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Tim Blake Nelson: Western ‘Shoot’, ‘Captain America: Brave New World’

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Tim Blake Nelson: Western 'Shoot', 'Captain America: Brave New World'

Tim Blake Nelson is about to shoot a “spectacular” Western “Shoot” in Spain, directed by Guillermo Navarro. Guillermo Del Toro’s regular cinematographer, he already won an Academy Award for ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’.

“We have a great cast and a script written by British writer Ian Wilson. Westerns change and reflect a cultural moment in which it is made. ‘Yellowstone’, ‘Power of the Dog’… every generation has to give its own take on film genres. This one is about the power of the weapon as a corrupting force,” he reveals.

“It’s definitely a current script, but it’s 100% true to its time. We start filming in November. The great thing about westerns is that they require big vistas, but good westerns don’t have to cost $100 million. We made “Old Henry” for $1.2 million. It’s a way to make a superhero movie with natural environments and without visual effects.”

However, visual effects cannot be avoided in “Captain America: Brave New World,” where Nelson will finally reprise his role as Samuel Sterns after 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk.”

“I was deeply, deeply saddened at the prospect of not being able to return to the MCU. All I wanted to do as an actor was find out what would happen to this man. Eighteen years later I got to do it and I wasn’t disappointed,” he said.

“It was a great challenge and I was guided wonderfully by Julius Onah, an indie director. These are real directors who want to work with real actors and give them the opportunity to play bizarre characters. Marvel supports that.”

Despite some recent voices to the contrary and prematurely predicting its demise, Nelson says you should never “discount Marvel.”

“Marvel is an unprecedented phenomenon in film history. Kevin Feige and his studio created dozens of interconnected films that exist in one cinematic universe, to use the term. There is no comparable achievement. So no – I don’t think it’s over,” he notes, calling “Captain America” “the most grounded” MCU franchise – along with “Logan.”

“This will be a beautiful film,” he emphasizes.

“I couldn’t respect Martin Scorsese more, he is his own genre, but I don’t agree with him when he makes fun of Marvel. I’m on the side that Marvel movies are definitely cinema. They let us be children again. If they’re really good, and they often are, you lose yourself in them. Are they profound? Is it ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Miller’s Crossing’, ‘Bicycle Thieves’, ‘Schindler’s List’ or Kieślowski? No, but they don’t strive for that either. They are entertainment and there is artistry involved.”

“That’s my Marvel speech.”

Nelson – currently in Locarno as a jury member – will not soon forget his indie roots and will present the intimate drama ‘Bang Bang’ at the Swiss festival out of competition. Directed by Vincent Grashaw, the film sees him as retired boxer Bernard “Bang Bang” Rozyski, determined to right the wrongs of the past.

Randomix Productions, Traverse Media produce, with co-production from Red Barn Films.

“It asked of me what no other role has, both in terms of physicality and mentality. In a way, I’m a fighter too – if you do what I do, you have to be one too – but I’m not a confrontational person and this character is. He’s a man who keeps himself in fighting shape. I don’t have a background as a boxer, so I trained quite extensively.”

After seeing Daniel-Day Lewis on the set of ‘Lincoln’, he doesn’t mind preparing for roles.

“Working with Daniel has changed my approach to what I do and I am certainly not unique in that respect. You get better by being around him. I almost wanted to take all those 17-year-old roles I’ve played before and do them all again,” he laughed.

“I don’t do what he does: if I tried to stay in character all day, it would be exhausting. He is extraordinary in that respect; I’m not. At the same time, another great actor, John C. Reilly, told me that every part is “custom.” It is the combination of developing a sustainable process for yourself and being open to change based on the part.”

In “Bang Bang,” he gets his own “I could have been a contender” speech a la Brando in ‘On the waterfront’.

“I love that scene. He effectively discusses what happened to make him the wreck of a man that he is. I have to give full credit to Will Janowitz, the writer. It’s a speech that doesn’t feel like a speech. What a spectacular moment for an actor to play.”

He had a few moments like that over the course of his career.

‘One of them, of course, was ‘O brother, where are you?’ Another – “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” When they said, ‘Come back to the MCU,’ and when Damon Lindelof asked me to play Looking Glass in ‘Watchmen,'” he recalls.

“As actors, we are often limited by ourselves and our own shortcomings, by how the industry and the public perceive us. I’ve been given roles that called for craziness, stupidity and bizarreness. And rarely, if ever, restraint. Suddenly I was presented with a character that was all about restraint. He only shares what he has to share. I look at ‘Watchmen’ the same way I look at Nolan’s ‘Batman’ films. You enter this world and never want to leave.”

He’s also gearing up to direct his next feature film this year – his first since 2015’s ‘Anesthesia’.

“The granddaddy of it all was Cassavetes, but there is definitely more tolerance for actors who direct. I resisted it with ‘O’. All these teen Shakespeare adaptations were proliferating at the time and I didn’t want to add anything to them: because I love Shakespeare. But it was a tragedy that took place in a high school, not a comedy, and instead of being disgusting, it was an opportunity to make a statement about what happened and continues to happen with guns in schools in America .

A modern adaptation of “Othello, “O” starring Julia Stiles, Mekhi Phifer and Josh Hartnett.

“The film struck a chord. Actually, it struck a chord a little too loudly. While we were editing, Columbine happened. The film was shelved and released a year later. Shakespeare wrote about anti-Semitism, about racism. Unfortunately, these problems persist,” he notes. But movies shouldn’t try to please everyone. Even now, when the future of indie cinema is seemingly under threat.

“As soon as movies try to be ‘liked’ we’re in trouble. In ‘Bang Bang’ this character is borderline unpleasant. The trick was to make the audience want to see what he does next. The films of the Coen brothers do not try to be liked. ‘The Great Lebowski’? There’s violence, Jeff Bridges’ best friend’s ashes blowing back in his face…I mean,” he says.

“Here’s what I know: There’s an appetite for arthouse films in America. What is missing is the opportunity for the platforms to make money from it. For example, with Apple you can go to their ‘Films’ icon and find ‘Independent Films’ and ‘Recent Discoveries’. They’ve now folded that into Apple TV+, so they can put their own content at the forefront. Another answer is to make the arthouse experience more special. There are places like Alamo Drafthouse – the movie I made with my son [Henry Nelson]’Asleep in My Palm’ was sold out there for a week. We need arthouse cinema in every major American city. And I got to be in great movies And making great films.”

Courtesy of the Locarno Film Festival