ReelzChannel | James McTeigue

James McTeigue Enlisted Comic Book Artist for Ninja Assassin

BRENTJS SPRECHER — 25 Nov 2009 19:38:09 CDT

In the past, comic book artists were not regarded very highly in Hollywood. When a director needed to have certain scenes "pre-visualized," it was often a storyboard artist that was tapped for the job. However, with the recent popularity of comic book movies and the sky-rocketing costs of developing feature-length action films, directors have increasingly turned to comic book or "sequential" artists to help flesh out their ideas.

James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) is one such director. For his latest film, Ninja Assassin, McTeigue hired comic book artist Steve Skroce to help him bring the script to life, he told ComingSoon.net.

What I usually do with Steve is that we start off with concept pieces — we call them key frames. We talk about the key frames and how they come together and then I'll say to him, "Look, I felt like this should be a cross between anime and gameplay," so then he starts sketching out the boards and I go, "Maybe look at Ninja Scroll" and then he'll go and do that and he'll draw some key frames, and then once we flesh out the aesthetic of the film, then we start getting into the action sequences. He pretty much draws a lot of them. And then after he does that, once you get the aesthetic down, you get the action choreographers —in this case, it was Chad Stahelski and David Leitch — and then we start working out the choreography exactly, like all the mechanics of how that will work. The way I do that is that we work out the basic choreography, then they get with their fight teams, and they video tape it, and then we edit it down and go, "Oh, that's good, that's not so good, let's put a bit more of that in, do a bit more of that, let's use this weapon ... the katana or the shuriken you see." So it's sort of a slowly evolving process.

Skroce has worked on The Matrix trilogy and is the artist and co-creator of Doc Frankenstein, which is published by the Wachowski Brothers' Burlyman Entertainment.

Kevin Spacey Would Be "Delighted" to Play Lex Luthor Again

BRENTJS SPRECHER — 24 Nov 2009 16:31:30 CDT

Even though Bryan Singer's Superman Returns grossed $390 million worldwide, it is still considered a failure by many. Critics often compare it to Warner's other top superhero property, The Dark Knight, which grossed more than $1 billion and had a smaller production budget.

Still, Superman topped the list of a recent MTV poll that asked which DC Comics character should be fast-tracked to the big screen next. In a recent interview with MTV, Kevin Spacey said that he would be "delighted" to reprise the role of Lex Luthor in a sequel to Superman Returns.

If I ran Warner Brothers I could tell you definitively we'd be making that movie. But I don't, and they haven't called me to tell me. Literally, all I know is what I've heard from press reports. I can't even confirm whether those are true or not because I haven't spoken to Bryan.

Recently, director James McTeigue's (Ninja Assassin) name has been popping up as the man who will possibly direct the next installment of the franchise. However, his take on "The Big Blue Boy Scout," would likely leave little room for Spacey, since he said the franchise is "ripe for a retooling."

Rain Discusses Training To Be a Ninja Assassin

BRENTJS SPRECHER — 23 Nov 2009 15:34:01 CDT

While out promoting Ninja Assassin, director James McTeigue lauded the "incredible discipline" of his movie's star, Ji-Hoon (Rain) Jung. McTeigue said that Rain trained to get into fighting shape "for five or six months."

In a recent interview with Latino Review, Rain corrected McTeigue's statement, saying that his training was even more intense, lasting "eight months, five days a week, eight hours a day."

There is no wire, no camera tricks. I had to make my body fit like Bruce Lee.

Rain said that he does not have formal martial arts training — except for studying tae kwon do when he was 10 — but that he learned "a lot of martial arts" to star in the movie, including "tai chi, ninja techniques, karate ... a lot."

As for learning how to play the role of a ninja, Rain said that inspiration wasn't hard to find.

From when I was young I loved martial arts films so I love ninja, ninja techniques ... you know, in Asia, there's so many ninja films so I saw a lot of ninja films.

James McTeigue Discusses Ninja Assassin

BRENTJS SPRECHER — 21 Nov 2009 12:12:24 CDT

Digital effects have become a mainstay of Hollywood action movies these days and director James McTeigue's (V for Vendetta) latest movie, Ninja Assassin, is no exception. However, in a recent interview with Coming Soon, McTeigue said that many ofthe weapons were real and that the movie's lead, Korean pop star Rain, trained "for five or six months," and that he had "incredible discipline."

Rain in the movie uses this blade and chain weapon, but when we're training him, it's with an actual martial arts weapon called the rope dart, so he trained with that so he knew how to swing it around, because then ultimately when you get into it, you need something for him to physically use. He'll use that, and the visual FX guys will put tracking markers on it, so that way, it gives the stunt guys something to react to and then we'll replace it later. But with swords and katanas and other things, sometimes we'll use bamboo painted silver for example, they're actually real sometimes.

Many critics have commented on how violent and bloody the movie is, but McTeigue said that he didn't have any problem with the MPAA ratings board.

When we submitted the movie, we said, "Look, it's really stylized." In no way is this Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer or one of those movies that's so extreme it's meant to make you feel sick. This is like a game, it is like anime, it is like a comic book. I think they saw it as that, so henceforth, they gave me an R-rating and if you look at the ratings card, it goes "For stylized violence and blood." I think they got it.

James McTeigue Says Superman Franchise Is "Ripe for a Retooling"

BRENTJS SPRECHER — 17 Nov 2009 10:38:29 CDT

Director James McTeigue's new movie, Ninja Assassin, opens this month, but during a recent interview with MTV, Superman was one of the topics of the conversation.

McTeigue first teased his interest in the Superman franchise back in August, when he said that he would "do a complete reboot" if he were to take the helm. McTeigue reiterated this sentiment in recent comments to MTV, but said that the studio doesn't know what they want to do with the franchise.

It's in a weird place at the moment. They're trying to work out what they're doing. Warner Brothers is trying to figure out their next move on it. There's some things you can do with the Superman franchise, there's other things you can't do. So it hasn't gone anywhere.
I think it's ripe for a retooling. I would love to — if it happened, I would at least start a conversation about it.

Next up for McTeigue will be The Raven, a fictionalized account of the last days of writer Edgar Allen Poe.