WWTW Interview: ‘The Brothers Bloom’s’ Rian Johnson

Writer/director Rian Johnson of “Brick” fame attended one of the best film school’s in the country – the USC School of Cinematic arts.

George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis and John Wells (“ER“) all got their start at USC. Yet Johnson still credits the movies he shot in his formative years as his truest training.

“At film school you get to see good movies and hopefully make movies and meet people, but you really only learn how to make films by making them,” Johnson says, adding he wished he had snazzy software packages like Final Cut Pro as a teen.

The young writer/director isn’t in the same league as his school’s famous grads quite yet, but he didn’t have to work the film festival circuit to secure a deal for his latest film, “The Brothers Bloom,” which opened the Starz Denver Film Festival last week.

For “Brick,” Johnson attended the famed Sundance Film Festival to find a distributor. This time around, the festival circuit became a place where he could relax and watch audiences assess his movies.

“Now, it’s much more fun. It’s about getting the movie in front of audiences and seeing how it bounces off them,” he says. “Every audience has its own personality.”

As for “Bloom,” he admits the con man caper isn’t for everyone.

“You’re either on board and think its funny, or it’s absolutely annoying and you want to run out of the theater,” he says with a laugh.

No matter, since he has a soft spot for polarizing features, and ones which reflect his mindset. He didn’t have the kind of brotherly bond the lead characters share in “Bloom,” but the film does mirror the vibe he gets when he reunites with his own family.

“It’s controlled chaos,” he says. “Barely controlled chaos.”

PART ONE OF WWTW’s CHAT WITH RIAN JOHNSON