Andre Bijelic and an Answer to a Question

Frequently, I’m asked “Why a book about Cube and Vincenzo Natali,” and nearly as frequently, this question comes from the people involved with the movie. With all of the movies out there, what makes Cube worthy of attention?

Cube co-writer Andrew Bijelic asked something similar during our chat on Saturday. As affable and forthcoming as Natali and the rest, he also had some interesting insights into the origins of Cube, and why it works so well as a movie. And in answering his question about “why a Cube book,” I was finally able to put my thoughts into words on that point.

The truth is that occasionally you only discover “the story” you want to tell in a book after conducting a few interviews and ruminating on what is said. In the case of The Cube Diaries (is everybody cool with that title; a better one hasn’t yet occurred to me), I think there are two stories that I would like to tell.

First, it is very much a case study in how forces come together to make a small independent movie that looks like a healthy-budgeted studio release. Though made in Canada, the real-world limitations, tiny budgets and hampering bureaucracies Cube encountered have their U.S. counterparts, no question.

Second, this story is very much a personal one about a group of childhood friends who went from shooting Super8 movies in their backyards to becoming working movie and TV professionals in Hollywood. And unlike many of those oft-told tales, this one is not replete with the backstabbing and ankle biting the industry is known for, but a story of creative children who grew into creative adults, helping each other realize their goals along the way.

The Engima that is ‘Cube’s’ Kazan

A bewildered Kazan (Andrew Miller, foreground) drops in for some 'Cube' fun.

It’s called “the other shoe” syndrome, and it can impact you regardless of what it is you do for a living. There you are, making progress, things are humming along smoothly, and all you can think is “why is everyone being so nice to me — when is the other shoe going to fall?”

And this is when you either get that 10th-visit-is-on-us therapist card punched, or you just get on with things and trust that the universe — that great cosmic cube — will administer a kick in the pants shortly to restore the balance.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that I had a spirited and thoroughly enjoyable chat with Andrew Miller, who not only starred in Vincenzo Natali’s Cube and Nothing, but also co-wrote that latter movie. He also did something else relatively recently that would boost his geek credentials tremendously, but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say anything about it, so…I’ll just draw your attention to the next paragraph below. (Walks away whistling.)

I’m increasingly amazed at how the making of Cube is less the story of a single independent movie and something more akin to the blossoming of a tree that has its roots thousands of miles away from Hollywood, and which continues to grow skywards today. You’ll see what I mean a bit later on.

Actor/Everyman David Hewlett

Sometimes the amount of time it takes me to transcribe an interview I’ve done for a book, any book, is positively embarrassing.

I wish I could say the time gap involved with my David Hewlett (Worth from Cube, and actor in many other Vincenzo Natali films) interview was a record (we spoke back in April 2010, and I finished the transcript yesterday). Sorry, Mr. H., not even close. (Sigh).

Already I can see that this book comes down to two qualities that are so valued in cinema precisely because they are so rare: love for the creative process and respect between actors, director, and all the people who work tirelessly behind the scenes to develop worlds that only they can see.

As Hewlett put it:

Film is such an irritatingly collaborative process.  I think that people like Vincenzo are so rare in their ability to have a very clear vision, yet also be open to other people’s ideas.

Exactly what he means by that will become clear in the pages of this book.

Cheers to Derek Rogers

Though this book has been in the works unofficially for a while now, I was finally able to start the interview process last night with the amazing director of photography Derek Rogers, who not only shot Cube, but also Vincenzo Natali’s Cypher, Nothing, and his short, Elevated, as well as Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and Rodrigo Gudino’s short The Demonology of Desire.

Though I think Rogers would be the last one to admit it, from our short talk last night I get the feeling that he and Natali get along so well together because they are equally passionate about what they do, and two of the nicest guys you’re likely to meet. My thanks to Rogers for taking me into his memories of the marathon shooting of Cube, for contributing his insight about what was going at the Film Centre at the time, and for a broken-toe story that few will soon forget

Note: I actually started interviewing back in April 2010 with an entertaining chat with actor David Hewlett, but couldn’t even find the time to start this blog then because of the tidal wave of nonstop work that was the final push for The Gilmore Girls Companion. I will include a detailed posting about that talk once I’ve transcribed it.