NEWS  Cusack On Hollywood
John Cusack is sick of Hollywood - because it's full of liars. Despite living in Tinseltown for years, the High Fidelity (2000) star still finds it a strange place. The actor explains, "There are some good people. Even people in positions of power. But a good chunk of them will lie for no reason at all - it'll be ten o'clock and they'll tell you it's nine. You're looking at the clock and you can't even fathom why they're lying. they just lie because that's what they do. Lie." And he admits he can lie himself, saying, "I'm a good white liar. I'm not a good liar liar. I try not to lie on moral and karmic grounds. You never get away with it."
Driver: Judge Me By My Work
Good Will Hunting (1997) star MINNIE DRIVER insists she should be judged by her work not her well-publicised relationships. The sexy actress was famously dumped by actor MATT DAMON on TV's THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW and has also been linked with JOHN CUSACK. But she says, "Women can be defined by their relationships, but the conclusion I have come to is that your work speaks a thousand times louder than any gossip. I don't feel that I have to constantly defend myself any more about all that tabloid babble. People thought they had me pinned down, but they were wrong. "If you keep coming back with a wicked film, it shuts them up. They cannot argue with that."
Neve Campbell Not Old Enough For John Cusack
JOHN CUSACK may be dating NEVE CAMPBELL - but he would much prefer to be romantically involved with an older woman. The High Fidelity (2000) star, who is reported to be seeing the 25- year-old PARTY OF FIVE beauty, wants it known that it's older women he really desires. On the mid-morning show THE VIEW, Cusack flirted with the middle-aged presenter telling her, "Here's my keys, I'm staying at the FOUR SEASONS." He added, "Men are always looking over their shoulder for the next woman, but women are a lot more pragmatic about it relationships and love... I think women see things a lot more symbolically. I have always loved older women."
High Fidelity Author Wants John Cusack To Play All His Characters
British author NICK HORNBY is so impressed with actor JOHN CUSACK's adaptation of one of his books, he wants him to play all his characters in future. Hornby gave Cusack permission to turn High Fidelity (2000) - about a 30-something unlucky-in-love record store owner - into a movie, and star in it. And Hornby's so impressed with the results he'd like to see Cusack take on the lead in ABOUT A BOY as well. He says, "I think he's done a terrific adaptation. He moved the story from London to Chicago and it really worked well. The film didn't lose anything at all. "My latest book, About A Boy, is being written up as a screenplay at the moment and is set to go into production next year. " And Hornby says he can definitely envisage Cusack in the lead role. He says, "John's pretty good. He can make himself into how my characters are in the book. I'd settle for him playing them all."
John Cusack Is A Dating Dud
Actor JOHN CUSACK found it easy to play his unlucky-in-love, socially dsyfunctional character in High Fidelity (2000) - because he's a walking dating disaster himself. The Being John Malkovich (1999) star, who loved NICK HORNBY's novel so much he spent two years bringing it to the screen, says the character of ROB didn't actually require too much acting on his part. He says, "There's a lot of similarities between Rob and me, a lot of themes that really struck a chord. Rob's really bad at dating and that's something I can definitely relate to. " And Cusack, who once dated Good Will Hunting (1997) beauty MINNIE DRIVER, says he's had so many bad dates, he can't even decide which one has been the worse. He says, "I'd have to pick from a collection of hundreds of dating experiences. I've had my fair share of bad dates."
New Movie Features 61 Songs
However well High Fidelity (2000) may do when it opens on Friday, the soundtrack album from the movie is likely to become a part of many record-lovers' collections. Today's (Wednesday) New York Post reports that the film's soundtrack includes a record 61 songs featuring artists as diverse as the Beta Band, Elvis Costello, StereoLab, Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and Tenacious D's Jack Black, who appears in the film. John Cusack, who co-wrote, co-produced and costarred in the film, reportedly also helped select the records.
Movie Reviews: Being John Malkovich
While it's not likely to set the box office afire, Being John Malkovich (1999) has certainly fired up the passions of film critics. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Steven Rea is calling it "a marvel of oddball surprises, veering off in unexpected directions ... and heading on comic, Kafkaesque flights of fantasy." He also calls the performances of John Cusack, Catherine Keener, Orson Bean, Mary Kay Place and John Malkovich "sublime." Employing near-surrealistic metaphors, Stephen Hunter comments in the Washington Post that the movie "is a document of pure surrealism. It doesn't take place in a dream universe but in our own, with but one strange, unexplainable twist. And after allowing for that, all events transpire with deadpan accuracy. This probably is how John Malkovich would act if he became aware that his frontal brain was a low-rent tourist destination." Janet Maslin, who reviewed the film during the New York Film Festival earlier this month, commented that the festival featured no film that was "more endea
ringly nutty ... or more intriguingly prophetic than this irresistible first feature by the stellar video director Spike Jonze."
Movie Reviews: High Fidelity
The comments of most critics about High Fidelity (2000) must come as music to the ears of the film's producers and especially to John Cusack, its star and co-writer. Joe Morgenstern in today's Wall Street Journal says of Cusack's performance: "It's an infallibly funny tour de force, the equivalent of a one-man show within a fully populated feature film, and you can't take your eyes off Mr. Cusack's doleful face." Lou Lumenick in the New York Post calls the movie, "the year's first must-see," while Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer describes it as being "like one long, hook-filled pop song for the eyes." Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times pastes 4 stars on his review, which actually contains few hyperboles. He writes: "All I want to say is that High Fidelity (2000) has no deep significance, does not grow exercised over stupid plot points, ... sees how pop music is a soundtrack for everyone's autobiography, ... and causes us to leave the theater quite unreasonably happy
The Wait Gets Shorter
Following meetings with the National Association of Theater Owners, 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm said on Friday that they will make advance tickets available for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) beginning at noon, Pacific Time, on Wednesday, May 12th. In a statement posted on the official Star Wars web site, the companies said that they wished to "provide the least inconvenience for families, fans and general movie goers and hopefully avoid a potential ticket-scalping problem." MovieFone (777-FILM) said this morning (Monday) that it will begin taking orders for tickets over the phone and online beginning at the scheduled time. The movie companies said that theater owners had "agreed to make every reasonable effort to first accommodate those fans already standing in line." However, to discourage scalping, they said that they would permit a maximum of 12 tickets to be purchased by a single customer.
Movie Reviews: Pushing Tin
Movie reviewers are pushing mostly gold at Pushing Tin (1999), director Mike Newell's film about air traffic controllers, starring John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett and Angelina Jolie. Based on a magazine article, "Newell's ensemble timing and breezily sardonic style make it work better than might be expected," writes Janet Maslin in The New York Times. While most of the other reviews praise the performances, several fault the script for what they suggest is a contrived ending. "Luckily, the actors keep the movie in the air even while its script is steadily losing altitude," remarks Jay Carr in the Boston Globe. In an almost identical comment, Carrie Ricket writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "In its finale, it loses altitude -- and attitude." And Kenneth Turan, in the Los Angeles Times concludes, "It's an intriguing film, one of the year's most interesting, but ... it leaves an unsatisfied taste when it's over
Friday April 7, 2000
Cusack to remake 'Sweet Smell Of Success'
"Sweet Smell Of Success," the showbiz drama from the 1950s, is about to enjoy an enhanced profile, thanks to not one, but two planned remakes -- a stage musical and an updated take starring John Cusack.
The original 1957 film starred Tony Curtis as Sidney Falco, a press agent forced to execute the nefarious wishes of Broadway's most powerful columnist, J.J. Hunsecker, played by Burt Lancaster.
Written by Ernst Lehman and Clifford Odets, directed by Alexander Mackendrick and shot on location in Manhattan's nocturnal world of seedy nightclubs by legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe, the film was deemed too dark for audiences at the time. Since then, it has gained a cult following among movie buffs.
Variety reports that Cusack, hot off the success of "High Fidelity," will play Falco and also executive-produce the remake. The new version will still be set in Manhattan, but Variety said Falco and Hunsecker will have "different but analogous" occupations.
Meanwhile, SFX Theatricals has been preparing a Broadway musical version of "Sweet Smell Of Success," with music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Craig Carnelia, and book by John Guare ("Six Degrees Of Separation"). The play will be directed by Nicholas Hytner, best known for directing the movies "The Madness Of King George" and "The Object Of My Affection".
-- JAM! Movies
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Wednesday, March 29, 2000
High fidelity friendships
By JIM SLOTEK
Toronto Sun
HOLLYWOOD -- Last year at this time, John Cusack was looking forward to a summer job in sweet home Chicago, filming High Fidelity. Among expectations was that he'd be spending time on Lake Michigan on pal Chris Chelios's boat.
?n Chelios got himself traded to the Red Wings.
?p;quot;It's tough, man," Cusack says earnestly. "I just felt like I didn't want to be a Blackhawks fan anymore."
?t kind of reflexive loyalty to his friends is part of the soft-spoken Cusack's chemistry. His friendship with Chelios dates back to when the actor still lived primarily in Chicago. "It's a small town, and we just kind of met running around."
?antic debacles
?re's much guy-pal quid pro quo in High Fidelity, co-produced and co-written by Cusack. Based on a book by Nick Hornby (who set it in London), High Fidelity tells of the romantic debacles of struggling Chicago record store owner Rob Gordon (Cusack), amid the socially-retarded antics of employees, Barry (Jack Black) and Dick (Todd Louiso).
?k no further than longtime friend Tim Robbins as a New Age smoothie who steals Rob's girlfriend, or Bruce Springsteen -- who never does anything filmic -- in a fantasy scene giving romantic advice a la Bogie in Play It Again Sam.
?, the 33-year-old Cusack is buds with The Boss. "It's a weird thing, because I always thought there was a media blackout between what I did and anybody I ever respected.
?p;quot;But apparently Bruce liked some of my films, and I got to meet him about eight or nine years ago and I spent a couple of nights hanging out with him and having great talks."
?p;quot;(For High Fidelity) I called him up and I says 'Bruce, do you want to be in this film of mine, playing yourself having a conversation with my character in his head?' And he just started laughing and said (does Springsteen impression that sounds like Fat Albert) 'Well, how'm I gonna do that?' And I said 'Read the book, 'cause it's a music lover's book."
?k scratching goes both ways. The manic character actor Black says he was hired partly because of his past experience socializing with Cusack. And as a boss, he was socially obliging. "John's like the Mayor of Chicago," agrees co-star Louiso, "always showing you the best places in town to hang."
?h an amazingly eclectic and busy soundtrack -- including obscurities from the likes of Arthur Lee & Love, Stereolab, the Velvet Underground, and Stiff Little Fingers -- High Fidelity juggles twin themes. The first is that music trivia is, next to sports, a standard lingua franca for males to bond and 'talk' without saying anything. The second is a male's outwardly diffident but inwardly passionate perspective on love and romance, a point of view seldom seen in "romance" movies.
?p;quot;It felt when I read the book that Hornby was breaking down what guys obviously feel but don't admit to themselves," Cusack says. He's circumspect about naming names (Toronto girl Neve Campbell recently said of their rumoured relationship that they are "friends"). But he admits to a problematic love life.
?os;I want that rush'
?p;quot;If you're not ready to be in a relationship, that's cool, but a lot of guys just can't seem to give up the idea of 'Okay, I want that rush one more time, the first time I'm with that chick, I know she's coming over and my heart beats really fast, the way the sex is when you first meet someone.'
?p;quot;It's a huge struggle men have. I know I have it."
?fessionally, he's happy chugging along below the Tom Cruise/Mel Gibson radar, getting kudos for oddball choices like Being John Malkovich and Grosse Point Blank (also shot in Chicago). "I could be in films where you kill someone and then say something cute," he quips. " 'Hasta la vista, baby.' It starts there. Before you know it, you have an entourage."
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Saturday August 29th, 1998
Calgary casting call for Cusack movie
By TYLER MCLEOD -- Calgary Sun
Producers are looking to round up 1,200 extras to appear in Jack Bull, a new western filming in the
Calgary area.
Casting directors will be meeting potential bit players at the Highlander Inn from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. today.
They are specifically looking for male extras from diverse ethnic backgrounds -- Native, Asian or African origins.
No experience is necessary and applicants preferably would have facial hair or be able to grow it quickly. (The film is set in 1880 ... a few years before the Gillette Mach 3 came out.)
Saturday Night Fever and Stakeout director John Badham is helming Jack Bull, an HBO movie starring Grosse Pointe Blank's John Cusack.
The work will probably fall between the dates of Sept. 15 and Nov. 6.
Interested Calgarians unable to attend today's audition can send a photo and any pertinent information to Classic Casting, Box 345, Suite 300, 8120 Beddington Blvd. N.W. T3K 2A8.
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Thursday, December 4, 1997
Double duty
Cusack stars in two new movies
By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary
Cusack drives home his Pointe
By LIZ BRAUN
Toronto Sun
A dark new comedy called Grosse Pointe Blank is what you might call a family affair.
John Cusack stars in the film as a professional killer who goes to his high school reunion and finds redemption.
Minnie Driver co-stars as the hometown woman he loves and Alan Arkin portrays his psychiatrist. Joan, Ann and Bill Cusack -- siblings all -- are also in the cast.
This is not exactly a family first. John and Joan Cusack were both in Say Anything, the movie that boosted John Cusack into a permanent spot in the American consciousness.
When Cusack sped through Toronto recently to talk about Grosse Pointe Blank, we asked him point blank about sibling rivalry.
Narrowing those piercing eyes and telegraphing intent with an extra-wry face, he says, "Well, it just doesn't happen. My sister and I don't go up for the same roles."
Serious now, Cusack says, "We don't have sibling rivalry. We're supportive of each other. Maybe," he muses, "there's competitive stuff you might feel internally, but, um, we're not a mean-spirited family." After a few false starts, he lists all five Cusack kids: Ann, Joan, Bill, himself, Suzie. The age range is about 25 to 35. Suzie, he explains, the only one not in Grosse Pointe Blank, has appeared in Short Cuts and Hero. They all do other things besides act, too. Warming to the subject of family, Cusack says that his mother was a math teacher.
?lt;br>"Sometimes I wonder if she is our mother," he jokes. "None of her children have any of her skills."
?lt;br>Cusack's father Richard is a filmmaker (an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker) and writer.
?lt;br>"Hollywood is so reactionary," states Cusack. "My father is a terrific writer, and people will say, 'Oh, he's such a terrific writer,' but they don't really mean it until Bruce Beresford or someone agrees to direct what he's written."
?lt;br>Cusack, widely admired for his talent, humor, intelligence and disinterest in 'Hollywood,' has a conversational style that suggests he's happiest not talking about himself.
?lt;br>As luck would have it, we can do that for him. By the wise old age of seven, Cusack was already interested in acting and by nine had joined the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston, Ill., where he grew up.
?lt;br>(Jeremy Piven, a life-long friend and the son of the theatre founders, has a role as Cusack's best friend in Grosse Pointe Blank.)
?lt;br>The six-foot-two Cusack had an agent and a role in Class by the time he was 16, and since then he's appeared in Tapeheads, Eight Men Out, True Colors, The Player, The Grifters and City Hall, among many others.
?lt;br>"I've been making films for 15 years," he says, and that would be half his life.
?lt;br>Grosse Pointe Blank marks the actor's screenwriting and co-producing debut.
?lt;br>Further on the subject of family, the movie is co-written by Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis, who happen to be friends since high school and co-founders of New Crime Theatre, the Chicago based company they put together with Cusack in 1988.
?lt;br>Cusack is currently working on a load of projects: Con Air is coming up soon for him, a macho action film in which he co-stars with Nicolas Cage. Then there's his film about a Brazilian psychic surgeon put on trial in the '50s, which Alan Arkin will direct, and there's The Jack Bull, a western his dad wrote.
?lt;br>For some time now, Cusack has been working on a movie about the NFL. It's a film he has described in the past as involving steroid-crazed Neanderthal athletes. He's still trying to get that one financed, saying, "Sacred Cow makes the best hamburger."
?lt;br>Words to live by.
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February 3, 1996
Cusack has no regrets about passing on some big movie roles
? YORK (AP) -- John Cusack has no regrets about passing on some big movie roles that came his way.
?apos;s all in keeping with his credo: Shun celebrity.
?p;quot;Celebrity is death. I can't do the Charm Monster, not even in movies anymore -- it's too hideous to watch," Cusack, 29, says in the March issue of Premiere magazine.
?er Cusack jettisoned a deal to be in Apollo 13, Bill Paxton suited up for the part. Cusack also passed on roles he was offered in Sleeping With the Enemy and Indecent Proposal.
The next role for Cusack, whose film credits include Eight Men Out and The Grifters, is in the forthcoming political drama City Hall with Al Pacino.
The CONTROLLER'S File
SOUND OFF: At the Long Island air traffic facility, the conflict alert buzzer is supposed to go off when two jets fly closer than the three-mile limit. This is not a crisis but a concern. Usually the controller is questioned on the spot about the computer blips flashing on the scope. Toronto air traffic control will have a conflict alert signal installed soon.
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Tuesday April 20, 1999
Cusack is at the controls
Pushing Tin star knows what he wants from his career
By BOB THOMPSON
Toronto Sun
HOLLYWOOD -- John Cusack's a little pasty-faced and slightly dazed, sitting slouched in a Pasadena hotelroom chair.
He was busy flying in from Chicago the night before, and stayed up later than he meant to.
As he faces reporters to promote his latest picture, Pushing Tin, Cusack seems to be mourning this morning.
Yet underneath the exhausted exterior, the actor-producer and sometimes writer should be a happy fellow.
He's 50 pages into the Grosse Pointe Blank sequel he'll star in and produce next year. And he's also starring in and producing a movie he'll shoot in his hometown of Chicago this summer.
"Stephen Frears is doing it. It's called High Fidelity," says Cusack in a barely-audible growl, referring to the director who put him through his Grifters paces.
"It's a music industry male confessional. I run the record store, and live in it. I have, like, a fetish for music information."
Cusack cracks a smile at his description, pleased with himself.
He has a lot to be pleased with. The 32-year-old is slowly becoming a film force in this town.
He's in two other movies in '99. One is called Being John Malkovich and the other is a Tim Robbins drama, The Cradle Will Rock. And there's this. Pre-release buzz is generally positive for Pushing Tin.
Opening Friday, the Mike Newell-directed comedy deals with competitive air traffic controllers working at a stressful Long Island facility. Cusack plays opposite Oscar-winner Billy Bob Thornton, and holds his own. Cate Blanchett and Angelina Jolie co-star in the picture, which was shot in Toronto last year.
The fast-talking, smoothly charming Pushing Tin character is a perfect fit for Cusack. Perfect, and he knows it. Knowing things, you see, is the hallmark of his triple-threat film career.
He has been featured in big studio productions like Con Air and City Hall. But he was just as eager to be a part of such independent features as John Sayles' Eight Men Out and Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway.
Even in the '80s, Cusack ducked the "brat pack" tag by steering clear of "living large" and instead focusing on acting in decent teen flicks with smart directors -- Cameron Crowe in Say Anything and Rob Reiner on The Sure Thing.
After 16 years as an actor, now writer and producer, Cusack has learned lots, and is still learning.
"I always try to stay away from certain scenes," he says, talking about the high-living Hollywood movie star lifestyle.
"And I've always tried not to get emotionally involved in the hype. Everybody wants to canonize everything that comes out.
"I don't take the short term seriously. I'm more concerned about the long-term, and the process to get there."
Cusack sighs as he rubs at the stubble on his chin. "I've been doing this for a while," he says, sounding weary. "I've seen the cycles.
"It's like every two years. Then every so often it's my turn to be the flavour of the month. But I realize the stars really have to be in alignment for a film to work."
Like Grosse Pointe Blank 2. Cusack nods a yes. Or even High Fidelity. Cusack grins at the mention of High Fidelity, since he's filming it in his sweet home Chicago.
Ah, the joy of graduating to a producer who can choose locations. The joy of making a movie, and also getting to play with your buddies. Especially the hockey playing buddy with a big cruiser with the big Lake Michigan to cruise it on.
Cusack finally comes alive.
"What am I doing for my summer vacation?" he says, all perky and excited. "I'll be doing a movie in Chicago, and I'll be with Chris Chelios on his boat."
How un-Hollywood is that?
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Sunday April 18, 1999
John Cusack pushes the limit
A comedy about air traffic control freaks
By BOB THOMPSON
Toronto Sun
HOLLYWOOD -- Control is critical in the air traffic control business. When writer Darcy Frey investigated controllers' jobs for a 1996 New York Times Sunday magazine piece, he discovered control only applied to on-the-job execution.
Frey revealed some startling elements of living a controller's life through the eyes of New York-based Tom Zaccheo.
The piece had been prompted by some near misses in the skies around New York in the mid-'90s. During his investigation into the near-misses, Frey found himself marvelling at the after-work controller subculture.
Handling more than 7,000 flights daily in the LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark airports, the air traffic guides were anything but typical of the short-sleeved, tie-wearing bureaucrats most imagine.
Shortly after the piece's publication, producer Art Linson saw a movie in the words, and bought the film rights. The TV Cheers team of Glen and Les Charles developed a screenplay in '97.
Amazingly enough, a year later, that film version, Pushing Tin, can be seen in theatres.
Opening Friday, director Mike Newell's comedy-drama features John Cusack as a hyperactive, macho controller who competes with a newly hired hotshot (Billy Bob Thornton) at Long Island's Terminal Radar Approach Control facility.
Vicki Lewis, Jake Weber, Kurt Fuller and Matt Ross are featured as other Long Island controllers. Cate Blanchett and Angelina Jolie play Cusack's and Thornton's wives.
Pushing Tin was filmed last spring in and around Toronto, which boasts Canada's busiest airport and one of the five busiest in North America.
Although New York air controller Zaccheo was used as a consultant, Newell, Thornton and Cusack leaned heavily on Toronto air traffic controller Sheila McCombe, who was hired as an on-set expert.
McCombe put Thornton and Cusack through drills "of turning planes" for landing and setting up aircraft for takeoff by directing pilots' aircraft from computer blips on radar scopes.
Pressure? Lots, when 10 planes are approaching the same airport at the same time during bad weather.
Like, 'United 1230, turn left heading 280 immediately. Traffic at your three o'clock.'
Get the picture. Controllers have to take charge quickly and with authority.
That's why one of the main thrusts of Pushing Tin -- controller slang for directing air traffic -- is the examination of how these professionals cope. Hour shifts with hour breaks, five days on, four days off. Shift work, always shift work. And overtime, always overtime.
Animosity between pilots and controllers? Lots of that, too.
McCombe had Thornton and Cusack sit alongside seasoned veterans, as well as work with the actors on the computer simulator that re-enacts air traffic movements.
Both Thornton and Cusack became immersed in a major way, bravely trying to speak clearly, confidently and quickly.
"They were hilarious," she says of Thornton and Cusack.
"Billy Bob came first for a couple of weeks. When John got here, he was quite nervous that Billy Bob was ahead of him
"When they came back together, John was very aggressive. He didn't care if he got anything right, he just wanted to get everything out. I actually had to restrain his mannerisms. His hand gestures would've looked completely ridiculous.
"Billy Bob wanted to think very hard about every clearance, and think about it again. And then he'd look at me and see if I was approving."
"There is a lilt to it," adds McCombe, a 34-year-old pilot turned controller. "You have to know where to put the pauses and commas in your voice."
Thornton laughs as he remembers the experiences with McCombe.
"We'd hang out with Sheila, and she was just like this girl we knew," recalls Thornton.
"Then she'd be on the set, like no nonsense, 'No, this is what you do.'
"She really got a kick out of John and me. We are so different in manner. John talks fast -- it's natural. So he'd screw up, because he'd get ahead of himself. And me? I wouldn't quite get there yet.
"I'd be like, 'Uh, TWA-740, uhh, I think ...' And Sheila would jump in and say, 'You can't pause. You can't act like you don't know what it is.' "
"The controllers are pretty wired," reports Cusack. "They are very high energy kind of people dealing with a lot of pressure.
"I think that the movie is really about how people cope with stress, and how they release steam through some bizarre behaviour."
Thornton adds: "I expected white shirts and neckties and that they would be laid out in these perfect little booths. But the Toronto guys were in T-shirts and khaki shorts, telling stories while controlling traffic."
Yet the demanding jobs are anything but casual.
"We worked on the simulator computer," recalls Cusack of his air traffic movement practice. "You can do it at first. Then you realize it's three dimensional. And then you realize the planes just keep coming and coming. They don't stop. Take care of two, two more show up. And two more after that.
"It is like a video game, but you know there is a lot more at stake than that."
Admits McCombe: "It is intimidating." But only for the uninitiated.
"You plug in the headset, but every plane you turn, you don't wonder how many people are on the plane," says McCombe.
"We move so many that you get really confident on how to sequence and separate airplanes safely. I don't think you acknowledge the stress from day to day."
What about acknowledging a fear of flying for Cusack and Thornton after getting way too much information on air traffic controller jobs?
"I just know I'm not going to die in a plane crash," Cusack says confidently.
"I'm not a great flyer," admits Thornton. "But on a plane now, I'm usually the one telling everybody, 'It's just the wind.' "
Friday, October 30, 1998
Cowboy Cusack
By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun
Clint Eastwood loves Calgary, and that's no bull.
Eastwood made our day back in 1991 when he filmed his Oscar-winning western Unforgiven in our back yard.
In his interviews for Unforgiven, Eastwood said Alberta was one of the few places that can still give a western a truly authentic look.
From a man of few words, that's high praise.
It was Eastwood who suggested to John Cusack that the 32-year-old actor shoot his western The Jack Bull in the Calgary area.
Eastwood was directing Cusack in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil at the time.
Cusack had just received word that HBO Pictures had agreed to finance his pet project about a rancher who risks his own life to avenge the brutal treatment of some of his horses by a fellow rancher.
"Clint even put me in touch with (Calgary production manager) John Scott. We didn't bother scouting any other locations," recalls Cusack, who stars in The Jack Bull and acts as one of the film's executive producers.
Cusack is not exactly a stranger to Alberta. When he was 18, he filmed the Disney movie The Journey of Natty Gann in the Crowsnest Pass area.
Cusack had been trying for three years to find a studio to bankroll The Jack Bull, a script his father Dick Cusack had written.
"The Jack Bull is a pretty dark morality tale," says the younger Cusack. "Most studios were leery about its commercial potential. As dark as it is, Unforgiven is ultimately more satisfying (for an audience) than The Jack Bull.
"To be realistic, I don't think Unforgiven would have been made as a feature film if Clint wasn't attached to it," says Cusack.
The Jack Bull has been filming in the Calgary area for the past month mostly near Longview and on the Lonesome Dove ranch sets.
The production moved to Heritage Park yesterday for its final two weeks. It was the first day Cusack wasn't required to act, so he was wearing his producer's hat.
He watched intently but unobtrusively as John Badham (Bird on a Wire) directed John C. McGinley (The Rock) and Australian actress Miranda Otto (Love Serenade) in a highly emotional scene after their characters have been involved in a life-threatening accident.
After establishing himself as a leading man through such films as Fat Man and Little Boy, Bullets Over Broadway and Con Air, Cusack wrote, produced and starred in 1997's runaway independent hit Grosse Pointe Blank. The movie, shot for $14 million US, ended up grossing $100 million US worldwide.
Prior to arriving in Calgary to shoot The Jack Bull, he filmed Pushing Tin with Billy Bob Thornton in Toronto. He and Thornton play air-traffic controllers.
"I'm not the kind of person who has fear about natural disasters," he says. "I'm more frightened at the thought of walking across a street, tripping and breaking my neck.
"I'll tell you though, if I were prone to worrying about things like flying, making Pushing Tin would have put me in a mental institution.
"It's kind of M*A*S*H set in the world of air-traffic controllers. It's really out there."
Since the beginning of his career, Cusack has been a fiercely private man, insisting on talking about his work rather than his personal life.
He is currently dating Neve Campbell who has visited him in Calgary twice since The Jack Bull began shooting.
MOVIES BRING THE CLAN TOGETHER
The HBO western The Jack Bull is a family affair.
The screenplay was written by Dick Cusack, patriarch of one of Hollywood's acting dynasties, and stars the Chicago native's youngest son, John Cusack.
"My kids are the actors. I just dabble. I'm really a writer," insists Cusack Sr., who has had cameo roles in 25 movies.
He played Harrison Ford's lawyer in The Fugitive and the doctor in While You Were Sleeping. He even plays the jury foreman in a pivotal scene in The Jack Bull.
"What an embarrassment. I completely blanked. I was under such stress for my closeup I forgot my lines -- and I'd written them."
The Cusack dynasty also includes Joan Cusack, who received Oscar nominations for her roles in 1988's Working Girl and last year's In & Out.
His oldest daughter Anne Cusack, who stars in the Lifetime series Maggie, flew into Calgary last night to spend the weekend with her father and brother.
Dick's oldest son, William Cusack, was supposed to play a soldier in The Jack Bull but had to pull out when he was cast in the Los Angeles stage production of The Inspector General.
"I was so excited at the thought of both my sons starring in my movie, but Bill was committed to the stage play."
The youngest sibling, Suzie Cusack, starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in Hero.
Cusack's The Jack Bull is based on an 1820 novel called Michael Kohlhaas, the true story of a 12th century Saxon chieftain hanged for avenging the senseless slaughter of his livestock.
"The moment I read the novel, I knew I wanted to turn it into a western. As I was writing it, I envisioned someone like Robert Duvall or Clint Eastwood playing the hero Myrl Redding, but when I let John read it, he said he wanted to play Myrl.
"John is right. The men who were in Wyoming at that time would have been younger.
"It took John three years of shopping the script around Hollywood to get the film made.
"We only got a $10-million US budget because of John's participation and the other talent he was able to attract."
The Jack Bull also stars John Goodman, John Savage, John C. McGinley, L.Q. Jones, Jay O. Sanders and Miranda Otto.
-- Fifteen years ago, John Cusack had a decision to make.
He had attended auditions being held in Chicago for a teen movie called Class and, low and behold, he got cast opposite Rob Lowe.
"It wasn't Rob Lowe I was excited about. It was Jacqueline Bisset. I was 16 and I had to decide whether to go to school or to spend my days on a movie set with Jacqueline Bisset.
"There was no contest."
It proved to be the chance of a lifetime and Cusack had grabbed the golden ring. He's been acting nonstop ever since in such films as The Sure Thing, Eight Men Out, The Grifters, City Hall, Con Air and Grosse Pointe Blanke, which he also wrote.
He is currently starring as an investigative reporter in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil -- and provides the voice for Dimitri, the young Russian peasant, in the animated musical Anastasia.
"I rather like the way the animators drew Dimitri. He is consistently more handsome than me. They gave him this wonderful Tom Cruise hair and swagger -- neither of which I could ever have achieved in my lifetime."
Cusack did not supply Dimitri's singling voice. "I didn't want to frighten the children," he says.
His role in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil presented Cusack with several challenges, especially when it came to his two leading ladies.
His love interest is played by Alison Eastwood, the 23-year-old daughter of the film's director Clint Eastwood.
"Alison and I had a pretty intense love scene. It's been cut from the final print, but we filmed it," recalls Cusack.
"The day we shot it, I went up to Clint and apologized for what I was about to do. He told me the only reason I was getting to do the scene was because he was acting as chaperone."
Cusack's second "lady" in the movie is Lady Chablis, a female impersonator who plays herself in this fact-based story of a prominent Savannah antiques dealer (Kevin Spacey) who shot and killed his young male lover (Jude Law).
"At our first meeting, the Lady Chablis pinched my butt. I told her to behave herself and, after that, we got along just fine.
"She's a notorious flirt. She even flirted with Clint. None of us could believe our eyes."
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was shot in Savannah, Ga. The best-selling John Berendt novel on which it is based stressed the quirkiness of Savannah and its citizens.
"It's definitely a weird city. You don't feel you're in the U.S. It's an unbelievably gossipy city. Everybody had the story about what happened the night Jim Williams shot his lover."
Cusack's next film is Pushing Tin, a black comedy in which he and Billy Bob Thornton play air-traffic controllers.
"It's kind of M*A*S*H set in the world of air-traffic controllers. It's really out there."
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Tuesday, December 2, 1997
Cusack a winning personality
He cut classes at 16 to make Class and now he's In The Garden Of Good And Evil
By BOB THOMPSON
Toronto Sun
?IS -- Cuddly John Cusack is neither the almost nor unrealized movie star. These days he just is one, thanks to Grosse Pointe Blank.
If Cusack's high school buddies could seem him now they'd be even more impressed. Yes, more than when he cut class to be in the Jacqueline Bisset movie Class, which was filming in Chicago way back in 1982.
Certainly, the world-travelling 31-year-old actor is hitting his stride in a big way.
He is in the French capital to promote the animation film, Anastasia -- he's the voice of love interest Dimitri. He's also currently featured as the reporter in Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil.
There is more to come. Cusack just arrived here from Australia where he was shooting his part in Terence Malick's epic WW II story, The Thin Red Line, which will be out next year.
In a few months, Cusack is scheduled to land in Toronto to do Pushing Tin, a wild comedy about air traffic controllers out of control. After that he's set to do a "male confessional" with Four Weddings And A Funeral director Mike Newell in London.
In between, Cusack is working on the sequel script to Grosse Pointe Blank, his hitman-high-school-reunion comedy that gave him the acclaim everybody expected he'd get.
"I don't know what's going to happen to Blank," he says of the Grosse Pointe character he played, "I'm only on page 30."
What he does know for sure is that the release last spring of Grosse Point Blank provided the Chicago native with something he'd never had -- the power of a creative and commercial hit.
"Yeah, that was an odd movie and it made money," reports Cusack, sounding more relieved than boastful. "It pulled in $30 million, and that's not counting foreign and video sales.
"I guess what it did was establish me as somebody who can make a film. I get a sense that they are going to let me do it again."
His hot acting career might get in the way of his writing time, however.
In '97, Cusack has either been seen in, worked in, or has been signed to major productions.
"Anastasia, Con Air and Midnight were easier than they should've been," he says.
Six grueling weeks working with Nick Nolte, Ben Chaplin and Malick on The Thin Red Line in northern Australia made up for them.
"Although on days off I went golfing with Nolte in his pyjamas," says Cusack laughing, "so he's pretty much my favorite American."
On a less exotic note, there is Toronto in February for Pushing Tin. Cusack cringes at the thought of the weather, but he does it as a Chicago native would.
"That will be like M*A*S*H set in an air traffic control tower," he says changing the subject to the Pushing Tin theme.
Cusack isn't complaining about weather or anything else. He thinks of his job the same way he did when he was starting out as a 16-year-old.
"I remember waking up, putting on The Specials, and instead of going to school, I was going to a movie set with Jacqueline Bisset.
"And I remember thinking, 'I'm winning.' The kids I went to school with thought I was winning, too."
And now? "They probably think I'm still winning."
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April 9, 1997
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