Director Antoine Fuqua doesn't do easy.

	Antoine Fuqua and his wife, actress Lela Rochon, arrive at the premiere of "Shooter" earlier this month in Los Angeles. Click photo for larger image. Listen In: Hear excerpts from Antoine Fuqua's conversation with the PG's Barbara Vancheri: On how Pittsburgh shaped him. On how working on "Shooter" compared with other films he's directed. On drawing the attention of the real-life FBI.

The Pittsburgh native hired a French stunt pilot who can fly a helicopter upside down, under a bridge or almost into a cliff and live to tell about it. He sent actor Mark Wahlberg into the water so he could convincingly be towed alongside a barge. And he staged scenes in "Shooter" atop a glacier outside Whistler, British Columbia.

It was 30 minutes, by chopper, from base camp and hours by air from the production's lodging.

"That was difficult," Fuqua, 41, conceded in a recent phone call. For starters, the snow had to appear to be pristine, without any cast or crew footprints.

"It's freezing cold. All the equipment had to be put there earlier -- helicoptered up -- where we needed it to be, so the planning had to be really precise," in terms of camera placement and intended shots and space out of camera range where people could stomp around.

"The helicopters had to be precise, 'cause once they land, they'll leave skid marks. You only have a certain amount of time to get what you need. You don't have any cover, so if the sun comes out, it's just burnt-out white. It's blinding. ... And it's dangerous, if a storm comes, which the last day it did come. Big black clouds came in; we had to get evacuated off that glacier pretty quickly."

Fuqua doesn't shrink from a challenge, whether that means bouncing around locations as "Shooter" demanded or working with some of Hollywood's strongest leading men. Before Wahlberg, he directed Clive Owen in "King Arthur," Bruce Willis in "Tears of the Sun," Denzel Washington to an Oscar in "Training Day," Jamie Foxx in "Bait" and Chow Yun-Fat in "The Replacement Killers."

"I grew up around some pretty tough guys in my life, you know, I mean Pittsburgh. Born on the Hill, grew up in Homewood and Pittsburgh in general. The thing about Pittsburgh is I tell people, we're concrete and steel, man."

Fuqua's days as a football player have been helpful in Hollywood. On the set, the director calls the plays, after all. "You better, and that's what they want. They look for someone who's going to lead them through what's going on. That's the job. Otherwise, they can't do their jobs."

He had been scheduled to do another movie with Wahlberg at Paramount Pictures, but the script wasn't ready, so he read "Shooter" and thought it a perfect fit.

The screenplay is based on the 1992 Stephen Hunter novel called "Point of Impact" about a former Marine who served in Vietnam. Most of the story now takes place in a post-9/11 world, a climate ripe for tales of conspiracies and hidden agendas.

"I think there's a lot of shady activity going on these days in politics. There always is, but it seems like they keep getting caught ... don't know if that's just because the information gets to everyone faster through the Internet and all that, or they're getting a little sloppier or more arrogant. Who knows?

"It seems to me, there's so many different things going on, with Africa and oil and gas prices and these different companies that keep popping up. No one quite knows who they are or what they do," he said, citing Blackwater USA and Halliburton Co. as prime examples.

Fuqua tinkered with a torture scene in the script to make it resonate with audiences today. "We embellished it a bit. I put the potato sack on the guy's head. Little signals to what's happening in our world today."

In fact, Fuqua gave himself a little cinematic homework before making "Shooter," a commercial action thriller. He rewatched "Three Days of the Condor" and "The Parallax View" just as he kept "The Wild Bunch," "Seven Samurai" and "The Magnificent Seven" in mind when making "Tears of the Sun."

In "Shooter," Oscar nominee Wahlberg ("The Departed") plays Bob Lee Swagger, a former Marine scout sniper who is recruited for one last job. He is told the life of the U.S. president may rest in his hands, but he ends up being framed for a crime.

"We had a Marine scout sniper working with us, and we had an Army Special Forces guy as well, but the Marine scout sniper took Mark to shooting ranges outside of Vegas," Fuqua said. Not only did Wahlberg practice with the expert, but he talked about the mental fitness required to be a military marksman.

"Mark's actually a really good shot," but the left-hander had to learn to shoot right-handed. "Most weapons are made for the right hand."

It was "Training Day," a movie that memorably put a gun into the hands of Washington's rogue cop, that showed Hollywood what Fuqua could do.

"It sort of set the tone of, really, what I'm about as a director, what I'm capable of. That movie set the tone and let the industry know I can get a performance from serious actors and I can tell a story and I have my own vision as a director, my own voice.

"That movie opened up the door for those things. That's certainly the type of thing I'm most interested in -- not just cop movies but the abuse of power."

No wonder "Shooter" lined up perfectly in his sights.