John Turtletaub talks about The Sorcerer's Apprentice

MakingOf: Now Nicholas Cage was involved from the start.  How were your conversations with him and how do you then go and build your cast?

(Jon Turteltaub) It starts with him saying 'Hey I'm doing a remake of Sorcerer's Apprentice.  You want do it?' And I'm like 'Yeah.'  And he goes 'Cool, cool, great let's do that.  Cool, great.'  That was it.  So now I'm doing it.  Jerry Bruckheimer's doing it, we say 'Jerry you want to do it? Cool, great.'  And then you start going. 

(JT) So you start casting and first you gotta find Dave...and you have auditions, just like everybody else.  Poor Jay Baruchel walks in and goes 'Hi I'm Jay Baruchel' and reads his lines and he walks out of the room and you turn to each other and go 'That's him.  That's the guy, that's the guy.  That's him.'  And then you act to his agent like you kinda liked him...maybe he's okay...and then, you know, you gotta save some money here and there.

MO: Now do you have a different tone or a different way that you direct each of the actor's or do you find that it's pretty universal?

(JT) One of the things that I had to learn in my career is that it's crucial to direct every actor differently.  No two actors are the same and they're never a group.  Every actor is doing their own thing.  So you need to speak to each actor the way that actor wants to be spoken to.  With the kinds of vocabulary that actor likes to hear.  With the kinds of adjectives and nouns and all that stuff, and so each actor is different.

MO: Now you had worked with Nicholas Cage before so was it easy to have that short hand already built in?

(JT) Yeah.  Mostly it helps because I know there are things that I shouldn't even bother asking him to do because I know he's not going to do it.  There are things I know that he just doesn't like or feels he's not good at so don't ask him to do that.  Whereas there are things he knows that I don't like so he's not gonna bother to try it.  Like there'll be times where he's like 'Oh I think it'd be cool if I just did this crazy weird...you'll cut that, you'll never use that why bother.  I'll just do the line the way you told me to.'

 MO: Now how long was your shooting schedule for this film?

(JT) Loooong.  And got loooonger.  It rained for 46 of 52 days in NYC when we were outside.  That's a lot.  And there's not much rain in the movie so some scenes became scenes that took place in the rain because of that.  That makes the shoot go longer...but we probably shot for five months.

MO: And when something like that happens.  When it's unexpected that it's raining outside and you're planned and prepped to shoot...walk us through what that process is like.

(JT) There's a job in a movie called a line producer.  This is the real physical nuts and bolts producer of the movie, and that guy gets all the crap dumped on him.  He has to fix all of these problems.  And you go into a movie knowing the unpredictable is going to happen.  Certain things are unchangeable.  If you're shooting, such as we are, at a subway station at night.  Well that subway station has been given to you on a Monday night from 9pm until 1am.  That's it.  So if things go wrong you're still gonna be there at nine o'clock on that night.  You're shooting a car chase in Times Square.  You can't just tell the people of New York 'Oh I'm sorry it's raining.  Can you not show up tomorrow night for nine hours?'  You gotta just get it done.  So with all the messing around you gotta keep certain things the same.

MO: What was shooting in New York like for you?

(JT) Awesome.  Shooting in NY is great.  It's challenging.  Sound is often difficult.  Not just because it's a loud city, but because it's loud people who are very happy in the middle of a shot to go 'Yo Nick Cage! What up?  I loved you in Leaving Las Vegas.'  No joke.  Actors just keep going.  It's tough to find a place to park 30 trucks in NY City. Guaranteed.  And yet, once you're in and you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, what a great place.  It's so beautiful and so rich and you really feel like you've made it once you're shooting in NY.