| Gore Verbinski on CMIYC |
February 13, 2001 Q: Your streak of good fortune looked like it might come to a halt when your plans to make Catch Me If You Can with Leonardo DiCaprio got stalled because he couldn't break away in time from Gangs of New York. But then you replaced that with Project 3 another movie with Julia by the writer of The Mexican, Joel Wyman. How'd you do that? A: When the Leo delay happened, I called my agent and said, "Give me every script that doesn't have a director."When I was about to go home for the weekend with three boxes of scripts, I had one long-shot phone call with Joe Roth and Julia Roberts. We asked her to commit to this movie even though there was no finished script yet. She said yes. Like that. I'm not at liberty to discuss the movie, but it's a psychological thriller, a really great and unique premise. Hopefully, I'll go back and work with Leonardo after that. Q: What is the appeal of Catch Me If You Can? A: The piece has a wonderful sense of humor. It's the true story of a guy who essentially cons himself out of his own youth by impersonating everyone from an assistant attorney general to a pilot. He becomes a target of the FBI as a teenager while writing $2.5 million in bad checks. In the process he loses himself. The real person ultimately went to jail in France, Sweden and the US before going to work for the FBI to prevent someone like himself from happening again. It's perfect for Leo, who has to play between the ages of 17 and 28. Q: What's your assessment of DiCaprio based on your meeting with him? A: He's extremely talented, very smart. We've had six meetings at least, and that many phone calls. The relationship's just started, but it's gone nicely so far. I hope we get to make the movie soon, because he's growing so well into a leading man. |
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