s a bizarre way to work it.
It’s the only way if you want to retain control over it, and if you don’t want to happen what you just said would happen.
But when you’ve done all this work - getting the cast and all that – were the studios then in a bidding war over this film?
Yes, there were six studios and I chose DreamWorks very consciously.
Why?
Because they’re a filmmakers studio. They really are. They were built by filmmakers for filmmakers. They’re probably the bravest out there when it comes to this kind of stuff. And they know how to release a movie like this, obviously.
Since you did this all on your own, you never had a producer or anyone looking over your shoulder?
No. The only person looking over my shoulder, the only thing looking over my shoulder, was my responsibility to the author to be true to the book and to not let him down for his trust that he bestowed upon me.
Do you see this experience as spoiling you for future studio films?
Probably (laughing). But the good thing is now I have a little bit of momentum. You get a little more respect now. Now I’ve shown them what I can do, basically.
What was the most common response from test audiences after seeing “House of Sand and Fog?”
They didn’t know how to classify this movie. They had no idea. It’s funny because they felt like it was unbelievably powerful and the performances were incredible. But they just said it’s an incredible film. They really did, genuinely. People were genuinely moved, even the test audiences that we picked up at a mall were just – especially them actually, because they’re not jaded – they were just moved by the power of the story and the tragedy.
The film strikes me because there are so many ‘what ifs.’
Exactly. You know what it is? I call it an emotional thriller. Because just the same as a good thriller and a good mystery story plays with your expectations on a plot level, this one plays with your expectations on an emotional level. All the time you think these people are going to work it out, or she’s going to burn the house down. No, she’s not. It’s a roller coaster with the emotions.
ADDITIONAL “HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG” INTERVIEWS:
Sir Ben Kingsley, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jennifer Connelly and Ron Eldard
