Sebastian Cordero is a fairly new voice in cinema thats going to be making waves for years to come. His breakout film, Crnicas, has just been released on DVD. It stars John Leguizamo as Manolo Bonilla, a star reporter for a tabloid TV show, who is determined to unearth a serial killer in a small town in Ecuador.
I got a chance to talk with Cordero about making Crnicas and his upcoming picture, Manhunt. That film will star Harrison Ford as the General who is hunting down John Wilkes Booth after the murder of Abraham Lincoln.
Buy the DVD of Crnicas
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did the idea for Crnicas come about?
Sebastian Cordero: The inspiration for the screenplay came from a news story that I read about four or five years ago about this child rapist and murderer in Colombia who had been arrested. It was a really crazy story. Luis Alfredo Garavito had supposedly killed 192 children over a period of ten years. No one knew who the killer was for all that time. In the article there was an interview with his wife that really struck me. She was living with him and knew absolutely nothing. She thought he was such a good man and didnt think he was capable of this double life. I felt that this was a character that I really wanted to explore. I had been looking for a character with very strong duality to write about. Then when I read about this child murderer, I thought What could be worse than this? I felt I could make this character show his human side. That is what set the whole creative process in motion. Later on, I realized that I needed a character who could lead us into this story. I thought of a very famous news reporter from a familiar television show that would be trying to exploit this story.
DRE: What made you bring in the political aspects?
SC: I think when you tell a story in contemporary Latin America its almost unavoidable that the world you are showing will shed light with social commentary. For me its very important that the story be very appealing and it is just as important that it will have something to say about the world and mankind. The movie has a lot of social commentary about the role of the media in society, how much manipulation there is and all of these things. The movie deals with human flaws, which have always existed, but nowadays the media seems to be much larger and have much more impact than it should. For instance, when I was writing the script I always had the word arrogance coming back as a recurring theme in several characters of the movie and lack of tolerance as well. So I think I was really writing about these elements of human character and I thought it was fascinating to have a character who just by the nature of his job, the minute they put the cameras on him, the minute he intervenes somewhere, you know what his reporting is going to be. I wanted to do a good story about how the presence of a threat can actually affect the case that youre seeing. With the irony that as a human being there are a lot of things that the guerillas will do that you completely go for at the beginning. Then it is only after they cross a certain line that you go, No thats too far probably because it didnt work out.
DRE: Has your life ever been adversely affected by journalists at all?
SC: Not majorly. But ever since I made my first movie there was articles about the movie or reviews or whatever and if theres an interview with me I always feel that it has been edited or something that I said had been slightly changed. Its always been very frustrating but I understand also that its the nature of the craft. Sometimes the fact that there is someone reporting the story, serving as an intermediary, automatically changes a little bit of the story.
DRE: Ill see what I can do to keep it as pure as possible [laughs].
SC: Alright, great [laughs].
DRE: John Leguizamo is almost a secret for dramatic roles even though hes done quite a few. What made you think of him for this role?
SC: I remember seeing him in Summer of Sam and thinking, Wow, thats his best performance. Ive always loved him so I was glad he could pull off a dramatic role so well. When I was thinking of Manolos character I knew I needed someone very charismatic and someone who you would like automatically. I thought John really had that in him. But at the same time you have to perceive his dark side, that there is something that would appeal to this guy about this whole world that the movie deals with. I think the fact that you want to like him makes you tolerate the things that he does in the movie. But there is a point where he crosses the line and even after crossing the line, I wanted to make sure that youre still with him.
DRE: You had some very talented producers on this film. Was this a difficult movie to make even though you had Alfonso Cuarn and Guillermo del Toro as your producers?
SC: Once they came on board, things got a lot easier. Making a movie in Ecuador is really complicated. It is very hard to raise money and put together a project there. Once it became an international project and the Mexican co-producers got involved, things began flowing much better. But it was still a complicated movie to put together in terms of the locations. Theres a lot of things you take for granted which you dont have shooting in Ecuador like the fact that you have to rent a lot of equipment abroad. There were a lot of people from the crew that came from other Latin American countries and, to date, it was the largest Ecuadorian production. That makes it more of a challenge, but at the same time there was so much enthusiasm and everyone was so excited about making the film that you really get extra energy.
DRE: Certainly one of the most powerful scenes is the very first scene when they set the man on fire and attempt to lynch him. That seemed like a very difficult scene to shoot because you had a huge crowd. How was that?
SC: It was a very complicated scene with a lot of elements. For scheduling reasons we were forced to do that scene in the very first week of shooting which totally freaked everyone out. We had about 300 extras which were all people from the small town where we shot. None of them had ever participated in a movie before. The street outside the cemetery where the lynching takes place had just been paved six months before so we had to cover it with dirt and mud. It ended up being a very exciting scene to shoot. We had two cameras going at once. But I think it went great once everything started rolling. It brought up the adrenaline level and the level of expectations from all the crew in terms of what we were going to be doing. So it really set the tone for the rest of the shoot
DRE: Ever since Silence of the Lambs came out it created its own horror subgenre where it had an investigator going and hanging out with a killer. Were you working in that genre and trying to twist that idea?
SC: It is funny because when I first started writing the script I didnt think of the script as a serial killer movie. Though very soon I became aware that it was and there were a lot of things that had been done in serial killer movies all throughout film history, starting with Fritz Langs M. I love The Silence of the Lambs and I love the Hannibal Lecter character, but after that, there have been so many different versions and in most of them the character of the serial killer is a little bit superhuman. The real challenge to me was to be able make the character of Vinicio, the serial killer, a normal guy with a human side, someone you can believe can be your neighbor or even in your family. To me that had more strength than if the serial killer was some type of superhuman figure.
DRE: Youve worked with John Leguizamo, now on your next film; youre working with the guy that John Leguizamo shot in the head in Regarding Henry.
SC: Yes, absolutely [laughs]. Im very excited to be working with Harrison Ford. I think Manhunt is a great project. Im very happy with the story. I thing its going to be a very different movie than what Ive done before. But at the same time there are a lot of themes in common with a lot of elements that I can relate to.
DRE: First, I want to say that we broke the story that you were directing Manhunt before The Hollywood Reporter did.
SC: Yes I know. I think someone sent me a link to the page [laughs].
DRE: Harrison Ford is still a very good actor, but in the past few years the kind of films he does has changed. Also hes just not as popular as he used to be. When I spoke to [Narc director] Joe Carnahan who was supposed to direct him in A Walk Among the Tombstones, he said that he wanted to take Harrison Ford back to what made him great in films like Witness and Indiana Jones. What kind of conversations did you have with Harrison about the kind of character you wanted to create for him?
SC: The lead in Manhunt is a great character and I think hes really going to do an amazing job of it. I completely see the idea of taking him back to some of his best moments. When I think of him there are so many examples like Deckard in Blade Runner. But I think what Im looking forward to doing with him is creating a very mature character.
DRE: Its amazing to me that a Latin American director is doing the story of John Wilkes Booth. What do you see in the story for yourself?
SC: First its just an amazing story. Its interesting to me that actually when you look at the US at the end of the Civil War the world is falling apart because its been ravaged by the war. Finally when it seems that everythings going to be over its not and this conflict is going to go on. Its frighteningly similar to a lot of things that are going on in the world right now. I think a lot of the chaos and the mayhem that you had in the US at that time was in many ways similar to a lot of the chaos you see in Latin America. I connect very much the human side of the story. This is a story about a world falling apart where you have these two idealists who are very extreme and very different from one another but they share the ideal of trying to do things right and trying to change the world.
DRE: Have you gotten any farther with the casting Manhunt?
SC: No not yet, it is only Harrison Ford at the moment. Were working on the script now. Andrew Marlowe is working on a new draft and so far its coming along really well.
DRE: How does the movie begin?
SC: The movie starts with Lincolns assassination. I think that scene in itself is going to be great. It reads incredibly well in the script and I think theres so much to be done. Of course it is a very important moment.
DRE: Are you writing another original script?
SC: Yes I am, but thats probably going to be delayed for a while.
Also Im working also on a project with Focus Features that Kevin Misher is producing. It is an adaptation of the graphic novel Tiempos Finales.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
I got a chance to talk with Cordero about making Crnicas and his upcoming picture, Manhunt. That film will star Harrison Ford as the General who is hunting down John Wilkes Booth after the murder of Abraham Lincoln.
Buy the DVD of Crnicas
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did the idea for Crnicas come about?
Sebastian Cordero: The inspiration for the screenplay came from a news story that I read about four or five years ago about this child rapist and murderer in Colombia who had been arrested. It was a really crazy story. Luis Alfredo Garavito had supposedly killed 192 children over a period of ten years. No one knew who the killer was for all that time. In the article there was an interview with his wife that really struck me. She was living with him and knew absolutely nothing. She thought he was such a good man and didnt think he was capable of this double life. I felt that this was a character that I really wanted to explore. I had been looking for a character with very strong duality to write about. Then when I read about this child murderer, I thought What could be worse than this? I felt I could make this character show his human side. That is what set the whole creative process in motion. Later on, I realized that I needed a character who could lead us into this story. I thought of a very famous news reporter from a familiar television show that would be trying to exploit this story.
DRE: What made you bring in the political aspects?
SC: I think when you tell a story in contemporary Latin America its almost unavoidable that the world you are showing will shed light with social commentary. For me its very important that the story be very appealing and it is just as important that it will have something to say about the world and mankind. The movie has a lot of social commentary about the role of the media in society, how much manipulation there is and all of these things. The movie deals with human flaws, which have always existed, but nowadays the media seems to be much larger and have much more impact than it should. For instance, when I was writing the script I always had the word arrogance coming back as a recurring theme in several characters of the movie and lack of tolerance as well. So I think I was really writing about these elements of human character and I thought it was fascinating to have a character who just by the nature of his job, the minute they put the cameras on him, the minute he intervenes somewhere, you know what his reporting is going to be. I wanted to do a good story about how the presence of a threat can actually affect the case that youre seeing. With the irony that as a human being there are a lot of things that the guerillas will do that you completely go for at the beginning. Then it is only after they cross a certain line that you go, No thats too far probably because it didnt work out.
DRE: Has your life ever been adversely affected by journalists at all?
SC: Not majorly. But ever since I made my first movie there was articles about the movie or reviews or whatever and if theres an interview with me I always feel that it has been edited or something that I said had been slightly changed. Its always been very frustrating but I understand also that its the nature of the craft. Sometimes the fact that there is someone reporting the story, serving as an intermediary, automatically changes a little bit of the story.
DRE: Ill see what I can do to keep it as pure as possible [laughs].
SC: Alright, great [laughs].
DRE: John Leguizamo is almost a secret for dramatic roles even though hes done quite a few. What made you think of him for this role?
SC: I remember seeing him in Summer of Sam and thinking, Wow, thats his best performance. Ive always loved him so I was glad he could pull off a dramatic role so well. When I was thinking of Manolos character I knew I needed someone very charismatic and someone who you would like automatically. I thought John really had that in him. But at the same time you have to perceive his dark side, that there is something that would appeal to this guy about this whole world that the movie deals with. I think the fact that you want to like him makes you tolerate the things that he does in the movie. But there is a point where he crosses the line and even after crossing the line, I wanted to make sure that youre still with him.
DRE: You had some very talented producers on this film. Was this a difficult movie to make even though you had Alfonso Cuarn and Guillermo del Toro as your producers?
SC: Once they came on board, things got a lot easier. Making a movie in Ecuador is really complicated. It is very hard to raise money and put together a project there. Once it became an international project and the Mexican co-producers got involved, things began flowing much better. But it was still a complicated movie to put together in terms of the locations. Theres a lot of things you take for granted which you dont have shooting in Ecuador like the fact that you have to rent a lot of equipment abroad. There were a lot of people from the crew that came from other Latin American countries and, to date, it was the largest Ecuadorian production. That makes it more of a challenge, but at the same time there was so much enthusiasm and everyone was so excited about making the film that you really get extra energy.
DRE: Certainly one of the most powerful scenes is the very first scene when they set the man on fire and attempt to lynch him. That seemed like a very difficult scene to shoot because you had a huge crowd. How was that?
SC: It was a very complicated scene with a lot of elements. For scheduling reasons we were forced to do that scene in the very first week of shooting which totally freaked everyone out. We had about 300 extras which were all people from the small town where we shot. None of them had ever participated in a movie before. The street outside the cemetery where the lynching takes place had just been paved six months before so we had to cover it with dirt and mud. It ended up being a very exciting scene to shoot. We had two cameras going at once. But I think it went great once everything started rolling. It brought up the adrenaline level and the level of expectations from all the crew in terms of what we were going to be doing. So it really set the tone for the rest of the shoot
DRE: Ever since Silence of the Lambs came out it created its own horror subgenre where it had an investigator going and hanging out with a killer. Were you working in that genre and trying to twist that idea?
SC: It is funny because when I first started writing the script I didnt think of the script as a serial killer movie. Though very soon I became aware that it was and there were a lot of things that had been done in serial killer movies all throughout film history, starting with Fritz Langs M. I love The Silence of the Lambs and I love the Hannibal Lecter character, but after that, there have been so many different versions and in most of them the character of the serial killer is a little bit superhuman. The real challenge to me was to be able make the character of Vinicio, the serial killer, a normal guy with a human side, someone you can believe can be your neighbor or even in your family. To me that had more strength than if the serial killer was some type of superhuman figure.
DRE: Youve worked with John Leguizamo, now on your next film; youre working with the guy that John Leguizamo shot in the head in Regarding Henry.
SC: Yes, absolutely [laughs]. Im very excited to be working with Harrison Ford. I think Manhunt is a great project. Im very happy with the story. I thing its going to be a very different movie than what Ive done before. But at the same time there are a lot of themes in common with a lot of elements that I can relate to.
DRE: First, I want to say that we broke the story that you were directing Manhunt before The Hollywood Reporter did.
SC: Yes I know. I think someone sent me a link to the page [laughs].
DRE: Harrison Ford is still a very good actor, but in the past few years the kind of films he does has changed. Also hes just not as popular as he used to be. When I spoke to [Narc director] Joe Carnahan who was supposed to direct him in A Walk Among the Tombstones, he said that he wanted to take Harrison Ford back to what made him great in films like Witness and Indiana Jones. What kind of conversations did you have with Harrison about the kind of character you wanted to create for him?
SC: The lead in Manhunt is a great character and I think hes really going to do an amazing job of it. I completely see the idea of taking him back to some of his best moments. When I think of him there are so many examples like Deckard in Blade Runner. But I think what Im looking forward to doing with him is creating a very mature character.
DRE: Its amazing to me that a Latin American director is doing the story of John Wilkes Booth. What do you see in the story for yourself?
SC: First its just an amazing story. Its interesting to me that actually when you look at the US at the end of the Civil War the world is falling apart because its been ravaged by the war. Finally when it seems that everythings going to be over its not and this conflict is going to go on. Its frighteningly similar to a lot of things that are going on in the world right now. I think a lot of the chaos and the mayhem that you had in the US at that time was in many ways similar to a lot of the chaos you see in Latin America. I connect very much the human side of the story. This is a story about a world falling apart where you have these two idealists who are very extreme and very different from one another but they share the ideal of trying to do things right and trying to change the world.
DRE: Have you gotten any farther with the casting Manhunt?
SC: No not yet, it is only Harrison Ford at the moment. Were working on the script now. Andrew Marlowe is working on a new draft and so far its coming along really well.
DRE: How does the movie begin?
SC: The movie starts with Lincolns assassination. I think that scene in itself is going to be great. It reads incredibly well in the script and I think theres so much to be done. Of course it is a very important moment.
DRE: Are you writing another original script?
SC: Yes I am, but thats probably going to be delayed for a while.
Also Im working also on a project with Focus Features that Kevin Misher is producing. It is an adaptation of the graphic novel Tiempos Finales.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
this is the greatest film director on the world, so trash metal films dude go ahead mama verga!!!!