William Horberg

Back To Bucharest

I always thought that Matt Drake's original screenplay "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman" had one of the freshest voices I had ever read when my producing partners Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa first brought it to me.

Which is probably why it has taken six years and a series of false starts and heartbreaking stops to finally make its way to the floor. Originality is not the most precious coin in the Hollywood realm these days. It's genre-defying blend of aching love story, comedy, edgy violence and trippy surrealism in a pitch-perfect tone of black absurdism that mirrors the sensibility of its Eastern European setting had many studios and financiers flirting with the project but ulitmately shying away in this risk adverse era of more formulaic and easily pigeon-holed fare.

You can see the surprised look on Matt's face as he finds himself sitting in the breakfast room of the Bucharest Marriott with director Fredrik Bond five weeks out from shooting and putting the finishing touches on the production polish of the script.

I hadn't been back to Bucharest in almost ten years, since the completion of principal photography of "Cold Mountain", Anthony Minghella's epic Civil War story which was mostly filmed in the mountains of Transylvania.

But as that film was rural and period, Charlie is contemporary and very urban, and the Bucharest I returned to was mostly unrecognizable to me from ten years ago.

Bond is one of the top commercial directors working in the world today and he is making his feature film debut on "Charlie". His uncanny eye and good taste have found some great locations for the film that capture in architecture and landscape the incongruous juxtaposition of romantic idealism and old world cynicism at the heart of Matt's fable.

This looks like the world's tiniest bar, but these gentlemen seem to be enjoying the intimacy of the space.

Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood and Mads Mikkelson are starring the film, but they hadn't arrived yet on this cold and rather inclement day of scouting.

But things will heat up soon in every way as the circus comes to town and Fredrik Bond and Matt Drake and their whole team of artists and technicians assemble in Romania to try to capture the anarchistic spirit of Bucharest and film the necessary death that will finally let "Charlie" live!

Enjoy!

william

April in Paris

"There is Paramount Paris and Metro Paris and of course the real Paris.

Paramount's is the most Parisian of all." - Ernst Lubitsch

Ernst Lubitsch was possibly the wittiest of 20th century filmmakers, but even he probably couldn't have imagined adding to the list of his famous aphorism "Paris, Serbia" - the recreation of 19th century Paris springing to life on the stages of Pink Studios outside of Belgrade in April 2012 for the production of Emile Zola's classic tragic love story "Therese Raquin". 

 

I don't know if this production will be the most Parisian of all, but if it is it will be thanks to the efforts of our very talented and not-French production designer, Uli Hanisch from Cologne, with whom I had the pleasure of working twelve years ago in Italy on the production of Tom Tykwer's "Heaven" and have happily reunited on this show.

Uli is the wizardly alchemist who makes this:

into this:

Which when all the last nails are hammered will conjure up the illusions for our cameras that will turn Serbia into this:

                  

and this:

Does every great production designer grow up reading Sir Walter Scott's verse:

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!"

As Ernst Lubistch knew, our celluloid dreams are made of just such deceptions.

Enjoy!

william

 

 

Magical Mystery Tours

Scouting locations for a film is usually a bit of a magical mystery tour.

Venturing into unknown territory and discovering hidden facets of our world. I think that was the inspiration for this fantasy painting/photograph I made of one of the island parks we discovered on our visit to Prague.

But more than places, the fascinating and diverse people you get to meet along the way are always the things that stay with you.

Film professionals are film professionals the world over, with a common language and inate predisposition to solve problems. Two of the best in the business in their countries are:

Ildiko Kemeny of Pioneer FIlms in Budapest

Andjelka Vlaisavljevic of Work In Progress in Belgrade

It was great spending time with them in their native lands and learning their histories in the business and educating ourselves about local films and filmmaking traditions.

Got to go - the magical mystery tour is waiting to take me away!

Enjoy!

william

Counting Crows

Today we visited an old cemetary in Belgrade.

The headstones were mostly pre-war, and were crowded together, and covered with the dust of a recent snowfall. But for every soul that was resting there, it felt like there was at least one corresponding black crow perched in the barren trees overhead, like harbingers or sentinels watching over the dead.

Their loud birdsongs filled the air, and suddenly they took flight, filling the twilight sky with their peregrinations. It felt like there were thousands of them, darkening us with their shade, even as darkness descended.

It was ominous, but also quite beautiful.

enjoy!

william

Wonderful News

2012 looks to be a busy year for Wonderful Films!

The "Disconnect" editorial team is cutting away (a false metaphor these days as all our "footage" really consists of digital bits of data) in preparation for upcoming screenings of the movie for our financier, test audiences and ultimately distributors.

A nerve-wracking process but one I thoroughly enjoy as the ability to "write" a film for the third and final time with the almost infinite ability we have to stretch and reorder and recolor and manipulate the film with music and sound never ceases to fascinate me.

Next up is the upcoming production of "Therese Raquin" which has been adapted by writer/director Charlie Stratton from Emile Zola's prescient, modern and nor-ish 19th century novel of an adulterous-turned-murderous affair in the lower depths of Paris.

Scouting, budgeting and casting are underway, as am I, off to Eastern Europe in search of remnants of Zola's epoch in these post-modern times.

Another favorite script and project I have been laboring on with my partners for years looks like it is almost set to go at the same time, so watch this space for more news, and for my inevitable 19th Nervous Breakdown to quote the song as I struggle to juggle all the various demands of these shows.

Exciting times!

I hope I can keep up the blog posts and don't disappoint you with what I bring back from my travels and experiences to share with you here.

                 

For those of you who have never seen the Marcel Carne version of Therese Raquin from the fifties, with Simone Signoret and Raf Vallone (as I had not until getting involved with this project) it is well worth checking out. In some ways radically different from the book, and therefore quite different from our version which stays true to the 19th century setting, Carne's film is set in the time it was made, the 1950's, and wholly invents a blackmail plot for the third act of the narrative. But it is quite intense and the performances are terrific, two virtues we certainly hope to equal!

Enjoy!

william

The Many Faces of Disconnect

For Thanksgiving, it seems only fitting to give thanks to the wonderful crew of characters who worked on the production of my latest Wonderful film project - the feature film "Disconnect" which was shot in the vicinity of New York City this Fall.

Often, all of the recognition a film gets goes to its stars, occasionally to its director.

As Ray Bradbury once said "people who write screenplays are forgotten at the very instant the film appears. Nobody can recall the screenwriters who wrote Gone With The Wind, Rebecca, or The Age of Innocence."

More neglected still are the hard working team "below-the-line", so it is nice to have a blog where I can give all of these talented collaborators the shout out they deserve on this day of giving thanks.

Scott Ferguson was our talented line producer (pictured here with Larry Kaplan on the left).

Ken Seng, here doing his best Foster Brooks impersonation, was our cinematographer. 

Our wizard of a camera operator was Gerard Sava.

Dina Goldman designed the production. We both went to Wesleyan, but not at the same time.

Jennifer Dehghan was our very artistic art director. Even her haircut was a work of art.

Catherine George was a Belfast punk rocker before she became an amazing costume designer.

Katalina Iturralde came all the way from Puerto Rico to be our on-set costumer.

Chris Surgent (pictured here with 2nd 2nd assistant director Patrick McDonald) was such a great First Assistant Director that it was impossible for me to hold it against him that he also happened to be a Giants fan. Plus he works on all of Marty Scorcese's films, so we were lucky to have someone of his experience on the team.

Chris' right hand man was 2nd assistant director and jazz fan Taka Kawakami. 

Damon Gordon found all of our locations. And even more impressively, got us in and out in one piece.

His assistant location manager Erin Hallbauer claimed to be from Chicago, which got her major props in my book, but she turned out to be from Hinsdale. Not quite as cool, but she more than made up for it as her work ethic, dance moves, good spirits and sense of humor were definitely "Chicago style"!

Propmaster can be one of the harder unsung jobs on any film. A lousy one can kill you, and a good one's work more often than not goes unnoticed. Dan Fisher did a great job - you won't notice it, but we did!

Nicki Lederman was our key make up artist, always keeping a chill mood in the sanctum of her make-up trailer, and making all the actors look almost as pretty as she is.

Her partner in crime was our hair stylist Mia Neal whose weekly gig on Saturday NIght Live must have contributed to the good humor she always brought to our show.

The wonderful thing about having a lilting Irish accent is you can give someone really bad news and it is impossible for anyone (even a Teamster!) to ever really get mad at you.  Which made assistant Production Manager Gabrielle Mahon our secret weapon whenever we had to negotiate our way out of a jam!

Anne Nevin was our production coordinator, always making the trains and everything else run on time. She looks pretty chill here - probably a result of never having to be on set with us!

Beth Rosenblatt is our music supervisor. Her big job on the film is mostly yet to come, as the score and songs find their way into the editing room and get woven into the fabric of the movie.

If you read or hear anything about our movie, it is probably a result of the good work of my old pal and wonderful unit publicist Larry Kaplan. Larry and I have worked in many far flung corners of the world, so I was confidant traveling with him to the jungles of Manhattan.

The artist Jorge Colombo, an old friend of mine from Chicago days, came to pay us a visit. He wasn't a crew member but we made him an honorary one in exchange for his creating some of his amazing hand drawn digital artwork impressions of our film, which as you can see he somehow paints right on his small iPhone screen!

 There are a hundred other people to thank, most of whom I never got a chance to record with my Diana camera and aren't featured here, but all of whom put in long hours and good karma and all of the intangibles that go into making a movie.

On this thanksgiving day, on this blog, it is their turn to take a bow!

Enjoy!

william

Who Is That Masked Man?

Today's blog entry is a photo caption contest - which of you has the wittiest tag line for this glamorous shot of yours truly directing the 2nd Unit outside Lincoln High School in Yonkers last weekend?

No prize for the winner other than the satisfaction and self-esteem that comes from roasting me!

Enjoy!

william

Back Seat Driver

Driving around Lake Shore Drive in Chicago in my Mom's big blue boat of an Oldsmobile (did they even have mandatory seat belts back then?), my sister and I would often get stern warnings when we would try to micro-manage the trip from the back seat:

"Don't be a back seat driver" Mom would warn.

Lotta good it did, as you can see!

Here I am crunched in for the ultimate back seat drive, going out to direct some splinter unit driving shots with our wonderful "B" camera operator Gerard Sava on the newest Wonderful Film "Disconnect".

Helluva way to tour the back streets of Yonkers, let me tell you!

Enjoy!

william

 

Le Moule

If the island of Guadeloupe is a butterfly, Le Moule is in the middle of the curve of it's right wing.

A very colorful place in the blazing flat light of the noonday day sun, so I decided to shoot it in black and white.

Enjoy

William

Shocking Corridors

I found this image from the classic Sam Fuller nuthouse movie "Shock Corridor" and it reminds me of a story, one that Fuller himself might have appreciated.

One of the last films that I supervised as an executive at Paramount Pictures back in 1990 was "Jennifer 8" which starred Andy Garcia and Uma Thurman and was directed by the brilliant British writer/director Bruce Robinson ("Withnail and I").

The film was shot mostly in and around Vancouver. The principal location was an abandoned mental hospital that the Province was happy to rent to us for $1 and it became our base for filming there, including the production offices and many of the main sets for the shooting.

If you notice in the still picture above from Fuller's film, one of the inmates is scrawling disturbing images on the wall, and a few days into the production of "Jennifer 8" at that ominous location similar graffiti started to appear overnight in the rooms where we were filming. At first it was put down as an in-poor-taste prank by some disgruntled crew member, but when it happened again, it started to upset people.

As the filming continued, the warped drawings and often violent or pornographic slogans of the intruding artist intensified. It gradually became apparent that the "abandoned" mental hospital was not abandoned after all; that some wily patient had managed to stay behind when the staff and all of the others had left.

The film commissioner who had arranged for the rental was notified, and ultimately the police were brought in, but the hider was never found.

It made for quite an unsettling shoot (that I always believed contributed to some of the creepy atmospherics of the movie) and the crew was happy and relieved when we finally wrapped out of that massive pile of old brick buildings.

I wonder if they ever found that penultimate inmate?

Robinson did not direct another film for twenty years after "Jennifer 8" (his version of Hunter S. Thompson's "The Rum Diary" comes out next year), but as a very independent filmmaker I think that he was more horrified by the treatment he received at the hands of the "studio system" than he was put off by his near encounter with patient #1.

Nonetheless, as usual Fuller got it right when he composed the haunting tableau above and others in "Shock Corridor".

william