(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Organising an interview can be an incredibly difficult ordeal. Especially at an event as massive as the Middle East Film & Comic Con (MEFCC) that was held in Dubai this past weekend. The celebrity guests are fully booked for talks and appearances and trying to schedule in five minutes with one of them can be impossible. It's an especially gruelling task when you're a fan of one of the guests as well.
Max Landis is a very talented screenwriter, director, producer and actor. He's also very young for someone who's produced a reasonably impressive amount of work. Chronicle, American Ultra, Me Him Her and the very interesting reimagining of one of the first sci-fi stories in history, Victor Frankenstein which starred James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe - these are only some of the movies Max has scripted and scripted well.
We have been gushing fans of him for some time, following his YouTube channel Uptomyknees, which has over 96,000 subscribers, where he vlogs and posts about everything from interviews and thoughts on popular culture. Imagine our excitement after a week of back and forth phone calls and emails, finally getting to sit down with the man himself for 10 minutes during MEFCC. Very excited. There is one interview Max posted on his YouTube channel called Regarding Clark. Max explains the complexities of Superman as a superhero in comparison to Batman and Spiderman. Humble and hilarious, his opinions were backed up by knowledge and profound understanding of the superhero world that is not only inspiring but also full of infectious passion. Somehow, that Max Landis wasn't present at our interview with him.
"I keep getting called a personality, which makes me confused and kind of nervous. Personalities are for reality shows. I'm not a reality show."
He could have fooled us. While asking questions, we were cut off with a multitude of phone calls, Max interrupting us and himself to talk to other people in the room while he answered our questions with a veneer of sarcasm and a lethargic less-than-enthusiastic attitude which was in ironic contrast with the rainbow bright colour of his hair.
Perhaps he was tired, perhaps the weekend of hosting, doing interviews and interacting with fans had gotten the best of him. Maybe he was hungry, tired, jetlagged, maybe, maybe, maybe. The point is - it's not our job to question why someone isn't in the mood for an interview, we simply report it. Despite his lack of enthusiasm and the air of entitlement of someone entirely bored of us, we were lucky enough to get some answers. Though they were interesting, there was nothing of the brilliantly layered intelligence of a passionate man who we have to sadly say, we wished we hadn't met.
MEFCC this year
Fantastic, huge, wonderful. The best organised one they've had. Which is not saying much. You know every year it's sort of like this crazy mess of like . . . really seat of your pants, really intense. So this one being the best organised, just means that things haven't totally gone off the rails yet.
On fans of pop culture in the Middle East:
People come from all over the region to come to this, it's not just people from Dubai. You know, I've met people from Saudi Arabia and people from Serbia and people from just all over the entire area. People are just so excited about it cause it's such an outpouring of enthusiasm.
Screenwriter? Filmmaker?
Well, I like to say that I'm a writer just because I don't like labelling myself as a filmmaker, because I'm not really a filmmaker. I'd like to be a filmmaker but I haven't quite gotten there yet and so I think of myself as a screenwriter.
Screenwriting is . . .
The most misunderstood job in the film industry. We are not writers. I mean we are, but we aren't. We are closer to architects. We design blueprints. Our job is to make people want to make a movie. The movie making itself is both directly and tangentially involved with the script that we gave birth to.
Creativity in writing for films . . .
It changes how you think about it (creativity), you begin to write specifically to avoid major changes and to make it more easy to execute and more realistic.
Victor Frankenstein script . . .
That movie was very different from the script. It's extremely different. I wanted to totally reinvent it. And tell it from Igor's perspective.
Igor's perspective was great...
Yeah no, no, no, the movie is kind of like the script. But it's missing - a lot of it was removed. All of it was portrayed differently from what I expected.
On the power of the superhero world . . .
It's escapism. It's pure escapism. We live in an increasingly constricted world, and this idea of being super powerful and super unique and the "chosen one" is increasingly appealing. When you're a nerd the idea that you're actually a superhero is actually pretty cool. It's the ultimate 'no, s***w you, no, s***w you, I'm a good person, I'm a special person.' I mean that's everything, that's the hero's journey - 'I'm special.'
Reading right now:
Stephen King's new collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. And after that I think I'm going to read this book that keeps getting recommended to me called Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
Favourite superhero . . .
Growing up it's probably Gambit, but now it's probably Nightwing. I love the idea of Batman having an apprentice, and I love the idea of apprentice becoming his own person.
Have you seen Batman versus Superman?
Yup.
Thoughts?
Nope.
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