Zemeckis high-wire thriller not for the faint-hearted

Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis takes movie-goers on a white-knuckle ride to the top of the World Trade Centre -- and to the edge of sanity -- in his new film "The Walk".

Thirty years after striking gold with "Back to the Future," the American's latest offering, which opens the Tokyo International Film Festival on Thursday, is based on the true story of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit's death-defying walk between the Twin Towers in 1974.    

"From a technical standpoint, every film that I've done in my entire career has prepared me to do this movie," Zemeckis told AFP in an interview on Wednesday, the exact date (October 21, 2015) in the future that Michael J. Fox's Marty McFly travelled to in a souped-up DeLorean fitted with a flux capacitor in the second part of the blockbuster trilogy.

"I wanted the audience to completely believe that (Joseph Gordon-Levitt's) character was on that wire. That was the challenge for me: that there would be not a single frame where the audience didn't doubt that they were really up there on that wire with that character."

Filmed in 3D, the climax to "The Walk" takes place 110 stories up and is not for the faint-hearted. As Gordon-Levitt's Petit steps out onto a wire hanging over 1,300 feet (400 metres) above the ground, the dizzying bird's eye view afforded by the camera will have vertigo sufferers breaking into a cold sweat.

- 'Living, breathing entities' -

"If you have vertigo this is a great place to go and get some therapy," smiled Zemeckis, in a hotel room overlooking the Tokyo skyline.

"This is the type of story that is best done through the art of cinema. And with 3D you can make the audience flinch, you can make them squirm."

Zemeckis has dedicated his new movie to the victims of the September 11 terror attacks and the filmmaker treats the Twin Towers with a touching tenderness.

"What Philippe did is probably the second-most significant thing that happened in the history of those towers," said Zemeckis. "Philippe fascinated me. He's a character who has this unbelievable passion, this need to express himself creatively, although it was obviously extreme.

"Philippe always considered the towers characters, he always thought they were living, breathing entities and always spoke of them as if they were his partners," added Zemeckis. "He understood that he could not have done this feat without them.

"The thing that I did was just not editorialise. I understood that everyone would bring their own history of the tragedy, their own experience of the tragedy to the film.  

"But I also thought it was important that we have to remember things that were beautiful and things that were human and things that were magnificent, and not just the tragedy."

The film's co-producer Jack Rapke said: "Walking across those two towers without a safety line is obviously bordering on madness. The towers were an iconic symbol of America. Bob (Zemeckis) treated them with a great deal of respect, a great deal of honour and a great deal of love."

However, there was bad news for diehard fans hoping Zemeckis might bring back Marty and Doc for more capers that risk unravelling the space-time continuum.

"It's only fitting that we're here on this date," said the 63-year-old, who won an Academy Award for 1994's "Forrest Gump" and also directed Hollywood hits including "Cast Away" and "Flight".

"You can look at it as a coincidence or you can look at it as the synchronicity of the universe.

"But no, there won't be a sequel, that's not happening. I'm thrilled and honoured that it has had these decades of longevity. I never expected it for one second. But I believe it is a very well-made trilogy and it will stay that way."
Source: AFP