Director Shawn Ku Has A SCORE TO SETTLE

The new crime drama A Score to Settle features Nicolas Cage, Noah Le Gros, Karolina Wydra, Mohamed Karim and Benjamin Bratt. The film was written by John Newman and was directed by Shawn Ku. Cage plays an ex-mob enforcer who has vowed revenge on his former bosses after they left him to rot for 22 years in prison. The only thing in his way is a new found relationship with the son he didn’t get to raise. Equal parts crime drama/revenge thriller/family drama, A Score to Settle features a compelling performance by Nicolas Cage as a complex man who’s capable of intense love and absolute ruthlessness. Director Shawn Ku spoke exclusively with Film Inquiry.

From Harvard to Hollywood…?

Jim Dixon for Film Inquiry: I have to ask: How does a guy who graduated from Harvard University with a degree in chemistry, and who was accepted into medical school end up making movies?

Shawn Ku: [laughs] I have no idea.  I can only blame my mom, she raised me on MGM musicals like Gene Kelly musicals, Fred Astaire, they were on all the time.  She just loves that era of Hollywood – the kind of magic of filmmaking then. Growing up in New Jersey, I never really thought about the origin of movies and TV – I guess as a kid you just take things for granted  – I never thought about the fact that somebody writes them and stars in them and somebody who directs them. Like cartoons for that matter, there is somebody who draws them. So yeah, it never occurred to me at a young age, it’s not like I was playing with cameras at a young age making movies. Your guess is as good as mine.

A Score to Settle is both, as I see it, a revenge story and also a story of a father and a son, which I related to as a father.  How did it come to you?

Shawn Ku: It came to me through the producer, Eric Gosselin. He and I had worked together before  a number of years ago. We had been trying to work together again and he sent me the script and it had a surprise ending — which is kind of rare because sometimes you see these things coming out of left field and I didn’t see this at all, which I thought was fun. Similarly, I am a relatively new dad, but I definitely plugged into the father child issues as a working father, like most parents are working, you know, you are trying to strike that balance between how much time you can give to your child, and each time you have to spend away from them and you know, make money. [laughs] So, it definitely hit home in an unexpected way for me as well.

I don’t want to give away too much of your plot but there is certainly a very poignant and pervasive theme of regret over lost opportunities in this story, and some of it is frankly pretty heartbreaking.

Shawn Ku: Yeah, I thought that there was something beautiful about that — I mean my son is only three, and there are things you do as a father or as a parent, you know that you fear you can’t take back scolding them too much or not being there when he hits that ball for the first time, I just feel like there are things that you regret having done, or not been there for, and I think that those things just pile up in your mind.

The Enthusiasm of Nicholas Cage

I think you’re right and I can imagine being in this character’s predicament — feeling like he’s missed out on his son’s entire life and trying to rebuild a relationship after years apart. How did you enjoy working with Nicolas Cage?

Shawn Ku: Oh, Nick is awesome! First of all, he’s so committed you know, when he signs on for a project — and he plugged into this for the same reason you did, as a dad for him – when he goes to work he’s gone. He goes away for months at a time to go and make a film, and I think that was something that he really related to in a way. There are times you just can’t help being an absent father, and I think that was something that really struck a chord with him.

He was so committed to this story and really wanted to tell it as an independent film.  It was on again, off again at times, and he was just always in it to make this movie, and aside from that, he’s a consummate professional. He’s like the first one to say, “Come on let’s go” – he’s so excited to make movies still after having been in the business for so long, it’s just amazing to see that kind of energy from his caliber. It’s inspiring, it was great, he’s just amazing and of course, he’s a great actor on top of all that.

The first thing I ever saw him in was Cotton Club, which was one of his first big roles, and I thought he just tore it up in that, and I’ve always thought he was one of the most interesting actors in Hollywood.  You also have Benjamin Bratt in the movie who I’ve always liked and think gave a very strong performance.

Shawn Ku: Yeah, Benjamin is great, and what I love about him is he brought such a lightness to the movie which I think for sort of a darker subject film is sort of refreshing, you know a breath of fresh air to have and he’s just such a charming guy and such an easy spirit to have around that – the two of them were great together too – you know watching them work – just two pros.

While we’re touching on the cast chemistry, I would be very remiss if I didn’t mention Noah Le Gros, who plays Nicolas Cage’s son in the movie, and who I thought was extraordinary.

Shawn Ku: He’s great, right? He’s a newer actor on the scene, and it’s funny, when I first looked him up online, all I found were soccer videos of him from high school, I think, or college, I can’t remember, but I thought this guy is young. [laughs] He’s great, he’s from an acting family. It’s in his blood, you know.

The Enduring Appeal of Revenge Stories

He can make quite an impression with his performance in this.  Revenge stories never seem to go out of fashion, and obviously there’s more going on in your movie than just a quest for revenge, but that’s definitely part of the story.  What do you think is behind the ongoing popularity of revenge stories?

Shawn Ku: That’s an interesting question. I think it’s just sort of our struggle with society. I feel like we’re always on this sort of visceral moral struggle as human beings.  I think a lot of that probably shows itself in our political climate today. But just this idea of wanting to take care of yours in a very animalistic way and then also trying to fit into society, I think that’s kind of a struggle for humans, for men especially, whatever ideas we have about machismo. That’s sort of a perpetual struggle, don’t you think?

I think you make a very good point. You directed Beautiful Boy, which deals with the aftermath of a school shooting, and I think that is particularly relevant in a wake of yet another mass shooting in America. I would not call A Score to Settle an action movie, but there’s some very strong violence in it.  Is there something about our society, is violence is so deeply engrained in us that we can’t get away from this?

Shawn Ku: I don’t know, I mean growing up there was definitely a different kind of violence in films. For example, people try to blame it on Bugs Bunny movies or what not, like Bugs Bunny and Road Runner, they’re violent cartoons, but if you think about it, they are also not, and there’s no consequences necessarily to the violence.

Can I say they’re at fault? I don’t know because I don’t feel like I turned into a particularly violent person and I grew up with the same TV as my babysitter — I was a latch key kid. I also feel like that with immigrant parents, I approach American morality in a different way than some other children might. I think there’s definitely an element of how much violence we see that once the idea of it’s out there it becomes an option to somebody who’s struggling with something that they can’t verbalize or deal with, but I don’t know why.

It is a sad, sad thing and I feel like there is a lot at stake trying to figure out how to diagnose and treat this problem – but I guess it seems all related to me – all the talk about cyberbullying and it’s all sort of a similar, pent-up struggle and frustration over with feeling powerless, out-of-control.

Of Guilt and Insomnia

Your main character in this movie is a particularly complex guy – and I think Nicolas Cage gives a very sensitive performance – a guy who on the one hand is capable of committing cold-blooded murder yet on the other is searching for love. And he can’t sleep. He strikes me as a very, very tragic character. Why does he have insomnia?

Shawn Ku: I think a lot of it is just parental guilt. As we discussed before, that feeling of regret, of how you can’t change the past, or wanting to try to change the past, at least make up for mistakes of the past, I think that weighs heavily. I mean I find myself sometimes unable to sleep just turning things over in my head – why did I do that? Or how do I fix that?

I think that can compound itself in a way. Of course there are probably physical, medical, and chemical reasons as well, but I like to think that things in the story just the weigh on his mind – what he’s done in the past, what he’s contemplating doing and the struggle again between the one voice on your shoulder and the voice on the other shoulder. I think there’s just so much on this guy, and trying to salvage a relationship with the one person left in his life is probably the source of it all.

You shot this movie in Canada. Do you think that’s the place to make movies now?

Shawn Ku: It’s a place where we can afford to make movies, especially independent films. It’s hard nowadays. These companies are working three or four together to make these huge blockbusters, and it takes a special commitment, and a special face in your story to jump out and make a little movie by yourself – like one company or somebody’s money from investor’s pockets – so for good or for bad that’s kind of where we wind up making a lot of films. This story was originally set in a US city, and we certainly tried to pass it off as a US city, but this story isn’t tied to a location per se. The location wasn’t necessarily a character – it really was just about this father son relationship.

There is a universality to the story, and I think it could have taken place anywhere where there’s organized crime. But where isn’t there?

Shawn Ku: I feel like nowadays there are various levels of organized crime in a lot of cities, you know, from smaller ones to bigger ones. It just depends on how organized the crime is. But it was intentionally just about a father and a son, and it didn’t need to be in Chicago or New York or one of the bigger crime cities you might think of.

What’s up next for you?

Shawn Ku: As a writer, a film of mine just went into production for Netflix. I think it’s called Feel the Beat right now, and it has nothing to do with this world. It’s about an ex-Broadway dancer coming back to teach little girls how to dance back in her home town. [laughs] Completely different kind of movie. Someone else is directing that now – in Toronto, Canada, oddly enough.  That’s through Netflix. I also wrote a film about a Mexican immigrant that’s hopefully going to go into production this year as well.

We wish you the best with those, as well with A Score to Settle.

Shawn Ku: Thank you very much.

Film Inquiry would like to thank Shawn Ku for taking the time to speak with us.

Watch A Score to Settle