For films like In the Company of Men (NSFW) and Your Friends and Neighbors (ditto), director Neil LaBute has been labeled everything from a "misogynist" to a "misanthrope". Guess that makes him equal opportunity.
Even if film critics are cynical about LaBute, he isn't necessarily cynical about everything. Just listen to him talk about Heavy Rain and the future of video games:
The tag line for Heavy Rain is "How far would you go to save someone you love?" Just by having that message, your final destination is asking yourself how much I'll give for someone else, how much am I willing to give up and able to do to save someone. You ultimately say to yourself that you love this kid [Ethan Mars' son] more than you love yourself.
That's not something I see much of in other games, especially ones which essentially work on repeated actions, beating the clock and stimulating various parts of your senses in a refreshing way, which is why you go back to it. But I like the idea you can also go into a game and actually throw these sort of sophisticated questions to people and find interest in a game which plays with all the aspects that makes them fun and actually has some moral responsibility to them — and also the sense that you're always doing it for someone else. I hope that games keep going in that direction.
So, yeah, he's a fan. LaBute even made a short film, called "how far would you go for love?", that debuted last month when the game launched. Besides Heavy Rain writer/director David Cage, the short film features the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Nicolas Roeg, Stephen Frears and Peter Bogdanovich, among others.
LaBute says if he did make a game, it would be something like Heavy Rain. The director will be releasing his latest films Death at a Funeral, a remake of a 2007 British film. LaBute helmed The Wicker Man remake that was released in 2006. Glad to hear he doesn't want to make a game like that.
Neil LaBute dips into Heavy Rain [PlayStation] [Pic]