With the grace of an Easy Rider and a style as smooth as Blue Velvet, Dennis Hopper glided through CineVegas—of which he is chair of the creative advisory board—like an exuberant Hoosier.
But we briefly caught up with the Speed demon to fire a few questions about the burgeoning film festival and his mission to spearhead NBC's march back to the top of the ratings with the fall drama series, E-Ring.
How do you think the festival has progressed since last year?
We had a sensational opening. Hustle & Flow was such a wonderful film. Just beautifully directed, beautifully written. The audiences, we're filling up the theaters. People are being turned away, which is the first time in the history of the festival. Screenings are sold out. The Greenspuns have really opened this festival up, it's just magnificent.
How has the selection of films improved from last year?
I think it's just taken time to educate the audience. Films change with the years, but to educate an audience ... especially here in Vegas, there's so much action here. To get people to actually go to the theater, and realize that this is really an important thing for them to do. With all the other action here, that's a major undertaking, and I think it's all kicked in. We have a real audience here now.
Do you think the festival has the potential to eventually rival major festivals like Sundance and Cannes?
I think, absolutely. Hopefully, it will become a marketplace. A lot of these films need distribution. And hopefully from this year, we'll sell a film. That would be a wonderful thing, and it'll just grow and grow and grow. It won't stop.
So we hear you're set to start doing a TV series for fall: E-Ring on NBC.
We filmed the pilot. Taylor Hackford directed the pilot. Benjamin Bratt (ex-Rey Curtis of Law & Order) and I are in it, NBC bought it. It's going to be on Wednesday nights, 9 to 10, at the same spot The West Wing has been the past few years. (The West Wing moves to Sunday nights.) I'm really looking forward to it. It's an hour that takes place at the Pentagon, and I play a colonel in special-ops. Wonderful character.
Has it struck you as ironic, being one of the icons of the counterculture movement of the '60s, that you're now playing a military man?
It is total irony. It's strange because Easy Rider made more money in Vietnam than it did anywhere else in the world. The soldiers just kept seeing it over and over and over and over. But it is ironic.
A lot of film actors, later in their careers, turn to TV because there seems to be more opportunities there. Actors like Martin Sheen on The West Wing, James Caan on Las Vegas, Glenn Close this past year on The Shield. Is that why you decided to do this, and are you prepared for the crazy pace of doing weekly television, as opposed to making a film?
I never really thought of it that way, honestly. I never thought of doing episodic television. I just said absolutely not when Taylor Hackford asked if I wanted to do television. But he said, "You gotta read this script and make a decision." Then I read the script and I decided, with Jerry Bruckheimer (who produces CSI) producing and Taylor Hackford directing the pilot and this wonderful character, that it would be a big mistake not to do this. I'm aware, though, that there's a big dichotomy between people who work in films and people who work in television, a stigmata there. Film actors, most of them, don't want to go into television.
Will E-Ring give you the chance to mirror what's going on in international affairs, through a show about the workings of the military?
Yeah, it's something that's going to keep up, hopefully, with our daily lives. It's going to be a very current show, dealing with issues. One of our producers, Ken Robinson, was at the Pentagon for 20 years in special-ops. Our other producer, David McKenna, wrote American History X. It's really gonna sing.
And with a snappy salute, we say good-bye and good luck and "Sir, Yes Sir!" to—who could ever have imagined saying this?—Col. Dennis Hopper.