Collider Interviews Alex Pettyfer and Director DJ Caruso

If you've been following us for sometime, you know that Collider has provided the fans of I Am Number Four, with some amazing interviews with the cast and film makers. Today, yet another has been released. This time it's a roundtable discussion with Alex Pettyfer and Director DJ Caruso on the making of the film, the differences between the book and film, and John Smith as a character. Check out some excerpts below.

COLLIDER:  Alex what did you get to do on this film that you’ve always wanted to do that’s a little different from, like you did on Beastly, is there something on this that you got to do and went “Yes!”?

Pettyfer: You know every film that you go from, you have different experiences, and this experience was working with people that I idolize. DJ, I love his movies from Disturbia to Eagle Eye. I remember reading Disturbia, one of the first scripts I ever got, and I go “Pfft, who wants to make a movie about a guy in a house?” And you watch it and you are blown away about what DJ does, you know he makes an intimate story about a guy who you care about. That’s what I loved about I am Number Four, is that you have all this great action and explosions and etcetera etcetera, but at the core of it DJ makes a story where you care about every single character and you feel like it’s real. That’s why the new Batman worked so well, cause it’s real. You don’t have people flying around and this and that, you have real situations with real people and you start to care about them.

COLLIDER: Obviously, a book is a book, a movie is a movie. Could you talk about the differences from the book to the movie? And also, this is the first of what could be a series of films, how much do you know about where it might go past here?

Caruso: Well I know for me, it was really trying to make—you know you have the book, you have the novel, you have the outline for where the second book goes, the third book was sort of on track to some of the thoughts that they had. But for me, it was really very selfishly trying to make the best movie that I can, trying to stick to some of the themes and elements from the book. But we did do some tweaking and changing, for example I think the biggest change would be—and it’s not a major change, [well] it is a major change dramatically—in the book when it starts he knows who he is, he knows exactly what he’s gotta do, he already has all these powers, most of these powers. We decided for the film to make it a discovery, that he kind of knows he’s special and he’s be chosen, he doesn’t know what’s gonna happen, and so as these powers kick in we, the audience, are discovering with him for the first time what’s happening to him and then how are these gonna relate to what happens later in the movie. So for me, dramatically, that was sort of the biggest shift that we took. And then also just, there’s a lot of sort of folklore and backstory about where he came from and how he got here and flashbacks and things, and I decided in the film just to keep it straight, make that the Chinatown of the movie. We know he’s not, wherever he’s from there’s some horrible things that happened, but for this particularly first film it wasn’t an important element of dramatically telling the story. So I think those were probably the two biggest shifts.

COLLIDER:  Okay the tortured souls in different ways. This kid moves all the time, he’s got this horrible background, and your guy in Beastly is a high school student as well who’s paying for his arrogance basically. So do you pick roles like that on purpose? Why do you gravitate towards these guys?

Pettyfer: I think John isn’t a tortured soul, he is a guy who—everyone in life comes to a point where they have a choice, and John’s choice is he wants to lead a life of normality and that’s not his destiny. His destiny is he is essentially this warrior who is from another planet, and that is what’s so torturing for him. He isn’t a tortured soul; he is very vulnerable because of the situation that he’s in. And he may feel tortured, but really it’s about choice for him and him wanting one thing, yet him having to do another to actually essentially get what he wants. Because if he doesn’t become this warrior, and doesn’t go down this path he’s gonna actually lose everything he’s ever wanted. He wants to be normal.

Head over to Collider to read the full interview, there's a lot more with Alex and DJ!

Source

New Interview with Director DJ Caruso, PLUS Information on 20 Minutes of the Film

Steve "Frosty" Weintraub from Collider has just posted another amazing interview with Director DJ Caruso as well as a description of 20 minutes of the film he was lucky enough to see.  In the interview we learn a lot of great details about the film, including the special effects, what's different about the movie versus the book, and how Steven Spielberg has helped with the editing of the film.  Read on for highlights!

First the interview:

COLLIDER:  It looks like you spread out a lot of the action which in the book was at the end. Was the conscience?

DJ: Not really. We have some action that is inter-stickle, but kind of gets you there. We still have the fight in the forest, still have the fight there after the hay ride in the forest. But really, I think the action starts in high school, which is all act 3, which is very similar to the book.

COLLIDER:  You are dealing with a series of books when only #1 is released, are their elements worked in that we don’t know now, but years from now will?

DJ: Yeah there are some elements worked in. Particularly the whole sort of mythology of the Mogadorians is not explained in the movie as it is in the book. You just sort of understand from John the history of the legacy. There are some things in the movie, particularly what happened to Sam and Sam’s father and why they go to Paradise. Ultimately Sam, Six, and John ultimately embark on a journey and that’s where the authors let us know book two would be starting. So we just saw an outline for book two not the whole book so we definitely kept that on track. But the movie has a beginning, middle, and end and ends in a very satisfying way. So if it does well and we want to make another one you can understand that people would want to know that John and Six are going to look for the others. And when they find the others how powerful they can be. But I still think it stands alone and has a beginning, middle and end as a stand-alone film.

COLLIDER:  How did you find the balance with him finding his powers and what to show on screen?

DJ: I think particularly in the book John is a lot more knowing about the powers he has and what is happening in his life and cinematically we thought to have him discovery more of these things. Henry sort of keeps him in check and keeps him waiting for these things to happen. I think it is much more interesting from a cinematic stand point not necessarily from a literary standpoint that you are with your character when he is discovering these things. He is sitting in science class when everything seems to be okay and he is looking for Sarah and his first legacy, like full blown legacy starts to come out from his hands and he has no idea why that is happening so he kind of needs to curtail that and run into the closet and all this stuff happens. So you experience that as a viewer with him. You are learning all about the same stuff he is, instead of already knowing he already has it.  I think it is a better story telling device.

Click here to read the full interview with Director DJ Caruso. 

Now, what about that footage??

After the DreamWorks logo appears, we pan to the right and then start to zoom in on our planet with an awesome shot that keeps on going until we ultimately end up in the jungle and in a small cabin with mosquito protected beds.  A man hears something.  He gets out of bed and grabs what appears to be a strange looking weapon.  As he walks over to the window to investigate what might be outside, we are shown another person in the cabin.  He’s younger.  Scared.  Cut to the the adult.  After believing they are safe, he turns and then….

Want more??  Then head over to Collider and check out "Frosty's" full description of the film footage.  It sounds AMAZING!!

 Haven't seen the trailer yet?  Check it out below!

Official Teaser Trailer -- I Am Number Four

I Am Number Four Trailer---EXTRA!! UPDATE, better quality video added!

Check out this Origins Featurette for I Am Number Four!  Includes comments from Director D.J. Caruso and Alex Pettyfer.  It also includes the first look at Bernie Kosar at 0:36, so watch closely!



Director D.J. Caruso On Set Interview I AM NUMBER FOUR

As we mentioned in our previous post, Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub from Collider.com had the unique opportunity to visit the set of Dreamworks, I Am Number Four this past July.  During that time he was able to sit down and talk with the playmakers that are bringing this book to the big screen. 

One of the interviews he was able to conduct was with Director D.J. Caruso.  'Frosy' was able to talk to him about he got involved with the project as well as some wonderful insight into the book and film, and how the film differs from the book. 

Here are some brief excerpts:

How did you get involved with this? Obviously, you had the association with DreamWorks before. Did you get the manuscript back when they were first optioning it?

DJ Caruso: What happened was that I remember reading that they had bought this manuscript for Michael Bay and just thought, “Oh, that sounds like a really good idea,” and then when “Transformers 3” was definitely going to happen, Steven (Spielberg) called me and said, “Would you read this? We really want to make this movie and Michael can’t, Michael doesn’t have enough time,” and I read the manuscript for the book and liked the concept, read the screenplay and thought it needs some work but dove into it and started working on it for about five or six months and got it into good shape and started making the movie. I love DreamWorks. For me, there’s no other place where I’d rather work.

He goes on to talk about how the movie will be set up differently than the book:

So this is mostly a set-up for these characters, do we get a lot of their history?

DJ Caruso: You know what? This is interesting. In the book, you’ll get a lot more of the history of Lorien and where he came from. In the screenplay, we deal with it on kind of a level where there’s a lot of mystery, so I think God willing Movie 2 is going to be the second half of this book in a weird way, because there’s a lot more of the history of where he came from and how he got there. I was more interested in him trying to figure out who he was. Who he wants to be and who he ultimately is are two different people and I think that was sort of the dramatic conflict that I liked. This is a kid who really thinks he wants to stay in a small town and fall in love with this girl but at the same time, his destiny and what he’s supposed to do are not going to allow him to do that.

This is a very lengthy and intriguing interview, so please check out the rest of it here.

Source: Collider

I Am Number Four Set Visit Report

Back in July, some members of the media had the opportunity to visit the I Am Number Four set in Pittsburgh.  Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub was one of those lucky enough to catch some of the filming and have an opportunity to talk to the films stars as well as director D.J. Caruso.

Here's a bit of his set report,

Alex Pettyfer is freaking out.  He’s just discovered he can shoot light from his hands and it looks like he has flashlights shooting out from inside his skin.  He’s sitting in a small janitor closet in a High School hallway and I’m standing very close to director D.J. Caruso (Eagle Eye, Disturbia).  We’re all looking at the monitors.  Timothy Olyphant, who plays Pettyfer’s guardian, walks into the closet shortly after Pettyfer and he’s telling him to relax.  As Olyphant gets him to calm down, the light emitting from his hands starts to dim until it finally goes away.  While the effect is being done practically, it looks real on the monitor.  I’m impressed.  I watch take after take of Olyphant and Pettyfer trying to get it right.

The report goes on to discuss need to know facts about the book and gives bits and pieces of interviews, "Frosty" was able to do while on set.  There is also a bit more about the scenes that they were working on while he visited. You can read the rest of the report here.

Source: Collider