‘BOOK OF ELI’ DIRECTORS ALLEN AND ALBERT HUGHES OPEN UP
By Larsen & Talbert for USA TODAY
USA Today
0-01-14-book_of_eli14_ST_N.htm
Jan 14 2010
Photo: Directors Allen, left, and Albert Hughes are back after a
nine-year hiatus with The Book of Eli, opening Friday.
By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
For brothers — twins, at that –Allen and Albert Hughes have plenty
to separate them.
Allen is the more outgoing of the two filmmakers. He chats up the
actors, makes visceral decisions and wants little to do with cameras,
budgets and the administrative side of filmmaking.
Albert is, by admission, a nerd. He loves staying behind the camera,
tinkering with scripts and tending to cinematic requisites such as
lighting and sound.
"He has no concept of paperwork and preparation," Albert cracks. "The
misconception about us is that we think alike, when really we have
very different interests.
"But we both have to like the movie we’re considering."
That may explain why The Book of Eli, which opens Friday, is the
brothers’ first commercial film since From Hell in 2001.
And they almost didn’t make this one, which involves a loner (Denzel
Washington) wandering a decimated planet while he protects the
last Bible.
Allen pushed first to do the film. "There was something about
redemption and salvation that hit home," Allen says. "I called my
brother that night."
Albert, as usual, was cautious. "I didn’t really feel it, and I could
feel the wind coming out of Allen’s sails."
But when Albert had a dream about the movie that night, he
reconsidered.
"I think my favorite movies," he says, "are the ones where I have to
think about them for a day."
The brothers, 37, have been thinking about films since they were 12
and shooting home movies in Detroit. Their first film, about an alien
ship that crashes on Earth, was shot outside the boys’ closet. Albert
shook the camera for effects.
It wasn’t until 1993’s gritty Menace II Society that the Hugheses
caught the attention of Hollywood. And even then, the men were
skeptical.
"People were hailing us as the new school of black directors," Albert
says. "I hated that. For one, we’re half Armenian, half black. For
another, that’s offensive. We wouldn’t pose with other young black
directors, because you wouldn’t do that with, say Italian directors."
Washington saw the determination in the Hughes brothers early on. "I
had just seen (Menace II Society) and wanted to meet these guys,"
he says. "They were kids. But they knew movies."
Gary Oldman says he had to get used to listening to two voices from
the director’s chair.
"At first, you don’t know that they’re going to have the same vision,"
Oldman says. "But then you realize they do have the same vision. They
just have different ways of getting there."
Allen says he’s not expecting another nine-year hiatus, but the
brothers have nothing formal in the works for a new picture.
"It’s best not to force things," Albert says. "We like to talk things
out first, get on the same page. It’s challenging enough to make
movies, let alone two people doing it."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
