CraveOnline: You said you hadn’t had a chance to do a western in a while, so you did Beyond the Reach…
Michael Douglas: Right.
Superhero movies, you hadn’t done that… what else haven’t you done, that you want to get to now?
Probably period [films]. I don’t think about it, but I’d probably like to find a period movie in there somewhere. I haven’t [done] more of that. I don’t really think that way, you know? To me, I’m always just, the script comes across and the script moves me, scares me, makes me laugh, whatever. I mean, I get moved by it, somehow emotionally moved by it. Then I go back and read it over carefully, make sure I wasn’t just seduced by some stage direction and everything else, but it really stands up. I’m an old-fashioned kind of three-act guy. Then yeah, then I jump into it, but I’m always more interested in the movie than I am the part.
You say the scripts come find you, but as a producer, can’t you also say, “I want to do a movie like this,” and try to get that started?
Well, I do, but it’s based on either scripts that are submitted to me as a producer… you know, I haven’t in a long time gone into acquiring books and doing adaptations of books, which is probably the next spot. The company’s not of that size.
Well, you had a good start with producing…
Cuckoo’s Nest, yeah.
Yeah… that movie’s really good.
Yeah.
That was your first big thing as a producer, right?
My first film as a producer.
That must be like, when you hear about compulsive gamblers, how the first time they gamble, they win, and then they’re stuck. Is that what it was like?
Yeah, it was, you know, it was just hard to believe. My partner Saul Zaentz, may he rest in peace, we lost him this last year, but we did everything just instinctually. We didn’t really have any experience. I didn’t realize how much I had learned from doing Streets of San Francisco, you know, which is basically a 52-minute movie that you’re making every seven days, just doing one after the other. So I learned a lot about stuff, and structure, but that was… we just never anticipated anything like that. But it was good because it taught me to trust my instincts, go with your first instincts. Most of the time [they’re] right. Some people really analyze stuff. Sometimes I wish I did more, but I usually go with my first instincts.
One of the films that’s on your filmography as a producer, that sort of sticks out a bit, is Face/Off.
Mm-hmm…
It’s a great movie. I love that movie, but I look at some of your other films and then there’s Face/Off. How did you come across Face/Off? Why did Face/Off stick out for you?
Well, that was when I was actually financing films. I had a company and we were at Paramount, and I was financed by a major German company. So we were involved and doing a fair amount of films. John Woo was connected with that, and I just thought it was a great idea. The concept was so good, it was really good, and between [Nicolas] Cage and [John] Travolta and John Woo, it just made it into a pretty good picture.
Out of the films you’ve produced, is there a favorite? Obviously One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest would have to be sentimental, but beyond that, is there one where you just think, “I nailed that?”
Well, that stands out. A lot of stuff in the early stages when I was still trying to achieve my recognition as a film actor. In those days it was very hard to make the change from television into film. So I think a lot of the, you know, China Syndrome, Romancing the Stone, Starman, a lot of the pictures in that early stage when you’re more clearly focused on producing, kind of stand out.
Romancing the Stone is a classic, and I love it, but Jewel of the Nile is such a strange beast. Can you tell me a little bit about that, and what you think of it now?
Right, it was an effort to make a sequel at that time. It’s the only… well, Wall Street [makes it] I guess two… but at that time, it was a tough picture. It was actually, we had a plane crash eight days before the picture started and lost our production manager, our art director. The film started with a lawsuit between Kathleen Turner and ourselves, because we had a contract with her for a sequel. And you know, the intentions were right. Avner [Eisenberg] and The Flying Karamazov Brothers, those elements, and trying to get… yeah, it was tough.
Is there a lesson about making movies, and producing movies you’ve learned? I guess besides “follow your instincts,” because we don’t all have your instincts…
Well…! [Laughs.]
So what do you recommend?
Structure. I mean, everything is the screenplay. Everything is. Screenplay is what attracts the talent, then it’s a question of who’s executing it, and bringing in the best elements. But if you start on a false foundation, if you start with bad blueprints, then it’s eventually going to topple down on you.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
