{"id":44384,"date":"1997-01-17T08:00:54","date_gmt":"1997-01-17T16:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=44384"},"modified":"2016-04-15T16:14:34","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T23:14:34","slug":"interview-dan-ireland-the-whole-wide-world-1996","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/1997\/01\/interview-dan-ireland-the-whole-wide-world-1996.html","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Dan Ireland (The Whole Wide World<\/i>, 1996)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"danireland\"<\/a>For Dan Ireland, directing The Whole Wide World<\/a><\/i> is a dream come true. More than three decades after he first fell in love with film, Ireland is bringing his first feature, about the frustrated love life of Conan the Barbarian<\/i> author Robert E. Howard, to Vancouver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Howard ever had a choice in his life of what he would be,\u201d says the 46-year-old Vancouver native, who says he felt a bond of sorts with Howard. \u201cHe was a writer. And I was a film enthusiast, I was a total film nut. And I didn\u2019t know where it would lead me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first film Ireland remembers seeing was Them!<\/a><\/i>, the sci-fi flick about giant ants, which he saw at the age of five in a drive-in theatre with his parents. He got his first job at 14 as a doorman for the Vogue theatre. He eventually tried studying political science at UBC, but gave that up to embark on a career that saw him work at almost every theatre in town.<\/p>\n

At the time, though, there was very little space for the more interesting, independently produced films that Ireland wanted to show. So, at 24, he moved to Seattle with his high school buddy Daryl McDonald to renovate the Moore Egyptian theatre, a building that dates back to 1907. \u201cWe sort of uncovered this jewel, and we did it by going around the city of Seattle and advertising for anybody that was a movie theatre fanatic to help us do this, and we promised them jobs when we opened. And we had 37 dressing rooms downstairs, and we gave them food and shelter.\u201d He laughs. \u201cAnd jobs! It was like a whole little family for about six months, and it was scary, it was so unbelievable. It was great. When I look back at the most fun time of my life, it was putting that theatre together and getting it going.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that, they founded the Seattle International Film Festival, which has gone on to become one of the strongest festivals of its kind in North America.<\/p>\n

In 1986, it was time for another change. This time, Ireland left McDonald in charge of the festival to become an actual film producer with Vestron Pictures. \u201cIt was an opportunity to get closer to filmmaking. It was an opportunity to really grow and change, and one should always reinvent themself in ways that they want to. If you have a dream, it\u2019s never too late to realize it as long as you have breath and body.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first film Ireland produced was John Huston\u2019s The Dead<\/i>. That, he says, was one of the \u201cpivotal\u201d experiences that convinced him he wanted to direct. The other was Ken Russell\u2019s Whore<\/i>, a disaster following which Ireland swore he would take a more hands-on approach.<\/p>\n

Enter Ben Mouton, an actor on Whore<\/i> who introduced Ireland to Michael Scott Myers and a script he had written about Novalyne Price, a former teacher of theirs who had had an on-again, off-again relationship with Robert E. Howard.<\/p>\n

Ireland told Myers the script \u2014 185 pages of sheer dialogue \u2014 would need some work if it was ever going to be anything but a radio play. But after some tense discussion, Myers and Ireland agreed to work together on changing it into a proper movie.<\/p>\n

Their first choice to play Howard was Vincent D\u2019Onofrio, who had played the overweight Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket<\/i>. D\u2019Onofrio turned out to be so enthusiastic about the project, he came on board as a fellow producer, as well. And when the money people threatened to chop whole scenes out of the story to trim the already paltry $1.3 million budget, D\u2019Onofrio used the script approval clause in his contract to veto the cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the guy that really cleared the path for me to direct,\u201d Ireland says. \u201cHe was amazing. He just kept putting in money out of his own pocket, so I could have the Greyhound bus at the end. He was gonna pay for an extra day, but I finished on time. I had the bond coming down my back, threatening me I\u2019d never work again, and he\u2019d pick up the phone between takes and do this intense scene \u2014 and he wouldn\u2019t tell me! He was great! He\u2019d tell Donald Kushner, \u2018Donald, I don\u2019t feel too well today. I think I might be sick. Unless, perhaps, your people leave. Very shortly. Like, real<\/i> shortly.\u2019 Working with an actor who is that resourceful is wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland was also lucky to find the perfect leading lady in Renee Zellweger, an unknown with bit parts in indie far such as Dazed and Confused<\/i>, when Olivia d\u2019Abo turned out to be six months pregnant two weeks before shooting started. That last-minute change proved to be lucky for Zellweger as well, who landed a leading role opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire<\/a><\/i> after playing Novalyne Price.<\/p>\n

Being a top-notch Hollywood flick, Jerry Maguire<\/i> made it through production and post-production fast enough to hit theatres a month ago, while Whole Wide World<\/i>, as a low-budget indie, has trickled through the festival circuit, quietly biding its time. The difference in schedules works out quite well, since more people may be interested in Whole Wide World<\/i> now that they\u2019ve seen Zellweger. The intervening year has also given Ireland the chance to trim his film to a more manageable length, though he found it painful cutting out the subplot that dealt with Howard\u2019s racism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really amazing in this world of being PC, how people were really, really pissed off with his character during that scene. It doesn\u2019t bother me at all, I love that, but people really lost it for him. Robert E. Howard was really into purity of race at that point in his writing, but it changed later, probably because of Novalyne, and it broke my heart to take it out. It was their best work, it was fucking great. But it was 18 minutes that I would have to put in the film, and it just didn\u2019t work. I\u2019m gonna try to put that back in, maybe on the laserdisc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the author\u2019s problematic dark side, Ireland says he can sympathize with Howard, who was considered crazy for his adolescent obsession with sex, violence and fantasy worlds, since Ireland himself was taken to a psychologist in grade four when he announced in Show & Tell that he had seen Psycho<\/a><\/i> ten times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were scared!\u201d he laughs now. \u201cBe afraid, be very afraid! My teacher was so terrified because I confessed I\u2019d seen this movie and I loved it. The first day it opened, I did skip school to see it, and I finally got busted. If they were Walt Disney movies they might have thought a little big lighter about it, but it was things like Psycho<\/i>, Room at the Top<\/i> and The Apartment<\/i> \u2014 anything that was adult. And also, I had this great affection for B-horror films. They would ask me what movie I was going to, and I\u2019d say Darby O\u2019Gill and the Little People<\/i>, and I\u2019d go across the street and see The Horrors of the Black Museum<\/i> and The Wasp Women<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wasp women over a singing Sean Connery? Hmmm. Tough call. So would Ireland \u2014 who\u2019s currently working on pre-production for Mona<\/i>, a comedy based on Jules et Jim<\/i> to be filmed in Vancouver or Toronto \u2014 like to direct a pulpy B-movie flick of his own? A Conan movie, perhaps?<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, without question. Are you kidding? I\u2019d like to do the ultimate<\/i> Conan movie! I\u2019d like to do it based on Danny Frazetta\u2019s work, creating that kind of visual work, I\u2019d love to. And if I don\u2019t do it, Ridley Scott should do it. Seriously. It has to be that kind of world, that\u2019s hypnotic, \u2019cause no one\u2019s done that. The [John] Milius [and] Oliver Stone movie is pathetic, and the Richard Fleischer film is even worse. I know Robert E. Howard probably turned over in his grave 15 times when Conan the Barbarian<\/i> came out, because it\u2019s just so bad compared to what it could have been. He was so rich in his vivid portrayal of the worlds, that not to take advantage of that and use that, it was a crime. And I watched it a couple of times \u2014 it was hard to watch, but it was important for me to watch it. And I just finally realized I\u2019m going to get much more from just picking up Howard\u2019s work and reading it. And I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 A version of this article was first published in <\/i>The Ubyssey.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Dan Ireland, directing The Whole Wide World is a dream come true. More than three decades after he first fell in love with film, Ireland is bringing his first feature, about the frustrated love life of Conan the Barbarian author Robert E. Howard, to Vancouver. \u201cI don\u2019t think Howard ever had a choice in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3532,312],"tags":[3597,3589,3587,3590,3596,3599,1569,3598,3600,1428,3593,3591,3594,478,3592,3588,3595],"class_list":["post-44384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-ubyssey","tag-benjamin-mouton","tag-conan-the-barbarian-1982","tag-dan-ireland","tag-daryl-mcdonald","tag-dead-1987","tag-donald-kushner","tag-jerry-maguire","tag-michael-scott-myers","tag-olivia-dabo","tag-psycho","tag-renee-zellweger","tag-robert-e-howard","tag-siff","tag-them-1954","tag-vincent-donofrio","tag-whole-wide-world","tag-whore-1991"],"yoast_head":"\nInterview: Dan Ireland (The Whole Wide World, 1996)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For Dan Ireland, directing The Whole Wide World is a dream come true. 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