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.