By Gill Pringle
Tell us how Chris Hemsworth first came on board?
I’ve been a fan of Chris for a long time, and when we bought the book and started developing the screenplay, I had met with him a number of times, and said I’m working on a great project that I’d love you to be in. And he had read various drafts of the script, and he was very interested. And we finally got it together, and got Nikolai (Fuglsig) directing, and Black Label involved, and we offered him the movie. I’ve wanted him since day one, I didn’t see anyone else.
And to get Elsa (Pataky) involved, was it Chris saying he’d like that?
We saw her in a number of films, and liked her a lot, and I think he was very pleased that we picked her.
He didn’t make her audition? (Laughs).
No, I saw her in one of the Fast and Furious movies, no, she’s beautiful. Terrific actress, I’m very lucky to have her.
You optioned the book Horse Soldiers, which 12 Strong is based on, eight years ago. Why has it taken so long, and why the title change?
I think studios didn’t think military movies were going to work, and then American Sniper came out, and we got some more gravitas as far as there was some hope that it’d work. Studios like pre-sold material, whether it’s a sequel or it’s a comic, or a television show that gives them a leg up on getting an audience, it’s something that the public is aware of, or interested in initially.
With the title, I think it was Warner Bros. that felt that Horse Soldiers was hard to say, and they felt that enough to change the title.
What did you like about this book?
I like to entertain people, it’s what I do, and I like to educate. So I think this is a great movie that not only entertains you, it educates you on a very frightening mission right after 9/11 that was successful. It’s rare that the military is portrayed in successful missions, we always show them on the darker side, and I felt that this was something they got right, and I think these guys should be remembered by name, and with movies they’re remembered.
You’ve been working in this business for over 40 years, what has been the major change you’ve seen in Hollywood that has affected your work?
There’s a lot of competition for your eyeballs, which has changed enormously. Previously we just had three television channels. And mostly variety shows, and some other shows, not exactly a lot of entertainment. And now you have, what, five, six hundred channels to watch, streaming… there were no video games when I started. So now you have people with video game competition. There’s so many different sporting events that are on. There’s a lot of competition for your leisure time, so it’s a lot harder to get them out of their houses.
Where are you at with Top Gun?
The good news is that we have a director, Joe Kosinski, Eric Singer’s working on the screenplay, Tom wants to do it, he’s excited about where we are in the process, and Paramount wants to do it, so if we keep on that track, we’ll get there.
Last US summer was not great for movies in terms of box office, can you comment?
I disagree with you. I think that usually we have a picture in August that works. If we had one more movie, or two more movies, it would’ve been a whole different story. And we just didn’t have those films. We had a lot of successful movies, and we’re just missing one or two movies that make the difference. And you almost never see that, I can’t remember last year what came out during the summer that was a huge success, at the end of summer, and that made the difference. And the same thing at Christmas, we had two huge movies this Christmas. If we’d had one more that snuck in there, it would’ve been a different story. And that’s what happened, you can’t always hit it out of the park every year, you’re just not going to do it. We’re not that good. We try really hard, but we’re not that good.
So you’re not scared of franchise fatigue or anything like that?
Audiences find movies. Look at IT. Who would’ve thought that that would be $300 million? It was a very successful book, but a small, $30 million movie, it became an enormous success. That’s what’s so great about this business, you never know what’s going to work and what’s not going to work, and that’s why I love it, you kind of roll the dice. If you’d said to me ten years ago that I would make a movie about a theme park ride that would be a hit, you’re out of your mind! It’s the luck of the draw, and if you do your job well and the audience is ready for it, then you’ve done your job.
12 Strong is in cinemas from March 8, 2018
