Martin Landau, Director Atom Egoyan and Screenwriter Benjamin August Get Personal About Nazi Thriller ‘Remember’

Sandra Miska

In the thriller “Remember,” Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau attempt to take justice into their own hands when they work together to bring down the Nazi war criminal responsible for the deaths of both of their families in Auschwitz. Landau, along with director Atom Egoyan and screenwriter Benjamin August, recently spoke with Entertainment Voice about this unique film with a memorable ending.

“Remember” is August’s first screenplay to be produced. It wasn’t until he had all but given up on Los Angeles and moved across the world did his creative juices really get flowing.

“It’s a long, convoluted story,” explained August when asked how he came up with this script. “I was living in Hanoi, Vietnam, and I was a very unsuccessful writer in L.A. I was really writing to the market but when I lived in Vietnam, I was writing stuff I was passionate about and really my first thought was, ‘I want to write a movie that stars older actors because I feel like some of the greatest living actors are often relegated to smaller roles and they don’t get to shine the way they used to.’ So that was really my mission. I want to [write great roles] for older actors. And then, being Jewish, I always wondered what happened to all these Nazi war criminals who escaped justice. At the time, I had read some stuff in [Nazi hunter and writer Simon] Wiesenthal’s reports and it’s estimated that there are still hundreds of Nazi war criminals living around the world that could be in their late 80s, early 90s. . . . That idea was crazy to me. I wondered what kind of lives they were living. Were they living in fear looking over their shoulders every day? Were they going to bed at night with a smile on their face thinking they got away with it? And, most importantly, did people in their lives, their families, know who they really were? And what would it take to get the truth out . . . ?”

Martin Landau related to the character Max, who used to work for Wiesenthal but now lives in a nursing home and is confined to a wheelchair. He previously worked with Egoyan, an up-and-coming filmmaker in the 1980s on the rebooted “The Twilight Zone.”

“So many things in the script related back to me in a certain sense. I’m not going to play Fred Astaire anymore. There are things that age does. It resonated, and I kept thinking about the script and the ending, which is a surprise ending that I did not see coming. I turn down a lot of ‘grunters.’ I call them grunters because of the old guy who sits at the table [grunts] and the young people make fun of. I won’t do those.  . . .I loved the writing. I loved the idea of working with [Egoyan] again after 28 years and it was a no-brainer.” Landau went on to speak about how his age works to his advantage. “It allows me, basically, to see things a little differently than younger actors. I’ve never repeated a performance. I always think of something as new, unique and different: where people come from, what schools they went to, whether they went to college, whether they went to Harvard or Northwestern, or what church they went to, what city they went to. …Those kinds of things are really important.”

Although Landau and his co-star Plummer are both well into their 80s, they are by no means frail according to Egoyan. “I must say that there was this one moment where Dean Norris pushes Christopher Plummer onto the couch, and we had a stunt person there because I wanted that to feel very visceral, and Christopher said, ‘No, I want to do that myself.’ I said, absolutely not. And he said, ‘No, no, I’m going to do it. I’m a stage actor. I know how to take a fall. That’s what I’m trained to do.’ And I said okay. At one point he went off for break, and I summoned the team and I had it all set up, and I had the stunt person try to sneak this past him, and he roared onto the set and he said, ‘I am doing this myself.’ And that is Christopher Plummer being pushed onto the couch. So, there is this extraordinary sense of the strength that both these amazing actors have because they are schooled, they know their bodies and in terms of Christopher, he’s playing someone who’s frail but that’s not who he is.”

Although he himself may be in great shape, Landau didn’t exactly have any complaints about playing a character who was confined to sitting in a chair. “Well, I looked forward to it,” he said when asked how he prepared for the role. “I mean, I’m 87 years old. In two and a half years I’m going to be 90. I keep quoting [film mogul and Paramount founder] Adolph Zukor. At his 100th birthday party, Paramount threw a party for him, and he got up and his entire speech was, ‘If I knew I was going to live this long, I would’ve taken better care of myself.’ And he sat down.”

Egoyan spoke about the recent trend in films that feature mature actors, such as “Youth,” “45 Years” and “Mr. Holmes.” “There seems to be some sort of openness. But it’s interesting hearing what Ben is saying about the script with that in mind because it is an incredible resource. We have these amazing actors . . . .” August pointed out that studios are wise to not be dismissive of older moviegoers, explaining, “I think in this day and age, often the people who are going to the movies are older people. I look at my friends now with kids. It’s so hard for them to get to the movie theater, but my parents go every single weekend, and I don’t think most of the movies are geared toward my parents and my grandma. I think there should be more that reflects who’s going to the theater.  I think there should be more for the people who are going to the movies and appreciating cinema.”

August credits the movie “Memento” for inspiration while writing “Remember.” “‘Memento’ is really interesting. My brother, a friend of his at one point re-edited ‘Memento’ so it was told [in chronological order] instead of [from the ending to the beginning]. And seeing the movie told both ways there was kind of just something that stuck with me about storytelling and how you can tell a story in different ways and really take differences out of the performances and what the actors are doing. So that’s something I always thought about it.”

“Remember” opens March 18 in select theaters. It can be seen in West Los Angeles at Laemmle Royal and in Encino at the Town Center 5.