Filmmaker David Gordon Green's latest effort, "Prince Avalanche," is getting some of the best reviews of his career. A hit at Sundance, that just got picked up by Magnolia Pictures, the unusual, poetically observational pas de deux comedy is funny, but also unexpectedly moving and human (you can read our review here). Starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch as estranged Beckett-ian odd-couple road crew workers in Texas, the film charts their fractious personal dynamics, their existential uncertainties, and perhaps most impressively, the way they come to ultimately empathize and bond with one another.
A remake of the Icelandic film "Either Way," Green said he remade the film almost on a lark and as an exercise when a friend, who had never seen the film, suggested he take it on. And while the director did receive permission to make what he calls a "very respectful" version of the original picture, he didn't meet the Icelandic filmmakers until the night of the premiere at Sundance, just moments after they had watched the film.
While nervous at first, Green said they loved his version, and that the evening started with the filmmakers concocting ideas together to keep the remakes going. "I'm gonna remake it again, I think," he told The Playlist in an interview during the Sundance Film Festival. "Last night we all conceived of three other very interesting ideas of ways of how to do different titles — if I remade 'Either Way' — one of us is going to remake 'Prince Avalanche.' "
A bit incredulous, we asked the filmmaker if he was serious. “Oh hell, yeah," he replied. "We have three more concepts that we can do that are amazing, in other countries." When asked if he would shoot the films himself or if he and the Icelandic filmmakers would hand over the keys to different directors, he said they would ideally "do a mix of both."
"I wanna do a road crew version in Australia in the outback with more action and make it a little bit more bloodthirsty, 'cause I want to exercise more action." Green explained. "I think that would be cool. I would like to do the Bollywood musical version and any version that anyone wanted to make. My assistant director on this movie, Atilla [Salih Yücer], he's Turkish and he wants to remake it in Turkey. And then you just personalize it for the culture, the territory, wherever the terrain is and make it. To franchise it would be amazing."
Working at a quick pace to "keep the creative momentum" going, Green said "Prince Avalanche" shot last February and that he was doing the final sound mix by summer. What's more, his next film, the gritty Southern drama, "Joe" starring Nicolas Cage along with "Mud" and "The Tree Of Life" actor Tye Sheridan, is not only shot, it's practically complete. “I’m almost finished with this new movie, ‘Joe,’ we’re almost done with it,” he said. “It’s Nicolas Cage in a movie that’s not like anything Nicolas Cage has done before. It’s dark as fuck. It’s a slow-burn, dark, heavy movie. Very grim.”
Fans have been asking after the status of his "Suspiria" remake, which seemingly had it its funding and was set to shoot until things went quiet. The filmmaker revealed that the project is stuck in a legal limbo it may never free itself from. "Suspiria is caught up in legal crap so who knows what will ever happen to that,” he explained. “That kind of falls into the 'Confederacy Of Dunces' category of 'someday I'd like to make these movies' that I was once attached to and worked on, but they may never happen."
Green's attitude is if these various bigger-budget projects in development ever get unsnarled from their legal woes, he'll gladly jump back on them, but galvanized from his "Prince Avalanche" experience, which he described as his favorite ever, the director said he's going to concentrate on using his time wisely.
"I'm gonna spend the time most people spend pitching and talking about making movies and actually make movies instead,” Green said.
“Prince Avalanche” will be in theaters later this year.
