Calgary Herald

Director takes Flight

Zemeckis returns to action genre after a decade

- BOB THOMPSON

Robert Zemeckis returns to live-action with Flight after more than a decade of refining performanc­e-capture animation with The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol.

Opening Nov. 2, Flight stars Denzel Washington as an alcoholic pilot Whip Whitaker. In the film, he heroically lands a malfunctio­ning passenger jet, but he must face the consequenc­es of his addiction during the subsequent investigat­ion into the crash landing.

Kelly Reilly co-stars as a recovering addict who falls for Whitaker. John Goodman is Whitaker’s drug dealer. Don Cheadle portrays the pilot’s lawyer while Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood is a friend and union representa­tive.

Certainly, Washington’s performanc­e as the debilitate­d pilot is provocativ­e. But Zemeckis insists he was equal to the demands of shaping the performanc­e on the Atlanta sets last year despite his long detour into motion-capture animation.

“It’s pretty much like riding a bike,” says the 60-year-old filmmaker who won the best director Oscar for his efforts on Forrest Gump. “You know, I’ve been doing (live-action) for a long time.”

As fans know, Zemeckis’s impressive resume includes the Back to the Future trilogy and the groundbrea­king Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

He did the dark comedy Death Becomes Her with Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis and Goldie Hawn, and the sci-fi adventure Contact starring Jodie Foster. He reteamed with Forrest Gump buddy Tom Hanks on Cast Away and presented the thriller What Lies Beneath with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Yet Flight represents a dramatic departure for him. There was no ulterior motive, however. When Zemeckis, who is a pilot, stumbled upon the Flight screenplay, he was just plain hooked.

“It’s hard for people to believe, but I don’t have an agenda,” he says. “And I wasn’t necessaril­y looking for a live-action movie, but I was compelled to make this.

“The thing that intrigued me the most was the complexity and the morality of all the characters, and the fact that it violates all the rules.”

For instance, Whitaker is clearly in distress, but the airline and the union try to make him a hero. And, each time his drug dealer shows up, it’s used as comic relief.

“Things are only funny if they are true,” he says.

Flight has lots of sobering moments, as well. For example, faith-based references crop up repeatedly. “Yeah, but it’s in a nondenomin­ational way,” says Zemeckis. “When airplanes fall out of the sky, the act-of-God subject usually comes up.”

The depiction of addiction and dysfunctio­n gets disturbing, too, but the intent isn’t to be controvers­ial.

“I think you relate to the pilot because he is human but he is flawed,” Zemeckis says. “There’s no question the film is sophistica­ted, but I think audiences are, too, and they can identify with the brokenness.”

The fact that Washington decided to play the pilot made the director’s job that much easier. They met in Atlanta to rehearse, and get to know each other on a creative level, for a few weeks before filming started, then got down to the business at hand.

“Denzel is a pro,” says Zemeckis of the Oscar winner. “He is completely prepared and really in- tense, and when he shows up he is always camera-ready.”

Zemeckis knew that the first 10 minutes (depicting the plane’s nosedive) would be critical to setting up the urgency that follows.

“There are two very conscious things I did,” the director says. “I wanted to keep the camera inside the plane — in the cabin and especially in the cockpit — but completely separate. The thing that makes it terrifying is the passengers don’t have any idea what’s going on.”

In another sequence, the plane inverts to come out of the nosedive. “I found out it could work for about 30 seconds then the engines would catch fire,” says Zemeckis. “I said, ‘Good, we can use that.’”

It’s not so good for moviegoers who suffer from a fear of flying, but the director says they shouldn’t worry.

“Statistica­lly, it’s one of the safest ways to travel,” he says.

 ?? Daniel Boczarski/getty Images ?? Leslie Zemeckis and Robert Zemeckis attend the Flight premiere at the 48th Chicago Internatio­nal Film Festival recently. The director, who is a pilot, stumbled on the screenplay and was plain hooked.
Daniel Boczarski/getty Images Leslie Zemeckis and Robert Zemeckis attend the Flight premiere at the 48th Chicago Internatio­nal Film Festival recently. The director, who is a pilot, stumbled on the screenplay and was plain hooked.

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