Sunday, November 29, 2009
Quick, A+E, Q&A

"Ninja Assassin" director James McTeigue

The Quick Q&A

After paying his dues as a second-unit and assistant director on projects like "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones" and the "Matrix" trilogy, Australian James McTeigue made an impressive directorial debut with his 2006 adaptation of the graphic novel "V for Vendetta." His belated follow-up, the blood-drenched, action-packed "Ninja Assassin"—written and co-produced by the Wachowski Brothers—casts Korean pop singer Rain as a shadowy warrior who turns against the evil clan that trained him. McTeigue discussed the film during a recent interview in Los Angeles.—Bert Osborne
 

 Does it really matter whether a movie like this holds up to any logic? In one scene, a ninja is slammed by a speeding car. In the next scene, he’s perfectly fine.

  Well, you know, you’ve got to come at it from the point of view that it’s a ninja movie to start with. That sort of defies logic a little bit from the outset, right? Ultimately, it’s just a movie.

Why Rain for the leading role?

He has that kind of undefinable star quality. That’s why he’s so popular in Asia, because he has that confluence of great ability and great dedication, and he’s put in a lot of hard work to get him to the place he’s at.

How much of those action scenes are actually him, as opposed to stuntmen or computer-enhanced effects?

I’d say it was 90 percent him. Usually, when you hear movie people say that, it’s a lie, but in this particular case, it’s true. As a concert performer, his dancing ability enabled us to do a lot more than we normally could with an actor. We worked out all the fights before we got to the set, and he was able to execute a lot of very complex choreography.

Were you a fan of ninja movies prior to working on this?

 I grew up watching a lot of them in the ’80s. Some of them were a little cheesy and budget-challenged, but this was a way of paying homage to them. Having someone like Sho Kosugi in the cast [as the villain] is part of the homage, because of all those classics he was in ["Enter the Ninja," etc.]. He knows so much about the genre, it was like working with a ninja encyclopedia.

Has there been any talk of a sequel?

 Not really, but it’s like the elephant in the room. Hopefully there will be a possibility for that, but we’ll have to see how the film does.

What’s next for you?

I’ve been scouting locations and I’m in the middle of the casting process on "The Raven." It’s a pretty cool concept, based on a series of Edgar Allan Poe stories, sort of crossed with "Se7en." It’s partly a fictionalized account of the last five days of Poe’s life, but there’s also a serial killer loose in 1850s Baltimore, using Poe’s stories as his methodology for killing people.

Given your rather dark track record, would you ever want to make a sunny romantic comedy?

 Not at the moment, but never say never. Ultimately, I just want to keep moving forward, crossing as many genres as I can. I’m quite happy doing what I’m doing. SP