Im pleased with the numbers [laughs].
You dont even start the film if thats what youre thinking.
Opening weekend must be the most nerve-racking experience of any directors life…?
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Yes!
Its more than what you hope for your baby…the ramifications to your entire career!
Its like for you, if you make one bad post, you cant work any more.
And whose deciding that its bad are people that you dont have any respect for anyway.
Doyou have any tricks to keep yourself sane when a movie of yours is just opening?
Even if its good.
Ill never forget whenXxXopened, and it was clear it was going to be a gigantic hit.
Everybody was feeling so great.
Joe Roth…the picture did $44 million, and he was upset it didnt do fifty.
So I had to go home and feel a little like Id failed the studio [laughs].
Instead of going Yay!
You got to just stay centred.
Is it still too early to be talking about the next one?
I have plans and I have ideas, but Im not even officially part of the franchise.
I would have to be an invited guest.
Yeah; I didnt ask for that challenge, but it came to me.
Jet, Michelle, Luke, Isabella and Maria were all people that I brought into it.
I dont think there was ever any feeling of were the old guard and you guys just came aboard.
Brendan couldnt have been more embracing of everyone, including me.
WasChinathe key factor in you saying yes to the project?
Set inAfrica, it would have been maybe a pass, maybe Ill think about it…?
If it had been anywhere but China it would have been a pass.
I just dont do sequels.
But to do a big fantasy movie in China…that doesnt come every day.
I had already worked my ass off onSinbadand had it fall apart.
…and youve regretted getting overly fascinated by the technical opportunities ofStealthat the expense of characters.
Is that a lesson that fed back into production onDragon Emperor?
Yeah, very much so.
Because, no matter what the critics think, Im a smart guy [laughs].
And I have an analytical training.
Do you thinkHollywoodgets too easily beguiled by new technologies?
Yes the movies are so big, and the process…each visual-effects movie istwo complete movies.
In time, in effort, and in imagination.
People like characters [laughs].
Its only a way of quantifying what might be involved.
His problem with CGI is the impossible camera moves
Thats my specialty!
[laughs]
Yeah!
So I was thinking you wouldnt agree with that…?
I dont agree with that at all.
John is ten years older than me, and there is a generational difference.
These were the film-makers I revered.
I started onMiami Viceand started getting a chance to move the camera rather dramatically…
So the question is Why are you doing it?.
It put that movie into another mind-set, and I knew what I was doing.
The traditional shots that David Lean or William Wyler could have done.
But you have to have a purpose.
Theyre half-car, half-human.
So how do I connect the man to an engine visually?
Its on the set.
InXxXI didallthose stunts for real.
Theres a feeling to reality that CGI cannot give you.
So if the film-maker is saying to you This is a REAL car!
We really jumped this river that is FIVE HUNDRED yards wide!
and you go That car is CG!, hes lied to you and you feel lied to.
But if I tell you that this is an army of skeletons…[laughs].
Im not telling you that this is real!
Im telling you that this is Ray Harryhausen done with todays techniques.
Youre there to delight them with something imaginative that everyone will fully understand is CGI.
I dont know [laughs]!
Also theres a de facto actors strike here.
So Im just saying Relax, smell the roses…know your new children…re-meet your wife!
Every director wants to do a movie about a director, because its what we most understand.
And the largeness of the guy.
Yet Russ had the same impact on movies as Hef had on the publishing world.
Oh my God its three volumes!
With every picture of every girl he ever had sex with.
Its like three thousand pages long…every director is an obsessive maniac.
Theres been news today of John Carpenter and Nic Cage getting together forScared Straight.
Do you think thats a good fit?
I know you were strongly associated with the project… And I think Im still exec producer [laughs] I havent checked!
I dont think youll sleep well.
Oh man you know what Im gonna do?
To keep myself busy between surfs and playing with the kids, I started to novelise it.
I almost got it made at Universal.
Its just that nobody was there to bite.
Would you still be interested in Jessica Biel headliningXxX 3?
What kind of shape is that film taking now…?
One of the things is that without me the producer went off and hired Ice Cube [laughs].
I feel that if theres ever going to be anotherXxX, weve got to bring old Vin back.
I dont think you’re free to build a franchise based on quicksand.
Thats what we had, and it was working.
Then certain producers decided to change it.
Rob Cohen, thank you very much!
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is on general release now.
