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Jon Avnet Aims for a Righteous Kill
From Risky Business to Righteous Kill, director-producer has a weak spot for great actors
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MM: How do you reconcile that schizophrenia with art?
JA: If you are self-critical, you can’t look at your work the way you look at others’ work. The thing I used to comfort myself with was, ‘Was it worth making?’ I wanted to be a positive voice in this culture, but that doesn’t answer “art.” I thought Men Don’t Leave was a really great movie, but no one went to see it; Less Than Zero was received better after the fact than it was when it came out. That’s typical of any kind of artistic endeavor. At the same time, you’re still walking around with these wounds—real and imagined—asking, ‘Are they right? What’s wrong with my judgment? Why did I accept casting this person instead of saying I won’t do it unless I have that person?’
MM: How important is a well-defined concept of success for a director?
I don’t know if you had the good fortune of seeing the Picasso show in New York years ago at the Modern, but you look at this guy’s work and go, ‘There’s the Blue Period, the Rose Period, there’s cubism, then abstract expressionism, then Guernica. How could this guy be this fertile and reinvent himself so many times?’ Maybe that’s also how you define genius. Most filmmakers aren’t geniuses, so they can’t continually reinvent themselves. You hear Francis Ford Coppola talking about The Godfather and you think: “He didn’t see what he was making?”
MM: He’s a great example.
JA: Did you see Eleanor Coppola’s documentary, [Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse]? Can you imagine what this man went through? To show up and there’s Marlon Brando, out of his fucking mind. Just to get anything was a miracle. He dedicated his entire life to [Apocalypse Now]—he was literally going to die making it—then he’s got this lunatic. What would happen to you? I don’t think it’s an accident that a lot of artists are so off the beaten path. It doesn’t matter how they start, they get there.
MM: What sparks your visual imagination?
JA: I start with music: Mozart, Beethoven… Steve Wright, Philip Glass and John Cage. I like Italian opera. Impressionist paintings—that period of art seemed so unbelievably rich and played with perception. That and early music videos. Some of them, visually, were so imaginative. And, of course, films: 1960s foreign films, the Italians, the French, Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, Ozu. That whole world that started post-war in Italy with neorealism—Pasolini, De Sica and Fellini—that world seemed like such an exotic and empathetic view of humanity.
MM: Any wisdom from your years on the front lines?
JA: If you can look “no” in the eye, snarl at it and dance around it, then you would be well-suited to make movies.
MM: At first, could you look “no” in the eye?
JA: No, I developed that. I had no extraordinary skills, but I learned—like most independent filmmakers—that I would run out of batteries. I’d run out of film. I didn’t have a permit. I didn’t understand what to do when the weather was bad. As I confronted these problems and felt overwhelmed by my inability to solve them, I thought, ‘Shit, I’m never gonna do this.’ But instead of walking away, I became more tenacious. Over time I developed a very patient and persistent approach to solving problems. Those skills develop by necessity and drive. You can have all those skills and you may still not make great movies. That’s the great paradox of filmmaking. What makes something great, there’s a magic to it.
MM: So what’s on the horizon?
JA: I’m adapting a book by Fannie Flagg called A Redbird Christmas; trying to finish Righteous Kill and hopefully do justice to Bob and Al, New York City, characters on the way out but with a lot of passion in them and a wonderful relationship between the two.
MM: That sets up my last question: Rooster and Turk, Pacino and De Niro’s characters in Righteous Kill versus Popeye Doyle and Buddy Russo from The French Connection. Who would win?
JA: Whoa, interesting question. A little bit like, “Pick two sports teams who were the greatest of a time...”
MM: Like the 1927 Yankees and the 1971 Pirates…
JA: Yeah, and I think on any given day it’d go one way or another. There was a phenomenal line from a movie: Two guys are looking at two gun fighters and one guy says to the other, “Who do you think is faster?” And the other guy says, “I’d hate to have to live on the difference.” That might be the best answer.
There’s something about older guys who stay in the game, even if they’ve stayed past their prime; they’ve got moves, they’ve got some savvy. They couldn’t win in a street fight that lasted beyond a certain time, but then again they may have taken you out with a blackjack before you even knew the fight started.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Essay on 10/19/08 at 9:15 am
Jon certainly looks to be on a mission. I certainly wish him the best for all his endevours ahead.
- Comment by Bears on 10/30/08 at 2:01 pm
Looks like a man on a mission. No wonder he can come up with such amazing movies..
- Comment by Best Term Life Insurance Quote on 11/02/08 at 1:47 pm
Great view point. I guess this is why he does turn out such excellent movies.
- Comment by Erik Z on 11/04/08 at 10:44 pm
That’s quite a step since the two are a little different from one another. I loved risky business with Tom Cruise and Booger, was a great comedy/drama. This new movie Jon Avnet is doing is a bit different. Making a mystery action movie takes a lot of work trying to keep the audience entertained. All I know is the cast he has to work with is perfect, I love De Niro and Pacino. Last time those two were together was “Heat,” and that movie was spectacular. I hoped this movie becomes a hit, I’m really looking forward to it.
- Comment by Igor on 11/14/08 at 9:22 am
Looks like a man on a mission. No wonder he can come up with such amazing movies..
- Comment by Piter on 11/19/08 at 6:06 am
When professionals gather lik De Niro and Pacino, the film itself is turning to dynamic, colored, sensitive and very lively movie. Do beleive, that the movie is going to take Oskar :)
- Comment by igor on 11/22/08 at 10:02 am
No wonder he can come up with such amazing movies..
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thank- Comment by Redding Restaurants on 12/29/08 at 3:50 pm
Yah, but with De Niro and Pacino in the cast you get instant recognition by the movie going public.
- Comment by Tech on 1/05/09 at 8:11 am
With actors like De Niro and Al Pacino, that can’t be better ...
- Comment by Car Reviews on 1/06/09 at 5:35 pm
Fried Green Tomatoes to Righteous Kill, nice wide selections on movies. At least he’s not being type casted (or what every would be the director equivalent)
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This story was published in the Summer 2008 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Righteous Path
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