Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans Page #4

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And we want to use

the same drivers.

Suddenly, out of the

blue, we're asked to work

on a movie with Steve McQueen.

It was like, whoa.

Wow.

Why not?

And then on top

of that, you knew

you were going to earn $200 a

day, which was a lot of money.

Excellent.

Absolutely excellent.

We were given a Porsche 911

each to trundle around in,

and it was good news.

Well, it's quite a pleasant

surprise to be invited.

I knew Steve quite well, and

it was very nice of Steve,

letting me go racing

at the weekends,

and letting his pilot and

airplane to come back in time

for filming on Monday morning.

David Piper.

We used to call him the pirate.

[Laughing]

I think of the pipe

hanging out of his mouth.

He was a grand, old guy.

[race car noises]

Mr. Sturges, you've directed

Steve McQueen in several films,

including "The Great Escape."

And now, you're

here in "Le Mans."

STEVE MCQUEEN:
John Sturges

is directing this film.

We've done three

films together now,

and I tell you, we've

had nothing but fun,

simply because

we've had the time,

and we get excited about

doing really good work.

MAN:
John was an

incredible director.

It was Steve working with

John on "Great Escape"

and "Magnificent Seven" which

made the myth, and the man,

and Steve McQueen who he was.

The hero of the film

is racing in this scene.

That's what it's about.

[race car engine]

MAN:
We have the star.

We had the drivers.

We had an incredible array

of technical support.

We had everything,

except the script.

He said that the script

isn't entirely finished.

We're waiting for the end of

the race to finish the script,

to finalize the script?

Well, we do want to adjust

our story to the way things

happen that we

actually photograph.

That's correct.

MAN:
It's common in Hollywood

to start without a script.

It's not the right way.

It's not the economic way.

But it's common, and

anybody who says it's not

hasn't been there.

MAN:
They had done it

once before, Sturges,

McQueen, and my father.

They had done it on

"The Great Escape,"

and it turned out well.

And after "Bullitt," my father

said the studio would have

written him a blank check just

to produce the phone book,

if he wanted to.

We have the best people

in the business with us.

Bob Relyea, he's our

executive producer.

John Sturges, he's our director.

He probably is the biggest

director in America,

and he's probably one of

the best in the world.

So with all those

things going for us,

plus Steve McQueen

and Le Mans, I

think we've got a

picture that's going

to make an awful lot of money

and make a lot of people happy.

This is the story

of racing, man.

This is the guts.

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