Denzel Washington on the phone, plays ATF agent Doug
Carlin in Tony Scott's "Deja Vu". Paula Patton also stars -- have they met
before?
One name. All you have to say is "Denzel", and the world knows exactly who
you are talking about. Denzel Washington, the 51-year-old actor, both in
person and on screen, still looks as if he is in his mid-thirties. He is
the winner of two Academy Awards and worldwide acclaim and continues to build on
a legendary career that has seen him stay at the top of the world's acting
pedigree for at least the last 15 years. With films like "Glory", "Malcolm
X", "Philadelphia", "The Hurricane", "Training Day", "Inside Man", and countless
others he has been a cerebral, dynamic, compelling and charismatic presence, and
with such handsome looks, women around the globe don't necessarily flock to his
films to witness his acting as their first priority.
Director Tony Scott's first priority in recent years has been to team up with
Denzel Washington, who has been his go-to-guy, as well as Spike Lee's.
(Mr. Lee has directed Washington on four occasions, including "Malcolm X" and
"Inside Man" earlier this year.) As for the 62-year-old British director
and younger brother of fellow director Ridley, "Deja Vu" is his and Washington's
third collaboration together on the big screen. Their previous films
together were "Man On Fire" (2004) and "Crimson Tide" (1995).
Incidentally, older brother Ridley is currently shooting "American Gangster",
which will bring together Washington and Ridley's frequent collaborator Russell
Crowe for the first time since "Virtuosity", a 1995 film.
Tony Scott has directed all the big names, from Anthony Quinn, to Robert Redford
to Gene Hackman to Robert De Niro to Tom Cruise to Eddie Murphy to Bruce Willis
to Will Smith to Kevin Costner, and of course Denzel, whom he has directed more
times than any of the other illustrious names featured on his directing resume.
Known throughout Hollywood for his industrious approach, commitment and furious,
frenzied direction, Scott by his own standards slows things down considerably in
"Deja Vu", which hits theaters in North America on Wednesday (November 22).
"Deja Vu" is essentially a science-fiction thriller cultivated at times in the
vein of films like Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey", but until it
reaches that point it is a riveting crime-solving mystery film about a murder
hidden within a mass murder. The film is definitely fascinating, as well
as challenging.
Washington plays Doug Carlin, an ATF agent who is convinced that
the dead woman he saw at a crime scene he knows from somewhere in the past, even
though he is almost sure he has never met her before. With some
revolutionary crime-fighting technology, he goes to work in an effort to solve
the crime that resulted in her death -- or did it? "Deja Vu" is a head
turner to be sure, and the director acknowledges that no one fit the bill as the
lead any better than Denzel. "Doug Carlin has great intuition, and Denzel
is a very intuitive actor, so the fit seemed almost meant to be," says Scott.
There is time-shifting that the audience has to follow and this will provide a
challenge. Despite this however, Scott's objectives were clear: "I want
audiences to leave the theater thinking this type of travel through time is
really possible. If they haven't quite perfected this technology today,
scientists will do it tomorrow. When the audience takes that leap with us,
they'll be swept up in the story."
The film takes takes place in New Orleans and it shows the devastation of the
Lower Ninth Ward in the city, one of the hardest hit areas of the Gulf Coast.
"Deja Vu" is the first feature film to shoot on location in The Big Easy since
the cruel onslaught of Hurricane Katrina ravaged the famous city of Mardi Gras
during the late summer of 2005, killing thousands. The film, which was
produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who has produced some of Scott's movies in the
past, was scheduled to begin filming in the fall of 2005, but of course
production was delayed. All along, both Bruckheimer and Scott knew that
New Orleans had to be the locale. When taking the film in its totality,
New Orleans turned out to be a perfect fit with the film's underlying theme of
rebirth and revitalization. The director acknowledged that he and his team
"adapted the script to take place in some of the most interesting New Orleans
locations and show the incredible landscape through the story's car chases and
ferry sequences."
The local residents of New Orleans were more than happy to see that their city
was not being forgotten, particularly when a star actor like Denzel Washington
comes to town. As for the actor himself, he was in turn buoyed by the
residents of the Big Easy: "I was truly inspired by the people that I met in New
Orleans who were fighting to get back their lives. Katrina was a tragedy
beyond imagination. I got in my truck every day and just took rides around
the city by myself to see mile after mile of devastation. I'll just never
forget what I witnessed."
TPR
(Photo: Buena Vista Pictures)
Copyright 2006. PopcornReel.com. All Rights Reserved.