All Ethan, All the Time
Is Ethan Hawke taking over the world? Nah, but he is making a bid at Planet Hollywood, with the mostly indie artiste’s appearance in commercial cop pic Training Day. Hawke plays a rookie on his first day on narcotics detail, under the tutelage of a possibly crooked captain (Denzel Washington). (Oct. 5)… Add to that three more upcoming films, and you’ve got more Ethan Hawke than you can shake a stick at. First, he’s featured in the outrageously anticipated Waking Life, Richard Linklater’s animated dreamscape starring Wiley Wiggins. (Oct. 19)… He re-teams again with Linklater, as well as wife Uma Thurman and Dead Poets Society co-star Robert Sean Leonard, in Linklater’s digital-video feature Tape, about one long night with three old high school friends. Tape was made under the auspices of InDigEnt, a Dogma-inspired, DV-only collective that insists all of its sanctioned films adhere to a set of technical and budgetary guidelines — e.g., all budgets must not exceed $150,000; all profits must be split equally among the cast and crew, from the lead actors down to the gaffers. Now there’s a revolutionary idea. (Nov. 2)… Lastly, Hawke steps out from the spotlight and into the director’s chair with his debut feature, Chelsea Walls. The film, also an InDigEnt project, involves five separate stories all set within New York’s infamous Chelsea Hotel, which boasts a soundtrack by alt.country heroes Wilco and a knockout ensemble cast that includes Thurman, Leonard, and Kevin Corrigan (mighty incestuous bunch, this is). Hawke’s picture premiered at Cannes and was slated for a November 2 release, but has been pushed back to some time in February. Whew. Just in time to save us from early-winter Ethan withdrawal.
This article appears in September 21 • 2001.
