FILM-SWITZERLAND/NIGHTCRAWLER Dan Gilroy and Rene Russo discuss ethics and economy in new film "Nightcrawler"

Record ID: 644520

  • Title: FILM-SWITZERLAND/NIGHTCRAWLER Dan Gilroy and Rene Russo discuss ethics and economy in new film "Nightcrawler"
  • Date: 29th October 2014
  • Summary: ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR AND WRITER, DAN GILROY, SAYING: "Your first instinct as a screenwriter is to go, "Oh they have to be a hero, they have to be a good person". But I started to realise that it's a more interesting story if he's not a quote-unquote good person. And why that's important to me is because I feel in today's world, it's the people who are not good people who are succeeding the most."
  • Embargoed: 13th November 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4BN411NDTBS5E3FMAPLIT7GP5
  • Story Text: Director and screenwriter Dan Gilroy, along with actress Rene Russo, attended the 10th annual Zurich Film Festival to promote their new film "Nightcrawler".
    The dramatic thriller sees Jake Gyllenhaal play a driven young man, named Lou Bloom, who delves into the dark world of Los Angeles freelance crime journalism. Armed with a camera and police radio scanner, Bloom crawls the streets of the city in his car at night, in a bid to find the next big story, sometimes uncovering the scene of a violent attack before the police do. As Bloom's ambitions grow, he recruits a driver and protege (Riz Ahmed) and develops a relationship with a producer at a local TV news station (Rene Russo).
    "Nightcrawler" marks the directorial debut of screenwriter Dan Gilroy. He told Reuters why he wanted to create a story that was realistic and thought-provoking, without imposing any views or opinions on the audience.
    "We tried not to put any moral judgments on anything. So we tried not to say, "Oh, Lou is crazy, this is a movie about a crazy person". We didn't want to do that, we tried to make him as much of a human being as possible. And when we came to the local TV stations, we tried not to say, "Oh here's the problem". We just tried to show what it is they do and the pressures they're under that when they show violent images they get better ratings," said Gilroy.
    "The idea was that, I was always hoping that at the end of the film, somebody could watch the movie and go, you know, I know people like Lou, and my boss is like Lou. Or I'm a little bit like Lou. If I was desperate, I might do that too. Or you know what, I'm one of the people who watches local TV news and I watch these images, and maybe I should or shouldn't do it," he added.
    Gilroy, whose writing credits include "The Bourne Legacy" and "Two for the Money", also said he was intrigued by the idea of a morally ambiguous lead character.
    "Your first instinct as a screenwriter is to go, "Oh they have to be a hero, they have to be a good person". But I started to realise that it's a more interesting story if he's not a quote-unquote good person. And why that's important to me is because I feel in today's world, it's the people who are not good people who are succeeding the most."
    Although there was no detailed physical description for Lou Bloom, Jake Gyllenhaal decided to go on a strict diet to give his character an emaciated look. Gilroy said the Oscar-nominated actor wanted to show the physical effects of Bloom's single-minded focus and nighttime activities.
    "The character is always hungry, so hungry people are thin, so he [Gyllenhaal] decided to lose, he lost 30 pounds which is a lot of weight," he said.
    Actress Rene Russo takes on the role of a producer at a low-rated local news channel who is eager to buy Bloom's videos, despite its often graphic content. She said she saw the story within the context of the current economic hardship, which could be applied to all professions, not just the media and journalism.
    "It's very interesting because I didn't think of media specifically. What I thought about is where we are with unemployment and where we are with low wages and how there are so many desperate people out there, and how all of us, maybe if you watch that film, crossing boundaries that we wouldn't otherwise cross if we weren't desperate," she said.
    "Nightcrawler" will be released in US and UK cinemas on October 31, 2014.
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