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Domino is
a "disarmingly
straight-forward"
work that "pushes
us to reexamine our
relationship to images
and their consumption,
not only ethically
but metaphysically"
-Collin Brinkman

De Palma on Domino
"It was not recut.
I was not involved
in the ADR, the
musical recording
sessions, the final
mix or the color
timing of the
final print."

Listen to
Donaggio's full score
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De Palma/Lehman
rapport at work
in Snakes

De Palma/Lehman
next novel is Terry

De Palma developing
Catch And Kill,
"a horror movie
based on real things
that have happened
in the news"

Supercut video
of De Palma's films
edited by Carl Rodrigue

Washington Post
review of Keesey book

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Exclusive Passion
Interviews:

Brian De Palma
Karoline Herfurth
Leila Rozario

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AV Club Review
of Dumas book

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Thursday, July 2, 2020
DAVID KOEPP POSTS SCRIPT ARCHIVE ONLINE
SCREENPLAYS FOR MR HUGHES, BLACKWATER, SAFE HOUSE, CARITO'S WAY, SNAKE EYES, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, MORE
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/snakeeyesapril1997b.jpg

David Koepp has posted several of his screenplays in the "Script Archive" section of his website, DavidKoepp.com. Along with multiple drafts of his screenplays for Snake Eyes, Carlito's Way, and Mission: Impossible, Koepp has included three unproduced screenplays that he had worked on with Brian De Palma: Blackwater ("Strange piece me and DePalma came up with that I was going to direct. Too strange, turns out."); The Safe House ("Early version of Blackwater. Too dark, too creepy, too impenetrable for mass taste. Plus, guess what? Mental illness isn’t for entertainment purposes, it’s real and painful as hell. Glad I grew up."); and Mr. Hughes ("Oh, how I love this Howard Hughes / Clifford Irving story DePalma and I came up with. Inches away from making this with Nic Cage, but then Snake Eyes came out and wasn’t a hit, and we were dead. It be’s like that sometimes.")

At the top of the Script Archive page, Koepp explains:

Here’s a couple dozen movies I wrote, in various stages of their evolution as scripts. Most of these managed to get produced, but were some unfairly neglected due to the insensitivity of the cinematic establishment, or were they just bad scripts? Judge for yourself. I think some of them are good, some of them are not, but I know all of them taught me something. Hope they might be helpful for you too.

Posted by Geoff at 12:01 AM CDT
Updated: Sunday, July 5, 2020 10:00 AM CDT
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Thursday, June 18, 2020
KOEPP - 'I ALWAYS FELT BRIAN AND I WERE ALLIES'
VIDEO - DISCUSSES WORKING ON 'MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE' SCRIPT OPPOSITE ROBERT TOWNE

Early on in the Collider Connected video above, Drew Taylor asks David Koepp about the films he made with Brian De Palma in the 1990s:
Drew Taylor: Brian De Palma recently talked about how Mission: Impossible and Carlito's Way were the highlights of his career. And I want to know what you're experience was on these movies, and sort of what your take was.

Koepp: They were great. Brian and I have stayed close friends ever since. He lives just a couple miles away. We have socially-distanced coffee from time to time.

They were turbulent. Of the three movies I did with Brian, the only peaceful one was Snake Eyes. But I think the other two are stronger films, in part because of the chaos and fighting and friction. You know, the old expression, "Bad experience, good film. Good experience, bad film." So, I mean, I loved them. They were really fun, and even though there was fighting, I always felt Brian and I were allies. Even when he fired me-- had to fire me and rehire me-- on Mission: Impossible. He just the other day said, "You know, I think I was the first person to ever fire you." Yeah, Brian, you know [laughs], so what?!? You came back, didn't ya? But they were great experiences, yeah.

Drew: In the documentary, he talks about how you and Robert Towne were in different hotel rooms in the same hotel, working on different drafts of Mission: Impossible. [Laughing] Did you know there was a guy next door working on the same...

Koepp: Yeah, they didn't put us in the same hotel, actually. He was in the Dorchester, I was in the old Hyde Park Hotel, which is now the Mandarin. But yeah, it was really stressy. Once the movie got up and running, or once Paramount greenlit it, Tom got rather anxious, and wanted to bring Towne in to work on it. And then Towne came in, and Brian didn't want-- [Koepp throws his hands in the air] yeah, there was a lot of fighting. And then Towne came in and threw all the pages up in the air. And things stayed quite chaotic. And then three weeks before shooting, they said, "Will you come back... you know, try and put it all back together. But Bob's going to keep working, and you're going to keep working, and we'll just figure out what we shoot." I was like, "Okay... this oughta be interesting."

Drew: Has there ever been a situation where the movie was just too chaotic, or the script was in such disrepair, that you said, "I can't do this"?

Koepp: You know, I've always been able to find an appropriate moment to leave, if I needed to leave. I never had a dramatic leaving. I think, sometimes... and I think I've gotten better at it as I've gotten older. John Kamps and I wrote Zathura, that Jon Favreau directed, and Favreau really wanted to take a pass at it himself. We didn't want him to, so it seemed to make sense to leave, and, you know, let him do that. Which I think he was about to implement anyway, so, you know, [laughing] I'm not sure if I had walked out or was shoved. It's fine, I guess. You know, you gotta sometimes take your own shot at stuff. I didn't want to let that go, because it had a lot of my two sons in it. So it was a lot of personal stuff. I didn't want to leave it to somebody else. So, I think I probably threw a hissy fit on the phone as I left.

Other than that, you kind of know when you're time is up on a movie. Because usually if you get fired, or quit, it's not because people are unpleasant. It's because you're out of ideas. Or your ideas are just not jelling with theirs.


Koepp's new thriller, You Should Have Left, hits V.O.D. tomorrow.

Posted by Geoff at 11:50 PM CDT
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Monday, March 23, 2020
DE PALMA - COFFEE WITH KOEPP, AT A SOCIAL DISTANCE
KOEPP INSTAGRAM POST YESTERDAY, BROUGHT HIS OWN CHAIR & HIS OWN COFFEE
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/coffeekoepp1.jpgDavid Koepp posted two pictures of Brian De Palma yesterday on his Instagram page, with the following caption:
Brian DePalma and I have met regularly for coffee for, like, 25 years. This was today. I brought my own chair. And my own coffee. #socialdistance #briandepalma #notesfromtheplague


Posted by Geoff at 8:14 PM CDT
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Friday, September 6, 2019
KOEPP'S CORNER - NEW NOVEL, UPCOMING FILM
'COLD STORAGE' PUBLISHED THIS WEEK; FILM THRILLER 'YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT' COMING SOON
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/outrunshadow.jpg

David Koepp posted this image above last week on his Instagram page, with the caption, "You can’t outrun a shadow, Kevin Bacon." Bacon stars with Amanda Seyfried in Koepp's new thriller, an adaptation of Daniel Kehlmann's 2017 novella, You Should Have Left. As one might expect, Koepp has written the screenplay adaptation. The film is being produced by Bacon along with Jason Blum, for Blumhouse Productions.

Bacon, who starred in Koepp's Stir Of Echoes twenty years ago, brought Kehlmann's book to Koepp's attention. According to Deadline's Anthony D'Alessandro , "The film version varies from that of the book, which is akin to Stephen King’s The Shining. You Should Have Left is the unsettling story of a wealthy man with a younger wife and six-year-old child. Mistrust and suspicion characterize their marriage while they are in a remote location that may or may not be obeying all the physical laws of the universe."

Bacon was on hand last night at a Barnes & Noble in New York City to moderate a discussion with Koepp about Koepp's first novel, Cold Storage, which hit stores this week. That same day, Koepp participated in an hour-long "Ask Me Anything" discussion on reddit. "My first novel, Cold Storage, came out this week," Koepp stated in the reddit introduction. "It's about a deadly organism that absolutely MUST be contained and destroyed, but is neither contained nor destroyed. Mayhem ensues."

In the ensuing discussion, Koepp was asked, "What's been the biggest challenge going from screenwriting to novel writing?" Koepp replied, "Just the scope of a novel. It was something I'd wanted to do for a long time -- not write a novel per se, but write in a longer format -- but still, the sheer amount of typing involved was impressive. Even for a brisk novel like Cold Storage. But I was DELIGHTED by the ability to go inside a character's head, to delve into someone's thoughts, after 30 years of only being able to write what they do or say."

Koepp was not asked anything specific about his work with Brian De Palma, but he did answer a question about collaborating as a screenwriter with directors:

Collaborating can be a joy, and it can be torture. Sometimes both with the same person. For the most part, I've really enjoyed my collaborations with directors. I'd say ninety percent of the time they've been true partnerships, and there's been respect and encouragement on both sides. The other ten percent of the time -- well, it sucked. I'm sure you've been in bad relationships, where you feel like no matter what you say it's the wrong thing, and you KNOW that no matter what THEY say it's the wrong thing. Same thing with a bad collaboration.

Or, sometimes, you get along great, but the combination of your particular talents just isn't producing good work. That happens too, and it's sorta the worst.

All work with directors is close. You are the two people who have the greatest creative stake in the movie, and you're the two that are with it the longest. All the others come and go, but you and director remain. So it is a close and long-lasting relationship. Unless the director fires you, of course. And make no mistake, that power is theirs, and not yours.


Posted by Geoff at 11:59 PM CDT
Updated: Saturday, September 7, 2019 12:20 AM CDT
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Monday, August 18, 2014
KOEPP'S CORNER
'MORTDECAI' ADAPTATION RETEAMS DAVID KOEPP WITH JOHNNY DEPP, COMING FEB. 6TH

Posted by Geoff at 5:04 PM CDT
Updated: Monday, August 18, 2014 5:10 PM CDT
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Sunday, January 26, 2014
KOEPP'S CORNER: 'JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT'
CHANNELS 'MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE', 'CARLITO'S WAY'


Writing about Kenneth Branagh's Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, South Philly Review's Kurt Osenlund states that "Branagh’s approach helps at virtually every turn, from getting us through verbose debriefing scenes that might bog down the pace to de-cluttering Jack’s relationship to Cathy, who’s uncannily understanding of her partner’s secrecy, then brought into the fold for a remarkable con sequence (Branagh channels Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible, and that’s a huge compliment). Car chases are swift and compelling, scam specifics are choreographed with great sleekness, and in moments that need to underscore Jack’s dueling competence and inexperience, Pine delivers as a leading man."

And it turns out there is a good reason Branagh's film might channel De Palma's Mission: Impossible, because David Koepp was a key screenwriter on both projects. But the route taken by the Jack Ryan screenplay is an interesting one. Once upon a time, Adam Cozad wrote a spec script titled Dubai that made the Black List of best unproduced screenplays in 2007. Paramount (home of the Mission: Impossible franchise), looking to reboot a Jack Ryan franchise, bought Dubai and hired Anthony Peckham to rework it, and the title changed to Moscow, with Cozad doing another rewrite after Peckham. Interestingly, at that point, Paramount talked to Steven Zallian (who had worked with De Palma on the initial structure of Mission: Impossible) about working on the Moscow script, but he passed, and they then hired Koepp, who took over with gusto, working on it for well over a year with Branagh at the helm (Jack Bender had been the director initially attached in the early stages of the project).

I saw Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit yesterday, and liked it quite a bit. Branagh gives a terrifically strong performance as the Russian villain, there are some nicely-shot sequences, and the story is compelling enough, even with a typical time-bomb ending. Aside from the M:I-style con sequence mentioned above, I noticed a bit of dialogue that seems to echo De Palma's Carlito's Way, which was also written by Koepp. In Carlito's Way, after their little "boat ride," Carlito angrilly gives Kleinfeld some advice: "You ain’t a lawyer no more, Dave. You’re a gangster now. You’re on the other side. Whole new ball game. You can’t learn about it at school, and you can’t have a late start."

We posted last week some quotes from Kevin Costner about taking on the "Sean Connery mentor role" in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. In the film, after Jack Ryan has a deadly run-in with a baddie out to kill him, Costner's shadowy CIA agent tells him, "You're not just an analyst anymore. You're operational now." That clip is below:


Posted by Geoff at 11:14 AM CST
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Monday, September 3, 2012
KOEPP'S CORNER: 'PREMIUM RUSH'
IN THEATERS NOW, SOLID THRILLER THAT PLAYS WITH TIME

David Koepp's action-packed thriller Premium Rush finally opened in theaters last week. The film takes off from a terrific opening slow-motion shot set to The Who's Baba O'Riley, and never lets up from there, with a great soundtrack by David Sardy. The dialogue is rapid, matching the speediness of the bike messengers at the center of the film. Koepp and John Kamps have written a screenplay that manages to connect all of the characters in ways that sometimes seem too coincidental to be true, but it all moves so fast that it is easy to let go and just go with it.

Premium Rush jumps back and forth in time, somewhat like Brian De Palma's Murder A La Mod, showing certain scenes from different characters' perspectives. Koepp also did a bit of this with De Palma on Snake Eyes, although in that film, the jumps in time were presented as flashbacks. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is very good as the lead, and Michael Shannon has a role that allows him freedom of explosion, and he seems to have fun following that muse. (Also of note: Koepp cast his screenwriter friend Brian Koppelman as a mostly dialogue-free loan shark. Koppelman co-wrote the original draft of the as-yet-unmade Untouchables prequel, Capone Rising.)

This is Koepp's fifth feature, and all have been inventive works of well-crafted entertainment, from the horror-tinged thrillers he started off with (The Trigger Effect, Stir Of Echoes, and Secret Window), to the comedy Ghost Town, and now this action thriller. Hopefully it will be sooner than four years before we get another one.

Posted by Geoff at 3:06 AM CDT
Updated: Monday, September 3, 2012 3:07 AM CDT
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012
KOEPP'S CORNER: 'PREMIUM RUSH' TRAILER
FILMED IN GLORIOUS BIKE-O-VISION, OPENS AUGUST 24 2012

Posted by Geoff at 6:08 PM CDT
Updated: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 6:13 PM CDT
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Sunday, February 6, 2011
KOEPP'S CORNER: BRING ON THE "BIKE-O-VISION"
MORE DETAILS ON UPCOMING PREMIUM RUSH
CJ Simonson at Collider has posted a synopsis for David Koepp's upcoming Premium Rush, which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bike messenger, and was filmed last summer on the streets of New York. Here is the official synopsis:

A New York bike messenger is given an envelope by a young woman at an uptown Manhattan college and is told he has 90 minutes to deliver it to an address in Chinatown. Complications ensue when an undercover police office appears and demands the envelope on special grounds. The truth, hidden motivations, and the life-and-death stakes on all sides are revealed through a series of flashbacks as the cop and the messenger engage in a length-of-Manhattan chase, racing against time after the messenger discovers the precious nature of the envelope’s slender contents.

Last June, Carson Reeves at ScriptShadow reviewed the screenplay by Koepp and John Kamps, and was pleasantly surprised by what he initially expected to be an "old hat" premise. "I didn’t expect to like this," wrote Reeves. "Mainly because I thought bike messengers were extinct once the internet hit. It just seemed like old hat to me. But it turns out it actually has the opposite effect. The zipping and zapping through New York City felt fresh and alive, different from anything I’d recently read or seen." Reeves said that the best part of the script was "bike-o-vision. Yeah, you heard that right," Reeves continued. "Koepp and Kamps have created their own Matrix-style stop-motion technique. When Wilee’s zipping through the streets and gets into a tough spot (door opening, cross-traffic ahead, baby stroller), everything slows down so he can assess his options. Then, out of nowhere, a small area will light up, and that’s the direction he zips into." Sounds intriguing...


Posted by Geoff at 4:17 PM CST
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Monday, August 30, 2010
KOEPP'S CORNER: PREMIUM RUSH
HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE READER'S PICS FROM NYC SHOOT
David Koepp is currently shooting a new movie, Premium Rush, in New York City. The other day, Hollywood Elsewhere posted two pictures of the New York shoot sent in by a reader of that site, Eran Evron. The film, which was written by Koepp and his longtime creative partner John Kamps, involves a New York City bike messenger (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, pictured on the far right) who is pursued by a dirty cop (played by Michael Shannon, in the center of the picture wearing a tie). Dania Ramirez (wearing a blue top in the photo) plays a fellow bike messenger. Koepp is wearing a red ball cap, all the way on the left side of the photo. Premium Rush will be released on January 13, 2012. About a month ago, Gordon-Levitt posted a video on his site, that was shot by Koepp himself, showing the bloody arm he got from crashing into the back of a cab during filming. Gordon-Levitt wrote, "My first real wreck today. Busted through the rear window of a cab. Luckily got my elbows up. Coulda been way worse. No, but it was my fault, I was going too fast. The director, Dave Koepp, was extremely concerned for my well-being, but I made him RECord the wound. Anyway, Premium Rush is gonna be awesome. Gratuitous ER footage to follow, stay tuned…" A few more set pics of Gordon-Levitt and Ramirez can be seen at Accidental Sexiness

Posted by Geoff at 11:50 AM CDT
Updated: Monday, August 30, 2010 12:04 PM CDT
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