All language subtitles for Midnight Express 1978 The Production Featurette

I came to Midnight Express
in a most peculiar way.

I'd been invited to New York in '76
to see the stage show of The Wiz.

They wanted to make it
into a movie. It was U niversal .

I didn't like it, and so I had lunch
with the Universal guys...

...and kind of said no,
and walking back from lunch ...

...I was walking down Fifth Avenue,
walked past the Columbia building ...

...and Peter Guber was coming out,
and he said :

"I've got something for you ."
And he went back upstairs...

...and he gave me the galley proofs
of Midnight Express. . .

...the book that Billy Hayes
had written with William Hoffer.

And he said , "Could you read it?"

So I read it on the way back,
on a plane.

I talked about it with my then-producer,
AIan Marshall ...

...who had done most of my work
till then .

AIso, I'd spoke to David Puttnam ,
who I'd worked with also.

David Puttnam was about to go
into business with Guber...

...quite coincidentally.

So I said , "Well , if you're gonna take
the job at Casablanca--"

Which was Guber's company.
"--then I'Il do the film ."

And suddenly, all three of us
were involved , which was terrific...

...because we'd worked
so successfully in the past.

What happened with the script
was that...

...up to that point, I had written
most of everything that I'd directed .

So, you know, it was-- I was
used to doing my own screenplays.

I went to L.A. and Guber introduced me
to this young man called OIiver Stone...

...who had not any film credits
at that time...

...although he had written a couple
of very good scripts.

Peter Guber had found OIiver.

I think had read Platoon...

...and liked Platoon
and given OIiver the shot to do his fir--

I think,
his first commissioned screenplay.

They flew me to New York,
to the Mayflower Hotel ...

...where OIiver Stone was staying .

He was a screenwriter they hired to
adapt Midnight Express into the script.

I didn't know him.
He didn't have credits on much at all .

While we-- We sat in a room for,
I think, about a week.

If you know OIiver,
he has an immense amount of energy.

Back 30 years ago, he had even more.

So it's Iike being in a room with--
I n a washing machine, non-stop going .

I Iove it. For me, I just--
I Iove that kind of person .

And he's a brilliant guy,
and he was fiery about this project.

I interviewed Billy Hayes in New York
for several days...

...and we talked in a hotel , and I asked
him every specific question I could ...

...and I got-- And he had written
a book also. Was writing one.

So...

...when I went to England to write this,
I was charged .

It was decided
that he would come to London ...

...and he would begin writing
the screenplay of Midnight Express...

...which he, in fact, did ...

...in the back office
of our commercials company.

A Iittle office we had in Soho,
in London .

He came over and wrote it with AIan .

I mean , more OIiver than AIan ,
but, obviously, he would call in Alan ...

...and they would discuss it
each evening ...

...and then OIiver would come in
the next day...

...and he would sit at a desk,
and he'd write for, Iike, seven hours...

...at a time.

I believe still that the screenplay,
the first draught...

...should be written in a burst of the
energy in which you see the movie...

...which is a two-hour time Iimit.
It's got a clock on it.

And I think that if--
I try to write it in six weeks...

...and I wrote the first draught
in six weeks, actually, to the day.

But, of course, with AIan ,
he was pretty tough ...

...and I was a young ,
struggling screenwriter...

...and he was an established d irector
at that time.

So I had-- He made me work
in the back of his office...

...which Iooked Iike a Dickens-- Charles
Dickens' Scrooge office with no light.

To be quite honest,
I think most of us thought:

"Well , Iet him
write the first draught"...

...and then I would get on
and write the screenplay.

That really was, basically,
what we were thinking .

And that was the kind of working
assumption for about three months.

Then the moment
I absolutely remember...

...is that OIiver delivered to me
and AIan simultaneously--

And probably AIan Marshall .

--His first draught.

And I sat in my office--

I was in-- My office was
in Soho Square at the time.

--And sat down and read it.

Literally, in a sitting .
It was a real page-turner.

It was a wonderfully,
energetically written script.

And thinking , "Jesus,
this is actually very good .

He's very, very good .
This is very, very, very good ."

And at the end of it, I picked up
the phone to Alan , and I got through ...

...and he said , " I know, I know, I know.
I know what you're gonna say.

It's great, isn't it?"
I said , "Yes, it's great."

We all kind of read it--

AIan Marshall , David Puttnam and
myself-- within a space of five minutes.

You know, we all called one another,
and it was a terrific script, actually.

The first time I read the script,
I couldn't put it down .

It was a magnificent script.

You know, it was heavy...

...but it was certainly a page-turner.

The screenplay had a volatile energy.
Really had a dynam--

It was, Iike, a new energy at that time.
It was more rougher, it was rawer...

...and vital .

It was angry too.

It was angry about, at that time, what I
perceived to be a system of injustice...

...not just in Turkey,
but everywhere in the world .

But Turkey did stand in for me...

...in my passionate heart,
for the rest of the world .

The original screenplay...

...was in a number
of different prisons.

It followed , quite closely, the book.

And the first changes that were made
from the notes...

...that came from me and from the
studio and from Guber and Puttnam ...

...were really to conflate the prisons.
Make the prison one prison .

Because, by going
to this island prison , and then he--

I n the original screenplay,
he swam to a fishing boat...

...and that's how he escapes.

It Iet off the pressure cooker by--

And most of the characters
that you created--

Hamidou , the prison guard ,
and Max, John Hurt character.

--Were suddenly not there
in our story.

So we kept it all in the same prison .

And that was the big change
into the second draught.

AIthough it was a cracking script...

...there were fundamental things
that we wanted to adjust and change.

But there were two more draughts.

And a number of things were changed
whilst we were filming .

It was quite organic.
It gradually changed , little bit by Iittle.

And we started shooting
in September of '77.

The studio were very, very keen
on Richard Gere in particular.

He just had a very successful movie,
I think called Bloodbrothers.

But it-- It had been very good ,
and he'd got terrific reviews.

And a whole series
of meetings occurred ...

...between AIan Parker and Richard
that I set up.

I met with Richard Gere about twice,
and I wanted him to read the part.

He refused to read .
He didn't wanna read .

There was kind of a Iine that if you
were a young actor who had made it...

...you don't have to read anymore.
He didn't Iike doing cold readings.

So I couldn't commit to him , he didn't
commit to us at that moment in time.

We'd also cast and screen-tested
a number of people...

...and that included Sam Bottoms,
who was very good ...

...Dennis Quaid , and Brad Davis.

I had seen Brad Davis.
He'd come in Iate one day.

He knocked at my door two hours
after he should have been there...

...at the end of the day.
He was completely covered in grease.

H is VW had broken down on the way
from his home in North Hollywood ...

...and he read ...

...and I was always impressed
by him .

I mean , he had such passion for the
piece, and he was very vulnerable...

...almost like
a wou nded animal , really...

...and so keen and so anxious
to play the part.

It's fantastic for a director to have
somebody who wanted to do that badly.

Brad Davis was an unusual fella.

He was made for that role, you know.

I've seen so many people that
have come along , and then one role--

And that's the role of their Iife.

It's the 1 5th picture they've done,
or the 1 0th , or the sixth .

That was the first real one he did ,
and that was it.

It was another scary element
for the studio...

...because they eventually
went with an unknown ...

...and when you have, almost,
a first-time studio director--

That was the first studio film he did .
He did a Iittle independent film.

--And a first-time screenwriter...

...now a first-time actor...

And then there was a problem
of selling Brad Davis.

And for some extraordinary reason ...

...Dan Melnick,
and particularly David Begelman--

This is while Begelman
was still there...

...before Begelman was forced
to step down from the studio.

--Got this obsession that Brad had--
Was cross-eyed .

It was an absolutely extraordinary
series of conversations.

"The kid's cross-eyed , he's not
attractive enough ," et cetera, et cetera.

I Iiterally had to go to an optician
to have Brad's eyes tested ...

...and a Ietter from the optician saying
in no way at all was he suffering ...

...from any form of astigmatism
or anything else. We took that back.

And I got on
with the rest of the casting ...

...in Los Angeles and New York...

...mostly for the American parts.

Randy Quaid , obviously,
I met here in Los Angeles.

John H urt was one
of the first people we cast...

...who plays Max-- I've met in London .

--And he really wanted to do the film ,
and that was easy.

John H urt was a very early
and very easy decision .

I remember that I had the job of--
A happy job of persuading him .

And he said this, so I can .

He says that I sat down with him
and said :

"John , how would you Iike to be
nominated for an Academy Award?"

And he said , "What?"
I said , "If you do this, you will be."

And he was, so that was nice.

But it was an obvious stand-out part
for him .

He was perfect. And he--
I think he loved it.

How it came about, to start with ...

I was approached by David Puttnam .

And he said there's a film that
I might be interested in doing .

I said , "Oh , really? What's that?"

I said , "Who's gonna be directing?"
And he said , "AIan Parker."

And I said--
I mmediately, I said , " I'II do it."

He said , "What do you mean?
You don't want to see the script?"

"No, no, no." I said-- I'd just seen
some shorts by AIan Parker...

...because I was part and parcel
of producing a film ...

...called Little Malcolm and His
Struggle Against the Eunuchs...

...which turned out
to be handmade film .

It was done by George Harrison .

And I'd seen these three Iittle...

...films made by AIan ...

...which , I think, they were all to do
with the Blitz in London .

And they were fabulous.

And I just said , "Well . . . ."
At that stage, I said , "No.

If it's him , I want to do it."

I figured that there's--
He wouldn't want me to do it...

...if there wasn't anything--
If it wasn't worth doing .

If it wasn't something to get your teeth
into, and I was dead right.

But it surprised Puttnam .

And it's the only time I've ever done
a film which is sight unseen .

He came in with a beautiful drawing
he made of the character, Max.

How he thought he should look,
including broken glasses...

...with Band-Aids on the broken glass,
and his whole look, actually, was--

He'd already figured out
how he wanted to Iook.

It's exactly how he looked
in the film , in fact.

The first screenplay
was early part of '77.

I think in , like, spring . April .

I then started casting
and Iooking for Iocations.

We went to five countries in Europe
to look for where we might set the film .

We couldn't make the film ,
for obvious reasons, in Turkey.

I n fact, it was quite dangerous
for us to go there.

Even for us to go and recce,
which we did do.

We had to find a prison ...

...because we-- Or a Iocation ...

...that gave us this mediaeval feeling .

I n all honesty, we went to Istanbul ...

...and saw the real prison ,
Sagmalcilar...

...which is actually much more
a German blockhouse.

We were originally, from memory,
Iooking at--

We Iooked at a number of countries.
Yugoslavia we looked at.

Israel , at one point.

But everywhere we went, the Turkish
authorities who got wind of the script...

...got there ahead of us and managed
to do a very good job--

Italy, we were gonna shoot in .

--Of making sure
that permissions were withdrawn .

We ended up in Malta because
it was run by an extraordinary...

...eccentric man
called Dom M intoff...

...who wasn't gonna be told
by the Turks about anything .

We were remarkably welcome
in Malta...

...whereas we'd been literally...

...kind of eased off from our first--
I think our first three Iocations.

And although ...

...having been to Istanbul ,
it didn't Iook absolutely Istanbul ...

...it had that period feel ...

...that Istanbul has...

...and I found ...

...this yard , which was actually...

...a British Army storage facility.

I called up, and I said
to Alan and Geoffrey:

"Get on a plane.

Come over here and have a Iook
at this, and see what you think."

It was, architecturally,
qu ite interesting .

It's kind of dusty,
and it was made of this wonderful ...

...dirty, old , honey-coloured Iimestone.
And it was--

It had seen better days.

It was rather shabby,
and it was empty.

It was Iike a gigantic film studio
that was ours.

And so I thought,
"Well , this is a great space...

...in which to base the whole piece."

On the other hand , it didn't actually
have a big open area, or kogus...

...where a lot of the scenes
had been written for...

...and so we decided
to build our own kogus...

...which we bu ilt
with real Iimestone, intact...

...in the corner of the courtyard
of this fort.

Geoffrey designed this building that--

He actually put a whole front
onto an existing rear...

...so some of the Iittle cells
and things were all in the original ...

...and then he built...

...the wash areas...

...and some other cells,
and moulded them in perfectly...

...so it became like a real prison .

We built that,
and it gave me staircases...

...and also the convenience
to be able to shoot, really...

...and the whole crew
could be in there.

It was a film set, really, and yet,
it was made with real materials.

The cell block...

...that Hamidou comes down
when he walks down the stairs...

...and beats Billy on the back
with the baton ...

...that was all there.

It was-- Geoffrey obviously
put in the iron ...

...the metal bars and stuff Iike that
for pulling him u p...

...by his feet and stuff like that...

...but the actual Iocations,
even when they go down into the--

Down the well , that is a real well .

We shot that for real .
I nto the water, we shot that for real .

It was an amazing find .

When I first step onto the set at Malta,
I was overwhelmed ...

...by the reality, for me, of, again ,
the Turkish guards with the uniforms...

...and the kids running around ,
and the dogs, and--

While it wasn't my particular prison ,
it was Istanbul , in a way.

It was other prisons that I had been in
and seen and so on .

I didn't particularly Iike sitting
on the bunk...

...in my cell , as it were.

That was a little too close.
That was a little weird .

And then we went across the road
to another facility...

...and found the wheel
that they walked around in the wr--

He walked around
in the wrong direction .

You must go the other way.

The arrest and the capture was--

And the bus ride
were all done in Malta Airport.

We took over the airport.

I think we got it for two nights
to shoot the scene.

They were very good . We had good
help from the Maltese government...

...in allowing us to, ostensibly,
close down the airport.

We just redressed it to Iook
a little Iike Istanbul Airport...

...and shot the scenes.

I was Iucky when I started the film .
I some had familiar faces around me.

Most importantly, of course, I had
AIan Marshall and David Puttnam ...

...who were gonna be the hands-on
producers there in Malta with me.

Peter Guber was in Los Angeles.

And also, I had--
AImost the entire crew...

...were people that I knew
from making commercials...

...which I'd been doing
for a few years before making the film.

They'd worked with me
on Bugsy Malone.

The cinematographer, Michael Seresin ,
who is hugely important to me...

...Geoffrey Kirkland ,
production designer...

...and Gerry Hambling , the editor.

They had all worked with me...

...and , in fact, went on to do many,
many films with me Iater.

So that, plus almost everybody,
from the makeup and hair...

...to the first assistant director,
had worked with me before.

It was kind of necessary,
because it was pretty hard .

Going in , it was six-day weeks.
Sometimes we did seven-day weeks.

It was a three-week period .
Nobody got a day off...

...which was kind of hard , particularly
as it's a very dark subject...

...and it-- Very humid and hot...

...filming in a prison .

It's not the best of things in an island ,
which is just really a rock...

...in the middle of the Mediterranean
with two restaurants.

The bar at the H ilton
was the only pleasure anybody had .

So we had Michael ,
and we had our operator...

...we had our focus pullers.

We knew everybody on the crew,
and everybody came from the U . K.

The crew was very tight,
very together.

It really was like a family.

And one of the things I like
about making a film on an island ...

...is that it, particularly, some--
And I Iike Malta.

It's big enough to be able to be
separate when you need to be...

...but it's small enough to make
everything feel very familiar...

...you know? And ...

So therefore-- And everybody,
everybody in the crew...

...to the humblest carpenter...

...was involved .

Everybody was involved in it.

And that was a great deal to do
with Alan .

And Alan Marshall as well ,
you know.

They were very...

Brought everybody together.

That was what the Friday-evening party
was all about, really.

And everyone was invited .
Everybody went up to Alan's place.

And they're there till dawn .

Dancing . We danced and we danced
and we sang and we danced ...

...and we drank,
and we had a fantastic time.

Biggest challenge was,
it was a depressing film to make.

You know, we were shooting
in a prison .

And going to work there everyday
I found awful , actually.

And we-- There was a kind
of cu mulative depression ...

...that seem to build itself up,
and it was very, very hard .

It was a brutal movie...

...so, in that respect, again ,
another, you know...

Sometimes the actors...

...got, shall I say, overzealous
with their particular roles...

...but, you know, it--

Eventually, it--

It was a hard film ...

...because of the story line,
because of the conditions...

...and it was very hot.
We were working--

Malta gets very, very hot during the
period of time that we were shooting ...

...so we were always in the 90s,
and it was pretty stifling ...

...in some of these areas.

I say, "We worked Iike dogs,
and we played hard ."

Great. I mean ,
it was a terrific experience.

We had absolute nightmare
the first three days' rushes.

We'd all decided the film would be
underlit and be very kind of murky.

And it so happened
the first three days' rushes...

...were in jail sequences...

...and we just undercooked it...

...and they were too dark.

I would say something Iike two--

Two of the first three days
were unusable.

And we were in the shit.

We managed to make sure
the studio never saw them .

I , Iiterally, I'm afraid ,
sort of falsified production reports...

...to the sense that we were--
Keep going .

And with a sort of an enormous
effort on the part of the crew...

...by the end of the second week,
we caught up.

And the studio never knew that we had
to reshoot a whole Iot of sequences.

Now, I would argue,
today, it wouldn't happen ...

...because they'd have the rushes
immediately, on--

Probably online.

Someone would be Iooking at them ,
and someone would be saying ...

...in a sheer panic,
at the end of two days:

"Get rid of the cinematographer.
Fire the--"

AII that stuff would be going on .

I n those days, you had , at Ieast,
that kind of pause in the moment...

...to actually correct things.

And as a producer,
I've always believed ...

...the first week
will always be chaotic.

It cannot not be.

And you've only got the second week
to sort it...

...because by the time you get into
the beginning of the third week...

...you establish rhythms. Shooting
rhythms. You establish patterns...

...which become almost
all but impossible to break.

So your second week, for a producer,
is your moment of crisis.

You either sort it
or you bug it, really.

And I had both . I've sorted it...

...and I've also had times
where I haven't sorted it, and we bug it.

And through an enormous effort
of will , remarkable, actually--

I think we may have worked
on the Saturday. Probably did .

--In a space of five, six, seven days...

...we managed to catch up
two full days' shooting .

That was the closest thing
to a real crisis.

The time was very different
in the mid-'70s.

Today, you can stream the dailies.

Today, I could be sitting in this office,
Iooking at the dailies...

...that are coming
from UIaanbaatar stream to me...

...and I can look at them
almost through the camera.

Back then , you had to Ioad the dailies
on a horse and buggy...

...and you had to take them to the pier
and put the sails u p...

...and sail them to London
and get them printed .

If you wanted them
brought to the States to Iook at them ...

...again , another courier
would have to take them by plane...

...and land in Los Angeles,
go through customs...

...and by the time you got them,
the film was over.

You wanna make an adjustment?
They've struck the set. The cast had--

Was into another movie.
So it was very difficult.

I got sacked for three days
haltway through the film ...

...because we were sending-- We
were showing rushes to the studio.

And we sent them
the scene in the shower, you know.

When Billy turns away.

And you know, this is 1 977.

That was felt to be
too close the knuckle and--

"No one wants to watch a fucking
gay movie. This is crazy."

You know, "You guys are nuts."

And I was fired .

Now, this was not quite as awful
as it may sound .

I'd actually had enough of Malta
by this time.

Six weeks of crappy food
and depressing atmosphere.

I was fired all the way to Rome.

I sat in a hotel room in Rome
for three days, waiting to be unfired .