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Mortensen adores Good, which ThinkFilm plans to release by year's end. But the film is directed by Brazilian director Vicente Amorim, who is not in the Academy directors' club.

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Warner Bros., ASSOCIATED PRESS

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2008

Viggo P. Mortensen is often praised for adding nuances that make his on-screen characters feel more authentic. In the new Western "Appaloosa," the actor said he's left hints of a north county past in his laconic lawman, Everett Hitch.

"The character, as far as I was concerned, was from Northern New York, but had been out West for 15 years," Mr. Mortensen said Wednesday during a phone interview from Los Angeles.

Hitch is the indispensable partner of Virgil Cole (Ed Harris); together, they've earned a modest living bringing order to frontier towns plagued by lawlessness in the 1880s.

Mr. Mortensen, a 1976 graduate of Watertown High School and a 1980 graduate of St. Lawrence University, Canton, said remnants of Hitch's imagined past here and as an former Army cadet can be found in everything from the way he handles his eight-gauge shotgun to his outfits.

"The clothes are bits and pieces of suits," he said. "It's sort of a mixture of what's left. He's clean and tidy, but he doesn't have much money. His way of riding and speaking are, in some way, remnants of being at West Point or being from that area."

Mr. Mortensen isn't a fan of most modern Westerns but said he was attracted to "Appaloosa," in part, because it echoed some present-day issues.

"It has timely ideas about how much freedom is too much, for a person and even that of a country," he said.

It also offered him the chance to work again with Mr. Harris. The two have been friends since 2005, when they worked together on David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence."

"I respect him as an actor and as a person," said Mr. Mortensen. "We got along well. I knew once we got going, there would be a shorthand and we would have a way to make this relationship (between Cole and Hitch) work, and people would feel that these two had a long relationship together."

Asked if he saw similarities between his off-screen friendship with Mr. Harris and their characters' relationship on-screen, Mr. Mortensen joked: "Well, we don't go around shooting guns."

He then added: "I guess we're similar in the way that they respect each other's boundaries. That's the secret of a long-term relationship. My character doesn't meddle in Virgil's business and his character doesn't meddle in my business."

The two also share a passion for horseback riding, which Mr. Mortensen said he's had since he was a small child. The actor is the son of Grace A. "Gay" Wright, Clayton, and V. Peter Mortensen, Cape Vincent.

The former Watertown resident recalls riding a few times around Cape Vincent as a teenager but said he had few opportunities to jump back into the saddle until he was cast in "Young Guns II," which came out in 1990.

"I really enjoyed it," he said. "I got to ride in 'Lord of the Rings,' which was really fun. And obviously, 'Hidalgo.'"

Mr. Mortensen said he still owns the horse he rode in "Hidalgo," a 2004 film in which he played thrill-seeker Frank Hopkins, and the horse from the "Rings" trilogy.

The actor said he would be interested in doing another Western based on his recent experience.

"When they're done right, they're really great," he said. "I think 'Appaloosa' is done right. It's made without imitation or pretension. It's very much in the line of the best of the classics."

Mr. Mortensen said his friend Michael Blake asked him to star in "The Holy Road," a Western and sequel to "Dances With Wolves" that is expected to come out next year. Mr. Blake wrote both novels and adapted them both into screenplays.

"I was flattered that they would ask," the actor said. "But I just don't have the time."

Mr. Mortensen said Mr. Blake had wanted him to play Lt. John Dunbar in "Dances," although the actor wasn't a box office draw in 1990. The part went to Kevin Costner, who won an Academy Award for his direction.

Mr. Mortensen will spend the next six months on worldwide promotion tours for "Appaloosa" and two other movies he stars in this fall, "The Road" and "Good."

"The Road," the hotly anticipated adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name, will arrive in theaters Nov. 26. "Good," the chilling tale of a literature professor whose works are unexpectedly embraced by the Nazi regime, will arrive sometime in December.

Mr. Mortensen said his professor is, "in a way, not a likable character."

"I hope the movie shows how even a smart and nice and decent person can get sucked into something and get talked into certain things," he said.

Again, he sees echoes in that story to modern times.

Mr. Mortensen, an outspoken critic of the Bush presidency, said the American public was talked into several bad decisions in the name of patriotism.

"There's a lot of things we might want to take back if we had known," he said. "And this movie talks about how all the little choices on a daily basis all add up."

"Appaloosa" opened Friday as a limited engagement in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto. It's expected to have a wider release Oct. 3.

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September 22nd, 2008 7:14 pm
Michael Moore's Election-Year Freebie


By Brian Stelter / New York Times

Michael Moore, the political provocateur behind the films “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Sicko,” is releasing a new film Tuesday. But you will not be able to find “Slacker Uprising” at any theater.

Instead he is placing the film on the Internet for free viewing, at SlackerUprising.com. Mr. Moore said the unorthodox rollout is a gift to his fans and a rallying cry for the coming election.

“At times there’s nothing wrong with preaching to the choir,” he said in a telephone interview from his office in Traverse City, Mich. Liberals have been “pretty beaten down over the last 28 years.”

“The choir, especially on our side of the political fence, is often fairly dejected,” he observed, “and could use a good song every now and then.”

The song in this analogy is a 100-minute look at Mr. Moore’s tour of college campuses during the fall of 2004. Cameras followed him to 62 cities as he urged young people to vote for John Kerry. The resulting footage sat on the shelf for a few years before Mr. Moore spliced together a version of the film, then titled “Captain Mike Across America,” and showed it at the Toronto International Film Festival a year ago.

After the festival screening Mr. Moore returned to the editing room to give the film “more heft and substance,” he said. It includes exchanges with Mr. Moore’s detractors and their attempts to interrupt his tour, raising free-speech issues and creating some comedic moments. Some critics (including those for The Michigan Daily, at the University of Michigan, and Inside Toronto) have said the film amounts to little more than a “highlight reel” of Mr. Moore’s trip, suggesting that its theatrical prospects were dim. Mr. Moore disputes that, saying that his agent, Ari Emanuel, believed the film could net $20 million to $40 million. (“Sicko” brought in $24.5 million domestically.)

“I prohibited him from contacting any studios to ask them whether they were interested,” Mr. Moore said. “I just said straight up, ‘I want to give this away for free.’ He thought I should have my head examined.”

The Weinstein Company owned the distribution rights to the project, so Mr. Moore bought back the North American rights for an undisclosed amount. “The irony is that I believe people should see movies in theaters,” Mr. Moore said, praising what he called the communal experience. “You get so much more out of it, emotionally, cathartically.”

Perhaps for that reason Mr. Moore said he hoped fans would set up screenings and use the film to raise money for candidates. Visitors to the Web site will be able to stream and download it free, thanks to Mr. Moore’s partnership with Blip.tv, a company distributing online videos; additionally a $10 DVD will be distributed, and free copies can be requested for libraries.

Robert Greenwald — another member of the small fraternity of advocate filmmakers, whose production company specializes in tying video projects to off-line organizing — said a supporter in Alaska was already planning a screening. The film is “quite an adrenaline boost, even though it’s got a sad ending,” he said.

The ending, of course, is the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004. The film notes that voters under the age of 30 were the only demographic that Mr. Kerry won outright. “Unfortunately,” reads a graphic at the end of the film, “their parents voted for Bush.”

Mr. Moore suggested that the 2004 election results were a prelude to the Obama movement, which was “ignited by young people.”

“The road to getting where we want to be has to be filled with a certain amount of failure,” he said, drawing a parallel to the United Auto Workers’ labor movement 70 years ago.

Mr. Moore remains coy about the subject of his next movie, although he said filming was well under way. He has denied rumors that it will be a sequel to “Fahrenheit 9/11,” but he has not quashed reports that his next film will explore what he views as American imperialism. The recent turmoil of the financial markets may be giving him even more material.

“Some weeks, like this past week, I wonder if we’re going to have to credit others with the screenplay,” he said.