INTERVIEWS
Video Interview: Rian Johnson In-Depth on 'Looper' [with Spoilers]
by Alex Billington
October 1, 2012
"It's about the situation time travel sets up and how the characters deal with it." Now playing is one of the best films you'll see all year - Looper, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis as the same person from different times. The brilliant mind behind the film, both writer and director, is Rian Johnson, of Brick and The Brothers Bloom previously. Because I interviewed him earlier this year, this time talking about the film in-depth, I wanted to go all out, and cover the spoilers, cover all the pressing questions you might've had after seeing Looper. Hence the slight delay posting this, as we cover all the spoilers, and get in-depth about his decisions writing & directing, structuring time travel storylines, and much more. Enjoy!
This interview contains spoilers for Looper. We do not suggest watching it until you have seen the movie, now playing. This is your one warning - it is a spoiler interview, but a damn good one with a lot discussed.
Here's my in-depth video interview with Looper writer & director Rian Johnson, filmed in Toronto:
Earlier this year at WonderCon, I first interviewed Rian Johnson spoiler-free on Looper. For this follow-up, recorded at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival where I saw the film for a second time (reviewed here), I decided to go all out and talk in-depth about the movie, with spoilers and everything. Once you've seen it, you will understand why I had to do this, because there is so much to talk about that would be considered a big spoiler beforehand. But now that the film is out, I wanted to dive into topics on the Rainmaker and TKs, the time travel twists and turns (including the alternate timeline he shows for Bruce Willis' character) and more on what went into crafting this world. As always, I hope you found my interview entertaining and insightful. He's one of my favorite filmmakers for a reason. Follow Rian on twitter (where he's very active) @rcjohnso.
Rian Johnson's Looper is now playing in theaters, check your local listings. Once you've seen it, Sound Off.
3 Comments
1
Really great interview and I'm glad it was one of the lengthier ones. I could probably listen to you guys talk about Looper for hours. Johnson reminds me a lot of Danny Boyle in how he talks in interviews; he seems like such an intelligent, cool, down-to-earth guy. Looper stands as my favorite film of the year so far (I haven't seen The Master yet, but I think it'll be hard to top this).
Chems1919 on Oct 1, 2012
2
Anybody else notice that they made a pretty big mistake IMO when emily blunt shot JGL with the shotgun. He was shot on the left side yet in the next scene where she is taking out the buckshot, it is on the right side.
Ryan Browne on Oct 1, 2012
3
Hell of an interview. Really well done, thanks for this.
Tim on Nov 23, 2012
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