Duel - Edgar Wright interviews Steven Spielberg

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/edgar-wright-interviews-steven-spielberg-duel/

As part of Empire's Steven Spielberg take-over, Edgar Wright interviewed Steven Spielberg about "Duel".
I thought the piece was interesting enough to share on here.

I hadn't realized until now that he shot the entire thing in just 11 days, though considering it was shot for TV, that should not be a huge surprise.

Interesting if sycophantic interview, thanks for posting that - not the sort of thing I would have read left to my own devices.

Duel remains the only Spielberg film I really enjoy, though I haven't seen much he's done in the last 20 years. Maybe the guerrilla filmmaking tactics he mentions adds an energy to the film. Plus, there's no sentimental mum and kids.

Odd that both Duel and The Killers (Siegel) were intended for the gogglebox but ended up on the big screen (in Europe at least); The Killers was considered too violent for TV, IIRC. What other films made that transition?

"La Meglio Gioventu" was originally meant to be a TV mini-series.
It ended but being cut into two theatrically released three hour movies instead.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Duel remains the only Spielberg film I really enjoy, though I haven't seen much he's done in the last 20 years. Maybe the guerrilla filmmaking tactics he mentions adds an energy to the film. Plus, there's no sentimental mum and kids.

Neither Spielberg nor Scorsese has made their best work in the 21st century, but I find Scorsese's later work considerably better and more interesting than Spielberg's.

e.g. "Bridge of Spies" was fine but it's not a movie you have to see. It's an adequate adaptation, nothing more, nothing less.

Salomé wrote:

"La Meglio Gioventu" was originally meant to be a TV mini-series.
It ended but being cut into two theatrically released three hour movies instead.

Did Das Boot go the other way? Made for TV but cut down for the cinema in some territories?

Erica Ambler wrote:

Salomé wrote:

"La Meglio Gioventu" was originally meant to be a TV mini-series.
It ended but being cut into two theatrically released three hour movies instead.

Did Das Boot go the other way? Made for TV but cut down for the cinema in some territories?

I think it was originally made for cinema but an extended cut was turned into a TV mini-series.

Ah right. Dreadful Boot remake on its way I read.

Coming back to Duel, I've only seen the Euro version. The Movie of the Week cut is said to be better.

The late-70s pilot movies of both Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica got cinema releases.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

The late-70s pilot movies of both Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica got cinema releases.

That's right. Think that was just in the UK, possibly Europe as well.

Duel had scenes added for the theatrical release in Europe. The TV version is tighter. So there are two versions, and the theatrical matted to 1.85.
The film works in either cut thought the TV original is unavailable. The Blu-ray uses the stupid widescreen matting and should have been presented in the original 1.33 which I saw once in a theater and looked amazing. Duel is a masterpiece that Spielberg cannot replicate.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Ah right. Dreadful Boot remake on its way I read.

Dreadful Boot?

G section wrote:

Erica Ambler wrote:

Ah right. Dreadful Boot remake on its way I read.

Dreadful Boot?

More of a sequel apparently. How's your Deutsch?

https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.dreharbeiten-in-muenchen-das-boot-als-serie-und-es-hat-ping-gemacht.493baae4-4cfa-442c-badb-4577497f9755.html

It was right there, guys.
Das Re-Boot.