Herald
Café: What brings you to Film Bazaar?
Phillip
Lee: My good friend Manas Malhotra, who is the
co-director of NFDC Film Bazaar, has been asking me to come here for the past
4-5 years but I have been very busy. This year, I had to come. The Indian
market is always fascinating to me. For me, it is a different culture. But it
has the potential to be even more exciting. I am here to look at what’s been
going on here. If there’s something that can interest me, I can smell it. This
is an opportunity and I’d love to do something with the filmmakers.
HC:
As a producer, have you given any creative inputs on the films that you have
worked on?
PL: In the early stage of my career I was a line producer. A good
example would be the Bruce Lee film, ‘The Dragon’, where I was the production
manager. But with that project, I became good friends with the director. I read
the script and realised that that is not a good way of looking at Bruce Lee. So
I discussed the matter with the director and he, in turn, changed a lot of
things based on my suggestion. But all the changes were unofficial because
technically it is not my job to suggest changing in the script. So at times,
you get involved in a lot of projects creatively. On ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘Tomb
Raider: The Cradle of Life’, I was the line producer for the Hong Kong leg of
the schedule. In ‘Cloud Atlas’, I helped raise money for the film and helped
cast the Asian actors for the film. In ‘The Revenant’ and ‘Assassin’s Creed’, I
only helped raise the money.
HC:
What goes into deciding a film’s budget?
PL: It depends on a lot of things. If the film requires a lot of visual
effects for an effective storytelling, it costs a lot of money. My philosophy
is that you can make a movie in $2000 or $ 200 million, like ‘Assassin’s Creed’.
It totally depends on who the target audience is.
HC:
At what stage is it ‘okay’ for a film to go over budget?
PL: Most of the movies that I work on have a completion bond. Before
you make the movie, there is a company, like insurance, that makes sure that
the film is completed within budget and in time. Failure to adhere to any of
the two results in the company taking over and the director does not have a say.
HC:
How does an unforeseen incident like the death of an artiste after the
completion of a movie, affect it?
PL: Heath Ledger was one of the greatest actors that the industry
identified. His performance as The Joker is absolutely fascinating. I remember
I was in Los Angeles when I heard the news and I was absolutely shocked. But
there’s an interesting way in which such things affect the industry. After ‘The
Dark Knight’, I was producing another movie with a French director, based on a
Japanese game. I think, ‘The Dark Knight’ is a fantastic movie. Heath Ledger’s
death affected the film that I was preparing to shoot. The reason is that Heath
Ledger was shooting for ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’, after ‘The Dark
Knight’. Due to his untimely death, he obviously couldn’t finish the movie and
actor Jude Law had to finish what Ledger had started. So, the financier of this
film was also financing the film that I was shooting. He had expected huge
returns from the film because of Ledger’s involvement, but Ledger’s death
resulted in poor recovery of investment, which led to him not being able to
finance the project that I was working on.
HC: As a producer, would you
like to be associated with a film that is mediocre but is being promoted really
well, or a really well-made film but with minimal promotions?
PL: I think it is a very difficult choice. One of the projects
that I had worked on, ‘Cloud Atlas’, unfortunately did not do well in the US.
It did well in Asia, Russia and Europe. Most of the people lost their money,
but I am proud of my involvement in that movie. As a producer, you obviously
want the film to do well so that the investors recover their money. But as a
filmmaker, you can commit to making the film in the best way possible. That is
all that is in our control.
