Exclusive Interview: DJ Caruso Wants You to Fear Your Blackberry

Posted by Brian C. Gibson (brian@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 16, 2008

Back in July I had the chance to watch the first thirty minutes or so of DJ Caruso’s newest thriller, Eagle Eye. First off, I have to say that what I saw of Eagle Eye… I loved. It was a fun, fast and intense ride that will make you think twice about syncing your iPhone. Caruso’s Disturbia was a big surprise for me, and his followup film seems to be ready to surprise fans once again.

For everyone out there who saw the teaser trailer and the full theatrical trailer, I heard a bunch of comparisons to The Matrix. Just google ‘Eagle Eye The Matrix’, and you will get over two-hundred thousand hits. I wanted to know what DJ thought, because anyone who was in attendance for the sneak peak knew fully well that those two films comparisons end with the trailer. Caruso had this to say:

I never really get that involved in all the comparisons and people saying this and, you know, you ripped off that. I don’t ever think about it that way, and I think everyone is always entitled to their opinion. The Matrix thing, i don’t quite understand, but I guess if you really step back and you just look at the trailer. In fact, when we first started talking about this movie we thought this was a sort of a movie that would be a…I don’t want to say a prequel to like a Matrix movie…but it’s one of those movies that could be a cousin to The Matrix for sure.

I was curious to find out that if The Matrix wasn’t an inspiration for Eagle Eye, then what sort of films were. Caruso was very lively when talking about some films that gave the same vibe and had the same sentiments and feelings of paranoia:

I watched The French Connection because I love the way that the movie was shot, and I wanted sort of infuse Eagle Eye with that sort of naturalistic style. I watched The Paralax View because you had this great sort of great 70’s political thriller. I watched War Games because I thought it was very interesting in the way, you know, that the technology and the computers are dictating the way that the world could go.

DJ hilariously pointed out another movie that inspired him, but more-so in a way to show what not to do. In regards to the scene from the trailer where a crane crashes through a building:

Another movie I watched, just to make sure I did it better…when Spiderman 3 had it, it was just so phony. You know, it was all digital. I just wanted to make sure that I did it for real, that’s why we really crashed that crane through our set.

From the thirty minutes of the film I was able to see, there was another film that came to mind more-so than the ones Caruso mentioned, that being Enemy of The State. The specific question I had for Caruso was: What can Eagle Eye do for audiences now, what Enemy of The State couldn’t/didn’t do for audiences ten years ago? Caruso had this to say:

Well I think what you will feel with Enemy of The State, you really had a man behind the technology and using the satellites…and sort of being the aggressor. But what you will find in Eagle Eye, it is just because the technology now…if you just jump ten years…we all have Blackberries on our belts, we all have cell phones, we all can even go on traffic cams online. So basically it is just about the easier access and basically how we have invited this into our lives, and not someone infusing it onto us. We are the ones enabling Big Brother to come on us easier. It is just one of those things where I always say that I hope you come out of this movie and kind of fear your Blackberry.

It has already seemed like two matches made in heaven, Caruso/Shia LaBeouf and LaBeouf/Paramount Dreamworks. LaBeouf looks to be a major part of blockbusters like Transformers, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Disturbia and now Eagle Eye. All of these films were either produced or distributed by Paramount or Dreamworks, and the latter two were directed by Caruso. So I put the director, and his working relationship with LaBeouf, on the spot by asking if he would rather have a bigger budget for things like special effects or an actor he is comfortable working with, like LaBeouf:

That’s a tough question because if the movie was a real spectacle and the effects are a huge part of the movie, you would kind of be torn. But I’m always gonna go for the actor. I also feel, like let’s say you have an effect or you have a movie that is really really working, but it doesn’t have a great effect…the effect is not quite doing it because you didn’t have enough money to pull it off. I always feel like the studio then, you could always have them add more money. One thing you can’t do is say ‘that actor is not very good, let’s go back and reshoot the whole movie. I would always go with the actor of the effect.

In regards to Shia, Caruso spoke very enthusiastically saying:

Yeah, I would love to. I’m sure both he and I would love to work with eachother again, maybe do it on Y: The Last Man. You kind of look at the John Fords and the John Waynes, and you kind of go through to Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks, Scorsese and DeNiro…you are always envious of those wonderful relationships. You always dream as a director that you have this actor or actress that you can go to and count on to have a good relationship, and they can always turn a character into something special.

One of the final things that bothers me most about this film is wondering who is the voice on the other end of the telephone. My guess was Julianne Moore, so I told the director my guess and he said “Well if you think it’s Julianne Moore… then it just might be. It just might be.” I guess we will all find out when Eagle Eye hits theaters on September 26th. Keep your mouse on FSR for more details, reviews and commentary.

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