It’s not everyday you get to pick the brains of the man behind some of the most celebrated films of the last few decades. Which is why DIFF’s Conversation With Barrie Osborne was too good an opportunity to miss.
Having masterminded major box office hits including Apocalypse Now, Face/Off, The Matrix and The Lord Of the Rings series, the New Yorker has earned his place as a key player in Hollywood. Speaking of his work, he said: “For me the thrill of making movies is the fact that you go to different places and you work with different people and tell different stories — each time you start a new movie, it’s like starting a whole new career.”
When asked what makes a good producer, he said it was important to build trust, particularly between the director and financiers. “I see my role as trying to make the film as good as it possibly can be with what we have, and I try to defend the director’s point of view because the story has to have one point of view,” he said.
“Keeping the balance between what he wants to do and helping him achieve that within the boundaries of a budget is quite a test.” He said: “The most important thing is to make a film relevant to the audience so that they can feel the emotions and experience the drama in the screenplay through the main characters.”
DEADLINES
Among his many anecdotes during yesterday’s 90-minute session was an occasion when Face/Off director John Woo wanted to use pigeons for the final scenes, close to deadline. Having advised Woo to take out a scene earlier in the film, which he later regretted, Osborne spent a sleepless night after saying no to the bird idea. “I knew he was a man of his word so I went over to John and I asked him, ‘I don’t mean you have to cut the pigeons, I mean if you want them, you have to promise that they won’t hold us up on schedule’,” said Osborne.
As it turned out, the pigeons caused no delay. Meeting deadlines is always one of the biggest challenges for any producer. Osborne remembered heated discussions with Peter Jackson on The Lord Of The Rings when the director insisted on cutting out a scene just a day before the film was due to premiere. “Peter was pushing this in the last minute and the pressure was immense,” said Osborne. “I love Peter and I would gladly work with him again but those tensions and that push against all advice of what the deadlines are, it creates a natural conflict.
“You need that solid relationship in order to survive the conflict and still come out as friends.” Osborne’s future projects include teaming up with Laurence Fishburne to make a film adaptation of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist.
Pic Caption: Rangarajan/Gulf News - barrie osborne. The Lord of the Rings producer knows how to balance creativity and deadlines.
