Thomas Jane is sick of making bad movies. I think that’s awesome, because I am sick of seeing bad movies. The gravelly-voiced action hero was caught in a candid moment earlier this week and dished about his general disgust with bad movies, as well as his new werewolf role, and why he was fired from Sylvester Stallone’s Headshot. Collider caught the actor after the Saturn Awards and got some authentic Jane tidbits on his plans for the future.
In Jane’s perfect world, he would be the one making the films, from production to directing to starring. Sounds like he might be biting off more than he can chew, but hey, if he can single-handedly produce/direct/star a great movie than I’m behind him all the way.
I’ve done my share of bad movies, but I’m done with that. I’m only going to do stuff that I personally really love and believe in. and whether it turns out great or not is not going to be my problem. I’m just going to be great in the show. I’m going to be great in the project. And I’m creating my own stuff. Directing, starring and directing, that’s my goal and my dream for the second half of my career. I’m going to produce, create my own stuff. I’m tired of other people fucking up my movies.
The sometimes-blond stud has a long list of movies under his belt. While many of them are action oriented, HBO’s Hung proves he can handle light comedy just as easily. And no matter what you may think of the 2004 Punisher, Jane rocked as Frank Castle (aka The Punisher). So what does this under-utilized actor have to say about Hollywood, and what can we see him in next?
Recently his name was attached to Stallone’s hitman action pic Headshot. Jane was set to play the cop that teams up with a hitman (Stallone) so solve a murder case. Then Jane was fired, and by what he has to say, it sounds racially motivated.
Well, Joel Silver came onboard the project and said that he has a quote-unquote ‘formula’ for these quote-unquote ‘buddy movies’ and it has to be a white guy and a quote-unquote ‘ethnic guy.’ And they relieved me of duty and basically paid me off, which I was really upset about, you know? I didn’t get a call from Stallone. I was a little upset about that. Maybe they didn’t want anybody on the movie with a bigger dick than him.
Jane certainly doesn’t parse words. As a fan, I’m always eager to see him in something new. In the brief interview with Collider he did mention an upcoming genre project called The Lycan. According to Jane, it’s:
A gothic werewolf romance set in the late 1700s. it’s fuckin’ cool. It’s basically Alien, set in a castle, with werewolves.
Sounds completely over-the-top and awesome to me. He also mentioned a Glen Sherley biopic that’s in the works, but doesn’t have a studio attached yet. On what he would like to do next, Jane said his dream would be to make an old John Ford-style Western.
I’ve got a dream to do a big anamorphic, old John Ford style western. Everybody wants to do a deconstruction of a western. After Sergio Leone broke open the mold, that kind of became the mold, you know? So now the spaghetti western became the mold of the western. So, the question is, where do you go from there? I want to go back to the roots of the western and try to reconstruct a traditional western in a modern context, in a modern way. To bring all the values of what makes a western great into the modern world, which I haven’t seen yet. True Grit is a modern movie, but it’s not a new kind of western. This movie called Blueberry with Vincent Cassel, they tried to do a kind of surreal western which I thought was a really strong attempt at breaking…break open the western genre. I want to do something different. I want to go back to John Ford, back to anamorphic widescreen, monument valley, that western.
That would be something to see, and as Jane also mentioned shooting it in 3-D….well, I can’t go on with a straight face. Whatever his dreams, he’s a good actor who perhaps has made some bad film choices (Deep Blue Sea, for instance), but I can’t wait to see him really break out.
Published: Jun 29, 2011 07:30 pm