Once Dwayne delivered itand he delivered it the way only Dwayne can deliver a line, because he can milk a line for every syllableI realized, okay, thats got to be the last line of the movie, because it has multiple meanings. Zirnkilton grew up in York, Pennsylvania and spent summers in Maine. And I just thought, this ties into [Wallace Shawns character] Baron von Westphalen, and the clean energy, and the idea of his fleet of vehicles. I think that probably, because of budget, things may have gotten cut out. We set up the set with these ridiculous couches and the outfits and the costumes, and we shot like two or three hours of this talk show. In 2020, Kelly began talking about his plans to reinvent the Southland Tales prequel chapters as a second film, that would serve as a companion piece to the original. Eventually, the momentum of the project built to where we got it to Dwayne Johnson, and that was the trigger to our greenlight. Absolutely. And hell go and hell study it and execute it flawlessly. You do your best, but it never works out that way unless you are a very, very powerful filmmaker who gets all the money that you need. So I tried to make room for real up-and-coming, sketch comedy Groundlings people who werent famous. It was so much fun getting to show up with this roundtable of incredible comedy heroes coming in. Freaks & Geeks, The Class, Undeclared, etc.) Richard Kelly: We had already shot some of the footage of the Ironman competition in Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach, all the beach stuff where you have all the people chugging beer and vomiting on each other. This peek into Dexter's intellect fosters a deep connection with the audience. Just what we need. Richard Kelly: We had one day with Justin: One very, very, very long day, and I kept adding stuff with him, because he was so essential to the movie, and then we brought him back to do voiceover. That was the foundational plot device: the ride-along with the actor, the staged shooting with the squibs. So I went and I wrote two really aggressively comedic screenplays on spec. Even fictitious addresses aren't within the range seen on the real street (e.g. Dexter Morgan only knows what's floating through his own mind, but it layers the dark Showtime drama with a reflective take on sociopathy. Donnie Darko had just debuted there in January of 2001 and as soon as he got back, Richard started writing Southland Tales. The movie was a big statement in response to the anxiety that stemmed, and that continues to stem, from 9/11. As crazy and maybe as foolish as I was to try and do this transmedia story, to try to do a six-chapter story at the time, I am grateful that we got those books published. For me as an artist, my very first film was made just before [9/11], and then it was released in the shadow of 9/11. TNT aired consecutively all the episodes produced, and shortly after the airing of the last of them, announced it had picked up the show for a ten-episode third season. Elliot's schizophrenia and unbridled discomfort in his own skin make him television's primo unreliable narrator. And that, my friend, is God's work. He has been the announcer for the Kennedy Center Honors, and for the past seventeen years he has been the onstage announcer for the Top Cops Awards in Washington, D.C.[citation needed]. Richard Kelly: I think Seann was the first actor to get on board the film, to play the twins. Like Id be at the Arclight movie theater, and someone would walk up to me: Excuse me, are you Daryl Donaldson, No. I think people just sort of shrugged, you know. The term became very loaded with meaning and interpretation, and it just continued to resonate in my mind. ! What if theyre the same person? Richard Kelly: Believe it or not, it was a crazy idea that I had when I was working with Tony Scott on Domino. Meredith Grey is a pop-psychology godsend. It seems like it changes nothing but every once and awhile, y About Us | Copyright Inquiry | Privacy Policy | Contact Us. Voice actor. Well have burgers and hot dog and games and squirt guns.. In 1994, when then-Congresswoman Olympia Snowe decided not to seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives for Maine's 2nd congressional district, Zirnkilton sought to replace her. We came back from Sundance really depressed, because we had no Rodger Parsons (born October 19, 1943), previously credited as Ken Gates, is an American voice actor, narrator and writer. Cops are suppose to hold the line between chaos and civilized society. The. I think that was one of the last pieces of clearance footage that came in. Hes so in command of his entire body, and all of that training from working in pro-wrestling, and delivering those huge monologues, and doing very precise acrobatics and hitting all those marks. And then Donnie Darko comes out and everybodys like, Oh, my god!. Is it going to work? And then someone called over the radio, We got it. I worked with him burning the midnight oil, driving down to Chapman, sitting in the computer lab at the university, working on this animated sequence with him. I mean, we couldnt even afford to show the SUV going through the time rift at the end, with the flashback of what happens in the desert. Richard Kelly: A lot of people were like, Richard, this is too much. But you can take a couple. And I felt like I had momentum, that this needed to be a much more meaningful film, and not just about a bunch of out-of-work comedians trying to shake down a movie star. We were shutting down the Santa Monica Pier, sections of it, for hours at a time. I remember that the idea popped in my head during a conversation we had [about the script]. An American guerilla war waged, on one side, by family values-spouting conservatives with a sexual obsession for the surveillance state, and on the other by fractured leftist revolutionaries chopping off each others thumbs to steal a national election. [6] He was hired by series creator Dick Wolf. And I was going a little loopy, and we didnt have enough money to shut down the pier. Richard Kelly: And before we wrapped that night, it was literally a 16- to 18-hour night at the Santa Monica Pier. I can give you a list of some of the great below-the-line crew people who made this movie happen, and Mark Cotone is one of the big reasons why.Richard Kelly: Everyone who works with a good first AD tries to shoot in chronology. People are going to need that information, theyre going to need to know what happens in those books. And like, well, hopefully theyll be able to still follow chapters four through six. Rodeo, Florence, Vermont), while scenery is nowhere near the real life locations. Richard Kelly: After 9/11, that image felt much more weighted. It premiered on NBC , But I will be working on this. Richard Kelly: [The Doomsday Scenario Interface] gives you just a tease of what I actually really want to do with the prequel film, with the first three chapters. In Southland Tales, Justin Timberlake plays the omniprescent narrator who represents the trauma of Iraq War veterans. Eliot poem The Hollow Men . So they cast me to be Daryl Donaldson, the No. Were going to make this an NC-17-rated car commercial.. This show is anything but. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Which I love. In television, the narrator is our sensei. And it became clear after the reception at Cannes that people were so confused, and that they saw that the movie was three chapters, but they were chapters four and five and six. Marguerite Derricks: We went to the arcade for Justins number, and I saw where we would be shooting. And pimps dont commit suicideKellys film still fascinates, and is still, to his mind, unfinished. And I remember being up in the middle of the night, refreshing websites to see the reviews start coming in. I remember I was on the phone with the gentleman from India with the elephant-fucking footage. Yeah, sure man, sure!. They were really pissed off. WebRodger Parsons. We may earn a commission from links on this page. The reader is immersed in the mind and experience of the character. Kevin Arnold in his mid-30s, "The Wonder Years". Adolescence isn't so bad -- once it's over. I felt very lucky to be a part of it, and I believed in it, and I still do. The humor is dark and biting. There is a lot of political content that could offend some viewers. The films latent success had raised the profile of its lead, Jake Gyllenhaal, and turned its writer-director into something of a minor prophet. Which then leads us to some deep form of existential dread. She may also, its revealed in the films accompanying graphic novels, be genuinely psychic. Gellar definitely has the best dialogue. [8] He later settled in Seal Harbor, Maine. "They talk about how sweet, wonderful and oh-so-full-of-life you were, how it was. I think it will make people look at the existing movie in a completely new light. And obviously, in a lot of ways, it was my big Philip K. Dick film. Zirnkilton lost the primary to fellow State Representative Richard A. Bennett, who eventually lost the general election to State Senator John Baldacci.[11]. In an effort to cut costs (and save time on the films highly truncated shooting schedule), Kelly and a small team began assembling footage well ahead of principal photographyincluding the nuclear attack on U.S. soil that kicks off the movies plot. Dwayne is very good at taking direction. Although hed been co-writing the bounty hunter thriller Domino with Tony Scott, Kelly was still determined to chart his own path as a filmmaker. Dwayne has so many different kinds of movie stars inside of him. The actors were like, Weve never really quite done this before, this feels a bit rogue. We rented two Sony HD cameras. But had that musical number not worked, the whole ending of the movie would not have worked, with Pimps dont commit suicide, the connection between Roland and Pilot back in Iraq, none of that would have tied all together. And he says, Hey, what size shoe do you wear? I certainly hope we do, and that we will. Most cops manage to stay sane despite the chaos all around them, but in their hearts they know, everyone has their breaking point. You have to jump from location to location, and this is a movie with a lot of big, complicated, expensive locations, very public locations. But [Lous] like, I can get that mold for you guys. We tracked him down and cast him in the film based on that, because when I saw that footage, Im like, okay, [Richardsons character] Nana Mae Frost needs to witness that footage of projectile vomiting, it needs to make her physically sick, and that foreshadowing, thats the man whos going to come in and assassinate her. And he didnt bat an eyelash. And I just kept building in layers of the story. Link. No one can zing a Bluth like Howard's deadpan narration can. WebSouthland is a 2003 crime novel written by Nina Revoyr. Occupation. All these tourists were walking by, like real people, and all the dancing nurses were coming in. I think I brought him over to our sound recordist somewhere on the pier, and I just had him start reading off voiceover into a boom mic. J.D. It was just a blast to get to work with all of them, because theyre used to taking risks and doing wild, unhinged stuff in sketch comedy, and thats what I needed. No teen character on TV is as reliable as Angela Chase, mostly because Angela Chase tells us exactly what she is feeling. And then the Richard snuck through anyway. I've been on IMDb for quite sometime now, but have yet to feel compelled to write a comment. Which all stemmed from a meeting that I had with Benicio del Toro, maybe six months before I met with Dwayne. Part of what makesSouthland Talesso interesting is its complexity and the confusion it creates. He breaks the fourth wall, and right then I realized, He has to be the narrator, because otherwise it doesnt justify him looking straight into the lens. Through the intense first-person experience seen in the Fincher-esque "Mr. Ultimately, I didnt think he was going to commit to the role, but it was cool getting to meet with him. And they were shooting this kind of rally with Cheri Oteris character. And I could tell right away he was a very good listener, and he was really excited and eager to push the envelope and do something really new and something he had never done before. Every episode of "Desperate Housewives" begins with the polished Mary Alice Young recounting the events of Wisteria Lane. In a lot of ways, it adds a whole lot. Ive never seen an actor with that kind of work ethic, ever. Narrators often set the tone and provide insight, and in turn they become some of their shows' most beloved characters. To his surprise, it was accepted. It feels like if Im going to have riots and the Hindenburg explosion with some kind of futuristic dirigible, I need to justify all of that. Earl Hickey is a reformed country-bumpkin criminal, enacting a karmic mission to right his many wrongs. Don't miss a beat. For every Batman, there is aCondorman. No one wanted to pay for this, because we were scraping together whatever dollars we could get out of Sony to fix some of the MegaZeppelin stuff at the end, and just make the ending look at least presentable, at a base level. Oh, today its the Jon Lovitz day. And I think we asked him to dye his hair blond. Why do the police/detectives show each other the number 4 on their fingers at various times. The line about, Scientists are saying the future will be far more futuristic than originally predicted. The way Sarah delivers that line, its for laughs, and its ridiculous, but it kind of encapsulates the whole movie. We were firing off massive weapons in Hermosa Beach, where a lot of very wealthy people live. Maybe there was someone at some point who wanted to cut it out, but anyone who wanted to cut that out of the movie was probably someone at some point who was like, Can you cut the Justin Timberlake dance number? I think those are the same kinds of people who were like, Can you cut the cars fucking? You know, like clearly someone who just has no business ever watching this movie, should just stay a thousand feet away from this movie for the rest of their life. Youd have to ask Louis Lazzara, who is Dwaynes wonderful longtime makeup artist, who is very essential to this movie. WebSouthland - Full Cast & Crew 77 Metascore 2009 -2013 5 Seasons NBC Drama TV14 Watchlist Where to Watch A rookie and a seasoned no-nonsense cop are at the center of Richard Kelly: That prosthetic Dwayne Johnson body was a gift from an earlier production, so Im guessing that it still exists. WebSteve Zirnkilton (born Stephen Morgan Zirnkilton; August 18, 1958) is an American voice actor and former politician from Maine. Because my character is in one of them, I have now been portrayed in a graphic novel. Everyone was coming up to me, like, Okay, Richard, we thought you were crazy, that this was a waste of time. But everyone, even the biggest doubter of that musical number, was like, We get it, you have to get this song, this is definitely working. Im like, Oh, my god, Ive got to go back and watch that.. And I really went aggressive in paying homage and tribute to that film. It was me finding the movie. Acting. Zirnkilton is known for providing the opening narration of all US shows in the Law & Order franchise. He was hired by series creator Dick Wolf. [vague] Zirnkilton has also provided voices for Family Guy and The Rugrats Movie. He was a narrator for Faith Rewarded: The Historic Season of the 2004 Boston Red Sox. It might have been Vidiots; it was one of those video stores that has every movieyou know, when those used to exist. He just really loved what I did. There are moments that seem completely sincere despite itself. About Us | Copyright Inquiry | Privacy Policy | Contact Us. And then itll be like a transmedia project, you know, and nobody was really doing that back then. 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I dont think I ever put something together that he didnt like, or wanted any kind of changes. Club talked to Kelly and a few others involved in the making of Southland Tales about its creation, its legacy, andagainst all oddsits future. Richard Kelly: I asked [Justin] to be the narrator once we finished shooting the musical number. That only took maybe a few minutes to do, and that was it. And I pitched the idea of two BMWs having sexual intercourse. Pilot Abilenereading the Book of Revelations aloud, Ronald Taverner having a breakdown because his reflection isnt following him, and Boxer Santaros figuring out who he is after waking up in the middle of the desert. What size skates do you wear? Like a 13, why? Well, for the rollerblades. What do you mean? You know youre in the movie, right? By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. We flew to Abilene. Netflix. But what makesSouthland Talesso entertaining is just how unique and bizarre it is. So here I am sitting across from Dwayne Johnson and Im showing him my MegaZeppelin blueprint. And they were working on getting the pyrotechnics and everything to work for the gag. Priscilla Elliott: I mean, I know its kind of a mess, and I also dont really care? I will continue working on Southland Tales until the day I die, whether or not we get to make more of it or not. And were out there getting the fires set up in the homeless camps. And I say that with incredible gratitude for the luxuries I was afforded in making this film. She is the modern urban professional's pope, holding it together on the outside (mostly) while falling down flaky, analytical rabbit holes on the inside -- and threading the show's plots by writing her titular column in voice-over form. I am so grateful that someone gave me the resources to make this. This is what qualifies it for this weeksWeird Watch. In keeping, we decided to rank a handful of them. Youre Bing Zinneman. And I was like, Oh, okay! So at that point, I was in the movie apparently, which is a surprise to me. Do you have any ideas or stuff that we could do? Dee had this idea of a documentary about the No. Priscilla Elliott: We were doing the scene where they steal the ATM, and at the same time the blimp is going to get shot out of the sky. In 2005, Dwayne Johnson was still simply, in most peoples minds, The Rock. Although hed starred in 2002s The Scorpion King, his most recent film, Doom, had been panned by critics, and he was still years away from attaining his now-secure planets biggest action star status. That was probably the happiest moment of my film life. We brought like 60 copies of the graphic novel to the south of France. Richard Kelly: We went to Malibu, which was, I think, where they shot Planet Of The Apes with that big rock. It was centered on a group of rejected, failed actor-comedians, because I was hanging out with a lot of comedy actors at the time. So in the prequel, you see all of that, all the characters, all that stuff, drama unfolding over those three days in animationits literally the characters animatedand then it takes Boxer all the way to the point where, on the early morning of July 3rd, he wakes up on the beach. We spoke to Cloris Leachmans management, and they were like, Well, Cloris doesnt work for scale.. One of the films most repeated lines is Pimps dont commit suicide, which is spoken by Boxer Santaros/Jericho Cane in reference to the films complicated body-double plot, and then becomes the final piece of Timberlakes narration as the time-split Roland/Ronald Taverner clasp hands, initiatingpossiblythe end of the world. Its about the end of the world, like the apocalypse, right? Finally, they announced the purchasing of the rights to the original seven episodes, as well as the six completed episodes from its second season. 1 Donnie Darko fan. Dont worry, so is everyone else. We had the the SUV designed by Ron Cobb. Each actor gives the dialogue their own spin, with some playing it completely straight while others camp it up. This is one complicated guy, undercutting his loneliness by hacking acquaintances' personal accounts. A cinephile before she could walk, Danielle comes to Fandom by way of CNN, CHUD.com, and Paste Magazine. And everyone had a great time. Kelly and his crew had 24 days, and $17.8 million, to shoot a star-studded, effects-heavy science fiction satire, much of it in public locations. I wrote a script called Bessie, which has gotten kind of a lot of attention over the years, about a genetically engineered, upright-walking mutant cow. He used to produce with his company, RSA, these BMW commercials that were like short films, and they would bring in big directors to direct them. Ambitious but luckless, Chris navigates lower-middle-class life as the only black kid at school. "Everyone always says the same shit at funerals," George states in the pilot. Its a silly line of dialogue on one level. The other part of what makesSouthland Talesa fun watch is that its completely insane. Its evolved. Now streaming can't exist on a street that only goes as far east as the 2000 West block). There were a couple of second unit shots where I literally just could not be in two places at one time. Its difficult for me to just end it on that one statement. Evolving from its crime caper roots, Kellys ideas for Southland Tales began to expand. You can give him really complex, intricate direction. Soon, the script incorporated a wide variety of ideas plucked from the ether of early 2000s political anxieties: An energy crisis being manipulated by a sinister wizard baron (Wallace Shawn) for his own dark ends. We were doing a lot of really dangerous stuff. I want their characters to be given full cinematic justice, because they did such a great job for me. It was super gross and super fun. I want them to have a movie with a full, complete story. And tie it back to Boxer Santaros. So the entire end of the movie is all in [Affects helium voice.] Jonathan Lisco was hired as a co-executive producer for the third season; he is a former lawyer and created the New Orleans police drama K-Ville. Jason Horwitch, creator of AMC's Rubicon, joined the show as consulting producer for the fourth season. ER and Third Watch veteran Nelson McCormick is also a regular director for Southland. We had one hour to get those SWAT vehicles on and off some of the most expensive, high-security real estate in all of Los Angeles. I think the visual effects team was like, Were going to do it. And I just want a better future for Southland Tales. Is America the pimp nation? Watch Southland: The Complete First Season Uncensored (Lovely Gentleman), Watch Southland: The Complete First Season Uncensored (A Day In The Life), Watch Southland: The Complete First Season Uncensored (Real Cops), Watch Southland: The Complete First Season Uncensored (Great Location), Watch Southland: The Complete First Season Uncensored (Key Characters), Watch Southland: The Complete First Season Uncensored (Watts Towers), Watch The One Weird Thing on Regina King's Mind When She Won an Emmy. Claire Danes' voice-overs are like diary entries that you might have actually written at the ripe age of 15, anxious and semi-hopeful without becoming maudlin. Narrator Private Pilot Abilene (Justin Timberlake), is a soldier returned from Iraq with serious PTSD and a gnarly scar across his pretty face. Zirnkilton was the narrator for TLC's Code Blue: New Orleans and the syndicated series Arrest & Trial. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. What else could he possibly be right about? Another big change is coming your way in Jane the Novela you can expect a brand new narrator. Ill never forget it. Club are serious journalists, we felt moved to ask Kelly about one particular bit of stock footage included in the Doomsday Scenario Interface sequence. Voiced by Daniel Stern, older Kevin teaches us that we may not grasp our teenage confusions until much later -- and that's okay. Beyond the basic plot, viewers can also develop theories on Southlands mythology and the impending apocalypse. For someone so indecisive, no one reflects on her relationships or a day at work as eloquently as Meredith Grey. The award-winning novel is her second; her first novel is The Necessary Hunger. And the lines between the two are hard to interpret. Richard Kelly: The next thing that we shot, and this was like a week before photography, was the Krysta Now talk show with Sarah [Michelle Gellar] and the three other actresses: Abbey McBride, Jill Ritchie, Gianna Luchini. When they shot that, I was three blocks away, shooting the ATM being ripped out of the wall. The movie follows an ensemble cast as they experience three days that lead to the end of existence. Priscilla Elliott: I think the word that we always used to joke about was scope creep. Thats Richard: scope creep. WebFrothing at the mouth and snarling, Dolly begins to chase Buck, who flees in confused terror from her. Death is inevitable, and in some ways beautiful, she reminds us. I was going to maybe take a nap, and these German tourists suddenly parted ways in front of me. I think you can afford a couple if you have a vision. We were just like, Were just going to shoot our comedy club show for this movie and were going to have cameras there. And I think we signed releases and stuff, but we had Cheri Oteri and a lot of the Groundling actors there, and we shot a neo-Marxist comedy show where everyone had the Digits For Democracy shirts and the posters. Before anyone laid eyes on 12-year-old Kevin Arnold, we were greeted with the sound of his wise voice. They were talking about just taking the movie away from me and cutting it down to 90 minutes, with none of the pop songs that we had in the film. Barring the iffy Netflix revival, this show famously didn't survive three seasons of murky ratings, partly because its format was novel when "Development" premiered in 2003. You see the actor who ends up assassinating Miranda Richardsons character at the end of the film, the guy with the mohawk. Illustrated by Brett Weldele, published by Bob Chapman, and partially funded by Kevin Smith (who also appeared in the film), they were meant to cover early parts of the movies chronology, which Kelly considered the first three chapters of Southland Tales. They have this other performance life. Richard Kelly: I dont think anyone could have ever won an argument to cut it out, because someone spent all that time to render that. But adult Chris makes no bones about being the butt of everyone's jokes, and the series is stronger for it. And then Shane was working on some of the news screens, because we had shot a lot of the KTLA news footage. Part of the joy of being a fan is finding odd and obscure gems that you end up falling in love with. Hollywood had been wrong about Donnie Darko, and Richard Kelly had been right. And I was so exhausted. An action-movie star named Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson) is baffled when reality keeps mirroring the events in his script in Southland Tales.