{"id":255321,"date":"2025-09-26T04:49:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T04:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/255321\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T04:49:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T04:49:15","slug":"how-russell-crowe-michael-shannon-nailed-their-nuremberg-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/255321\/","title":{"rendered":"How Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon Nailed Their ‘Nuremberg’ Showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJames Vanderbilt<\/a> is offering insight into how he shot the courtroom showdown in his latest film, Nuremberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe filmmaker, best known for writing David Fincher\u2019s Zodiac, has come to San Sebastian Film Festival<\/a> to present his two-and-a-half-hour World War II flick, following the cat-and-mouse game between Russell Crowe<\/a>\u2018s Nazi chief Hermann Goring and Rami Malek<\/a>\u2018s American psychologist Douglas Kelley as the U.S., U.K., France and Soviet Union prepared to put dozens of Hitler\u2019s men on trial in 1945 and 1946.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the movie\u2019s press conference on Thursday, Vanderbilt (also writer on The Amazing Spider-Man and Independence Day: Resurgence) discussed filming the courtroom showdown in the feature\u2019s final act between U.S. prosecutor Robert Jackson (Michael Shannon<\/a>) and Crowe as the charming, cunning Goring, whom the allies were concerned could evade justice.<\/p>\n

\n\tVanderbilt explained that a producer had laid out the three-day shoot, spanning 20 pages of dialogue, for the verbal dual between the two actors. \u201cI said, Michael Shannon and Russell Crowe won\u2019t want to do that,\u201d Vanderbilt began. \u201cThey\u2019re going to want to do it in one day. And she said, \u2018It\u2019s 20 pages of dialogue. That\u2019s a terrible idea.\u2019 So I went to both of them and I said, \u2018You know, we\u2019re supposed to shoot this over three days. They\u2019re both like, \u2018No. We\u2019re going to do this in one. What are you talking about?’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe director had four cameras positioned across the room, though his job was made more difficult by staying faithful to historical accuracy. \u201cUsually, you have the lawyers that will walk around, but the way that courtroom is set up, the prosecutor never moves. It\u2019s just shot, shot, shot, shot, shot. We set up, and we were doing 25-minute takes with no cuts,\u201d he continued, \u201cand they were word-perfect every time because we took all the real transcripts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAfter the first take, the entire courtroom of extras applauded Michael and Russell,\u201d said Vanderbilt. \u201cJust watching those two gentlemen put on a masterclass\u2026 I\u2019ve never shot a 25-minute take in a movie in my life. I don\u2019t think I ever will again.\u201d He added: \u201cThat, I think, was one of the most amazing [experiences].\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVanderbilt was also probed on the film\u2019s eerie reflection of current-day politics, especially in his native U.S., where the threat of authoritarianism has never loomed so large. \u201cI started working on [this] 13 years ago, and I thought it was just an incredible story\u2026 this idea of a psychiatric [doctor] in World War II who gets the opportunity to [examine] what the nature of evil is, I felt that it was such a fascinating thing to try and capture\u2026 It is relevant now, and I think unfortunately, it\u2019ll be relevant in the future, but it\u2019s just such an incredible story that takes place at such an incredible time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNaturally, Vanderbilt was asked about Crowe\u2019s preparation for stepping into the role of Hitler\u2019s right-hand man, and lauded the actor\u2019s skill. \u201cRussell Crowe \u2014 he is one of the biggest reasons this movie exists today,\u201d said Vanderbilt, explaining how Crowe stayed with the film through the rocky seas of acquiring and losing funding over the years. \u201cWe talked a lot about it. He said to me, \u2018Look, it\u2019s not a great mental space to live in for me.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Crowe \u201cfully committed and invested in\u201d Nuremberg<\/a>, said the director, \u201cand did an incredible amount of research. He traveled around Germany to the different places in [Goring\u2019s] childhood. He really put himself in depth to it. And I\u2019m just eternally grateful for the commitment he put into this film and the work he did because he\u2019s Russell forever. He doesn\u2019t necessarily need to do that anymore, but he was as hungry as an actor as I\u2019ve ever seen anyone, and that was a true gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong other films, Vanderbilt also described enjoying seeing Malek\u2019s \u201cinquisitiveness and magnetism\u201d that he \u201cdoesn\u2019t always get to use in films.\u201d He said: \u201cHe\u2019s never the hero.\u201d Shannon, he continued, \u201cis an actor\u2019s actor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNuremberg\u2018s supporting cast includes Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Mark O\u2019Brien, Colin Hanks, Richard E. Grant and Wrenn Schmidt. The film premiered at the Toronto International<\/a> Film Festival in September and hits theaters Nov. 7.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe San Sebastian International Film Festival 2025 runs Sept. 19-27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Vanderbilt is offering insight into how he shot the courtroom showdown in his latest film, Nuremberg. The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":255322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,1801,113430,114956,53,101718,101719,26342,134611,129915,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-255321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-international","tag-james-vanderbilt","tag-michael-shannon","tag-movies","tag-nuremberg","tag-rami-malek","tag-russell-crowe","tag-san-sebastian-2025","tag-san-sebastian-film-festival","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115268797522946857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}