 
|
|||||||||||||
              
|
Director in the mood for psychological thriller
Tuesday, February 20, 2001 By Ron Weiskind, Post-Gazette Movie Editor
Mark Pellington knows what he wants and has a knack for describing it in words as distinctive as the images he puts on screen. The director of "The Mothman Prophecies" did not want to make a horror film or a monster movie, although the project is based on a book by John A. Keel that is replete with images of UFOs, alien visitors and a large manlike creature with wings and burning red eyes.
These were elements that "debased and devalued the integrity of the story. They verged on science fiction and almost bordered on the ridiculous," the director says during a meal break, dominating the table front and center in a dining hall at Point Park College.
He wanted to "push it toward the ideas of perception, knowledge, reflection, mysterious elements of destiny, someone's inexorable pull toward something they don't understand, following a man on his journey."
Above all, he believes in not explaining everything to the audience. "You need to feed them and entertain them. The idea of real or not real, known or unknown -- it's pretty clear when things don't fit in this movie, when they become too melodramatic or wacky. When they remain enigmatic, mysterious or emotional, it works.
"Hopefully, we're dealing with themes and emotions that have depth and resonance that go beyond the typical genre film."
When the movie shot one cold night at an abandoned factory site in or near Penn Hills, Pellington dubbed it "the zone of fear" -- apparently to put an image in the heads of cast and crew that would serve the emotions he wanted to bring out in those particular scenes.
Pellington quotes Richard Gere, the movie's star, describing the film as "a metaphysical thriller." The director himself calls it "a psychological mystery with natural surreal overtones."
In the mood yet?
Producer Tom Rosenberg oversaw Pellington's previous film, the thriller "Arlington Road," and thought he had the right stuff for "The Mothman Prophecies."
"This movie has to have a certain style and tone," Rosenberg says. "The camera and lighting is very important. Mark is terrific with the camera. He has a lot of style."
Pellington, 38, stands out on the set, a tall, stocky man with unruly black hair and horn-rimmed glasses who may watch one take from behind a set of video monitors and plant himself right next to Gere for a series of extreme close-ups.
A native of Baltimore -- home to such idiosyncratic filmmakers as Barry Levinson and John Waters -- Pellington was intrigued when Rosenberg sent him Richard Hatem's original script for "Mothman." But he was mixing "Arlington Road" at the time and had other things on his mind.
Rosenberg kept sending him new drafts, and finally he got together with two pals, Louis Klahr and Ernie Marrerro, whom he calls adherents of "the non-Hollywood school of screenwriting." They worked on the script until it fit his vision of what "Mothman" should be.
"It's still Richard Hatem's house. We remodeled it," Pellington says.
Once he signed on, Pellington was adamant about shooting in Pittsburgh, a city he knew from visiting college friends who live here and from shooting a number of Iron City Beer commercials in 1992.
"I knew it had the terrain, I knew it had good crews and it was American," he says. The other option was shooting in Canada, which offered economic benefits but not the right look.
"We needed a town with a bridge leading into it. In Pittsburgh we had a choice of 10 of them," each with its own personality and mood.
He wound up choosing Kittanning, a town that "has a reality to it, but also a little mystery and some sadness."
He calls the workers on "Mothman," who are about 85 percent local, "the best crew I've ever worked with. I'm having too good a time and I'm feeling too good about stuff. There is a certain energy and spirit to this movie."
Pellington also praised Gere, who has contributed good ideas and "a giving spirit" to the film.
"He has been extremely supportive to me and my unorthodox, nonlinear, abstract way of communicating."
Pellington seems to be doing all right so far.
|
||||||||||||
