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Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Q&A: Spielberg, Hanks discuss geopolitics, ‘Bridge of Spies’ BY REBECCA KEEGAN TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
NEW YORK — Steven Spielberg’s latest film, the Cold War drama “Bridge of Spies,” which opens Oct. 16, unites him with his “Saving Private Ryan” star, Tom Hanks, and introduces a new actor to his stable. Englishman Mark Rylance, who is best known for his stage work and performance as Thomas Cromwell in the BBC miniseries “Wolf Hall,” will also star in Spielberg’s next film, “The BFG.” In the true story, from a script by Matt Charman and Joel and Ethan Coen, Hanks plays Brooklyn insurance lawyer James Donovan, who was assigned the thankless task of defending Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (Rylance) in the 1950s and became ensnared in a larger geopolitical plot. In some ways, this focus on lawyering and the art of deal-making feels like a companion piece to the director’s study of messy democracy in “Lincoln.” During the New York Film Festival earlier this month, Spielberg, Hanks and Rylance spoke with The Times about the parallels between Cold War paranoia and contemporary fears, the shifting notions of heroism on screen and the impact of seismic changes to their
business. Q: What was your experience of the Cold War as a child? Tom Hanks: Every day we studied it. Every day it was in the papers. There was this concept that World War III was inevitable and it was going to be us versus them. It was in “Twilight Zone” episodes, “Star Trek.” There was always this dark cloud that was slowly coming toward us. Q: There was an earlier attempt to tell this story. Steven Spielberg: In 1964 or ‘65, when it was better known and closer to the incident. Gregory Peck knew about this story and had approached MGM and asked them to finance a screenplay about the spy swap, and then Peck sent the script to Alec Guinness and got him to agree to play Abel. MGM decided not to go ahead and make the picture because of the tension. Q: Mark, you’re playing a Soviet spy. Did you think of him as a good guy or a bad guy? Mark Rylance: I try to avoid judging the characters I play, even an out-and-out bad guy like Richard III. I just try to figure out what they need and play that. I don’t know exactly what he was doing. I didn’t set out
to make him charming. I think being charming was the last thing he’d be concerned about. I was struck that when he was a painter he didn’t just put up a front of being a painter, he tried to make himself a better painter. He had an interest in the craft and the art. He had a culture to him. Q: You could have made a version of this film focused on the spy craft, but instead you chose to focus on an attorney. How come? Spielberg: The core relationship between James Donovan and Rudolf Abel was for me the way into the story, not the events of the Cold War, not the spy craft of opening quarters and finding the parchment inside. That was fun to do in the one scene we actually shot. But for me it was a man standing on his principles to defend an enemy of everything we deemed sacred. He was being given a chance to demonstrate the American justice system at a time when anything associated with communism and the red menace was despicable to everyday Americans ... Donovan wanted to show that everybody, even an alien caught breaking the law in this country, deserves the same defense an American would get.
5A
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Leader with an -ism 4 The year 902 8 Org. with pet causes 13 Clue on “Jeopardy!”: Abbr. 14 The “A” in 25-Across: Abbr. 15 “Catch-22” or “Don Quixote” 16 It’s mostly methane 18 Concert sites 19 Place to erect a tent 21 Kind of tent 22 Sauce brand 23 Soup kitchen offering 25 Org. whose members may be putting on a show? 27 Fresh 30 Sufficient for now, as a measure 32 Turbaned believer 36 Immense 38 First-rate 39 Qualified to serve 40 Not straight 42 Angers 43 Knoxville sch. 45 Runner’s feeling 46 In addition 47 BBC car series listed by Guinness as the most widely watched factual TV program in the world 49 Class followed by a shower 51 Non-sharer 52 Places offering facials 54 Marshal played in film by Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner 58 ___ good deed 60 Somewhat family-friendly … or a title for this puzzle, as suggested by the
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Puzzle by JACOb STulbeRG
completed grid? 64 Boxer’s stat
66 Cosmetic applied with a small brush 67 Concert sites 68 Gaelic tongue 69 Frost, essentially 70 ___ score (neonatal measure) 71 Midwest tribe 72 What a D.M.V. issues: Abbr.
DOWN 1 Like the Fr. “le,” but not “la” 2 With 15-Down, 1978 Nobel Peace Prize winner 3 2005 biography subtitled “The Making of a Terrorist” 4 Noisy toy 5 Roman Cath. title 6 Golfer Aoki 7 All together
8 Swiss river to the
Rhine 9 Bit of a climb 10 Figure on a soldier’s poster in W.W. II 11 Casino activities with dice 12 D.D.E. opponent 15 See 2-Down 17 Car sticker fig. 20 Individual retirement account, say 24 Cut (off) 26 Strike ___ (model) 28 Bond girl Green 29 Cloth for cleaning 31 ___-dieu (kneeling bench) 32 6:00 on a compass 33 Past the point of no return 34 Carry on 35 Chill (with) 37 Hit the slopes 41 “___ me?” 44 Bygone video
game inits.
48 Engagement
calendar listings: Abbr. 50 Goes from two lanes to one 53 Fifth-century pope known as “the Great” 55 The Falcons, on scoreboards 56 Maintain, as an engine part 57 Joe of “Once Upon a Time in America” 59 Contents of el océano 61 “Java” trumpeter Al 62 ___ facto 63 Tiny amount of time: Abbr. 64 Big coal-mining state: Abbr. 65 Woody Allen’s “Hannah and ___ Sisters”
The crossword solution is in the Classified section.
CARTOON
TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks on the set of the Glienicke bridge with director Steven Spielberg, left, and actor Tom Hanks, right, on Nov. 28, 2014 in Berlin.
Renewable energy surges as drilling, mining falters in US BY SEAN COCKERHAM TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON — While the production of fossil fuels drops in the United States, solar and wind power is skyrocketing as technology and cheaper financing drive down the costs. “In the U.S., we’ve known that wind energy can be cheaper than (natural) gas in some states, but solar is now inching toward that same milestone,” said Jacqueline Lilinshtein, U.S. analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a firm that advises industry clients on energy issues. Texas leads the U.S. in wind power, with about 10 percent of its power from wind. California, Nevada and North Carolina are the nation’s top solar states and dominate the market. The federal government expects a surge in renewable energy in the coming year, especially as solar expands from its traditional base of home rooftop panels to major utility-scale production. “U.S. solar and wind power generating capacity is expected to see double digit growth in 2016,” said Adam Sieminski, the head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This comes as America’s fracking boom is starting to falter. The crash in oil prices is shrinking the profits for drillers. Estimated U.S.
crude oil production dropped by 120,000 barrels a day last month and is forecast to keep going down for most of the coming year at least. Coal continues its downward spiral. Even coal areas that weathered past hard times, such as Indiana and Western Kentucky, are having a tough year, and major coal companies are going bankrupt. “Production is expected to decrease in all coal-producing regions in 2015, with the largest decline on a percentage basis occurring in the Appalachian region,” according to the Department of Energy. Costs of generating electricity from coal and natural gas are rising as renewables penetrate the market and fossil fuel plants run less, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. In the meantime, the cost of wind and solar continued to go down this year, signaling “a significant shift in the generating cost comparison between renewable energy and fossil fuels.” “Onshore wind and solar are both now much more competitive against the established generation technologies than would have seemed possible only five or 10 years ago,” said Luke Mills, an energy economics analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The average U.S. price of
coal and natural gas power is still cheaper than renewables at $65 a megawatthour, compared with wind at $80 and photovoltaic solar — generating electricity from sunlight — at $107. But that gap is shrinking, and renewable costs can be even lower with federal subsidies. Ethan Zindler, head of policy analysis for Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said he saw a solar power purchase agreement in Texas for $50 per megawatt-hour. “There are definitely markets where solar is competitive,” Zindler said. Renewables could run into problems, though, as lawmakers push back against helping the industry. The federal solar tax credit is set to expire in 2016 unless Congress renews it. In North Carolina, which has emerged as a national leader in solar power, the legislature is ending its state renewable energy tax credit at the end of the year. There’s also debate in Congress over the wind tax credit, which allows a reduction in tax payments for the first 10 years of a project. Some lawmakers are targeting the incentive for extinction, but American Wind Energy Association CEO Tom Kiernan said he’s optimistic. “The support we have on Capitol Hill is significant and enduring,” Kiernan said.
LARRY WRIGHT CAGLE CARTOONS
Are you interested in getting involved in the operations of Illini Media Company?
If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you. The Board of Directors of Illini Media is looking for undergraduate students to serve a two-year term on its board. Illini Media, a non-profit, student-run media company, publishes The Daily Illini, Buzz weekly, Illio yearbook and Technograph magazine, and operates WPGUFM. Among other essential duties, the Board establishes general guidelines for the operation of the company, selects student managers, sets rates and schedules, approves and oversees the budget and provides oversight. For information or an application, please contact April Lambert at adlambe2@illinois.edu All applications are due by Friday October 16, 2015 at 5:00pm.
JIM WEST TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Brightsource Energy & Ivan Solar Project: 300,000 mirrors focus sunlight on three towers where water is turned to steam to generate 377 MW of electricity.
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