A war-weary veteran embarks on a dangerous mission with a young girl in Director Paul Greengrass’ western drama, News of the World.
Set five years after the end of the Civil War, Greengrass’ film tells the story of Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks), a veteran who crosses paths with a 10-year-old girl (Helena Zengel) who was taken by the Kiowa people. Forced to return to her aunt and uncle, Kidd agrees to escort the child across the harsh and unforgiving plains of Texas. However, the long journey soon turns into a fight for survival as the traveling companions encounter danger at every turn -- both human and natural.
On January 31, Greengrass discussed the making of News of the World in a DGA Virtual Q&A moderated by Director John Madden (Miss Sloane).
During the conversation, Greengrass recalled when he had what he called “a little epiphany” where the past of cinema met the present and evoked the memory of John Ford.
“We were out in the desert in the middle of nowhere late one afternoon and we're setting up a shot,” recalled Greengrass. “I remember it as one of those moments where you remember just being there waiting for something gorgeous. The light was coming down and you've got wagons and horses and cranes, and we were all giggling at the idea that here we were out in the desert making a Western! It just such a wonderful childhood fantasy for all of us. I remember saying, ‘You know if you look out past those hills 50 miles away, you can almost feel the ghost of Papa Ford.’ You just have this intimidating sense of this enormous footprint. How do you measure up to one of the masters of our craft?”
Greengrass’ other directorial credits include the feature films 22 July, Jason Bourne, Green Zone, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Supremacy and Bloody Sunday; and the movies for television The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, The Fix and The Theory of Flight. He was nominated for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for his 2013 film Captain Phillips and the Academy Award for Best Director for his 2006 feature United 93.
Greengrass has been a DGA member since 2005.
You can listen to Greengrass' Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.
About the DGA Virtual Q&A Program
Mirroring the ever-popular DGA Membership Screening Q&A program in the virtual space, DGA Members can now learn more about films directly from the filmmakers in this series of livestreamed conversations.
