A great Scott feature
Director's Matchstick Men unveiled, classic sci-fi horror Alien rereleased
By BRUCE KIRKLAND -- Toronto Sun
Something old, something new: Sir Ridley Scott is doing double duty at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Tonight, the English-born filmmaker is here with his new American con thriller, the nimble Matchstick Men.
It shows as a gala with co-stars Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman expected to walk the red carpet with Scott into Roy Thomson Hall. Matchstick Men opens in theatres next week.
Tomorrow, Scott presents the fresh director's cut of his science fiction classic Alien. This 1979 hit established Scott as a major player, took science fiction into vigorous new territory and helped make the femme warrior -- Sigourney Weaver -- into a legitimate action hero.
Scott is also expected to hang around for a Q&A session after the 6:30 p.m. screening of Alien at the Uptown 3. This cut of Alien is getting a theatrical re-release this fall.
The Sun sat down recently with Scott in New York City, just prior to his arrival in Toronto. He was oddly both happy and apprehensive about the task of launching his films at a festival -- especially in the case of Matchstick Men.
"You know," Scott says, "there is a reverse perverse psychology to a festival. On a commercial level, if it wins a prize at a festival, there is a tendency for a mass audience to think: Uh, oh, it's an intellectual art movie -- too complicated. So it's bizarre. You shoot yourself in the foot."
Scott's directorial debut, The Duellists (1977) went to the Cannes Film Festival and won a prize, but then struggled at the box office. In part, Scott thinks, it was because people thought of it as "an art film" and not as a movie.
The advantage of the Toronto filmfest, of course, is that it does not give out "official" prizes like Cannes and the people's choice award here is a friendly citation, not one that comes with a "serious" stigma.
As for the style, genre and small scale of Matchstick Men, Scott is delighted because it contrasts with his recent work. Scott has directed Gladiator, Hannibal and Black Hawk Down in the past three years and is set for another large-scale historical production, The Crusades, due to shoot in January. So Matchstick was a respite.
"That's what I try to do -- not do a film that I've done before. It's tackling new ground, really, and this one came out of the blue." The short preparation and shoot time of five months was also appealing. "That was great -- fantastic. I hadn't had so much fun since Thelma & Louise."
Fiddling with Alien was also a positive adventure, says Scott. He subtly trimmed about five minutes of footage, mainly shortening entries and exits of characters. Then he restored two key scenes, primarily the famous "nest" sequence that was part of the most recent Alien DVD. In the director's cut, however, the cocoon nest scene is edited into the body of the feature.
Scott says Alien has stood up remarkably well -- and could find new life. "Fox (the officials at 20th Century Fox) said: We think we have an audience out there again. And I said: Absolutely." New generations have grown up and might be eager to see the revised version in a theatre, Scott says.
He was involved down to the finest detail. That meant he had to re-watch his film with a sharp eye: "As the 24 years have passed, I (began to) think: God damn, why doesn't he come in the room quicker? Why doesn't he leave? Why didn't I cut out there?
"Because I think you change. And I think this generation certainly has changed. The attention span now is about 45 seconds. So I've been conscious of that. So I did a tiny bit of trimming -- but you would not even notice -- that amounts to five minutes. Then there is five-and-a-half to six minutes of new material.
"All I did was go (snip) -- and (add) a little expansion. It still moves like an express train
Director's Matchstick Men unveiled, classic sci-fi horror Alien rereleased
By BRUCE KIRKLAND -- Toronto Sun
Something old, something new: Sir Ridley Scott is doing double duty at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Tonight, the English-born filmmaker is here with his new American con thriller, the nimble Matchstick Men.
It shows as a gala with co-stars Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman expected to walk the red carpet with Scott into Roy Thomson Hall. Matchstick Men opens in theatres next week.
Tomorrow, Scott presents the fresh director's cut of his science fiction classic Alien. This 1979 hit established Scott as a major player, took science fiction into vigorous new territory and helped make the femme warrior -- Sigourney Weaver -- into a legitimate action hero.
Scott is also expected to hang around for a Q&A session after the 6:30 p.m. screening of Alien at the Uptown 3. This cut of Alien is getting a theatrical re-release this fall.
The Sun sat down recently with Scott in New York City, just prior to his arrival in Toronto. He was oddly both happy and apprehensive about the task of launching his films at a festival -- especially in the case of Matchstick Men.
"You know," Scott says, "there is a reverse perverse psychology to a festival. On a commercial level, if it wins a prize at a festival, there is a tendency for a mass audience to think: Uh, oh, it's an intellectual art movie -- too complicated. So it's bizarre. You shoot yourself in the foot."
Scott's directorial debut, The Duellists (1977) went to the Cannes Film Festival and won a prize, but then struggled at the box office. In part, Scott thinks, it was because people thought of it as "an art film" and not as a movie.
The advantage of the Toronto filmfest, of course, is that it does not give out "official" prizes like Cannes and the people's choice award here is a friendly citation, not one that comes with a "serious" stigma.
As for the style, genre and small scale of Matchstick Men, Scott is delighted because it contrasts with his recent work. Scott has directed Gladiator, Hannibal and Black Hawk Down in the past three years and is set for another large-scale historical production, The Crusades, due to shoot in January. So Matchstick was a respite.
"That's what I try to do -- not do a film that I've done before. It's tackling new ground, really, and this one came out of the blue." The short preparation and shoot time of five months was also appealing. "That was great -- fantastic. I hadn't had so much fun since Thelma & Louise."
Fiddling with Alien was also a positive adventure, says Scott. He subtly trimmed about five minutes of footage, mainly shortening entries and exits of characters. Then he restored two key scenes, primarily the famous "nest" sequence that was part of the most recent Alien DVD. In the director's cut, however, the cocoon nest scene is edited into the body of the feature.
Scott says Alien has stood up remarkably well -- and could find new life. "Fox (the officials at 20th Century Fox) said: We think we have an audience out there again. And I said: Absolutely." New generations have grown up and might be eager to see the revised version in a theatre, Scott says.
He was involved down to the finest detail. That meant he had to re-watch his film with a sharp eye: "As the 24 years have passed, I (began to) think: God damn, why doesn't he come in the room quicker? Why doesn't he leave? Why didn't I cut out there?
"Because I think you change. And I think this generation certainly has changed. The attention span now is about 45 seconds. So I've been conscious of that. So I did a tiny bit of trimming -- but you would not even notice -- that amounts to five minutes. Then there is five-and-a-half to six minutes of new material.
"All I did was go (snip) -- and (add) a little expansion. It still moves like an express train
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