The red carpet premiere of War Inc. was my first Tribeca event featuring an actual red carpet, which meant the whole thing was a bit crazier than what I was used to. You know Hilary Duff has entered a room when an entire press horde starts screaming, and you never realized just how popular John McEnroe is until you see how much attention he gets from the photographers. Being a lowly interviewer, getting photos was tough, but for the first time getting interviews was even tougher. How dare you walk right past me, Hilary Duff? Do you even know I’m here, Marisa Tomei?
Luckily some people who worked behind the scenes were willing to pause for a chat, including screenwriters Mark Leyner and Jeremy Pikser, who co-wrote the script with John Cusack, and producer Grace Loh. Later on I got a one-minute interview with director Joshua Seftel as well. They may not be the glitzy red carpet faces, but they know more about the movie than just about anyone. Check out our photo gallery below for photos both of the interviewees and the elusive Duff, McEnroe, and Ed star Tom Cavanaugh, who chatted with the Croatian TV crew right next to me. No, he’s not in the movie—he just seems to love being at Tribeca.
Is this maybe based on a company called Halliburton? Any real-life inspiration here?
Screenwriter Mark Leyner: There might be some vague resemblances, yes.
Screenwriter Jeremy Pikser: Inspired by.
ML: A lot of these characters, a lot of the conceits and characters are inspired by things. But we certainly were determined to take things way beyond any reality. I think sometimes the only way to show the true reality of something is to take it out of the context of its current state, which is numbing to people. You don’t really see what’s in front of you, you just become numb and habituated to it. The only way to get someone to actually open their eyes to something is to make it that much more outrageous.
JP: It’s more realistic when you distort reality. ML: That’s right, it ends up being more penetrating to someone when sometimes you’re surreal and hyperbolic than when you just so something as a documentary.
So do you feel like you’re selling it as a comedy but hoping people will come out with questions?
ML: Well, it is a comedy.
Producer Grace Loh: We’ve been pretty straight up that it’s a political satire.
ML: There are specific scenes in the movie a person will laugh at, and then think to themselves, ‘Why am I laughing at that? That’s awful and appalling.’ But that’s a human reaction to something that’s so outrageously appalling.
GL: But in humor you’re able to see the truth, and that’s one of the important things that you can walk away from it with. You’re able to actually process things. If it were straight on and serious, it would probably be too much.
How long did it take you guys to shoot?
GL: It was five weeks, six day weeks though.
Was it hard recreating a war zone on the set in Bulgaria?
JP: No! But we have to give props to our production designer, Miljen Kreka Kljakovic, who created the Emerald City in a backlot in an old Soviet-era studio.
GL: With no money.
And how about working with the screenwriter/producer/star John Cusack? Any clashing egos behind the scenes?
JP: There was artistic clashing, but there was no ego clashing.
ML: It was very good in that way. There was never a unanimity among us about things. We’d talk, and we’d have arguments, and we’d work late into the night, and we’d sit and eat dinner, and always come up with something that was more interesting than we’d had at the beginning. We’re all in love—we’re sort of a little cult. We all live together on a piece of land in Delaware.
JP: And we have John Cusack masks.
How is it being at Tribeca?
ML: Well, we’re from here. We’re all East Coast people. Jeremy and I are New York people. We really value this festival among all others. It means a lot to us, being here.
JP: The fact that we didn’t get airfare to some other place—that’s the only [downside].
Interview with director Joshua Seftel
So are there any real-life inspirations here?
I think that there probably are, yes.
How do you feel about doing something that cuts closer to home than a more fictional satire?
I love it. It’s about what’s going on in the world right now. Any time you get a chance to do that, with a movie project, I’m really happy to do that. I’m a documentary filmmaker. I’ve been in war zones, I’ve been all over the world. I’ve seen some crazy stuff. Most of this movie is stuff that really happens that I’ve seen, and that’s why I loved the script so much. It’s really about what’s going on.
What sort of audience reaction are you hoping for?
This movie is really provocative. I think it’s going to get people thinking. We hope it gets people thinking about what’s going on right now. Some people are going to love it, some people might not. We hope it really gets people thinking about things and feeling something.
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