Hollywood heart-throb Brad Pitt
revealed the importance of educating his children about the effects of
war as his latest movie Fury brought the BFI London Film Festival to a
rousing close tonight. The
50-year-old actor, who is father to six children with wife Angelina
Jolie, plays US army sergeant Don "Wardaddy" Collier in the Second World
War epic. "My boy loves
World War Two. He is interested in it and studies it," he said,
seemingly referring to the couple's eldest child, 13-year-old Maddox.
"He plays a lot of video games so it's
important for me that he understands that war is not glamorous. It has a
lot of consequences. There are a lot of families who are hurt by it. So
we talk quite often and openly about it." Pitt
was joined by his co-stars including Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Jason
Isaacs, Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal along with writer and director
David Ayer, as they walked the red carpet at the European premiere in
London's Leicester Square. The
action movie, which follows a five-man crew of a US army Sherman tank
during the last days of the Second World War, was shot in the UK. Ayer said: "It's a privilege to close this festival. We shot in the UK so this closes the process." The cast bonded over a gruelling six-day boot camp and their three-month preparations before shooting. "Shooting
this movie was not an enjoyable experience. It wasn't meant to be
enjoyable - we are shooting a war movie and war is hell," Lerman, who
plays assistant driver Norman Ellison, said. "The
boot camp was formative to the process. That was when we bonded and
became a family and we really understood the meaning of what we were
doing." Bernthal, who
portrayed Grady Travis, added: "It was rigorous but essential. I'm
really grateful for it. It bonded us as a unit, it gave us a team and
made us a family." Earlier at a press conference, Pitt - who was also one of the film's producers - said the role had made him a "better" father. "I
learnt a lot from this film. We all walked away absolutely enriched,"
he said. "This role is a real study in leadership and learning to
command respect and because of this, I am now a better father." This
year's LFF opened with The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch
as wartime codebreaker Alan Turing, with stars such as Jennifer
Lawrence, Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carell and James McAvoy attending
premieres of films such as Foxcatcher, Whiplash, Wild and The
Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby. Fury opens in UK cinemas on October 22.
Brad Pitt flew in from Malta on Tuesday and was expected at a V.I.P. screening of his new World War II movie, “Fury,” which opens Friday.
Around
5:30 p.m., guests rolled into Kingside, a restaurant on West 57th
Street, for an event billed as “cocktails and hors d’oeuvres with Brad
Pitt.”
Blaine
Trump stood by the front bar, telling a reporter how much she likes Mr.
Pitt. “I fell in love with him during ‘Thelma & Louise’ and I’ve
tried to see every movie since,” she said.
Nearby
was Susan Lucci. Same thing. Although she tried to make a point about
how hard it was to be good looking and be taken seriously. “He’s so
handsome people sometimes forget what a great actor he is,” she said.
But the minutes kept ticking by and no Mr. Pitt.
As
waiters handed out crab croquettes, Jess Cagle, the editor of People
magazine, talked about the recent weddings of Mr. Pitt and his buddy
George Clooney, which were both featured in exclusive coverage in his
magazine. Mr. Cagle seemed to imply that Mr. Clooney provided more bang
for the buck. “He gave us 50 photos,” he said. “It was amazing.”
Mr.
Pitt’s co-stars Shia LaBeouf and Logan Lerman walked in. It was
arguably Mr. LaBeouf’s most public appearance in New York since he
disrupted a “Cabaret” performance in June and was sentenced to three months of substance-abuse treatment.
Now
he was back, in his gray suit (“It’s from Italy,” he said, unsure of
the brand), sober and munching on sliders, as part of his Oscar season
redemption tour. He was clearly nervous as he sat in the back with the
film’s director, David Ayer, talking tenuously about how Mr. Pitt had
been there for him when things got tough during the grueling shoot.
“I
ain’t never worked with a man in his position who gives as much,” Mr.
LaBeouf said. “I got really vulnerable early on, and he carried me.”
At
7 p.m., there was still no sign of Mr. Pitt, but women with clipboards
nudged guests next door to the Directors Guild theater for the
screening.
As
the crowd, which also included Spike Lee, Ivanka Trump and Anna
Wintour, took their seats, Mr. Ayer moved to the front of the room and
thanked his producers, John Lesher and Bill Block, before adding,
“There’s also some guys that star in this thing and I’d like to bring
them out.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Brad Pitt,” he said proudly.
Mr.
Pitt came out from a side entrance, wearing a dark jacket, untucked
shirt, tinted glasses, faded jeans and dark brown boots. For a minute,
he stood there, saying nothing, as the photographers went snap, snap,
snap and audience members craned their necks to see if he was everything
they had dreamed.
As
the lights went down, Mr. Pitt and the cast left the theater, jumped
into a pile of SUVs and headed uptown to the AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13
for another screening, another star-struck crowd and more photographers
going snap, snap, snap.
A version of this article appears in print on October 16, 2014, on page E7 of the New York edition with the headline: The Waiting Is the Hardest Part.
What do the Jolie-Pitt kids think of mom and dad's marriage? Brad spills to PEOPLE at the #Fury premiere http://t.co/NUrW3SWw9b
— People magazine (@peoplemag) October 16, 2014
So how are Maddox, 13, Pax, 10, Zahara, 9, Shiloh, 8, and
6-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox enjoying their mom and dad being
husband and wife?
"They like it," Pitt told PEOPLE at the world premiere of his new movie Fury in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, pausing thoughtfully and smiling. "They like it."
Pitt spent time with members of the military, including retired
WWII veterans, at the patriotic premiere. He also got plenty of face
time with his costars while making the war movie; Navy Seals put the
cast through bootcamp to prepare them for their roles.
"It was actually very complex. It wasn't like, dig a foxhole and
you're done," director David Ayer told PEOPLE on the red carpet. "It
was engineered to break them down and then build them up as a team. Once
they came out of that, they were glowing. They had this incredible
chemistry together and I was a bit jealous because I hadn't shared in
that experience and was now an outsider."
One insider, 22-year-old Logan Lerman (who played Charlie in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and the youngest team member on the tank crew in Fury), had an intimate task assigned to him during bootcamp.
In an effort to keep the men sleep-deprived, they took turns staying
awake on watch each night. Because Logan's rank was at the bottom of the
list, he had a very senior member of the group behind him.
"We each had to wake the next person, and the next person was
Brad for me," Lerman told PEOPLE. "So I had to be the guy to wake Brad
Pitt up."
So, how did that go?
"It was weird. How do you wake up a sleeping beauty? It took a
while to figure it out. You just kiss him gently and you rock him and
you hold him and you say, 'Hey, sweetie.' "
In all seriousness, though, how do you wake up Brad Pitt?
"I told you," Lerman said with a grin. "Tenderness. Be kind."
Retired General Colin Powell, left, and actor Brad Pitt arrive for the
world premiere of Fury at the Newseum on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014, in
Washington. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — While the World War
II drama "Fury" depicts a gruesome look at war through the exploits of a
tank crew in Nazi Germany, Brad Pitt feels his 13-year old son, Maddox,
can handle the content. "He's a World War II buff," Pitt told The Associated Press on Wednesday night on the red carpet for the film's world premiere. Some
have criticized the film's stark brutality. Scenes of a soldier's body
getting torn up during rapid machine-gun fire or a tank commander
decapitated has the made the film a little too real.
The newly married father of six
contends that when it comes to what's appropriate for his children, he
comes from "another generation." "My
father would take us to the drive-in as very young kids and we'd see
Clint Eastwood movies and kung fu movies," the 50-year old actor said. He
added: "The world is a beautiful place, but it's also a very violent
place. We talk about it afterward, so I'm not so opposed." On
the subject of family, Pitt was amused at the notion that he and George
Clooney had a pact that they would both get married. Pitt married
longtime love Angelina Jolie earlier this year, and Clooney tied the
knot in September. Pitt laughed at the theory before responding: "We did it for the right reasons." ___
Follow AP Entertainment producer John Carucci at http://www.twitter.com/jacarucci
additional text & photos:
lainey
jared
The 50-year-old actor met up with military personnel and WWII
vets who helped him prep for the role on the red carpet and took photos
with them.
“We do an incredible job preparing our soldiers to perform in combat,
but statistics are showing us we need to do better preparing them for
returning home,” Brad told Details magazine about
America’s service men and women. “If you want to better understand the
accumulative physic trauma incurred by our soldiers, read ‘On Killing‘
by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman.”
Ovie and Evgeny Kuznetsov of the Washington Capitals presented him with his own jersey.
Brad Pitt and Alex Ovechkin pose for a photo after
Ovechkin presented Pitt with an honorary jersey during reception after
the Washington D.C. premiere of 'Fury' at The Newseum in Washington, DC
A LINE of paparazzi wait outside
Manhattan’s Tribeca Grill, the famed upmarket restaurant part-owned by
Robert De Niro, while Brad Pitt sits inside to chat about his upcoming
WWII saga, Fury.
Despite sporting facial hair circa mid-1970s replete for his upcoming movie, By the Sea,
written and directed by his multi-tasking wife (who was recently
awarded the title of honorary Dame by the Queen, no less), this
father-of-six, at age 50, is indelibly handsome.
And despite his
unmitigated fame and success, as far as interview subjects go, he’s the
same person he’s always been — a boy from Oklahoma, raised in rural
Missouri who made good. Throughout his high wattage relationships with
the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, and of course, a five-marriage to Jennifer
Aniston leading up to his relationship and marriage to Angelina Jolie,
he’s always maintained a casual, low-maintenance demeanour.
Q. You had to speak a lot of German in this movie. That’s not easy. A.
I was sweatin’ it. I have a fondness for the language; I actually find
it quite beautiful, especially when spoken softly. It’s just got a
beautiful music to it for me. But I want to get it right.
Q. Like
your role in Inglourious Basterds, you were there killing Nazis. Did
you visit the Museum of Tolerance and places like that to get the feel
of the time and of the situation? A. I have been.
We had the great opportunity to sit down with a lot of veterans who were
in the war and experienced it, from Battle of the Bulge to lesser-known
battles. And our tanks were so inferior to the Panzer division and they
could punch right through our tanks, but we threw numbers at them,
which means a lot of people were killed, these were death traps and a
lot of people burned up in them and died horrifically. So by the end of
the war, we were throwing kids in, which is the Logan Lerman character,
who had no experience. But we did have numbers, and we did have an
amazing engineering team behind that would pull them back in, patch them
back together and send them back out. And I got so much from the
veterans who were very giving in sharing their stories, and our goal was
to get it right for them.
Q. You’re going to be competing with Angelina in this awards season with her WWII film, Unbroken. A.
She made an incredible movie; it’s big and her film is about the
triumph of the human spirit against tremendous odds. I see the films as
distinctly different, I see ours more of a day in the life of a family,
three and a half years into war, that have been through Africa, France,
Belgium, and now they are in Germany. And again, hers is something
different. Hers is Louis Zamperini, this boy who came from nothing and
against really great odds and it’s a triumph of the human spirit and
it’s very inspiring in that way. But we are not pitted against each
other and I hope it gets everything ... It’s worth seeing.
Q. When you look back on your youth, doing commercials in Japan for Levis jeans — what do you remember about that time? A.
Listen, I had never been on a plane until I was 24, 25, so everywhere I
got to travel to, whether it was the Netherlands or whether it was
Tokyo, it was all such an experience, so exciting for me, so at that
time, I remember just soaking in everything I could see and now what we
try to do is to indulge in the country as a family, so when we get to
go, we get to carve out days where we experience more of the culture and
the country.
Q. You’re living in France much of the time. How is your French these days? And why France? A.
My French is pretty good. And the first idea is to get our kids to a
place where it’s outside of all that, that they can just be kids and
explore and we also wanted everyone to learn another language and the
kids just started with French and they are all speaking French, so they
expand their worldview. And we wanted a European base, because we want
to be able to get to Africa and Asia the same trip. But the idea was to
get a European base to travel to some of the other areas, and we want
the kids to see where Angie has work.
Q. And why the South of France? A. We go
by feeling, we go by instinct and it just felt right. It just felt
right. And I think my French is pretty good. My writer/director put a
lot of French in the film we are doing now ... My writer/director being
my wife. [laughs] And, I think it’s coming, but I am determined, I am determined to learn it.
Q. Now
that you’re 50, when you think about going back to the age of 25 and on
the plane for the first time, what did you imagine you’d be doing at
the grand old age of 50? Are you now as confident as you will ever be? A.
Yeah, I am pretty clear about how I want to live my life and what I
want from my kids and my family and my wife and that determines
everything, and I have never been one of those guys who thinks about the
five-year plan and the 10-year plan; I have always gone by instinct and
have great confidence in that instinct, and developed that radar of
what feels right, what doesn’t feel right, and that’s been my guide.
Q. Are you comfortable in the role of leader of the platoon? Shia LaBeouf has said that they all wanted to get your attention. A. Well
that was kind of the dynamic of the family: us being together, going to
boot camp, sparring together ... the architecture of a boot camp, of a
training session for a soldier, is brilliantly laid out and it tears you
down, it forces you to work together, to bond together, to solve a
problem, it tears you down again and it builds you up, psychologically,
it’s a very interesting structure. It’s very cool.
Q. How do you feel being 12 years older than your wife? How is that dynamic? A. Eleven
and a half, alright? Let’s get the record right! But probably the same
age, maturity-wise. That’s the way it works. But anyone who is there, it
doesn’t feel any different, does it? It’s great. And I have said this
before but I will take wisdom over youth any day.
Q. Being in the tank for so long in this very close environment, what thoughts went through your head? A. You
know, it was an almost womblike sense and experience in it and there’s
some days I would go in the morning and I wouldn’t come out until the
end of the day. And had the lunch brought up there and some days were
like that. I love my tank!
Q. With everything you’ve accomplished, what goals do you have yet to achieve?
A.
It’s just improving; improving on themes, film, fatherhood, as a
husband, partner ... we spend so much of our life trying to shake our
own personal haunts and I like that about getting older and I still have
design aspirations and things that I want to mess around with.
Q. How have you grown as an actor since the beginning of your career? A.
Craft. With time you get to develop craft and it’s my worry for the
younger guys because they are eating up so much, that they are used up
so quickly before they are able to develop craft and I mean there are
guys who are smart and making their way through it and Shia is certainly
one of them and Logan is one of them, but it’s craft. And really
learning and understanding tone because in a scene, a film, is all about
tone. What is the tone of that scene? And that’s the puzzle we are
always solving, and that’s my interest in still being in front of the
camera and solving that puzzle, it’s tone.
Q. One of your co-stars Jon Berenthal, who is in Walking Dead and you did World War Z — did you do much zombie comparisons? A. Yeah,
we certainly had a laugh for our tolerance for zombies. But yes, there
is one in the works and we will see if we figure it out, no promises
yet, but we are trying and I love those boys, I love Berenthal, he’s
that guy on set that has got everyone’s back and he’s a beautiful guy
and I hope he gets immense opportunities.
Q. On a lighter note. Congrats on your wedding. The world waited a long time for that. A. Yeah, us too. [laughs]
LOS ANGELES — In the first minutes of the writer-director David Ayer’s “Fury,”
about American soldiers slogging through Europe in the final days of
World War II, Brad Pitt, as the tanker Don Collier, slides his knife
behind the eye of a German lieutenant.
“Piercing
his brainpan with a CRACK,” is how Mr. Ayer’s screenplay describes the
move. (In Dolby Digital sound, it will be a very loud crack.) Mr. Pitt,
our hero, then calmly wipes his blade clean on the German’s uniform.
The Good War this is not.
In
what promises to be one of the most daring studio movies in an awards
season that will bring several World War II films, Mr. Ayer, Mr. Pitt
and a band of producers backed by Sony Pictures Entertainment are poised
to deliver what the popular culture has rarely seen. That is, a
relentlessly authentic portrayal — one stuntman was run through with a bayonet on the set — of the extremes endured, and inflicted, by Allied troops who entered Germany in the spring of 1945.
Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,”
which also starred Mr. Pitt, was brutal but surreal. Few believed that a
real-life counterpart to his blood-crazed Lt. Aldo Raine had collected
Nazi scalps by the hundred.
Photo
Xavier Samuel, left, and Brad Pitt in “Fury.”Credit
Giles Keyte
The
first 20 minutes of Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” came much
closer to what Mr. Ayer calls the war’s “ground truth.” But little in
its portrayal of slaughter at Normandy hinted at what some American
soldiers would do less than a year later in their final push to victory —
yes, they executed prisoners and killed armed children.
Mr.
Ayer, a studio writer (“Training Day”) and indie film director (“End of
Watch”), had been meditating for years on the “Fury” screenplay, but he
wrote it in a burst about 18 months ago. “It sort of exploded out,” he
said. “I wrote it for me.”
The resulting movie, Mr. Ayer said, was intended both as a personal journey and as a correction to the pop cultural record.
On
the personal front, “Fury” is meant to unlock the psychology of Mr.
Ayer’s older relations, who fought but seldom spoke of it. And the film
trades on his own military experience as a sonar operator on an attack
submarine in the 1980s.
“Looking
back into World War II, I could see the same family I was serving
with,” Mr. Ayer said. “But what they experienced was really
incomprehensible to me.”
The
time also seemed right for an honest look at those who were fighting
and dying in ferocious encounters even as the German surrender was
imminent, he said. “There is a lot of contemporary parallel here,” Mr.
Ayer said, referring to soldiers who confront death in Afghanistan, for instance, even as American engagement there is supposed to be ending.
Their
problem is that of Mr. Pitt’s character, known as Wardaddy, and the
four tankers — portrayed by Logan Lerman, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Peña and
Jon Bernthal — whom he has pledged to keep alive, Mr. Ayer said.
“Nobody wants to be the last man to die in the war.”
American tank casualties during the war in Europe were horrific.
The Third Armored Division landed at Normandy with 232 M4 Sherman medium tanks, the Army’s primary armored weapon. But it had 648 tanks completely destroyed, and another 700 knocked out, as replacements and those repaired were repeatedly hit.
Photo
David Ayer, the writer and director of “Fury.”Credit
Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York Times
The
armor was too thin, and the tanks were prone to burn when hit even by a
hand-held panzerfaust anti-tank weapon. Crews were incinerated, and
often listed as missing, not killed, because they left no remains.
Commanders, peering from atop the turrets, were routinely shot in the
head.
“Henry
Ford built the Sherman, Ferdinand Porsche built the Tiger,” the
better-armored German tank, said Bill Block, a producer whose QED
International assembled and financed “Fury” while selling distribution
rights to Sony, which will open the film in the United States on Nov.
14.
Many
tankers, assured of the Sherman’s strength in training, only learned
otherwise in combat. “Seeing our mounting tank losses made me realize
that our armored forces had been the victims of a great deceit,” Belton
Y. Cooper, a veteran of the tank war, wrote in the book “Death Traps,”
one of many sources Mr. Ayer consulted for his script.
In
Mr. Ayer’s story, the crew of a tank called Fury, one of about 10 real
Shermans used in the film, have fought their way from Africa, to
Normandy, across the Rhine and into Germany.
Ragged,
worried, and, in the case of Mr. Peña’s Trini Garcia, almost always
drunk, they can see the war’s end. But they can’t quite reach it.
As
the movie opens, they are preparing to scrape the remains of a headless
buddy from the bow gunner’s seat. “I sure didn’t keep him alive,” Mr.
Pitt mutters.
Much
of what his Wardaddy does may shock viewers who have watched American
soldiers behave brutally in Vietnam War films at least since “Apocalypse
Now,” but have rarely seen ugliness in the heroes of World War II.
In
his harsh initiation of a new gunner, Mr. Pitt’s character crosses
lines, both legal and moral. Not even Lee Marvin’s Sergeant Possum in
Samuel Fuller’s “The Big Red One,” another knife killer, went quite so
far.
Don
Evans, a World War II tank gunner who advised Mr. Ayer, now cautions
that some scenes in “Fury” are more extreme than what he witnessed in 28
months overseas. “I don’t recall anyone having to kill a buddy,” Mr.
Evans said in a phone interview.
Surprisingly,
Mr. Evans, who has read the script, said he was wary of the film’s
thrust, adding, “I am not looking forward to seeing it.”
Photo
A Sherman tank in Kassel, Germany, in 1945.Credit
Louis Nemeth/U.S. Army Signal Corps
Yet
the portrayal is grounded in years of research that left the back
corners of Mr. Ayer’s office crammed with books and war memorabilia.
“He
had every type of camouflage, and weapons, and uniforms,” said John
Lesher, another of the film’s producers, recalling a trip to Mr. Ayer’s
man cave in the Silverlake district of Los Angeles.
Through
all of it, Mr. Ayer, whose grandfather was serving on a submarine at
Pearl Harbor at the time of its attack and whose uncle flew B-17
missions in Europe, learned what some who had made a deep study of the
so-called “Greatest Generation” already knew: American fighters were not
saints.
Tom
Brokaw, who wrote a book by that title, remembers being told by one
veteran of the war, “After the Germans killed my brother, I never took
another P.O.W. alive.”
“Remember, they were fighting a hardened enemy that glorified the SS,” Mr. Brokaw wrote in a recent email.
“It
was a long, brutal war, up close and personal,” he added. “A number of
veterans I interviewed alluded to behavior they weren’t proud of, but
neither did they apologize.”
In
the last few weeks, Mr. Ayer has been tidying up “Fury,” dropping in
the last of his special effects shots and filming some brief inserts.
Mainly,
the film, which cost about $80 million, was shot in Britain. Access to
tanks was a prime consideration. Vintage Shermans were more readily
available there. Plus, the production was permitted to use a rare,
working Tiger tank, lent by the Tank Museum in Bovington.
The
fetish for authenticity extended to uniforms. Most were tailor made,
and battered, to avoid falling back on rentals that might be familiar to
those who had seen them in films stretching back to “Battle of the
Bulge” (1965), but which had little connection to the real tankers’
weathered gear, or to the surprisingly sophisticated camouflage worn by
the Germans.
According
to Kevin Vance, a former member of the Navy SEALs who consulted on the
film and appears in it, the bayonet accident occurred when a combat
scene got too real. An actor stabbed a stuntman, he explained, mistaken
for a dummy lying on the ground.
Photo
Brad Pitt, right, in “Inglourious Basterds,” from 2009.Credit
Francois Duhamel/Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures
“When
you think about the upper chest and what that bayonet missed, it’s
pretty incredible,” Mr. Vance said of a wound that proved less serious
than it might have been. (The stuntman survived.)
The
principal actors were considerably roughed up before filming began.
Pushed by the military consultants, they spent a week on a bivouac in
England — no shaves, no showers, no plumbing — learning to handle the
grimy side of soldiering.
“Part of my job was to get them miserable, wet and tired,” said Mr. Vance, who supervised the boot camp.
Mr.
Lerman said long sessions with Mr. Evans and other veterans brought the
war’s reality home. “It was incredible to sit down with them and hear
their stories directly,” he said by email.
The cast, Mr. Bernthal added, was pushed by Mr. Ayer to behave as if “this was the last movie you were ever going to make.”
Mr.
Pitt’s decision to take the role of Wardaddy was a sudden one. Early
last year, he read the script during a quick trip to Europe, and, on
returning, immediately jumped in.
Apparently,
it mattered not that Mr. Pitt’s partner, Angelina Jolie, is directing a
very different World War II story, Universal’s prisoner-of-war drama
“Unbroken,” which will soon be competing with “Fury” on the awards
circuit. A third drama set during the war, “The Imitation Game,”
starring Keira Knightley and Benedict Cumberbatch, is also expected to
set an awards push from the Weinstein Company. And Sony has already
released “The Monuments Men,” a more lighthearted wartime caper, that
opened in February.
Fortuitously
for Mr. Ayer, “Fury” was born before another of his films, “Sabotage,”
ran into a wall of resistance from audience and critics alike.
An
independently financed action movie, which Mr. Ayer directed and helped
write, “Sabotage” starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as the leader of
corrupted drug enforcement agents who begin falling to an unknown
assassin. It took in just $10.5 million at the domestic box office after
Open Road Films released it in March. “ ‘Sabotage’ isn’t any good,” Manohla Dargis wrote, reviewing it for The New York Times.
Albert
S. Ruddy, among the executive producers of “Sabotage,” said it was
still too soon to know whether Mr. Ayer would have a place with
guts-and-glory greats like Sam Peckinpah, whose “Cross of Iron” was
about Germans on the Russian front, or Fuller, with whom Mr. Ruddy
worked.
Photo
A scene from “Saving Private Ryan.”Credit
David James/Dreamworks Pictures
“I’d have to know David a little while longer to compare him to Sam Fuller,” Mr. Ruddy said in a phone interview.
Mr.
Ayer maintains that failure, and the experience of working on an
expansive picture with a star as prominent as Mr. Schwarzenegger, made
him better.
“I wouldn’t have been able to make ‘Fury’ without making ‘Sabotage,’ ” he said. “It taught me a lot about me.”
In
any case, Mr. Block, whose company backed “Sabotage,” instantly
purchased the “Fury” script when Mr. Ayer showed it last year to a small
handful of associates, including Mr. Block and Mr. Lesher, who was a
producer of “End of Watch.”
What
followed was an unusual frenzy that found Mr. Block camped for three
days at the Creative Artists Agency, which represents Mr. Ayer, Mr. Pitt
and other actors on the film. “Almost everybody involved is a client
here,” noted Bryan Lourd, a principal partner in the agency.
With
Mr. Pitt on board, Universal, Paramount Pictures and New Regency
Pictures fought for the project. But Sony made the first bid, and closed
the deal when its president for business affairs, Andrew Gumpert,
showed up, uninvited, at the agency to insist on having the last word.
One
near hitch in the deal making: QED, which is backed by the Russian
investors Sasha Shapiro and Anton Lessine, initially found it difficult
to sell rights in Russia. Distributors there were wary of a project that
portrayed Americans on a push toward Berlin, which, after all, was
taken by Soviet troops.
For
Amy Pascal, the chief executive of Sony’s film group, “Fury” becomes
the latest in a bold series of Oscar season bids that in recent years
have included “The Social Network,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “American
Hustle,” “Captain Phillips” and, with Mr. Pitt, “Moneyball.”
Each,
in its way, was a tough-minded film that pushed to the edge of its
particular genre. None captured the big prize, a best-picture Oscar.
But
all did what Mr. Ayer may do with “Fury”: jolt viewers into a fresh,
and fractious, conversation about the movies and ground truth.
This time around, the subject will be those damaged tanker-heroes.
“In
the end, they would hose out the blood, slap on some paint, and grab
some cooks and clerks to crew up the vehicle again,” Mr. Ayer said, in
an email crammed with explanations and afterthoughts.
“Sorry about the wall of text,” he added. “But this is something I’m passionate about.”
A version of this article appears in print on August 3, 2014, on page AR1 of the New York edition with the headline: The Brutal Truth. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe
In an exclusive interview with Australia's TV WEEK magazine,
Angelina Jolie reveals she and husband Brad Pitt wrote each other love
letters while filming on opposite sides of the world.
While Jolie was directing her upcoming war drama Unbroken in Australia, Brad Pitt was filming his drama Fury in London.
"He was supportive from a distance and it was quite romantic in a way," she says of their rare separation.
"We decided to be of that time when we could imagine he was in the
European theatre and I was in the Pacific theater and we wrote
hand-written letters to each other that were very connecting for us,
thinking of the people that were separated for months if not years at a
time back then."
Jolie, 39, also opens up about a special moment with Olympic athlete
and World War II hero Louis Zamperini, upon whom her new movie is based.
The star was able to meet 97-year-old Zamperini just before he died
from pneumonia on July 2, to show him a rough cut of her film.
“I brought him the film on my laptop in the hospital and it was
amazing seeing someone at the end of their life watching their life
unfold again, at the same time their body was shutting down,” she says
emotionally.
“He wanted me to make the movie to show something hopeful about the
strength of the human spirit that can pull us through. He reminded me to
have my surgery in the year that I did and he reminded me to appreciate
every day of my life.”
The war movie, which will be Jolie's second as director, is based on Laura Hillenbrand’s bestselling novel Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption and stars Jack O'Connell, Garrett Hedlund, and Domhnall Gleeson.
Jolie was talking to TV WEEK at Universal Studios during a break in editing of the film that was shot in Australia.
Parenting, acting and humanitarian work make for busy
schedules, but Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie still manage to find time
for romance, and they don't let a little thing — like being on different
continents — get in their way.
In 2013, when Jolie was in Australia directing the World War II drama
"Unbroken" and Pitt was almost 10,000 miles away in England acting in
his own World War II drama, "Fury," the couple bridged the gap the old
fashioned way: by putting pen to paper.
"(Brad) was supportive from a distance, and it was quite romantic in a way," Jolie revealed to Australia's TV Week.
That
romantic gesture went even further than simply writing love letters.
The pair used the experience to help place them in the time and mood of
of their respective movies.
"We decided to be of that time when we
could imagine he was in the European theater and I was in the Pacific
theater," Jolie explained. "We wrote hand-written letters to each other
that were very connecting for us, thinking of the people that were
separated for months, if not years, at a time back then."
It's sweet sentiment, and it's one TODAY's Al Roker applauded.
"It
is romantic," Al said Friday morning. "There's something nice when you
get a handwritten note from somebody — I don't care who it is. … It's an
art form that's kind of lost."
Maybe the A-list couple will bring that art form back into fashion.
Pitt's
film, "Fury," hits theaters November 14. Audiences will have a chance
to see Jolie's "Unbroken" when it opens on Christmas Day. Follow Ree Hines on Google+.
David Ayer's WWII drama looks as high-octane as you might expect
By
Guy Lodge @guylodge | Wednesday, Jun 25, 2014 6:25 AM
Well, when the teaser poster for "Fury" debuted online yesterday,
we knew a trailer couldn't be far behind -- so here it is. And from
this two-minute glimpse, it looks to be very much the vision of war we
were expecting from writer-director David Ayer:
not exactly innovative, but as stern, purposeful and high-octane as the
contemporary cop dramas on which he built his reputation. Brad Pitt appears to be on imposingly brutish form, but this looks like a relatively generous ensemble piece.
First Look at Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal in Fury http://t.co/CVBqotWjaV
— ComingSoon.net (@comingsoonnet) September 19, 2013
Writer/director David Ayer has tweeted the first photo of Brad Pitt,
Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena, and Jon Bernthal in Fury, the action drama opening in theaters on November 14, 2014.
Fury is set
at the very end of World War II, in April 1945. As the Allies make their
final push in the European Theater, a battle-hardened army sergeant
named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew
on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned,
Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to
strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.
By
Sean Poulter PUBLISHED:
14:35 GMT, 16 September 2013
|
UPDATED:
18:05 GMT, 16 September 2013
It comes with an eye-wateringly expensive price tag of £3,250 but Louis Vuitton's latest it bag is already a sell-out success. Launched in June and
seen on the arm of some of the world's most beautiful women, including
Angelina Jolie, there are already long waiting lists for the Capucine. Whether
you are the wife of a Russian oligarch, a British banker, Hollywood
star or a new millionaire from China's tiger economy, there is no
escaping the queues.
Cynics suspect the shortage may be a marketing ruse to fuel the idea the bag is desirable.
Whatever
the truth, a snapshot survey suggests there are genuine waiting lists
among women who want the latest 'It' bag on their arms.
On
New Bond Street in London, there was only one sample bag with a ‘not
for sale’ sticker on it and 40 people had already reserved one.
However,
assistants at the Vuitton shop said the bags were unlikely to be
available until the end of the month at the earliest, and only in small
numbers. The picture was similar at the Louis Vuitton shops in both Paris and Milan.
A-list fan: Angelina Jolie has been spotted with a Capucine
Waiting list: There's currently only one of the
Capucine bags displayed as a sample in Louis Vuitton's London's New Bond
Street store
Shop
assistants said they took delivery of only a handful of the bags every
other week over the summer, intimating Louis Vuitton may have
deliberately caused the shortage to create a buzz around the product. It's also currently listed as out on stock on the fashion house's website. The
Capucine is part of the collection known at Louis Vuitton as Parnassea.
It takes its name from the rue des Capucine in Paris, where Louis
Vuitton opening his first store in 1854.
It
is made from Taurillon leather, a highly prized and crafted leather
from Swiss cows. The same material is used by rival Hermes for its own 'must have' handbags.
The
Capucine comes in two sizes, medium, which is available in nine colours
from a vibrant red to a turquoise blue, which costs £3,000, and large,
which is available in two colours, at £3,250.
The
Capucine is six times more expensive than Louis Vuitton’s £500
signature canvas LV-embossed bags with which the brand built its name
and profitability. Bernard
Arnault, the boss of parent company LVMH, said in January that Louis
Vuitton planned to prune its portfolio of canvas bags, which make up two
thirds of its business and generate gross margins of 90 per cent Analysts expect gross margins from leather bags such as Capucine to be slightly lower.
Jolie's must-have: The fact one of the world's most beautiful women has the bag makes it even more desirable to fashionistas
Hard to get: The bag comes in a variety of colours but is currently unavailable to buy via the fashion house's website
How to wear: Angelina demonstrates how the bag
can be worn with the distinctive flap tucked in for easier access, left,
or folded over the top
Vuitton
appears to be trying to emulate the marketing strategy of Hermes, which
is known in the luxury world for its shortages and waiting lists,
particularly for its high end Birkin and Kelly bags. Exane BNP Paribas analyst, Luca Solca(correct), said: ‘I take it as a very positive sign that the Capucine bag is sold out.
'Louis
Vuitton had to work on its exclusivity perception and creating products
for which there is high demand and not enough volume to satisfy
everyone, certainly helps.'
With his blonde locks tied back, Brad
spotted a high vis jacket and heavy duty gloves for his lesson as he
was shown the complicated workings of the war machine.
The tank session is prep for Brad’s next project, World War 2 drama Fury, which is due to start filming in the coming weeks.
He fits right in: Brad looked the part in his army greens as he learnt the basics for his new war film Fury
VIP guest: Brad posed for some photos with his instructors as he finished his lesson
New project: Brad has been learning the basics in time for his next film shoot for WW2 drama Fury
Brad stars
alongside a big name cast including Shia LaBeouf, Michael Pena, Logan
Lerman and Jon Bernthal in the film which is scheduled for release in
November 2014. The biopic tells the story of a crew of a Sherman tank in the final weeks of the war.
Latest reports suggest a new name may be joining Brad and co as they shoot in Europe during the autumn.
Star pupil: Brad was seen listening intently to his instructors during his day long lesson
Clint
Eastwood’s son Scott, who has previously acted in Invictus and TVs
Chicago Fire is rumoured to have landed a role in the David Ayer
project, according to Deadline.
Brad
meanwhile has had a hectic few weeks, as well as prepping for Fury he
made an appearance at the Telluride Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado
over the weekend to promote another new project.
Boys and their toys: Brad couldn't hide his smile as he got to fulfill what most be every boy's dream!
War machine: Brad was shown how to take charge of the menacing vehicle
He's got the kit: Brad was dressed in army fatigues and a high vis jacket for his lesson
War drama: Brad is taking on another major project in Fury which also stars Shia LaBeouf
Lesson over: Brad clambered down from the tank in his green overalls
He's popular: It looked like everyone was keen to show the Hollywood star what he was contending with in the tank
"Fury" is scheduled to hit theaters on November 14, 2014.
AB Media Publishing, LLC
Le Grisbi Productions and QED International are now in pre-production on
the epic Sony Pictures World War II drama feature film "Fury," which
stars Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, and Jon Bernthal. The
film's twelve-time Casting Society of America Artios Award nominated
casting director in Los Angeles has sent out casting calls for
co-starring and supporting roles, as well as smaller speaking roles. The
extras will be hired throughout production which will take place in
London, UK beginning late-September. The actors cast in the United
States, even the smaller speaking roles, will be flown to the United
Kingdom for shooting, all expenses paid. Extras will be hired in the UK.
"Fury" is set in the waning days of World War II’s European theater. A
battle-hardened U.S. Army tank commander Sergeant who goes by the
nickname Wardaddy leads a unit of five soldiers on his final mission
behind enemy lines in April 1945 as Nazi Germany collapses. The M4
Sherman tank unit consists of Norman Ellison, an Army typist and the
youngest and most inexperienced member of the crew who is thrust into
being a tank gunner; the cunning, vicious, world-wise Arkansas native
Grady Travis; a brave young military officer; and an always "tanked"
driver.
Starring in "Fury" is four-time Academy Award nominee Brad Pitt playing
the role of Sergeant Wardaddy. Pitt's most recently released film was
"World War Z", which had a budget of $190 million and has pulled in over
$271 million since it's premier on June 21st. Pitt recently wrapped
filming "12 Years a Slave" starring alongside Benedict Cumberbatch, and
"The Counselor" starring opposite Natalie Dormer. Also starring in
"Fury" is Screen Actors Guild Awards nominee Shia LaBeouf as a military
officer in Pitt's unit; Independent Spirit Awards nominee Michael Peña
as the tipsy tank driver; Screen Actors Guild Awards nominee Logan
Lerman as tank gunner Norman Ellison; and "The Walking Dead" actor Jon
Bernthal as Grady Travis.
Directing "Fury" is filmmaker David Ayer from an original screenplay
that he penned himself. Ayer, who is a US Navy veteran, has written
screenplays for several military/police themed feature films including
"U-571," "Training Day," "Dark Blue," "S.W.A.T.", "Street Kings," "End
of Watch," and the recently completed "Sabotage" starring Arnold
Schwarzenegger. He is also set to write and direct the futuristic cop
film "Last Man" for New Regency Pictures. Ayer previously directed
Michael Pena in End of Watch, and even wrote the role in Fury
specifically with Pena in mind.
QED International CEO Bill Block will produce along with John Lesher of
Le Grisbi Productions. Block recently produced David Ayer's feature film
"Sabotage", while Lesher most recently produced "Birdman" starring Emma
Stone. Also producing "Fury" is Crave Films VP of Development and
Production Alex Ott and Ethan Smith, both of whom produced Ayers films
"End of Watch" and "Sabotage". Columbia Pictures will handle domestic
distribution, while Sony Pictures Entertainment will distribute
internationally.
ALL talent must be legally eligible to work in the United Kingdom.
You MUST have an EU passport and a the proper paperwork for working in
the UK.
The 2013 London Actors Resource Guide eBook
includes the following information and documents for adults, children,
and foreign talent who would like to work as an actor or extra on film
and television productions in the United Kingdom:
• London Child Actor Information
• London Child Actor Chaperone Information
• London Bylaws on the Employment of Children
• London Child Stage Performance Application Form
• London Child Work Permit Application
• United Kingdom Foreign Actors Visa Information
• United Kingdom Entertainer Visitor Application Form
• United Kingdom Employment Application Form
In addition to the following London Actors Resources:
• Audition Tips
• How To Make an Audition Video
• London Casting Directors List
• London Extras Casting Directors List
• London Talent Agents List
• General Talent Agent Information
• London Actors Headshot Photographers
• United Kingdom Acting Schools
• London Performers Unions and Organizations
• Miscellaneous London Actors Resources
• Sample Actors Resume
• Sample Beginning Actors Resume
• Sample Casting Director and Talent Agents Cover Letters
• Entertainment Industry Terminology
• PDF Users Guides
The 2013 London Actors Resource Guide eBook is available here.
Submit photos and resumes by mail only.
No phone calls or personal drop-offs.
Los Angeles:
Lindsay Graham
Mary Vernieu
Betty Mae, Inc.
13375 Beach Avenue
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
Extras Casting
London:
TBA
Casting calls for extras will be posted here.
Production Companies:
Do NOT send photos and resumes to the production companies, as they will
most likely end up being thrown away. They do not cast the films,
rather they hire casting directors who sort through the thousands of
submissions.
Fury Production Office
Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Road, Iver Heath
Buckinghamshire
England SL0 0NH
UK
Le Grisbi Productions
8733 Sunset Boulevard
Suite 101
West Hollywood, CA 90069
QED International
1800 N. Highland Avenue
5th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Sony Pictures Entertainment
10202 W. Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
Producers:
John Lesher
Bill Block
Ethan Smith
Alex Ott
Director:
David Ayer
Starring:
Brad Pitt - Wardaddy
Logan Lerman - Norman Ellison
Shia LaBeouf - Military Officer
Jon Bernthal - Grady Travis
Michael Peña - Tank Driver
Story:
Set in Germany during WWII, a tough, take-no-prisoners, war-hardened Army tank commander leads his outfit on his final mission
