Full Article Text
MOVIES
EVERYTHING
CONNECTS
A young filmmaker proves that
hard works pays off BY MICHAEL GILTZ
irector Gideon Raff has been a best-selling author
in his home country of Israel, a columnist for that
country's largest newspaper and a paratrooper in
the military. But the most important job he ever got
was as an intern.
That's how it works in Hollywood .
"You have to start from the bottom."
says Raff, 33, whose first feature, "The
Killing Floor," is touring the festival cir
cuit and is already sold in 20 countries .
"You've got to work hard and impress
the right people."
Clearly, Raff did, even though he in
sists jokingly he's "the worst schmooz
er ever." Studying at the American Film
Institute in LA., Raff was able to im
press Avi Arad, the former Marvel ex
ecutive who's been a force behind top
comic-book film franchises like Make-A-Wish foundation ; and Liman -
knowing he was a writer and aspiring
filmmaker -kept asking to see what
Raff was working on. The result? "The
Killing Floor," Raff's first feature, has
two major blue-chip executive produc
ers in Liman and Arad.
A Hitchcock-flavored thriller about
a publishing executive who specializes
in horror writers, "The Killing Floor"
finds the cocky, conceited hero (Marc
Blucas of "The Alamo" and TV's "Buffy
The Slayer'') suddenly tar-... ,.
"X-Men" and "Spider-Man ."
Arad loved Raff's short film
"The Babysitter " -star
ring "7th Heaven" regu-
lar Jeremy Lelliott -and
kept Raff on his radar.
Then Raff took that cru
cial internship at the film
production company New
Regency. That company got
involved in the massive block-Raft parlayed
an internship
into a
directing gig. someone just as diabol
as the villains he's been
to life for years.
"It's right on the border
between a psychological
thriller and a horror film,"
says Raff. "There's a lit
tle gore. The movies I like
the most are ... scary, but
there's a human story be
ingtold."
buster "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and be
fore he knew it, Raff was an assistant
to director Doug Liman ("Swingers,"
"Go," "The Bourne Identity") and
running interference for "Smith" stars
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as the
media swarmed around word of their
burgeoning relationship.
"What they do is they send you out
with a flashlight and you point at the
papparazzi's cameras to block their
view," explains Raff, who says you
can't appreciate the intensity of the
media glare until you see it up close.
"At a certain point, it became crazy
because of the rumors."
Raff got to film Pitt for a video for the Shot on location in New York
in 25 days, Raff got no sleep during
production but says the most nerve
wracking moment was when his ma
jor Hollywood producer, Liman, visit
ed the set. Raff speaks admiringly of
top Israeli filmmakers like Amos Gi
tai and Eytan Fox, but for a kid whose
first movie memory is of a James Bond
movie, nothing beats Hollywood .
"I want to make Israeli films, I do,"
says Raff, who was born and raised in
Jerusalem and lived for a while in Tel
Aviv before coming to the U.S. "But my
interests and sensibilities are definitely
Hollywood . I wanted to be here for my
studies and the first years of my career.
I feel very privileged to be here." •
EVERYTHING
CONNECTS
A young filmmaker proves that
hard works pays off BY MICHAEL GILTZ
irector Gideon Raff has been a best-selling author
in his home country of Israel, a columnist for that
country's largest newspaper and a paratrooper in
the military. But the most important job he ever got
was as an intern.
That's how it works in Hollywood .
"You have to start from the bottom."
says Raff, 33, whose first feature, "The
Killing Floor," is touring the festival cir
cuit and is already sold in 20 countries .
"You've got to work hard and impress
the right people."
Clearly, Raff did, even though he in
sists jokingly he's "the worst schmooz
er ever." Studying at the American Film
Institute in LA., Raff was able to im
press Avi Arad, the former Marvel ex
ecutive who's been a force behind top
comic-book film franchises like Make-A-Wish foundation ; and Liman -
knowing he was a writer and aspiring
filmmaker -kept asking to see what
Raff was working on. The result? "The
Killing Floor," Raff's first feature, has
two major blue-chip executive produc
ers in Liman and Arad.
A Hitchcock-flavored thriller about
a publishing executive who specializes
in horror writers, "The Killing Floor"
finds the cocky, conceited hero (Marc
Blucas of "The Alamo" and TV's "Buffy
The Slayer'') suddenly tar-... ,.
"X-Men" and "Spider-Man ."
Arad loved Raff's short film
"The Babysitter " -star
ring "7th Heaven" regu-
lar Jeremy Lelliott -and
kept Raff on his radar.
Then Raff took that cru
cial internship at the film
production company New
Regency. That company got
involved in the massive block-Raft parlayed
an internship
into a
directing gig. someone just as diabol
as the villains he's been
to life for years.
"It's right on the border
between a psychological
thriller and a horror film,"
says Raff. "There's a lit
tle gore. The movies I like
the most are ... scary, but
there's a human story be
ingtold."
buster "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and be
fore he knew it, Raff was an assistant
to director Doug Liman ("Swingers,"
"Go," "The Bourne Identity") and
running interference for "Smith" stars
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as the
media swarmed around word of their
burgeoning relationship.
"What they do is they send you out
with a flashlight and you point at the
papparazzi's cameras to block their
view," explains Raff, who says you
can't appreciate the intensity of the
media glare until you see it up close.
"At a certain point, it became crazy
because of the rumors."
Raff got to film Pitt for a video for the Shot on location in New York
in 25 days, Raff got no sleep during
production but says the most nerve
wracking moment was when his ma
jor Hollywood producer, Liman, visit
ed the set. Raff speaks admiringly of
top Israeli filmmakers like Amos Gi
tai and Eytan Fox, but for a kid whose
first movie memory is of a James Bond
movie, nothing beats Hollywood .
"I want to make Israeli films, I do,"
says Raff, who was born and raised in
Jerusalem and lived for a while in Tel
Aviv before coming to the U.S. "But my
interests and sensibilities are definitely
Hollywood . I wanted to be here for my
studies and the first years of my career.
I feel very privileged to be here." •