OCR Text |
Show Page C8 THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, Sunday, July 29, 1990 Collaborative effort behind action film w By BOB THOMAS Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) Film, makers forever proclaim that theirs is a collaborative craft, but rarely has there been such a close partnership as the one that produced "Quick Change." The partners: Bill Murray and Howard Franklin. Murray starred, along with Geena Davis, Randy Quaid and Jason Robards, and mwm with Robert Greenhut. Franklin wrote the script Together they directed. of major films are a rare breed. Unless they are brothers, such as the Zuckers ("Airusually end plane!"), up not talking to each other. In the case of Murray and Franklin, they were not only talking, they sat down for a joint interview. Murray is the "Saturday Night Live" graduate who hit with comedies "Meatballs" and "Stripes," then moved on to the low-budg- et bigger stuff: "Ghostbusters," "Tootsie," "Scrooged." Screenwriter Franklin ("Someone to Watch Over Me") makes his debut as a director with "Quick Change." Franklin was more straight in his responses, Murray more whimsical. Here are their comments: Did Murray Q. (To Franklin) ever bark at you as a writer? A. Does he bark? Never. He's a gentleman and a kind soul. I just ruined his image, I guess. Q. (To Murray) Does Franklin ever bark at you as an actor? A. He doesn't bark. But he doesn't always use the newspaper. He's but he does have fleas. He has problems, big problems, but nothing that couldn't be solved in one of the finer obedience schools. d. Because No, he was he showed up for work expecting to work. The rest of us showed up expecting to have fun. Q. (To Franklin) Did Bill look over your shoulder when you were, writing the script? A. No, he was 3,000 miles away when I was writing. A couple of times I tried writing when Bill was there, so I limited my writing to the West Coast. One of the questions people have been asking is: Was there a lot of improvisation on the set? In fact there wasn't. A lot of that went into the script itself. Bill is naturally funny and comes up with funny things. Because we were deahng with the script for so many years, he was able to come up with contributions. well-behave- d, lion-hearte- Q. (To hats Murray) actor, You wear three Why? A. I had more jobs because I felt the more I had, the better chance of achieving one of them. I dunno, I have no explanation. I'm usually not this ambitious. I dont know what came over me. I think it's because of all these processed foods I've been eating. There's a kind of chemical imbalance. Q. Do maintain films? you have a desire to more control over your A. You don't worry about (a project) until you see it go wrong. Then you say you'd just as soon make your own mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Living with other people's mis- takes is harder. Q. Were you both planning to direct from the beginning? A. (Franklin): Neither of us was in as director from the beginning. We both liked the material, we worked on the script, and eventually we got very proprietary about the script. Since each of us was considering other projects to direct, we decided, why defer our plans? Why not take this thing we liked a lot and do it ourselves? It was just an idea whose time had come I guess. Q. (To Murray) As how did you decide on casting Geena Davis and Randy Quaid? A. Well, none of my relatives came through; they just couldnt deliver. Randy Quaid I wanted from the first time I read the book (by Jay Cronley). 1 kept after him, wheedled him, and he basically held us up for a lot of money, saying, "It's impossible for me to do the part due to prior commit- Jp775 EAST J 300 OPG0,SiIl02 j MOVING SALEL0CATI0N y" S- - 1616S.ST ments." We read a few people for the Geena Davis part, and we liked the way she looked the best. We talked about the script a bit and asked her to come back. She came back and had the part nailed, knew every beat, exactly how it should go. We could not not hire her. She was a real delight, a dream to be around, loose, smiling, professional, not a whiner, looks good, always got a smile. And her mother brought brownies to the set. You couldn't ask for more. Director honored UTAH'S LARGEST SPECIALTY FURNITURE STORE -- '' RICHMOND, tfHDnraBlHBlIll Va. (AP) - Paul N. Perrot, director of the Virginia - 775 East 1300 South Southeast Corner Of The University Mall Parking Lot Open Mond.iy Thru Friday Saturday 106 10-- norD"t7DQO f 3" Mu- seum of Fine Arts, has been awarded the highest honor of the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and the Restoration of Cultural Property. The award was announced at the center's 30th annual meeting in Rome as honoring "those who have helped to define and articulate the aims of the conservation profession." |