Jude Law and Charles Shyer talk Alfie movie

When you make a film of this nature, how much do you have to refer back to the original?

JL: Having embarked on this with Charles, we talked about the original occasionally. But really, we both felt that we knew it so well and we were so inspired by it, that it was in our DNA and we didn’t feel the need to go back and study it. When I did Cold Mountain, I read the novel twice and then put it down. That was it, left it. That’s the way Anthony wrote it and I have a feeling the way Charles wrote this. It was like, you have to move away and remember the essence, and just be inspired by what influence it left on you. I’d have made a mistake if I tried to be Michael playing Alfie; I had to be Jude playing Alfie and discover Alfie for myself.

CS: Yeah, you don’t want to make the same movie again, that’s the big thing. I’ve done this a couple of times. Somebody asked me this last night: Did the women see the movie? We never really discussed it. We tried to make a movie that stood on its own rather than something that was another version of the same movie.

Could you talk a little bit about setting the movie in modern day New York?

CS: First of all, Elaine is Canadian and I’m American. For us to write an Englishman living in England, I don’t think we would have done as good a job, to be honest with you. I don’t think we felt equipped to write it intelligently enough, and also, I thought the idea of setting an Englishman in New York really helped him because he’s a philosophizer, you know? He philosophizes and he has these attitudes about different things, and.........

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But beware. The interview contains major Spoilers.

Source: JoBlo