Exclusive: Director Gary Fleder Talks Homefront

is scheduled to be released on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack including Blu-ray™, DVD, & DIGITAL HD with UltraViolet™ and On Demand on March 11, 2014. In advance of the films home video release, Comicbook.com did an exclusive interview with Homefront director Gary Fleder. In addition to Homefront, Fleder also directed Kiss The Girls, The Express, and several other films. On the TV side, Fleder has directed episodes of Beauty and the Beast, Star-Crossed, and more. Comicbook.com: One of the things we really liked about Homefront was that it wasn't always what you would expect from a typical action movie. Usually there's a clear cut line between who the bad guys and good guys are, but several of the supporting cast members fell in a grey range, and it was surprising to see where they came out in the end. Can you tell us a little bit more about the decisions regarding the supporting cast and what separates Homefront from other action movies? Gary Fleder: Regarding the moral ambiguity and the complexity of the characters, you have to really go back to the book. It's based  on a book by Chuck Logan. A lot of my movies have come from novels, like Runaway Jury, Don't Say A Word, Kiss The Girls, among others, and it's always fun to have that reference point, where the characters in the books tend to have more complexity than your typical one-dimensional good guys and bad guys. Even when I came onto the project, after being developed for years by Stallone, I went back and looked at the book, and really enjoyed going back and putting back in some stuff from the book that had been discarded. And then in the casting process, I really think that the actors, let us keep as much of the moral complexity as possible, getting that was always a real goal for us. Comicbook.com: How active was Stallone in the filming process? I know he wrote the script based the book. Did you interact with him during filming? Gary Fleder:  He was pretty hands off during filming itself, and I think it was mainly out of respect. But he's a very accomplished writer and filmmaker and producer, and I think he was very deferential to me in the process. He didn't want to make me feel like he was in the way of any of the process at all. He really did not get that involved in production. He was involved in pre-production. Then, when he saw the cut of the film, he had lots of ideas, but for the most part, he was not that involved during the shooting of the film. Comicbook.com: Homeland had a great cast of both actors and actresses. How was it working with that cast? Were there any specific experiences that stood out? Gary Fleder: I think that they all had very different processed in how they work. Every actor has their own process. I think that the most interesting actor in terms of how he works is James Franco. He really doesn't want to talk about his character a lot. He wants to keep it very minimal and then sort of bring that to the table during filming. I was used to having more dialogue with actors before shooting, so it was a new experience for me to have an actor who said, 'Let me play it. I want to have you trust me and show up and do the work.' It took a little bit of good faith from me to do that, and I did it, and I think it really worked out well. I really liked Franco in the film a lot. He's funny, and he's scary and odd. But I think his process was new. And Statham was very different. Jason is all about preparation and talking about it. And also, we talked a lot about the idea of playing a father. And to your earlier question,  it's an action film, but also there's a real emotional center to it, there's a real heart. Comicbook.com: The film ended in such a way that left the door open for a sequel. Is there any chance that we might see the continuing adventures of Phil Broker in a Homefront sequel? Gary Fleder:  You know what, I don't know. I think we'll see how well it does in the video sales, and then we'll discuss that after. Comicbook.com: I know you've met before with comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis in the past. Are you currently working on any comic book movie adaptions? Or is there a comic book that you would like to adapt to the big screen? Gary Fleder: I'm a big comic fan, but there's so many comics being made right now that I'm not sure if the world needs one more from me. Again, I'm a big fan of even like the graphic novel Road to Perdition. I've been a big fan. Of course, you have Thor and The Avengers, Spider-Man, Superman, all those big blockbuster movies are coming from all the great comics. I keep looking for something, but I think right now the marketplace is pretty well served with a lot of great, great projects. I'm looking. I'm definitely looking for material in the graphic novel/comic world, but right now I haven't found anything that I want to pursue in the near term.

With all the intense fight scenes in Homefront, how often did the actors do the stunt work and how often was it stunt doubles? Gary Fleder: You know, Statham does 99% of that stuff himself. Some of the much more dangerous stuff and things that might cause injury, he wasn't doing. You know, he's a really, really great actor. People don't know this, but he was on the British diving team when he was younger. He's an Olympic quality athlete, so it's really exciting to see him bring tremendous coordination, balance, and strength to the work. In my experience doing this in my career, I've never had an actor who was as deeply involved in not only in being in the shots himself, but also really dissecting the scenes during the pre-production period. Comicbook.com: We're also talking to Clancy Brown, so I was curious if you had any feedback on working with Clancy. Gary Fleder: The movie, I view it as almost a modern day western. There's this town, and in the town, you have sort of the white hats and the black hats, and Clancy represents that kind of perfect sheriff character. You're not really sure whose side he's on. I think that Clancy has that great gift that's he's intimidating, he can be really scary, but also he's got that thing where he has that fatherly, patriarch quality. And I think that's really exciting to find an actor who can play those two sides. He's a really wonderful actor. Going back to the Highlander movies, he's part of movie history. I worked with on another movie years ago called The Express. He played Dennis Quaid's right-hand man, as a coach. I think he's a very, sometimes undervalued and wonderful character actor. He bring tremendous skill, an unbelievable smart man. But again, his work is always stellar. Comicbook.com: Frank Grillo has been cast as a villain in the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie. How was it working with Frank and how do you think he will do in Captain America? Gary Fleder: It's funny. Years ago, I had a meeting with Liam Neeson on a project, and he had just finished shooting a movie called The Grey with Frank Grillo, who was his co-star. And Liam could not stop talking about and praising Frank and telling what a wonderful actor he is. That says everything, you have one of the biggest movie stars now and unbelievable prolific actor talking about another actor, and that says everything. I've known Frank for over ten years. I worked with him on a TV series years ago. I've watched him grown and evolve. The thing about Frank Grillo that I've always loved is that he has a real ambition to be great. He really likes to do great work. He's very passionate. He always elevates the actors around him. And I said to him, "Look there's a role in this movie that's not really that interesting on the page and isn't that dimensional, but can you show up and bring something really unique and bring your bravery to this role.' So Frank did that. He said, 'Absolutely.' He showed up and he figured out the guy's look and his style and the way he talked and the tattoos and the hair. He brought all of that to the surprise of who the character is. I think Frank is slowly becoming...you look at movies like The Grey, the movie Warrior that he was in, he had a huge part in Warrior. He's in The Purge Part 2 coming up, I think. He's in Captain America. He's really coming into his own as a very, very well-known actor. And by the way, he's a great actor. I would think in the next few years, you are going to be seeing a lot of Frank Grillo. Comicbook.com: A lot of your past movie work has been crime drama, but you've also dabbled in sci-fi and fantasy on the TV side. Do you have a preference between the two? Gary Fleder: It really just comes down to the story that you're telling. In a funny way, I did a movie called The Express a couple of years ago, a period film in the 1950's. You do a movie from the 1950's, it's just as complicated as doing a science fiction movie, because you're dealing with having to create all these objects and things that no longer exist. Anytime you work in the world of science fiction and fantasy from a production point of view, it's always a little bit more complicated. You're dealing with having to create a world. You create objects, things, and wardrobe. There's a lot of small things that have to be created and fabricated and conceived. Even a movie, like the movie Her that just came out, that Spike Jonze wrote, that was a new, different world. The look of that film, the wardrobe, the computers, and the technology, that's as much of a fantasy movie as in movie in terms of creating a world. And that's challenging. It's a challenge to do that. Comicbook.com: What other upcoming projects do you have in the works? Gary Fleder: I haven't really decided on my next movie. There are several things I'm looking at. Homefront was a real pleasure to do a real pulpy, fun, exciting action movie. It was really a great joy for me to play in that world. It set the bar in terms of the cast in having people like Staeham and Franco and Frank Grillo and Winona. Kate Bosworth who's amazing, I think she's really quite a revelation in this movie. Anyone who hasn't seen the movie, if nothing else, just checkout Kate Bosworth really getting into the role. It's really amazing to watch her. Comicbook.com: It was really amazing to see her transformation, where you weren't really expecting to see her come out the way she did in the movie. Gary Fleder:  Without giving too much away, I think it's interesting seeing this movie for which characters change and which characters don't change. Comicbook.com: It was also interesting the main character left his job as a DEA agent to get away from the world of drugs, but he found himself getting right back into the world of meth, because it's even infiltrated small towns. Was that part of a message that you wanted to get out in the movie about how it affects even middle America now? Gary Fleder: Again, that all came from the book. To me, it was simply, it really wasn't a message I was chasing with the project. Basically, I think anyone that's manufacturing hard drugs like meth and cocaine and is distributing it, I think that is insidious. People that are manufacturing, people that are selling it, people that are helping to destroy lives, I'm not an advocate of that.