Director George Tillman Jr. offered the words in the image above when asked about his work across several different genres. It’s that view of filmmaking that makes Tillman such an interesting guy. His new movie, Faster, stars Dwayne Johnson as a nameless, muscle-car driving ex-con bent on speedy revenge against those who murdered his brother. He leaves a bloody trail as he slaughters seemingly random individuals, starting with shooting a defenseless office drone in the head. His actions catch the attention of Billy Bob Thornton, and, as you can imagine, things get complicated.
Bullz-Eye had a chance to talk with Tillman about his career and the impact it has had on the director’s latest. Here’s a quick excerpt:
BE: One of the things that interests me about this is that the main characters don’t have names. You have “the Driver,” “the Cop,” and “the Killer.” I’m ashamed to admit I’ve never seen it, but that appears to be kind of an homage to Walter Hill’s “The Driver.” I think you mentioned that.
GT: It’s an homage to that and also the westerns. The lone cowboy with no name. Sergio Leone, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” — the Driver, the Killer, the Cop. You’ve got this landscape, this vast landscape, which is us in the desert in California [near] Bakersfield and the mountains — vistas. Three guys all coming for one final showdown. These are the things which we try to use as a backdrop which always worked, we just haven’t seen it in a long time. Again, it’s done in a newer, fresher way which is not trying to emulate them, but just be real, be reality based, be character based, be story based. That was my approach as a director paying homage to these films.
For the full George Tillman Jr. interview, head over to Bullz-Eye.com.
