There's pretty much no limit of questions to ask Lorenzo di Bonaventura. The producer has been a Hollywood fixture for decades and has been behind dozens of hit movies, whether as the President of Worldwide Production at Warner Bros. during the 90s or with his own Di Bonaventura Pictures, which is behind Transformers, Salt, G.I. Joe and now Red, the action comedy that hits this Friday. Not only that but his name is attached to any number of high-profile upcoming projects, from the Jack Ryan reboot Moscow starring Chris Pine to, believe it or not, a movie based on the video game Asteroids.
So what do you ask someone with that much knowledge when you sit down across from them in a hotel room? Lucky for me the interview after me cancelled, and I got to pick di Bonaventura's brain for 30 minutes, about everything from assembling the all-star cast of Red (Bruce WIllis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, Karl Urban, Richard Dreyfuss, just to name a few) to how impossible that title is to Google to the changing roles of stars in Hollywood to how he got Malkovich on board Transformers 3 after Red wrapped. Normally I would try to pick and choose bits of the interview to share, but honestly, I feel like the entire thing is worth watching. There are few producers who do press like this, and hearing di Bonaventura talk about the nuts and bolts of getting a film made-- like shooting an action scene with all the film's stars in a frozen power plant in Toronto-- as well as giving his long-view perspective on comic book movies and blockbusters is totally worth 30 minutes of your time.
Check out the interview below-- for the details he shared on Moscow and a potential Salt 2, click here-- and catch Red in theaters this weekend.
