Jason Behr - D-War #6: It's a huge success in Korea! Jason, KaDee & Cast Attend Premiere! - Page 3

LongTimeFan · 08-14-2007, 10:33 PM

The movie's in the black now!!

Variety Asia Online

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"D-War" continues Korean B.O. destruction
Written by Darcy Paquet
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
Story Categories: box office, CJ Entertainment, Film, Korea, Mediaplex Showbox,
SEOUL -- The South Korean box office continues to be dominated by local blockbusters "D-War" and "May 18". According to distributor Showbox, monster pic "D-War" has grossed $42.3 million (6.14 million admissions) to Tuesday, which makes it Korea's tenth best selling film of all time.
The film took only 14 days to cross the 6 million admissions mark, which is the second-fastest pace ever behind last year's "The Host", which took 10 days. English-language film, which has been praised for the sophistication of its locally-produced f/x, tells the story of a giant snake-like creature that smashes up downtown L.A. It will be released stateside on September 14 under the title "Dragon Wars".
Meanwhile, CJ Entertainment's "May 18" continues to do strong business in the #2 slot. Pic, which was released a week before "D-War", has grossed $35.8 million to date. Film is based on a real-life incident in 1980 in which large numbers of pro-democracy activists in the city of Gwangju were attacked and killed by government troops.
Advance ticket sales indicate that "D-War" and "May 18" are likely to continue their run at the top of the box office through at least the coming weekend.

**Crystaline** · 08-14-2007, 10:48 PM

That's awesome!

I'm thrilled this movie is such a smash hit in Korea.

Scottie · 08-15-2007, 11:08 AM

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Originally Posted by Crystaline (View Post)

Seriously. They're gun ho to slam anything that isn't a serious drama. They get paid to hate stuff.

We have a tv critic in my hometown newspaper who slams every tv show that comes out. I always wonder why he's a tv critic in the first place if he hates tv so much!

So I guess it works out that some film critics seem to hate movies too (in some instances!).

**Crystaline** · 08-15-2007, 12:01 PM

I'm beginning to think they do it just for the sake of snark.

**Dreamer 4 Ever** · 08-15-2007, 12:03 PM

That is awesome news that its still dominating their Box Office

LongTimeFan · 08-15-2007, 09:29 PM

Nice ARTICLE!

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By TONY WHITT, Contributing Editor
Published 8/15/2007

LOCATION: Coming to a theater near you, over and over again!

THE SKINNY: In a recent interview for the site Whedonopolis, SKINWALKER star Jason Behr revealed that the recent werewolf movie won’t be the last time you’ll be seeing him on the big screen this year. THE TATTOOIST, a movie filmed in New Zealand which will be released on August 30, sees Behr playing an artist who manages to release a deadly spirit while trying to learn the Samoan art of tattooing. Like you do. And D-WAR, a movie about an old Korean legend where creatures return to Earth to destroy the planet, will feature Behr as a reporter investigating the matter and will be released September 14.
After that, we’ll see Behr in SENSELESS, based on the novel by Stona Fitch, in which he’ll play a businessman who is kidnapped and tortured so that his ordeals can be shown online as a reality show. (Isn’t there a show like that on Fox this season already?) And finally, he’ll appear in FROST, a movie about a 30-something man who suffers an existential crisis. So, if you don’t like SKINWALKERS and you want to see Jason Behr in something you like, just give it time…it’ll happen.

The full interview with Behr is available on the Whedonopolis site.

Whedonopolis Interview!

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An Afternoon With the People Behind SKINWALKERS, Part I- Jason Behr Interview
Written by Maria G
Friday, 10 August 2007

Skinwalkers is a new movie from Lionsgate Films that opens today, starring Jason Behr (Ford on Buffy’s “Lie to Me”), Natassia Malthe (Gadreel on Fallen), Shawn Roberts and Rhona Mitra. It tells the story of two packs of Skinwalkers, creatures who, based on Navajo mythology, possess the power to change from human to werewolf, move and kill at lightning speed. The packs are divided between those who found a way to resist the searing urge to hunt and others who have embraced their bloodlust. The packs clash, as Varek (Behr’s character) seeks to annihilate Timothy (Matthew Knight), a boy in the other pack that will assume the unique power to end the werewolf curse once the red moon is full. Timothy’s family will do everything in their power to protect him.

We caught up with Jason Behr, Natassia Malthe, Shawn Roberts and creature effects genius Stan Winston (who also designed the Tooth Fairy for Darkness Falls) last week in L.A. during their press day to talk about the movie. Today we bring you our interview with Jason. Part 2 will be coming up over the next few days.

Jason Behr - The man behind "Varek"

Jason Behr: How’re you guys doing today? It’s a little hot…

Not as hot as it was in the movie, shot in the Summer, with all the leather…

JB: That’s the rumor, yes. Don’t tell anybody!

What attracted you to this movie?

JB: Basically the fact that I am playing a bad guy. That was such a departure for me! And I’m doing all these things that I’ve always wanted to do, I think, as a kid and then as an actor. I got a chance to shoot guns and ride motorcycles and do insane wire-work and stunts and just be a big, bad-ass wolf!

Can you describe your character, in your own words?

JB: Varek is the very Alpha leader of this group of Naturalists or Purists. The movie is about two very different types of Skinwalkers. Varek’s group is the Purist; they have embraced that power, that freedom and bloodlust; they’re almost addicted to it, and they believe that power to be a gift. The others, the Wintry Wolves (laughs), they have suppressed that primal instinct for centuries, and so I get to play the big, bad-ass, Alpha werewolf which was just cool for me.

Skinwalkers seems like a coming of age story for the boy at its center…

JB: Yeah!

…Could you talk a little more about that? Also, there seems to be a heavy drug use metaphor.

JB: I think Matthew Knight (who plays Timothy) is a really talented kid, and it’s a lot of pressure on somebody to really carry that discovery and the moral compass of the piece. There’s a coming of age story about him sort of finding within himself to really embrace his own power and to really believe in himself. As far as the drug use metaphor, absolutely! Blood lust has that addictive quality, and that was something we all talked about and discussed even before we started shooting.

We were told that you studied wolves…JB: I did!

For what purpose? Did it help with your movement, or…?

JB: You know, I wanted to be as truthful as I possibly could to the material, and to Stan Winston, and everything he’s done for the project. We started off watching this documentary about the Sawtooth Mountain wolves, and it’s incredible footage of these very free, very beautiful wolf packs, and then, beyond that, I wanted to see what it was like at the zoo in Toronto, and it really did sort of polarize-- It was real reflection and representation of these two tribal packs. You have one that’s very free, and then the one at the zoo that I felt really bad for, cos, you know, I’m sure they’re well taken care of, but they were confined, they were suppressed, they were reduced to this small place. They weren’t really truly free, and so it actually gave me an insight to have empathy for them, but it also gave me a real glimpse of what these other guys were supposed to be.

So how’s the werewolf sex?

JB: The werewolf sex?! (laughs all around) Fantastic, just fantastic! (more laughs) What a question! You really want me to answer that? (more laughs) Pretty amazing! You know, it was—we had our teeth in, we had our eyes in, we’re in the middle of nowhere, literally naked… It was interesting, I’ll say that. You have to be really careful with the teeth, because you could really take some flesh off with that! (more laughs)

To what extent did Stan Winston’s makeup help you get into character, and was it a pretty long, arduous process for you?

JB: It was a pretty long process, but it did help get into that mode, I mean, Stan’s a legend; he’s been doing this for a long time. If you’re gonna do a werewolf movie, you might as well do it with Stan, because he’s the best at what he does. Pure genius! He’s been wanting to do a werewolf movie for—since he was a teenager. He has a story about how, on Halloween, he’d go out dressed as a werewolf, because he loves werewolves, and it’s the reason why he got into this business in the first place, and he’s never done a werewolf movie before, so I felt like I was in extraordinary hands with him. His creation, his wolf suit, allowed us the freedom and gave us permission to play full out. When you put on the suit, and the teeth, and the eyes, and you stand up, you feel like you’ve become something else! It gave you complete freedom.

When you’re in that makeup, do you feel a little immobilized? Because we hear, sometimes, when they put in the contacts, you can’t really see…

JB: I’d say the vision was a little tough to get used to; you’re talking about contacts that cover up the entire eyeball, and you don’t have a lot of peripheral vision, it’s pretty small, but you get used to it; you have to. The suits themselves allowed for a lot of freedom and movement, cos Stan knew that we had to do all these stunts, and I did as many stunts as I possibly could. We had Steve Lucescu, who’s one of the world’s best stuntmen, and he’d show me something to do, and I’d come back the next day and say, ‘Give me more, give me more, give me more!’ I felt like a big, giant kid playing every day.

They allowed you to do that?

JB: Yeah, absolutely!

No stunt double?

JB: No, there were some things that they had (to use a stunt double) that was only because of time issues, but for the most part it’s all me, it’s all wolf, it’s all fun!

Did you have to do a lot of training beforehand, specific training to do this?

JB: I’d done some stage combat before, so I’m familiar with that. As far as training—they really didn’t give us a lot of time to fully prepare for it. They gave us a really condensed gun training; we needed to be safe, but as far as getting familiar with the gun, if you’ve seen the movie, I have some pretty heavy guns! (laughs) So, they didn’t really give us a whole lot of time to adjust to that, so we were sort of—It was fast, it was furious and it was sort of left to instinct, which, I guess, is what it’s all about.

Had you done wirework before?

JB: Never! Like I said, Steve Lucescu, the stunt guy, our stunt guru, really wanted to make this fun and new, and do things that had never been done before in the stunt world, and I really took it upon myself to do as much as I possibly could to allow that to happen, but I’d never done wirework before, never shot that kind of gun before, never put on a werewolf outfit before, so… (laughs all around) It was just a lot of fun; I had the time of my life.

How hard is stunt wirework to learn? Is it something you can pick up easily?

JB: I was the only person who really did it; I mean, me and Kim Coates (who plays Zo, my right-hand man in the piece)—he did a few things here and there, but I think they saved most of the wirework for Varek, because he’s supposed to be the biggest bad-ass in the world.

For what I’ve seen—you were in Roswell, then in The Grudge, now in this, next in Dragon Wars —Is it a personal preference to lean towards sci-fi and fantasy and horror, or is it the project that attracts you to it?

JB: It’s usually based on a project-by-project basis. I’ve tried to balance it out with a lot of independent, character-driven pieces as well, which I’ve been lucky enough and fortunate enough to do, but to me it always has been, first and foremost, the character and the character within the piece and the story, so, if anything, I’m drawn to good storytelling.

What does it for you about scripts? Something that just jumps out of the page?

JB: There is never a specific thing; like I said, it’s always about the character and what that character’s journey is. Sometimes you’ll find a very interesting, very captivating character within a mediocre story, but you don’t really want to be part of a mediocre story, so you wonder if there’s any way you could make that better. But, there’s never really one specific thing, but I love challenges and I love to mix it up a bit and have variety, so I’m constantly trying to challenge myself as an actor, and also allow myself to explore things that I’ve never explored before.

Can you talk about what’s coming up for you?

JB: I did a movie, D-War, that’s coming out in September; and then after that I have The Tattooist that I did in New Zealand. It’s about this tattoo artist who finds himself immersed in the Samoan culture and tradition of tattoos and all the beliefs that go with it. After that, I have a movie called Senseless coming up, based on the Stona Fitch novel, and I just finished a movie in New York called Frost, another independent, character-driven piece like Senseless—a coming of age story about a man in his 30's who has an existential crisis.

Sounds like a busy schedule!

JB: Thank goodness! Thank goodness! I love it.

You ever think about going back to TV?

JB: Yeah, I think there are great stories being told on TV right now; the lines between TV and film are becoming very blurry. Again, it’s on a project-by-project basis.

Thank you for talking to us.
Last Updated ( Friday, 10 August 2007 )

**Crystaline** · 08-16-2007, 02:46 AM

Thanks for the article, Lizzie!

LongTimeFan · 08-16-2007, 10:38 PM

Here's someone's opinion on the movie - not too favorable...

From MOVIEHOLE

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Colin's Review : D War
Date : August 16, 2007 Posted By : Clint Morris

On the tail end of a busy sword and sorcery decade "D-War" could be the worst of the lot. As a CG promotional video entitled Bang For Your Buck it's passable, but putting lipstick on a bull doesn't make it sexy. It was written and directed by Shim Hyung-rae, a former Korean comedian who spent the last several years putting together this story of a 21st century American journalist bound to protect his love from the celestial ambitions of an Imugi dragon. The abridged version: mythological creature throws a hissy fit in L.A.

When Ethan Kendrick (Jason Behr) comes across a dragon scale while on a news assignment he gets dreamy and takes us back to a pivotal moment he had as a child. Here, while in a Gremlins-style antique shop, an elaborate Korean chest opens itself to Ethan and zaps him with computer graphics. It's an overcooked way to let us know that Ethan has a special destiny. As the shop owner Jack (Robert Forster) explains via flashbacks, he is the modern incarnation of a 500 year old Korean warrior, while Ethan is the latest version of his apprentice, Haram. A long time ago they fought together to protect the beautiful Narin from the bad Imugi, Buraki, and a too futuristic evil army, fashions care of Judge Dread. Haram gets tired of fighting and jumps of a cliff with his love. Flashforward. Buraki, is back on the 500th anniversary of their last encounter, to do something nasty to Ethan's reincarnated love Sarah (formerly Narin). What that is is unknown. What we do know is that she is the key to the Imugi's ascention to greatness, a dragon's higher state of being if you will. Fine. Avoid the monster. Jack helps out them from time to time, by using otherworldly powers, but insists above all that Ethan take her to "the cave." Protect her in the meantime, but only in the cave will fulfill her destiny. Ethan refuses to believe that sacrificing Sarah is the only way. He grits his teeth, grows some stubble, and plays Ring Around the Rosie with the big snakey for the better part of the film.

While the early Korean battle scenes using both troops and creatures will look familiar to Phantom Menace and Return of the King fans, other details bear a strong resemblance to the Terminator series. The blonde haired Sarah is pursued by an almost unstoppable force, somehow ushered out of one close scrape after another by a handsome young buck with nothing special to offer in terms of abilities, just a sense of purpose. Sounds familiar, though at least when Sarah (Conner) and Reese avoided the Terminator it was believable. How Twiddle Dee and companion consistently escape an army from hell and a serpent that can wrap itself around buildings is the real mystery. But they do for a good while, mostly due to last minute police and military invention. It gets old quickly. When they're not running Ethan and Sarah look at the sky and each other and give dramatic pause to their situation.

Historical descriptions of the Imugi make use of expressions like "is thought to have" or "is said to have." "D-War" at least stays loyal to one or another of these descriptions and presents the creature as one that which lives in water or caves, aspiring to become a wingless dragon. Another detail which made its way into the film was the importance of the orb to Asian dragons. The Yeo-ui-ju or dragon orb is given to the nice Imugi during the film's climax, granting it omnipotent powers and transformation into a full-fledged dragon.

Variety called the film "visually entertaining," which is accurate. But if motherly advice like "if you can't say something nice..." held any sway, it would probably end there. One problem is the film's attempt at incorporating mythology and dragon lore into a modern setting. "Reign of Fire" did it far more believably, but that film also limited the fantasy element to the dragon itself. As such the focus was clear, man versus beast. The clunky costumes and Masters of the Universe miltantcy that "D-War" adds in comes off like a groundbeef ice cream cone: it doesn't mix well. But beyond this, characterization may be the bigger problem. Shim Hyung-rae's interpretation of Americans is pure stock, like something taken from a beginner ESL essay, "What are American's Like?" The news station Ethan works for is CGNN, written in obvious CNN script, and his best bud Bruce is a punning, gun toatling African American decked out in gold jewelry. As a Westerner, there's no offense taken. Shim may have written the film with more concern with how Korean audiences needed to interpret America than how a western audience would. Still, the generalizations never go any deeper. Security guards are obese, federal agents are hard headed, and best friends must die. In one scene, after Bruce fails to dent the evil army commander with a speeding SUV, he decides to take him on outside. Even Terminator's tough guys had the sense to run when a fist went through their buddy's ribcage. Bruce is round-housed to the pavement while Ethan and Sarah grab some wheels and escape. The next morning the couple is walking on the beach, getting their bearings, when Sarah asks about Bruce. Ethan's not worried. His friend is resourceful. He'll be fine. The next day, Bruce is back at this desk with a band-aid on his forehead. It's not meant to be a joke. At this point there's no reason to take "D-War" seriously. If the writer doesn't consider his characters, why should the viewer. Sit tight, enjoy the squealing monsters, and call it a day

From ROTTEN TOMATOES

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Surprise, Surprise: Korea's Dragon Wars Makes $40M in Two Weeks
Drawing comparisons to The Host, but not from critics.
by Jen Yamato | August 16, 2007
It's been a long time in the making, but the sci-fi fantasy Dragon Wars -- reportedly Korea's most expensive production ever -- is coming to American theaters. What's more surprising than the fact that it's getting a U.S. release is that overseas, the $70 million film has already turned a sizable box office. Color us impressed!

Dragon Wars, or D-War as it was originally titled, is a Korean film set in Los Angeles, financed with Korean money and helmed by a Korean director (former comedian Hyung-rae Shim), starring a largely American cast. Its plot revolves around TV reporter Ethan (Jason Behr) who discovers that L.A.'s recent earthquakes aren't just natural plate tectonics but the awakenings of a giant ancient serpent -- a Korean serpent -- that he is fated to battle because, well, the 500-year-old spirit of a warrior lives within him. He's charged with finding the reincarnated version of that warrior's soulmate, now a hot girl named Sarah (Amanda Brooks), and defeating the serpent before it becomes a dragon, destroys L.A., wreaks havoc on the world, etc.

We first laid eyes on Dragon Wars at its modestly attended Sunday afternoon panel at Comic-Con. In all honesty, I hadn't meant to sit in on the presentation at all, but a friend was watching and there were plenty of free seats. Producer James Kang sat onstage with three of his leads, Behr, Brooks, and Craig Robinson; they ran a CGI-heavy clip full of bombastic action (Explosions! Screaming humans!) and digitally drawn Imugis (giant snakes of Korean lore who long to become dragons) mostly slithering about. People applauded, but it looked on par with a really cool snake fighting video game, or your average Sci Fi channel monster pic.

So unmoved was I then that I stepped up to the audience microphone to spice up my Dragon Wars panel-watching experience. Mostly, that was to say "Hi" to Robinson, who plays second fiddle to Behr in the film (as his wisecracking cameraman). Fans of good comedy know Robinson from dropping a few performance gems, as the warehouse foreman Darryl on The Office and as the brutally honest bouncer in Knocked Up; I dare say he was my favorite part of the Dragon Wars presentation.

I also asked producer Kang to explain why they were changing the film's perfectly ridiculous Korean title, D-War, to the more serious, spelled out Dragon Wars for American audiences. His response was something along the lines of "the digital age" we live in now -- fine, whatever, but why even bother using such staid and grammatically accurate verbiage for something that would benefit from playing up a more playful angle? Especially when all of the film's promotional materials highlight giant serpents eating cars, creatures flying above a metropolis, a showdown atop a skyscraper helipad -- remarkably reminiscent of Larry Cohen's Q: The Winged Serpent, in which an ancient Aztec serpent-god terrorized Manhattan from high atop the Chrysler Building.

Don't get me wrong -- I have absolutely nothing against the idea of a sci-fi/fantasy dragon flick. I tore through Anne McCaffrey's Pern series as a young, bookish nerd. I was excited about Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey's Reign of Fire all the way despite its dubious science. And I will certainly give Dragon Wars a fair viewing before officially passing judgement.

Regardless, it was a tad surprising to hear that D-War (as I shall refer to it in the context of its non-U.S. dealings) has raked in massive earnings in its South Korean run -- $20 million in its first five days, and over $40 million total in the two weeks since. Since August 1, a reported 6.14 million tickets have been sold in South Korea, which means roughly one out of every eight of the nation's 49 million people have seen the film.

Pundits predict that at this pace, D-War will easily match the record-breaking run of another well-performing South Korean monster movie: last year's The Host, which currently holds the all-time Korean box office title and got the patronage of nearly a fourth of the country's populace while in theaters. That film's commercial success, however, was bolstered by critical praise (the tale of a Loch Ness Monster-type creature is Certified Fresh with a 92 percent Tomatometer). It's uncertain, but seems unlikely, that D-War will get similar honors. While most critics stateside have yet to review the film (excepting Variety's Derek Elley), a flurry of debate has erupted in South Korea over the film's artistic value, with one critic deeming it "unworthy of criticism."

You'll be able to decide for yourself come September 14, when Freestyle Releasing is scheduled to let Dragon Wars loose on American soil. By then, every man, woman, and child in South Korea may have seen the flick. We'll see how it goes over here.

**Crystaline** · 08-16-2007, 10:54 PM

Thanks for the articles! That review may not have been too kind, but it just keeps making money in Korea. Way to go!

**Dreamer 4 Ever** · 08-18-2007, 12:24 PM

Thanks to Tanya for this, another photo from the D-War promotion

**Crystaline** · 08-18-2007, 01:49 PM

Holy. Freaking. Crap.

*turns to a steaming pile of goo*

Tanya7496 · 08-18-2007, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dreamer 4 Ever (View Post)

Thanks to Tanya for this, another photo from the D-War promotion

That's actually Olka's find. I just captured the larger pic from the website. I love this picture of him. He looks so dark and yummy. I can't take my eyes off of him.

tijuana_lady · 08-18-2007, 01:57 PM

Oh that look is killing me.

**Crystaline** · 08-18-2007, 02:55 PM

Those smoldering eyes.

No man should be that damn fine.

**Hell on Heels** · 08-18-2007, 02:59 PM

Um....*gulp*