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News
Jack Black On Playing Robocop for Be Kind Rewind
Discusses Gondry's genius, the finer points of playing junkyard dress-up.
by Fred Topel | December 12, 2007
Discuss Article
Jack Black plays a video store clerk remaking classic movies after he accidentally erases the whole store in Be Kind Rewind. One of the most elaborate home-made replacement movies is the '80s sci-fi classic Robocop.

"I play Robocop," Black said. "It's all [Michel] Gondry designs, basically car fenders for my legs, a blow dryer for the gun and holster. He's brilliant in many ways and he thought of all of it. My character works in a junkyard and so all of the stuff was kind of built with junkyard parts."

A comedy with Jack Black performing in low-tech movie remakes sounds like another big hit, but knowing Gondry's indie style, even Black expects Be Kind might only reach the same audience as Nacho Libre.

"In the sense of, like, traditional big-budget comedies, you're going to have all the shots, you'll cover a scene from all the angles, over the shoulders, et cetera," Black compared. "He's not doing that. He has a very interesting way of shooting scenes and not a ton of coverage and also some things fall to the wayside. Just straight up plot and story are not always the most important thing to him as much as a feeling or an amazing image. Very creative and original doesn't always translate to big box-office gold."

The entire film was very contained as well. "It was another cool situation where we shot it almost all in this two-block radius in Passaic, New Jersey. I had my junkyard and then right across the street was this video rental store."

Related Items
Movie: Robocop
Nacho Libre
Celeb: Michel Gondry
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Comments (1-19 of 19 posts) | Reply
jasperoosterveld
jasperoosterveld writes:
on Dec 12 2007 05:17 AM

The trailer looked so much fun, i really want to see it :)

(Reply to this)
Gimy
Gimy writes:
on Dec 12 2007 05:21 AM

i've been wanting to see this for ages now, ever since i heard the premise. i hope to god Black goes back to his old school self, where he was actually FUNNY...like in Saving Silverman. this SHOULD be absolutely hilarious.

(Reply to this)
walkingdead09
walkingdead09 writes:
on Dec 12 2007 06:36 AM

surprised they haven't tried to remake robocop yet.

(Reply to this)
blank blank
blank blank writes:
on Dec 12 2007 06:37 AM

for what it was, nacho libre did very very well at the box office


mos def and jack black sound like a great duo


(Reply to this)
Kollikodon
Kollikodon writes:
on Dec 12 2007 09:12 AM

... loved the trailer, loved the Idea~

Mos Def Jack Black= possible success.. .this movie isnt going to flop... thats for sure.


(Reply to this)
Tuwin
Tuwin writes:
on Dec 12 2007 09:25 AM

Sweet! I love Jack Black and Mos Def is a Great Actor. This should be really good

(Reply to this)
smi1ey
smi1ey writes:
on Dec 12 2007 09:26 AM

definitely a funny concept and (finally) an original plot. looking forward to this one

(Reply to this)
moviemonkey2
moviemonkey2 writes:
on Dec 12 2007 10:05 AM

I think Black is selling this movie short if he thinks it's appealing to the same kind of audience as "Nacho Libre". This film has a helluva lot more going for it than "Nacho" did.

(Reply to this)
sfsilver
sfsilver writes:
on Dec 12 2007 10:09 AM

Yeah I'm confused by Black's comments. If I were the film's producers I would be calling Black in for a "shut your trap" talk. These comments could scare away a mainstream audience and virtually guarantee that the film has low box office.

I'm a Gondry fan and the trailer looks great.


(Reply to this)
Evimeleth
Evimeleth writes:
on Dec 12 2007 10:29 AM

In reply to this comment (#1350206)
SHUT UP!!! SHUT UP!!! Don't bring that up EVER again!!!

(Reply to this)
Gimy
Gimy writes:
on Dec 12 2007 10:43 AM

by the way, they have thought about reDOing the robocop series for quite some time. h3ll, i didn't even know there was a few movies after the trilogy i saw...but they're supposedly tv show type things. never watched em so i can't really say though. but c'mon guys...its an 80's icon...you know its going to be reDONE...just a matter of time.

(Reply to this)
dahluzz
dahluzz writes:
on Dec 12 2007 10:55 AM

nacho gets no love. it's wasn't napoleon, but it was beautifully photographed and was well written. One of the few enjoyable movies of that god-awful summer 2006 lineup. the thing made $80 mill domestically. i can't imagine it cost too much to make (as black was the only thing close to a known actor in it and there were no effects) so that sounds like a hit to me. nachooooooo

(Reply to this)
IMAmoose24
IMAmoose24 writes:
on Dec 12 2007 01:05 PM

I too think this will be a fun movie. Hope i'm not wrong.

(Reply to this)
a_sad_un-sorry_hashbrown
a_sad_un-sorry_hashbrown writes:
on Dec 12 2007 02:07 PM

Yeah this movie looks fantastic with a really ingenious idea.

Jack Black and Mos Def in the same movie? Then you know something magical is going to happen :D


(Reply to this)
South Texas Terror
South Texas Terror writes:
on Dec 12 2007 04:41 PM

This movie sounds cool. Does anyone know of any other films he remakes in this movie?

(Reply to this)
Hamboner
Hamboner writes:
on Dec 12 2007 06:14 PM

I like Mos Def, but he's never blown me away with his incredible comic chops. I am reading a lot of these above comments about "Jack Black and Mos Def = Man's Salvation" and I can't help but wonder, "Did I miss something?"

(Reply to this)
MC.
MC. writes:
on Dec 12 2007 09:10 PM

He's a fun actor! Go Black!

(Reply to this)
Dunk
Dunk writes:
on Dec 13 2007 12:50 PM

I saw a screening of this several months ago (they might make significant changes from the print I saw) and, while the scenes where they remake the movies are pretty funny, they only comprise about 15 minutes of the movie and the rest of the movie is pretty mediocre. To answer the question about some of the remakes, I recall Ghostbusters and Driving Miss Daisy (they show pieces of several others, but I don't recall them at this point). Anyhow, I hope they actually modified the final product to improve the overall film.

(Reply to this)
voytec2k
voytec2k writes:
on Mar 22 2008 12:28 AM

In reply to this comment (#1350206)
hahahahahah. I find this ironic.
they just announced it.


(Reply to this)
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