Around 11 August 2003
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An Epic Battle
What two directors are battling to tell an ancient tale? Baz Luhrmann says he's not in a race with Oliver Stone and tells why Alexander the Great is Hollywood's hottest property by Rebecca Ascher-Walsh & Allison Hope Weiner
Suiting up with gleaming armor may be passé, but fiercely fought battles are hardly out of style in Hollywood -- just witness the dueling Alexander the Great epics. Sure, it's a couple millennia later, but Alexander is the topic du jour for two major directors: Baz Luhrmann (''Moulin Rouge'') and Oliver Stone (''Platoon''). ''Alexander conquered the world when he was 30,'' says Intermedia chairman-CEO Moritz Borman, who's producing Stone's version for Warner Bros. ''He was the rock star of his time.''
Battle lines were drawn several years ago, when Stone and Luhrmann each announced projects about the Macedonian king. (Martin Scorsese and Mel Gibson also considered -- but abandoned -- Alexander projects at various points.) According to Borman, he and Luhrmann's producer, Dino De Laurentiis, discussed combining resources, but De Laurentiis had optioned Italian novelist Valerio Manfredi's Alexander trilogy, while Stone was relying on the expertise of Alexander scholar Robin Lane Fox. Stone then cast Colin Farrell as the conqueror and Angelina Jolie as his mother, while Luhrmann crowned Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman for his version, produced for DreamWorks and Universal.
The productions, both reportedly costing north of $100 million, were head-to-head until Stone announced he would begin filming this summer -- six months before Luhrmann's original start date; in May, Luhrmann delayed his start. Now, while Luhrmann finishes his final draft, Stone and crew are en route to Morocco, where principal photography begins Sept. 22. Whether Stone's project will be a thorn in Luhrmann's side remains to be seen: The film won't be released until Thanksgiving of 2004. (Still, it's worth noting that in 1998, two movies about rocks found enormous audiences when ''Deep Impact'' and ''Armageddon'' opened two months apart. ''Armageddon,'' the later release, grossed $201 million versus ''Deep Impact'''s still-impressive $140 million.)
Entertainment Weekly caught up with Baz Luhrmann in Greece, where the director is hardly taking a vacation: Even though filming in the Australian outback won't begin until next winter, Luhrmann is already shooting digital backgrounds, applying for clearance to do some filming in Iran, and plotting out an elephant battle in Thailand. But, as he reveals in this exclusive Q&A, Luhrmann's still got a bit to accomplish -- including casting the young Alexander.
What do you make of the race? I know ''the race'' makes a good story -- goodness knows, I'm in the storytelling business -- but I have huge respect for Oliver, and he should make his production. He is one of the great mavericks of American cinema, but I know nothing about what he's doing [with his movie]. I have no doubt it's a subject that can be told in many different ways. Having said that, I'm on my own schedule.
Why has there been a delay in starting production on your film? When Marty Scorsese decided to do ''The Aviator'' [and not a film about Alexander], I made a coalition with Dino De Laurentiis that we would produce together. Once Oliver [Stone] came on the scene, I said I would not race. I make no judgment on how anyone else works, but the only way I could address such a large-scale work is at the highest possible quality. My telling is going to be distinctly different from any other filmmaker.
How so? I've been researching Alexander the Great for over 10 years and there is no one true telling of the story. I've set out to explore the Greek notion of pothos -- the characteristic in some people that no matter how much they achieve, no matter how much they're loved, they continue to chase a horizon that will never arrive. Alexander is the poster boy for pothos.
Will your movie be untraditional? It has its DNA in ''Lawrence of Arabia,'' which is its great-great-great-grandfather -- in the sense that it uses landscape to express something very personal. I'm using these new techniques as well. I've been in Australia building huge battle sequences digitally, and then we'll shoot drama to put into them. We've shot the horses. I've also developed what will be the largest battle sequence ever shot: Gaugamela.
Are you on schedule now? Rather disturbingly, we're ahead of schedule. My screenplay is way ahead and Steven Spielberg and [Universal chair] Stacey Snider are excited about it. Steven is very involved in the project. Actually, when he and I were talking about the cinematic style of it, he sat down and screened his extraordinary restored print of ''Lawrence of Arabia'' for me -- it was like one of those DVDs with him talking about the film.
Are you getting the cast you wanted? I've got Leonardo. In my mind, there was only one appropriate casting for Alexander and that was Leonardo. I worked with him when he was 19. He's a good friend and I've watched him grow into an actor who's truly in control of his own abilities. I've been thinking about doing Alexander for 10 years, but I never mentioned it to Leonardo. Then, when Marty [Scorsese] went to do his, he thought of Leonardo first and you totally understand why. When you see Alexander's face on screen, you've got to believe 50,000 men would follow this boy-man across the world. It's very hard to manifest humanity in a character that's an icon, but Leonardo is the guy for that kind of gig.
Who else is part of your cast? Nicole Kidman is playing Alexander's mother, Olympia, who is sort of a match for Cleopatra. I'll be seeing her in a few weeks and Leonardo in Montreal and I'm bringing them a draft, so both of them will know exactly what I'm doing. I still can't technically offer anyone contracts. I've gotten into the story by investing hugely in Alexander's childhood at the age of 9. So, I've got to find the perfect 9-year-old that looks like Leonardo as a child, who's really good with a horse and can act, and then I've got to schedule him before he grows up. As soon as I can cast the child, I can offer the contracts to the other actors.
Why focus on the young Alexander? We have to understand Alexander as a child to understand him as a man. He is so driven to understand and to know -- there is no amount of conquest, love, success, or achievement that fulfills him. He goes on to achieve the impossible. The problem is that once he achieves the impossible, he can't stop. That's where it becomes tragic.
It sounds very modern. When the world is rupturing, the only place to look is the past. And there are a lot of answers in Alexander the Great. Alexander created a world that is at the core of our civilization.
What is the film's look? The assumed look of the ancient world was cooked up in '50s Hollywood -- everyone in white bedsheets and white miniskirts. It's definitely not that. There's a visual richness that you don't associate with the kind of camp '50s Hollywood language of it. It's a world you look at and wish you'd been part of. [Once again, Luhrmann is working with wife Catherine Martin, his production designer on ''Romeo + Juliet'' and ''Moulin Rouge.'' She won Oscars for ''Rouge'''s sets and costumes.]
So, will you put the Luhrmann spin on this one? Yes, but there are no kick lines in
it.