Daniel Petrie Jr interview: Toy Soldiers, Dawn Patrol, Turner & Hooch

His mother, Dorothea, produced movies, wrote novels and acted.

And then his brother, Donald Petrie, directedCocoon: The Return,Miss CongenialityandGrumpy Old Men.

Yet Daniel Petrie Jr is just as busy.

Starting with what hes up to right now…

Ad content continues below

So youre in Serbia at the moment.

Well, lets start there.

What are you doing in Serbia?

Our company, Enderby Entertainment, is about to start filmingAn Ordinary Man, starring Sir Ben Kingsley.

The Brad Silberling film?

I always had a soft spot for hisCaspermovie!

Are you reflective of that, and is that why you started your company?

Well, thats part of it.

The story led us to this location.

So I think thats a trend thats worldwide.

Everybody is able to take more chances, because the cost of entry is lower.

Although theres much more competition in the marketplace, there are so many more avenues to reach an audience.

Presumably you set up a company too because you want to control your own material more?

The studio model is cyclical, though.

Now were back to locking down stars for 12 pictures at a time!

With your new film,Dawn Patrol, this ones very outdoors, and very away from Hollywood.

Its not a conventionally commercial film.

The characters are in many respects unlikeable, and in some cases irredeemable.

Scott Eastwood, your star, seemed the lynchpin here.

He was one of the first actors we saw.

I was blown away.

I knew he had to be the guy.

Then I looked at his last name!

You got Rita Wilson putting herself on the line in this film, too.

How did she come to this one?

Ive wanted to work with her for years.

She almost turned down the part, without reading it.

And she is sick of playing that role.

She told her agents no more parts where I play a mother!

She was attracted to this role because it was different.

And I liked her playing against key in.

I thought it was fantastic, and she did a great job.

At the very end of the credits, you and Rick Dugdale dedicated the movie to your fathers.

Well, growing up, I was in fact surrounded by movies all the time.

But I didnt fully realise it.

It just seemed like this is my dads job.

You know how kids are.

Unless your father is a fireman or a cop, their work doesnt seem especially glamorous to you.

I played with Sidney Poitiers kids when he and my dad were making a film together.

We were always insulated from it being any kind of glamorous industry.

We were steered against that.

It just was regular work.

A lot of people are surprised when they realise that theres no glamour to movies.

Anybody who spends two days on a movie set knows that.

But I knew that from being a little boy.

How does that affect you then when you do decide to break into movies?

I wasnt going in star-struck or any of that.

I knew it was just going to be a hard slog.

On the other hand, I started as a writer with the original intention of becoming a novelist.

I didnt want to go into a field where my dad was pretty prominent.

But I wound up believing that if I stuck to writing novels, Id starve to death!

I was actually naive enough to think that screenplays would be easier, because theyre shorter!

[Laughs] That didnt last long!

To becoming a junior agent in the literary department.

So that really gives you a circumspect view of the industry?

There are no shiny edges?

It gives you confidence, reading tons of bad scripts.

Even stuff that is produced and sells!

Prior to that, I was very intimidated.

The only scripts I would read were the ones by the writers I admire.

Robert Towne, William Goldman, people like that.

How do you live up to that?

When you got to your first produced screenplay though, what happened to you doesnt happen to people!

The president of production of the studio called me.

Dont get used to it!

You have to seek your own balance, and not let things go to your head.

It seems an odd question, then, but were you happy with howBeverly Hills Copturned out?

Were you happy that what ended up on screen was close enough to what your second draft was?

It nearly went off the rails entirely.

As you probably heard the story, the first actor who was cast was Sylvester Stallone.

He had done a substantial rewrite on my script, and wouldve gotten credit.

And revert back to that second draft that they greenlit, and start from there with Eddie Murphy.

So was it the definition of powerless to you, seeing Sylvester Stallone almost running roughshod over your work?

But its still considered a coup to have written a script to attract a movie star of that calibre.

At that point he was considered a much bigger star than Eddie Murphy.

But still: it was a daunting experience.

When it hit big, was there a reason you didnt get involved beyond that?

Because you dont seem to have had any involvement with the sequels?

The business went through one right at that point.

And, you know, I think it was just as well.

Sequels arent, you know…

I have to ask you aboutTurner And Hooch.

And my question is this: was it you who killed the dog?

[Laughs] Well, we all did.

Did you have a vote?

Its certainly controversial now, and was at the time.

Here we are doing a comedy, after all!

But we did a test.

Although we felt that the ending thats there is the more emotionally satisfying one, were not completely irresponsible.

We had a version where that didnt happen, and there was a miraculous recovery.

We tested the films back to back.

Two houses of identical size, in a multiplex, starting half an hour apart.

The difference between the two scorings?

There was no statistical difference in the scores.

There wasnt much different in the focus groups.

The group with the ending that we had was more passionate.

It provoked this passionate response.

It was all positive, but muted.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, who I consider to be a great executive, had to make that call.

He said, well, we have basically an identical result.

Were you, as the filmmakers, unanimous, or was this a split vote?

Nobody really talks about the ending ofK-9, which of course came out a few months beforehand.

But you cant bring upTurner And Hooch, even today, without talking about the ending.

Which I guess proves your point!

Can we talkToy Soldiersthen, your directorial debut.

I went to see it pretty much blind in the early 1990s.

Halcyon days, right?

But why wasToy Soldiersthe project that convinced you to direct?

I love the film, so Im trying to be all calm and professional about it.

But what was it that locked you in?

Well, a couple of things.

I wanted to direct.

I was looking for an opportunity to do so.

But I also wanted to go into the directing process prepared.

They walk on set without knowing the difference between the cinematographer and the caterer.

So that was my film school I felt ready.

It was also my only opportunity to do a picture that wasnt at Disney during those years.

If an outside picture gave me an opportunity to direct sooner than Disney.

There were those reasons that that particular project also spoke to me.

I was a prep school kid in the American sense, a boarding school.

So this is your way of confessing that the mouthwash was down to you?

I dont know if I ever fantasised about the school getting taken over by Columbian narcos!

[Laughs] It would have relieved the boredom!

Thus, the teachers werent the villains.

Thats right, thats right.

Thats the usual cliche.

That he has a grudging respect for the pranks the students get up to.

But where did the individual parts come from?

David, I think, would be the first to acknowledge that his draft was quite a bit different.

It was done for another director, John Schlesinger.

Who youd never think as anyone who would have been interested in the material.

If Ive got my timelines right, Schlesinger must have donePacific Heightsinstead then.

It was for patriot kids.

The character was very much a loner.

The terrorists were Palestinian.

I think they ran into a great deal of difficulty getting the movie made.

At the time, there had been so many movies featuring Palestinian terrorists.

I was like, oh, thank God.

Even though I thought the book was very effective, we had hit trouble with the plot.

There are moments where you really dont hold back.

Particularly the opening, that sets an incredibly dark tone.

Theres so much ofToy SoldiersI look at now and think theres no way youd get that through today.

But how easy was it to get the film through back in the early 1990s?

The company that released it was Tri-Star, and it was made independently.

Island World financed the film.

They werent beholden to a particular studio, but they got Tri-Star to release it.

Tri-Star become involved, but its then-head, Mike Medavoy, is famous for supporting filmmakers.

He had a more hands-off approach.

That might have been a mistake.

Do you regret the choices you made, though?

If youd have gone for a softer rating, it would have substantively changed your film?

I knew how boys of that age talked.

And I also wanted the violence to be real.

Not fake cartoony violence.

Because it seems to me it is aBoys Ownadventure story, with improbable events.

We got a Blu-ray release ofToy Soldiersin the UK.

Its not released on Blu-ray in the States.

It only happened here because a small label, 101 Films, fought for it.

Actually, not so much.

Id forgotten that Orion were involved, but they had rights to it before they put it into turnaround.

They were developing the David Koepp screenplay.

Then Tri-Star distributed theatrically, whilst others did so overseas.

Different distributors had it for video and DVD.

It probably has acquired a lot of logos.

Did you ever see the disc?

Because someone really cares about the film.

But him aside, did you get your cast?

Because your ensemble feels like an end of an 80s era young friends group.

It really came together, it was just delightful.

This group of kids really gelled as a group and supported each other.

The adults surrounding them were very nurturing of their younger peers.

It was a lovely how they all melded together so well.

Denholm Elliott was one of the great gentlemen too.

A treat to work with.

I didnt want that.

All of those kids are really the age of the characters.

They were all either 18 or 19, playing 17 or 18 years old.

Except for Shawn Phelan, the younger kid, who was 16 at the time.

He was the only one who had to have his mom along.

It meant some better known actors…

They were just a little older.

Nothing against them but they should be playing college students rather than high school students, in my view.

So it was supposed to be a Tom Cruise film?

Youve worked with Roger Spottiswoode a few times in your career.

Can you talk about your involvement with the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie,The 6th Day?

I was executive producer.

Its also the genesis of Enderby Entertainment.

I was exec producer, one of many producers as you know of that film.

But all the other producers had other jobs that necessitated they were in the office all day.

We were shooting mainly at night.

My job was to support Roger.

And because we were shooting at night, I was the only producer on set.

We were shooting very complicated things at very difficult and sensitive locations.

There was one kid, 21 years old, who was basically in charge of the whole location department.

It was he and I being thrown together if something came up during the night.

Were all going to be working for him some day?

Roger said oh Dan, Ive known that for two weeks!

That guy was Rick Dugdale, who is now my partner in Enderby Entertainment.

He producedDawn Patrol, and was my producing partner before we founded the company together.

He is the company CEO.

AfterToy Soldiers, you didnt seem to direct much after that.

Was there a reason for that?

AfterToy Soldiers, I went back to my deal at Disney.

We developed a couple of things that came close for me to do as a director.

But they didnt gel.

Which is not my favourite film.

Things that Id written to direct that didnt work out.

And also I did quite a bit of work during that period as a script doctor.

Did that script doctoring involve capes?!

Directing is one of my passions.

But so is producing.

And I get a great deal of satisfaction out of it.

Helping to build Enderby with Rick.

The writing is a consuming passion too.

Also, there are two other things that I get tremendously excited by.

One is television, the opportunity to follow characters over a season or hopefully longer is pretty great.

And Ive always been incorporating teaching and service to the community.

Thats also been a very important part of my life, and Id like to continue to do that.

One last question, then.

Do you have a favourite Jason Statham film?

Id have to sayThe Italian Job!

Daniel Petrie Jr, thank you very much!

Dawn Patrolis out on DVD now.