More of this Feature ADDITIONAL CAST INTERVIEWS: • David Arquette (Chris) and Kari Wuhrer (Sam) • Matt Czuchry (Bret) and Kate Bosworth • Scarlett Johansson (Ashley) • Rick Overton (Deputy Pete) • Scott Terra (Mike) • Riley Smith (Randy) • Director Ellory Elkayem ADDITIONAL "EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS" INFORMATION: • Photos from the World Premiere of "Eight Legged Freaks" • "Eight Legged Freaks" Trailer/Cast List/Websites • "Eight Legged Freaks" Production Photos

Related Resources • Calendar of Upcoming Releases • News on Upcoming Releases • New in Theatres or on Video • Romantic Movie Reviews • Casting News

Together with producer Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin was the creative force behind such films as "The Patriot" and "Independence Day." When Devlin and Emmerich decided to make "Eight Legged Freaks," they both felt strongly that the film should not take itself too seriously or deny its origins.

Devlin recalls, "We were wondering if there was a way to recreate that kind of film with more sophisticated visual effects and state-of-the-art production values, to bring it into the modern era but not lose the charm and humor that made those films distinctive in the first place."

PRODUCER DEAN DEVLIN

What's the spider goo made of?
I don't know technically what it's made of but all I know is that it is nasty. It looks nasty and it feels nasty but who knows? Maybe it's delicious.

Did you use green screens during filming?
We didn't have the budget to do green screens, so we just shot the movie like the spiders were really there. Then we spent the year after the movie was done trying to figure out how to put them in to the shot. The actors were great about it. We kept saying, "Look over there and be scared" and they did it. They were wonderful.

Was this the type of film where, on the set, people played practical jokes on each other?
They didn't have the time to play jokes on each other. When Roland Emmerich and I are making movies normally, if we get 12 set-ups in the course of a day, that's a good day. When we did a TV series, if we did 50 set-ups in a day, that's a good day. This movie we were doing 50 set-ups a day. It was just so crazy. There was no time to have fun. It was all, "Get over here" or "Run over here!" There wasn't any hanging-out-in-your-trailer-calling-your-agent time.

Does David Arquette get to be wacky in "Eight Legged Freaks?"
He has some wackiness in it definitely. I think David wanted to show that there's another side to his personality besides the wacky guy. He got to show that he's a leading man and yet preserve his comic timing. I think he did that and I think he did a wonderful job.

I had to push him to get wacky because he really wanted to do this very professionalized performance and I think he did a great job. But every once in awhile - it is David Arquette - you want to get a little of what you came for.

How did you get him to get wacky? Did you make things fun on the set so that it wasn't strictly serious for him?
I think that it goes a little crazy on the set when you have a bunch of very silly people. After awhile, it's infectious and you can't help but get silly.

David had to leave the set with a tragedy in his family and yet the day after the funeral, he showed up and had to do comedy. He's a really wonderful artist. He was such an amazing professional.

What was the hardest scene to pull off?
There's a scene near the end of the picture where the biggest of all the spiders - the big mama spider - comes after David. That was hard because this one was so much bigger than all the other spiders, it's very hard to tell exactly where you should be looking and how you should be moving. It was in a very tight, contained space. I think that was the most difficult.

What is it about spiders?
It's the legs. They have far, far too many legs. Two legs are fine, four legs you can deal with, six legs you start to get a little bit creeped out, and eight legs you start running for the hills.

Back during the 50s, the spiders and the weird bug movies were a metaphor for the 'Red Scare.' What are the spiders in this film a symbol of?
This is still the 'Red Scare.” No one else is scared of the red, but we are still scared of the red. I don't know what it is about red but red is awfully frightening and frankly I think we need to make more movies about it because people should be afraid of red.

During the 50s, studios released a large group of these mutant animal/bug films. Will we see that trend again?
Let's see how we do this weekend at the box office (laughing). If this movie makes some money, I'd love to do a bunch of movies like this. This was a real experiment. To make a movie for under $30 million with 200 digital effects shots in it - that was really hard to pull off. But if the audience responds to it, I think that there's a bunch of movies that would lend themselves to this kind of treatment.

Do you think that audiences of 18, 19, 20 year-olds are going to understand that this film pays tribute to the films of the 50s? Are they going to get it?
I don't know but I've always thought to never think down about the audience. I've always found that the audience is ten times more sophisticated than any of us in Hollywood give them create for. I figured, you know what? We'll just make this movie from the heart and see if they get the joke. I hope they do.