so its the 20th anniversary of this film....wow, i feel old....
Costner had some interesting things to say about it.
I began with Costner by texting the following: “As you know or may remember I was reporting and hammering pretty hard on Waterworld when I was writing for Entertainment Weekly in the mid ’90s. And it kinda seems better now than it did back then. The one-line review that I recall someone saying after the first screening was ‘it doesn’t suck.’ Which may have sounded cruel from your perspective but was actually an acknowledgment that for all the toil and trouble and headlines, the movie itself wasn’t half bad. Anything you want to say or reflect upon 20 years later?”
Costner: “If [that] quote was designed to offer some measure of support at the time, it didn’t. I’m not sure you know how hard people work [on films]. I’m not sure you know how beloved the movie is around the world. Being hard [on a film] is really easy if you don’t know the underbelly of what [went into it]. When you do know the forensics of a movie — the participation and decisions of others that one has to stand in front of — you can’t help but see it differently.
“That said you have reached out. You are looking back and only you know why. I know that people might think of Waterworld as a low point for me. It wasn’t. It could have had a better, more obvious outcome. The thing I know is that I never had to stand taller for a movie when most were going the other way. The movie with all its imperfections was a joy for me…a joy to look back upon and to have participated in.”
Wells: “I know very little about making films, Kevin, but I do know that even making something that’s passably good or relatively decent or which at least hangs together in a competent way…I know that even this is incredibly difficult. Making a first-rater or a near masterpiece like Open Range or Field of Dreams or Dances With Wolves or JFK is a whole ‘nother realm. I respect Waterworld as far as it goes, and I think most people are on the same page. The gotcha tone of ’90s press coverage (which I was part of back then, I regret to say, as I was looking to compete and survive in a rough-and-tumble profession by doing the bidding of my masters) led to perceptions and tagging that may not have been fair in some respects. I hope you know and understand that I am a relatively free man these days & have been since I started my column back in ’98. I’m an admirer of much of your work and will remain so in all likelihood.”
Costner: “I understand. I hope you have a chance to watch Waterworld again on a very minimal green screen. That was me flying around the boat, up and down on the mast and in the water. Not overly dramatic but just the way it was. Again good luck to you. ‘Nothing’s free in Waterworld'”
http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2...ld/#more-71851