INTERVIEW: Director Rob Bowman

Elektra director Rob Bowman talks comic-books and criticism with Matt Chapman...

Is this Elektra the same character we saw in Daredevil or has she changed?
Rob Bowman: The difference from the Elektra in Daredevil is that the requirements of her in that movie are completely different than in Elektra. That was about her love of Daredevil and her change from being a sweet girl to rage because of the death of her father. But you don’t really learn much about her and my movie is all about her internal darkness.

You researched the original Greek myths of Elektra, which of those aspects appear in the story?
I knew of Elektra from Greek mythology because I’d read Sophocles and then I read Frank Miller’s comics and it seems like it was derivative of the original stuff. So I went back again to the Greek authors who wrote about her and I wanted to know what the true origins of the character were so I could stay true to that.

Frank Miller did a beautiful job of reintroducing her, the problem is that she looks like a hooker and it’s all about murder and sex. By contract I was obligated to make a PG-13 movie. And Jennifer Garner is a sweet woman and I didn’t want to put her in a hooker’s outfit.

How do you answer the harsh criticisms of the movie?
I actually thought the critics would like it because I did not make a visual effects spectacle movie. It wasn’t just dripping with computer work. I thought I was making a much more independent film version of a comic-book. I stopped reading reviews when one said: “Why does Hollywood make big budget comic-book movies…” and I didn’t have a big budget, I had $43 million. I had half the money of Daredevil, probably a third or quarter of the money of Spider-Man – maybe less. Nobody ever said “Good job” on making it look like it cost more than $43 million. I got nothing to say I had six weeks of prep and 10 weeks to shoot the movie and nothing to say I posted the whole film in four months.

I think my reaction to their words is they were inaccurate. Or maybe the movie should have cost $100 million, I have no idea. I’ll always be proud of it and I did a director’s cut that will be coming out in November. That is an R-rated movie, it has things that were removed to get the PG-13 rating. It’s not 18 minutes longer, but in many parts of the movie it’s a little different. The music is different in some parts and I don’t feel obligated to have this adrenalized pace that I know some people think is important for a theatrical movie.

Did that need for an adrenalized pace come from test screenings?
We only tested the movie one time and the test was extraordinary. We had teenage girls and boys and their mothers, and every one of them absolutely loved the movie. They thought it was far better than Spider-Man and far better than typical comic-book movies and they really understood what movie I’d made.

Why was Ben Affleck’s scene as Daredevil deleted?
We shot it and ultimately the studio felt that it might be too much of a diversion at that point of the movie. But I never reinstated it into either the theatrical or the director’s cut, I left it as a deleted scene. Will there be a third movie, as was originally planned? I think it’s still on the cards, I haven’t heard anything about it but I know that was always the plan.

Dish the dirt, is Jennifer Garner as sweet as she seems?
It’s very unusual for a person of her status to be that genuine and sweet and it makes the whole working environment so much more pleasant. She never draws attention to herself because she’s a star, she’s there to do her part of the movie. Without her professionalism we wouldn’t have made that movie in the time we had.

What’s next? Maybe a second X-Files movie?
It’s in development hell, but it’s in the works. All parties involved want to do it. I think Chris [Carter] and Frank [Spotnitz] have written a script and David [Duchovny] and Gillian [Anderson] – as far as I’ve been told – are interested in doing it. If they invite me to direct it I will and if they don’t I wish them all the luck in the world.

Buy Elektra on DVD at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com