The
Arrow interviews Gregg Hoffman, Oren Koules & Mark Burg
Maybe
it’s just me, but before I started getting involved within the film
industry on a deeper level, only actors, directors and screenwriters
were my heroes. But the more I delved into this crazy world of show
business, the more appreciation I found myself having for the title
known as “producer”. You can’t begin to imagine the amount
of crazy shit these dudes have to go through to get a movie off the
ground! Well, I recently got the chance to talk shop with the
three producers of one of my favorite horror films of the year
“Saw”(hitting the screens on October 29, 2004), so give it
up for Gregg Hoffman, Oren Koules and Mark
Burg, the men behind the genre label that is “Twisted
Pictures”.
ARROW: What
are your favorite horror movies, laddies?
GH: My
favorites are the American horror films from the late 70’s through
the mid- 80’s — EVIL DEAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD, NIGHTMARE ON ELM
STREET, RE-ANIMATOR, NEAR DARK, PHANTASM, SCANNERS and VIDEODROME
are the ones that spring to mind immediately. Although I was never a
huge fan of the teen slasher movie, I’d also have to add HALLOWEEN
to the list simply because there was a girl in high school that I
had been lusting over for a while and she finally agreed to go out
with me. We went to see HALLOWEEN and she got so scared she
basically spent the whole movie in my lap. I guess I have John
Carpenter to thank for the biggest set of blue-balls I’ve ever
had!
MB: THE
EXORCIST. Scared the crap out of me every time they went down
the hallway and opened that door.
OK: I
love the horror films from the great Italian directors – Argento,
Bava, Fulci. The storytelling is obviously difficult for people used
to watching Hollywood movies, but visually, there’s nothing like
them.
ARROW:
Would you say that the horror genre is your primary focus in terms
of producing? If so, why?
OK: Mark,
Gregg and I have all worked in “mainstream” films for most of
our careers. Mark was President of Island Pictures for 10 years and
produced CAN’T BUY ME LOVE and BULL DURHAM among other films. I
was an executive at Paramount and as a producer was responsible for
SET IT OFF and MRS. WINTERBOURNE. Before Gregg joined our
company, Mark and I together produced JOHN Q and LOVE DON’T COST A
THING among others.
GH: I
was an executive at Disney for 8 years working almost exclusively on
live-action family films like INSPECTOR GADGET, 101 and 102
DALMATIANS, etc.., and produced the GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE sequel.
MB:
Although we probably have
close to 50 credits combined as either producers or executives, none
of us had produced a horror film before SAW (although I would
categorize SAW as a psychological thriller). We have a number
of films in development at the studios outside the horror genre, but
on the independent side, we will be focused almost exclusively on
horror and psychological thrillers.
ARROW:
How did James Wan and Leigh Whannell pitch and sell SAW to you?
GH: Obviously,
people weren’t looking to us to produce horror films, so the truth
is that finding SAW was really a stroke of good luck. I was waiting
in the lobby of a literary agency on other business, when an agent I
knew came into the room with a strange look on his face. He
saw me and asked if I had a minute because he wanted to show me
something “and make sure he wasn’t crazy.” He took me
into a conference room and put a DVD into the machine. I
started watching and a few minutes in my jaw hit the floor. I
hadn’t seen a short that accomplished and so disturbing in as long
as I could remember. When I asked for details I was told that two
film school graduates from Melbourne, Australia had made the short,
which was actually a sequence from a script they were shopping.
MB:
Gregg came back into the office and took Oren and I into
the conference room, popped the DVD into the machine and told us not
to say anything, just to watch. Needless to say, we had the same
reaction he did. We all read the script that night. The
next morning, we mutually decided that if James and Leigh were
remotely sane, we wanted to finance and produce the film.
OK: 24
hours later, fresh off a 14 hour flight across 17 time zones, James
and Leigh, along with their manager Stacey Testro, were in our
office. Ten minutes after meeting them, I looked at James and
asked, “Do you want to direct this script?” James nodded. I
looked at Leigh and asked, “Do you want to play the role of
Adam?” Leigh nodded. “Okay,” I said, “we’re
prepared to greenlight this script right now and we’ll start
pre-production as soon as we can get you both work visas.”
GH:
I’m sure they walked out of our offices thinking, “What’s the
catch?” In the end, although there were other offers on the table,
no one but us was prepared to commit to James and start the movie
right away. James and Leigh rolled the dice on us and we rolled
the dice on them.
ARROW:
Taking into account James’ limited on set experience, we’re
you at all hesitant to trust him in taking this feature home?
OK: Not
at all. The short told us everything we needed to know about
James’ vision for the movie, and we made sure to surround him with
key crew members who had as much experience as we could afford in
order to support that vision.
ARROW:
I know you guys were working with limited funds on SAW…how did
you manage to cut those corners to keep on budget?
GH: The
genius of James and Leigh’s script is that most of it is two guys
chained in a room. There’s only 14 speaking roles in the film
and it’s almost all interiors. In all honesty, we didn’t have to
cut THAT many corners.
MB:
We were based in one facility in
Los Angeles that was a giant old textile plant that has since been
converted into production space. The only set we built was the
bathroom. The rest of the locations existed inside or around the
facility. We hired experienced people we had worked with in the past
to run all the critical on-set operations, and took chances with
relative newcomers in the key creative areas (Production Designer,
Cinematographer, Editor, etc.).
OK: What
we found was that everyone loved the script so much, people were
really willing to go the extra mile — that, and we fed them well,
which is the key to a happy crew for all you neophyte producers out
there!
ARROW:
Was there anything in the screenplay that
couldn’t make the final cut due to lack of time/money restraints?
GH: We
didn’t have to cut anything, but there were a couple of scenes
that had to be reconceived due to time constraints. I don’t think
they detract from the final product, so I don’t really want to
point them out.
ARROW:
The flick is fairly nasty. How did the MPAA
treat ya? Was it smooth sailing?
OK: We
originally got an NC-17.
GH:
You get to appeal ratings if you think the board made an error. I
was elected to make the appeal. When I walked into the room after
the appeals board had viewed the film, I was tempted to just start
singing “Mr. Bojangles” and do a soft-shoe, because looking
at their faces, nothing I could have said would have changed
the boards mind.
OK:
We did have to make some cuts, but at
the end of the day, it could have been a lot worse. They asked
for a few shots here and there to reduce the overall amount of gore,
but it’s not like they de-fanged the movie.
MB: The
good news is, we’ll eventually put out the unrated director’s
cut on DVD so you can see every last bloody frame James wanted you
to see.
ARROW:
What’s next for you in terms of producing? Anything you can
tell us?
OK: We’ve
got a number of interesting things cooking, which we will be
announcing a little closer to the films’ release date on October
1st. You can be sure that JoBlo.com will be amongst the first to
hear about what we’re up to.
ARROW:
I know that you’re very much aware of the genre and its inner
structure. Any plans to one day write or direct a horror film
yourself?
MB: Right
now, we’re really happy doing what we’re doing. We really
enjoy working with new talent.
GH: Speaking
personally, I’d never say never!
ARROW:
How do you hope audiences will react while viewing SAW?
OK: One
of our favorite things to do is to watch the audience watch the last
reel (20 minutes) of the film. Audiences seem to divide into
camps. They’re either yelling at the screen and basically
freaking out, or they sit their with their mouths hanging open with
an “I can’t believe what I’m f***ing seeing!” look on their
faces.
ARROW:
Hard liquor, beer or Lemonade? What do you
feel like drinking…RIGHT NOW?
MB: Mojito.
OK:
Absolut
Citroen and Diet Red Bull.
GH: Scotch
rocks – but strictly for medicinal purposes.
ARROW:
Mojito,
a good warm up, Diet Red Bull a good pick me up…Scotch
rocks…I RESPECT THAT!
“Arrow” and SAW doll
“Jigsaw”
I’d
like to thank the SAW boys for dropping by the site and for
contributing in delivering one hell of tight genre flick. I am
looking forward in seeing what “Twisted Pictures” will
offer us next! If SAW is any indication of this company’s MO, then
we just made some new friends. BRING IT, GUYS! BRING IT!!!!!