Date: 14th September 2001

Hollywood Changed Forever


The terrorist attacks on New York will forever change the workings of Hollywood movies, British director MIKE FIGGIS says. Figgis, who is at the TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL to promote his new movie, believes the tragedy will alter how film-makers "think about the use of violent imagery and things like that".

He explains, "I think it's going to change the way we think about everything - I really do. I think it's a monumental event unlike anything I can think of in my lifetime, and therefore obviously the film industry, which is a secondary factor, of course will change too. "

Figgis speaks for many when he says he found the World Trade Center disaster reminded him of Hollywood wizardry: "The thing that I kept thinking was it just looks like a very well done special effect, I seem to have seen this image so many times before in every trailer of every big movie that comes out of Hollywood. "

Nearly everyone in the film business has commented on how the devastation resembles big-budget disaster movies. LESLEE SCALLON, in town to survey Toronto movies for her own festival, says, "It was like watching INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) when the aliens had come and they were attacking us. It just seemed very well planned. It is such a tragedy. " (NFA/WNWCCB)

Source: WENN