Kerry Conran hasn't exactly been eating, sleeping and breathing "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" for the past decade . . . but he feels like he has.
The old-fashioned science-fiction adventure, which opens today, has been his singular consuming passion for 10 years, if not his entire life.
Conran has been working some side jobs — including developing desktop-publishing technology for some California newspapers — but the movie has never left his mind. "I've done whatever I could to make sure I got to make my film the way it should be made," the first-time writer-director said during a telephone interview. "It hasn't always been easy, but I believe everything I've done my entire life has been leading to this."
A graduate of California Institute of the Arts — which has one of the top film-animation programs in the country, with graduates who have gone on to work for Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks — Conran said it was there that he began to believe "Sky Captain" was a feasible project. He added that the movie had in his head since he was a kid. "I mean, I've been drawing big robots since I saw my first cartoon with them. But seeing that there was technology that would allow me to create convincing, 3-D versions, convinced me that I could really do this."
Conran originally started "Sky Captain" as an independent project, fearing that studio interference might ruin the material. But after four years of work, he'd produced less than 10 minutes of material.
That's when he met Jon Avnet, a veteran producer ("Risky Business," "The Mighty Ducks") who had seen Conran's test reel, which consisted of scenes of a robotic rampage through the streets of pre-World War II New York City. He then agreed to help fund a feature version. "Jon is the real hero here," Conran said. "He saw what I was trying to do here, and he's the one who got both Jude (Law) and Gwyneth (Paltrow) involved. Without him, I'd still be trying to get this off the ground. I'd probably have given up on it by now."
He also acknowledged that the concept behind "Sky Captain" is a risky one. In addition to being a throwback to the serial adventures of the '30s and '40s, the film was done with a minimum of actual props and sets. Instead, the film's cast played their scenes against a blue screen, with the sets and villainous robots added with computer-generated effects. "I was convinced that was the only way to get the look I was going for, " Conran said, noting that it was a real challenge for the actors.
He said he had them pretend that they "were children again." "You remember how it was when you were a kid, and you'd pretend that the couch or your bed was a ship at sea? That was what I told them to do. And it worked — at least I think it did."
Besides, according to Conran, "this is the way the industry is going. The day may be coming when everything is done with computers. And maybe a few actors, too."
"Sky Captain" pays tribute to such old serials as "Flash Gordon," as well as the '50s science-fiction classics "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Forbidden Planet." That old-fashioned feel made Conran believe it would be a tough sell. But when the nearly finished product was shown, it attracted several studio suitors. In the end, Paramount Pictures contracted to release the film.
A few industry pundits have questioned the studio's commitment, especially after Paramount delayed the movie's release — from an enviable July date to September. But Conran believes that was actually a vote of confidence. "I think the film would have gotten lost during the summer. We would have come out within a week of 'Spider-Man 2,' for one thing, but this date isn't as competitive, and it gave us a little more time to fine-tune a few things. I couldn't be happier about the date."
Initial word of mouth about "Sky Captain" has been very good. In fact, Conran has already became a hot commodity and has lined up his next project, the long-anticipated adaptation of author Edgar Rice Burroughs' "A Princess of Mars."
That is, if he can finally divorce himself from "Sky Captain." "It's been such a long time coming. It's hard to believe that it's finally done. I expect to wake up tomorrow and find this was all a dream and that I'm still trying to get the movie made."
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com