April 23, 2002
Ethan Hawke to make directorial debut
By JAM! Movies
Ethan Hawke has stepped into the director's chair for the film "Chelsea Walls".

The independent film revolves around five stories set during one day in New York City's Chelsea Hotel.

Hawke, who admitted to ComingSoon.net that he does not have the highest aspirations for the film at the box office, shot the film in digital video leading to it's limited release.

"I really decided on a whim like that and I really just looked at the whole thing as an experiment," Hawke told ComingSoon.net. " I think it's really a success for the movie that it's finding its way out at all."

"Chelsea Walls" cast includes Kris Kristofferson (Blade 2), Robert Sean Leonard (Dead Poets Society), Christopher Walken (Sleepy Hollow), and Hawke's wife Uma Thurman (Pulp Fiction).

Each character in the drama is placed in a room bearing a single colour, which the story-line follows.

"Each story-line has its own colour. There's a blue room and a yellow room and a red room and then Kristofferson's room is void of any primary colors," Hawke said.

"Your eye doesn't really notice it. It just gives some kind of continuity and the truth of the matter is that when you're shooting digital video, you have to work extra hard to make it deliberate and evocative."

Hawke's next project has him playing Ray, in the comedy-drama "The Jimmy Show".