Hence when Chu was then attached to direct the action sequelG.I.
Joe: Retaliation, lets just say that it didnt exactly go over swimmingly with the fans.
Fortunately, that turned out alright since he gave enhanced roles to Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis.
Still, Chu elected not to helm the third G.I.
Den of Geeksat down with the infectiously energetic filmmaker when he was in New York for the movies junket.
What was it about this one specifically?
Jon M. Chu:I definitely wasnt looking to do a sequel again.
I thought Louis [Letterier] did an amazing job.
So, there were relationships there.
But this one, the movie was so beloved.
That was a whole challenge in itself, and Im always up for fun challenges.
I think you brought a very different energy to this movie even from your other movies.
You mentioned the big cast and youve worked with big casts before.
I wondered if your dance background makes it easier to juggle such a large cast.
Im just trying to keep up with them.
We rehearse things enough, so that we knew the template, and then you let them go.
Lizzys kind of a revelation as one of the new additionsshes hilarious.
Did you already have a script and then you molded that character towards her?
Luckily, she was, and she came in and just tore it apart.
I didnt know Jesse was this funny, to be honest.
Sometimes, I cant keep up.
I havent done comedy-comedies before, and a lot of times I would not edit their timing.
I would let them do the timing of it, because theyre so good.
Its to this very specific rhythm, and I learned a lot.
It was an honor to be in the presence of them, actually.
Do you shoot multiple cameras so you could capture all that interaction?
Yes, we definitely increased cameras as their riffing increased.
[Laughs] We Judd Apatowd that shit.Its funny because Judd actually shoots with one camera.
Oh, does he?
How does he do that then?
I was curious about having the actors perform magic.
That whole opening stuff where hes hiding it behind him?
It was doing it like an athlete wouldevery day.
They would do 50 times, so I lost a lot of money basically.
[Laughs] I kept upping the number.
Or theyre just really good competitors.
Thats something we talked about very early.
So, lets make the audience know that this is real stuff.
Even Lizzys head getting cut off, we could have done that in CG.
Here, we built a real couch that her head can get cut off in.
So, even the rhythm of our editing.
Thats the fun part about magic.
Its similar to dance where in old dance movies, you could use doubles and do all this stuff.
It was just a choice that we all purposefully made.
I also wanted to ask about Daniel Radcliffe.
He plays a great villain in this, and I dont think weve seen him play a real villain.
Was that added after he was cast?
Ed [Solomon, the screenwriter] is very funny, and he added all these things to it.
Daniel Radcliffe is an amazing magician actually, in real life.
He is really good at magic, and we went back and forth.
How good with magic is this guy?
Maybe its funny that hes really bad.
He missed it, and did this thing like, Oh, oh… Ta da!
and the whole crew was laughing and we were like, Thats what it is.
Thats what its gotta be.
We just stayed the course…
That he was going to be a bad magician.
I guess you had to have one in the movie.
One of the amazing things about the movie is that a lot of this takes place in China.
I assume you actually shot some of the street scenes there?
Yeah, we shot all of that there.
But the London scenes, that was a lot of extras.
Yeah, we had a lot.
How do you manage that with all these different things going on?
You have a really good A.D.
In China, we were worriedin Macao especially.
We had thousands of people lining up, so we got our pick, which was great.
It was in the middle of the night and they were all cool.
They were so excited to be there.
Every hotel we were staying at, it was like being with Justin Bieberhe had his fans everywhere.
Joe 2you were originally going to directG.I.
What was the interest in doing another movie this timedid you just like the characters?
Yeah, you never know.
Sometimes you like to be prepared for whatever might happen.
Its up to the audience.
If they come out and see the movie and they demand another one, well be ready for that.
I think the world is big enough.
I think theres other questions about magic, like why magic exists, why do we need to believe?
Why do we love to believe in stuff that we dont understand?
Why are we always searching for something greater than our physical selves?
Why do we believe that this piece of paper with a dead president on it has value?
Yeah, exactly, and the script has to be right.
Everything has to be right.
Movies likeJem and the Hologramshave an afterlife.
A movie doesnt go away once its done.
It might get seen on cable or DVD.
And me as a filmmaker, I love jumping genres.
I love trying things.
Am I a 12-year-old girl?
Was I a dancer or choreographer?
No, but people think Im a choreographer because I did theStep Upmovies.
Oh, I always thought you had that background.
Joe,obviously a huge fan of it, but never did an action film.
Would that be something youd want to do?
Whats your dream project if someone says, Okay, heres $60 million.
Go make a movie that you want to make.
I wouldnt say genre.
I love not knowing.
I dont like saying, If I didJurassic Park 6, that would be the end-all be-all.
When are you going to do your own movie?
Have you had a chance to seePopstaryet?
No, I want to see it so badly, but…
I havent seen it, but Im so excited.
Now You See Me 2 opens nationwide on Friday, June 10.
There are a lot of surprises in the movie that arent in the trailer.
You didnt have people on the streets filming or taking pictures of everything.
One of the most brilliant things is the other character Woody plays.
How is it possible that you might make a movie these days without all this stuff being out there?
I think its so nice that the marketing people will respect some of those wishes.
I went back and forth whether our audience wants to know about the double or not.
He went crazy doing it.
I didnt know what it would turn into.
Weve seen Woody in so many different characters.
I think the studio was a little bit scared at first.
Lets just trust him and move, lets go, and lets not discuss it.
And he found this weird character Chase.
But thats kind of the fun part of his brilliance.
