During the Toronto International Film Festival back in September, The Playlist had the good fortune to sit down with legendary writer and director Paul Schrader, who was at the festival with his new film, “Dog Eat Dog.” The Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe-led thriller follows a group of ex-cons as they attempt to adapt to life on the outside. It isn’t long until they’re back doing nickel-and-dime crimes, but they begin to realize that the only place it’s going to get them is back in jail. So the trio (the third man played by Christopher Matthew Cook) then embarks on one last score, with a payout that will allow them to put aside the petty crimes once and for all.
After Schrader’s last film, “Dying of the Light,” was taken away from him back in 2014 and re-cut by the producers, Cage, Schrader, co-star Anton Yelchin, and executive producer Nicolas Winding Refn disowned the film before release. Schrader called “Dog Eat Dog,” “a redemption project” that would give him and Cage a chance to have complete control. After “Dying of the Light” had been taken away from the duo, Schrader remarked, “I told Nicolas [Cage] that if we both lived long enough that we should both work together again. We’d have the final cut and would be able to do it right.” Two years later they did just that and “Dog Eat Dog” is every bit as in-tune with the filmmaker’s eclectic sensibilities as you’d expect.
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With “Dog Eat Dog,” Schrader made it very clear that everything would be up to his own standards before signing on. When asked how he managed to create his unique vision, Schrader commented, “I chose all first-time, under-30-years-of-age talents all across the board to work on the film. Not only did this help keep costs low enough to stay within the budget, but it also brought in a unique creative vision to the project.”
Paul Schrader has kept very busy since finishing “Dog Eat Dog” earlier this year and premiering it in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival. He’s finally gotten the script that he’s been moving toward for almost fifty years lined up and ready to start shooting at the beginning of next year. With Ethan Hawke as the lead playing a retired military officer, alongside Amanda Seyfried, Schrader’s passion project, “First Reformed,” follows Hawke as he struggles to grieve with the death of his son, who was killed in combat. While mourning his son’s death, Hawke turns to the church, where he befriends a local parishioner to help come to terms with his pain. “It’s certainly going to be a different direction from my last few films,” Schrader remarked, adding, “I am going to be working much more in the vein of something like Ingmar Bergman.”
With a career that has been as diverse as Schrader’s, it’s interesting to see where he draws his influences from. With his latest work, Schrader cited everything from Tarantino to “Requiem for a Dream” to the Hype Williams-directed, “Belly.” It’s clear that Schrader, who spent much of his ’70s New Hollywood heyday hanging out with Brain De Palma, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and many others, understands how to work his influences into his films while still having his own voice shine through each and every frame.
Along with working on pre-production for his new film and touring festival to festival with “Dog Eat Dog,” Schrader has also been working on an updated chapter to his book, “Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer,” which was originally published in 1972. With the upcoming 45th-anniversary re-release, Schrader revisited the style of a handful of today’s most renowned slow cinema directors. “There are so many filmmakers working today that fail to receive recognition outside of the festival circuit,” Schrader remarked. When asked about what filmmakers working today that have grabbed his attention, Schrader said everything from the films of Nuri Bilge Ceylan (“Winter Sleep,” “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia”) to Lav Diaz (“Evolution of a Filipino Family,” “Norte, the End of History”).
Ahead of its November 4th release, “Dog Eat Dog” will be part of a retrospective program of Schrader’s work at New York City’s Metrograph, which will include screenings “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters,” “American Gigolo,” and more, with the director in attendance for selected showings. Following the release, Schrader’s latest will receive a theatrical expansion along with a Video on Demand and digital HD release on platforms across the internet on November 11th.