“Two Guns” director Baltasar Kormákur sat down with The Source to discuss all things guns as well as his new online television series, “EVE Online.” Besides the film itself Baltasar discussed some of his early experiences with comics as well as his relationship with video games. A “2 Guns” video game is coming soon. The game will be a first person web-based shooter game coming from Sony (who has the international rights to the film).
Can you speak about working with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg?
I knew Mark well because we did a movie before “Contraband” and…he was very easy to work with and in a sense of getting him to improvise, he’s an incredibly good improviser.
There are some cool sequences in “2 Guns” that remind of us a video game!
Denzel Washington was in on the first day…Game on…It was a battle between the two and I think it was fantastic because they did it always in a good way. It was never like one was pushing the other or just trying to steal the scene. It just created a great environment to play with…I would want to take all the credit for that, but some of that is just them doing their natural chemistry. Maybe nobody would’ve thought that these two guys would play off well. Because usually Denzel eats them alive….but I think that Mark really gave him a fair play.
What sort of pitfalls do you think that you would have to avoid directing a film based on a comic book/graphic novel?
If it was a novel or graphic novel, it is the same in the sense that you cannot trust the material to speak for itself. You have to find a point of view and aggressively approach that. But at the same time if you do not want to make that graphic novel then just do something else. I did this with “2 Guns.” I went back because they had been working on it. I went back through the graphic novel and said, “Okay, is there anything here that we are missing?” And I found stuff that actually was good. I wanted to bring that back in into the script. So you have to be kind of aggressively attacking it, but also protecting. So it becomes its own thing, but it also is based on the mood or the story or whatever it is. But of course you know it’s a different medium and you have to make it your own.
Are there any video games titles that you would probably make a movie of?
This one “EVE online.” Obviously, we decided to make TV first and then maybe we will go for a movie. Like what “Star Trek” did or something like that. There is not a specific one right now, but I have been approached with a couple of them but because my plate had been overflowed, I have not really had time.
Are you interested in making a “2 Guns” sequel?
If the movie does really well and all of that. But I do believe there is an opportunity to do that. It’s a natural opportunity…It’s been from day one that this could be a great franchise. If these guys are on the screen together it could work right. It isn’t like the “Matrix” where they came up with the idea way too late to make that a franchise.
What was the first video game you remember?
When I saw PacMan. I was born in ’66. But I got really into the PacMan thing. But I’m actually involved now in doing “Eve Online.” I do not know if you know that. To make that TV series with the “EVE Online” guys and we are developing that. So I’m getting into it. It’s just to say that the video games are in a little bit of the same place as the comics were a couple of years back. People were a bit negative towards it, even making movies out of it. But I think that’s going to change pretty fast.
Some of the best games these days come out today with a very dramatic storyline. Like “Call of Duty,” “Grand Theft Auto” and even now with the transition between TV shows and gaming you have to find. Tell me a little more about EVE online and how does it speak to you as well?
What I love about the “EVE Online” idea is basically the fact that it is an interactive game. The game is to create the story. The tag line is that it happened 20,000 years in the future. I was like how can that work? Because people now like EVE online are spending more time in the game than in their own lives. If someone crosses their spaceship, it’s probably more of a problem, than if someone were to steal their car. Because they put time into building a spaceship in a game it has real value. Time is what it is.
Do you have a favorite comic book hero?
I’m not even sure if they are considered comic book heroes but Asterix. Asterix is a French comic. It’s more like Tin-tin, it is a European version. This is what we read back home. We had Superman and The Captain Americas and all of that, but it is more like the European stuff from France and Belgium…But still nobody knows it yet.
“2 Guns” is now playing.
-Jagpal Khahera
