Interview of the week: Joel Schumacher

NEW YORK, April 10 (UPI) -- Postponement turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Joel Schumacher's new thriller, "Phone Booth," which opened at the top of the box office last weekend more than two years after it was filmed.

Shot over 10 days on streets in New York's Times Square and Los Angeles in December 2000, Schumacher's heart-pounding story of a sniper who traps a slick publicist in Manhattan phone booth and threatens to kill him if he doesn't publicly confess his sins, was first sidelined by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

"It would have been totally inappropriate to have a movie about Manhattan, especially with dark humor in it," Schumacher told United Press International in a recent interview.

"So, then the studio decided to wait until after 'Minority Report' was released because Colin (Farrell) was still unknown and they thought with a Tom Cruise movie people would be more aware of Colin, which they were, so that's why the decision was made to release in November 2002," the "Batman Forever" and "8MM" filmmaker explained.

"And then, of course, the (Washington Beltway) sniper tragedy happened. There would have been no way we would even think about it, but the media showed clips of 'Phone Booth' all through that," continued the 63-year-old native New Yorker. "They sort of used it to promote their stories, and it raised awareness, which we never would have done, but the media did it for us. Now with the success of (Farrell's hit movies) 'The Recruit' and 'Daredevil,' I think it helped us because I think Colin has a much bigger profile than he did then, so, in a way, I think the delay worked for us."

Noting that it is impossible to predict what will be going on in the world when a filmmaker finishes his movie, Schumacher advised, "You have to be zen about it."

"Most of the times it's the studio's money," he added. "They're going to put it out when they think it's advantageous to them, and so you have to give them that respect. I don't want them to tell me how to make a movie, and I don't want to tell them how to sell a movie."

Schumacher is the first to admit that a guy trapped in a phone booth for an hour and a half could be a tough sell, but the veteran director decided to take on the project because he never saw anything like it before.

"I didn't know if we could pull it off," he confessed, recalling his reaction to Larry Cohen's script. "I knew immediately that I wanted to do it because it was so fresh and so original and there wasn't anything like it, and most of the scripts we get seem like retreads, like we've seen it."

The key to making the film a success, he said, was creating and sustaining tension and hiring actors to play the film's two main characters -- the publicist who is in almost every frame and the sniper who is only a menacing voice on the phone until the movie's last scene. To find actors who would excel in these parts, Schumacher looked no further than his frequent collaborators Colin Farrell ("Tigerland," "Veronica Guerin") and Kiefer Sutherland ("A Time to Kill," "The Lost Boys," "Flatliners.")

Speaking of Farrell, Schumacher said: "I am so proud of him. He's so fabulous. ... Colin hasn't changed much (since I first worked with him.) He's probably changed his bank account, but he's a sweet, kind, very giving young man. He's great to his family. He's great to his friends. He's a joy to work with. I don't worry about Colin. I worry about his drinking, but when I was his age I was putting a needle in my arm, so who am I to judge?"

"So, he smokes, he drinks and he likes to sleep with women. Get him! Kill him! He's just honest about it," he joked.

Asked if Farrell is his new "Kiefer Sutherland," Schumacher insisted he would never part with his old friend.

"No, they're all individuals," he declared. "This is our fourth film. I've known him since he's 18. I love Kiefer. ... If you met all the kids who were in 'St. Elmo's Fire' and 'Flatliners' and Lost Boys' and Colin and Julia Roberts when she was 20 or Brad Renfro when he was 10 and he did 'The Client' or Matthew McConaughey when he did 'A Time to Kill,' I think you would hire them, too. They're great. They're special. They're unique."

"Phone Booth" is in theaters now. Schumacher is currently working on big-screen adaptations of the beloved Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, "Phantom of the Opera" and Patricia Cornwell's popular Kay Scarpetta mystery "Cruel and Unusual."