Some may have wondered what a director like Neil Burger would do following the stylish period thriller The Illusionist with Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti and the “soldiers-coming-home” road drama of The Lucky Ones, starring Tim Robbins, Rachel McAdams and Michael Peña.
When ComingSoon.net spoke to him for the latter back in 2008, Burger told us his next project would be “The Dark Fields,” now called Limitless, based on Alan Glynn’s novel (which is now being re-released also under the title “Limitless”).
It stars Bradley Cooper as Eddie Morra, a failed New York City writer who discovers the existence of an experimental drug called NZT where one pill allows the taker to achieve their highest potential by giving them access to every single part of their brain. Suddenly, Eddie is writing faster than he ever thought possible, learning new languages and when he starts using his brainpower to make money in the stock market, he draws the attention of a shrewd mogul named Carl Van Loon, played by Robert De Niro, who wants Eddie to help him with a planned merger. The question is how long Eddie can keep taking NZT before the jarring side effects start to completely ruin everything for him.
In this exclusive video interview, ComingSoon.net talked with Burger about:
* Why he wanted to direct the movie
* Doing another movie that was far more visually stylistic
* Setting a science fiction movie in New York City
* Getting Bradley Cooper on board as the lead character and executive producer
* Talking about integrating the CG and FX into the setting and having the time to do what needed to be done
* How the movie draws parallels to our lives and how something like NZT could really exist
* What might happen if something like the drug became readily available
* We talk about the film’s ending and the recent reshoots (so possible spoilers there!)
* And More!
Limitless opens nationwide on Friday, March 18.
