Interview With Charles de Lauzirika

Chief Justice Mike Jackson

September 6th, 2001

Charles de Lauzirika was the producer of MGM's Hannibal. The following interview was conducted via e-mail by Editor Mike Jackson.

Mike Jackson: What are the responsibilities of a DVD Producer?

Charles de Lauzirika: It varies, but the basic job usually involves recording audio commentary, putting together deleted scenes, featurettes, image galleries, and so on. That's the easy stuff. Beyond that, it involves juggling a lot of schedules, politics and on older films, the hunt for missing elements. My involvement with Ridley Scott's films on DVD also means that I have to approve things on his behalf, from the very beginning of the process to the very end, all the way up to menus and packaging. No two discs have provided the same experience so far. It's always a different can of worms.

MJ: What did you particularly enjoy about the work?

CL: I don't so much enjoy the work as I enjoy the result. The satisfaction comes in seeing the whole thing come together. That's the fun part. The actual production of supplements and design of the disc's configuration can be fun, but usually you don't have the time, money or control to truly enjoy it. Fortunately, Hannibal was an exception, and I'm forever in MGM's debt for making it such a joy to work on.

MJ: What other DVD projects have you worked on in the past, and can you let any details slip about projects you're working on right now?

CL: In addition to the Alien 20th Anniversary Edition and the Gladiator Signature Edition, I also co-produced The Cell Platinum Edition with David Prior, and I worked with David again on designing the menus for Big Trouble in Little China, which he produced. I'm hoping that we can finish up Legend in the near future, and I know it's been a long time coming, but I think true fans of the film will be pleased with the result. I'm currently producing the special editions of Thelma & Louise for MGM and Speed for Fox. And then after those are done, I've got several other discs on deck, including the Blade Runner Special Edition.

MJ: What were the challenges in producing the Hannibal material for the DVD?

CL: Hannibal was pretty straight-forward, for the most part. The two biggest challenges were recording Ridley's commentary track and trying to make the multi-angle Fish Market scene work. As far as the multi-angle goes, I really wanted to take about six scenes from the film and allow you to view them with on-the-fly multi-angle capability as you're watching the film. Unfortunately, it was almost impossible keeping synch with the final cut of the film and still maintain fluid, coherent angle streams. It was especially hard in trying to keep different takes of different angles in synch. In the end, I finally decided to go with the one scene Ridley shot predominantly with four cameras on set, and that way, we were pretty much guaranteed of being able to keep synch between the four cameras. So we ended up with a detailed breakdown of the Fish Market gunbattle, and for cinematography buffs, we included the shot specs in the frame so you could see exactly what went into each shot on each angle.

As for Ridley's commentary, we were unable to record his commentary while he was in L.A., so we scheduled him to do the commentary while he was going to be in New York for the Hannibal premiere, but unfortunately, his mother passed away, so he remained in London. And then he went straight to Morocco to being shooting Black Hawk Down. It was looking pretty dark for the commentary track, but at the last minute, MGM decided to fly me to Morocco to record the commentary, so after a few days of scrambling around, I was on my way to North Africa. This was at the very end of our schedule, so it was a last minute adventure that I wasn't really counting on, but fortunately, it all turned out all right and I got the commentary as well as some additional interview footage.

MJ: Is there a section on the DVD that you particularly enjoyed working on?

CL: Definitely the multi-angle vignettes. There are a lot of possibilities with multi-angle, so figuring all of that out and then seeing the final result was a blast. Also, working with editor Pietro Scalia and his associate editor Wes Sewell in putting together the deleted scenes was fun as well. There definitely seems to be an enthusiasm for DVD among Ridley and the crew, so that makes putting a disc together a very enjoyable experience.

MJ: Was there anything that got left out? Was it a disappointment?

CL: We had to remove some things out of the "Breaking the Silence" documentary which was very disappointing. I'm glad reaction to the documentary has been so positive, but believe me, it was even better originally. Unfortunately, some of the material we had in the documentary didn't get cleared by the talent involved, so we had to cut that stuff out at the last minute. There was some very fresh and unusual material we had to cut. It was very painful to do, but at least I have my "director's cut" of the documentary to watch when I want. I just wish everyone could have seen it. But I certainly can't blame MGM, since they fought so hard to keep that material in. I've never seen a studio's legal department actually try to salvage a supplement the way MGM's did. It was extraordinary, and I wish every studio was like that.

MJ: Was everyone and MGM, the cast, the crew, etc., very responsive to your work?

CL: It was the most supportive, stimulating experience I've ever had working on a DVD. First of all, MGM went above and beyond the call of duty for Hannibal. They were fearless. And I think that's why the disc turned out so well...because they weren't second-guessing everything or subverting the process. And naturally, Ridley is always game for making the DVDs the best they can be. He shows no hesitation in getting involved and making things happen, so that's the best bonus of all. I think everyone on Ridley's crew is hip to DVD now, so they're usually open to discussing the possibilities and trying to come up with interesting material for the DVD.

Don't forget to read Judge Patrick Naugle's review of Hannibal.