"We always deal in envelopes."

Thursday, April 3, 2008 | 10:38 AM

Aaron Hillis has an interview with my beloved Wong Kar-Wai over on the news site:

You co-wrote ["My Blueberry Nights"] with crime novelist Lawrence Block. How did your collaboration work?
I'm a big fan of Larry, and especially his books [with his popular private eye character] Matthew Scudder. Our collaboration is more like the business in his book, because we're very secretive. We didn't talk much; we didn't meet much. I explained to him about my idea and then he would just say "Okay." A few days later, he'd come back with a draft. We'd meet in a restaurant, and then I took it home and have my comments. We'd meet again, I'd pass it to him, he'd take it home, and a few days later, he'd turn out another draft. It's like a spy story. It's not like a director's and writer's session. It's more like he's a contract killer and I'm the agent, something like that. [laughs] We always deal in envelopes.

He also says of the new cut: "It's not much shorter. When we discussed it with the Weinstein Company, I think from an American perspective, there were a lot of things that could be [left] unexplained; it's understood already. We took out some [exposition] that was obviously self-explanatory to the American audience."

I haven't seen the new cut yet, but I'd like to. My review of "My Blueberry Nights" from Cannes last year is here; I was disappointed, but seem to have grown fonder of the film the more I've thought back on it, or at least have managed to forget the parts I didn't like.

[Photo: Wong Kar Wai on the set of "My Blueberry Nights," Weinstein Co, 2007]