Christopher McQuarrie is about to unleash Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.
Ahead of that, he’s joined us to revisit The Way Of The Gun…
This piece contains spoilers for The Way Of The Gun.
The Way Of The Gun.
What was it that inspired you to write the story?
Primarily, my inspiration was my frustration with the Hollywood system at the time.
I didnt know how to play the game and, frankly, I didnt want to.
Parker and Longbaugh were a response to what I viewed as an oppressive and hypocritical industry.
Since then Ive come to realise the business is neither of those things.
Parker and Longbaugh are examples of what happens to people who fight the system.
Joe Sarno is an example of what it takes to survive.
Of course, my younger self couldnt know that at the time.
But I see it now, clear as day.
It was like a warning from my future self.
The cast, then.
Were the likes of Del Toro, Phillippe, Lewis and Caan who you always had in mind initially?
Del Toro, certainly.
The story arose from a conversation fuelled by our mutual frustration.
We were both enjoying early success, but now no one knew what to make of us.
I had a tendency to chase actors I admired but the studios ignored Id had enough.
We chose a specific actor and Del Toro hand delivered the script to him.
He was flattered and excited, but we never heard from him again.
Im guessing we lost him after the first line of dialogue.
That was the last time I wrote for a specific actor.
I went to Matthew McConaughey and Matt Dillon.
Both were incredibly gracious, but not interested.
Ill never forget how kind they both were in the way they passed, however.
Its been a thrill to see the renaissance McConaughey is having.
Ryan Phillippe reached out and said he wanted to do it.
I only knew him fromCruel Intentionsand had a hard time seeing him in the role.
But he was insistent.
He said, Everyone wants me to be a movie star.
I want to be an actor.
He wanted to grow a beard and bulk up.
Again, I couldnt see it.
I said: Im not interested in hiding who you really are.
Im interested in making you a killer.
The next time I saw Ryan, I gave him the job, along with a silver dollar.
He asked me what the dollar was for.
I told him to ask me again during production.
He showed up on set six weeks later with stubble and 25 extra pounds of bulk.
Hed done something to his hair.
He was a different man.
He said, You never told me what the silver dollar was for.
I said, It got you the job.
Benicio and I had cast Ryan on a coin toss.
Jimmy Caan came to us, having read the script.
I first saw him in the bar at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles.
He walked in and shouted across the crowded room: YOURE A SICK FUCK.
We hit it off immediately.
Still, Id heard stories about Jimmy and was concerned.
I called James Gray, whod worked with Caan onThe Yards.
He said, You dont WANT Jimmy in your movie.
You NEED Jimmy in your movie.
Years later, I approached Robert Duvall forJack Reacher.
He told me Jimmy had called first and urged him to take the role.
Juliette [Lewis] was one of three actresses we were looking at.
Juliette was the only actress I didnt audition.
I cast her based on a face-to-face meeting.
(In fact, none of the actors in the film were auditions.
They were all people I clicked with personally.)
Juliette is a force of nature a truly lovely and loving spirit.
Her approach is purely instinctive, purely primal.
I loved directing her.
Talking of James Caans character, was that a particularly enjoyable part to write?
The role of Joe Sarno simply appeared on the page as I was writing.
He was based in part on a real Joe Sarno for whom Id worked years before.
There was a cadence to that character that I loved a pure pleasure to write.
Caan showed up on set and announced himself as Jimmy the Dream.
He was by no means a pushover.
He drove us all to do more.
But the only person he was truly hard on was himself.
He also loved to tell stories.
I heard dirt on everything fromThe GodfathertoThief.
It was an education.
Given this was your feature-length directorial debut, what, if any, were the pressures you faced?
Really, none externally.
Artisan in general and Bill Block in particular were incredibly supportive.
Bill Clark my AD and Dick Pope my DP were the best guides I could have hoped for.
The pressure only began when the film was finished.
There was a growing sense that it was going nowhere.
I simply didnt have the frame of reference to see it coming.
The town literally recoiled.
I guess I did, too.
Was it a straight-forward shoot?
How do you look back on it as an experience?
It was a lot of fun.
It manifested itself physically.
Twelve years later, when I was directingJack Reacher, I was working 22 hour days without breaking stride.
Only then did I realise how fun the job can be when its going your way.
But I also had kids by then.
Like Jimmy was trying to say: directing is really parenting.
Is there anything you wouldve done differently during the entire process from page to screen?
But thats because I am who I am now having madeThe Way Of The Gun.
Ive come full circle and Im very proud of the film.
Im grateful to be answering these questions 15 years later.
Is the film flawed, is it uneven?
In the years since, its found its listeners.
And thats what people who enjoy the film really are listeners.
Or like Joe, observers.
Ive since learned I cant make films strictly for them anymore.
The rest of the class is holding them back.
But I can send them little messages a nod here, a wink there.
Is directing something you enjoy doing?
Given the choice would you rather just write?
There was, of course, a 12-year gap between directingThe Way of The GunandJack Reacher.
Yet, when Im finished, I dont give a second thought to whats next.
After twelve years in the weeds I assume every film, every set-up in fact, is my last.
For this, I am truly grateful.
Now I work because I want to.
Im driven by the love of storytelling, not the fear of an uncertain future.
And I work in the moment.
I am more focused, more aware of the opportunity Im enjoying right then and there.
What was your reaction to the way the film was received when it was released?
What are the seven stages of death again?
Some critics were nasty personally so.
At first I was pretty depressed.
Finally, I contacted the very nastiest of them and invited him to lunch.
I asked, quite sincerely, for him to elaborate on some of the vaguer criticisms in his piece.
I very much wanted to know what I had done wrong.
He was surprised to hear from me and invited me to the paper where he worked.
I took a tour of the building and noticed no one could look me in the eye.
We walked to lunch and he started talking about his failed career as a film maker.
I never defended myself or my film.
I never had to.
The thinking behind his review was fairly evident.
In his eyes, Id squandered an opportunity that should have been his.
I came away realising that all reviews good or bad are meaningless.
Do I want good reviews?
Do bad reviews hurt my feelings?
Only when theyre in some way right.
But will I ever worry about criticism again?
It merely reflects what one person thinks of your film sometime that person is in touch with the majority.
Just as often, theyre not.
Critics didnt kill my film.
The shitty marketing didnt kill it.
I killed it when I set out to make a film that lectured instead of entertained.
Bottom line, most people just didnt like it.
But they didnt need critics to tell them that.
Do you have a favourite scene in the movie?
Del Toro and Phillippe arriving in that delivery room.
Each actor doing their best work in the film.
I remember Benicio was struggling with his turn in that scene.
He just didnt believe Longbaugh would walk away.
I put a 1000 foot mag on the camera and said: Have a seat in that chair.
Take all the time you need.
And, of course, anything involving the great Geoffrey Lewis, who just recently passed away.
We were all in awe of him.
He made it seem effortless.
Have you ever considered resurrecting the story in any way for TV, a sequel or a spin-off?
I tend not to look back.
