Set: Skinwalkers (1/3)

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

PART
1 / PART 2 / PART 3

Introduction: (Oct 14, 2005): Today I went to visit the set of
the upcoming Halloween 2006 Lion’s Gate werewolf film SKINWALKERS.
Since this was my second set visit, my nerves were intact, and I was
prepared. I
was even more excited to learn that this set visit was going to have
a more laid back approach and atmosphere since there would be no
press conference. All of us journalists would have a chance to
interview the producers, the actors and the director throughout the
whole day on the set. Before
I get into my busy day, let me hit you with the essentials.

THE
PLAYERS

This
film has a great ensemble cast. It stars Jason Behr a.k.a “Mr.
Topaz eyes”(
Roswell
, The Grudge),
Rhona Mitra (Nip/Tuck,

Boston

Legal),
Matthew Knight (The
Greatest Game Ever Played),
Shawn Roberts (Land of the
Dead),
Lyriq Bent (Saw 2),
Sarah Carter
(Final Destination 2),
Tom Jackson (North of 60) and
Elias Koteas a.k.a “Casey Jones.” (Exotica). The screenplay was
written by James Demonaco (Assault
on Precinct 13 remake) and is being directed by Jim Isaac (Jason
X).
Also, this film’s makeup and special effects will be done by the
legendary Stan Winston (Jurassic

Park, Terminator 2, Predator,
Wrong Turn).

SYNOPSIS

Two
packs of werewolves, divided by principles are signaled by the moon
of the coming of an ancient prophecy. A small boy named Timothy
(Knight) approaches his 13th birthday, unaware this marks the time
of his transformation. Timothy has been raised by his mother Rachel
(Mitra), his grandmother (Barbara Gordon), his Uncle Jonas (Koteas),
his cousin Katherine (Carter) and her boyfriend, Adam (Shawn
Roberts). Rachel and her son
Timothy have been unaware
that the rest of the family are good werewolves that have guarded
Timothy since birth. They
know that Timothy is a half blood, and will control the destiny of
the family. They also know
that Timothy’s power will put him in danger.

But
there are other werewolves that revel and embrace their bloodlust
that are prepared to kill to preserve
their way of life. These werewolves led by Varek (Behr), Zo (Kim
Coates) and Sonya (Natassia Malthe) are hell bent on finding
Timothy…..their kin.

ON
THE SET (PART 1)

When
I had arrived in Rockwood, Ontario on the set with the other
journalists, I was amazed with the wonderful smell that came to my
nose. What was it you may be asking? It was the smell of fresh air.
A smell that I have never smelled before. This place was incredible.
The scenery, the trees, the lake surrounding the set shocked me for
I never knew that there was such a beautiful and serene place so
close by to where I lived. I
was ecstatic on coming to this set because I thought I would be able
to see one of Stan Winston’s werewolf creations. Unfortunately the
rest of the journalists and I were immediately told that we were not
going to see any of the werewolves today, which sucked, but we were
able to make the best of the day and watch three
scenes being filmed.

The
first scene we saw being shot, took place in the RV
“werewolf” mobile. In this scene, Tom Jackson (Will) has a
very serious and stoical expression on his face and appears to be
talking to someone. The other journalists and I were not given
headsets yet, so we were staring at the monitor trying to make sense
of the scene. Thankfully right after the scene, the very friendly
Tom Jackson took the time to explain it in better detail. Here’s the
interview with Mr. Jackson:

— click to enlarge —

TOM
JACKSON

Can
you tell us about your character?

Will
is one of the few characters in this project that is human.
He protects the family that tries to not continue living
under the curse. He’s
been doing that for thirteen years.

As
a native actor, did you have any particular take on bringing
Native-Canadian mythology into the werewolf mythology?

I
found it interesting that I didn’t have any reference to that in my
knowledge. But I do have
a reference to the wolf clan. I
am in fact apart of the wolf clan in my history.
It became that more interesting to me with regards to that.
There is an understanding of wolves and endearment to wolves
amongst my tribe. So, the legend of the skinwalker in this story,
I’ve never heard it in this context.
There is an infinity that is recognized to the honour of the
wolf and the strength of the wolf, and that is where this myth is
born.

Is
there a sense of that in the story here as well, or is this more
traditional werewolf fare?

This
is more werewolf fare with artistic likeness.
I think one can accept certain similarities.

Is
this taking the story of the werewolf into a different arena?

I
think it’s very interesting writing.
The writing intrigued me.

What
specifically drove you to the role of Will?

It’s
less interesting. The
character Will was all they were going to hire me for. I mean, look
at me. (laughs)

What
were the biggest challenges of filming so far?

I
think there is a lot of emotion in this project.
Even though Will stands apart from those emotional challenges
or a little more stoic about his reactions.
It’s a tough project for people like Rhona [Mitra] and Elias
[Koteas], who are locked in this thing.
Yesterday, we shot a scene that was very, very strong on both
their parts. This is
about a woman and a child. She’s
at risk of losing her child. In
the world of acting, yes, you maybe removed. But emotionally, it’s a
very tough scene to do.

Can
you talk about the scene you just filmed right now?

This
scene is the scene where Rachel (Rhona Mitra) discovers that she’s
been surrounded by wolf people.
Sheep in wolves clothing if you will (laughs) for thirteen
years, and she had no clue this was happening.
She had no clue this was going on with her son, and we just
came out of a battle at Creemore, and she had no idea that the
people that she loved were so violent in their world and so
committed to protecting this child.

It
seems like there’s a major coming of age element to this story as
well with the character of Timothy.

I’d
rather talk about the actor. I think Matthew [Knight] is a very
talented actor. He’s
very mature. You’ll see
that. I guarantee you,
you’ll be impressed when you see this film.

How
are you finding working with the prosthetics
and makeup?

I
am not one that transforms. That’s the interesting thing.
My character is human.

DENNIS
BERARDI
(producer)

In
between watching the next werewolf-mobile scene being shot, (which I
will discuss in greater detail in part two of this article) I, as
well as the other journalists were given a chance to interview one
of the producers of SKINWALKERS, Dennis Berardi of Red Moon Films
and renowned effects house, Mr.X. We
were also given a chance to talk to the adorable and talented
Matthew Knight who stars as Timothy.

How
did this project come about?

This
project came about five years ago when Jim [Isaac] and I came across
this script. We have
known the writers for some time, and they developed the script and
they showed it to us and they wanted us to take a look, and they
thought it was something special.
We read it and loved it.

To
what degree does this story have its roots in Native-American
mythology? Were you somewhat concerned of cultural appropriation?

We
were somewhat concerned about cultural appropriation, but when we
did some research into the legend of the Skinwalker and found out it
actually exists, it is a Navajo legend of a man being able to be
possessed by the spirit of an animal and walking with the beasts,
and there are believers of this today.
Taking a page out of that, didn’t seem like appropriation.
It’s a fun story, it plays the moralistic side of that, and
it also demonstrates it as a bit of perversion as well. So it
couches the legend in an admirable way.

We
also made a stylistic choice in this film to not be gothic.
To be more of a western motif, and to base it in the North
American tribal mythology as opposed to going into the
Eastern Europe
or the gothic type stuff, which has been done to death.

Do
you think the werewolf genre lends itself to more story telling than
the vampire genre? (which has been so overdone now?)

Absolutely.
The werewolf mythology and the backstory of the werewolves is
just really interesting for us.
It represents sort of the beast that is within us all, and
that’s what really connected with us is in this story, the
moralistic choice that our heroes are making to keep the beast down
and the more naturalistic choice, that our bad guys (wolves) are
making to embrace the beast and to do whatever the heck they want to
do. For us, that was sort of the heart of the world of mythology.

Is
this film CGI-driven, if at all?

It’s
not CGI-driven, I mean we’ve got a lot of visual effects and special
effects, yes, and we’re doing a lot of digital work. But I would say
for the most part, we’re trying to achieve as much as we can
practically with just great lighting, great locations, Stan Winston,
who’s doing our werewolves. They
are going to be real walking around actors in fantastic prosthetic
makeup, and the CGI will support and basically it’s a hybrid
approach I would say.

Will
the transformations be CGI?

Transformations
are not going to be CGI, and I own Mr, X, which is a CGI company
(laughs).
We just want to do them story based and really zero in on the
actors’ performances for the transformations.

How
scary is this film going to be? What kind of rating are you going
for?

We’re
going to be an R rating. It
is going to be scary. You’re
going to be scary. You’re
going to know you’re in a horror film.
You’re going to be on the edge of your seat, and it’s going
to be a fun ride. Intense,
and all with a real story going on between Rachel and her son,
Timothy, Varek’s journey, and Jona’s sacrifice.

The
casting is interesting. There are no jump off the page superstar
names. Is it more of an
ensemble piece?

Yes,
exactly. We’re thrilled
with the cast. Jason
Behr, Rhona Mitra, Elias Koteas, Sarah Carter, all the way down the
line. But, if you look
at the first Alien movie, which was sort of our model, where it was
sort of an ensemble piece where no one in that film had huge star
status at that point. It’s
a great performance piece, fantastic actors all the way down the
line. We’ve got twelve
great actors in this film, and that was our idea.

Can
you give us a ball park budget?

Around
25 million.

What
are the plans for the distribution?

We
have Lion’s Gate distributing in North America.
They’re huge fans of the script, and they’ve been on the set,
and they love it, and we have all their support, and we’re really
happy they’re our distributor.

What
was the process of trying to cast the child actor? [Matthew Knight]

We
did a lot of searching for Matthew Knight.
Our casting director, Deidre helped us out with this.
Matthew was coming right off of THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED,
which I worked with him on. I
was doing the visual effects for that movie for Disney.
I saw him, and he was amazing.
He’s a really great actor.
For eleven years old, he’s a real pro. He came and auditioned
and just blew us away. We
auditioned probably twenty kids, it wasn’t even close.
He can really act.

Can
you talk about the human element in this story?

If
you look at particularly the werewolf, with us it was all about what
nobody has done with the werewolf genre before, and for the most
part, what you get are dog-like creatures and what we wanted to do
was connect with our audience, so when Varek [Jason Behr]
transforms, you still know it’s Varek.
You can still connect with him.
If after the transformation , we don’t really still
understand that it’s Varek, then we will fail.
So, we went with a very humanistic design for the creatures
more for story reasons than any other reason.

If
the audience loses the fact that that’s still Varek underneath the
werewolf makeup, then we’re in trouble.
The designs are just amazing and they are really humanistic.
It’s a great combination of representing the beast within
that a lot of us can connect to, and I think if we went too far,
made it too beast-like, it would have stop resinating with us.
For the most part, this is a metaphor for everything that
exists in us, and if we stop connecting with the audience on that
level, then I think our story would have suffered.

— click to enlarge —

MATTHEW
KNIGHT

Do
you like scary movies?

Oh
yeah. I’m a huge fan of horror films.

What’s
your favourite kind?

My
favourite horror film would be, I guess…Aliens.

Do
you get made up in this? Do you get prosthetics?

No.

Are
you disappointed?

Yeah,
I am, because that would be fun, but all the hours in make-up would
just be weird.

What
do you think of the werewolf phases? Do you think they’re scary?

Oh
yeah. When I look at
Elias’ [Koteas] werewolf face, I didn’t recognize him.
But then I was like: “That’s…that’s Elias.”
(laughs) It was very funny.

What’s
your favourite Halloween movie?

For
a werewolf movie, I would say Silver Bullet.

Has
this been a long shoot for you?
Are you doing a lot of nights?

Not
many nights. Usually just days, but it’s good so far, yeah.

Do
you find it tiring? The hours?

Not
really, because I only get a certain amount.

What
was it like working with the other actors? Any good experiences?

Well, I would say Elias [Koteas]. He’s very inspiring. I learn a
lot from him.

So
what are you shooting today?

We’re
doing a scene on the bank where I collapse.

Do
you do your own stunts in this?

I
think I have a double. I
have a photo double and she’s my sister actually. My stunt double is
a girl too. (laughs)

What’s
it like working with Jim [Isaac], the director?

He’s
really nice. He has a
lot of things that help when we’re doing some scenes, and he just
really helps. He gave me
my character’s background.

Did
you see Jason X?

No.

Was
there much time to rehearse before you started shooting?

We
had a week of rehearsing. So
I got to know the other actors.

You
get along well with the other actors?

Oh
yeah. With everybody.

If
this movie is rated R, do you think you’ll be able to see it?

Umm…I
don’t think so. (laughs)

Well,
that ends part 1 of my “hairy” day. Stay tuned for more
details on the set, the famous RV-bondage scene, and many more
interviews including hottie Jason Behr, Natassia Malthe, Shawn
Roberts, producer Don Carmody, and director Jim Isaac.