John Milius interviews

Behind the scenes interview with the writer/director of CONAN:
http://web.archive.org/web/20020805203203/http://www.prevuemagazine.com/Articles/Thevault/240

On CONAN and the sword in the art of storytelling:
http://web.archive.org/web/20021008232146/http://albionarmorers.com/milius1.htm
(Note: page 3 is missing, but we can send it to you via pm or email if needed! )

EDIT: http://www.conancompletist.com/img/forum/postforum/intervmilius/milius_3.jpg

FilmForce: An Interview with John Milius
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/401/401150p1.html

10 Questions: John Milius:
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/316/316188p1.html

Joy in the Struggle: A Look at John Milius:
http://web.archive.org/web/20021107154534/http://www.filmthreat.com/Interviews.asp?Id=49

Milius the Barbarian - The John Milius Interview, Part 2:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010116202300/http://www.mothership.com/eon/articles.asp?id=3472
(Note: be warned, usually takes quite some time to download! I can't find a working link to Part 1... Anyone? :?)

Conscience of the King:
http://ifmagazine.com/common/article.asp?articleID=736
(Note: excerpts from the previous interview)

Don't Tread on Me: An Interview with John Milius:
http://www.creativescreenwriting.com/interviews/milius4,19,00.html

'Apocalypse,' Now and Then:
http://www.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Movies-X!ArticleDetail-39536,00.html

Red Dawn’s New Day:
http://www.nypress.com/16/52/film/film3.cfm

Go ahead, pinko liberals, make my day:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4294387,00.html

Milius the Moviemaking Maverick:
http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.17308/article_detail.asp

Ten Minutes with John Milius:
http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/features/51562/Ten_Minutes_with_John_Milius.html

Torino Film Festival - Intervista a John Milius:
http://www.primissima.it/primissima/interviste/articolo.html?id-articolo=493 (in italian)

Incontro con John Milius:
http://www.unipv.it/cinema/festival/archivioreportage/incontromilius.htm (in italian)

"Wir haben nie Coppolas Wein gepfändet":
http://web.archive.org/web/20020107200119/http://www.welt.de/daten/2001/10/20/1020kfi289942.htx
(in german; free discussion regarding Apocalypse Now - Milius mostly speaks at the end)

Another interview in italian:
http://www.effettonotteonline.com/enol/archivi/articoli/interviste/200212/200212in00.htm

Apocalypse Now, hier et aujourd'hui:
http://www.humanite.presse.fr/popup_print.php3?id_article=243983 (in french)

Found another (old) one, again in italian (and rather short):

John Milius: "Ebbene sì, sono politicamente scorretto"
http://ilgiorno.quotidiano.net/chan/2/37:3848151:/2002/11/10

Two new links to add to our little list, thanks to Protoplasme :

A Barbarian Inside the Gates
http://www.wga.org/writtenby/writtenbysub.aspx?id=2239
(where you can watch this vidéo too : http://www.wga.org/videos/milius.html)

IGN: John Milius Interview
http://cube.ign.com/articles/605/605438p1.html

Shame on me, I almost forgot that phone interview:

Damnations for all but Milius!
http://www.thearnoldfans.com/interviews/milius/milius.htm

Medal of Honor: John Milius interview
http://videogames.yahoo.com/printview_feature?eid=77640

Go Ahead, Make My Game
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdoup/is_200506/ai_n13633290

(note: it's a 3-pages interview)

The Insiders Interview: A Conversation with John Milius
http://web.archive.org/web/19981206233652/http://hollywoodnet.com/hn/writing/TIS/milius.html

INTERVISTA A JOHN MILIUS - 29/07/2007 by Close-Up.it
http://www.close-up.it/spip.php?article3015

A veteran Hollywood writer, riding waves of machismo
http://www.austin360.com/search/content/movies/stories/2007/10/1009filmfest.html

Quote :

John Milius: "I like anything Will Ferrell has to do with. He's the best. He's the best that ever was."

See also:

'Conan' has two daddies
http://www.austin360.com/search/content/movies/stories/xl/2007/10/1011xlcoverside.html

In the trenches and loving it at film festival
http://www.austin360.com/search/content/movies/stories/2007/10/1019garcia.html

John Milius, Hollywood tough guy, says Stiller and Ferrell are the ‘best’
http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/austinmovies/entries/2007/10/01/_legendary_writerdirector_john.html

Yeah I know, not even the interviewer could believe what he was saying. Needless to say, Milius lost me on that interview too. I mean better than Caddyshack? And Ben Stiller? Right..must be some wacky tobacco in those cigars I'd say.

The Stone/Milius interview was a good one though. Stone still has a soft spot for his version of CONAN, but his Alexander was one of the biggest duds I ever seen and worst filmed movies. However blaming the producers for CONAN and saying his script was worth 12 movies is outve this world too. I think Stone was recently caught taking cocain & booze again too.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/28/stone.arrest/



Having said that, a real mix of Milius' and Stone's CONAN scripts would make for an uncanny series of films. As crazy and disjointed Stone's script was/is, it had loads of potential and the man has talent despite his oddness. They should team up again, but this time for real.

A Conversation With a Yeti
http://web.archive.org/web/20021220115112/http://www.wga.org/WrittenBy/0999/essay.html

One of the best interviews was the one where he discussed directing a Star Wars prequel, was talking making Vader and Obi Wan's relationship something along the lines of Gaius Marius Metellus and Julius Caesar.

On here John Milius dodges the CONAN, and goes for RED DAWN(which I do think would make an awesome game as well though).

GS: King Conan is on hold. That we know. The plot seems a perfect fit for the video game format. Have you ever thought about turning it into a game using a virtual Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vin Diesel?

JM: I think that Red Dawn would be a great game. It's got a lot of those classic action moments, and the storyline of the youth rising up to save the world is a great one. I think there are a lot of games I could write. In fact, I was just telling the development team at EA that I think they should make a whole game dedicated to Stalingrad, which is probably the battle of all time, from a storytelling perspective. You have clear-cut heroes who are fighting to save the world and then you have these horrible, evil villains. You have great military maneuvers and cool weapons. And, it's a story for a modern time: the new world coming to the rescue of the old world.




http://www.gamespot.com/gamecube/action/medalofhonor4/news.html?sid=6124578

MightyMcT wrote:

Milius the Barbarian - The John Milius Interview, Part 2:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010116202300/http://www.mothership.com/eon/articles.asp?id=3472
(Note: be warned, usually takes quite some time to download! I can't find a working link to Part 1... Anyone? :?)

Still don't have the Part I?

Nope! Apparently, Part 1 was never archived...

A couple of interviews, aparently from Turky.

The first one happened in some kind of university, Milius answers in english:




This next video came from some tv news program, sadly it's dubbed :

John Milius about Stanley Kubrick:

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/sk/memories/jm.htm

Nice finds, not sure what is he doing in Turkey of all places? Although he was supposed have filmed some of CONAN III there.

JOHN MILIUS on BETWEEN THE LINES (a surf film about Vietnam)
http://www.betweenthelinesfilm.com/news_interview.html

Interview about THE WIND AND THE LION:




Words of Milius about GEORGE LUCAS (from documentary "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls"):

'Apocalypse' writer: Most scripts today 'are garbage'

Quote :

(CNN) -- You know that line in "Dirty Harry" in which Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan describes the power of the .44 Magnum? John Milius wrote that line.

emember the line in "Jaws" when Robert Shaw, playing the shark hunter, talks about his buddies being eaten alive by sharks during World War II? That was Milius.

How about the line in "Apocalypse Now," when Robert Duvall, playing a surf-loving Army colonel, says, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning"?

Milius again.

And he hasn't lost his bold way with dialogue -- including his own.

For example, here's Milius on stopping murderous drug traffickers in Mexico: "We need to go down there, kill them all, flatten the place with bulldozers so when you wake up in the morning, there's nothing there," he said in a phone interview. "I do believe if you have a military, you use it."

Or Rush Limbaugh: "I was watching Rush Limbaugh the other night, and I was horrified. I would have Rush Limbaugh drawn and quartered. He was sticking up for these Wall Street pigs. There should be public show trials, mass denunciations and executions."

And that's despite being identified as one of Hollywood's most outspoken conservatives. But Milius isn't all blood and thunder. As a surfer, whose surfing exploits as a teen helped to forge his self-sufficient world view, he's lent his gruff voice as narrator to a new documentary about surfing soldiers during the Vietnam War.

"Between the Lines" reveals a chapter of the war not widely known, outside the fiction of Duvall's character and his famous line, "Charlie don't surf." "One of the most poignant things of the film is how many California surfers went to Vietnam, and how many didn't come back," said Milius, 64, who learned to surf while growing up in Southern California.

"One of the reasons I put surfing in 'Apocalypse Now' was because I always thought Vietnam was a California war."

Instead of the cliche GI of World War II who hailed from Brooklyn and the Bronx and played stickball in the streets, Milius thinks of Vietnam's soldiers as having the laid-back attitude associated with the West Coast lifestyle.

"You had the guys hopping up their Huey choppers with new engine parts and painting flames on the rocket pods."

Milius clearly loves surfing. He credits it with forging his most powerful friendships and uses it as a metaphor for life. As a lifeguard along California's treacherous Zuma Beach north of Malibu, Milius learned "to be a loner, because when you get planted by a big wave, there's no one who can help you," he said, audibly lighting a cigar. "Your fate is involved in a different universe."

The 1978 surfing coming-of-age film "Big Wednesday," co-written and directed by Milius, has become a respected classic in surfing culture.

"Apocalypse Now" has its own morality, said Milius. "It has its own rules."

That might also be said about Milius himself -- who displays what might be described as a larger-than-life personality. He's said to be the model for the character Walter Sobchak in the Coen brothers' "The Big Lebowski," an item Milius doesn't dispute.

"They told me they based that character on me," Milius said, adding that he had previously turned down the Coens' offer to appear in their film "Barton Fink" as a studio chief.

His self-image as a loner laid the foundation for his conservative politics. When his parents sent him off to a small private school in Colorado "because I was a juvenile delinquent," he learned to love the mountains, guns, hunting, tracking and "living off the land."

He's also used his experiences to create his scripts.

Milius' days in Colorado showed themselves in his screenplay "Jeremiah Johnson," the 1972 film starring Robert Redford as the lonely fur trapper and mountain man.

In 1984's "Red Dawn," Colorado is the battlefield where Americans fight a guerrilla war against Russian invaders. "We were promised, when I was growing up, this war with Russia," he said, explaining the film's legacy. "We were promised World War III."

His love of firearms -- he's a board member of the National Rifle Association -- helped inspire his "Dirty Harry" lines.

"I have a .44 Magnum, I love the .44 Magnum, in fact I still have the .44 Magnum that inspired that line," he said.

"The Second Amendment becomes more important every day," he added.

After marinating in the zeitgeist for 30 years, Milius' iconic movie lines have flavored American pop culture -- embraced by "The Simpsons," mocked on "Saturday Night Live" and spoofed in Hollywood comedies.

A lot of it is hard work, of course. But sometimes, as Dirty Harry might note, you just feel lucky. Robert Shaw's "Jaws" speech about how sharks attacked survivors of the torpedoed USS Indianapolis was written "literally over the phone," Milius said. "I gave it to them, and they went out and shot it." (Milius work on the film was uncredited; Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb are the credited screenwriters.)

And then there's the famous "napalm" line from "Apocalypse."

"I just wrote it -- it just came up," said Milius, describing the famous line uttered wistfully by Duvall's surfing Col. Bill Kilgore. "That's what happens. People love to think that all this stuff happens when you write a famous line -- that you really thought about it a lot."

Another famous line by Kilgore in the screenplay, "Charlie don't surf," is Milius' personal favorite. That line, he said was inspired by a published quote by Israel's Ariel Sharon during the 1967 Six-Day War.

A victorious Gen. Sharon went skin-diving after capturing enemy territory, Milius said, and declared, "We're eating their fish."

"That just really appealed to me," he laughed. "He was saying, 'We blew the s*** out of them, and now we're eating their fish.' Charlie don't surf."

Milius' latest project is a screenplay for a three-hour biopic of Genghis Khan, "the son of a hit man whose father is murdered and who went on to conquer the known world and become the greatest military and civil genius in history," as Milius described him. Production could begin in early 2010, he said.

Milius said Khan inspired another popular line, Arnold Schwarzenegger's list of a few of his favorite things in 1982's "Conan the Barbarian": "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women," goes the line.

That came right from the history books, said Milius.

"That's the most famous Genghis Khan line. It's a paraphrase of what he said when he was with his generals and he was asked what was the greatest thing in life," he said.

Although he admires a few scripts from modern-day Hollywood -- such as P.T. Anderson's "Boogie Nights," "Hard Eight" and "There Will Be Blood" -- most Hollywood scripts that get made today are "garbage," Milius said, written by "broken writers" with no "shame."

"There's no shame in the world, and without shame, you cannot have honor. Our world is ruled by consensus now. There is no sense of honor."

If that sounds like the lament of an outsider, Milius said it's probably because he feels like he's been treated like one through much of his career, given his reputation as a conservative and his opposition to gun-control laws.

"I've led a whole life behind enemy lines. I've been the victim of so much persecution," he said. "I'm the barbarian of Hollywood."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/09/john.milius.movies/index.html

About Teddy Roosevelt (1984, "Red Dawn" promo):








Conversation with Oliver Stone & John Milius (1995 or 96):

The presenter say Milius took Stone's "intelligent epic" (ppffffmwaaahaha) and turned it into the "typical slashing Schwrzenegger comic-book stravaganza". I love critics who make reviews based on prejudges, they are so cute.










1973 film community at Nicholas Beach houses:

Martin Scorsese, Harvey Keitel, De Niro, Brian De Palma, John Milius, and Paul Schrader among the folks who lived nearby and socialized with other film buffs at houses in Nocholas Cayon Beach.

From "FILMS IN REVIEW" magazine, june-july 1982:

http://www.tempodergisi.com.tr/kultur/15547/

Culture and Arts / Seda ARICIOGLU
Barbarian Screenwriter

He is a 'zen anarchist'. When he was little and never go to war to return to Vietnam would not have imagined. But taken into the army due to the absence of asthma, found the resort to war to attract film. John Milius will be the supervisor of 'The River Flowing Westward' documentary.

Do you remember Coen brothers 'wonderful film' Big Lebowski? There's a Walter had not nasiplen from subtle, but still enviable character barbarians. Then a man said that a trooper, the mind is to make every effort, as well as immediately. Coen brothers had written Walter inspired by a close friend, John Milius. I do not know what I mean is, fallen from the nose smb Milius said Walter. Or vice versa...

Apocalypse Now's writer, Conan the Barbarian director, Milius was in Istanbul as a guest of Bahcesehir University. 'The River Flowing Westward', written by Prof. Dr. Bekir Karliga, is the first MEDAM (Civilization Studies Center) documentary project, and Milius will be the supervisor.

Tempo: Why this project drew your attention?

John Milius: I am fascinated by the possible date. Civilizations studies, an important part of history. 'The River Flowing Westward', in this sense, as well as to be able to do something in this field will work in good faith and intellectual level, I care for.

T.: No middle scenario. Either scenario does not come good?

JM: Everything is so difficult that... We will do our best. We know what we want to do, this is important.

T.: What exactly is you want to do?

JM: Policy Furthermore, in the spirit of civilization we want to do something about.

War was and always will. With this documentary TV series, we will also say: "OK war. Necessarily want to fight, bari know who you're fighting."

T.: An interview with you, you have also said "me, I am seen as a threat to Western civilization." Why?

JM: Actually, the sentence you mentioned was a joke, but in the right place. I am a bit barbaric man. So, I take part in this project I find that extremely ironic.

T.: In a newspaper, you wrote you are a dark nationalist, support individual weapons. So how will reflect this documentary?

JM: I'm nationalistic as anyone. I was both a nationalist and I reenkarne see this as the Romans. My interest in other cultures prevents me from nationalists not to be. Especially among filmmakers looked to my position, I see this as a third world country. A definitive list did not take place. Also would it really be, I know something about the Ottoman Empire? Let's look at Hillary Clinton or Obama problem. Do you know anything about the Ottomans?

T.: You know how the Ottoman Empire?

JM: I think it is as a stabilizer for the period.

"I do not believe in fear"

T.: From Hollywood why do you hate?

JM: (Laughter) Yes, very. I think a nail out. Like a bad high school. With extremely low values. A popular value system vendor turned out to be. Me never see when Hollywood can not defend. I will always fight against it.

T.: Hollywood as far as I know that you do not much hazzet. Why?

JM: I do not fit in there. No I'm not a social man already. Do not play their game, never play for the love won 'do not know me.

T.: What kind of need to play a game for there to be loved?

JM: I need to be in the reconciliation. Power is in their hands and deadly afraid you have to accept. Between the two lips of fate as if they been in the like. I do not believe in fear.

T.: Currently the case for the famous Hollywood stars?

JM: There are no stars in Hollywood. Popular in high school is like theirs. Those jobs are not valuable, or the reason that became popular people, people have played in making the best sex they find.

T.: The first step to Hollywood at this time period you were in?

JM: Past, studios would create stars. Now do not work. I'm quite 'rebel' as a character, although I respect the job they would give me a value. I have much more free. Hollywood, from the rest of the U.S., is always a different attitude. Foreign productions prints. Fortunately, no effect ends. Dies.

T.: What is an alternative is being born?

JM: Independent cinema. World cinema. Already do not never write for Hollywood. Is much more free people in the international construction.

T.: The screenwriters strike is over. Are you satisfied with the results?

JM: No. Be sure to cancel that stupid Oscar ceremony. Oscar, Hollywood's night of graduation, such as. I really hate. This will strike most wonderful results, studios would be razed. Hollywood should be as soon as possible plunder.

T.: You are really up to Big Walter Lebowski kankasi 'Are you wild'. Coen brothers have probably glad to receive Oscar.

JM: I'd love to. Are not we look like. Coen brothers' Barton Fink-boss in the publishing house, you know, as I have it rough, barbaric spirit was a man-animated, wanted me to. "I can not, do not freeze. You are a player yourself," I said. They find it was already Michael Lerner, with Oscar nominations for his roles. Then, "If you do not play, we'll write you," he added. And Walter was born. Yes, you are very successful in this regard. From life, you can create characters from the larger.

"I do not like Bush than never"

T.: I have read before you come to explore Istanbul. What was the discovery?

JM: Here, we had our heads come with many different projects, but our main goal, CNBC 'Rome' series, where support was to see whether we can not draw. If I make a film about a day in Rome, we'll definitely shoot here.

T.: Array then why not check here?

JM: HBO! Sagolsunlar here thought they could not work alone. More comfortable to work in the dark air of England, came to them more agreeable.

T.: Do you have an idea about Turkish cinema?

JM: I would say young and healthy. But I do not remember a film I've Turkey. Of the reason for this distribution is not good. Other causes have turned off the Hollywood foreign films have their own. But I grew up watching foreign films. Especially the Japanese cinema. Kurosawa, the director for monitoring most enjoy. Japanese cinema, but now also completely shifted to animation that I do not like animation. Actually, excited to see something red-blooded to me. Supporting the local film person. To be dependent on technology, so many critics of cinema, but in internet we will increase the likelihood of reaching the film.

T.: A film about Turkey, but hope you watch, that the famous Midnight Express, for example.

JM: Ah! Yes. I watched it. Why, we'll do something so you would be concerned?

T.: I think not. But this film's effect is still strange that we could not get rid of...

JM: Absolutely. That movie was too dangerous. But it may be, or the effect lasted for many years might not. We will show the opposite if you could make a film only if. To admit that today I need it on the world is still a place in Turkey How exactly does not know.

T.: And your opinion of animated films and Hollywood, you're feeling nostalgic one woke too.

JM: I think not. Here are watching movies, everything is obvious. Are terrible. But I still believe in America. Who knows, maybe out a hero and America itself resilient. This will get rid of falsehood. I think it came past president of the most magnificent Eisenhower. Did not know a good man, but his time was better America.

T.: Mr. Bush?

JM: I do not like him any time. Theodore Roosevelt is my man.

14.03.08