From Independent to Hollywood Elite
Posted May 10, 2010 1:48 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Director Gary Winick first made an impression on moviegoers and critics alike with his 2002 indie hit Tadpole. Since then he has worked on more mainstream fare, from 13 Going on 30, to Charlotte’s Web, to Bride Wars. His most recent film, Letters to Juliet, opens this Friday.
“[Letters to Juliet] felt like making an independent film in a way. I was just doing my thing and collaborating with my key people, and Summit Entertainment [the studio behind the film] would send notes that helped make the movie better,” Winick tells CityNews.ca.
The idea for Letters to Juliet stems from the book The History of the Secretaries of Club Juliet, which documents real-life women who answer letters people send, and leave, for Shakespeare’s fictional character Juliet. Producers Ellen Barkin and Caroline Kaplan were intrigued by the concept and went about bringing it to the big screen. The film was shot over four months in Verona and Tuscany.
“It’s just the most amazing place,” Winick says of Italy. “It’s a little more difficult to work there because the crew can only do 10-hour days [as opposed to much longer shifts American crews are used to doing] and out of the 137 people on the crew only 10 spoke fluent English.”
Amanda Seyfried stars in Letters to Juliet as Sophie, an American vacationing in Italy who attempts to reunite a couple referenced in an unanswered letter. Both Seyfried and Winick were starstruck by Vanessa Redgrave, who also stars in the film.
“She brought everyone’s game up. She’d do a take and I’d say, ‘Vanessa, that was great,’ and she’d say, ‘Okay, then we don’t need to do it again,'” he says.
He counts Woody Allen and Billy Wilder among the filmmakers who’ve influenced him, and says that in the world of 3-D and special effects-driven films, it still comes down to story.
“I’m on the AFI new media advisory board and there was this huge meeting with [Steven] Spielberg and all these major people. We’re trying to figure out how new media is going to affect us and everyone said as long as we keep telling stories we’ll still be of value,” he says, adding, “Even though I do these big romantic comedies I always try to make sure it’s a story worth telling.”
Winick says that although his studio work is not as layered as his independent films, they all have a similar message.
“For Charlotte’s Web and Bride Wars it’s about friendship, 13 Going on 30 is about believing in who you are, and for [Letters to Juliet] it’s about having the courage and being brave enough to take that leap to find ‘that’ person and it’s worth trying,” he says.
His next project, he hopes, will be Rat Bastard — a project he describes as his “New York Tootsie” that he’s been trying to make since Tadpole. He’s had no luck getting it green-lit but says he will attempt to once again now that Letters to Juliet is done.
Letters to Juliet is in theatres May 14. Find out more about the film at letterstojuliet-movie.com.
brian.mckechnie@citynews.rogers.com
Top image: Gary Winick and Amanda Seyfried on set of Letters to Juliet. Photo credit: John Johnson. Courtesy E1 Entertainment.
