Hughes brothers are back with 'The Book of Eli' By Rob Lowman Los Angeles Daily News Posted: 01/17/2010 01:00:00 AM PST Updated: 01/18/2010 12:58:19 PM PST
NEW YORK - Sure, they are twins, share a wicked sense of humor and do that finish-each-other's-thoughts thing, but there are differences. Ask Denzel Washington, who stars in their latest film, "The Book of Eli": "Allen is more the casting people, cutting guy, and Albert is the guy with all that geek stuff." See? Easy. "It's like a two-headed mutant monster," admits Albert. "Sometimes we walk around separately like idiots, but together we can be one complete whole. Allen specializes in one thing. I specialize in one thing. He can do my job, and I can do his job. "He thinks more personality, Religious roles fit nonreligious Paul Bettany surprisingly well story and relationships, and I'm more like, 'I like this microphone' and 'How does it work?' " But the real question is what have the 37-year-old filmmaking brothers been doing since their last film, "From Hell," the 2001 adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel about the Jack the Ripper murders, starring Johnny Depp. Allen offers three reasons for the delay: First, they couldn't get the scripts they were interested in off the ground. Second, they were pretty successful making commercials, and "making a lot of money tends to make you less urgent to make things that you should be making." Lastly, they took a twin sabbatical. "For the first time in our lives, at 30, we went and tried to find out who we were as individuals." Encouraged by their mother, who gave them a video camera at age 12 while growing up in Pomona, the brothers began working on music videos as teens for rap stars such as Tone Loc and Tupac Shakur. By 1993, they had written and directed "Menace II Society," which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to be a big hit. They followed that in 1996 with "Dead Presidents," and then in 1999 with the documentary "American Pimp," about the underground pimp culture and exploitation of women, which generated a fair amount of controversy. The brothers expect that "The Book of Eli," which involves the power of the Bible, may generate some discussion, too. Allen says, "When I read the line 'This is not just a book, it's a weapon,' that's when the hair stood up on the back of my neck. ... It's a rare occasion where a film can be a different movie depending on what you bring into it." For his part, Albert gave the film an eerie look, befitting a post-apocalyptic world. "As we've gotten older, the references come from anywhere," says Albert. "I've been recently influenced by this Czech photographer, Jan Saudek. A lot of the way the clouds are in the movie are straight out of his photos desaturate everything and add a stroke of color." "I wish you would have shared that with me," Allen chimes in. Talking to the brothers is a bit of a trip, careening from them riffing on an old Alka Seltzer commercial to some wild quips most of which are best left unrepeated lest someone think they were serious to talking about their favorite male soul singers. There is a key moment where Washington's character, Eli, listens to Al Green's version of "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart." Green, Allen points out, has made an appearance on all their soundtracks, except for "In Hell," set in London in 1888. Although they say they have nothing pinned down at the moment, the brothers promise there won't be such a long wait for their next movie. "We're not waiting around another eight years that's for sure," Albert says. "It's important we get back to making movies where you leave the theater and it's a debate about it," Allen says. "Even if you don't like the movie, you've got to respect it, and if you go to dinner afterward, you're going to be talking about it."
