Skip to main content

Jonathan Glazer, Scarlett Johansson and Under The Skin - in The Sunday Times


Scarlett Johansson in Under The Skin.

Ryan Gilbey has an excellent article in today's Sunday Times about British filmmaker Jonathan Glazer's movie, inspired by ("adaptation" seems too literal a word) Michel Faber's deeply unsettling novel, Under The Skin.

The film stars Scarlett Johansson as an alien predator (of sorts) who picks up male hitchhikers in the seemingly unlikely landscape of Scotland. (I'm half-Scottish; somehow science-fiction isn't a topic you most immediately associate with Scotland.)

I worked on the first three drafts of the script, before Jonathan - over the period of a decade - took it in a totally new direction, including the intriguing device of having Johansson pick up unsuspecting real-life hitchhikers (who were later persuaded to sign a release for the film - or not, in some cases) and see what came next, courtesy of a camera hidden in her truck.



Ryan was kind enough to quote me twice in his piece. You can read the Sunday Times article here, but it's protected by a paywall - though you can try a month's subscription to the Times and the Sunday Times for £1 (well worth it for a good mix of news and opinion in a style US newspapers just can't carry off, for some reason).

My words are my own, though, so here they are:

"I remember Jon was fascinated by the main character’s physicality. We viewed her as someone horrifically crippled by surgery—a beautiful creature who was naturally four-legged, who had been twisted and broken in order to make her walk upright on two legs, with these enormous breasts to attract men, for a very specific reason."

"It was a fabulous time, literally like working on a Fellini movie, with anything possible. Jon is very connected to his subconscious. It’s alive for him. He’s probably one of the coolest and most fascinating people I’ve worked with, although given to pronouncements like, ‘One day it’s a horse, the next it’s a chair’, which aren’t always the most helpful when you’re writing the script, though they are intriguing."  


Scarlett Johansson in Under The Skin.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The High Tower Apartments and The Long Goodbye

Photograph by Dwayne Moser. This beautiful apartment complex in Los Angeles is called the Hightower or High Tower Complex (the High Tower name refers to the central elevator, I believe), and was designed in 1935-1936 by architect  Carl Kay - and made famous in 1973 by my favorite film, Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (see Why I Love Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye ). Although Altman used the building as Philip Marlowe's apartment in his somewhat post-modern Long Goodbye (the film plays with references to Old Hollywood and opens and closes with the song, Hooray For Hollywood ), the building has another direct connection to Raymond Chandler. It was apparently the inspiration for Chandler in his book, The High Window (the first Chandler novel I ever read), in which Chandler describes the residence of Philip Marlowe as being on the cliffs above High Tower Drive in a building with a fancy elevator tower. (Thanks to the Society of Architectural Historians Southern...

Thank You Sonora ER, Dr Trujillo and Dr Johnson.

Microphone stand designed by Hudson. Our eight year old son, Hudson, has been having severe abdominal pain over the past week to ten days, and this week we took him to see Dr Jennifer Neufeld-Trujillo , one of our regular pediatricians at the Forest Road Pediatric Clinic in Sonora, and also to ER at Sonora Regional Medical Center. We just want to say a big thank you to everyone - including all the very friendly and helpful staff at ER - for their care of and concern for Hudson, who is gradually starting to feel better. We would also like to make a special mention of Dr Lisa Johnson , who was on call tonight for Forest Road Pediatrics, and who had a long telephone conversation with me, in which she answered many questions with a depth of knowledge and experience that was both highly reassuring and informative, and who left us feeling confident that we are on the right path for the weekend - always a difficult time when your child is not feeling well. Hopefully, Hudson will cont...

Hyperbole And A Half - Why I'll Never Be An Adult

All images copyright 2010-2012 Allie and Hyperbole And A Half. These images are from one of my absolute favorite online comic strips/blogs/sites, Hyperbole And A Half by Allie . This particular post is called: This Is Why I'll Never Be An Adult - and these are just a few selected panes from a very funny and telling sequence: To check out the entire strip, go to this particular link for Hyperbole And A Half.   You might also want to check out the Hyperbole And A Half Store , which has many goodies such as this wonderful Bird T-shirt . Other designs can be applied to whole variety of products, such as T-shirts, mugs and iPhone cases (please note that not all designs are available for every product). I love the Bird T-shirt  because it makes me think of our much adored lovebird, Miso, who I'm certain spends a great deal of his life squawking these words in a language we can't comprehend because we're too stupid: Please visit Hyperbole And A ...