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 iF MAGAZINE: Any big surprise that happened on location?

 

JONATHAN FRAKES: We had hippos. He did have a little hippo flare up where we had to bail and run away from the hippos.  We left the cameras in place and ran.

 

iF: You mean they don’t respond to chocolate bars in real life?

 

FRAKES: Had I known. We weren’t stocked and it wasn’t the hippo scene, so we didn’t have the right props. [Laughs]

 

iF: What did Noah Wyle bring to the table as his character in this film?

 

FRAKES: I think he was very anxious to add this sort of Sam Spade element to this pallete. Each one of these LIBRARIAN films has allowed Flynn to embody some more classic characters. Obviously, there’s some Indiana Jones and now some Sam Spade. Noah shows up ready willing and able every day. He’s very user friendly for a director.

 

iF: How much was producer Dean Devlin on set?

 

FRAKES: Dean was there every chance he could, but he was finishing FLYBOYS at the time. [Laughs] He’s a major globetrotter.

 

iF: You directed both television and theatrical features, do you have any kind of preference?

 

FRAKES: It’s nice to have a budget to let the vision get a little larger. I don’t think we were deprived anything on this film. Certainly when you make a TV show on a budget involving both money and days, you’re a little bit more hindered in terms of the equipment you can use and the locations you can shoot on. Generally you always have a big appetite if you are a director.

 

iF: The scope of this LIBRARIAN seemed quite a bit larger in comparison to the first film?

 

FRAKES:  I think it was and I think that was because of the success of the first one. The things that TNT liked about it, they encouraged us to expand upon. The magic of the library itself was certainly one of those things. To show that we had to do some CGI with the panpipes and Excalibur, which were expensive, but are magical scenes.

 

iF: I noticed this time around that the Ark of the Covenant looked just like the RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK version.

 

FRAKES: Yeah it couldn’t have been closer could it? I think that was a wink from Rob Wilson our production designer. It’s like STAR TREK, for the people who watched the first LIBRARIAN; they’ll have fun recognizing pieces from it. You make these films knowing that there are fans that will watch, but you make them for the brand new audience who may or may not know anything about it.

 

iF: You’ve directed a lot of science-fictions genre films and action/adventure/fantasy. Is there any genre you like directing more than another?

 

FRAKES: I’m looking to do a comedy frankly. [Laughs] I’m happy to do these, and I actually like these films. I think the success of certain STAR TREK movies had to do with there being comedy in them too. I like the idea of making big action pictures that don’t take themselves so seriously that you can have a few smiles in the middle of them.

 

iF: You live in Maine, does that give you a different perspective on Hollywood?

 

FRAKES: It gives you a different perspective absolutely. It literally gives you perspective on Hollywood; I think it’s very healthy. It’s a pretty intense business to live 24/7. I was lucky to have had success, and I married a woman who is very successful on a daytime show, and we were blessed. So to be able to live in Maine and come and go and do jobs. If we were making a show here, we’d have to re-think all of this, but the last thing I did before LIBRARIAN,  I shot in England so we moved to England. Then since LIBRARIAN, I shot something in Vancouver, so it’s not that all of the work is in Los Angeles anymore.  

 

iF: What are your thoughts on the new STAR TREK prequel that J.J. Abrams is directing?

 

FRAKES: I’m a big fan of LOST, so I’m suspecting that Mr. Abrams is a pretty clever man -- I’ve never met him. The idea of Starfleet Academy is one that’s been kicked around for as long as I remember, so we’ll have to see if it flies.

 

iF: Have you had a chance to see anything on the new STAR TREK: OF GODS AND MEN yet?

 

FRAKES: Yes, it looks good! I saw a clip at a convention, and I thought it looked really good.

 

iF: Do you think there will ever be a return of NEXT GENERATION crew in one form or another?

 

FRAKES: I think probably, they’ll use STAR TREK actors from different crews, based on whom they can get and whom they’ll want to use for a story. I think the audience really likes to see people again whom they have identified with. I could be wrong, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to use some of us in something.

 

iF: Sort of like you coming onto ENTERPRISE for the final episode?

 

FRAKES: Yeah. Marina [Sirtis] and I are always available.

 

iF: That’s got to be a little odd to return to TREK after you’ve done so many other things in your career?

 

FRAKES: It was surreal. First of all, it was Scott Bakula’s show and I felt strange coming in to sort of close down his project, but he was quite a gentlemen about that. It was really helpful to have Marina, whom I adore, who is my movie wife. Being with her made the whole experience that much richer. It was surreal to put the space suit back on and get back on the set and work with some of the crew that had been there since our show started, so it was very cyclical. It was bizarre.

 

iF: What other projects do you have coming out, like this film you mentioned shooting in Vancouver?

 

FRAKES: I did a show for ABC that is looking for its airdate now. It’s a science fiction anthology called MASTERS OF SCIENCE FICTION. We did six; I directed the episode Harlan Ellison wrote with Josh Olson who wrote HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. My episode stars John Hurt and Brian Dennehy and James Denton. It’s a very dark and fascinating little show. We’ve done six and now ABC will either send us back to do more or start to air them, I’m not sure which will happen first. 

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ALSO READ PART ONE OF THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW HERE:

http://www.ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=1774

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