January 7, 2007

Clint Eastwood had what he calls an unfamiliar feeling. He was tired, from directing two Oscar-nominated films back-to-back, directing an hour-long episode of the Martin Scorsese "Blues" series and spending a year prepping his most logistically challenging film, the Battle for Iwo Jima drama "Flags of Our Fathers." But as he was making "Flags," he said, "I started feeling like I was only telling half the story."

"In 'Flags,' the Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima are just the enemy," says Eastwood. "That's the nature of the story; it's about the young boys who fought that battle for America.

"But I started thinking, you know, that's the way we were conditioned to think about them during the war. If they're faceless and one-dimensional, it makes them easier to kill. It's all part of the propaganda machine. In my neighborhood, in Los Angeles, they were just the cowards that bombed Pearl Harbor.

"But you know, I read a lot about the war, and I know better now. And while I was researching 'Flags,' I was well aware that the Japanese soldiers who were sent to die on that island, they had mothers and fathers and wives and girlfriends and brothers and sisters, just like the boys I was making my movie about.

"And I started thinking that would be a good movie, too, and a story that had never been told. Hell, you couldn't have made it 40 years ago, maybe even 20 years ago. At least an American couldn't.

"But I could now."

So the 76-year-old Eastwood soldiered up to make "Letters from Iwo Jima," a companion piece to "Flags of Our Fathers." "Letters," opening Friday in Detroit, tells the story of the bloody battle that proved key in the Allies' ultimate defeat of Japan.

Japan sent 22,000 soldiers to defend the island and its airfields; only 1,083 Japanese were alive when the bullets and bombs stopped flying and the United States declared it secure on March 26, 1945 after a month-long battle.

"I became especially interested in Kuribayashi," says Eastwood of Japanese Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who was ordered by Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo to defend Iwo Jima "to the last." He would spend almost a year fortifying Iwo Jima into a fortress that could withstand the attack the United States was expected to mount.

"Kuribayashi had written a book about the campaign ("Picture Letters from Iwo Jima"), but it wasn't available in the United States. So I had to have it translated myself. After reading that, I came up with what I thought could be an interesting structure."

He went to Paul Haggis, the writer of "Million Dollar Baby" and "Flags," and said he had an idea for another movie.

But after "Million Dollar Baby," Haggis had gotten a lot of work, and was directing his own movies.

Eastwood asked him if he knew of any young writer he might be able to work with, to guide along.

"Turns out Paul had asked this Japanese-American writer he knew to help him with research when he was working on 'Flags.'

"He said she was a good writer, smart, but she hadn't sold anything yet," Eastwood recalls. "I thought that could be an interesting choice if she could write and was interested. So I said bring her around."

Her name was Iris Yamashita, and though her published work had been limited to short stories, she had won a screenwriting competition with a script called "Traveler in Tokyo."

"I met her. I liked her and read her screenplay. Paul was right. She was good, and she obviously had a passion for the thing. She also had a head start, since she got in with Paul on 'Flags.' So I told her my idea, and she went to work, and she came up with what I thought was a nice story."

"I was busy editing 'Flags' " remembers Joel Cox, Eastwood's longtime editor and an Oscar winner for his work on Eastwood's "Unforgiven." "And it was a job because we cut a lot between the battle sequences, which were complicated, a lot of fast edits, and the story of the boys who raised the flag on Iwo Jima after they went back home.

"Clint comes up during this and said, 'I hope you haven't made any vacation plans because we're doing another one.' I said: 'Hey you're the boss. Where you go, I go.' "

That was to the desert of Barstow, Calif., which would stand in for Iwo Jima. As the title suggests, the narrative of "Letters" is based on letters sent back to Japan from the soldiers, primarily those from Kuribayashi, whom Eastwood came to believe was a "courageous man, devoted to his country and his family. He was from a samurai clan. But he knew Iwo Jima and the war was a lost cause for the Japanese. He was hopelessly outmanned, about five to one. And he respected the enemy. In one of the letters, he says, 'America is the last country we should be fighting.' "

Eastwood cast Japanese star Ken Watanabe -- familiar to U.S. audiences for his performances in "The Last Samurai," "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "Batman Begins" -- to play Kuribayashi. His story is supplemented by those of young, fictional Japanese soldiers. Two of them, Saigo and Nozaki, are played respectively by Kazunari Ninomiya and Yuki Matsuzaki. Ninomiya is a popular Japanese TV actor as well as a member of the Japanese boy band Arashi, while Matsuzaki is based in Hollywood, with credits that include a small role on the first episode of the hit TV show "Heroes."

As is his custom, Eastwood did not meet with them, preferring to cast most roles in his films by video auditions. He says he hated being rejected and told he wasn't right for parts when he was a young actor and now avoids having to deliver bad news himself:

"One of the perks of being a veteran," Eastwood jokes.

Eastwood originally planned to open the film first in Japan, where, to his knowledge, it will be the first movie made by an American to offer a Japanese perspective on the war.

But the disappointing performance of "Flags" at the North American box office -- something many observers blame on war fatigue -- called for the implementation of a new battle plan. "Letters" opened in late December in three cities to make it eligible for Academy Awards. It opens in other North American cities, including Detroit, on Friday.

Eastwood says he is still eager to see how the film plays in Japan.

"This is a country that doesn't deal with defeat the way we do. They don't read about Iwo Jima in their textbooks the way we do about Vietnam. The young Japanese guys who worked on this film didn't know anything about the war. They would come up to me and say, 'How come I never knew about this?' So this could be something interesting to see, this reaction.

"All I know," he says, "is I treat them with dignity and respect, the way real soldiers ought to be treated."

BY TERRY LAWSON

Dec. 18 2006

TOKYO, Japan (UPI) -- Director Clint Eastwood`s 'Letters from Iwo Jima' has garnered $13.3 million in box office ticket sales during its first 11 days in Japanese theaters.

Variety reported that the Japanese-language film`s ticket sales have nearly matched the $13.4 million that its companion piece from Eastwood, 'Flags of Our Fathers,' brought in during its current two-month U.S. run.

Entitled 'Iwo Jima Karano Tegami' for such Japanese locales as Tokyo, the World War II film has consistently brought area citizens to theaters as its audience sizes only declined 26 percent since its first week.

'This is such a unique movie that it`s become a cultural phenomenon in Japan,' Warner International executive Sue Kroll explained of his company`s film. 'We think we`ll have an excellent run.'

The paper said that the success of 'Iwo Jima' in Japan follows a trend in the Asian country that has seen previous World War II-based films such as 'Pearl Harbor' and 'Saving Private Ryan' met with financial windfalls.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

Dec. 17 2006

Clint Eastwood nearly died while serving in the US army, despite never being in a combat zone.

The Oscar-winning star hitched a ride in the radar compartment of a torpedo bomber flying to California when he was 20, and the door fell open, leaving him exposed thousands of feet above the ground.

Eastwood told Britain's Esquire magazine: "Those things aren't designed to carry humans and the intercom didn't work. I nearly fell out. I was a mile up and holding on for dear life."

The 'Flags of Our Fathers' director managed to wedge the door shut but as the plane climbed to a higher altitude he was forced to reach for a supply of oxygen and found that wasn't working either.

He passed out and came round an hour later to find the pilot had run out of fuel and was preparing to crash land in the sea.

Eastwood was thrown free and fought a powerful current to swim to shore.

He added: "I don't recall how long it took to get out but it was an ordeal I never want to repeat. I collapsed on the beach. After I came round, I began searching the beach for the pilot, every rock uncovered by the sea seemed to look like his body.

"After a while, I felt certain he'd drowned. It was a contradictory feeling. I felt terribly depressed at this idea, yet strangely elated because it wasn't me."

(C) BANG Media International

Dec. 7 2006

Clint Eastwood's 'Letters from Iwo Jima' was named Best Film by the National Board of Review - paving the way for Oscar success.

Nov. 18 2006

BURBANK, CA, -- ‘Letters From Iwo Jima,’ Clint Eastwood’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed World War II drama ‘Flags of Our Fathers,’ will open domestically in limited release in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco on December 20, 2006. The announcement was made November 16 by Warner Bros. President of Domestic Distribution Dan Fellman.
 

Like ‘Flags of Our Fathers,’ ‘Letters From Iwo Jima’ chronicles the pivotal battle for the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. However, while the first film is centered around the six men who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi in the famous photo, ‘Letters From Iwo Jima’ views the battle from the perspective of the island’s Japanese defenders.

Both films are co-productions of Warner Bros. Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures.

Clint Eastwood offered, “I have been extremely gratified by the response from the press and the public who have seen ‘Flags of Our Fathers,’ and what all of us keep hearing is that they want to understand the other side of the story. While working on “Flags,” I was intrigued by the idea of revealing what happened during this important battle from different perspectives. I’m happy to know that others feel the same way about seeing both sides. The two films were meant to complement each other, so it just makes sense to release ‘Letters From Iwo Jima’ this year, closer to the release of ‘Flags of Our Fathers’.”

Dan Fellman added, “’Flags of Our Fathers’ told an important story about one of the most famous battles of World War II, but history has shown us that it is impossible to truly understand any story unless you can see it from other sides. We feel ‘Letters From Iwo Jima’ is a powerful movie that brings a different, but equally important, part of the story to the screen, and we are both proud and excited to be bringing the film to American audiences this year.”

‘Letters From Iwo Jima’ has already screened in Japan, where it received an enthusiastic response.

Sixty-one years ago, U.S. and Japanese armies met on Iwo Jima. Decades later, several hundred letters are unearthed from that stark island’s soil. The letters give faces and voices to the men who fought there, as well as the extraordinary general who led them, Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe). With little defense other than sheer will and the volcanic rock of the island itself, Gen. Kuribayashi’s unprecedented tactics transform what was predicted to be a quick and bloody defeat into nearly 40 days of heroic and resourceful combat.

In an effort to explore an event that continues to resonate with both cultures, Clint Eastwood was haunted by the sense that making only one film, ‘Flags of Our Fathers,’ would be telling only half the story. With this unprecedented dual film project, shot back-to-back to be released in sequence, Eastwood seeks to reveal the battle of Iwo Jima—and, by implication, the war in the Pacific—as a clash not only of arms but of cultures.

Warner Bros. Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures present a Malpaso/Amblin Production of ‘Letters From Iwo Jima,’ starring Academy Award nominee Ken Watanabe (‘The Last Samurai,’ ‘Memoirs of a Geisha,’ ‘Batman Begins’) as Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the Imperial Japanese General who led the resistance.

Directed by Eastwood from a screenplay by Japanese-American screenwriter Iris Yamashita, story by Yamashita and Oscar winner Paul Haggis (‘Crash’), the film is produced by Eastwood, Oscar winner Steven Spielberg (‘Saving Private Ryan,’ ‘Schindler’s List’) and Oscar nominee Robert Lorenz (‘Mystic River’).

Eastwood’s longtime collaborators headed the creative behind-the-scenes team: director of photography Tom Stern; costume designer Deborah Hopper; editors Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach; and the late production designer Henry Bumstead, and production designer James J. Murakami. The music is by Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens.

‘Letters From Iwo Jima’ is being released worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.