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At the age of 59, Jerry Bruckheimer has overseen so many hit movies that his name is often more closely associated with the films he produces than those of the people who actually direct them. His really big ones have sometimes had the blessing of critics ("Black Hawk Down," "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl"), but often haven't ("Coyote Ugly," "Kangaroo Jack," this year's "Arthur"). As if it mattered. Bruckheimer is also a major force in television as the producer of such hit series as "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and its Miami and New York spinoffs. He was riding around Manhattan on Thursday promoting his new movie, "National Treasure," a heist flick about stealing the Declaration of Independence. We caught him on his cell phone.
Kurt Loder: "National Treasure" has certain resemblances to "The Da Vinci Code."
Jerry Bruckheimer: We've been working on this movie for eight years. "The Da Vinci Code" was just being written; but we didn't know what they were doing.
Loder: The Knights Templar have always been a great fantasy subject, anyway. What was the genesis of this movie?
Bruckheimer: It came from an executive at Disney who had this idea about a treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence, and that was the beginning. We built the story from there.
Loder: Was it hard getting permission to shoot on the locations you used in Washington?
Bruckheimer: Yes and no. I mean, you go through heightened security now. But I've had a pretty good relationship with the government; they know I'm not going to embarrass them. And Disney's got a good relationship with them, so we did fine.
Loder: Could any of the break-in stuff in "National Treasure" actually be done? Is the government worried that somebody might do it?
Bruckheimer: What we did was, we got a tour of the National Archives pre-9-11, and we had these experts whose job is to break into sacred buildings and military facilities, and advise the government on how to best defend against it.
Loder: Who are these people?
Bruckheimer: One guy's an ex-Navy Seal, another guy worked for the DEA, and they get paid to do that. So we hired them and they came in and told us how they would do it pre-9-11. Since 9-11 it's all changed, but pre-9-11 there's a good chance that what we did could have worked.
Loder: No other producer has such a high-profile association with their movies as you do. What exactly is a Jerry Bruckheimer movie?
Bruckheimer: It's about entertainment. We just want to entertain you, tell you a good tale, with great characters. Some of them are big adventures, like "National Treasure," and some of them are small movies, like "Remember the Titans." We just try to get you hooked into those characters and take you on a ride.
Loder: Are you a very hands-on kind of guy, as a producer?
Bruckheimer: When it's movies, I'm right in there.
Loder: There was a story in The Wall Street Journal last week about "Coyote Ugly" — now it's a big cult thing. But critics didn't much like the movie when it came out.
Bruckheimer: It's amazing. The [soundtrack] album was on the charts for almost two years, and we had enormous DVD sales. In fact, the DVD sales were so big that they're issuing another disc.
Loder: Are you at the point now where you don't really care what the critics say?
Bruckheimer: You know ... you can't read 'em, otherwise you'll kill yourself. The good reviews are never good enough, and the bad reviews are too painful. So you just gotta stay away from them. If you believe the good ones, you better believe the bad ones.
Loder: What's your next project?
Bruckheimer: "Glory Road." It's about Texas Western [now the University of Texas at El Paso], a basketball team that changed basketball back in 1966. In the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference, there were absolutely no black players, and in the rest of the country they'd play one, maybe three [black players] when they were losing, but that was it. And this coach [Don Haskins] fielded a team, and he went to Detroit and Chicago and New York and got these black kids that were phenomenal players. He started mostly three during the season, but he got to the NCAA finals against [all-white] Kentucky, and then he started all five guys and won the national championship. That really opened the floodgates for the Michael Jordans.
Loder: Who's going to be directing it?
Bruckheimer: A new guy named James Gartner, who was a commercial director. He's fabulous. And we have Josh Lucas, who plays the coach, who was in "Sweet Home Alabama." We'll have a good soundtrack — '66 was a great year.
Loder: What about "The Pirates of the Caribbean 2," is that in production?
Bruckheimer: We're in pre-production. We hope to start filming in March, but who knows. It's a tough movie to put together, because you've got all these various actors. But we've signed Johnny [Depp] and Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom, and we've got the same director and the same writers who re-wrote the first one, so we've got the same people working on it.
Loder: Is Keith Richards going to play Johnny's dad in this?
Bruckheimer: I keep seeing that on the Internet, but I've never talked to Keith's people, and I haven't seen the script where his dad's in it, so I don't know.
Loder: It's a great idea, isn't it?
Bruckheimer: It's great. We'd love to get him in the movie. I can't wait to get started on it.
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Photo: Jim Ross/Getty Images
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