Did Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi give you carte blanche to make changes to the script?
“Yeah... I took the essence of what Danny was doing and tried to make it comprehensible (laughing). Danny had never written a script before so he had huge amounts of description. Pages and pages of description. But it had wonderful ideas. I mean, Dan, he comes up with these ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Blues Brothers’ – these insane concepts, which are quite wonderful.”
Did it make it more difficult for you as a director in that you were working with the guys who created these characters? The Blues Brothers characters were really their baby.
“No, not at all. Dan’s a great collaborator and a great artist. No. In fact, one of the ironic things about Danny is I think because he’s so unique a talent, I think people forget what a fine talent he is. If you look at Elwood in ‘The Blues Brothers’ and then look at the character he played in ‘Trading Places’ for me, they have nothing in common. They are totally different people. He’s a great talent.”
You shot a large part of “The Blues Brothers” without a budget. Do you wish that would happen nowadays?
“Well, you know, that does happen these days when they do these ginormous movies. ‘War of the Worlds’ cost $200 million.”
Have you ever had as much freedom as you did filming “The Blues Brothers?”
“I’ve had as much freedom creatively – not as much money. It depends. (Laughing) I’m still amazed they let us make that movie.”
Given the atmosphere in Hollywood now, if you were shopping around “The Blues Brothers” script today, would any studio give you money to make it?
“They’d never make that. But you know what? They would never make [a lot of] movies. I saw ‘Chinatown’ the other day. My wife and I watched it. No studio would make that film now. Look at the product of the last three years. It sucks. It’s a new corporate [atmosphere]. A very strange time in the business. There will still be good films but fewer and farther between.”
Speaking of the movie business, what do you think about the state of comedy movies today?
“Well I’ve actually been kind of unhappy with most of the comedies lately, although I have to say I’m very encouraged by the success of ‘Wedding Crashers’ and ’40 Year Old Virgin.’ I haven’t seen either film but the fact that they’re R rated -and made a lot of money - I’m very happy with because the studios have been very shy about R rated material – and they’re wrong. R rated just means it’s for grown-ups.”
Back to “The Blues Brothers,” what was your involvement with the extras on the 25th Anniversary DVD?
“Well, I didn’t make them. I was interviewed for some of them… They have a thing on John Belushi. They have a thing on the impact of the Blues Brothers. The documentary on the making of the film was actually from five years ago because I said, ‘Look, this is great. I don’t think you can do better than this.’
You have to understand that for Danny and I it’s so weird that these added bonus material things contain footage of us in 1979, in 1980, in 1990, in 1995, 2000, and 2005. So for us it’s like this nightmare Dorian Gray thing. You see us get old, young, fat, thin, long-haired, short-haired, black hair, grey hair. (Laughing) It’s kind of amazing.”
Has your directing style changed a lot in the past 25 years?
“I don’t know if I have a directing style. Do you mean my behavior on the set?”
Sure.
“I’m probably quieter. It depends on what you’re doing. When you’re doing big stuff, when you’re dealing with thousands of people, you have to be bigger (laughing). But I don’t know. I’ve always dealt with every actor individually so depending on what the performer needs is what I’m prepared to do.”
Do you still have the energy at this point in your career to take on a project like “The Blues Brothers?”
“Absolutely, sure.”
So you still have a lot of passion for directing?
“I love filmmaking. I really enjoy the process. I have to tell you I just shot this thing, ‘Deer Woman,’ for the Masters of Horror. Even though it was shot in 10 days, I enjoyed the hell out of it. I’m very happy with it.
I’ve never stopped working. I do tons of commercials and I enjoy the process. I really enjoy shooting. I’m making a film later this year – or actually next year. Listen, I think it’s a privilege. I’m delighted.”
Would that be ”Show Dogs?”
“’Show Dogs’ – I don’t know when that starts because I’m having them rewrite the script completely. So that’s a movie but it’s… A great deal about what you read about films is that they just announce deals. That doesn’t mean it’s a movie.”
Page 3: Landis on His Career and "Bat Boy"
