The Whole Nine Yards

The Hollywood Reporter
Wednesday, February 9, 2000

Martin Grove's Filmmaker Focus
"Montreal, 35 days and 'The Whole Nine Yards'"

Lynn lines: Time and money are two of the principal ingredients in the recipe for making movies. While there's frequently an abundance of creativity, there's rarely enough time or money. That isn't, however, a handicap.

A case in point is Morgan Creek and Franchise Pictures' comedy "The Whole Nine Yards," opening Feb. 18 via Warner Bros. Directed by Jonathan Lynn and starring Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry, it was written by Mitchell Kapner and produced by David Willis and Allan Kaufman. It was executive produced by Elie Samaha and Andrew Stevens.

"We made it like an independent movie," Lynn says. "There was a limited budget and, therefore, a limited number of days. This had been set before Bruce was going to do the picture, and so it stayed like that. We all set out to work as if we were making an independent movie, not a studio movie. And it was terrific. I loved working at that speed.

The films 35-day shooting schedule resulted, he said, in a production that was "very intense and very concentrated. Everyone was totally committed. We did about 10 days' rehearsal, and all the actors really remembered everything we talked about and had done in rehearsal. So we were able to go at considerable speed when we were shooting. I had a very fast and talented DP (director of photography) David Franco, who also made it possible to go quickly."

Lynn's credits include such films as "My Cousin Vinny," for which Marisa Tomei won the best supporting actress Oscar; "Nuns on the Run" starring Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane; and "The Distinguished Gentleman" starring Eddie Murphy. Earlier in his career, Lynn created and co-wrote every episode of the hit BBC political comedy series "Yes, Minister" and it's sequel "Yes, Prime Minister."

He said working on a tight schedule to do "Yards" was enjoyable because "the actors didn't leave the set and go back to their trailers. They hung out on the set and as soon as the shot was ready, we did it. It was a very collaborative, fun experience."

How much time would typically go into making such a film? "Well, for a film of this sort, I would think you'd normally expect 55 days in a big Hollywood studio," he replied. "For 'My Cousin Vinny,' I had 53 days, but that had huge courtroom scenes and an enormous number of people. Every scene had to be shot from lots of different angles because, otherwise, a courtroom scene gets a bit tedious. For 'Nuns on the Run,' which is one of my favorite movies, I had 43 days. I tend to be quick rather than slow, but this was (really fast). I couldn't believe that we did it actually."

The trick to making so fast a schedule work, he said, is that "it takes serious rehearsal with the actors so that they're very rapidly ready to do a scene. We never stopped for really long conversations about the scene because we had them all in advance. Planning in every respect (was essential). And then I really had to have every shot in my head before we started. There was a lot of improv and stuff from the actors, but it didn't really change the shots much. And anything that they did that would have changed the shots, we worked out in rehearsal. So that by the time we were shooting, I really knew virtually every shot in the movie. That, of course, makes it much quicker. It also means you know you can reduce the costs that way because you don't have to have equipment there because you might (decide you want to) use it."

In "Yards," Perry plays a dentist living in suburban Montreal whose new neighbor, played by Willis, is a hit man hiding from Chicago mobsters. Also starring are Rosanna Arquette, Michael Clark Duncan, Natasha Henstridge, Amanda Peet, Kevin Pollak, and Harland Williams. Almost every character is trying to kill one of the other characters in the film, whose press notes describe it as "a comedy about life, love, and plenty of ammunition."

When the project first came to Lynn through his agent, he said, "It was sent (with a note) saying would I be interested in this and that they had a short list of a couple of people (to direct it). I loved it. And then I was asked to go and meet Bruce, who was starring and one of the producers. We got along and he asked me to do it. Of course, I was delighted."

Willis is known for taking risks and making some more specialized films, but "Yards" isn't one of those projects. "It's not another 'Die Hard,' but it is very much a mainstream comedy of the sort a studio might make," Lynn said. "We discovered in our previews that it appeals, as they say in the advertising business, to all four (demographic) quadrants. We have very high scores for men and women over 25 and under 25. We found that, essentially, people of every age group like it."

What was it that first attracted Lynn to the material? "There were a lot of twists in the story that genuinely surprised me and that I felt would genuinely surprise an audience," he told me. "And they do. (With) everybody that sees the film, I say, 'Did you expect that?' and they say, 'No, we didn't expect it. We didn't know that was coming.'

"And it also made me laugh a lot when I read it. It's a kind of comedic film noir. I just felt there were lots of comic possibilities. You know, Bruce is a very funny man. He hasn't done a lot of comedy since 'Moonlighting'. And Matthew Perry is extraordinary in the film. He was very creative on the set and full of funny ideas. He brings a lot of physical comedy to the picture. All those possibilities were implicit in the script, which was already funny."

Another thing Lynn liked about making "Yards," he explained, "was working as an independent. It was just a very small group of supportive, collaborative producers who had confidence in me and let me alone and let me do my job."

Not every director is able to work successfully, as Lynn has, with superstars like Willis or Murphy. "The secret is recognizing that anyone who's a huge star has been at the top of this very slippery slope for a long time and must be smart. So I don't underestimate their intelligence or their talent or their ability. I ignore all the things I've read in the papers. And I've always found that, just like me, they want to make the best possible movie.

"And I listen as well as make suggestions. The job of directing a star is to make that star look as good as possible. It's to help. They're very good actors. I'm understating it; they're superb actors. There's and old English proverb: 'You don't buy a dog and bark yourself.' You use what they can do. If they come in and say, 'I could do something really interesting here - look.' Then you pay attention."

But what if they have bad ideas? "Then you have to tactfully say so," Lynn said. "But I find that they also respect honesty. It's not that hard. I've had very good experiences with these people. I loved working with Eddie and with Bruce - well, with all of them. I haven't had any unhappy experiences with big stars."

Production on "Yards" went smoothly, he said. "We had a lot of what looked like catastrophes that were turned around in our prepping. We kept being unable to afford locations that were chosen so we had to keep looking. We always found something better. Any time we thought we ran into a problem, it turned into an advantage."

Lynn puts the film's cost at "a little over $20 million," well below today's studio average of around $53 million. "We shot in Montreal, which was one of the ways of keeping the cost down," he said. "Bruce, like everybody else, took a (pay) cut because he just believed in the movie."

As a result, he added, "I think no matter what happens we will go into profit fairly quickly, what with foreign sales and everything."

Shooting in Canada worked very well for the movie in a number of ways, Lynn said. "It was the perfect place to shoot the movie," he said. No one's ever shot Montreal before in a mainstream American movie as Montreal. It always doubles (for other cities and especially for Paris). My (production) designer David Snyder, the first thing he said was, 'Let's make this in Montreal.' He was so right. He had worked there before, and he knew how beautiful it was. I hadn't been there yet. So we went up to look. It's a beautiful city. The Anglo-French thing adds a lot of texture to the film. I'm really pleased that there is sort of a new city in the movie instead of all the usual places. And it worked for the story. Bruce Willis plays a contract killer who's trying to hide out. So it makes sense to go across the border from Chicago to Canada. It's good for the story."