Fear Factors
Submitted by jason woo on Sat, 2005-01-01 08:00.
Working with an enviable roster of talented and established actors--Danny Glover, Cary Elwes, and Monica Potter--and landing a major distribution deal from Lions Gate Entertainment for his first feature film, newcomer James Wan is defying what it means to be a first-time Hollywood writer/director. Wan graduated from Australia's Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), a prestigious art school where he befriended Saw co-writer and star Leigh Whannell at age 17 (
I was actually born in Malaysia and grew up in Australia--in Perth, where there's nothing to do! (laughs)). Over five years later, we finally see the fruition of their collaboration. Wan knows that the journey is far from over: if the film turns out to be a dud, he knows that he
might never make another movie again.On the other hand, should Saw become a box office hit, Wan could just be the next big thing, giving M. Night Shyamalan a run for his money.
As Lions Gate gears up to release Saw this Halloween, Chop Block sat down with Wan to talk about the journey that led him to Hollywood, freaking out a band member of the Nine Inch Nails, and following up on last year's Asian American-themed breakout hit, Better Luck Tomorrow.
How did Saw come about?
We tried to get the film off the ground for a very long time, ever since [me and Whannell] both graduated [from RMIT's film program] in 1998. We realized if we were to get a film developed, we have to write the script ourselves and put money into it, fund it ourselves. We were going to shoot this at our backyards with a bunch of our friends. If we were to do that, we know that we have to make the script as good as it possibly could be. When there's no big stars attached to it, the script needs to be the star of the film.
And then you got an ensemble of bona fide stars.
That's where the irony was. We spent so much time on the script, and people read it. They were like,
This is actually a decent script! I think we can get proper money for this.(Laughs) That's how everything took off. Our Australian manager--who also works here in the U.S.--sent the script to an agent in L.A. and they loved it. We shot a scene from the script to showcase me as a director, and my friend Leigh as an actor as well.
Which scene did you shoot?
The jaw trap scene!
Of course! That's the most indelible scene of the movie.
Thanks! Now that we had ammunition, we shopped it around town. A lot of people love it. You know, there's a lot of people that wants to buy the script off us because I'm a first-time director, I never made anything. And Leigh is a first-time actor [in a feature film] as well. Nobody wants to take the chance, but people really like the script. Then there's one group of people, Evolution Management. Sure, there's not much money, it's low-budget, but we get to direct and act in it. And we ran with them 'cause they were willing to take a chance with us.
How did Lions Gate come into the picture?
Lions Gate saw a rough cut of the film. I sent a cut to Sundance and, somehow, Lions Gate got wind of it. They immediately came on board. They didn't want us to go to Sundance. For obvious reasons, they don't want it to be seen by everybody else and start a bidding war or something.
How was your experience working on set, especially with such established actors?
It's still a very independent film budget, you know. And the film was shot entirely in 18 days. It was tough. I had to throw out some of my original ideas 'cause it was too expensive, and come out with something else. And because we shot so quickly, I didn't have the time to get starstruck, you know what I mean? It feels like I was making a student film, like back home with my friends. Except now, I have Danny Glover and Cary Elwes, if that makes any sense (laughs).
Who inspires you?
David Lynch and Dario Argento. These two guys influence us on our soul. But in terms of director I admire the most, it's still Steven Spielberg. Especially his earlier films Duel and Jaws.
I have to say the music flows so well with your visuals and the editing. How did you get Charlie Clouser?
My producer, Gregg Hoffman, was very instrumental in finding the right composer for my vision--the very youthful energy and an industrial feel that we're going after. Greg somehow got Charlie to watch the rough cut. He comes out of the screening at 8 in the morning and goes,
Wow, I need a cigarette!And I thought to myself,
If I could freak somebody from Nine Inch Nails out, I must have done something decent.He loves the film, he got it, and he could have fun with a project like this. And he only had three weeks to come out with the entire score.
Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow had an Asian American theme and was one of last year's breakout hits. Are you interested in making Asian-themed films?
I admire that; he did really well. But, I guess I'm one who doesn't let my ethnicity dictate the kinds of films I want to make. Having said that, there's a certain responsibility as well. I would like to see more Asians in films. There's not much [representation] out there. And isn't it a bit weird? Especially in such a big country like America. There's a decent size Asian community here. But, for me at least, the kind of films I want to make is dictated by the kind of stories I want to tell. I just want to tell...stories, so it doesn't matter. If I want to tell a story about something like The Joy Luck Club, so be it. Or Jaws, then so be it. So it all depends.
What's next for you?
I don't know what I'm directing next. But, Leigh and I are writing something for Universal. It's an old-fashioned ghost story tentatively called Shhh... login to post comments
