'The Walk' Trailer: Watch Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Crazy High Wire Act (Exclusive)
The new trailer for The Walk opens with an impossible shot: Director Robert Zemeckis’ camera soars 1,400 feet to the top of the original World Trade Center, where Joseph Gordon-Levitt balances precariously over a 1970s New York City skyline. Gordon-Levitt plays Philippe Petit, the high-wire artist who famously (and illegally) walked between the Twin Towers in 1974. The Walk pairs the astonishing true story of Petit’s stunt — which unfolds like a heist movie, minus the robbery — with dazzling visuals that Zemeckis filmed specifically for 3D IMAX. (The Walk, rated PG, will open the New York Film Festival on Sept. 25 before hitting theaters on Oct. 2.)
“Look, I’ll be perfectly frank — I usually prefer to see movies in 2D,” Gordon-Levitt told Yahoo Movies. “But yesterday, they screened The Walk for me in 3D, and I was like, you know what? This story was meant to be told in 3D.”
Like many people, Gordon-Levitt first encountered Petit’s story through James Marsh’s Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire. But even before that film premiered in 2008, Zemeckis was trying to figure out how to turn Petit’s World Trade Center walk into a 3D movie.
“Bob was looking for a story where the 3D would not just be icing on the cake, but was baked into the DNA of the story,” Gordon-Levitt says. According to him, Zemeckis was struck with inspiration when he saw the cover of the award-winning children’s book The Man Who Walked Between the Towers: An illustration of Petit’s foot in mid-air, suspended over New York City.
While the director tackled the visual challenges, Gordon-Levitt had the substantial task of learning how to walk on a high wire. Fortunately, he had the perfect instructor: Philippe Petit. The real-life subject of The Walk taught Gordon-Levitt his unusual skill during an intensive eight-day, one-on-one workshop.
“You can’t just do it casually,” Gordon-Levitt says with a laugh, “because you need to have a steel cable fastened between two points, not to mention a 40-pound and 20-foot-long pole. But there’s something addictive about it. Once you hit that balance point, and you’re just there connected to the wire, it sends these waves of positive reinforcement through your body and you want to just keep doing it.”
In spite of the physical exertion, Gordon-Levitt found the role of Philippe irresistible. “The thing about the character of Philippe is, you never quite know whether he’s, on the one hand, just an incredibly courageous artist, and on the other hand, completely insane,” says Gordon-Levitt. “And the answer is, he’s both. And he would really be the first to admit it.”
