JORGE SARALEGUI...PRODUCER. 

 Jorge Saralegui is a producer here in Los Angeles, California. His recent credits include 'The Big Bounce' with Owen Wilson, 'Showtime' with Robert DeNiro and Eddie Murphy, 'The Time Machine' with Guy Pearce and two productions in Australia, 'Red Planet' and 'Queen of the Damned'. As a writer he has also had several novels published, 'Last Rites', 'Shadow Stalker' and 'Looker', and he wrote the story for 'Showtime'. AUSUS Magazine spoke to Jorge about working in Australia, writing, and his plans for the future.

 Q: How did you get involved in this industry?

Well basically I stumbled into this job, into this whole industry. I didn't pursue it. I used to write novels and published a couple. I was living in San Francisco and basically just scraping by. I needed a job, because I wanted to write a different kind of novel - one that I would not get an advance for because it was in a different genre to what I'd been working in. A friend of mine told me there was a job down here called 'reader', where you can read scripts part time and still have time to do your own writing. So I moved down here just for that. I ended up getting a union job, full time, as a reader for a studio. At this point I still had no real interest in the business. I was actually going to leave the company but they asked me to stay and offered me a job as a junior executive. I hadn't even thought about it and at that point, at thirty eight, I was considered pretty old to be in this type of position. Ten years too old. And it's also a social networking type of job and I didn't know anybody. But I took the job anyway. I felt like a challenge and I needed a change. It was the first time the concept of 'perspective' became clear to me. I could just see things more clearly because I was older and could have a different perspective on life than someone who was younger. I was also very confident because I'd been a good script reader and the studio appreciated my confidence. I also wasn't afraid to fail because I'd led a whole other life where I'd had no money. I realized that this was the quality that I had that other people who had been at the studio their whole lives didn't. So I read scripts, found good ones, worked on them and made them better. It just kind of all happened without me ever planning it.

 Q: How did you learn the process of script reading?

I read a book. Syd Field. To me a script was kind of like a story, like a novel. A novel has a structure but it's very flexible. This book told me what to look for. All Hollywood scripts have three act structure. So, for example, it becomes very easy to say that something's got to be happening by the end of act one, by page thirty. That's a very easy thing to look for as you read a script. It gives you a format, which allows you to follow the concept, character, dialogue and the story.

 Q: Back to being a junior executive at Fox. What happened next?

What happened was that one of the first projects that I had, that was my own, was an idea for a police dog comedy. I had to hire a comic writer so I called the agencies and asked for writing samples. One agent sent me sample's of her client's TV comedy writing, but she also sent me an action script to show me the guy could also write action. She was really covering her bases. This particular script was in turn around from Paramount and was available. It was 'Speed'. I read it and knew it was really good so I talked Fox into buying it. That was the first movie that got made that I brought in and that kind of launched me.

 Q: From there you went to Vice President?

Yes. There's different levels of vice president. I became a vice president in 1993 and an executive vice president in 1997. I had a lot of movies that did really well there. 'Independence Day', 'Alien Resurrection', 'Broken Arrow'. Once you get to that level there's only two choices for your career. Either leave or become president. I didn't want to be president, even though I was next in line for it so I became a producer. I got a deal with Warner Brothers and stayed there for five years.

Q: How did you come to produce 'Red Planet'?

 Warner Bros. was about one month from pre production and the original producer wasn't going to be on the set. It was a first time director and shooting abroad so the studio wanted somebody there. It was my second year at Warner Brothers and they asked me to go do it.

Q: Where did it shoot?

Eight days in Jordan, three weeks in Coober Pedy, and the rest on a couple of sound stages in Sydney.

 Q: What was it like shooting in Coober Pedy?

 It was great, but it also was hellish in some ways. They mine opals there. It's in the desert and each miner has his own hole. They're usually about six foot in diameter. We were there in September. There's either no wind and there's flies all over you, or there's a wind and the flies go away and the wind blows a fine red dust into your eyes and pores.

 Q: Why was this location chosen?

Because it looked like Mars. The idea was barren, no grass.

Q: Next was 'Queen of the Damned'? '

Queen of the Damned' was a Warner Brother's project. It was a book they had there that they hadn't done anything with. They asked me if I'd look at it so I did. Michael Rymer had already been hired to direct. We did our best to make sense of the book, which didn't add up to a movie. It's kind of scattershot. We were going to make it either in Canada or Australia. I much preferred Australia, having just been there, I loved it. We ended up in Melbourne because Sydney was booked up. We shot in St.Alban's. There's an empty Nestle's warehouse there. We were the first ones to use it.

Q: Why do you choose Australia as a location?

 (laughs) I love it so I'd do whatever I could to wangle it so it is Australia. But if I'm being responsible I'd say it's the combination of a number of things. You can shoot almost anything down there. The weather is good. It's not as good as Southern California because it rains normally, whereas here the rainfall is abnormally low. The crews are very good. The talent pool is very good. And it's at a good price. Unfortunately, the competition now is probably impinging on it and the tax breaks in Canada and the UK are probably better.

Q: What nationalities were the actors you used?

Various. Irish, French, British, American. Most of the other actors were Australian. The vampires were all Australian, Bruce Spence, Claudia Black, Matthew Newton. We found the other Australian actors through a casting director down there, Greg Apps. The director is mainly involved in casting the actors. Things have changed in the business where the director has taken on a lot of the producers role. For better or for worse. In this one, for example, Michael and I would consult on everything, but at the end of the day he'd decide.

 Q: Do the actors ever consult with you?

Well I'm on set everyday. Usually they consult just with the director unless they have a beef with him, then they'll come to you. You're usually the first port of call. But I always try to steer it back to the director.

Q: What's your next project? 

 I have a few things going on. I have a project with Bill Bennett, the Australian director. He did 'Two if by Sea' with Sandra Bullock and Dennis Leary. 'Kiss or Kill' with Rachel Griffiths, a thriller. He and I have been developing a script called 'Fast Car', which is basically a fun 'Smokey and the Bandit' car chase in the outback.

 Q: How do you spend your day?

There's two times in my life. One is when I'm in production and one is when I'm not. When you're in production it's crazy, probably fourteen hours a day. When I'm not my day consists of meetings with writers who are working on stuff and reading and taking phone calls, such as to talk about casts and so on. But I receive many less calls than when I was a studio executive. When I was at the studio I'd say that about eighty per cent of the calls were a waste of time. An agent would call and ask '...do you have any open writing assignments, how about my client for this, what's going on'? That kind of stuff. That's a waste of time. The other thing is that because you're a buyer at a studio you're constantly having people come in to do pitches. I'd have to sit there for forty five minutes but I'd usually know within five minutes whether or not I was going to buy it. So I'd spend the rest of the session figuring out how to turn it down, because there's a real politic to a pitch meeting. You never say no in the room. It's considered disrespectful. It's all subjective anyway and it's quite possible that that person may bring you something else that is good. But they won't come to you if you're the idiot that didn't like it immediately. So I'll usually find something good in it and then say '...but I'm not sure about x. Let me talk to my boss about it'. Then I'll call them back later and say no on the basis of x.

Q: If you were to look back on your career at the end how would you want it to look?