00:10So I grew up in California in Palo Alto. My high school was literally across the street from Stanford University
00:19where he lived in my hometown for a while and I grew up near Steinbuck country
00:29and I started reading his books when I was in high school. Steinbuck was a big part of my life
00:35from very early on and it was very important to me. I read his books so often it felt like
00:40he was a friend.
00:42I like the way you think Jim Nolan. You and me is going to make a pretty good team.
00:48Two years ago I did a production of his play of Mice and Men on Broadway and it was such
00:54a great experience and it rekindled my interest in Steinbuck.
00:59The real question is, have you ever jumped a train before?
01:04Ever what? Jumped a train?
01:06Yeah.
01:10I started thinking about a film adaptation of one of his books. I was looking for one that might be
01:18a good movie. A lot of the better ones had already been adapted.
01:24Grapes of Wrapped, adapted by John Ford and turned into an incredible film. And then I remembered in Doobie's Battle,
01:31it was something that was a lesser known Steinbuck novel.
01:35And I looked at it and I re-read it and realized it had been written around the same time
01:41as of Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrapped.
01:43All three of those books are part of what's called the Dust Bowl Trilogy and they all take place in
01:49California. They are all more or less about these itinerant workers.
01:56They think they can just pan us in like little pigs or weak pigs.
02:00You're angry at this man Ludden? Well he's going to go smash those barricades with his bare hands if necessary.
02:07We're going to get that truck and we're going to drive it right through them.
02:10There are struggles in California and each of the books has a different focus on those struggles.
02:17You hear what I have to say? Right? This price cut pains me as much as it pains you.
02:26A man can't live on a dollar a day. You promised us three a day. You know it!
02:36I thought, well of Mice and Men is an incredible novel and it's an incredible play.
02:42And part of that is because the locations are so limited. They're very intimate scenes.
02:51And then I looked into his battle and even though it wasn't as strong of a book as Mice and
02:58Men, the narrative arc and the conflict at the center of it was much more cinematic.
03:07And you know it was about an apple paper strike. You had these two very clear cut sides, the landowners
03:17and the workers.
03:19You bring these men back to work. I'll make you assistant superintendent. A steady job. Five dollars a day.
03:31Oh really? Yeah. You're going to buy me a chance to lick your boots. Please.
03:41Engaged in this battle that neither side was going to concede until people started getting hurt or killed.
03:51And I just thought that kind of conflict is good for drama. And more than that it seemed like a
03:59lot of the issues that were in the novel were still very, very topical and relevant today.
04:05That would help us make a period film that maybe wouldn't feel like a history lesson but would actually feel
04:12viral and important.
04:15And it can speak to a lot of the issues that are still being fought today.
04:20Yeah well they were sons of bitches and so I told them.
04:24You know they may have rode me down, ground me into the dirt till the soil was red with my
04:28blood, but I told them what they were.
04:30This film, you know, the book had many characters, but none of them were fleshed out.
04:36And so when we made the movie, we knew that we'd be casting people and that these characters would, on
04:41screen, would start to take on a life of their own.
04:44Say, Nolan? Are you Ray Nolan's kid?
04:48Yeah. Yeah. Joy, where's your manners?
04:51As soon as you cast somebody in a role, immediately there's just a personality to the character, there's a look
04:56to the character.
04:57There's, you know, implied backstory.
04:59All right. Nice.
05:00Ah, Joy don't shake. Hurts too much. He busted his hand.
05:04Handcuffed to a bar. He smacked across the skull. I got my hands stomped on by police horses.
05:10I've been beat to hell!
05:12Sure had, Joy.
05:13I worked with Robert Altman, I don't know, ten or more years ago on a film called The Company.
05:20And he's been a huge influence on me. And in a lot of his movies, he has these large ensemble
05:26casts and multiple storylines that are interwoven.
05:30And I think I looked at him for a lot of inspiration and we started carving out more dimensions for
05:37the characters, regardless of the size, so that each character feels like he or she has a whole backstory.
05:45And that story and that character's wants and actions are woven into the larger arc and fabric of the greater
05:57narrative.
05:57With people like this, you never know what'll set them off, what'll get the boulder rolling.
06:04Just look at them. All they need is a little push.
06:10We've got such a great cast, and as soon as we got our first people committed, then we started getting
06:17like more and more of these incredible actors.
06:20And they all did a lot of the work in fleshing out those characters.
06:25With every scene, it's holding like these incredible actors.
06:28I had hoped you would listen to Reason. I really did.
06:32But you're forcing my hand. And if you continue with this foolishness,
06:38Know that I will crush this strike and bury each and every one of you. It's a promise.
06:46Bolton, you rough up Anderson. You touch his property. You touch one goddamn apple tree.
06:53We will burn down every house and barn on every ranch in this valley.
07:00You know, I've directed a fair number of movies and literary adaptations.
07:06But on this movie, in Doobie's Battle, there were so many characters.
07:10And the background players were much more important than they are generally speaking.
07:18Because they played the people that were striking.
07:22And this movie was about not just a small group of people striking, like a large group that was striking.
07:28And so those background players were there every day.
07:31And it also meant that in almost every scene, I was not only trying to manage my main actor.
07:37The producers and I were trying to manage a hundred plus people on almost every scene.
07:43That was new for me. That was challenging at times.
07:46But everybody was really excited to be there.
07:48So that made it a little easier.
07:51We were fortunate enough to have a really, really strong cast on this movie.
07:57We had some great actors from the older generations, like Vincent D'Onofrio, Ed Harris, and Bryan Cranston, and Robert
08:06Duvall, and Sam Shepard.
08:08You know, it was a little intimidating working directing them.
08:11But they were all really sweet and committed, and I think excited to be doing a Steinbeck project.
08:22And so, you know, with actors like that, you know, I generally don't have to say that much.
08:27They just do a lot of the work.
08:31You know what your problem is? You never owned anything.
08:36You never planted any trees, watched them grow, touched them with your own hands.
08:41You bastards never owned anything.
08:44You never put your hands in your own dirt!
08:49With respect, we never had a chance to own nothing.
08:52Yeah, I listened to all your promises.
08:56You know, the whole crop's burnt up.
09:00It's just a matter of time before the bank takes it all.
09:03And then I had great actors from the younger generation, like Nat Wolfe, who I'd known from the movie Palo
09:10Alto.
09:10Selena Gomez, who I knew from Spring Breakers.
09:14Josh Hutcherson from Hunt Games.
09:16Angela Green from Twilight.
09:18And Keegan Allen from Pretty Little Liars.
09:22Austin Case.
09:23And so they were all really, really happy to be there.
09:29And like with Selena, I knew that she was a great actor.
09:32She was so good in Spring Breakers.
09:34And I knew that it seemed like she didn't get off for movies like this or a role like this.
09:38And she got to play a young mother and she even has that scene where she gives birth.
09:42She was really, really committed and so good in the film.
09:46There he is!
09:48There he is!
09:50Oh!
09:51He does nice!
09:51Hold on!
09:52Hold on!
09:53He does nice!
09:54Ha ha ha!
09:55Ha ha ha!
09:56There you go!
09:57Look!
09:58There you go!
10:00In a way, it sort of felt like acting camp or filmmaking camp.
10:03And even though it was hard and it was tough material, I think everyone had fun.
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