Frank Marshall
© WireImage.com

Related Links

0

Marshalling in the Genre's Greatest Part One

Producer-director Frank Marshall is one hot Hollywood commodity. With such notable genre projects as RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, BACK TO THE FUTURE and THE SIXTH SENSE (to name only a few) under his belt as well as his work on the upcoming M. Night Shyamalan helmed SIGNS the filmmaker shows no indication of letting up. On the contrary, one look at his "upcoming projects" slate and Marshall looks busier than the entire studio system itself.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK introduced the world to that adventuring archaeologist Indiana Jones

© 2001 Paramount Pictures

Having taken a break from feature film directing (his last gig was on 1995's CONGO) in order to spend more time with his family, Marshall looks to return to the "chair" with a number of small scale productions currently ramping up.

"I've been content for the last five years just producing," explains Marshall. "But I do miss directing because, obviously, it's your vision that you're overseeing not someone else's. I'd like to do that again. [My children] are older now so I feel like I can pour myself into the director mode, which is 24/7. I've got a couple of projects that I'm developing at Universal that I'm really interested in and look really great. One's a Civil War train chase movie called ANDREW'S RAIDERS I'm really excited about that."

However, his return behind the camera will not be happening with the Warner Bros. action/adventure film THE EXPENDABLES as the INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE reports.

M. Night Shymalan's SIGNS

© 2001 Touchstone Pictures

"I recently bailed out of a project that I'd been working on for about a year called THE EXPENDABLES," says Marshall. "It was creative differences. The script wasn't going the way I had hoped, so [Warner Bros.] went forward with it on its own. The film was a sort of big action piece about a group of convicts that are trained as deep-sea divers to rescue and bring up a submarine that was sunk in the South China Sea. So it was a big action/adventure piece."

While he may no longer be attached to this particular project, Marshall has a number of other genre and non-genre properties he is developing (either to produce or direct) and attributes the rather diverse list of movies to an assorted cinematic taste.

Frank Marshall

© WireImage.com

"I like genre, but I'm starting to find that my tastes are kind of eclectic," says Marshall. "[For example,] I'm developing another small movie to direct on the life of Django Reinhardt, a French gipsy guitarist who had a fascinating life. I come from a guitar playing family, so that appeals to me. I'd also love to do a romantic comedy, but there aren't a lot of good ones out there. I was even developing a baseball movie for a while. I find that when I read [a script], I just respond."

Ultimately, however, Marshall finds himself returning to the genre time and again. Case in point: the 2002 Universal Studios release THE BOURNE IDENTITY. The film, which tells the story of an amnesiac with roots in the espionage game, partners the producer with Hollywood's newest action hero Matt Damon.

"THE BOURNE IDENTITY will be out May 31st and I think you're going to see a new Matt Damon," says Marshall. "A very hard chiseled handsome action hero, so that's been fun. It's been fun working with him on this interesting project."

Be sure to check back soon for part two of our exclusive chat with Frank Marshall.