Brian Koppelman and David Levien’s sophomore effort, “Solitary Man,” starring Michael Douglas is soulful, sharp, moving and seems like a rarity these days; a modest little drama with a small budget that still resonates as loudly and emotionally as any gigantic set piece (if not more). The picture stars Douglas as a former used car sales magnate who slowly watches his life self-destruct due to his ill-conceived and misguided romantic and business indiscretions.
It all begins with a routine heart check-up that seems irregular that leads the main character Ben down a brutally selfish path of self-immolation. It’s also funny, mature and intelligent look at an irredeemable man trying to find some redemption in his life with few easy answers.
We spoke with Koppelman and Levien recently about new projects (an adaptation of Levien’s novel, “City of The Sun”, a deep-sixed one (writing “Bourne 4“) and writing two projects for Leonardo DiCaprio (the hitman turned medical intern thriller, “Beat The Reaper”), but of course we also wanted to ask them about, “Solitary Man.” Not only is a great film — see yesterday’s review — it might just have the best indie ensemble cast of 2010 so far. Check out this list: Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Jenna Fischer, Mary-Louise Parker, Jesse Eisenberg, Olivia Thirlby, Danny DeVito and Imogen Poots among many other great character actors you’ll recognize (Richard Schiff from “The West Wing,” Bruce Altman and David Costabile from “The Wire”). The picture comes out this weekend in limited release. Go see it.
The Playlist: Let’s talk basics. What was the motivation to make this picture?
Brian Koppelman: The impetus was a long fascination that David and I shared — we grew up together, we grew up in Long Island, watching these business titans hold themselves out as real masters of the universe. It was fascinating. As kids, we sort of believed their act and believed that their business acumen lead to their sort of having knowledge about rest of the world. Growing older and watching them age, we saw that the same sort of character traits that led them to their success also very often led to their downfall. Hubris, their reliance on charm, ego, greed sometimes. I watched this one particular man, I was walking in a park on the west side of Manhattan in Riverside Park and I saw this man talking to his daughter and he said — she was in her early 30s — he said, “don’t call me dad in public because it makes it hard to pick up girls.” We put that as the first or second scene of the movie, and that just started me writing and David shared the same interest in these kind of guys so it seemed the logical thing to make a movie about.
That’s pretty damn specific, I would have never have guessed.
David Levien: Just a desire for “Iron Man”-type box office, right Brian?
BK: Yes, and absolutely to capture the “Iron Man” box office, as Dave says, “Counterprogram in a successful kind of way” (laughs).
The first thing that came to me was fathers and fatherhood come into play for you guys. Any personal stuff there?
DL: The way these guys reconcile their business knowledge with what can sometimes be a lack of fathering and personal relationship knowledge definitely struck a chord with me. My dad and my grandfather were businessmen, my uncles — this is the sort of genius walking around Long Island.
BK: I think David and I watched guys who were friends of our dads. And it’s many guys, it’s not just that, I mean you move from Manhattan — this was made before Madoff — you go into any restaurant on Lexington Avenue and you see these guys. You see them dressed in black with these younger women. And you watch the way they treat maitre d’s and the way they treat everyone else and they sort of announce themselves. What’s been fascinating to us is we’ve gone to different film festivals and screening series and inevitably some woman in the audience says — oh the other day it was a guy actually who called to say and says “That was my dad up there on the screen!” No it wasn’t, you know it’s not specific. And someone in Dallas said “that’s my dad, I was crying the whole time.” And so it’s fascinating how this is, you know, a type of person that interacts with their daughters a certain way.
The self-destructiveness of this character is just… it’s hard to watch. It seems motivated in fear, but also… trying to recapture his youth?
BK: You watch these guys and you can’t help, but you hope that you take the object lesson they’re offering which is, not to screw your life up. I’m married with two kids, Dave’s married with three kids and we love our wives and don’t ever want to give in to the weakness that seems to set in on guys when they get to their late ’50s and ’60s where they feel like they have one last shot to find their youth.
BK: Yes, I certainly thought that while we were making it. But I’ve certainly seen women in their thirties react to this movie makes me think this is as much of a women’s movie as anything.
BK: My wife is a novelist and an interesting thing – my wife’s name is Amy Koppelman and her most recent book is called “I Smile Back” and it’s about an unfaithful woman in her thirties. I think they’re interesting companion pieces in a way because the justification for their behaviors is different, but the sort of self destructiveness while trying to be selfish in a certain way is really interesting and they were written separately obviously and at different times. But her book “I Smile Back” is a really good companion to this movie — you can find it on Amazon.
Good plug, I like that. So Brian had started written the script first?
DL: Brian started writing this one on his own and he sort of came into the office with a little chunk of it written and he was like “Do you want to collaborate on this as a screenplay?” I just thought well I don’t think I need to get in there as some sort of interference or just an add-on. So I said “Why don’t you just take this to the end and we’ll see if we can make it?” He came back some time later and it was a great thing for me as a director because somebody handed me a shootable screenplay — “is this what you’re looking for?”
BK: See, that’s why this one, the screenplay is written by me, but we directed it together. But we’re such filmmaking partners, I mean it didn’t make it any different in the directing of the movie. We were still directing this thing together. Dave had a measure of objectivity that was super helpful.
DL: I usually go to Florida for the entire shoot. [Brian laughs] We sort of just approach every aspect of the task together. We don’t really divide up the duties. We were in every meeting together, we made all the hires together, all the decisions. We have a very unified way of going about it. Brian wasn’t precious about the material and sort of invited my say in as a director. I think that more often than not I was defending something as it was written as opposed to looking for ways to change it.
Same thing for being on set, when you’re actually shooting?
DL: Absolutely, yeah. I mean, more often than not we arrive at the set together and discuss the day and we’ll both approach the actors; we’ll try to keep one voice in the corner at any given time just so we’re not peppering people with information.
You guys always get these really great casts. How do you go about doing that? Is it just the writing? Is it how people respond? “Knockaround Guys” also had a pretty great cast too.
BK: Thanks. We just go after whoever we think’s perfect, I think. This time Steven Soderbergh was one of the producers — Steven and Paul Shipp — and upon reading the script he said “I can get this to Michael” who was obviously our first choice. So, Steven sent it to Michael, and once you have Michael it was very easy to go to every other actor, because who doesn’t want to work with Michael Douglas?
BK: We love actors. We constantly have lists of people we want to work with and, you know, to have even in our tiny roles, even the guy who plays Jenna’s [Fischer] husband, David Constable, he’s a great character actor. Or Ben Shenkman, the Hasidic guy in “Pi,” plays that guy at the car company and these are things that are equally as important to us as casting Jesse as Cheston.
Let’s talk score, which is by Michael Penn and great, but there was confusion early one.
BK: Dave, originally on the Playlist they were into the whole Clint [Mansell] — there was something that came out that Clint and Michael Penn did it together.
Right, the TIFF press notes had that info. It said Michael Penn and Clint Mansell doing the score.
DL: They were a little confused for a minute, we worked with Clint in the past and we talked about doing it but he had a personal issue that came up. So, he bowed out.
BK: Yeah, Clint’s great, love that guy. But Michael just, we feel like Michael really delivered a beautiful score.
BK: Yeah, Michael’s such a musician’s musician and composer. And he wrote that beautiful piece at the end when, you know, Michael’s on the bench. It like elevates the whole movie. He certainly takes all that Beatles influence and everything Michael Penn does, but he uses it as an orchestrator.
BK: He’s a soulful guy. You’re totally right.
BK: And we love the score to “Hard Eight.” I watch that movie at least once a year. I mean I love that movie. Michael and Jon [Brion] did that score together and you know that movie that this older guy at the center of it and there’s a slightly elegiac tone to the music. And also this swings a little bit more, we just felt like Michael would totally get what this movie was.
How was it like working with Michael [Douglas]?
DL: He was amazing, I mean he made the movie under very tight time constraints because of the budget. Because he’s in every scene, he had no break but he’s just really strong and delivered and was just great to work with and is just so smart. He thinks just beyond his role and holistically. He was just a huge asset. He was just a really fun guy to hang around with.
Was there anyone in the cast — obviously you got all these great people — was there anyone who sort of surprised you like, who you may not have expected?
DL: [sarcastically] You mean anyone who was just a total bastard?
BK: Imogen Poots, she shocked us at her audition. Because she’s this British girl, and she had to play this Upper East Side sophisticate. And she just nailed it! I mean, every day she was so alive and present. So that was a great thrill to see her really just crushing this thing as an American.
BK: And I have to mention Olivia [Thirlby] too, that Olivia came in and did that two day favor was awesome. You know, Olivia Thirlby is not credited but is at a two-day party scene. She just did it unbilled for us because she responded to the material and we asked her and she agreed to come do it really because I think she liked the part and liked the people in it. And, you know, that part has to do so much with such a limited amount of screen time, so that was really great.
BK: [laughs] I don’t know, we don’t try to worry too much about the business aspect of the movie business. We just try and tell the stories that are compelling to us and if that means — and of course it’s a business, you have to find a cast that will allow you the budget to shoot the movie — but beyond that we don’t calculate that stuff.
You guys have been around long enough, did you feel like hey this happens, this is part of the ebb and flow of filmmaking climate, it’s gonna change or whatever?
DL: Yes, I mean whatever happened a year or so in the country was a little bit unusual, just the scope of that. Obviously, nothing like that had ever happened in our lifetimes. When they’re comparing it to the depression – there were ripples in the business but, you know, the business managed to survive and had the biggest year it ever had basically.
BK: [laughs] I think that’s a really good idea! If we do it — set visit for sure, right? You’ll come do a set visit!
Yes, absolutely, you know there’s some sort of twist. He gained some powers, or something at the end there. The conclusion is open ended, therefore I see a sequel.
BK: I think if we put him in the Iron Man suit it’s going to be incredible. “Solitary Iron Man.”
