Few filmmakers can boast a track record quite on par with that of Mexico’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, whose four feature films over the past 14 years have received nine Oscar nominations including the two he received for his 2006 anthology drama Babel.
Inarritu’s latest, Birdman, is as much a departure from his previous film Biutiful as that was from Babel four years earlier. This one stars Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson, a fading Hollywood actor who hopes to revive his career with a Broadway play that keeps running into disastrous problems and turmoil amongst the cast, even as Thomson is trying to keep his own mental state together. (You can read our first review of the movie here to learn more about it.)
It’s a film that will likely put Inarritu back in the Oscar race, not only for the intriguing screenplay and the performances he gets out of Keaton and the rest of the ensemble cast that includes Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Amy Ryan, Naomi Watts, Zach Galifianakis and Andrea Riseborough, but also for the way it was filmed by Oscar winner Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki (Gravity), essentially in one extended shot.
ComingSoon.net spoke with Inarritu earlier this week for the video interview you can watch below where we talk about all different aspects of the truly unique film. (And in the spirit of Birdman, we filmed the entire interview in one continuous shot.)
Birdman opens in select cities on Friday, October 17.
