Every time I see Sam Raimi, I’m always amazed that he ever
made it in Hollywood in the first place.
Polite, humble and exceedingly gracious, he is the antithesis
of the self-absorbed, shamelessly self-promoting types one so often
encounters in Los Angeles. Not
only did the guy make it, but he’s at the helm of one of the most
successful film franchises of all time, SPIDER-MAN. Given my admiration for Sam, I was naturally psyched up for
our one-on-one interview about his latest project, THE
GRUDGE, which is based on a series of popular
Japanese films by the same name. Only
problem was I also had tickets for the Dodgers-Cardinals playoff
game going on at the same time. Talk
about dilemmas. I couldn’t
pass up a chance to hang with Sam, though, so the Dodger game would
have to wait. It was appropriate that when we sat down, the first thing Sam
mentioned was baseball.
Wearing his trademark suit and tie, he also talked about SPIDER-MAN
3, the possibility of another EVIL DEAD film, and, of course, his
experience producing THE GRUDGE, opening this Friday. Check it out:
SAM
RAIMI
Raimi: Are you a baseball fan?
Yes.
The hardest part [of the junket] is not being able to watch
the game.
(I pull out my ticket)
For tomorrow’s game?
Nope,
the game right now.
You’re kidding! You
poor bastard. It’s starting
right now, right?
Yeah.
So right after this, I’m on my way.
You got a good seat?
No,
we’re in the bleachers. But
I don’t mind it much.
Yeah, the bleachers are fine. It’s those ones that are underneath and dead on the side – I
once got ‘em. It was a
nightmare; I couldn’t see crap. I
was on the third base line, all the way in the corner.
What
was it about the Grudge that made you want to make it with your
production company?
When I saw it, I was absolutely terrified by the film.
And I thought this director was probably some new master of
horror, and because I was so affected by it, I thought, “Oh,
everybody’s gonna wanna see this.”
So it was simple as that. I
was really terrified by it and I thought it would be perfect,
therefore, for our company, Ghost House Pictures.
Were
you concerned at all with adapting a Japanese film for American
audiences?
Yes, only in the sense that I didn’t want to spoil it.
I didn’t want to make it some lame, Americanized version of
something that was uniquely Japanese. So the conditions under which I made it with my company were, I
said that I’m interested as long as we’re gonna make it with the
same director, in Japan, with the same crew that made it, so it has
the exact same feel. The only
thing I wanted to change was I wanted to put American actors in it,
obviously speaking English, and because I’m asking to do that, we
need to re-work the story as subtly as possible so that we have
justification of who these people are and why they’re in Japan.
Did
you get a lot of pressure from the studio to have an American
director or make certain other changes?
One of the reasons that my partner, Robert Tappert and myself
made this company, Ghost House Pictures, is because the kind of
horror films we like aren’t usually being made by the studios.
We work in such a way so that we have our own financing, we
put together the project any which way we desire, and then the
studio can come on board or not. So
we had already decided that’s the director, that it would be made
in Japan, and what the story was. And
then Columbia had the option of joining us or not.
What
type of a producer are you? Are
you more of a hands-on producer? Were
you on set for this?
No, only during the American portion.
I’m a good and a bad producer.
I’m good because I have a tremendous amount of respect for
the director and I really have an awareness of great artists and
technicians who work in the industry, just for having worked in the
business for so long. But
I’m bad in the sense that I have so much respect for a director,
if I’m on the set, it’s very hard for me to say anything that
may be say anything that may be counter to the director’s wishes,
even if I think it’s in the best interests of the picture.
I’m usually more quiet than I should be.
I
read that Boogeyman was supposed to be the first film released by
Ghost House. What is the
status of that?
Well, Boogeyman was the first film…we didn’t really know
what the first film would be that would be released. It’s certainly the first film that we took as a screenplay and
began working on. So I think
we assumed it would be, but because that was a film that had to be
built from the ground up – from Eric Kripke’s screenplay – it
was a slower process to get it to a point of production and shoot
the film than it was doing a remake of an existing film.
We could begin on that immediately.
So it turned out that even though we were later along on the
Boogeyman project, this film, the moment we saw it, already had a
screenplay, already had a director, was already working.
It just got jump-started and was in a position to hit the
theaters at a much earlier date.
So
when do you think we’ll get to see Boogeyman?
It’s whenever Screen Gem’s date is, and I actually
don’t know what it is. I
think it’s in February.
Was
Takashi Shimizu, the director of the original Japanese film,
hesitant to remake this project again?
I’ve read that he was. I
know I sent out this communication, saying, “Please ask the
director if he would re-make it again with an American cast,” and
the answer came back that he wasn’t interested.
And then I said to tell him that we don’t want to
Americanize it; we really want his vision, his crew, his take on it,
but with an American cast; tell him how much I loved the movie and
what a big fan I was and how much I would support his vision of the
film. And then I got
the answer back that yes, he would do it.
He came out to visit and we talked.
And we hit it off and he took the job.
Were
you concerned at all about the language barrier?
Yes, I really was. I
thought…I was very concerned that, with English being Shimizu-san’s
second language, that he might miss some of the subtleties within
the actor’s readings, within their performances.
I thought that he might not understand that the actor is
taking this a slightly different way; he might not be aware of that.
It’s a subtlety that maybe only and American here could
understand. But when I got
the dailies back, the first few days, which I was really studying
closely, I couldn’t tell that it wasn’t directed by a really
great American actor’s director. So, he’s got something that he can look beyond the language, into
their eyes, into the performance and know whether it’s real,
whether it’s right on with what he’s after or not.
I don’t know quite how he does it, but he does it.
Ghost
House specializes in horror/thriller films.
What is it about the horror genre that appeals to you so
much?
I love horror films, and I think I like them because I’m
curious as to what lies beyond. Is
there another world, is there something lurking in the shadows?
It’s a giddy kind of fear that’s both terrifying and fun
to peak into. It’s kind of
like a dare. That’s really
why I have a fascination with them; I love getting scared while
knowing I’m really safe.
There
were rumors of a possible Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash film. Any truth to them?
Well, I know that New Line had planned to do that movie, but
it just didn’t work out, finally. So
I don’t think that’s happening anymore.
Any
chance of an Evil Dead 4?
Maybe one day, but it’s hard to think about until I can
finish this Spider-Man project, because it’s so all-consuming.
It takes every second of my time to work on the characters,
the story, and the arcs of where Peter Parker is going to go next.
And then the effects are there and this team of…I mean
thousands of artists and technicians that need direction.
So I can’t even think about it right now.
I’d like to one day, though.
And
where are you with Spider-Man 3?
I’m lost in a world of confusion right now.
In a place of terror.
So
you’re still trying to figure out the story?
Yes, with a release date coming.
Do
you have villains in mind?
Not yet. I’m still
trying to figure out Peter’s journey, what he’s gotta learn in
this next adventure, what’s gonna happen with the love story with
him and Mary Jane Watson and his friend Harry, and what the thematic
elements are. What will the
movie be about? And once I
know that, once I know where he’s heading, those conflicts that
come up to stand in his way. Once
they’re clear in my mind, then I’ll try and find those villains
in the Marvel Universe that best represent that conflict, and I
think that’s how I’ll arrive at the villains.
Do
you think they’ll go beyond three?
Well, Amy Pascal, the chairwoman of Columbia Pictures, has
said to me, “Sam, I have a sense that the audience want the
conclusion of the story now. So
don’t set up anything in your story for part four.
Don’t worry about that.
Just make it as complete of a movie that ends our saga in as
fulfilling a way as possible.”
So, that’s the dictate that I’m creating this story
under.
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