Originally Posted by https://collider.com/michael-mann-the-insider-explained/
How ‘The Keep’ Changed Michael Mann’s Filmmaking
I know that when you directed The Keep , you originally had a much longer cut, but it's never seen the light of day. Do you still have a copy of the longer cut, or does it no longer exist?
MANN: I don't even know. I’d have to dig into our archives to find out. We have a pretty spectacular archive. We saved everything, but I don't know how much I've saved on The Keep. The poignant tragedy that came was that the visual effects genius who worked on it, Wally Veevers — who was a spectacular guy, who goes all the way back from The Shape of Things to Come all the way through 2001 [A Space Odyssey] — died halfway through post. He had many esoteric forms of creating some of the visual effects, and it was only through the generosity of the visual effects community in England that we were able even to finish the picture. A lot of people who knew and respected Wally dove in to try to figure some of this out. So, it was a bizarre project.
You've expressed dissatisfaction with the final cut of The Keep , and I'm curious, did your experience on that project turn you towards more grounded genres permanently?
MANN: No, it had nothing to do with that. It had to do with going forward and shooting a movie before the screenplay’s ready. There was a one-year window in which to get the movie up and running and finished because of something that had to do with Paramount and a UK tax deal. I agreed to do that and was trying to finish the screenplay at the same time. So, no, it's nothing to do with gothic or sci-fi subject matter.
One of the big thrills of that was to work with John Box, who was a fantastic production designer with three Academy Awards, Lawrence of Arabia, Oliver Twist, A Man for All Seasons. What an honor. A lot of things about it were new that we did, especially the design influence of German Expressionism and the exploitation of Albrecht Speer, the Nazi architect. I was very interested in the causes of fascism, the nature of its malign appeal to cultures in distress and a form of mass schizophrenia, and to try to express that in the form of a Freudian fairy tale, meaning not metaphor or allegory. It was informed by reading Bruno Bettleheim and was an interesting challenge. If I made it again, it would be much better. [Laughs]
I really, really hope that one day you will go into your archives and see what you have because I would love to see if there is a longer cut. The problem obviously is VFX aren't done, music's not done, but it's definitely something that I'm sure fans would love to see, even in a rough cut.
MANN: So, since The Keep, after that, I’ve always been much more careful about not going forward to something until it's ready.
I know that when you directed The Keep , you originally had a much longer cut, but it's never seen the light of day. Do you still have a copy of the longer cut, or does it no longer exist?
MANN: I don't even know. I’d have to dig into our archives to find out. We have a pretty spectacular archive. We saved everything, but I don't know how much I've saved on The Keep. The poignant tragedy that came was that the visual effects genius who worked on it, Wally Veevers — who was a spectacular guy, who goes all the way back from The Shape of Things to Come all the way through 2001 [A Space Odyssey] — died halfway through post. He had many esoteric forms of creating some of the visual effects, and it was only through the generosity of the visual effects community in England that we were able even to finish the picture. A lot of people who knew and respected Wally dove in to try to figure some of this out. So, it was a bizarre project.
You've expressed dissatisfaction with the final cut of The Keep , and I'm curious, did your experience on that project turn you towards more grounded genres permanently?
MANN: No, it had nothing to do with that. It had to do with going forward and shooting a movie before the screenplay’s ready. There was a one-year window in which to get the movie up and running and finished because of something that had to do with Paramount and a UK tax deal. I agreed to do that and was trying to finish the screenplay at the same time. So, no, it's nothing to do with gothic or sci-fi subject matter.
One of the big thrills of that was to work with John Box, who was a fantastic production designer with three Academy Awards, Lawrence of Arabia, Oliver Twist, A Man for All Seasons. What an honor. A lot of things about it were new that we did, especially the design influence of German Expressionism and the exploitation of Albrecht Speer, the Nazi architect. I was very interested in the causes of fascism, the nature of its malign appeal to cultures in distress and a form of mass schizophrenia, and to try to express that in the form of a Freudian fairy tale, meaning not metaphor or allegory. It was informed by reading Bruno Bettleheim and was an interesting challenge. If I made it again, it would be much better. [Laughs]
I really, really hope that one day you will go into your archives and see what you have because I would love to see if there is a longer cut. The problem obviously is VFX aren't done, music's not done, but it's definitely something that I'm sure fans would love to see, even in a rough cut.
MANN: So, since The Keep, after that, I’ve always been much more careful about not going forward to something until it's ready.
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