TORONTO—Brian Koppelman, co-director and screenwriter for the film Solitary Man, says he wrote the film with Michael Douglas as the only choice for the lead role years before without knowing he would sign on for the project.
“David [Levien] and I had written Ocean’s Thirteen, and had known Steve [Soderbergh] a long time and met Michael Douglas…but didn’t really know [him], but I wrote it with Michael in mind.
“I thought of him of him everyday when I was writing, because there wasn’t another actor that I knew of who would be able to capture the intelligence and the pathos, and the humor of this character, and be believable in the role. So for us it was really a binary equation, like Michael does the movie or there is no movie. And Steven, when he read the script immediately said let me send this to Michael.”
Douglas promptly read the script and was on board soon thereafter, however, four years had transpired during that time and it was certainly a gamble on Koppleman’s part.
Koppleman and Levien were well aware of the odds, and fittingly so considering they wrote the screenplay for the widely popular gambling film Rounders starring Matt Damon.
This is only their second time in the directors’ chairs, yet the co-writing and co-directing team of Brian Koppleman and David Levien are considered one of the eccentric teams in Hollywood.
Co-directors seem to only take fashion with siblings, such as the Coen brothers and the Wachowski brothers, yet Levien joked that they bare the brotherhood aspect “without all the family baggage,” allowing them to get along better than siblings would in different circumstances.
Michael Douglas was curious how a team of directors would work, yet things quickly fell into place during the extremely quick 26 day shoot.
“I was a little bit concerned about how two directors are going to work together… who’s going to be the bad cop and who is going to be the good cop but they worked it out very well and its fun to watch a team that’s been together for so long and how comfortable they are together.
“I was really impressed with the trust that Brian and David have with actors.”
Imploding Character
Solitary Man stars Michael Douglas, as a car dealership mogul whose unethical transgressions destroyed his reputation. Yet his reputation is on the verge of getting worse as his promiscuity has extended a little too far.
“It was just a chance to explore somebody who has issues or questions of mortality, and see how they respond, and in this case Ben Callman [the lead character] implodes, and we watch a very successful man, fall apart and then try to regroup in kind a of a black comedy tone,” said Douglas.
The film co-stars Mary-Louise Parker, Susan Sarrandon, Jenna Fisher, Jesse Eisenberg, and long-time on and off screen buddy Danny Devito.
