Director Ronny Yu's ("Bride of Chucky") background in Hong Kong filmmaking is what initially captured the studio executives at New Line Cinema. "Ronny’s film 'The Bride with White Hair' is a perfect blend of action, horror and visual style – just what 'Freddy vs. Jason' needed,” says screenwriter Mark Swift. “We spent quite a bit of time with Ronny in pre-production, and he had a lot of great ideas which we incorporated.”
The director of the original "Friday the 13th" joined the director of the most recent 'Freddy' incarnation to discuss the challenge of bringing two horror movie icons together to battle it out:
What made you decide to direct this movie?
RONNY YU: I live in Sydney Australia now and I got a call one Wednesday morning. My agent and my lawyer were both on the phone. They said, "Okay Ronny Yu, you always said you wanted to make a big American movie." I said, "Yes." "You’ve got to come down to L.A. tomorrow. We have lined up something with New Line for you, it’s called ‘Freddy vs. Jason.’" I watched the first one – ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ - in Hong Kong and I watched the first ‘Friday the 13th,’ the one that Sean [Cunningham] directed. I said that that’s all I know about the franchises. They said, "That doesn’t matter. You can come in and convince them." I flew in and read the script. I thought, "Wow, this is very exciting."
I started learning more and more and more about these two American icons - monster icons. It's very entertaining, it's very exciting. I've done "Bride of Chucky" and I know a little bit about this genre. New Line says, "Fine. We don't need you to be the professor of this franchise to do it." They just wanted some fresh ideas. Just like when I walked into the “Bride of Chucky” - same thing. I told Universal that I knew nothing about “Child's Play” and they said that was good. You can give it fresh blood.
What do you see happening after this movie? Will there be another match-up?
RONNY YU: Wow - about the ending again (laughing).
SEAN CUNNINGHAM: I don't know. From the beginning we always treated this as standalone project and not as a springboard, because then the film starts to wag the dog. In the real world, if this is a huge hit, they'll fight again. I think it’s not designed that way and I don't know how it would ever happen. It’s not about that at all.
You spend all this time creating two totally invincible movie villains so that no matter what happens, somebody in the real world, the most they can do is maybe fight them to a draw. What about the idea of pitting them against each other? Wouldn't that be fun to watch? It would take the essential overriding question and take it to another level. I guess audiences will get to figure out who they think is tougher.
This is a war, and what you're going to see is a battle - and somebody wins the battle. The war continues; the war goes on no matter what. Who the hell is going to kill either of them in a way that's plausible for an audience? For 17 movies, these guys would not die. Unless you drop a nuclear bomb on them, they'll come back. They will re-particulate. We have a hell of a fight and somebody is going to be more dominant than somebody else.
NEXT PAGE: Combining Horror Movie Franchises and Hong Kong Filmmaking Influences
