Your earlier movie was “Underneath Siege,” the Steven Seagal motion epic that was a giant hit for Warner Brothers within the fall of 1992. Had you already agreed to make “The Fugitive” earlier than that one got here out, or did the provide come afterward?
On the premiere of “Underneath Siege,” Arnold Kopelson, who was one of many producers, got here as much as me and mentioned, “I feel I do know your subsequent film,” and I didn’t know what he was speaking about. Then I obtained a name that Sunday evening from Bruce Berman, the pinnacle of the studio, congratulating me and telling me that Harrison had seen “Underneath Siege” in Jackson Gap, Wyoming, and wished to speak to me about doing “The Fugitive.” They despatched me the script, and I used to be somewhat misplaced as a result of I didn’t assume that it made any sense—Tommy Lee Jones had employed the one-armed man as a result of Harrison screwed up on Tommy’s spouse within the working room. I needed to give you a greater resolution as a result of I had the most important film star and a studio supporting us due to the success of “Underneath Siege.”
Contemplating each that script overhaul and the large dimension of the manufacturing, it’s superb that the time from once you got here on to the movie to its launch was solely about ten months.
It was the identical crew that had performed “Underneath Siege,” and there have been a whole lot of Chicago guys and gals. We went proper from Cell, Alabama, again to Chicago and began making “The Fugitive.” It was a bunch of people that preferred one another, cared about one another, and will work collectively nicely.
One of many issues that’s most hanging about your motion movies, notably “The Fugitive” and “Code of Silence,” is that though they’re each action-packed spectacles, there’s a sense of realism to them that’s comparatively uncommon for the style as an entire. For instance, there’s the second in “The Fugitive” the place somebody’s listening to is quickly broken as the results of being too near a gun because it goes off—that’s the sort of element that you just not often see in this sort of movie.
I feel there’s a theme to my work in movies like this, and that could be a sense of heightened actuality. You need to maintain it actual as a result of it’s extra compelling. Now, you see these struggle sequences that go on for 20 minutes, and persons are bashing one another, and it isn’t entertaining in any respect—how lengthy are you able to watch somebody pounding on somebody and have or not it’s worthwhile as a human being? I simply attempt to maintain it actual and transfer on to the following beat of the story.
One other factor that’s hanging about your movies—particularly within the case of “The Fugitive”—is your extremely efficient use of Chicago places. In contrast to a whole lot of the movies which are shot right here, which are typically involved with displaying essentially the most superficially fairly visuals possible, it has a real really feel for town and its neighborhoods that comes from somebody who is aware of the place nicely.