More Solaris News

Solaris: A New Dawn for Sci-Fi?

Wired News

Jason Silverman

11/20/02

The online community of sci-fi fans can't quite agree on what they think of Steven Soderbergh's Solaris, an upcoming remake of an obscure but treasured Russian film. Some have high hopes.

"(Soderbergh is) on the cusp of making the most provocative science-fiction film since 2001: A Space Odyssey," wrote a columnist at Ain't It Cool News.

But many purists dread the new Solaris, which stars George Clooney and will be released Nov. 27. They worry that Soderbergh will trample on two sacred sci-fi texts: the 1961 novel by Stanislaw Lem and the 1971 film by Andrei Tarkovsky.

More optimistic fans of the genre imagine Soderbergh -- one of Hollywood's more serious-minded, adventurous and idiosyncratic directors -- injecting new life into a sci-fi scene they feel is on the slide.

In Solaris, a psychologist named Kelvin is sent to the space station Prometheus to investigate the strange behavior of the resident scientists. Once there, he discovers that the nearby planet Solaris exerts a powerful influence on the crew.

Soderbergh has been quiet about his film, which is produced by Hollywood titan James Cameron (The Terminator, Titanic). Nonetheless, those who flock to the Solaris fan site scrutinize every step of the movie's production.

The site's bulletin board includes dozens of posts about everything from the casting decisions to the music. More than 50 posts alone ponder the meaning of the film's trailer ("the usual Hollywood paranoid trash," reads one comment).

And the site's visitors gleefully seized on the minor controversy that resulted when the film got an R rating because of a sex scene featuring Clooney's naked rump.

Though a good portion of chatter at the site bashes Soderbergh ("I hope everyone involved in this remake dies a slow, miserable death from a combination of every painful disease known to man," one Tarkovsky fan wrote), there is optimism about the film, too.

"It's almost hard to believe a thought-provoking film like this got past the Hollywood executives," wrote webmaster Krzys Kotwicki after reading a bootleg copy of the script. "It's so refreshing to read a sci-fi script which isn't aimed at 12-year-olds!"

Among the less hopeful sci-fi buffs is James O'Ehley, whose runs the Sci-Fi Movie Page.

"Remaking Solaris is something akin to heresy," said O'Ehley. "(Soderbergh) is simply no Andrei Tarkovsky. It is a bit like comparing a truly great composer like Beethoven to a writer of popular waltzes like Johann Strauss."

O'Ehley sees the new Solaris as representative of the "incredible dumbing down since Star Wars," and worries that contemporary sci-fi movies exist more to sell action figures than to explore ideas. He called 2000 the "annus horribilis" of sci-fi moviemaking.

Of course, fan site musings aren't always steeped in historical context. According to Geoff King, lecturer at Brunel University in London and author, with Tanya Krzywinska, of Science Fiction Cinema, today's science-fiction films are probably no better or worse than at any other time.

"I think this 'golden age' of intelligent science-fiction filmmaking is a kind of imaginary lost object," King said. "Intelligent science-fiction films like (the original) Solaris come around only very occasionally."

And King, who believes that many sci-fi fans would find Tarkovsky's slow-paced Solaris "hard going," has high hopes for the remake.

"Soderbergh has shown he can take more edgy, arty, slightly experimental formal approaches into mainstream genres," King said. "He could (be) the guy who makes Solaris formally and intellectually interesting without it being totally noncommercial."

King also dismisses those who feel the new version of the film is an insult to the original. "Whatever Soderbergh does -- good, bad, ugly or wonderful -- doesn't change (the original) Solaris' existence. If anything, it will draw more attention to it."

Nude for Thought

"People need to get a life--it's just an ass."

--Julianna Margulies, regarding all the hairy hubbub over George Clooney's exposed derriere in Solaris

It takes an old needling TV colleague to setcha straight, right? At the Hollywood premiere of the new Steven Soderbergh space story, all eyes (and mouths) pretended not to be on Mr. C.'s behind.

Except for Nurse Hathaway's, that is. She genuinely wasn't interested, fool that she may be.

"Go to Europe," sighed Ms. M., all in black, with thinly veiled impatience. "You'll see a lot more than that!"

That being Georgie-boy's buttocks, of course, which almost netted Solaris an R rating (Soderbergh himself successfully appealed the MPAA's decision). But not so fast. Got just a few other willing wowzas to wax cheekily:

Andy Garcia, when I asked what about the flick he was looking forward to: "Well," he said with anticipation, "I hear George shows his rear end."

Jules Asner, my fave erudite E!-er and g-f to Soderbergh: "Believe me, that behind is more than enough reason to buy a ticket. It's beautiful."

Fran Drescher, nasal nooky-purveyor par excellence: "I don't think a man showing his butt is a degradation in any way," she sang shrill-staccato. "I think it's harder for a woman than for a man. But I'll certainly check George's butt out!"

What of the hard-assed man himself, who has stated that he'd prefer not to be "the butt" of cheap jokes? You guessed it: He shied away from discussing his epidermis, per se. However, he was still quite roguish-revealing:

"We like pushing things," the elegantly suited G.C. said of his continued collaboration with the Ocean's Eleven director. "And we'll see how that works. It's fun."

And how do you gauge your success?

"By whether or not we like it," answered the game guy. "Actually, the best film I've done, I think, is Out of Sight, and it was the one that lost money."

Maybe the wrong buns got all the attention?

'Solaris' Premiere

Dozens of George Clooney’s closest Hollywood friends came out to the premiere of "Solaris." Bill Paxton, Brad Pitt, Andy Garcia, and Mira Sorvino were all on hand to celebrate Clooney.

The film is complex and difficult to sum up in a few words, but there was no shortage of words for the film's star. Andy Garcia said, "I think it has to do with the honesty in his work, the generosity in his work."

Clooney's "Solaris" co-star Viola Davis feels the same way. She said, "H is a gentleman. He is vulnerable. He is funny."

But there was one other thing Clooney’s friends wanted to talk about. Danny DeVito said, "H's a good man, very nice guy and a friend. And we're all excited to see his [butt]."

The famous butt shots that nearly got "Solaris" an R rating. Andy Garcia said, "I've never seen that part of him and I guarantee that my daughter will be looking the other way at the time."

So fans are in for some steamy scenes, but not steamy enough for co-star Natasha McElhone. She said, "All I can say is you should have seen the front."

Click here for more premier images

Solaris Review

Todd McCarthy

11/20/02

A brooding attempt at a metaphysical meditation on love lost and regained, "Solaris" is an investigation of primal emotions approached in an entirely cerebral manner. Largely set aboard a spacecraft but a sci-fi entry in name only, this second screen version of Stanislaw Lem's novel is technically superb and features a strong, serious performance by George Clooney as a doctor sent to deep space to check out the strange fate of another craft's crew. But despite the setup, mysterious but suspense-free story here is a galaxy away from "Alien" territory and makes for a pure art film about which mainstream audiences won't have a clue, prefiguring distinctly modest B.O. in most situations.

As far as Steven Soderbergh is concerned, it's now evident that 2002 will go down as a year of experimentation after his remarkable commercial and artistic run that included winning an Oscar for "Traffic." Whereas the recent "Full Frontal" seemed to please almost no one, "Solaris" likely will develop a following among some critics and serious cinephiles who will value the intellectually ambitious and defiantly uncommercial nature of Soderbergh's undertaking more than they will mind its lack of genuine depth and profundity.

Despite its undeniably pure and earnest intent, "Solaris" is equally undeniably an arid, dull affair that imposes and maintains a huge distance between the viewer and what happens onscreen, and never successfully negotiates the paradox of being a study of the deepest emotions that doesn't engage the heart for a moment.

Previous version of the book, directed in 1972 by Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky, was both a tour de force and, at 165 minutes, a chore to sit through. Too conveniently celebrated by some as a Soviet response to "2001," pic did offer a distinctive aesthetic and a genuinely mystical dimension that presented an inchoate but nonetheless intriguing challenge to prevailing Soviet philosophy and approved subject matter.

Working in his own way against conventional norms and the expectations of Hollywood commercial cinema (and gratifyingly cutting the running time by more than an hour), Soderbergh turns the material in a more personal direction to make it something close to a "Scenes From a Marriage in Outer Space." Grieving over the death of his wife, psychologist Chris Kelvin (Clooney) agrees to an urgent appeal to visit the distant space station Prometheus, find out why the crew has ceased communication and bring them back home; in a videotaped plea for his close friend to come to the rescue, mission commander Gibarian (Ulrich Tukur) cryptically cautions that he "can't be specific" about what's going on up there.

The early earthbound scenes are among the film's most beautiful. Dramatically composed isolated shots showing the doctor at home, in therapy and on the rain-swept streets of what is presumably a future Los Angeles possess richly resonant dark coloration, with some of the blackest blacks seen onscreen in recent memory. Without suggesting that he is becoming any less a director, it can be said that Soderbergh (working as usual under the nom de camera of Peter Andrews) is becoming an increasingly expert cinematographer; working mostly in close-ups with longish lenses, he keeps the focus tightly upon his actors as sets provide a lustrous but impersonal backdrop.

Arriving at Prometheus, which soars above the eponymous, gaseous-looking planet, Chris finds Gibarian dead and the two surviving crew members in a very strange state. Affected young scientist Snow (Jeremy Davies) jabbers on without managing to say anything coherent about what's afflicting them, while the formidable Dr. Gordon (Viola Davis), who has retreated to her room, warns Chris, "Until it starts happening to you, there's really no point in discussing it."

What happens to Chris on his first night there is a vivid dream about his entrancing first encounter and initial night of lovemaking with his wife-to-be, Rheya (Natascha McElhone). Upon awakening, he finds Rheya, or someone/something just like her, next to him, in the flesh. Thus begins a long, almost clinical inquiry into the history of their marriage paralleled with the attempt by both Chris and Rheya to figure out exactly what's happening between them on board the spaceship.

Flashes of intense intimate moments from the past delineate the quick, anger-fueled deterioration of the marriage, while the present soon becomes enshrouded in uncertainty as Rheya admits to suspicions that "I'm not the person I remember." Chris and Rheya hope to learn from their mistakes the first time around to make their relationship work now, but all the introspection and angst pay uncertain dividends amidst the anxiety over the reliability of memory and doubts as to whether the "new" Rheya is human at all. This makes the climactic stab at redemption a particularly murky matter that will leave most viewers wondering what the hell it was they just watched -- and it won't be their fault.

However cold and obscure the entire venture may be, individual scenes have been made with commendable rigor and dispatch and an unerring eye for texture. The piquant flashbacks leave no doubt as to the highly charged amorous nature of Chris and Rheya's relationship, and Clooney does a highly creditable job of carrying the film's freight on his shoulders even as the cargo becomes increasingly unwieldy. McElhone is very good in the direct verbal exchanges with her co-star, but it would no doubt lie beyond any thesp to transcend the confusion that overtakes the role in the late going.

Davis commands the screen whenever she's on, while the weirdly gesticulating Davies appears grubby and mannered. Production values are, in a word, stellar, with an understated emphasis on realism. Philip Messina's production design makes the technical world of this unspecified time in the future entirely plausible, while Milena Canonero's costume design takes similarly modest but creative liberties with current fashion. Cliff Martinez's resourceful score makes unusual use of steel drum and gamelan instrumentations, and sound mix is exceptional.

Solaris Updates Female Role

11/18/02

Steven Soderbergh, director of the upcoming SF film Solaris, told a preview screening audience that he beefed up the lead female role from the 1972 Russian movie of the same name, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky based on the Polish SF novel by Stanislaw Lem. "I think the biggest difference between the novel and the Tarkovsky film and this film is that she's more present," Soderbergh said of the role of Rheya, played by Natascha McElhone. "She's not passive."

The movie stars George Clooney as Chris Kelvin, a widowed psychiatrist called to investigate mysterious occurrences aboard a space station orbiting the planet of Solaris. There, he has an encounter having to do with his late wife, Rheya. Unlike the 1972 film, in the new Solaris, "We get to see the relationship as it existed on Earth," Soderbergh said. "Since the movie to me was about whether or not you were doomed to follow the same trajectory given another opportunity, I felt that if you could see the relationship on Earth, that that would be clearer for the audience that they were struggling with this idea of predestination."

Soderbergh added, "The script went through a lot of different things. This was just one of those movies that went through a lot of drafts of the script. The movie was overhauled in the editing room several times. It just took a while to find that shape of it and find the emotional core that would carry through the film. It was just a real struggle. I feel very, very late in the game that we found, at least to my mind, ... the structure that worked best for the movie. But it was really tricky. It was a difficult shoot. There wasn't a simple shot. There wasn't a simple scene. Normally in a movie you've got a day of drivebys or establishing shots, and there was none of that. George was saying people are used to coming by the sets, and our sets are pretty fun and pretty loose. They would show up on this one with a smile on their face, and you could watch it fade as they got closer into the set, because the atmosphere was just so intense, because we were struggling with what the tone of it should be. It was just tricky." Solaris opens Nov. 27.

There are no answers...only choices.

11/16/02

If you want to understand Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris, you’re going to have to let go of the diamond in the bottle, pull your relaxed hand out and let the diamond come to you.

If you value things being done the way they’ve always been done before, you are going to have a problem. Solaris is a sci-fi movie without much real science fiction. Solaris is a love story that deals with loss and our sense of responsibility for others without much interest in sexual combustibility. Solaris is a story about the nature of humanity and the divine, without telling you what to think.

Thirty years ago, Andrei Tarkovsky made his version of the Stanislaw Lem novel. Some of the dialogue in some of the scenes is virtually identical with that in the new movie. But Tarkovsky seems to have been trying to connect more metaphors to the novel’s premise than Soderbergh has. Tarkovsky’s film involved parents and aging and political humiliation and an occasional sense of Twilight Zone clarity. Soderbergh’s adaptation of the novel aims directly at the human heart free of, what it seems to this writer, the distractions in which Tarkovsky’s film becomes immersed.

George Clooney plays the central character here, Chris Kelvin. As a therapist, he seeks answers for the emotionally broken. One of Soderbergh’s most arresting touches is the group dialogue that fits the specific losses of a group of people who have lost loved ones, but which also can be read as the voices of 9/11 family members. But Kelvin has his own loss to deal with. The loss of his wife.

Kelvin heads to Solaris after he sees a transmission from his friend, Gibarian, requesting that he, very specifically he, comes to the space station orbiting Solaris. The “why,” however, is far less clear.

On arriving, Kelvin finds a lot of empty space and two crew members. Like Gibirian, they speak in riddles… riddles that only their psyches, at rest, can answer.

And so the heart of the movie begins… the journey into the big questions of life and love.

But this is no sterile, intellectual exercise. This is a film of deep, deep emotion and passion, which is even the more powerful for its sterilized environment of space. This is a film that breathes, literally, its sound making the ship itself a character in its telling.

George Clooney is remarkable in a role for which an actor of his charms could never get enough credit. Terry Gilliam recently discussed directing Bruce Willis in 12 Monkeys. First, Willis agreed to work without his “big movie” support staff and without the big money he usually gets. He wanted to really work. Gilliam says that his only real direction on set was that Willis not smirk, not twist his upper lip like he does when he is in thought and not widen his eyes. And what Gilliam got out of Willis was a great dramatic performance. This is what Soderbergh gets out of Clooney, whichever one of them made the rules.

Clooney doesn’t fall back on any of his charming tricks. Besides being unshaven and a touch grayer than usual, he exudes an impenetrable personal space around him that is exactly the opposite of what he normally does as an actor, which is to invite people to come close.

Amazingly, this is one of the elements that really matched the Tarkovsky Solaris. I don’t know the work of the actor who played Kelvin in that film, but with Clooney, it is quite unexpected. The other example of the same this year is Tom Hanks in Road To Perdition. Unfortunately, the limitation of that performance was the limit Sam Mendes put on it as a director. Hanks was distant, but Mendes still kept him close. Soderbergh has no trouble allowing us to distance ourselves from Clooney’s Kelvin. In fact, even after he finds a reason to soften, his edge remains, in defense of his vulnerability. Credit for that goes to Soderbergh as both director and screenplay writer. But a lot of it has to go to Clooney, who surfs a very complex character wave and never, ever worries about what we in the audience will think. And in his control, we feel his anguish more deeply than histrionics could ever explain.

The rest of the cast is sterling as well. Natasha McElhone’s performance is deceptively easy on first glance. But she essentially plays four different characters in this film (you’ll have to see it to understand) and each has its own unique character arc, knowledge of history and motivations. And if her emotions are not clear - and Soderbergh traditionally likes his characters to emote in silence and short bursts of intense energy - then the Clooney character doesn’t work. The balance is precarious. And she pulls is off, all the while making it look easy.

The other two major supporting performances come from Jeremy Davis and Viola Davis, both of whom are quite different than Tarkovsky’s shipmates… at least in body. This is one of the lovely things about Soderbergh. He develops his characters so well that issues like age, race and even sex are almost always irrelevant.

The Great Viola Davis (I’m petitioning to have her name changed officially) is the voice of science, even if her faith in that religion has been a bit shaken. She doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but she is so strong a presence that we feel as though we know her and we respect her strength and intelligence.

On the other side of Kelvin’s shoulder is Jeremy Davies, who plays a shipmate who seems to have a space bong nearby at all times. But he is open to everything, much as Davis’ character wants to stay closed. Again, he doesn’t have an enormous amount of screen time, but by the time you reach the end of this journey, the nuances along the way fill in many of the blanks.

Solaris is one of Soderbergh's finest works, more closely aligned to the emotional layering of The Limey than one would imagine. It is easily one of the finest films of this year and will probably outlast City of God and Adaptation as an enduring piece of art.

Much of the frustration you are likely to hear from critics is about the very end of the film, which I won’t even broach until after you have all had a chance to see the film. But if you want to understand, then scroll right back up to the top of this column.

Soderbergh's unwillingness to explain every detail in order to make it easier for the audience is daring, but not so daring that the underlying emotionality is out of reach of the average person. My only fear for the film is that the breathtaking silence will turn some people off before they allow themselves to be turned on.

This whole film is very much like the silent section of Cast Away, where you really have to stay with the movie. This is not a passive experience. And if you don’t want to be in touch with your own heart, you will find yourself pushing away. When I first saw Cast Away, I said that it was Bob Zemeckis’ “art film”… the art film of a filmmaker who masters and reinvents genre after genre. I didn’t think it would be very commercial, even though not terribly commercial for Tom Hanks means $105 million. But the audience found the film and did that work. I can only hope that the same will happen... even if it's just $70 million domestic... for Solaris.

I don't like to jump all over the "masterpiece" thing after one viewing. But Solaris has been with me every day since I saw it. In a time where I am seeing "Oscar movie" after “Oscar movie,” Solaris creeps into my thoughts when I am talking about other movies. And any time rain falls. (Again, you’ll have to experience the film for yourself to understand.) In the face of a lot of rageful movies, something as pure as Solaris is a heartful respite to a tender place. And in the pantheon of great movies, Soderbergh’s Solaris will soon takes its place.

E ME: What can you say?

Clooney Talks Solaris Flap

11/19/02

George Clooney, star of Steven Soderbergh's upcoming SF movie Solaris, told SCI FI Wire that he was caught off guard by the mini-controversy surrounding the film's rating because of brief glimpses of his naked behind. "It was sort of a non-event," Clooney said in an interview while promoting the film. "I think that Fox is struggling to find things to get ink on, and it was early on, and I think that that was sort of a leak in terms of, 'Let's get something going.'"

The film initially received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, reportedly because of two scenes in which Clooney bares his assets. Director Soderbergh appealed the ruling, and the MPAA reversed itself and eventually gave the movie a PG-13 rating without seeking changes in the movie. As far as Clooney is concerned, the dustup may have been partly orchestrated. "It feels like that to me," he said. "Didn't it seem that way, sort of, though? It seemed like sort of a non-story. You see it, it's not that hardcore of a scene. We've seen worse on so many television shows. So it felt like that was one of those things where they're just going, 'What do we do?' And 'How do we sell this?' And 'Maybe we'll sell it through sex,' and all that stuff, which is fine. It's certainly closer than the original [marketing plan], which was sci-fi, because people who go see this-young men who show up thinking it's going to be a sci-fi film-they're going to be really pissed." Solaris, loosely based on Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 movie and Polish SF author Stanislaw Lem's book, opens Nov. 27.

Save the Date! Twentieth Century Fox to Host Premiere Screening of "Solaris,''

WHAT: Twentieth Century Fox is hosting the premiere screening of

SOLARIS starring George Clooney and Natascha McElhone,

directed by Steven Soderbergh, and produced by James Cameron.

From the film: George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, Steven

Soderbergh, James Cameron, Jeremy Davis and Viola Davis.

Celebrity Guests: Brad Pitt, Danny DeVito, Don Cheadle,

Michael Clarke Duncan, Tia Carrerre, Mena Suvari, Cedric the

Entertainer, Vanessa Williams, Steve Zahn, Julianna Margulies,

Fran Drescher, Paul Sorvino, Jamie Kennedy, Shannon Elizabeth,

Debi Mazar, Amy Brenneman and David Fincher.

WHEN: Tuesday, November 19th, 2002

Crew Call - 5:30 p.m.

Arrivals - 6:30 p.m.

Screening - 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: Pacific Cinerama Dome

6360 W. Sunset Blvd.

Hollywood, CA

Your coverage of this event is invited -- Press and Photo Credentials will be required --ALL MEDIA MUST check in at a designated PRESS CHECK-IN table to receive credentials.

SOLARIS OPENS IN THEATERS NATIONWIDE NOVEMBER 27th

Contact:

Twentieth Century Fox, Los Angeles

Lori Burns, 310/369-2312 (Broadcast/Print)

Steve Newman, 310/369-2354 (Photo)

Carol Cundiff, 310/369-1996 (Online)

Fran Zell, 310/369-1944 (International)

Clooney Scene Gets PG-13 Rating

11/14/02

Los Angeles (AP) -- George Clooney's bare-bottom shots in the science-fiction romance ``Solaris'' won't cost the movie its PG-13 rating, the film's studio said Thursday.

The Motion Picture Association of America, which determines the parental-guideline designations, backed off its original R-rating for the film without forcing director Steven Soderbergh to eliminate the nudity.

After arguing their case Wednesday before the ratings board, Soderbergh and 20th Century Fox film chairman Jim Gianopulous won the less-restrictive rating, which increases the potential audience and marketing opportunities for the film.

``We just thought that the material was handled in a very mature and tasteful manner and that any normal 13-year-old could more than wrap their mind around it,'' Soderbergh said in an interview Thursday. ``The question was 'Are kids in danger of having their emotional lives turned upside down by these images?' As far as Jim G. and I were concerned, the answer was: `absolutely not.' ``

In one shot, Clooney's character slow-dances partially naked in dim light with his wife, played by actress Natascha McElhone. In another, he and McElhone have a bedside discussion while undressed.

Soderbergh, who won a directing Academy Award in 2001 for ``Traffic,'' argued that the scenes were necessary to illustrate the romantic relationship between the couple.

He also noted that audiences can see actors in similar states of undress on some network television shows such as ``NYPD Blue.''

``Solaris,'' based on the novel by Stanislaw Lem, stars Clooney as a widowed astronaut forced to deal with his grief in space. It's a remake of a 1972 Russian film.

SEX, SKIES & VIDEOTAPE

Sci-Fi Magazine December 2002

“I never thought I’d make a movie where somebody wore a spacesuit.” That single admission from director Steven Soderbergh is not surprising to hear. Truth is, few audiences would expect that the man behind such hits as Sex, Lies and Videotape, Erin Brockovich, Ocean’s Eleven, and the Oscar-winning Traffic is the same mind behind this fall’s adaptation of Solaris, by Polish science-fiction novelist Stanislaw Lem. Nonetheless, Soderbergh was intrigued by the opportunity to bring his vision to Solaris. First and foremost, the story is not driven by big special effects and space battles. “I would never be interested in making what I would call a hardware science-fiction movie,” attests Soderbergh.

“I’m not really that interested in technology or ships flying around or gadgets. I’m interested in what philosophical issues we are going to face as we expand our knowledge of the universe. So we sort of refer to this as software science-fiction, in that it was all psychological. Solaris has emotional and philosophical depth – which was the other reason Soderbergh was attracted to the project.

The story itself tracks one Dr. Chris Kelvin, a grief therapist sent to the Prometheus, a space station orbiting an unusual planetary body, to evaluate the inexplicable behaviors of scientists on the station. “There were some things in the book that I think were really interesting and worth exploring,” explains Soderbergh on why he zeroed in specifically on Solaris. “And there were some things in the (1972) movie that I thought were really interesting and could be explored further. Plus, I have some preoccupations of my own that I felt I’d like to layer in.”

The fundamental story of Solaris, he adds, “dealt with issues that I’ve grappled with before – memory, and the subjectivity of memory. Having the opportunity to get a second chance at something – that’s certainly an element that’s common in even the first film that I made.”

Initially, the writer-director actually thought Solaris was spoken for. A friend at Fox -- the same friend who got Soderbergh thinking about what sort of science-fiction film would interest him -- also told him that that the rights to Solaris were already snapped up by Lightstorm Entertainment, James Cameron’s production company. But a few months later, Soderbergh got word that Cameron was interested in producing, but not directing, Solaris. Two weeks prior to starting principal photography on Traffic, Soderbergh met with Cameron and discussed the viability of adapting Solaris again, and how to bring something different to the table than what Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky did with his adaptation 30 years ago.

From the outset, though, Soderbergh suspected that Solaris was going to be a tricky project to see through to fruition. Rather than committing to the movie after that initial meeting, he instead asked Cameron if he could write the script on spec. That way, explains Soderbergh, “in case I fail, then there was no deal, I didn’t take any money, and I could just walk away. And they said fine. About nine months later, as we were finishing Traffic, I gave them a first draft, they gave me some notes, and I went back and did another draft. Right around the time we started shooting Ocean’s Eleven, I said, ‘OK, let’s turn this script into Fox, and let’s make a deal to make the movie.’ And we did it.”

Although it’s an odd pairing -- the metaphysical thinker and the king of kick-ass action --Soderbergh notes that their respective strengths proved complementary. “I had a series of very lengthy conversations with Cameron that I recorded and used as a reference for writing the screenplay, because his mind is so fertile, and he knows so much about so much,” remembers Soderbergh. “I found a lot of his questions and philosophical musings were really provocative, and a lot of them shaped what I was trying to do.”

In adapting the story of Solaris, Soderbergh felt free to home in on the aspects that intrigued him the most. “The chief difference between our version of Solaris and the previous film and the book is that neither of those two pieces go into detail about what the relationship was between Kelvin and Rheya on Earth. What did they have before? Also, what are the parallels between the trajectory of their relationship on Earth and the new relationship on the Prometheus?

The goal, says Soderbergh, was to provide this sense of dread on the part of both of their characters, that were playing out the same thing that we played out before on Earth. Is there any way to keep that from happening, or are we predetermined, since she came from his memory, to play out the same scenario? Do we not have a choice? Are we going to make the same mistakes again because you remember me as someone who made those mistakes, so therefore I’m stuck?

The issue of whether Rheya has free will or not is something that she and Kelvin have to struggle with on the Prometheus. And that’s the central dilemma of the film. Although the setting is very much rooted in science fiction, this is more than just another space opera. The films sci-fi elements are purposefully relegated to the background. The technology of the future, in this case the non-specified future, really doesn’t play much of a part in the movie at all. We took a very casual approach to technology, since I didn’t want to spend a lot of time analyzing what we think we know is going to be happening 20 or 30 years from now,” admits Soderbergh. “And frankly, after seeing

Minority Report, where they spent a lot of time and effort, successfully, in exploring what the technology of the future will be, I was so glad we didn’t go down that route, because someone else with more time and more desire and more resources has done that. It proved that I could never have competed on that level with a movie like Minority Report. Spielberg has a gift for presupposing what technology is going to be like, and I really don’t — that’s just not the way my mind works.”

What technology is visually represented in the film isn’t particularly far-flung in its futuristic feel. “There really isn’t anything from a technology standpoint that anybody’s going to look at and go ‘ah, ooh, that’s cool, that’s a neat gadget,’ because there really aren’t any gadgets, and the technology we employed in the movie isn’t that far from what exists now, because I just didn’t want anybody thinking about that. I wanted them constantly thinking about what the characters were doing and feeling” Soderbergh affirms.

“When you look back at what people thought the year 2001 would be like in some regards it’s a lot different than they imagined, and in some ways we haven’t advanced very much at all. And that perspective really colored the aesthetic of the movie from top to bottom.

Again, that grew out of my desire to make a movie that was emotional, and not technical.” Even when addressing the issue of space travel—which is necessary given that the movie is set on space station—Soderbergh is once again quick to de-emphasize the movie’s sci-fi roots.

“We’re making a psychological drama that happens to be set on a spaceship, but we’re not making a movie about a spaceship. Or about space travel,” the director laughs. “We don’t spend a lot of time getting him there. We spend some time setting up what his emotional life on Earth is like, and then we get him there pretty quickly, because I wasn't interested in the physical journey from Earth to Solaris. I wanted to get him there so we could get into what’s happening with Solaris, and what’s happening on the ship.”

Although this adaptation goes in a direction that, ironically, genre films are usually knocked for lacking, Soderbergh denies that his Solaris is a more intellectual brand of sci-fi than an A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, or a more effects-driven film like Star Wars. “It doesn’t feel intellectual to me, it feels emotional,” protests Soderbergh.

“There are real emotional stakes involved, and it’s not real esoteric by any stretch. I’m hoping that we can let people know that that’s the case. There are only, there are like a dozen effects shots in the whole movie—what I would term effects shots, where you actually see a spaceship or something. Rather, it’s a real psychological pressure cooker.”

But even Soderbergh concedes that he doesn’t know how audiences will react

to the film. “I don’t know; it’s going to be interesting to see if people are going to

want to take this trip or not. We preview in two days, so I’ll know more then,” he says dryly. “I’m very curious to see what the response is going to be, because it’s a real Rorschach test for the audience. It can withstand several different interpretations and how you respond to it and how you feel about it has only to do with your personal beliefs about these issues. The film doesn’t lay out a solution for you.

You really have to walk away and decide what you think happened, and why. And all of your reactions are colored by what you think and how you were raised. It’s going to be interesting to see if that’s appealing to people or not.”

Fortunately for Soderbergh, though, his eclectic cast of actors was more than willing to join him on this journey. George Clooney, who has worked with Soderbergh before on1998’s Out of Sight and 2001’S Ocean’s Eleven, approached Soderbergh for the opportunity provided by the role of Chris Kelvin, the film’s protagonist.

“George ... I knew that George could do this. It’s a completely ... ” Soderbergh pauses, searching for the right words, “different role than he’s played before, certainly different from anything he’s played for me. I felt he could do it, but I wasn’t sure he was ready to do it. And then, as it turned out, he said to me that he was, and said to me, ‘I’d like to do this, I am ready, and I think I need to do it.’ And I said, ‘That’s great, then let’s go.’ But it was an extremely demanding part for any actor to take on. We started with difficult stuff, and it was a relentless eight or nine weeks of work.

But I couldn’t have been happier with what he did. To watch somebody that you know well and that you’ve worked with before take it to the next level was really exciting.

The rest of cast includes lower-profile actors, and each brought something specific to the table. “The other actors are either people I’ve worked with before or people I was familiar with, and that I felt were the best actors for each of those roles,” elaborates Soderbergh. Kelvin’s apparently reincarnated wife is played by “Natasha McElhone, who I’ve seen in numerous films and always thought was really intriguing.

Viola Davis I’ve worked with twice in smaller roles, and Jeremy Davies I’ve always liked a lot. [German actor] Ulrich Tukur was the result of a lengthy search for someone European who hadn’t worked in America before” Davis, Davies and Tukur all play scientists aboard the space station Prometheus. “And that’s kind of it.

The cast is pretty much five people.” Not only is the cast small, but the production is shy a few people, since Soderbergh is pulling quadruple duty as screenwriter, director, cinematographer and editor. This isn’t the first time Soderbergh has worn multiple hats. He served as director and cinematographer of Traffic (2000), Ocean’s Eleven (2001) and Full Frontal (2002); and as writer, editor and director of Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), one of his earliest films.

However, it is the first time he’s performed all four roles — something that has both its advantages and disadvantages, Soderbergh notes with practicality. “You can look at it both ways,” he says of adding screenwriter back into the equation, the first time he’s done so on a major film since Sex. “It’s either an advantage because I’m the one who’s going to have to shoot it, and so I can write things a certain way, and know how it’s going to turn out. But the danger is that you write something idiosyncratic and undiluted that it’s difficult for people to understand what you’re up to.

It was a 75-page script, which I knew would be short. But because I knew the rhythms of the film were slow, to write 110 pages would mean we’d have a three-hour movie. So I wrote a 75-page script assuming we were going to come in at a little under two hours. And that’s about where we are currently."The Solaris shoot itself was a short one -- the film was shot this past spring and summer across a mere eight weeks.

But that didn’t detract from the shoot’s intensity. “One of the things that, for me, made this shoot tricky was every scene had something difficult in it,” recalls Soderbergh. “There were no simple shots. I’ve been on movies before where there have been complicated emotional scenes or complicated technical scenes, but I’ve never been on a movie before where we never had a shot that wasn’t either, and we never had a day that was a breather. It was all day, every day, struggling to make sure you were getting the good stuff. There was no opportunity to step outside of it.”

Some of the hardest moments for Soderbergh to direct his actors on involved the scenes that had the least dialogue in them. “There are some very abstract sequences in the film—there are a couple of sequences where, for 10 or 15 minutes, there’s no dialogue—and those are very difficult to play. So, to say to someone, ‘Imagine a sound so loud that it’s like every atom in the universe was detonating simultaneously. And, action!”’

Soderbergh laughs. “Those are weird things to play, and there’s a lot of that in the film, where the character isn’t sure whether they’re alive or they’re dying—or whether they’re in another place, where time has sort of for all they know collapsed or ceased to exist at all.

And those can be really tricky: if you’re not careful, you end up feeling like William Shatner on Star Trek where they lean to one side when the ship is hit by something.”

While Soderbergh has made other films that were difficult in their own way, he points to Solaris as being his biggest challenge yet. “I’ve made films that pushed me, but this one pushed me harder. In every direction than any film I’ve made so far.”

And even acclaimed Academy Award-winning directors can have their moments of insecurity. “I was as scared on this film as I’ve ever been on a film set,” admits Soderbergh. “Literally. I mean, there were a couple of times in the movie where the floor just opened up underneath me and I thought, ‘We’re just going to have to call Fox and tell them we’re stopping. I don’t know what to do with this, I don’t know how to shoot this, this scene is not working, I don’t know how to shoot it, we just have to stop.’ It was just intense from the moment we started to the moment we wrapped.

“I remember sitting with George outside the soundstage after we wrapped, and he just said, ‘I’ve never been through anything like that in my life.”’ And Soderbergh concurs with that perspective. “We shot for 43 days, and it felt like 90.

Although Soderbergh is developing a film set after World War II called The Good German, he remains noncommittal on what his next project will be -- beyond some long-overdue R&R. “I have no idea. I’m taking a year off. I’m tired,” he says, noting that he had no break between Ocean’s Eleven, Full Frontal and Solaris.

“But this is a good movie to go out on,” Soderbergh adds. “It’s a culmination of a lot of things that I’m interested in—and it required me to call upon everything I’ve learned since I started. So it’s like a good project to end phase one of my career on. I’ve done 13 movies in 13 years; now I need to take a break and recharge and figure out what I want to do now.”

Thanks to Katie

November 08, 2002

Plus a few words about the story from James Cameron and Steven Soderbergh.

- Many a moviegoer is aware that a "James Cameron" stamp in a film's credits stands for quality, quality beyond action – we're talkin' story-development, editing, sound-mix, cinematography, etc. Cameron demands the best, the best people have to offer, and makes the most out of what he has to work with. In a way, he's fashioned for himself a brand name. "James Cameron" means the best action. However, for his latest film Solaris, in which he serves as executive producer, he has something to tell you before you head out to the theater...

"This movie is not an action film and people need to know that going in," says Cameron. "This is science fiction the way science fiction used to be back in the Fifties and Sixties when it was a fiction of ideas, a fiction of people."

Based on the novel by Stanislaw Lem, and first filmed in 1972 by director Andrei Tarkovsky, Solaris is a love story with strong psychological undertones. Set in the near future, George Clooney plays Dr. Chris Kelvin, a psychologist sent to assess the strange behavior of the crew of the Prometheus space station.

"From the moment Kelvin enters the space station, you know that there is great jeopardy there," says Cameron. "You don't understand the nature of the danger right away. You think that it could be anything – there could be a monster there, a murderer. It turns out the jeopardy is to one's sanity."

Apparently the crew's strange behavior started when the Prometheus entered the planet Solaris' atmosphere. And the peculiar irony of the scientists' venture is that the planet they set out to study now studies them. The organism surrounding the planet uses images in the crews minds, and from them creates real people – like Chris' deceased wife, Rheya, played by Natascha McElhone.

"These people believe that they're real," says Cameron, "but they also know that they're not the person they used to be. You can analyze them down to their molecular level, down to their DNA and they're human. Kelvin's strongest image is of his wife who died several years earlier. So Solaris in a sense sets the stage for a playing out of this relationship beyond her death, which is a pretty dramatic conceit."

Writer-director Steven Soderbergh, who combined elements from Lem's book and Tarkovsky's film in his screenplay, explains, "The dilemma they're all confronting is that Solaris seems to know more about you than you do and therefore it's very difficult to outthink and outsmart it. At first, Kelvin wants to solve this problem and get everybody safely back home. He is then caught up in the mystery and not sure what to do about it. The theme of predestination is crucial. Kelvin and Rheya's relationship had ended very badly. When she appears on the Prometheus, they both struggle with the idea of the relationship traveling the same path it did before. Those issues of memory, guilt, potential redemption and the opportunity to do something again and maybe do it differently, appealed to me. As one character says at a certain point in the film, 'There are no answers, only choices.' And it really does come down to that."

"This film takes you to the farthest reaches of the universe, and what you find there is yourself," says Soderbergh. "Kelvin is confronted with his own memory, a replay of the things he's gone through, his guilt, his culpability, the mistakes that he made. And he gets the opportunity to change it, or maybe not."

Solaris invades theaters November 27